Mission Expectations VS. Reality

Note from mom: I also wanted to include this separate email from Gabe. I wrote to him and asked him a few questions and said, "Now that it's been one year since you opened your mission call to Spain, how has it measured up to what you expected it to be?" Here are his responses:

1 - What have been pleasantly surprised about in the Spain Madrid South mission, compared to what you had maybe expected it to be like? (Think of Apartment quality, foods, companions, investigators, ward members in the area, the mission president, learning Spanish, etc.)

So far it really hasn't been to hot since getting here, I expected to get off the plane and sweat for 2 years straight. But it hasn't been bad at all this whole time (soon summer is starting💀). I thought I would have ZERO baptisms my whole mission, so there's a lot more work here than I expected😂. The apartments are all pretty nice as well, I've also got lucky with pretty good apartments.






2- What has been more difficult to deal with on the mission in Spain than you may have previously expected it would be?

It's more difficult than I thought it would be learning Spanish. "Two weeks fluent" (what I told my mom I would be) was definitely a poor choice of words. But I understand almost everything and can always communicate what I want to now. But it's interesting to think about how every missionary feels like they aren't learning spanish as fast as we need to, when in reality, when talking to people on the street, people assume we have years trying to learn because of how long it would take to learn spanish without the Lord. Most people we talk to who have immigrated from other parts of Europe and have been trying to learn spanish are worse than us even though they have already been a couple of years in the country. I definitely should have studied more before the mission. But it makes me a lot more excited to go out everyday because everyday I can do more and understand more and enjoy the work more as my Spanish progresses. Not understanding everything for like 5 months isn't hype.

3- In what ways (overall) has your mission been what you expected and in what ways has it been different?

Overall, it's been what I've expected in the sense that people aren't lining up to get baptised and the Catholics haven't been eager to switch, and it's also pretty tiring walking so much. 
It's been different because we spend a lot more time finding people to teach than actually teaching. Also, we use public transport a lot. But overall it's been amazing so far and so fun to teach and see different parts of Spain. It's also fun getting to be more charismatic with people as my spanish improves and not acting like a robot.