Quick Note from Mom - This post will cover the past 3 weeks! Gabe has loved his time in Cartagena and has started to see a lot of success, but we just found out (on June 20) he's getting transferred to a new area! His time with Elder Jara in Cartagena is officially coming to an end :( I think he's excited to see someplace new, but also a little bummed that he's moving right before they have two people on date to be baptized! It sounds like Elder Jara is moving away from there too, so there will be four hermanas (sister missionaries) that take over in Cartagena and have to try and make sure these people get baptized! Gabe is going to be companions now with Elder Ryan Adams, who is from the U.S. and who started at the MTC the same day as Gabe. So he knows him a little bit already! I think it will be okay, but he's just kind of bummed to be going to an area that's somewhat close to the area where he spent his first six months instead of seeing someplace totally new. He's also bummed to be leaving the great ward and bishop in Cartagena. Hopefully, he is able to make his new area successful as well!
Here are Gabe's emails!
This whole entry will cover Monday, June 2, 2025 - Monday, June 23, 2025
First, here is June 2 - June 8
1. Summer of Death
2. Teaching pool
3. Elder Jara
4. Kenny
We are entering the summer months, and I already want to get transferred to the Spain Madrid North Mision. It never gets below 70 here and is stupid humid. It's only supposed to get worse too. In most parts of Southern Spain, it 95 at least. At least in Cartagena there's an ocean breeze. This apartment has AC though. If I get transferred somewhere hot in 2 weeks I might die.
We have been teaching a good amount of people here and have a good mix of people coming from members, less active members, and street contacting. Overall, the time is flying and it's crazy I'm getting close to my year mark.
I've been with Elder Jara for about 2 and half months now and it's been awesome to train him. It's also helped my Spanish so much it's crazy. It's cool to see how much a new missionary grows and changes in such a short amount of time. We will see if I do a third transfer with him. We get along great so I wouldn't mind.
Kenny is moving from his random tiny town outside of Cartagena to a new piso in Cartagena that's like 5 minutes from church. It's awesome. He's been so excited to be closer and he has been seeing crazy miracles. For example, him finding money out of nowhere to rent his apartment.
Gabe's Day-by-Day notes:
Monday, June 2: We spent today in Murcia like normal and it's a lot hotter there. Everywhere is hot but in Cartagena there is a least a breeze. Then we ate Dominos and played sports and me and Elder Sircable went back to Cartagena for exchanges. We had a good lesson with Chidi and gave him a Book of Mormon. I also got the craziest bloody nose as we were walking home, so that was embarrassing.
Tuesday, June 3: We had a pretty good exchange today. Me and Sircable had a great lesson with Kenny and then got feed but a woman from the ward🙏. Then we had another lesson with Alicia. The problem with her is that the members are trying to teach her literally everything and overwhelming her with all the information. She's not having enough spiritual experiences. I love the two members but they are actually D1 yappers.
Wednesday, June 4: This morning we had a great lesson with a woman named Mady and we had Virginia(member) come with us. It went really good. We also had a great lesson and meal with Clara and her sons. We are teaching the younger son Gonzalez. The Peruvian food was really food also. Then we gave Pablo a Book of Mormon and just street contacted the rest of the night.
Thursday, June 5: We had a great lesson with Gary today. His wife Kimberly(member) and her friend(scary Catholic lady) were there also. We taught the plan of salvation and they all liked it. We also went to an evangelical church and got 2vs7 by the pastor and his homies. We answered their questions for like 10 minutes with bible versiculos and then the got frustrated and said they had to leave. It was interesting though.
Friday, June 6: We meet with our English speaking friend named Chidi this morning which was great. Then we had a videocall for District counsel. We ate lunch with a funny spanish lady that kept calling Elder Jara a Lamanite. Then, I got to call Caleb for his 17th birthday. I talked to my mom and dad and Caleb briefly. We also ate with the bishop's family for dinner at Dominos.
Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8: The weekend wasn't too exciting. We had a good amount of lessons though. We also had the baptism of one of the member kids which was cool. We also have had a steady increase of English speakers start coming every week. We had 6 people who only spoke English on Sunday. We had to do a little class during second hour to teach everyone who only speaks English.
