Lots of People Getting Ready for Baptism!

Note from Mom - It sounds like Gabe and Elder Adams have a couple people on schedule to be baptized this Sunday! Both of them are women that they've been working with over the past few weeks and their names are Carla (aka: Dubraska) and Gina. Gabe also got to visit his first area of Aranjuez on an exchange (he talked a little bit about that last time, but he was just starting the travels there, so this tells a bit more about it). Also, Gabe was telling me that he doesn't really feel like his companion, Elder Adams, is getting any better with his health problems. He's still really forgetful and can't really take care of himself in a lot of ways, so Gabe mentioned on the phone that he's a little worried Elder Adams may get sent home on the next transfer. Gabe is hoping to get transferred somewhere else too, it sounds like, but the are has been picking up so they're staying busy, which is good. I asked him what he would do if he got the phone call in a couple weeks that said, "We have decided to keep you there with Elder Adams in Alcazar for one more transfer," and he said, "I'd have to come home..." (Just kidding...) But that's definitely not what he wants. 

**Also, note about the picture. We started school here in Idaho on August 25th. Avery is starting 8th grade (with me!) and Caleb is starting his senior year, so I told Gabe I needed a picture of him in front of the door holding up a sign that said something like, "13th Month as a Missionary" so he did. I loved it. ;)

Tuesday, August 19 - Tuesday, August 26, 2025

(Week 9 in Alcazar)

1. Gina and Carla +Alexander 

2. Aranjuez exchange 

3. Amigos

1. Gina and Carla are both looking good for their baptisms on the 31st and Gina also brought her son to church on Sunday. We also had a lesson with a guy who called and told us out of nowhere that he wanted to meet and have a lesson, so we hurried to the church and had a hype first lesson and he is now reading the BOM. He also accepted a baptismal date in September!

2. Our time visiting Aranjuez for our exchange was amazing. I got to see Reine and Smith (Reine was an old man who was a member from the ward; Smith was the man I baptized). The Dagimar family was busy though😔 so we didn't see them. We had a really good lesson with Smith and a guy named Andres who the Elders there are teaching. We were having this lesson in the park🏞 and mid-lesson, a guy and his dog starting lingering behind us and kinda seemed like he was listening. He was in fact listening and was a D1 basher. After Andres accepted a baptismal date, this guy started screaming at us and shouting about of Anti stuff. I stood there continuing to talk to Andres and just ignoring the guy until he started getting in my face. I told him "Gracias hermano" and that he could leave, but then he started screaming saying, "I'm not your brother😾" then he paused, and I said, "Gracias Tio," which basically means, "Thanks homie," then he raged more. I starting talking to him while leading him away while the other Elder finished the lesson with Andres. Then when he noticed Andres was escaping on his scooter after the Elder finished up the lesson he, screaming some more, chased Andres for a couple feet. But it was still probably my favorite exchange. Andres still is getting baptised as well. Despite the D1 basher.

3. Our other amigos are all still hype. We are trying to get one of them to stop smoking and she says it's getting better. But either she has really bad luck or it's in fact not getting better because we keep running into her around town while she's smoking. 

Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, August 19: We had one of my favorite exchanges today. We were in Aranjuez, my old area! We started with some street contacting and we got some numbers. One lady we were contacting stopped me while I was talking and said:

 "Why are you smiling? The liar always smiles while lying." 

me : "because Jesus makes me happy" 

lady: *walks away without giving number*😭.

Then we had some good video calls with Gina and Dubraska (Carla), who both live in my current area of Alcazar. They are both ready for baptism on the 31st. Then we had a hype lesson in the park with a guy the elders are teaching named Andres and Smith Gift! Then after Andres accepted a baptismal date, a random guy came up in the park and starting yelling about how we were from Satan and how the guy needed to run away. I pulled the guy aside and starting talking to him while Elder Brinkerhof finished the lesson and sent the amigo on his way and the guy starting raging when he saw the amigo escaping. Wild guy.

