Note from Mom: Well, this is going to be a MEGA POST that covers from December 15 - December 31! We left for Wisconsin on Monday, Dec. 22 and so I didn't update this for while.
It was really nice during the holidays because it felt like we got to talk to Gabe a lot. We talked on the Sunday, Dec. 21 (the day before we left for Wisconsin). That was the day we opened presents at our house because, despite saying it would be a small Christmas since we would be in Wisconsin, I still did end up buying Caleb and Avery some new clothes and some other small things. So we opened gifts, we talked to Gabe, we packed, etc. Then we talked to Gabe via messenger a little bit on Monday as we were driving to the airport. I had sent Gabe some Christmas stuff via Amazon Spain and I think he got it on Tuesday, Dec. 23. I told him to not open it until Christmas, but I'm not sure if he waited or not. I basically sent him lots of treats (Twix, Kit Kats, granola bars, some Trix cereal, Sprite soda), and then a small Lego set, an Escape room game, a kit to make and decorate gingerbread cookies, some box brownies, and some pajama pants.That was probably more than he even wanted or expected, but I had to send him SOMETHING! I also deposited money from all the grandmas and told him he could use it on a meal out with his companion or new shoes or whatever he wanted in Spain.
So, we celebrated Christmas at my mom's house in Wisconsin, and Gabe got to call at about 3:00pm our time on Christmas Day! Some of my extended family was still there and got to talk to Gabe for a minute as well, on Facetime. I think he said Hi to Sally and Steve for a minute and also my Grandma Dahlke (who he vows he is going to baptize when he gets home. lol) He said Christmas there was just kind of "a normal day" which I thought was sad, but he didn't seem that bothered. He said they had spent Christmas Eve with a family they have been teaching (Cinthia and Carlos) and they made them a really nice meal.
I guess in Spain, the Christmas celebration spans over the course of a week and it kind of ends with Three Kings Day on January 6! Here is some info I copied and posted from Google about it:
- Gift-Giving Tradition: In Spain, the Kings bring presents, not Santa Claus, making January 6th the primary day for children to receive gifts, reflecting their good behavior throughout the year.
- Letters & Shoes: Children write letters to the Kings listing desired gifts and leave out shoes for them to fill.
- Camel Treats: Snacks and water are left for the Kings' camels.
- Parades (Cabalgatas): Huge parades on January 5th feature floats with the Kings, who throw candy to the crowds.
- Roscón de Reyes: A sweet, ring-shaped cake with candied fruits, symbolizing the kings' crowns, eaten on this day.
- Hidden Figurine: A small figurine (often baby Jesus) is baked into the Roscón; whoever finds it must host a party on Candlemas (February 2nd).
So... I found that interesting! On Amazon Spain, you can tell January 6 is the big day because it kept saying, "Will arrive by Three Kings Day" like that was a big deal. Gabe did say though, that a lot of the people they are teaching are actually from South America (like Carlos and Cinthia), and THOSE people celebrate Christmas like the big holiday it is, and don't really celebrate the Three Kings Day thing.
Anyways, it sounds like Gabe and Elder Hulterstrom are doing well. They seem to get along and everything has been busy in a good way. They are teaching a lot of people and seem to have some baptisms on date for the next month.
I asked Gabe if he was getting excited to come home this year, and he was like, "I don't know. I haven't even thought about it. I'm just grinding, low-key working hard, not thinking about it." Sooo... I guess he's fine!
Here are Gabe's notes:
December 15 - December 22, 2025
1. Amigos
2. Exchanges
3. Talleres
We had a great week with some of the friends we are teaching. On Exchanges, me and Elder Bohn found a really nice family from Perú as we were trying to find the house of another person we were teaching. We have a amigo struggling to stop drinking coffee which is why we had to push back hos fecha. So that's unfortunate.
Exchanges were super great this week. I had an exchanges with Elders Bohn and Whitt. Both of the exchanges went super well, but with Elder Bohn a lot of our lessons canceled but because they canceled we found the really nice family. So it was worth it.
Monday, December 15 - 22
Monday, 15 of December: We woke up and cleaned the piso and after that just wrote emails until the Aranjuez Elderes got here. When they arrived, we went to Dominos and then went bowling. It was super fun and then we came back to the apartment and we had to plan talleres with the STLs over videocall.
