9 Months! Easter and The Crazy Latinos

Note from Mom: This post will cover two weeks (Tuesday, April 8 - Monday, April 21) because we had spring break and even though we had a week off school, I was busy redoing Avery's bedroom! ;) 

Gabe seems to be missing Elder Bradshaw at this moment in time pretty badly. :{ We've talked to him a few times now because he got to call on Josh's birthday and on Easter, and on P-day. Each time, he has told us that he is super sick of his crazy Latino room mates. He says Elder Jara would probably be a lot better off if the other two were not always constantly trying to undermine whatever Gabe tells him. But apparently, Elder Leal, who served in the U.S. for the first few months of his mission, seems to be pretty relaxed about the rules, and likes to tell Elder Salmeron and Elder Jara that whatever Gabe says isn't that important to listen too. There's been a lot of Facebook scrolling, staying up late into the night, not getting out and doing street contacting on time, and so on. Gabe is the DL, so he's been frustrated they aren't doing what they are supposed to do. He won't say this in his notes, but he did email the mission president in his weekly update email, and tell him about these issues. So we are kind of all in suspense to see what happens. I am personally hoping and praying that he just transfers those two away on the next one, or at least replaces Elder Leal with a new elder. Gabe seems to be handling it ok, but he's just really annoyed with them.

Here are Gabe's notes!

Tuesday, April 8: I went with Elder Taylor for exchanges which was fun. We visited the guy who got his leg destroyed by the motorcycle again. He was cool. We had a member meal with a Columbian family and the food was amazing. Then we had a lesson with a Peruvian guy and his friend he brought and he was so set on his Evangelical beliefs he would not listen to anything😭. After that, we had a member lesson with this super nice family like and hour a way. We got lost on the way but it we made it eventually. Then at the end of the day I had like an 1 and a half zoom call for District leader stuff.

Wednesday, April 9: We traveled to Cartagena this morning and had a mentoring call for Elder Jara. We had 2 lessons that canceled and then we had been doing 4 hours of street contacting and nobody was letting us speak to them. I felt pretty bad for Elder Jara because we've only had like 2 lessons since he's been here. I prayed that we would find at least one person then we found 3 people during the rest of the evening which was awesome. I got to teach the Restoration to a woman in English which was awesome.

Thursday, April 10: This morning we had a lesson with Enma (me and Bradshaw's most recent baptism who moved away to Ireland right after we baptized her) to recap the plan of salvation and that was good. She hasn't been able to go to church in Ireland still because the Elders there aren't sending her messages. Later we had an awesome lesson with the ward mission leader, Alejandro and his family, which was fun. We also had our first lesson with Brian who is from Honduras but lived in Orlando for 9 years. He speaks practically no English still. But the lesson went awesome and he's going to pray about the book of mormon tonight.

Friday, April 11: We had a zoom call this morning with all the new greenies and Obando this morning which was cool. We also meet a couple of nice people in the street who we will start teaching if they actually meet with us. While we were visiting member dots we had in our records, we found a man named Ygor and his mom. He was baptised 7 years ago but hasn't been to church for a long time. We had a really nice lesson about the sacrament sacrament and we're going back Monday to visit him and his mom. 

Saturday, April 12: This morning we had a soccer activity but it was raining so we had to cancel. Then we had studies and all ate lunch with Reiné. The counselor of the bishopric. We then helped set up a baptism for a girl in the ward (a little girl). We were there all evening and we meet a lot of inactive members which was good. I also had an hour long lesson with a Muslim guy visiting for the baptism. He's gotta switch🙏  

Sunday, April 13: Church was super fun because after the meeting we had a ward lunch. The members are all super nice. Then we went back and did studies and then me and Jara contacted and visited member dots we had. We met one nice old lady and her 2 middle aged kids we had a lesson with about the bible. We thought it was a member house and she came to the balcony and asked "What do you want" we told her "to talk about Jesuscristo". And she let us in🎊. The middle age daughter came out and started shouting a Benson Boone song because I looked American. Leal and Salmeron are driving me crazy. Jara said "Quiero apuñalar Leal"💀. ("I want to stab Leal") He is also annoyed😂. We will see how the rest of this week goes.

Monday, April 14: We had 2 lessons planned today and both canceled. We are literally getting ghosted by every amigo we have. Its crazy🙏. We did a 5 hour street contacting block in the ghetto and found no one but 1 lady who can barely speak English or spanish. But with both she got her point across and had us take a picture of her residency card so we could know her address and go to her house. So that seems promising. Then before we went home we found a Columbian lady and taught her the whole restoration and she basically told us, "but I want to practice without a church"💀. So we took her number and promised her she'll know for herself after she prayes. So hopefully she responds to our text. Los nativos are still going crazy but they haven't pulled my pants down today... so at least their progressing, because our amigos sure aren't😭.Tuesday, April 15: We woke up and traveled to Murcia for zone pday because tomorrow is zone conference. We played volleyball and soccer and ate kebob which was fun. After we went to stay the night in Molina and we taught a lady the Restoration and she's going to meet with the other Elders in 2 days. Then us, leal, Salmeron, mckeehan, peredo, and the APs stayed the night there.