 

Wednesday, August 20: We had a bunch of lessons set up for today back in Alcazar and they all had to reschedule except Heyder. We had a pretty good lesson with him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we think if he actually reads the Book of Mormon this time he could progress. Afterward, we did street contacting and then had to travel to Valdepeñas to pick up the car from the Hermanas and that took the rest of the evening😭.

Thursday, August 21: Today was very high quality. We had street contacting this morning and found a couple people later as well. We found 5 people just today! Then we had a really good lesson with Nicolas and Belen (his member girlfriend). We found out they're both moving though, so imma cry. Then we had a hype lesson with Gaby and Jorge and Jared(member) came with us. We talked about the Restoration. Then we met with Carla(Dubraska) and talked about the commandments which went great. She thought they all made sense. Antonio(member) was also there for that one.

Friday, August 22: We had some hype street contacting this morning(pretty normal) then we had a lesson with Gina which was great. Still looks good for the baptism the 31st. Then we had a hype lesson with Luis and Leo. They are going to try and come to church on Sunday. The only problem is they're 17 and can't get up early💀. Then we found Anabel (a girl we have been teaching and trying to prepare for baptism) smoking again😭. 

Saturday, August 23: We did some street contacting this morning and it wasn't too exciting. We went and visited Angel, the recent convert, and he's going to bring a friend to church tomorrow so he's gas. Then we visited a member named Oscar who hasn't been going to church because he stopped going for a month because he said he was sick and "nobody checked on him" he was interesting. Cool Peruvian convert though. When the lesson ended he asked if he could "test us" by asking us "hard and conplex church questions" it was just early church history stuff. The fact I had read the Book of Saints saved out career🙏🏼. 

Sunday, August 24: We had a hype day at church with Gina (and her son that she brought to church) and Carla. It was a good day at church and then we had a lesson out of nowhere because this guy called and said he was on his way to the church. His name is Alexander and we put him on baptismal date even though it was his first lesson because he's elect. I also called and talked to my family.

Monday, August 25: We had a lesson planned with a Brazilian guy, but he canceled so we spent most the morning street contacting. Then we had our studies and we had to start the journey to Madrid for Pday and the temple trip tomorrow. We stayed with Elder Gil and Malachowski which was fun. Today was a normal "work" day because we switched our Pday to Tuesday (tomorrow) so that we can go to the temple in Madrid tomorrow. 

Zone Conference in Madrid and Exchanges in Aranjuez!

Note from Mom - After talking to Gabe yesterday on the phone and today on a few messages, it sounds like this last week (and today!) was pretty busy! He and Elder Adams were in Madrid for a zone conference on Friday and Saturday, then home on Sunday, and now they are in Aranjuez (his first area) today and tomorrow! They are doing exchanges there! (I think he will tell more about that next week.) They got to meet up with some people that Gabe baptized in his first area, like Smith Gift, and he got to see his first companion, Elder Bright, who is going home in a few weeks! But other than that, in Alcazar they've been working with lots of people and it sounds like they might have some baptisms coming up soon! 

Here are Gabe's emails!

Tuesday, August 12 - Monday, August 18, 2025

(Week 8 in Alcazar)

1. Zone conference and Exchanges

2. ARANJUEZ🇺🇲🔥

3. Amigos

We went up early on Friday morning for exchanges with the ZLs in Madrid, which went pretty good. I was with Elder Taylor and it was a pretty hype day. We put our friend Clara on baptismal date which was cool. Friday evening we had interviews with President which is always hype. He told a crazy eagle parabola and showed me some swords he's bought🦅🤺. Then we had zone conference on Saturday in Madrid, which was awesome. We have really been focusing on just putting people on date for baptism and then caring for them after their baptised. After zone conference was over, we had to wait till 7:30 for our train to leave and we got back to Alcazar at 9:30pm. We were then in Alcazar for Sunday and we had some friends come to church! On Monday, we left again for Aranjuez (my first area!)

