Christmas Conference and First Week with Elder Hulterstrom in Valdemoro

Note from Mom: Gabe had a big Christmas conference on Monday, December 8th! This was kind of a rare event because it's the only time when ALL of the missionaries in the whole mission are together in one place. (I guess the mission president just found out that he technically isn't supposed to do this... so it will probably be that last one ever! :) Then after the conference stuff was over, Gabe and his new companion, Elder Hulterstrom, traveled to their new apartment in Valdemoro together. I guess Gabe doesn't really know him that well, but I know his mom a little bit because she's been in my Espana Sisters group chat on Facebook for the past year and a half! Gabe actually rode sitting next to him on the airplane from the MTC to Spain back in September of 2024! Hopefully, they get along for the next six weeks! I think they will. 

Here are Gabe's notes:

Christmas Conference was super fun and it was amazing to see some of my old companions (Elder Adams, Elder Jara...). Maybe for the last time of my mission.  Elder Bright (who went home to Valencia, Spain a few months ago) even came which was super funny. 

Besides Carlos and Cinthia, we also found a really nice family the other day in the streets and we had our first lesson with them yesterday in the house. It was great and they loved the Restoration lesson. They are catholics but don't practice and already said they would come to church next week!!

Monday, December 8 - Sunday, December 14, 2025 

Monday, 8 of December: We woke up at 5:30am and traveled from our hotel to the church for the big Christmas conference because we had to be there at 7:30😭. Then we had the first part of the conference which was great and it went till lunch. We had super good empenadas. Elder Adams gave his goodbye testimony with the other missionaries leaving. (He is going home now because of his health issues.) Then we had games and stuff that were kinda weird, like making notes for our companionship or making paper ornaments. They didn't want us roaming the streets of Madrid, so they were trying to keep us busy with little things at the church. Then we had the second part of conference until dinner. It was awesome to see lots of my old companions, and even Bautista and Bruno came! It all was super good and president talked a lot of improving teaching and helping us apply ourselves more in the work. Then we had dinner which was super good also. It was crockpot meat and potatoes. Then we finished around 8:30 after eating and singing hymns outside the temple.

Tuesday, 9 of December: We woke up this morning at 5:30am again, but it was so we could go to the Temple, so it was fire. We had Obando in our group, which was also cool. Then we ate afterward in the office and I met up with Elder Hulterstrom (my new companion) and we went back to Valdemoro with all his stuff. After he got organized, we planned out stuff for the transfer and street contacted. He seems chill so far. *Note - He was at the MTC the same time as me, but he wasn't in my group. I ended up sitting next to him on the plane ride from Utah to Spain, but we didn't really know each other besides that.

Wednesday, 10 of December: We had a super good lesson with Adin today and he's super cool. We taught him the first part of the plan of salvation. Then we traveled to Aranjuez for the abono of elder Hulterstrom. I then stole the fan from Aranjuez and some food. Then we street contacted in Valdemoro and found sooo many people. I went super well and we met some super cool families.

Thursday, 11 of December: After pstudy and daily contacts, we journeyed to Madrid for MLC (mission leadership conference). MLC is usually an all day thing, but today it only lasted 3 hours because they had just received all the new missionaries and we just had Christmas conference. But it was still super good and I got to see Elder Taylor (my former companion that just left for another area), which was fun. After that, we traveled back to Valdemoro and organized a bunch of zone stuff then street contacted for a bit. 

Friday, 12 of December: Today went super well. We had ZLC Prep and ZLC and we had a really good meeting. We had a lesson with Jean again and he still struggles understanding the priesthood and other things. Then we met with Cecilia and Ariana outside and talked about temples and them going together. We are going to have Ariana get her temple interview Sunday. (She was just baptized by us recently.) Then we had a surprise lesson with Juana. She was a street contact we met a couple days ago and she called us and told us she could meet in 10 minutes. But she wanted to meet like 5 minutes away. We taught her the Book of Mormon and she promised to read it! Then we met with Cecilia and Carlos. We talked about the sacrament and they agreed to come to church on Sunday. It would be their first time. So that would be amazing. 

Saturday, 13 of December: This morning we met for the first time with 2 different guys. One named Luis and the other was named Sebastian. Luis liked the Restoration lesson we gave him and he understood it really well. With Sebastian, we talked about baptism and he basically started quizzing us about random things. Like who was born first, John the Baptist or Jesus. But they were both chill. We also met with Boyan, which went well. He hopefully will pull up to church tomorrow. Then we street contacted the rest of the night.

Sunday, 14 of December: We did the journey to the chapel this morning and picked up Boyan, Cinthia, Carlos, Yhamlik, and Yhamilk's 2 friends. It was quite to group, but we all took the bus and we made it to the chapel and they all loved it! After church we had lunch with Bruno and Bautista which was great. Then, when we got to Valdemoro we had a lesson with Rafael, his wife Susana, and their daughter Milagros. The lesson went great and after we went home and did weekly planning.