Tuesday, April 15: We woke up and traveled to Murcia for zone pday because tomorrow is zone conference. We played volleyball and soccer and ate kebob which was fun. After we went to stay the night in Molina and we taught a lady the Restoration and she's going to meet with the other Elders in 2 days. Then us, leal, Salmeron, mckeehan, peredo, and the APs stayed the night there.

Wednesday, April 16: We woke up and traveled to the chapel for zone conference. It was combined with Elche zone so I got to see Elder Bohn! That was fun and the conference was really good. The food was awesome as well. Then we traveled back and did contacting and found a really cool lady but she doesn't live here😭. The ZLs are staying with us tonight for exchanges too. 

Thursday, April 17: We had Pires and Gallup here for exchanges they were doing with leal and Salmeron which was fun but 6 Elders one bathroom is crazy. Me and Jara woke up early and went to the chapel to do interviews with President over video call. It was great! Lots of weird street contacts with Spaniards. One looked like the grandma from the lorax, and we talked to her for like 30 minutes😭. We also had a lesson with a inactive member and her 17 year old daughter(Danna) who wants to be baptised. But hoooolllly, the dad(non-member) was my biggest enemy during that lesson because he will not let us met with her during the week because he doesn't want us distracting her from her studies. I at one point told him we would literally walk with her to the bus stop and ride with her to school so we could have a 15 minute lesson and he still said no. Me and him were arguing for like 20 minutes but we should be able to do the baptism on the 27th. The arguing/begging in spanish went crazy.

Friday, April 18: We had District counsel and a zoom meeting for Elder Jara's 3 week in the field. But after that the 4 of us had a member meal with the Lopez family which was really nice. After that me and Elder Jara has a lesson with Margarita. We met her in the street last week and she canceled on us the other day. But we had a really good lesson and she said she's coming to church. I also got to call my dad for his birthday, which was nice, and he tried to give me some advice about how to handle the Salmeron and Leal. 

Saturday, April 19: We had a fútbol activity this morning so we walked for an hour to get to a court because the close one "siempe esta llenó". When we got there nobody showed up even though the other Elders said 100% a least 3 will come. I said that next time we need to send the reminder to the group chat early because they sent it the night before and they started raging. After that we got ditched by the lady who had us take a picture of her residency card, so that was unfortunate. But we saw the semana santa parade and contacted some cool people today.

Sunday, April 20: Easter Sunday! We had church today and right after met with Danna. We went over some of the last things and she had her interview right after and is ready to be baptised next week. Then we had lunch with the Bishop and his whole extended family and it was really fun. Then we visited a member named John and his 6 cats. Then we visited Manuel who lived in Utah for like 9 years and is he's funny. So today was pretty good. 

Monday, April 21: We went to Murcia early again (for P-Day) because we had talleres which was pretty good. Then we playing volleyball and messed around with waterballoons. It was really fun and we got Kabob again😭. Then we traveled back to Cartagena and I spent an hour talking to Leal alone and it went really well. I think things are going to get a lot better.

A New Greenie and 2 New Roommates!

Note from mom: This has been a big week for Elder Rhodes! He said goodbye to Elder Bradshaw (his companion for the past six weeks in Cartagena, who he really liked), he traveled to Madrid and picked up his "baby", Elder Jara, and he has gotten to welcome the other elder companionship that will be living with them now! We actually didn't get to chat with Gabe on Facetime until Monday because he was busy at our usual Sunday night time because of General Conference. In Spain, because of the time difference, the first session of conference goes from 6:00pm-8:00pm and then they have the two-hour break, and then the second session goes from 10:00pm-midnight. Because Gabe is now a District Leader, he said he had to make some phone calls during that two hour break, so he asked if he could call on Monday instead. I was actually happy to have an opportunity to chat with him one-on-one for a change. We talked today when I got home from school from about 2:00pm until about 3:20pm. One thing that really impressed me was that he kind had to have a side conversation with another elder while we were on the phone, and I got to hear his Spanish abilities for the first time in kind of a natural setting. I was pretty amazed to hear him speaking Spanish fluently. It doesn't seem like that long ago that he was really stressed out about speaking Spanish. Now he's like a pro!

Another funny thing he was telling me about was that people on the street will stop and tell him that he looks like "the bad guy from Rocky" and one guy even pulled up a picture of this actor on his phone and held it up next to Gabe's face and took a picture (see the picture of that)! 