We are doing an exchange in Aranjuez today, so we are traveling right now. I served there for 6 months when I first got to Spain and I'm going to get to visit some of my converts, including Smith Gift!!! So hype exchange incoming. 

Victor (the guy we were going to baptize on August 10) has almost completely ghosted us, which is depressing, but we have been seeing crazy miracles lately. We got an online reference from a woman who had taken all the lessons in Toledo 2 years ago and now wants to be baptised. Her name is Clara and she came to church yesterday. The only reason she stopped being taught 2 years again is because she was having a pretty messy divorce. But Anabel (another lady we have been teaching) brought her friend Maria and Gina is still good to be baptised on the 31st. Gaby and her boyfriend also came and she wants to be baptised. 

Overall I'm having a great time in Alcazar and pretty soon we could have some baptisms🙏🏼

Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, August 12: Today was pretty hype. We had a video call with Gaby, the 19-year-old who lives with her 32-year-old boyfriend. She's so elect and 100% wants to get baptised. Then we had a video call with Gina and she's hype too. She's looking good to get baptised at the end of this month and she was telling us about how she wanted to get married in the temple. Then we met with Luis and Leo. We met Luis in the street and he's super hype. Then the hermanas called us because they had come to Alcazar to pick up the car. When we walked out of the church, President Obando was out there because he had given the hermanas a ride because he was driving south for a zone conference. Hype surprise. Then we had a great lesson with Nicolas and he loved the plan of salvation and is still reading the Book of mormon.

Wednesday, August 13: We had a hype lesson this day in the street. We started talking to this guy named Heyder and he invited us to sit down and we explained the Restoration and he understood it so well. He was like, "Well, I have to read this book now to see if this man was a prophet🤯". We also had a hype lesson with Anabel and Antonio (the member) came as well. It went really good and the only reason she isn't ready for baptism is because she loves smoking. So we explained everything about the Word of Wisdom and she's trying to stop. It's hard though when everyone in Spain starts smoking at age 12. But then we found another really cool lady that we are meeting with tomorrow.

Thursday, August 14: We had a hype day. We had some mediocore street contacting this morning then went to Jaime's house to eat for the last time before he moves to Madrid😔. The Columbian food was gas though. Then we helped him move all his stuff outside. Which took a long time. Then we had our studies and a videocall from a reference we got this morning named Dubraska. She was awesome and is coming to church and wants to be baptised. She was about to get baptised 2 years ago but went though a messy divorce and stopped meeting with the missionaries. 

Friday, August 15: We woke up early this morning and traveled to Madrid to have exchanges with Elder Taylor and Izquierdo today before we had interviews with President. Me and Taylor did street contacting for a while and ate at a hype Venezuelan restaurant. Then we had a hype lesson with some recent converts and they were fun. The part of town was kind sketch though. Then I had my interview with President at that was interesting(30 minute again😭). He asked me if I was ready to be a zone leader. Then me and Taylor had an amazing lesson with Dubraska and set a baptismal date for her. 

Saturday, August 16: This morning we had zone conference, which was hype. It was a lot about us being constant in our work so we could have more baptisms. I got to see Elder Bright again (my trainer) and he bore his testimony at zone conference because he's going home on the next transfer! But after that, we had to wait in the office for like 4 hours until our train left. Then we spent the rest of the evening traveling back home to Alcazar.

Sunday, August 17: We had a hype day at church. We had Gaby and her boyfriend, Anabel, Clara, Maria, and 2 random homies who choose to be homeless. Then we had a pretty chill evening, called our families, and did studies and street contacting. 

Monday, August 18: We had a hype day in Aranjuez!!! We hung out with the Elders here all day and ate at a hype Tai place. We helped give Elder Chivers a buzz cut! The clippers died halfway through and then we had to go to the store and find some new ones! Then when Pday ended, we had a lesson with Smith Gift!!! It was awesome seeing him again! Then we went and saw the old guy, Reine, which was hype.

