Last Full Week at the MTC!

Note from mom: Today we had our last chat P-Day chat with Gabe before he leaves the MTC forever! He’s had an AMAZING group of elders and sisters in his district, which we have been sooo grateful for, but he’s super excited to get to Spain. The MTC is great, but he's sick of the food and the feeling of confinement. He did get to "escape" the MTC one day this week with some other elders who are going to Spain, including Elder Sam Powell and Elder Ryan Adams, so that they could go take a bus to UVU and meet with the Spanish consulate to get their visas! He loved riding the bus (even though they went the wrong way) and eating a meatball sub from Subway! As we were talking with him on this P-DAY (Friday), he just got emailed his travel itinerary, and he found out he is leaving the MTC on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 3:30am! He flies through Atlanta and then straight to Madrid! He will be traveling with 14 other missionaries on the same flight, so that makes me happy! Now, we are just praying that he gets there safely and that he gets a great trainer for his first experience in Spain. I'm hoping, fasting, and praying that he gets paired with someone he gets along with and does a good job speaking Spanish and showing him the ropes! We probably won't get a phone call with him again until Monday, September 9th because of the P-Day change from Friday at the MTC to MONDAY in Spain, so that's got me feeling pretty sad. How did moms do it when they could only call on Mother's Day and Christmas? Here is Gabe's email summary of his week!

Friday, August 23, 2024- Today me and my district took the public bus to the Provo city center temple and it was awesome. We did endowments and every part of the temple was so cool. We also met Hermana Cox (our teacher) outside after which was really fun. Besides that it was a pretty normal p day. In our evening class we learned about reflexives in spanish which was kinda fun. It's getting easier to learn in spanish the longer I'm here. A lot of the elders in my district got reassignments to places in the US because of visa delays today, which was fun because it was like a bunch of little mission call openings. They will each stay in the US for one transfer, or until they get their visas. I’m really going to miss my current teachers next week when we get new ones though.

Saturday, August 24 - We had our last class with Hermano Middleton today and it was really good. He's really good at helping us feel the spirit. One thing he always talked about was how important our testimonies are, and how useful they will be in bringing the spirit. Tomorrow's the last day my district will speak English, so we'll see how that goes.

Sunday, August 25 - This was our second to last Sunday, and Sunday is always really fun. We had a really good lesson by our branch president today and he told us a crazy story about how he ran over a girl's cat he took on a date. Also how while playing with fire at a rodeo, he lit a girl's hair on fire. Then after we were cleaning up the chairs in the devotional room, a worker told us how important it is to always represent the savior as we go about our lives. Then he told a really good story about how he baptized a person who later told him she only talked to them because they were being kind to people on the street.

Monday, August 26 - Today, me and a bunch of other missionaries who are going to Spain, went to meet with the Spain consulate at UVU. It was super fun being off campus and the consulate told us all a lot of stuff that makes me even more excited to get to Spain. He was born there and got baptized when he was 14. He said, “The food in Spain is so good, it’s almost sacred.” He said it’s a beautiful country with great culture and lots of immigrants. He said most of the people we teach will probably be immigrants. UVU's campus is also really cool. Me, Elder Powell, and Elder Adams also got Subway, which was a highlight of my week. But then we were separated from the group and got on the bus going the opposite direction of the MTC. It made the trip back probably twice as long but it was pretty fun. Sadly, while we were away Elder Rasband stopped by the MTC and specifically met with my district because his granddaughter, Sister Chase, is in my district. I missed out on meeting him, but I still had a fun day. We met our new teachers today and they all seem nice but I wish we could've kept our old ones for this last week. Elder Green brought his guitar, so every night there's always like 20 people in our room listening to music. It's really fun.

Tuesday, August 27 - Speaking in only Spanish all day is a little annoying, but it's already getting a lot easier to speak Spanish. Today we had the general authority devo by Amy A. Wright. Something she said that I really liked was, "A key indicator of success on our missions is how we live our life after." Besides that, not a lot happened. I'm so excited to get to Spain.

Wednesday, August 28 - In class today with Hermano Palmer we did a lot of practice sharing scriptures and teaching lessons in spanish. I really like how much time we spend just talking in Spanish. It makes the class feel a lot shorter. The food today at lunch was actually pretty good, which isn't a common experience. The MTC has been a cool experience, but not a day goes by I’m not excited to leave.

Thursday, August 29 - Today was pretty boring but we're learning a lot of important grammar concepts in class. So class went by pretty fast. We practiced sharing scriptures and personal experiences with another district today and it went pretty good. I can speak decently, but my conjugations need a lot of work. Brother Palmer also gave me some good resources to study. He's really nice and a good teacher.

Note from mom: Friday, August 30 - Got the flight itinerary at about 2:00 this afternoon as we were in between phone calls with him calling Joash and then me. The itinerary showed him leaving the MTC at 3am on Tuesday morning! He then started packing his bag while talking on the phone with us today! After packing most of his clothes and stuff, he was heading out to play one more game of soccer with his district (something he has done every morning except Sundays for their workout time, and every P-Day since getting there) and then he was heading to dinner. Only 3 more days at the MTC!