Note from mom: Well, we survived our first Christmas without Gabe! It seemed like a long time since we had talked to Gabe this week because they moved P-Day from Monday to Thursday, but it really wasn't because we actually had talked to him on Christmas Day (Wednesday). Christmas was definitely different without Gabe, and I think he was a little lonely too, though he didn't really complain. The day after we talked to him, we went to St. George and Las Vegas for four days, so it was probably fine that we didn't chat on Sunday since we were out on the Vegas strip! Gabe seems like he's about ready to leave Aranjuez. This last time we chatted, it was probably the first time I've heard him admit a lot of things about Aranjuez that he doesn't like. The Bishop is rude and doesn't help them, the ward members are lazy, and he'd rather be in an area where there's more support with member meals and other help with lessons and things. The Daguimar family is one of the only positive things about Aranjuez it seems. They have him over to eat regularly, but still, no one did on Christmas. He also seems to be ready for a new companion. I think he gets along ok with Elder Olson, but he just doesn't talk much and I think Gabe realizes he would have more fun with someone like Elder Tanner, a zone leader that he got to go on exchanges with this week. He seems to think he will get transferred soon, so I guess we will see what happens! I tried to tell him to keep a positive attitude about Aranjuez, just in case it doesn't happen soon.
Spiritual Experience: When I had my exchanges with Elder Tanner it was actually the best experience I've had in the mission. The spirit we felt on that mountain with Vanessa and then in the home of the Hectors family was amazing. One thing me and Elder Tanner talked about was how it wasn’t us that made it so that family wanted to get baptised or Vanessa started crying tears of joy. But that it was the spirit. Hector's sister didn't come into the room until the very end and Tanner said 3 simple sentences and asked if she wanted to be baptised. Then she looked at us without hesitation and said "Sí, lo haré. con mi familia." That day I felt the spirit so strongly multiple times and I'm so excited to continue having experiences like that.
Wednesday, December 25: Elder Olson and I woke up and opened the presents our parents had sent us, which was super fun. I got a Lego car, some pajama pants, a book by President Nelson, and some new ear buds. I also got a stocking full of candy and treats. We had a really good video call lesson about the plan of Salvation, which was really fun. Then we baked cookies for Ice Cream guy (the shop owner who had said we could stop by for free ice cream any time) and brought the cookies and a Book of Mormon to him. Then we did weekly planning and called our parents. It was really nice to talk to them. We didn’t have any member meals, but it was still super fun getting to call home and open gifts.
Thursday, December 26: Today was awesome! We woke up and went Valdemoro and had a lesson with Fran again and it went really good. Then we had another lesson with Roberto and to practice English I was explaining to him the story of Nephi 1-4 and he loved it. Then we had a ward mission leader call and that was pretty boring. But then we had a really good lesson with a guy named Hector and his family of 7!!!! We are meeting with them again on Monday and they said they wanted to feed us too. They're awesome and loved the Restoration Lesson. They also tried to give us Coffee. The look of fear on Olson's face was crazy😨.
Friday, December 27: We had District Counsel today which was really fun. The Hermanas came and we made Breakfast for lunch. Then me and Olson went and visited the really nice old guy named Rene. Then we had a crazy long call with a reference and spent the rest of the day contacting. We got a lot of numbers and it was pretty funny. Lots of weird people out that night.
Saturday, December 28: Today was really normal but then we found a lady that was kinda bashing us. At one point she was like "Do you have girlfriends?" And we were like "no" then she burst out laughing and said "Yeah I know! You Mormons aren't allowed to get married" then we were like "Do you go to a church here?"😑 And she looked at her watch and was like "yes, come with me". We followed her to this weird door in the middle of a bunch of shops and when we went in there was only like 8 people all kneeling on chairs. After like 10 minutes of silence a pastor(her dad) walked in and turned on some Shakira sounding Jesus songs and everyone starts singing/screaming for like 30 minutes. Then the pastor read from the bible and finished with a pray. We got his number after and now we've been texting him. So it was a cool experience.
Sunday, December 29: It was kinda chilly this morning so at 10:00 when church is supposed to start there was only 8 people. At around 10:25 the usual 50 showed up. It's pretty common for church here to start at least 15 minutes late. I gave a 10 minute talk today which was pretty fun. We also had a good plan of salvation lesson with our friend Andrew who hasn't come in 2 weeks because he's been sick. The rest of the day we called every single interested person we had, and got a bunch of lessons lined up for the week.
Monday, December 30: Today was pretty fun. We set up a lot of lesson with people today and then about halfway through the day we went to Madrid and switched companions for tomorrow's exchanges. I came back to Aranjuez with Elder Tanner. It's been really fun so far and it's been nice having someone more talkative around. He also served in Aranjuez before he was Zone leader. (He didn't love this area...) So we've just been talking a lot about the work here and he's helped me find some people who might be ready to be taught now.
Tuesday, December 31: This was probably one of the best days I've had so far in the mission. This morning, Tanner and I went to Vanessa's house (a recent convert Tanner taught) and walked with her to this top of a mountain because she likes to hike. We had an amazing lesson and had the opportunity to give her a blessing. Then we had a lesson with Hector and his family. We ended up putting 4 of them on date for baptism! which was amazing. After we went to Valdemoro and had another lesson with a man we already had a baptismal date for named Boyan. All the lessons we had were so spiritual and I learned so much from the exchange. After we switched companions in Madrid, me and Elder Olson had a member meal with a really cool family I ate once with about 3 months ago. When we walked in, I was doing all the talking and the guy asked me if I was training Elder Olson because he was so quiet. So that was funny, the food was amazing too! Nobody was outside for New Year's Eve because they were all partying in Madrid.
Wednesday, January 1: We had a member meal with Andrew and his family for lunch and it was so fun. He speaks English and we joke around a lot. He gave us sooo much food and I felt dead for like 5 hours. We also visited Rene(old guy). Then we had a member meal with the old bishop(Yubero). It was really fun and an awesome experience. Last time I ate there I couldn't understand anything. Today though, I was talking and understand 90% of everything and their family is really cool. I just couldn't really understand before. That's one fun thing now that I'm understanding more. In a way, I get to get to know everyone again.
Thursday, January 2: We finally had pday today and it was really fun. I'm pretty sure one of the members from yesterday (Andrew) tried to poison me because I had to worst stomach pain all day. I was running to find a bathroom all the time. Luckily, they had bathrooms at the church. We went to the temple though which was awesome. Then we went to a bunch of stores at Sol. One of them was like the official store of Real Madrid and they had their actual trophy in there. After we got back to Aranjuez, we had a lesson with a man named Renzo from Peru. I don't think I've ever taught the Restoration as easily as I did today, which was awesome.
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