Baptism of Boyan!

Note from mom: This week Gabe had his first baptism of a person that he actually found and taught and then baptized! His name was Boyan, and he's a single Spaniard guy in his 20s. He got baptized on Saturday, and they also have two more people planning to get baptized next Saturday! Gabe is especially excited about the guy named Smith Gift, who is getting baptized next Saturday. He seems to have a really strong testimony, and is really excited to get baptized. I am trying to get a suitcase prepared this week to send with Alex and Johnny when they go to Spain next week. We are sending Gabe a new suit, some medication for his acne, and a bunch of treats! I wish I could crawl into this suitcase that is no making its SECOND trip to Spain, but oh well... :( 

Here are Gabe's notes for the week of January 21 - January 27!

Spiritual Experience: During this week at the Baptism of Boyan, Smith, Ezequiel (a ward member) and us had a really nice conversation about how loved and accepted Smith has felt in the church with us and some of the members. He's such an awesome guy and it's such a blessing we got to meet him. I am excited about Boyan getting baptized today, and I'm really excited about Smith and Damaris (another lady we have been teaching) getting baptized next weekend.

Tuesday, January 21: Today we had Elder Maile and Elder Price come to Aranjuez for exchanges. I was with Mailie, and we street contacted until lunch, and then us 4 met up and went to Dominos. Afterward, me and Maile did a really good lesson with Roberto (an old guy who likes rugby and learning English from us). He accepted a baptismal date for February! (Hopefully he gets some Word of Wisdom issues figured out by then.) Then we had a lesson with Patrick. Then, Smith came and me and Maile gave him a blessing for health and had a really good lesson. After that we all went back to Piso and had dinner.

Wednesday, January 22: We had a pretty boring morning. But we had member meal with Ivonne. She's can't come to church a lot because she has to work on Sundays, but she's actually hilarious. She calls us "Eldersitos" and says she will feed us whenever we want, and says she can be our "Abuelita" (grandma). We gave her a blessing of health too. After that we had another lesson with Damaris where we just walked around and talked. Afterward, me and Olson just did street contacting. The family we put on date has been ghosting us for like 3 weeks. Whenever we pass by they never answer or say they're busy. So hopefully they change soon. We also have been planning the baptism for Boyan this week, and so far only 1 family in the ward has said they can come on Saturday. So we will see how that goes.

Thursday, January 23: After some studies this morning, we did some street contacting which is always funny in the morning because everyone outside is old Spaniards. Then we had weekly planing and a lesson with Smith in the evening. It went really well, and he's still awesome. While street contacting in the evening, we found 3 different people that we each taught the Restoration too. We also were told none of the counselors in the bishopric could come to the Baptism of Boyan on Saturday, so we will just be doing it with our RCM (ward mission leader). 

Friday, January 24: We had a District counsel today with the sisters in Toledo, which was super fun. Then we had some street contacting and a really good Plan of Salvation lesson with Goovanni. We met him yesterday during street contacting and we taught him the Restoration.

Saturday, January 25: We had the Baptism of Boyan today! It all went pretty smooth. Only about a 7 people turnout but it was good. Smith came and said he was so excited for his baptism. Boyan will be confirmed tomorrow in church, which will be awesome. It was super funny too. Boyan tried flirting with Daguimar (the lady who always has us over for dinner with her teenage kids and their family friends) and then also tried to flirt with her daughters😨 (they are teens). Then Boyan and Smith stayed and helped us clean up, so they're both pretty awesome.

Sunday, January 26: Boyan didn't show up to be confirmed today, which was not fun. Our bishop also got the ward to change the start time to 9 from 10. Which makes zero sense because half the congregation lives out of Aranjuez and will have to wake up crazy early. We also got a new Ward mission leader. (This is kind of a bummer because we really liked the previous guy that was helping us as the mission leader, even though he wasn't officially called.) We had lunch with Damaris (lady we are scheduled to baptize on Saturday) and Ioan and Virinia (a young couple in the ward) because Virinia and Damaris got along really well in Relief Society. So we drove with them to Ioan and Virinia's apartment and had lunch. I also got to call my family and talk for a couple hours, which was super fun.

Monday, Jan 27: Today we had pday up in Madrid, which was pretty fun. We were going to do an escape room but it was out of the mission😔. Then we all got new york style pizza in Sol and all went to the chapel to play card games and call family. It was pretty cool. Then after pday we came back to Aranjuez and had an awesome lesson with Smith about priesthood and specifically the keys and levels of organization of the church. He also threw away all his coffee. Then we came back to the Apartment and messaged people for the baptism.