Another funny story was that there was this guy in a wheelchair (not that that's funny) but Gabe said the wheelchair guy was really mad at him for some reason and he was trying to get close enough to take a swing at Gabe, but then Gabe just took a step backward and the guy couldn't reach him. Okay, I'm not telling it very well and there was more to it. lol But then I got to hear Gabe tell that whole story again to his companion in Spanish and I wished I would've recorded it because it was impressive to me how well he spoke Spanish. Two words he always says in English when talking to his companion are "bro" and "fetch" (apparently he won't give those up even if he is saying everything else in Spanish.)

As for the speaking Spanish all the time, it seems like it IS going to end up really helping Gabe improve his skills. Because Elder Jara and Elder Salmaron don't speak English, they will be speaking Spanish all the time at home ad everywhere. But the first few days of doing all Spanish all the time with these three new roommates, Gabe said, "My head hurt. I went from speaking to Elder Bradshaw in English all the time at home and having these really chill bedtime conversations every night, and now I have these three CRAZY Latino room mates that are always trying to pants me!" He said it's funny now, but I think at first, he was like, "What the heck?" Plus, I think now that he's the DL, he feels the need to kind of keep everyone in line. I think that stresses him out a little bit. But he's doing well overall and really likes all the new guys in his apartment, so that's good. His companion, Elder Jara, who only speaks Spanish, saw that Gabe was talking to me on Facetime tonight, and he jumped into the shot and said, "Your son - He is good missionary!!" and he seemed really proud that he said it in English! lol He seems like a nice kid. I think they will get along well, and Gabe says that he even cooks them good, Peruvian food! So thats fun! They just go to the store, he picks out all the groceries, and then they split the cost. Then Elder Jara does the cooking for all of them. Gabe said his job is doing the dishes. It seems like a good deal to me!

Here are Gabe's notes!

Tuesday, April 1: We woke up early and dropped off Elder Bradshaw in Murcia. Sad day😔. He was a good companion and I was sad to only have six weeks with him, but he got made a Zone Leader in Sevilla, so it was time for him to move on! After he left, I basically did phone work and made calls and said bye to a lot of traveling missionaries. Elder Hogge went home today, which was crazy. I did like 5 hours of street contacting with Elder Page and Sircable which was fun. But I'll stay here over night in Murcia until tomorrow. Then I will head up to Madrid. 

Wednesday, April 2: I basically spent all day traveling to Madrid. There was a strike at the train station in Murcia, so I had to take a bus halfway there. But everything went well and I stayed to night with some missionaries in Madrid. Tomorrow, I will meet my new companion!

Thursday, April 3: We picked up the Greenies today! We meet the other trainers in the office and had a meeting about how to train. Then we got assigned our companions and had lunch. It was super fun seeing everyone and the trainer reveal was super fun. It was only 8 months ago that I was in that room as a nervous greenie being introduced to Elder Bright! My companion is Elder Jara. He is from Perú, but has lived in Barcelona with his family for the past 2 years. He only speaks Spanish, but he can say a few simple phrases in English. Then us and the other two elders who will be living in our apartment with us started to make our journey back home. The other two elders are Elder Salmaron (from Barcelona, been on his mission for only 3 months, only speaks Spanish) and Elder Leal (from Texas, speaks fluent English and Spanish because his parents are Mexican, has been serving in Salt Lake for 8 months waiting for his Spanish visa and just got here). We started traveling to Murica to stay over night. Then the next day, we would finish our journey back home to Cartagena. The new room mates all seem great. They only speak Spanish though except for Elder Leal. But we all just speak Spanish all the time.

Friday, April 4: Today was crazy busy. We had to plan and divide the area by ourselves because the church system was having problems. Us four had a lesson with a woman named Victoria and her whole family and that went really well. Then we had an institute class and called and messaged all of the members. I also got to give a blessing of health to a women in the ward and that was an awesome experience. She wanted it in English too which was amazing to do. But everything went pretty good for our first day. 

Saturday April 5: We had a lot of contacting this morning again and then we did all of our studies and did some street contacting. So far, the other Elders have been really good. They all work pretty hard. They're kinda crazy though😂. Elder Jara cooks for all of us his delicious Peruvian food, and then I do the dishes. We met the bishop in the capilla (church) and watched general conference, which was great. Dicus came and I talked to him about baptism and he said he wants too!! We just need to teach him a little more and set a date. I also ran our first district counsel today which went pretty well. 

Sunday April 6: I had a call with the Tech Elders to talk about some of the area splits and we also did a lot of contacting and all our studies. We did a bunch of street contacting then watched general conference and did more street contacting. A lot of our amigos aren't talking to us anymore and the people in the street haven't been receptive. So hopefully the work here picks up soon. 

Monday, April 7: We went to Murcia for pday today, which was awesome. We played soccer and it was soooo hot. It was only like 80 degrees, but it's going to get like in the hundreds soon. After soccer, we called family and went to Lorca for exchanges. Lorca is an area to the west of Cartagena and there are more Latinos there. It was really fun doing street contacting with the elders in the land of Latinos. There is never a better place for street contacting. (Native Spaniards don't usually want to talk to us.)