Second week; here is June 9 - June 16
1. Recent converts!
2. Heat of death
3. Transfer News Coming this Friday
We have been making sure all of the recent converts are all still good and progressing this week. We already have a temple trip planned and approved by President with Enma. We also helped Kenny go to a government office and translate for him so he could get papers. Now my boy is legal🙏. Still don't know where he's finding all the money he's getting, 3 weeks ago he had literally nothing, no job, no work, no house. Whenever I ask him how he finds money he just says "the grace of God". I trust its legal though. I hope.
It's been so bad lately heat wise. And every looks at me and just tells me how worse it's gonna get. It's always like 80-90% humidity and my body is not adapting fast enough. The worst thing is when we have lesson in people's houses that don't have air conditioning.
We are getting transfer calls on Friday, and I'm pretty excited to see what happens. I don't think I'll stay. It's pretty uncommon for a trainer to stay after the training of the new guy is over but we will see. I love Cartagena and the members are great so I wouldn't mind staying. And as hot as it is, this might be the best place to be for the summer. But I would also like to see more of Spain. I almost have a year in the mission and I've only had 2 areas💀.
Monday, June 9: Pretty normal P-day. We went to Murcia like always and ate some Kebob and played volleyball. Me and Taylor dropped off Elder Sircable at the train station though. He was companions with Elder Taylor, but they were kind of having issues together, so Sircable is moving to a new area and Elder Taylor is staying here and getting a new companion. Elder Wagner, the new companion of Elder Taylor will get there tonight.
Tuesday, June 10: We had a pretty good lesson this morning with two inactive members who moved here from Columbia and haven't been to church in a couple years. But we also had a great lesson with a women today, who told us she's lesbian but still wants to learn more. We will see how that goes. But we also met with Chidi and I'm not sure if he's all there mentally. It was a pretty busy day.
Wednesday, June 11: This morning we meet with Kenny so I could translate again while we tried to get my boy his papers🙏. After we ran around for like an hour we got everything sorted out and now he's almost legal. Then we had a videocall with Enma because we got the temple trip approved with prez for when she comes back to Spain to visit at the end of this month. We also ate with the Lopez family for lunch which was also good. I almost threw up because I ate so much food. We did a good amount of street contacts today too, but literally every Latino despawned and we haven't found any new people to teach because the white people don't want to learn about Jesus.
Thursday, June 12: We had exchanges today and I was with Elder Gallup, our zone leader. It was really busy. We literally talked to everyone. There wasn't more than 10 seconds we weren't talking to people. It went really well and we got a lot of numbers. We had a lesson this morning with Enma over videocall. Then we met with an inactive member who was kinda crazy. But we also had a lunch lesson with Gary and Kimberly that went really well.
Friday, June 13: We had a mission wide zoom call this morning for the goodbye testimonies of the 16 missionaries going home at the end of this transfer in a week. The call was a tiny zone conference basically. But after all that, we got lunch from one of the ladies in the ward and did planing for the week. The rest of the time we did street contacting and we talked to everyone, but literally everyone was crazy. But they we ended the evening with a nice ward activity and we ate and talked.
Saturday, June 14: We had a lesson this morning with an inactive member and he took us to get churros which was super nice. He's kinda crazy but nice. Then we had a member meal with the member lady and the guy that is Athiest because his pastor was not very holy with a woman in the ward. An inactive member was also there, so we taught a good lesson on the sacrament and she said she would come tomorrow. Then we had a lesson with Danna and talked about the Restoration. We then street contacted the rest of the night.
Sunday, June 15: Church today went pretty great. We had a separate class today for our amigos who just speak English and that went pretty good. After that, we went to the second counselor in the ward's house (Reine) to eat. It was super fun, and after we did street contacting and then planned the English and Spanish classes that we are starting.
