Note from mom: This week Gabe got to personally baptize Smith, and his companion, Elder Olsen, got to baptize Damaris! It is pretty exciting for an area in Spain to have three baptisms in the past two weeks! However, it sounds like Boyan (the guy they baptized last week) has a few Word of Wisdom issues he needs to work on... :{ I asked Gabe what his goals are in Aranjuez for the next two weeks (in case he gets transferred on Feb. 17) and he said he really wants to go through the temple with Damaris and Smith. He said Smith is such an awesome guy and is having some big trials right now (needs to find a new place to live), but he has such a strong testimony. In other news, Gabe's cousin, Alex, is currently in Spain! I sent a suitcase packed full of valentines goodies, some birthday presents for March, a new suit, and some other things! Hopefully they get to meet up and have lunch or something later this week!
Here are Gabe's notes!
Spiritual Experience: My spiritual experience for this week was definitely the Baptisms of Smith and Damaris. Smith was so happy and still is and after all his trials, he is still just happy he got to be baptised. When he bore his testimony, it was so amazing. He truly understands the blessing that the gospel is in our lives and that's what made him such a fun person to teach.
Tuesday/Wednesday January 28/29: As a mission we all read the Book of Mormon all the way through during these 2 days. I decided to do it in Spanish, which was hard but I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to do it and the gift of tongues was very prominent while I read. The Book of Mormon is truly one of the greatest gifts that we have from our loving Heavenly Father, and it's been given to each and every one of us so that we can come to know him. It doesn't matter who you are or what you feel you need, The Book of Mormon accompanied by the Holy Ghost will ease every burden. I'm so grateful I'm here and can share this gift with the people of Spain.
Thursday, Jan 30: Not a lot happened today, but we had lessons with Damaris, Smith, and Juan. Damaris is still ready to be baptized on Saturday, and Smith is having literally every problem that can happen, but he said the other day, "I know Satan is trying to stop me from being baptized, but I won't let him stop me"🤯. He's actually such an awesome guy.
Friday, January 31: We had District Counsel today, which was fun. We had a lesson scheduled in Ciempozuelos (a town about 20 minutes north of Aranjuez) with a reference that we got yesterday named Karina, but then she canceled last minute. And street contacting there was not that fun. Less people than Aranjuez. Then we had another amazing lesson with Smith. I've never seen such an amazing testimony from someone we've been teaching. He is so happy to be baptised and is so excited. Even with all of his trials, he's still so faithful.
Saturday, February 1: Damaris and Smith were baptised today and will be confirmed tomorrow, which is amazing. We street contacted this morning and actually taught a really good Restoration lesson to a random guy in the street named David. Then we spent the rest of the evening up until the baptism setting up the font and filling it. It all went really well and I got to baptise Smith and Olson baptized Damaris. It was such an amazing experience. Smith was just talking about how happy he felt and how excited he is to continue coming closer to God.
Sunday, February 2: We had a pretty amazing day. Smith and Damaris got confirmed during church, and we planned a temple trip with Damaris this Saturday. We will hopefully go to the temple with Smith the week after, when he'll have the Priesthood. Then, we accidentally locked ourselves out of the apartment and some old Spaniard locksmith came and opened the door for us in like 10 seconds with special plastic paper. We spent the evening before the locksmith got there with Ioan and Virinia (a married couple from the ward). Damaris came too because she's friends with Virinia. They are all really fun together, and we had really good Empanadas. Then in the evening, we set up some lessons for next week and called our families in the evening.
Monday, February 3: We had P-day in Toledo today with the whole zone and it was so fun! Toledo has an insane amount of sword shops and we walked around those for a while and visited one owned by a member. He had made a sword called "Moroni's sword" and another called "Laman's sword". We also went to a couple of cool cathedrals and walked around the city and ate shwarma and ice cream. Then after P-day ended, we went to visit Smith where he is temporarily living in a hostel in a pueblo nearby Aranjuez. (We are praying he finds a new apartment to live in soon!) We almost missed the bus to come back, but we made it barely. We are praying that Smith finds a nice apartment to live in and he can be in a good ward wherever he ends up!
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