Baptism of Cecilia and First Temple Trip for Ademir

Note from Mom: Gabe seems to be pretty happy to be back in his old apartment! I think he was pretty bummed about it at first, but now that he's there and he's met the other four elders that live in the apartment and they all get along really well, he's actually having a lot of fun. He does say that being a zone leader is a LOT of meetings and phone calls, but it's fine and he's probably learning a lot about being a leader in the church (lots of meetings and phone calls!) He really likes his zone leader companion, Elder Taylor, and his greenie, Elder Plewe, and it seems like he's doing pretty well! My only real concern is that his shoes look awful and I keep telling him when I see them in pictures, "Start wearing your black shoes or I'm going to send you new shoes!" (He insists I don't need to send him new shoes.) 

Here are his notes!

1. Baptism of Cecilia

2. Crazy travel

3. Temple with Ademir 

We had Cecilia's baptism on Friday which was awesome. She's been really fun to get to know and teach. The other Elders had started teaching her about a month ago. And we starting teaching her about 2 weeks ago. She's super nice and we are currently teaching her daughter as well.

Because we live in Aranjuez but out area is in Valdemoro we have to travel about an hour everyday to get to our area. We also had interviews with President and zone conference so we were out a lot this week. I've been hitting the "please help us get a piso in Valdemoro" prayer every day🙏🏼.

Ademir is the man me and Elder Bright baptised when I was here a year ago. On Wednesday I got to go to the temple with him for his first time. He brought the name of his grandpa and was baptized for him and 14 others. So that was awesome.

Day-by-Day Notes

Tuesday, September 23: We had a great videocall with Cecilia today. Then we went to Valdemoro and had some great street contacting and found 5 people. Afterward, we met with Boyan and Katerin. Both the lesson were great and after we had a videocall with Juan and I had to clap him because he hasn't been going to church.

Wednesday, 24 of September: We had an amazing temple trip where we did baptisms with Ademir in the temple for the first time. He was my very first baptism of my mission. He was baptised when me and Bright were here my first transfer. After that, we basically just managed interviews and had some videocalls.

Thursday, September 25: We woke up early this morning for zone conference and had a very clapped breakfast and then had the conference. It went pretty good, but I got flamed a couple times by president😭. After that we had a ZL and STL meeting with President and I got flamed for being 19💀. Then we traveled back to Aranjuez and had a pretty normal day after that.

Friday, September 26: We had a videocall for Elder Plewe and then his mentoring session this morning. Then we went to Valdemoro and had some hype street contacting again. After that we had the baptism of Cecilia!! It was gas. We had to set up the font there because they just have this pool thing that we have to use. (Daguimar videoed me taking down the font and messaged it to my mom, which mom really appreciated! ;))

Saturday, September 27: We had a 3 hour zone leader mission call this morning which was devious. Then we had a lesson in Valdemoro with Hebert and a videocall with Ariana. Then the APs showed up and we had our exchange with them. It was only like a 3 hour exchange. But me and Elder Saxey ate food with a hype Brazilian family and they have a Honduran living with them and she made us some gas max and cheese. 

Sunday, September 28: We had some hype church activities then went and ate with Ioan and his wife, a less active family, and a recent convert and her husband thats not a member. Crazy lesson. One was crying, others were screaming. After that though we studied and planned for next week.

First Week as a Zone Leader and Picking up Greenies

Note from Mom - We talked to Gabe on Sunday and then messaged a little on Monday. It seems like they are having a lot of fun in his apartment! In one of the videos he shared, Elder Taylor is slapping Elder Brinkerhoff with a piece of salami or something and they are all in the background laughing really hard. Lots of shenanigans with 5 elders in one apartment! 

It also is good news that both of the new greenies they got seem to be really great. The one that is assigned to Gabe and his companion is named Elder Plewe and his mom already reached out to me on Facebook and said how happy she is they are companions and asked some questions about how Amazon Spain works!