Monday, June 16: We went to Murcia like always for P-day and we had talleres (workshops) so everyone in the zone was there, which was fun. It was super hot there though. It's always a lot hotter there. We also ate at an Italian pizza place which was good, and then when P-day ended at 7pm, me and elder Jara visited members while street contacting and we found another less active member who's coming to church on Sunday. Its crazy how many people haven't been to church in years, and then when they get invited one time, they come!
Third week; here is Tuesday, June 17 - Sunday, June 22
1. Transfers
2. Lewis
3. Goodbye Cartagena
Well, we received Transfer calls on Friday and I will be going to Alcazar de San Juan in Castilla de la Mancha. It's a pretty small town and a branch, so I'll probably be missing Cartagena soon, but I'm excited. This will be my second time in that Zone because I was there for 6 months at the start of my mission. (Same zone, but different city.) But it should be exciting and I'll be driving as well. So I might die.
We have been meeting with the roomate of Kenny named Lewis for a while but all of our lessons were like 5 minute conversations and it's was never anything important but he was always coming to church. But we had our first sit down lesson with him the other day that went amazing. He loved everything and understood. We even tried to put him on date today but he said he wanted to ask permission from his mom💀😭. She's Roman catholic. So we will see how the 4 Hermanas that are coming to take the place of me and Elder Jara will handle that.
We said all of our goodbyes on Sunday to our members and I'm gonna miss this ward for sure. Everyone is great and this has really been the first place I could actually have connections with the ward because I could speak Spanish. We had an awesome dinner with the bishop as well last night and their family is super fun. But I know the lord wants me in Alcazar and I'm excited to help invite more people to come unto Christ.
Tuesday, June 17: We had a lesson this morning with Enma over videocall and planned a couple more things for the temple trip next Thursday and we taught more about the temple. We also found a cool guy in the park who we are going to meet with on Thurday. We had a quick lesson with Lewis as well as he was leaving his house. But he was pretty upset with a couple things, but we shared a quick spiritual thought and I hope helped. Then we met with Kenny and did the same.
Wednesday, June 18: Today was pretty busy. We started our day with a phone call lesson with Angelica then had a lesson with the mother of one of our inactive members which went great. We also ate with Emmanuel and Cristina Cabrera today for lunch. Then we had a lesson with Rocio and her husband who isn't a member and that went great as well. We then dropped off a Book of Mormon at the house of a man we met the other day named Jose. I met hime with Elder Gallup. Then we finished the day by having dinner with the Prats.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, June 19, 20, and 21: We had exchanges with Taylor and Wagner on Thurday and Friday and everything went great. I was with Taylor and he's an awesome missionary. He was thinking about going home about a week ago, but he got this new companion (Wagner) and he's been doing better now. We also got transfer calls and I found out I'll be going to Alcazar in Castilla de la Mancha. They haven't had a baptism in over 6 months, so my work is pretty cut out for me. I also just served 6 months in the zone of Castilla de la mancha when I was in Aranjuez💀. We have been preparing the area of Cartagena for the 4 Hermanas that'll come to replace us in a few days. Elder Jara is going to Lorca with Elder Wagner. We had a couple good goodbye lessons, and we made a video for the Hermanas about all the amigos we have been teaching. That should help them know who everyone is.
Sunday, June 22: We had an awesome day at church full of goodbyes. It was kinda sad. This ward has been awesome. But nothing that cool happened after church besides that we ate with the bishop's family. They are awesome and we had a great dinner. I told my mom on the phone, "I will never have this good of a bishop again." We have gotten to know his family and the ward here really well, so it's sad to leave.
Monday, June 23: My last day with Elder Jara in Cartagena! Elder Jara and I stayed in Cartagena for Pday today and the barber ditched us, and we couldn't get our haircut this morning. (**Note from mom - Stay tuned about how this would turn out to be a blessing that would lead to his new barber in the new are taking the discussions!) So me and Jara went to an "all you can eat" sushi buffet, which was really good. We basically just hung out and packed all day. Elder Jara is going to a new area too. After that, we went to Murcia and hooolllyy. The walk from our apartment to the bus station was crazy. Soooo hot. I've never been so sweaty. But we just hung out in Murcia and helped the Elders there the rest of the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment