Mom's Payday!!

What a week! Full of mega miracles! (Also you are welcome for all the photos)

Miracle #1: is BAPTISM!!!!!! Gerard was baptized and he is a boss! It was a very calm and well done service. I was so calm and it was so well planned. We got there early and got everything ready. 2 of the bishopric came (About as rare as camels in the north pole). Pte. Dayton came with his wife. The talk was given by Flor, and she invited the whole family to follow Gerard and be baptized. The baptism was smooth and done once. When he got up and bore his testimony almost everyone was crying at the fact that an 8 year old could give such a strong testimony! It was incredible! The confirmation the same. Good work!

Miracle #2: María Jesús. Mother of 2 recent converts. She had said that IF she were to be baptized she would wait until ATLEAST next year. We saw her in the park on Saturday night and we started talking with her about the church and such. I then felt impressed to invite her to baptized, not only baptized, but for the 18th of July. She laughed, I felt a bit silly but we kept our cool. She realized we were serious and said that there was no way she could be ready by that day. We asked her to pray and ask about it. Specifically ask God what she should do. She did it and got her answer and when I called her on Sunday she told me she was going to be baptized this Saturday. We announced it in church and people were like ¨who?¨ and she would say ¨Me! Me!¨ After church we passed by to plan the service and we talked about the authority and how she was going to baptized by the authority she replied saying ¨I want to be baptized right now!¨ What a blessing and miracle she has been!

I had an interview with Pte. Dayton this week and we had a good talk about me and my family. He told me that I needed to do what my passion was when it came down to studies and work. I don´t want to think about it too much, but it was interesting the things I got out of the interview. Another thing is when he asked about mom I said, ¨She is just a stay at home mom.¨ He was struck with awe. He replied saying “Just a stay at home mom!”  That is the way the Lord wants the family to be.¨ I repented of it then in my prayer that night gave thanks for the blessing of having a mom that was always there for me. Waiting for me when I got home from school to make sure I did my homework and ate a snack. That took me to my baseball games and cheered for us even though we were losing and I was mad at her on the inside for being so enthusiastic and optimistic when we were down by 15. I love my mom!

My new companion is Elder Johnson and he is incredible! He is from Texas and is as humble as ever! I couldn´t be more grateful to have such a great missionary to finish my mission with.

I love all of you and thank you all for your love and support!

If you could all please pray for María Jesús for her baptism and for Gerard´s family that they can be baptized here soon.

Let´s go to work!

Élder Smiley

Gerard being Baptized, he asked for Dave to baptize him!

This is Sister Lee from South Korea.  Introduced to the gospel in Spanish Fork on a student exchange.  Dave Taught her on a missionary split while he was in Spanish Fork before his mission.  

Dave being "Smles"

Dave being "Smiles"

4th of July in Spain. . . not a big deal

Good week. Great week! I´m going to do a quick review.

Girard and Allison both accepted baptismal dates for the 11th of July.

Elder Alder is going to Cornellá and I am going to get Elder Johnson.

Maria Jesus came to church again and loved it. Her daughters are loving

the change they are seeing in their mother.

We did a move in the afternoon heat of 40 degrees! 

Mari Carmen is trucking like a boss and was making fun of Elder Alder and

how he had to baptize her five times so that it was actually good.  

Walter and Doris (parents of Girard and Allison) are doing so much better

and are excited for the baptisms of their kids, at one point they were against it.

Salvatore now picks up our friends that need rides to church. We call him

a member, and the members treat him like one. I almost want to give him

a home teaching partner. haha

Things are going really well and I love all of you!

August is coming quick so we have to baptize everyone that much quicker!

Love y´all!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Élder Smiley

Dave's version of a Patriotic Photo

Missionary work never ends!

What a week we had!

This Tuesday was a holiday called San Joan. It was like the 4th of July but it reminded me a lot more of like D-day. Here few fireworks are pretty. Here the goal is noise and explosion. It was a warzone all night!!! Coming home and crossing the big plaza to make it to the bus we were walking through the battle zone. We made a war zone video in piso just to display the madness. It was fun in the end.

Story time. I get a call Thursday afternoon telling me a friend of the hermanas who they met that day would be getting baptized this Saturday. Extatic as I was we went to the chapel to do the interview. She was so prepared and incredible! Iris. I then had to go on another intercambio in Barcelona (story will be told later) when they had the baptism. It all went smooth and great. That night her sister, Anti Mormon, calls all the family of Iris and tells them what happened and tells them all to hate on Iris. When she woke up Sunday morning she had a bunch of texts saying that she was dumb, psycho, etc.

She didn´t end up coming to church and the Hermanas were freaking out. They call me crying. I don´t know what to do. They went and resolved it all while I was in church so I am a happy man. Iris will be confirmed next week and all doubts are resolved. Satan is working hard so we work harder.

Intercambio. I got to Barcelona and Elder Moyano tells me, ¨We have no visits today. You ready to contact?¨ For almost the entire day we were on the streets in that incredible heat talking with the whole world. When we sat down on a bench to teach someone she said that her legs were being burnt through her dress. The madness! We got back to piso more wet then I was getting out of the shower that morning.

There was a wedding this week in the church. It was the ward mission leaders daughter and plus a lot of our friends wanted to go so we went to go help. Almost all the extended family was present and none were members. It was almost a testimony meeting about eternal families. Isn´t that interesting, I was quite surprised at how they turned a wedding into a missionary moment.

Great progress just no one is on fecha right now.

Doris came to church with Girard and Allison! Boom!!! Miracle!