It may be a little tough with only one bathroom for the five of them, and Gabe is sleeping on the couch because they only had four beds, but other than that they seem to be having a lot of fun. He uploaded a TON of pictures and videos this week with all the changes going on, and it seems like they are having lots of good times!

Here are his notes!

Tuesday, September 16 - Monday, September 22, 2025

(Week 1 in Aranjuez (Round 2!) 

1. Companions/roommates

2. Crazy week

3. My return🙏🏼

1. So here in the Aranjuez piso, we got me, my ZL companion (Elder Taylor) and then our third new greenie companion that we are training named Elder Plewe. Then living with us we have Elder Brinkerhoff who was in Aranjuez last tranfer and his new greenie missionary named Elder Stucki. It's kinda crazy with 5 of us in this tiny apartment with 1 bathroom, but it's pretty fun as well. Lots of stupid activities. I'm sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future. It's a hype couch though.

2. I got here on Tuesday and when I arrived there was only Brinkerhoff and Taylor here because the greenies hadn't arrived yet. So we had some good lessons and bought some stuff to make the apartment livable for 5. On Wednesday night, we went up to Madrid and stayed with some other elders. Then we woke up Thursday and went to pick up the new missionaries at the mission office right next to the temple. Me and Elder Taylor met Elder Plewe. He is from Texas and he's probably the best greenie we could get. He already knows Spanish pretty well and he's ready to work! The other guy living with us, Elder Brinkerhoff, got assigned Elder Stucki. He is from Washington. We traveled with them back to Aranjuez. As soon as we got home, me and Elder Taylor then grabbed more underwear and walked straight out the door to go back to Madrid for mission leader conference. Then, we were there all day Friday. But we have a woman who's getting baptised on Friday, so that's hype. Elder Brinkerhoff and Chivers had been working with her previously.

3. Church was hype. All the members were surprised and joked about me dying here😭. But after church, we ate with the Daguimar family(the goats)🙏🏼. I've gotten to know Bruno now, who was the oldest brother that was on his mission the last time I was here. He's really funny and nice and is actually going to visit Rexburg in a week so I'm going to try and get him to meet my family! Bautisa (the younger brother) is also still here and we are trying to get him to go on a mission.

It's actually been super fun so far. 0 complaints (except the bathroom)

Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, September 16: Today was actually hype. I arrived Aranjuez first thing in the morning and it was crazy nostalgia. We had a good lesson with a nine-year-old and his family and it was just me, Elder Taylor and Elder Brinkerhoff all day. I got all unpacked and it was lowkey super hype. We ate pizza and ice cream while playing cover your assets. So today was a good day.

Wednesday, September 17: We had a lot of organizing this morning to prep the apartment for 5 people, but after that we had a gas lesson with a Romanian family (mom and two kids). Then we had a lesson with a women named Carmen which went super well. Then we all traveled to Madrid because we will pick up the new elders tomorrow. 

Thursday, September 18: We woke up this morning and we all went to the office to pick up the new missionaries. Me and Taylor got the elder named Elder Plewe. He is from Texas and he seems pretty chill. After that we traveled back home to Aranjuez and then me and Taylor grabbed another pair of underwear and we went back to Madrid because we have MLC tomorrow. 

Friday, September 19: We stayed in Elders Gil and Malachowsk's piso last nice at it was sooo nice. I was a senior couple's apartment before they got it. Then we went to the office and had mission leadership counsel, which was really fun. It was quite long though. We also got to go to the temple which was amazing. After that, we got some of the technology stuff figured out for the area and we traveled back to Aranjuez. We planned some stuff for the transfer which went good. But it was a very long day.

Saturday, September 20: We had some crazy planning this morning. We planned the transfer and got a bunch of information for the APs. Then we planned exchanges and messaged some people in our area. We had some lessons in Valdemoro after that and they went really well. We met a lady over videocall named Cecelia that has a baptismal date for next week. (The previous missionaries had veen working with her before us.) Then we had a lesson with a family from Venezuela. The kids were super funny. Then we had a hype lesson with a man named Jean. He was hype and said he was coming to church tomorrow.

