Thanksgiving! Goodbye to Elder Bright and Hello Elder Olson

Note from mom: This week was Thanksgiving, so it was Gabe's first big holiday away from home (not counting Halloween, which they don't really celebrate much in Spain.) I was so grateful to hear that the senior missionaries hosted all of Gabe's zone for Thanksgiving dinner at the church/mission office. It looked like a great traditional meal with turkey, potatoes, rolls, cranberries, etc and I was glad he was with lots of other elders because his new companion, Elder Olson, is so quiet. I was happy he wasn't just sitting in his apartment with a mute companion, eating cereal on Thanksgiving. That would've made me feel really sad. So, Gabe had to say goodbye to Elder Bright at the beginning of this week, two days before Thanksgiving, which was sad. But he gave the Christmas stocking (that I had prepared and sent over with Denae) to Elder Bright and he was happy to take it along with him. Gabe said he didn't have room in his suitcase, so he was just carrying it around at the train station. lol He met Elder Olson later that day, and he said the first few days were rough. We were able to talk to him on Thanksgiving, only about two days after he got with Elder Olson, and he was saying it was really hard because he's basically a mute. He is from Virginia, so he speaks English, and he has been out for over a year, so he also knows Spanish. He just seems very shy. We told Gabe to just keep being friendly and he will probably talk more. If anything, maybe this will be a reason for Gabe to learn Spanish faster because he will have to do most of the talking on the streets to people! I think it will all be ok, but it will just take time. We are still kind of thinking Gabe may only be in Aranjuez about five more weeks (this one transfer) but who knows! For sure he will be in Aranjuez with Elder Olson until January though! Hopefully, they get adjusted to each other quickly. 

Here are Gabe's notes!

Spiritual Experience: For the spiritual experience I thought I should talk a little more about the member meal with the Sanz family we had on Sunday. I've been praying so much lately I could start to see and progress faster in Spanish because of how quiet Elder Olson is meaning I have to talk alot more. Then today, at this meal with the Sanz family I was understanding the entire conversation and was able to talk about what I wanted to and also start conversations. Even though I'm still very bad at spanish, the progress I felt today was amazing and I know God is going to continue to help me as I continue to try my hardest to help the people here.

Tuesday, November 26: We dropped Elder Bright off at the train station in Madrid and said our final goodbyes! :( Then I just had random companions the whole day until Elder Broadbend got to the office. Then we just street contacted for fun for like 2 hours. Then my new companion got forgot at the train station. So I got driven there at about 8:30pm and we traveled back to our apartment. His name is Elder Olson. He seems very quiet. So we didn't talk much before bed.

Wednesday, November 27: This morning we did some studies and some video calls for the goals for the month. Then we did some studies and helped the Sanz daughter set up for her wedding in the chapel. We had English class tonight which I was excited for, but no one came. Francisco (a member of the ward) stopped by to help with English class and pretended to be homeless and scared Olson which was funny. Then we came back to the apartment and cleaned our area book. He was slightly more talkative tonight, but I still feel like we don't speak at all. I came into the living room this morning and he was just staring at the wall. 

Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving) : We did weekly planning and some studies this morning and then got to call our families for Thanksgiving which was awesome. It was about 2:00pm our time, so it was 6:00am Idaho time. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid. The senior missionaries made it all. It was like a real Thanksgiving with turkey, rolls, and everything. It was so nice. We had a really good devotional after too about communicating with God during our prayers.

Friday, November 29: This morning I messaged so many people on WhatsApp. Olson doesn't know everyone yet so he basically just watches me for 45 minutes when we do contacting online. We had District Counsel over videocall and that was pretty fun. We had a lesson with the old (somewhat crazy) member, Rene, then we had another lesson with Osmany. He's loving everything we teach him and I'm so excited for his baptism. Then after we had our lesson with Osmany on the other side of the chapel, we said hi to the everyone who there for the wedding. The guy marrying the Sanz daughter is from the UK so I was talking to a bunch of english speakers which was nice. Then we street contacted and had family home evening with the Obando's.

Saturday, November 30: We had a temple trip today planned with the recent convert named Lara. She didn't know how to use metro so we had to meet her at the bus station and go with her to the temple. We barely made it because I was leading both me and Olson because he kinda just stands there in silence. But we made it and the temple was awesome. Lara lost her glasses in the temple but they got found after like 20 minutes. During street contacting Olson just follows where ever I go and when we walked by Mercadona and I started to go in he looked at me like "Nah, where we going?" and I said, "Well there's people in Mercadona" (We had started our fast and I wanted to look at food💀). Then while we were in there I saw this guy and was like "¿Te gustaría una tarjeta de Jesucristo?" and he said, "What?" So I chatted with him in English for like 20 minutes and invited him to church. It was awesome and I think he might come to church tomorrow! We then went and helped the Mom and Dad of the Sanz family clean the wedding mess in the chapel. Today felt so long but it was exciting.

Sunday, December 1: We had church this morning, and it was quite the experience. We had 2 or our friends show up so I was scrambling trying to find members who could come in and help us while also trying to set up meals for the week. The whole time Elder Olson just followed me and would correct my spanish while I was talking to people. I don't mind the correction, I just wish he would try talking to people. I tried to get him to talk to people in the hall but he said, "They all look busy." We ended up having another awesome lesson with Andrew in English and I showed him the Gospel Library app so he could listen to it at his warehouse job. Then we had a lesson with Roberto, the man I met like my 3rd week here we haven't been able to really teach since because he wasn't too interested. But it went well and him and a member really got along so he wants to come to church again. We then had a meal with the Sanz family which was super fun. My Spanish has never been better than during that meal. I was having to do almost all the talking and then the spiritual thought and It wasn't close to perfect but it was the first time I was understanding almost everything which was said. And that family is pretty difficult to understand because the Dad is a native Spaniard and the Mom is from Peru so the spanish is all a little different. But then we had some calls in the evening and I got to call my family for our normal weekly call.

Monday, December 2: We started our Pday with a Mercadona run. Then we went to Madrid and picked up Elder Brights photos that finally got finished. We had dominos for lunch with the Elders in our zone and then went to the chapel for calling families. Me and Elder Olson also got haircuts because we gotta look nice for the Christmas conference. Then we went to Valdemoro for some street contacting and found no one. Then like 5 minutes before leaving I said to a Spaniard lady "¡Buenas noches! ¿Te gustaría una imagen de Jesús?" Then she very quickly said "No" and walked like 5 feet and then called after us "wait do you speak english!" She then jokingly said "You must be from like Wisconsin or something" (super random) and I told her I actually have family there, and we chatting about how she would be intrested in learning more about the church and talking to all the people members in Aranjuez  who are all from different parts of the world. She was named Paloma and we are going to try and set up some lessons with her which could be cool. So it was a pretty good day.