Victor "Dies" But 3 More "Spawn In"

Note from Mom - So, I was a little sad for Gabe at the beginning of this week. I had actually somehow seen a screenshot of the text that Victor had sent Gabe in his google photos. I read it (and with my insane Spanish skills) was able to piece together that Victor was backing out of his baptism date, which Gabe had been sooo looking forward to after working with him for the past month. There really hasn't been a lot of investigators (or "amigos") in this area, so I felt like Victor was like, the one thing keeping Gabe and his companion going this whole time. Then he texted on Tuesday and backed out and basically ghosted them. :( So, I started praying for them on Tuesday really hard that they would find people to teach and that things would start improving for them so that they wouldn't lose hope. 

Then on Sunday, I did probably my longest fast in years. I actually didn't eat from like 10pm on Saturday night until 8pm on Sunday when we got home from our family pictures, and I was just really praying for Gabe to find more people. I guess it worked! Because they had 3 people just randomly text or contact them out of nowhere and all three are really promising! Gina, Anabel, and Gaby, and then another guy named Nicolas who they met through a member! So, I'm really glad things are looking more hopeful for them with teaching people this week! 

Here are Gabe's emails!

Tuesday, August 5 - Monday, August 11, 2025

(Week 7 in Alcazar)

1. Death of Victor (not really dead)

2. Compensatory Amigos

3 Hottest experience of my career🔥😁🔥

Well, Victor texted us on Tuesday and told us he wasn't ready to get baptized. But, he also told us he wanted to keep doing lessons and coming to church. But since this week started, he hasn't been responding to any messages or answering any calls. His baptism was supposed to be the 10th😭. I'm sure the missionaries will get him in 20 years or something though🙏🏼.

The good news is, when we started getting ghosted by Victor, like 3 other people came out of nowhere for us to start teaching. First, we got a random text from a woman named Anabel who had been taking missionary lessons 2 years ago, but got cancer and had to stop meeting. She's a chill Spaniard lady who likes everything about the church and is always talking about how she dislikes the Catholic church. She came to church on Sunday! Then, we got an online reference for a woman named Gina, who had also taken lessons a long time and suddenly decided to go online and find missionaries again! She is retired and has a surgery coming up, but she came to church as well and we gave her a baptismal date for the 31st of August. We also started teaching a new guy named Nicolas! He's a chill 18-year-old that we meet at a member's birthday party. (See pic of him; he's the guy with braces)

We also got an online reference and started teaching a girl named Gaby and she's awesome and wants to get baptised, but the only problem is she's living her boyfriend. He's also 32 and she's 19😭💀. (*Note from mom - This situation is actually really sad. After talking to Gabe, it sounds like this girl is an immigrant with no family who has no job and no place to live, so she's basically living with this bad dude in order to have a home, which is literally a garage with no windows. They need to get her to church so the members there can help her.) When we went over to her house it was already 103 degrees outside and then her house was literally a cement block, so it was even hotter and humid inside. We were also in there for an hour and we were all dripping with sweat. Very un-hype. When we walked outside into the 103 degree weather it felt amazing in comparison. Even Arizona boy was dying(Adams.)

But overall I'm enjoying the mission a lot right now and we are consistently have about 2 or 3 lessons everyday, which is nice because we basically were only doing street contacting for the first month. 

Gabe's Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, August 5 - Thursday, August 7: I sold and forgot to write in my journal; that's my bad. We've been having some hype street contacting though. Which is good because we've been doing a lot of it. We found a guy who basically loves deep doctrine and we talked in the street with him for 30 minutes and read some of Alma 42 with him and went crazy(in a good way). Victor has been selling and hasn't met with us because he been getting done with work late and he doesn't want to get baptised this week😭. He texted us and told us that on Tuesday. But a cool lady named Anabel sent us a message and was meeting with the missionaries 2 years ago but had to stop when she started getting cancer treatment. But now we are meeting with her tomorrow (Thursday), so we will see how that goes. The street contacting skills have been improving, and even the Spaniards have been letting us talk for a couple minutes about Jesús😭🙏🏼.