Sunday, September 21: We had a hype Sunday where I got to see all the members of the ward again. We also got to eat with the Daguimar family (my second family) and plan for next week. 

Monday, September 22: We had some hype pday activities and bought groceries cleaned the house and then played golf with the gang. Then we all ate dominos.

Goodbye Alcazar! Hello (Again) Aranjuez!

Note from Mom - Well, Elder Rhodes got some VERY interesting transfer news! I'm a little bummed for him because I know he was really hoping to get sent to some cool, brand-new area that he hasn't been to before. But... he's literally getting sent BACK to his very first area in Spain. Like, he's actually going to be living in the SAME exact apartment he lived in last year at this time. So, it's very surprising. I think Gabe would feel better about it if he was at least getting his own apartment with his companion, but they don't have an apartment yet in Valdemoro (which is officially his new area) so he has to squeeze into an apartment that will have 5 elders in it. He will be zone leader with Elder Taylor and they will also be getting a new greenie to train, so that part of it is exciting. Hopefully it's someone cool! ;) 

I think he was also feeling ready to get a new companion. He got along with Elder Adams ok, but there were just some things that made it not so fun. So at least he will get to meet some new people! Here are his notes!

Tuesday, September 9 - Tuesday, September 16, 2025

(Week 12 in Alcazar - Last week there!) 

1. Transfer calls🙏🏼🤺

2. Amigos

3. Alcazar wrap-up

1. First off, on Saturday President Obando called, and I got the craziest transfer call of my career. Elder Adams will be staying a 5th transfer here in Alcazar (which is a long time) and Elder Chivers will be taking my place. They are also getting a third person joining them. Next, he told us that my first area of Aranjuez is being divided into 2 and I am getting sent to the new part they are opening as its own area. The "new" area that me and my companion will be over is called Valdemoro, which is a town that I have been to before a little bit when I was living in Aranjuez. So I will be opening up a new area in my "baby" area. But I will be living in the same piso and going to the same ward as I did exactly a year ago because they don't have a piso yet in Valdemoro. I will also be Zone Leader with Elder Taylor and we will be training a new greenie who will arrive in a few days. So we gonna be in a trio🙌. The only problem is, we will live 40 minutes from our area and it'll be 5 of us in one very small apartment with 1 bathroom. So it'll be a wild transfer.

2. Eddy and Alexander have been hype still. (Alexander is someone we started teaching first and then later, we started also teaching his friend/girlfriend's brother, Eddy.) Alexander is looking for a new apartment to escape his girlfriend though (he doesn't like her anymore, but we are ok with that because she doesn't want him to get baptized) and we had an amazing lesson with Eddy yesterday and he will be baptised on the 5th of October. After that, he bore his testimony in English for us because he speaks a good amount of English. He's hype. Gina and Carla are still doing great spiritually. But Gina just started chemotherapy and is pretty bad health wise. She won't ever tell us her state of health because she doesn't want to worry us😭. But she and Carla will be going to the temple soon so I'll probably get to go with them because I'll only be 40 minutes from the temple. 

3. Overall, Alcazar has been amazing and we have seen so many miracles. It had been about 10 months without any baptisms here until Gina and Carla got baptised. But the area is going great now. It'll be awesome being with so many elders everyday in Aranjuez but I'm definitely gonna miss having my own bathroom😭. 

1 bathroom+ 5 Elders is a crazy combo. 

Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, September 9: Today was pretty good. We had a lesson with each recent convert today (there are 3). We went to Angel first in Tomelloso. He's moving back to Colombia soon, so thats a rip, but there are more youth there so it's probably better. Then we met with Gina and she dropped crazy childhood lore. They we drove to Carla's pueblo and met with her. Mid-lesson, a random 92-year-old Spaniard lady walked up and joined the lesson. It was chill until Carla almost started bashing her. Super funny though. I also had 2 old ladies call me Hermoso ("beautiful"), so plus aura📈 

Wednesday, September 10: We had pretty good day today. I've been pretty trash with street contacting lately, not gonna lie. I was locked today and was talking to a lot more people. We found 5 people today and had a hype plan of salvation lesson with Eddy. He loved it. Then every other lesson canceled. During the street contact grind, we got a reference from a lady who was taking lessons last year here in Alcazar. I called her and we met 30 minutes later in a park, so it was crazy. She's elect. Her name is Marlith and she speaks English too. 

Thursday, September 11: Today was pretty good. We went and got a blood test done for Adams which should tell us more about his thyroid and other things. Then, as we were driving back from the church because we were told some lights were left on, we ran into Alejandro. He was an old street contact, and we invited him to come to the church and have a lesson. It went pretty good and after that we basically street contacted the rest of the day until we had a videocall with Carla, which went great. 

Friday, September 12: Trash day, all lessons canceled and we found no one😭.

Saturday, September 13: We had some good street contacting this morning and also got our transfer calls. When I found out I was going back to live in the same piso and have half the area i did when i was there, I was lowkey mad. But I'm sure it won't be that bad🫠. We also had a lesson with some hype members in a small pueblo to the north of Alcazar. They are super funny and we are going back tomorrow to teach the girlfriend of one of them. Then we had a lesson with Alexander (who we are trying to get baptized) and he was lowkey depressed. His girlfriend is still being an opp.

Sunday, September 14: We had no amigos in church, which lowkey was trash. But Carla came so I got to say goodbye. We also had a lesson with Eddy tonight where we explained the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptised. He accepted and he will be baptised a week after Alexander on the 5th of October. Besides that I packed and we had some calls today. I called my parents and told them the transfer news and my mom thought I was joking. Nope.

Monday, September 15: We woke up early this morning and the goat, Antonio (the "father of the ward") took us to get churros, which was hype. Then we had basically nothing all day. We just hung out and messaged people and cleaned. Super boring. Then we visited Carla one last time😔 Tomorrow I will take my bags and get on the train and head back to my first area and get settled into my new/old apartment in Aranjuez.

2 Baptismos! The first ones Alcazar has had in 10 months!

Note from Mom - This was a big week because Gabe and Elder Adams baptized TWO people! They were two women (not related to each other; in fact, they didn't even know each other until recently when they both started meeting with Gabe and Elder Adams). Gabe said they haven't had a baptism in this area in ten months, so it was a big deal to have TWO in one day. He said a lot of the ward members stayed after church and watched the baptisms, so that was good. They also did some big home remodeling service this weekend for a couple in their ward. 

Also, Gabe's good friend from the mission, Elder Pires, came "home" this week! Gabe never served as his companion, but he was a zone leader and then an AP and Gabe got to see him a lot over the past few months. He was from Brazil, but his parents moved to Rexburg to work for BYUI a few months ago and so their son, Elder Pires, was coming here to live for the first time! Gabe actually sent some letters with him to give to us! It was so fun! We went to his open house/welcome home on Saturday, so that's what that picture is of! It was fun to hear his mission stories (some of which involved Gabe) and it made me really excited for when Gabe comes home next summer!

I am going to go ahead and put two weeks of emails here because he didn't take a ton of pictures in the week following the baptisms!

Here are Gabe's emails for the past two weeks!

Tuesday, August 26 - Monday, September 1, 2025

(Week 10 in Alcazar)

1. Gina and Carla's baptism

2. Amigos

3. Painting

We had Gina and Carla's baptisms on Sunday and it was awesome! It was actually the smoothest baptisms I've ever had. We had Jared Rivas (a member in the ward) baptism them both and they we both so happy. They were both crying👀. We also had the most people we've ever had at church. 53🤯. The first Sunday I got here there were 16, so 53 is wild. We are already prepping them for the temple. They both have cars😭🙏🏼.