Tuesday, 16 of December: I had exchanges today with Elder Bohn!!! I have been wanting to have an exchange with him ever since I met him. He's awesome! He has about one transfer out in the mission longer than I do and he's an AP right now. We had a super good lesson with Adin and prepared him for his baptismal interview on Friday. After that, we studied and started heading over to a lesson on the other side of the city. We wanted to pass by a woman's house as we walked there, but we hadn't marked the address and we knocked some random doors until we found a super nice Peruvian guy named Luis that invited us in and introduced us to his whole family and even called his wife to show us to her. Then he invited us over for the next day to eat dinner with him and his family. Then we had a lesson in the plaza planned with Diorelis and her son Luis, but they were super late so while us and Dora, the member, waited we taught Cindy, who we saw and had stopped teaching a while ago a quick lesson. Then we started talking to a guy in a bench named Anthony and gave him a baptismal date during the street contact. He's elect. Then when Diorelis and Luis got there, we gave them a baptismal date as well! Then are super nice and only have a couple of weeks here. They are from Venezuela as well as Anthony.
Wednesday, 17 of December: Today felt kinda long not gonna lie. Elder Bohn left this morning and then me and Elder Hulterstom took like 2 hours to plan out a bunch of stuff for the zone. After planning, we had mediodia and language study. Then we visted Jhon the less active guy who is super nice to us. He said he would ask his boss for work off to come to church on Sunday which would be awesome. Then we did street contacting for like 2 hours and got rejected by everyone which was crazy. Then we had a super good lesson with Luis and his family about the Restoration. After they gave us a super good plate of Peruvian food for dinner🙏🏼🇵🇪.
Thursday, 18 of December: We had the blood test memes today (for my Acutane) so we had to travel to Móstoles. But then we did a bit of studies and had a lesson with Boyan where we encouraged bro to talk to the bishop👀. Then we had some good street contacts as well. After that, we went to Pinto to meet up with Elders Alferez and Whitt for exchanges. It's been pretty good. Me and Whitt are here in Valdemoro and he seems great so far.
Friday, 19 of December: With Elder Whitt today, we stared off with a lesson with Adin. We moved his fecha (baptisimal date) because he is having a hard time with Coffee and tea😭. After that, we had a lesson with Maricel and talked about the Restoration which went super good. Then we went to Ciempozuelos for a lesson with Cecilia. She had made tamales too, which was hype. Bruno (return missionary and friend from the Aranjuez ward) was also there and a member who just moved here from Madrid. It was a great lesson and we are planning a temple trip for them! Then, we came back to Valdemoro and we did some street contacting and then switched back to our regular companionships in the night.
Saturday, 20 of December: We had some calls this morning, but today was relatively uneventful until the ward Christmas party we had this evening!!! It was great and we had our first lesson with Nick. He's from Italy and speaks English. Bruno helped with the lesson, which was hype. Then we had the super good rotisserie chicken dinner and then traveled back to Valdemoro with Boyan. Him and Elder Hulterstrom were bonding over Brawlstars😂
Sunday, 21 of December: We had church this morning, but all of our amigos were sick so none of them came to church😭. Church was good though. We just had the first hour and then we got a ride back to Valdemoro with some members. Then after church, we did a bunch of planning and street contacted till the night.
Monday, 22 of December: We had talleres, so we woke up early and traveled to Madrid. When everyone got there we started the talleres and they went pretty good. After it was over, we all got food and Me, Elders Plewe, Chivers, and Hulterstrom went to a Venezuelan place. Then we played some sports and email and called people. Then we had district councel in person and traveled back to Valdemoro with Elder Plewe and Chivers for our exchanges.
December 23 - December 31
We had the whole zone together for talleres today, which has so far been really good. Afterward, we all went to get food and when we came back we played sports with the other Zone. High quality day.
1. Lots of exchanges
2. Amigos
I had 4 exchanges in the past 8 days, which has been great. I was with Elder Plewe, Elder Miles, Elder Seely, and Elder Broadbent. All the exchanges were super fun and it was super funny to be with Elder Plewe again. Being with Elder Broadbent was also super fun because we came in with each other and have always wanted to go on Exchanges.
We had a great week and we put three of our friends on baptismal date. One is an old spanish man who has studied a lot of religions and has had a lot of questions but wants to be baptised, which is awesome.
Tuesday, 23 of December: We had a great exchange today. Me and Elder Plewe met with an old guy named Luis and he was kinda weird about the priesthood, but the lesson went good. After that, we walked over to Maricel and she said it was too cold to come outside so we video called her from outside her apartment building. Then, we had some studies and we did a lot of street contacting and a lot of lessons fell through.
Wednesday, 24 of December: Today was pretty good. We had a lesson this morning with a super inactive member who just moved here. His wife came and we taught her about baptism and then she accepted a baptismal date. They showed up an hour and a half late though😭. Then we street contacted till our lesson/dinner with Cinthia and Carlos. They made a bunch of food for Christmas Eve dinner, and it was awesome. We definitely have to move their fecha (baptismal date) though(RIP). They ain't married, Carlos loves beer, and Cinthia loves vaping😭. So that stinks. There was also a crazy Argentinian woman there.
