Typical! Typical! Typical! This is a missionary week!!

What a week, in all sorts of ways! Ups and downs. Crazy and normal.

The beginning of the week was crazy with fired visits and crazy Emmanuel not reading and everything in between. It went pretty much like that until Saturday.

Saturday we had some good visits and found some great people. Sunday no one came to church. Rough. In the afternoon is where we saw the miracles:

1. Adrian. He was contacted on Saturday and was very prepared from the get go. He told us that his Mom was in the hospital and that she had a terminal illness and that he pretty much is always there with her. On Sunday we passed by, taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized. He accepted our invitation. A very excited man to learn more. I already love him.

2. The members wanted us to come over and eat with them but we stated that it would be better if we could pass by when a non member was there. They told us that they had a couple coming over. The members and their friends were not poor either. They live in almost like a suite in the center of town. Elder Smith said the word posh 5 times after the visit to describe it. It was something new for sure. These friends are very important to them and it means a lot that they trusted us with their friends.

This week we are going to hit the streets and find more people like Adrian, Stiven (Menorca), Manuel (Menorca), Jessica (Bilbao). I will never forget those experiences. These are the experiences that we make every day!

What a blessing it is to wear the saviors name on my chest. There is nothing better. 

If you would please pray for Jaki & Luis, Jaki and her family, and Adrian. They need it. Also that we can find, find, find.

I thank y´all for your prayers in my behalf and in behalf of my friends that are coming to know their savior. I love all of you!

Élder Smiley

Emmanuel

Soccer Game in Valencia

Valencia Stadium

Another action packed week in Valencia, and a funny at Sacrament Meeting!!!

What a week. Some crazy stuff.

I will do funny first.

The family we have been working with came to church this Sunday. (Families are the best. You get the trust of the members when they see you bring a family to church. The members loved them. The family includes, Jaki, and Luis, Mikel (13) and Iker (4)) Sacrament meeting came around and the deacon passed the bread to us and Iker just kept taking it as if it was candy and the deacon had to pull the tray from him to give it to the next person. The water came around and he went for it again but Mikel grabbed his hand and Iker just threw the water all over himself and said ¨I bathed myself!¨. After all that and the priesthood went to their seats Iker asked ¨and the sandwiches?¨ I was dying.

Our friend Emmanuel is progressing very well. He still is as crazy as they come! I just think of Grandpa and Grandma Smiley teaching him. We love our Pakistan friend. He is from Punjab, if there are any questions refer to Grandma and Grandpa Smiley.

We found a family of 7 this past week. 7! They had just moved in right next to Rony and another recent convert family. 

Things are moving very well here. I love being a missionary and I wouldn´t give it up for the world! I am getting very nervous with time ticking as fast as it is but I do know that I am enjoying it and that is why it is going so fast.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers in my behalf and in behalf of the friends we are teaching. May God bless you all.

Could you continue to pray for Emmanuel, Jaki and Luis, and kids.

Let´s go baptize the world!

A quick side story. I invite all to go and see the video ¨Story of Joseph Millett.¨

¨It´s good to think the Lord knows Elder Smiley¨

Dad, Dave, & Cody on a Turkey Hunt.  (if he knew what happened when he does not send pictures he would start sending them in every e-mail)

Visca Valencia!!!

BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!! Bernardo got baptized!!! Yes Bernardo is Spanish.

A strange week. We were busy and always running around and we just couldn´t find and new people to teach. We have people to teach yes, but we need to find more. We have 2 people in specific that are progressing extremely well. Diara and Emmanuel.

Diara. Our man from Mali. This man is the most humble man I have ever taught. He has a baptismal date for the 21 of February and loves it all. We met with him on Friday night and taught him the plan of salvation with the big invite to come to church. He does not have much money, so he said he couldn´t afford a metro pass. We told him how important it was to come to church and how the Lord will bless us if we go to church. He said he would just walk. Keeping in mind that the church is about 2 miles away he walked all the way to church and got there early. He is reading like crazy and loving it.

Emmanuel. Emmanuel is finally reading even though he has had a date for the 21st for a week. He drove his own car to church on Sunday, which is a two seater and offered to drive one of us then pick the other up after. Funny missionary moment. He came and we went to priesthood first and as we were on our way to gospel principles class he lost us and went in to 3rd ward´s sacrament meeting thinking we had gone in there. We all got a good laugh out of it.

Sergio is kind of progressing. He just needs a little more repentance then he will be on fecha before I am out of here. We sure are excited for him.

I am loving Spain/Valencia. I had a dream last night that I got baptized and I loved it. I woke up smiling. This really is just the best thing I could be doing right now and ever I feel. Sometimes it´s hard but I just don´t get away from the fact that this is the only time I give all time and effort to helping people come unto Christ.

One more thing. As a ward we do something called ¨Zapato Misional¨ Missionary shoes. Which is where we gather as many as we can and visit less actives and non member friends and sing and bear testimony. It is incredible!!! It makes the people feel so loved. They know that the 15 people that came to their house love them and they feel and love that spirit that came. That is something I would recommend and plan on doing after.

I love all of you and invite you to pray for our finding efforts and our 3 friends who are progressing towards baptism.

Thank you for your love, support and prayers!

¡¡¡¡¡Visca Valencia!!!!

Love you all!

Élder Smiley

Nice week of being introduced to several new "Friends"

This week started out rough and finished strong.

At the beginning of the week we were talking with everyone but we couldn´t catch a break. We did not have too many people to teach because of work schedules and so on so it was a bit rough. When we got around to actually finding people things were looking up and at the same time our other friends found time to meet with us and the miracles happened.

1. Dairra. A man from Mali. (Yes the country in which ´Sahara´ took place. Yes it does make me feel like shooting a cannon at a helicopter) We have to be in piso at 10:00 and I said at 9:57 we would contact one more person before going to piso. That is when we contacted Diarra. What a miracle even if we did end up having to run home to make it on time.

2. A member who we had helped her dad move pisos brought a friend to church and she is going to talk with her family about setting a visit up with us and the member family. That is missionary work!

3. A moment I will cherish for the rest of my life. We have started a new thing trying to fire the members up more about the missionary work here in Valencia. Which is inviting the members to write their testimony in the cover of the Book of Mormon and mark their five favorite scriptures then give it back to the missionaries to give to one of their friends. We passed by an active members house and by coincidence the less active aunt was there. We felt that we should talk with the aunt instead. She usually wouldn´t talk with us but accepted the invitation to do so even though she kept saying ¨You know I´m inactive right?¨ I repeated ¨At one point you had a testimony of this book now I want you to find it and put it here so that someone else can be blessed by this book.¨ I didn`t think too much of it until we came back to pick up the book. When we passed by she wanted to talk how our friends were progressing, what we like to eat, etc. (given that before she didn´t talk with us.) When she gave me the book she said she found her testimony then decided that she would read the book of Mormon for the first time in more than 10 years. She was crying at the end. That was a true blessing.

4. Our friend Bernardo is getting baptized this Saturday and is very excited. All is well.

5. I would dare say humbly the Lord is working here in our  area. We are seeing lots and lots of miracles and blessings.

I love this work and I would not substitute this time for anything. This is the best time of my life. I would invite all to enjoy this great experience as well.

I love all of you and pray for all of you!

Élder Smiley

When Dave does not send pictures, I feel like I need to fill in. . . on top of Angel's Landing!!