We have been getting super blessed with amigos recently. Gina has been bringing her adult son to church who we are now teaching. We also have Alexander still and we've started teaching his brother-in-law and his wife. They're chill. Then at church, a Peruvian mom and daughter pulled up who I thought were members, but they were not. When I talked to them, they said they just got here from Peru and Google searched a church and found this one and that's why they came🤯.

A new couple who just moved in took us to their house for a 9-15h service project. It was lowkey Crazy! The house was huge and built in 1930. But it was a wine cellar/house thing. So we had a awesome time painting that house. They gave us food after though so it was a hype trade. 

Good news - It also is greeting colder now🥳. We're getting to the low 90's high 80's at the hottest time of the day, so that's better than 105!

Monday, September 2 - Monday, September 8, 2025

(Week 11 in Alcazar)

1. Amigos

2. Gina and Carla

3. Pday

4. The fair😭

1. In regards to the number of people we are teaching right now... there's not many. Most people are just people we've had like 1 lesson with or are still trying to meet with for the first time. But Eddy and Alexander are still doing good. Alexander came to church yesterday and things are looking good for now with his baptism at the end of the month. 

2. Gina had her birthday on Sunday and Carla had her birthday on Sunday. So they were both in Madrid and didn't come to church. Very sad. But! They are still hype and are getting ready to go to the temple with us. We are just finding a day some members of the branch could go to the temple with us. 

3. We got to go to Ciudad Real with the District last pday for District councel which was hype. We went to a museum and played cover you assets so it was pretty fun. 

4. This week felt really slow because there was a city fair. A bunch of people from out of town were here and all of our amigos were working extra hours so they couldn't meet with us. And everyone outside had white shirts on that said Alcazar and were splashing alcohol on each other. It was just all teenagers outside the whole week that were all drunk. We had some pretty funny conversations with some of them though. They yelled gringo a lot at us though(racism). Even though they're all white Europeans💀.

Day-by-Day notes:

Tuesday, August 26: We had a workshop in the church early this morning then had a really good temple trip which was gas. Then we hung out and got Venezuelan food which was cool. We had to leave Madrid pretty early though to get out train to go back to Alcazar.

Wednesday, August 27: We had some good street contacting this morning and this randmo (old spaniard) sang a song to us about how we must always drink wine to stay strong. But we found a couple of people and then had a good videocall with Gaby. After the call we went street contacting until our lesson with Alexander. He's hype and set another lesson up with us, his wife, and is brother-in-law. So he's a chiller. Then I had a call with Carla so we could finally get her baptismal interview done. After we had a good lesson with and inactive member named Brunilda which went well.

Thursday, August 28: Really boring day today. We had a lesson with Gina and Jesus her son. It went well, but Gina loves to talk so lesson are a little but of a struggle. But the rest of the day we just did street contacting.

Friday, August 29: We like always had a lot of hype street contacting today. But we did have a really good lesson with Gina and her son named Jesus. We had Antonio drive us there and the lesson went really well. Jesus seems like he will continue progressing as well. Especially with Gina's baptism this weekend. Anabel also canceled on us for the 4 time in a row💀😭.

Saturday, August 30: We had Anabel cancel on us again today, but then we met with Alexander the goat. He had brought his wife and his brother in law too and the lesson was great. They're Evengelical but understood the Restoration and are coming to see the baptisms of Gina and Carla on Sunday after church. Then we had a good lesson with Luis and Leo revising the Restoration. They both told us they knew the Book of Mormon is true and are coming on Sunday. Then we had a lesson with Carla about temples. 

Sunday, August 31: We did a nice 6 hours of service this morning which was pretty hype. We were painting a house😭. Then we had a lesson with Carla about the plan of salvation. It went really good and she's all ready for her baptism tomorrow. Just like Gina. We also filled the font up half way so we wouldn't have to wake up super early to do it tomorrow.