Thursday, 25 of December:
Christmas! Not gonna lie, it was kind of just a normal day for us of being missionaries, but we had an awesome experience with Miguel! Today was super busy. We started with a super cool lesson with Miguel. During the lesson Miguel told us about how he had felt good in other churches, but knew it could be better. So he prayed to be guided to that church and the next day Elder Hulterstrom and Elder Chivers found him on exchanges and he knew it was from God. Then, as we taught him about Joseph Smith, he said he recognized him from a dream where he was surrounded by a bunch of people and Joseph Smith was there and when he touched Miguel's forehead everything turned white and he knew he was from God. After that, we showed him 3 Nephi 11 and he spontaneously started reading the scripture about baptism. We invited him to be baptized and he instantly accepted. He's awesome. His cat was scratching me the whole time😭. We also visited Orlando and Erika and their family. They were great and recently moved here from Ecuador. We also met with a new younger couple that recently moved here from Madrid. They are named Joel and Fatima and are both returned missionaries. Then we street contacted for a while a went home. We called our families and talked for about an hour. My family was in Wisconsin at Grandma Sue's house and I got to talk to Grandma Dahlke and some other relatives too. (Note from mom - I asked Gabe if he was sad missing Christmas, and it honestly seemed like he was fine. He wasn't at all like he was his first Christmas out, when he seemed pretty sad. He seemed happy that they had had that cool experience with Miguel and just said it was a good, busy day!)
Friday, 26 of December: We started the day off with a call from 9:30am-2:00pm. Right after, we helped the younger couple we visited yesterday move some bigger stuff into their house. Then we visited Ademir and talked about him coming to church which went well. Then we had a super good lesson with a guy named Gabriel, and we gave him a baptismal date for the 25th of January! He was great. He's 22 and is also from Venezuela like Miguel. Then we had a lesson with Henry and we hadn't been able to meet with him for like a month and we had stopped teaching him. But we saw him the other day and that's how we got the meeting today. During our lesson with him he told us he would like to be baptised, but is just too busy to come to church because of his work😭.
Saturday, 27 of December: With Elder Miles today we started with a great lesson with Miguel, which went super well. We discovered he is only 15😱. (He looks older than that.) Then we had a lesson with an old Spaniard guy (Note from mom - I think this is Javier?) who he seemed super interested and he said he'll come to church tomorrow. It was a super long lesson though. After that, the train broke down so we had to wait like 45 minutes to return to Valdemoro. We basically just did street contacting all night which was good because Elder Miles struggles with that so it was good to practice.
Sunday, 28 of December: Church was good and Gabriel came, which was fire. The other Elders were supposed to have a baptism but the guy didn't show up, so that stunk. Then, we got back from Aranjuez and we planned the week and did a bit of street contacting until me and Elder Hulterstrom took a bus back to Aranjuez to do the exchanges switch with the Elders there. Then me and Elder Seely took a bus back to Valdemoro.
Monday, 29 of December: Today me and Elder Seely started off the day with a pretty good lesson with Anthony which was pretty good. We had Boyan there to help us as well which was kinda funny because he would throw in his super weird questions. After that, we had a lesson with Miguel and taught him the Word of Wisdom, which went pretty good. He's super elect. Then we had a lesson with a guy named Luis. He basically didn't believe in religion, but did believe in some sort of God. Mid-lesson, 2 testigos (Jehovah's witnesses?) came over and were testing the waters to bash, but then 2 Muslims came over and tried to sell cologne to us so they all left after like 3 minutes. Wierd interactions. Then I traveled back to Aranjuez to switch back and then went back to Valdemoro.
Tuesday, 30 of December: We did street contacting literally all morning, but we found a lot of people which was good. Then we had a lesson with Kelly who was a super nice Brazilian lady. Then we went to El Casar to switch with the elders of Móstoles. I'm with Elder Broadbent for exchanges which is hype because we've never gotten to do exchanges, but have been around each other our whole mission.
Wednesday, 31 of December: This morning we went to Ciempozuelos and met with the goat, Javier! We taught him more about baptism and he said he liked everything we taught him before. Also that, he left the Catholic church because as he read the bible he saw lots of differences and things that don't make sense, like the trinity. Then we gave him a baptismal date which was awesome. Then, we had lunch with Dora and her family. After that, we went home and did our studies and went to meet with Gabriel (the 22 year-old from Venezuela who has a baptismal date now.) The lesson went great, and after we went with him to Dora's house and played a board game with them all.
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