Maria Jesus came to church. She loved it so much she said she was going to come every week!

tons of miracles and tons of blessings!

Could you please pray for Joy, Mari Carmen, Doris & Girard & Walter & Allison, and Maria Jesus.

Thank you for your love and support. We´ve got to go to work!

Love y´all!!

Élder Smiley

Didn't even get wet!!!

Is this the same boy I sent out? No he is now a man!

I´m going to go all over in this email because this week was all over.

We learned about the importance of members, obedience, testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and sacrificing.

Members. This week we had the family of Walter, Doris, Allison, and Girard over for two FHEs. One on Friday night and one on Saturday night. Maribel and Juan helped with the one on Friday and Senia and Xenia helped on Saturday. Because of those 2 FHEs the whole family is moving like a full freight on the baptism train. The parents are not married so we are trying to help the kids right now and help the parents start the marriage process. Girard asks to be baptized and Allison loves going to mutual. Members or die.

Obedience. I recalled 2 stories because of experiences this week about the topic of obedience. First was Dad at the foot of Kings peak when he said to us 12 year olds (lost and not knowing what to do) ¨When I say jump you say....¨ Kalin Olsen said, ¨How high!¨ Then Papa John said ¨Well yes that´s how the phrase goes but you just jump!¨ The other story is when Adam was asked why he was doing sacrifices by the angel he said ¨I know not save the Lord commanded me.¨ After that the angel explained to him the why. As missionaries or members we have to remember that sometimes the prophet, our bishop, our leaders ask us to do things and we might not see the whole picture or the whole why but we still JUMP! I´ve learned that our parents and leaders have been where we were and they know better. So just JUMP! 

After having had a visit with Salvatore we had a visit with a less active family. We invited Salvatore to come with us. He accepted and came with a big smile on his face. We talked about the importance of having a testimony of the Book of Mormon. When I passed it to him. He said something along these lines ¨When I met with the missionaries I had lots of doubts and very distinct beliefs but when I finally read and prayed and asked if the Book of Mormon was true that was when it all changed. I now know this is the true church.¨ What a good man he is. He is a changed man!

I can´t wait for him to get married so he can be baptized. It doesn´t look like it will happen in my time but he will help the church.

The church here in Sabadell is not close. Not even a little. If you have to go in public transportation it is about 1 hour and a half. (1 hour if you know how to work the system). Many members and non members are complaining about the distance that they have to or would have to travel to get to church. Then there was a comment from a recent convert with a strong testimony that said ¨If we love the church and desire the sacrament we´ll sacrifice for it¨ I couldn´t agree more. A blessing it is to have it close in Utah but a great blessing to sacrifice and show the Lord your willingness every Sunday when it is a trial of faith to go to church which is no longer 3 hours but 6 because of travel. 2:30p.m.-8:30 p.m.

What a great week and what a great church and what a great God.

If you would please pray for Joy, Salvatore, The family of Walter and Doris, and Maria Jesus.

Thank you so much for your many prayers and your much sacrifice in my behalf. I love all of you and thank you!

Let´s go to work!

Élder Smiley

Great week in Spain, what will the country do without Smiles!!

What a great week topped off by an incredible Preparation day in the woods. I led us out until we got lost then we bush wacked our way back to civilization. It reminded me of the time that Tate and I did that wicked hike and ended up in Payson but we still made it to Family night at the movies on time. I miss the good ole hiking experience.

Boy do I have some stories for y´all this week.

The miracle of the week was church. Earlier this week we had invited one of our friends to come to church. She doesn´t have a phone and I was just hoping and praying she would just remember to come. When we came, about 30 minutes early, I saw the lights were off in the sacrament room. I went in and turned the lights on when I saw Asunción sit up on the back row. She had come early and was taking a nap. I was so happy and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Joy. She has a baptismal date this weekend but she got kind of cold feet yesterday before church. I don´t think she thinks she is prepared. When she gets baptized she is going to have to leave her whole old life behind. Smoking, boy friend, everything! She is progressing so well. (Side nudge to mom) The 5 gum you sent me we gave to her so that every time she is tempted to light one up she just pops a stick of Chiclet. She is constantly chewing gum now which we are super grateful for!

We showed up at a visit this week and the person had invited her pastor to come. It was very interesting how we invited the spirit; complimenting on the house, quiet calm prayer, bearing testimony, and how he drove the spirit that we had brought away; Screaming halleluya, raising his voice in his teachings, saying bad things about people in the room and out, screaming in his prayer.

I know we are in the true church.

I learned this week that the law of consecration is for real. There have been side effects to people to people I know here that are not living the law of consecration. We have literally promised to give our all to him. That is what we need to do and that is how we will make it to the celestial kingdom.

Statistics of R.M.´s that President gave us. (These might be good for the priests)

80% of sealed males are R.M.

75 % of Stake Presidents are R.M

2/3 of bishops and Elders Quorum are R.M.

(Patience) If a young man serves a mission in three generation there are likely to be 18-20 active adults of his posterity.

If that young man does not serve a mission in three generation it is likely that .8 people are active adults in the church. (maybe not the person himself)

I love all of you and  I ask that you please pray for Joy as she prepares for her baptism this week.

It will be a true miracle when she is baptized!

Thank you for your prayers and support. You are all so great and are helping the kingdom of God expand!

Let´s go to work!

Elder Alder(current companion) is in the "gumball" shirt, Elder Ganowski(previous greenbean) in red shirt

Loved to get into the forest on P-day this week