Friday, August 8: We might have had the best day of the past month. We started this morning with a lesson with Anabel, the woman from yesterday who had cancer. She's a super chill Spaniard woman that loves the church already and was almost baptised like 2 years ago before she got cancer. But she loved the Restoration lesson and is coming on Sunday. We also had a hype second lesson with a guy named Nicolas who we meet at the birthday party of a girl from the ward. We also then drove too Tomelloso and Gina accepted the 31st of August to be baptised. Then we had a lesson with Angel. He was baptised in Columbia in February and has only been here in Spain for 2 weeks. 

Saturday, August 9: We had a very hype meal with Jaime (old man who is a member, whose wife is passed away and he goes to the temple every week to "have a date with his wife") which was fun. He's moving to Madrid this week to be closer to the temple, so that's a rip for us. But then me and Adams had the Hottest lesson I've ever had. We were in a cement block and it was 105 degrees outside and hot and humid inside that house. I was dripping with sweat for the entire hour as this woman was trauma dumping on us. It was lowkey wild. She's really nice thought and might come to church. Her name is Gaby. We walked outside and felt amazing even though it was still 105 outside. It had to have been 115 in there. Even Arizona boy almost died (Elder Adams).

Sunday, August 10: Church was pretty hype today. We had 40 people and we also had Gina and Anabel come to church today! We also had a super good lesson with Nicolas and Belen (his girlfriend) and he likes and understands everything. We also visited Pablo. He's this like 90-year-old guy who doesn't even speak Spanish. He does, but he so old the members don't understand him, so we didn't have a chance. His house has millions of framed photos and I think at one point he was Muslim because he has a bunch of Muslims tunics 😂.  He also had a framed picture of one of the past missionaries, Elder Broadbent, which I thought was really funny.

Monday, August 11: Pday! We just stayed in Alcazar today. We got haircuts this morning, and that went well. Then we literally did nothing all day, which was hype. I called family though and we talked for a while (we didn't talk yesterday because I knew I'd be home bored today.) After 7:00pm, we did district counsel and street contacting.

Staying in Alcazar for Another Transfer!

Note from Mom - Well, Gabe found out that he is staying in Alcazar de San Juan for another six weeks. I guess he had actually received an email from Pres. Obando a few days before the official transfer phone calls went out by the zone leaders, so he kind of already knew he would be staying. The mission president kind of told him in the email that he really needed him to stay in that area for a little longer to help watch over Elder Adams and keep an eye on him and make sure his new medication was working. If he switched him around right now, it would be hard for a new companion to have a comparison to know how Elder Adams had been before and if things were getting better with this new medication or not. So, the good news is, Gabe says the temperature there is tolerable compared to other parts of Spain right now (still hot, but not as hot as other places) and he will hopefully get to keep working with Victor and his wife and see if they can get baptized soon!  Here are his notes from this week!

Monday, July 28, 2025 - Monday, August 4, 2025

(Week six in Alcazar)

1. Transfer News📰

2. Hype lessons

3. Victor and Alejandra 

I will be staying here in Alcazar for 1 more transfer🎉🥳. Calls weren't too exciting though because a week beforehand, president and then AP Pires told me I would be staying with Adams 1 more transfer. 

Teaching has been a little frustrating lately. We have somehow went into every day with 2 lessons then had every single one cancel almost every day. We had 2 lesson this whole week. One with a random guy over videocall and another lesson in person with Victor and his family. So we've been on the street contacting grind all week. But it's always a fun time street contacting. I'm just excited for summer to be over because it's been 100 degrees when we've been doing street contacting recently. 