Monday, September 1: We had some hype Pday activities today. We started out by traveling to Ciudad Real pretty early this morning and then me and Adams got Mercadona breakfast. We got tortilla de potata. Then, after waiting for a bit, we met with the Hermanas and we all went to a small Don Quixote museum. Then we got sandwich stuff and ate food at the park and played Cover Your Assets (mom sent me this card game). After that, we went back and hung out and talked in the chapel and then me and Adams had to get on our train to go to Madrid because we are picking up the new car tomorrow morning there, so we are staying the night with some elders in Madrid.

Tuesday, September 2: We woke up early this morning to get the car and to meet with president. I told the APs we would be coming so Adams could talk to President. When we got to the office we waited for a bit then president got there and started talking to Adams in his office while I waited outside about 30 minutes. Then the door opened and president had me come in. We talked for a couple minutes about how proud he was of the work we did and how happy he was about our companionship. I was pretty confident president would let Adams stay based on how president was before the interview and over email previously. Then president had me help give Adams a blessing and it sounded like he was staying based on the blessing president gave. But then as we were walking out, president put his hand on my shoulder when Adams was out the door and pulled me back and said in the saddest voice I've ever heard from him, "He's sad Elder, because I'm going to send him home."  Adams knows as well. President is still doing one more call with the Doctors and the parents of Elder Adams.

(DON'T POST THAT)

After that, we picked up the car this morning we drove back down to Alcazar. We had a hype lesson with Gina over videocall and did lots of street contacting. We back on the finding grind😭. We gotta find more people to teach. But at least it's cooling down. We also keep running into a group of crazy 15 year old boys. They like us and think we are funny but hoooolllyy. They wild.

Wednesday, September 3: Super boring day, we had Anabel ditch us again and we basically did street contacting allllll day apart from 1 videocall we had with Carla. And that we well. 

Thursday, September 4: We had a pretty good lesson with Gina and her son today. We basically just talked about the Restoration. We did that lesson with him a week ago, but he had forgotten literally everything😭. It's also hard because Gina likes to yap and cut me off every single sentence. We love her very much though🙏🏼. After we had a lesson with Eddy and Alexander. They are both elect and are very interested in the book of Mormón. We read all the introductory stuff today and just talked about the book and Joseph Smith. The only problem is, Eddy always has work on Sunday😔. 

Friday, September 5: There's been a big fair and parties all week so every lesson canceled today and everyone is drunk and we just kept getting swarmed by drunk teens all night🙏🏼💀. 

Saturday, September 6: The parties continue, so no lessons. We went to a different town though and met with some hype members from Brasil. Then we had a good lesson with a different guy who lives in a different small town named Reinaldo. Then we journeyed back to Alcazar. We had lots of driving in the car time today. 

Sunday, September 7: Today was pretty good. It was Gina's birthday, so she was out of town and it was Carla's daughters birthday as well so they couldn't come today. But we had 4 people at church including Alexander🙏🏼. His girlfriend doesn't like us, but now he's trying to move out of the apartment they are living together in. (We want him to break up with her, so that's good.) Then we did studies and street contacting the rest of the day. We also tried to set up some member visits for this next week because we finally have this car and can visit all the homies that live in rural areas.

Monday, September 8: We had a pretty chill Pday. We didn't go anywhere special or see anyone else, so it was just me and Elder Adams. There was a weird holiday today, so all the stores were closed. (Note from mom/Google - September 8 is called The Day of Asturias (Día de Asturias) is a public holiday in Asturias in Spain on September 8 each year. It marks the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus.) We couldn't go get groceries at Mercadona. :( We washed the car though, then just hung out and wrote people all day. We went to Dominos though. We then spent the rest of the night street contacting after we had district councel. We also saw a weird parade with a giante golden Mary statue. (They worship Mary a lot in the Catholic religion.)