Note from Mom - Elder Rhodes has been a missionary for ONE YEAR! (Side note - I actually got to meet two of the Spain mission moms this weekend! I met up with Elder Powell's mom, Michelle, and Elder Robinson's mom, Casie! It's so crazy that all of our boys have been out for a year now!)
Gabe has been in Alcazar now for about five weeks, and he will find out in about five days (this Friday) if he's getting transferred or not. He says he doesn't care either way, but I kind of think he secretly wants to get transferred. It's just such a small area and there's not a lot going on, and I think he's just kind of ready to see another part of Spain. I think he gets along with Elder Adams, but he doesn't seem to have as much fun with him as he did with some of the past ones like Bright, Bradshaw, and Jara. The big upside to the area of Alcazar is the apartment. He has his own bathroom, which is really nice, and it has AC. They also just committed a guy named Victor to baptism on August 10, so if he leaves, he won't be there for that! That'd be a little sad. Here are his notes!
This whole entry will cover Monday, July 14, 2025 - Monday, July 28, 2025
First, here is Monday, July 14 - Tuesday, July 22 (Week 4 in Alcazar)
1. Amigos
2. Hype pday
3. 1 year!!!
Well, we were teaching about 4 people who could meet consistently and who were progressing but 3 of them moved away😭. But it turns out that Victor has a wife and then the sister of the wife that live with him who are all interested and have been coming to church. So we will be trying to give them a baptismal date this week. But not a lot of exciting things besides that. We also have been doing a crazzzzyyy amount of street contacting.
We got to change our pday as a zone to Tuesday so we could go to the temple. So Monday night we took a train to Madrid and went through the temple this morning which was hype. We also got amazing Empanadas.
Me and Elder Adams both hit a year yesterday because we have the same time in the mission and that was pretty crazy. I still feel like I just got here and time is going pretty fast. I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had and people I've meet. I hope that this next year can really grow my testimony and I can continue to help the people here. It's a little easier now that I can speak spanish but we will see how it goes😂.
Gabe's Day-by-Day notes:
Monday, July 14: Lowkey super boring Pday. We took the car to a shop so it could get serviced then we ate Dominos and then picked up the car. Besides that, we literally just hung out in Alcazar all day. We street contacted tonight and also meet with Diego. He kinda crazy but he's read like 25 percent of the Book of Mormon and likes it. So he's doing good.
Tuesday, July 15: We had a pretty good English class this morning (with...?) and then she gave us the number of her friend. We did a lot of street contacting this morning and found a nice couple who we talked to and might keep teaching. Then we had to take the car to Valdepeñas. Then we took a train back to Alcazar and did more street contacting. We found a 17-year-old kid who wanted to meet with us and a Peruvian lady who also said we could teach her. So we found some cool people today
Wednesday, July 16: We had some hype street contacting this morning and then we had 3 video calls with a couple of the people we're teaching. Then we had a really good first lesson with Joel. He's staying with Virja, the women who was always go to her house to do service for. So we had a lesson with Joel, Antonio, and Virja. We also had a really good lesson with Olenka. She liked everything, but she's moving back to Peru on Sunday😭. Then we had a super quick lesson with Tito outside his barber shop.
Thursday, July 17: Today was pretty boring; we basically street contacted all day. We had another English class with Ruth though. Most interesting thing was when we were walking this morning, we heard a old lady shout "the Mormons!!" We started talking to her and asking how she knew us and she responded with, "It's been awhile since I've see some of you, but the missionaries are always handsome so that's why i always talk to them (rizz)". But she was Catholic and didn't want to talk about God💀.
Friday, July 18: We had a hype District counsel this morning and also met with Yady for the last time because she's moving up to Madrid. But the highlight of the day was when we drove up to Madridejos for a lesson with Victor and his family. Antonio drove us there and the lesson turned into us teaching the Restoration to Victor's wife and her sister. So that was hype and they're coming to church on Sunday.
Saturday, July 19: Well, just like every Saturday morning is now, we started our day eating churros and chocolate and then started painting🎨 and doing service for Virja. It gets sooo hot in those rooms while we paint, I was actually dripping sweat after. But after five hours of painting, we got the living room done. We did some high quality street contacting and met for the last time with Olenka before she goes back to Peru. She's in her twenties and sent some flirty texts after the lesson. It might be for the best that the Elders in Peru teach that one.
Sunday, July 20: We had church today which was fun. We had Victor and his whole family at church as well as Joel. I also got to give a talk in church today with a 20 minute notice. Then I had a baptismal interview and some other DL calls. But we ended the day with some high quality street contacting.