Victor and his wife, Alejandra, have still been progressing but Victor is way more dedicated and has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. So when the time came for them to do their interviews with a zone leader for baptism yesterday, the wife got nervous and said she still wants to be wants to wait. So that made Victor nervous too. So we had a call with him to talk about everything. So he's going to do his interview tonight. He's super ready and already following all the commandments. But he really wants to baptise his wife so that should be a good motivator. 

Gabe's Day-by-Day notes:

Monday, July 28: We drove to Ciudad Real today, which was hype. 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. They we took a train to Madrid and went to the temple. A really cool thing happened when I was at the temple. We ran into Bautista and his brother, Bruno! Bautista lives in Aranjuez and his family was like, my second family when I was there a a brand new missionary. They would have us over for dinner all the time. His mom was a single mom with one son on a mission (Bruno) and then Bautista, who was a senior in high school, and then two teenage daughters. Bautista was also the one that took the train down to Cartagena on my birthday to surprise me with a cake his mom made and a meal. So it was awesome running into them and getting to meet Bruno, who just got home from his mission a couple weeks ago! Now we are staying the night with the Madrid Elders. This is the piso that Elder Rigdon Porter, from Rexburg, lives in. He lives with the ZLs and another companionship. It's nice to talk to all the Elders because we only have hermanas in our district😭

Tuesday, July 29: So We had some hype studies and then went straight to the chapel for a lesson. I was with Elder Izquierdo. We then had the worst lesson of my career with a homeless man who wouldn't let us talk. We were there an hour and a half. I finally stopped the lesson because Izquierdo is too nice and I told the homeless guy we had to leave. Then we went to lunch with Elders Porter (from Rexburg), Taylor, England, and Adams which was fun. Then we contacted people and did comp councel. Elder Izquierdo is fun though so it was a good exchange. Then me and Adams just spent the evening traveling back to Alcazar.

Wednesday, July 30: Today was really boring. Lots of street contacting. But Victor has been grinding the Book of Mormon and we were texting about the tree of life vision and he's loving everything. We also had a video call with an atheist and convinced him to pray tonight about God and we will be talking to him tomorrow.

Thursday, July 31: We did lots of street contacting today, which was pretty mid. Only old Spaniard challenge. We had a really good lesson with Victor and Alejandra and Jared (the hype member) came. We taught all the commandments too and they accepted and agreed with keeping all of them. They had served us coffee at the beginning of the lesson too💀. But then we went to a crazy Peruvian party and that was hype. The whole family is inactive because the ward was rude to the son when he came home early from his mission. So we gotta reactivate those homies.

Friday, August 1: Like all of our lessons canceled so we did more street contacting😭. The streets have been rough lately. Just old Spaniards. But we found 1 lady who seemed cool. We also had 1 lesson with Diego. He is reading the Book of mormon and had some good questions about the trinity. 

Saturday, August 2: We have had actually one of the slowest weeks of my career. We had 3 lessons today, but like almost every lesson this week, they all canceled😭. So much street contacting was done and nobody was hyped to talk about Jesus today. We also got the transfer call and found out we were both staying in Alcazar.

Sunday, August 3: We just had Gina at church today which was fun, but then our members started arguing over the priesthood in the middle of the lesson, so that was awkward. But she still liked it. Then we had DL calls and meetings the rest of the day and some hype street contacting. So nothing too exciting. Just the Victor thing. Then I talked to my family on the phone and that was fun.

Monday, August 4: Most boring Pday of my career. Elder Adams and I just stayed in Alcazar all day, just the two of us. I did message with my mom more than usual today because I was just home most of the day. We ate Dominos and the was the most exciting thing. But Victor passed his baptismal interview tonight🙏🏼🎉. So this Sunday he getting baptised! But we ate dinner with Kevin (a 20-year-old ward member) at a kebob place, which was fun.