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.
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