Monday, July 21: Super boring day. Basically we just did street contacting all morning, and then traveled to Madrid for the temple tomorrow. Our P-day got switched to Tuesday because of the temple trip, so today was just a normal day.
Tuesday, July 22: We had a temple session this morning, which was really nice. After that, we went and did a workshop and then ate empanadas. We basically just messed around in the chapel after that until we left and took a train back to Alcazar. We did some hype street contacting and found some Jehovah's witnesses and found a different guy who was actually interested in the gospel.
Next, here is Wednesday, July 23 - Monday, July 28 (Week 5 in Alcazar)
1. The Branch
2. Amigos
3. Diego
4. Transfer predictions
5. Baptism of Franchesca
The branch I've been serving in is pretty small, but we've seen a lot of improvement recently. When I got here about 5 weeks ago we had 16 people and 3 of them were our amigos. But this last Sunday, we had 38. Which isn't crazy, but it's pretty good for the Branch. The hype branch president also gave us Skippy peanut butter and said he didn't get it from Costco and hasn't been out of Spain lately, so I don't know where he got that contraband🥜.
Victor and Alejandra are doing great. We had a super chaotic plan of salvation lesson on Friday🙏🏼. The whole time their 3-year-old was screaming and watching the same Youtube short the whole time and would rage if they turned it off. So we were just hearing the "cough and dance" song (that's what Adams said it's called but I'm not sure). But they are still good to be baptised on the 10th of August.🤽♂️
We also had our old Spaniard guy named Diego come to church yesterday. He's kinda crazy. He knelt down in the back of the room during priest Quorum and did the Catholic prayer for like 2 minutes before sitting with us💀. But he's reading the Book of Mormon and doing a crazzzzyyy deep study of it. He's a D1 Bible lover.
I actually have never been unsure before about a transfer. Adams has 3 transfers here already and we are receiving 25 missionaries again, so I could train again. It would obviously make sense for Adams to leave because he has so much time here, but President and the APs have been dropping some crazy lines so I have no clue. They have been saying things about me leaving and sometimes saying the opposite. I would be fine either way though to be honest.
The Hermanas of Ciudad Real have been teaching a girl named Franchesca who got baptised on Saturday and she really wanted a missionary to baptise her, so the Hermanas asked President and President said to have Adams do it (He hasn't baptized anyone yet). So we got to travel down there to do the baptism, which was hype.
Gabe's Day-by-Day notes:
Wednesday, July 23: We had some hype street contacting this morning. We actually had an even mix of crazy people and people who wanted to learn so that was hype. Then we had a lesson with Gina in person. She wants to be baptised but she's never come to church do we are working wither her on that. Then we meet with Victor and Alejandra. The lesson went great and we put them on baptismal date for the 10th of August. They are awesome and have so much faith. 2 of our Air-conditioners stopped working last night too so it was really hot while we were sleeping. I was able to figure out how to fix them though in the morning.
Thursday, July 24: lots of street contacting today and even more atheists. But we had another great lunch with Jaime the members and he taught us how to make a good watermelon Cuban drink. After that, we had another lesson with the kinda crazy guy named Diego that kidnapped us a week ago. It was actually a really good lesson and he's a good guy. He also know a crazy amount about the bible. But we've been working with him and he going to come to church on Sunday.
Friday, July 25: We had Elder Adam's blood test this morning, and then we had a hype District Councel. We had a good lesson this evening with Luis and his friend Leo and like always, we did lots of street contacting today. We found 8 people today though.
Saturday, July 26: We took a train to Ciudad Real this morning for the baptism they were having because Franchesca wanted a missionary to baptise her. She's super awesome snd the baptism went great. But the font was only like 2 feet deep and her feet and dress kept coming up so Adams had to baptise her 3 times. Then we had a super chaotic lesson with Victor's family. The kid was watching the same Youtube short the entire time and we were hearing that music the whole lesson, kid was screaming, and lady was breast feeding. But the lesson went good.
Sunday, July 27: We had 38 people at church today which is awesome because we started with 16. But after we had calls with the district like normal and did some hype street contacting. The power in our building went out last night while I was chatting with my family on Facetime, and I thought we were going to have another repeat of the great Apagón.
Monday, July 28: We drove to Ciudad Real for P-day today, which was hype. We walked for 45 minutes to go bowling, and it was closed so we had to walk back 45 minutes to get back. They we all ate and hung out in the capilla and played card games, which was fun. Then we took a train to Madrid, and now we are staying the night with the Madrid Elders. (This includes Elder Rigdon Porter from Rexburg!) It's nice to talk to all the Elders because we only have hermanas in our district😭
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