Aug 30, 2012

Well the title is just a little something that Elder G and I came up with :) hahah yes we have had a great time here.  Ahhh I love Ferrol!!! It is so beautiful.  Well, a little bit more about this great area. It is a pretty big port city.  There is a base here for the Spanish army.  A lot of people come in and out, but most are cargo ships.  Yes I can see the ocean everyday :)  It is a bit cooler, which is soooo nice.  The Elders are dying in Madrid. It is super hot now down there, but here, it is nice and cool and there is always a breeze.  The bad thing though, is there is often a suprise weather change.  So in a matter of an hour, it could be raining, but ohhh well!

As I said, I love it here, the members are amazing!  They are just so nice, so giving.  No wonder every Elder that has served here, loves it.  The other good thing, and bad thing, is that they love us sooo much, they like to feed us... a lot.  No lie... on Tuesday, we ate 3 times... yes 3. They just feed you, even when you say, No, I am fine, thank you..  That is just a trigger to put more on you plate.  Well I have a little experience for you.  We were at a members home and we get in and get to the table and I see this huge roast with these potatoes.  I´m down for that, but no, she gets our plates and she opens up a pot and scoops a ton of a rice, mussel, clam(with shell) mixture.  Ohhh thank you.  I eat it and it was soo good.  Then she starts to cut up the roast.  Oh, it smelled so good, but she cuts off a good quarter of this roast and slaps it on my plate!  Good thing a lot of it was fat.  Then she cuts off some more and slaps it on mine again.  Ahhh I ate so much. I said I was fine, but she didn´t believe me :(  Thats just a little bit of my life, but I have been running a lot more in the mornings, don´t worry, I still work out. 

Well this week has been really busssyy!  We talked with the President and we set up the mission plan and they all love it.  He said if we have no investigators at church we are going on splits.   We will just go out and contact for a pretty long time to get more numbers.  I said lets do that now, we can get to know the area a little better, this area needs it.  Well as I said about contacting, that´s what we have been doing all week.  I was really thinking about our plan, but for some odd reason, Elder G and I had a good feeling about just setting up more time for contacts, going to larger areas with more people, and just contact!  So we did that.  The hard thing is, this isn´t Madrid.  There are a lot more hardend hearts here, which is fine, I can pry one open, but people just don´t listen.  I´m used to that, but its just a little bit more here.  Here´s an example, we knocked a good 5 or 6 apartment buildings, each one had a good 6 floors.  A lot of people right.  Well we knocked each one, and not one person listened.  Yeah I´m used to that, but wow, just a lot of hard words and doors slammed on my face.  It´s okay, This week I have grown a little bit more, used the Lord more and just leaned on Him more.  I am so glad that I am here, This area needs 2 elders that just love to talk.  The great thing is, I can talk off an ear in English and in Spanish :) Hows that for talent :P  hahahah but really, I am so blessed to be here.

It has been a real weird time too.  Not really sure that weird is the right word for this experience. So we get to a members home and met them said hi and that´s about it.  For some odd reason, I saw them before.  I asked if they were in Madrid or in Ohio for a period of time, but no.  I thought and thought and I couldn´t think of anything.  Then it happend again.. and again.  Just a lot of people, members, investigators that I have seen before.  I was telling Elder G about this and he said maybe in a dream or something.  Maybe, or maybe not.  I am not sure, but it was just so weird. Maybe the Lord is trying to say that I am meant to be here.  No Se! Well one thing that is different is that there are a lot more athiests here, not sure if that´s the spelling but it´s ateo in Spanish.  With that, I get challenged a lot.  How do you know God is there, How do you know this is true, that is true. How do you know if Jesus really lived. Blah Blah Blah.  This has been a really good time for me to bear my testimony.  Some odd reason they don´t talk after I bear it.  One man told me,  How do you know there is a God.  I have heard that about 30times that day and I told him straight up, because I know, I know he lives, I know there is a God.  Do you know why?  Because I have prayed I have done the things that I need to do to know.  He then just stopped... looked at me, and said.. Vale, or Ok.  Yes I might have gotten a little bit angry, but not that much, he got the point.  He just starred at us and I said, now, do you want to learn more about our message? No, okay, heres a card, have a nice day.  

You just can´t beat a testimony.  No one can, if they know you do believe it, they´ll feel it.  I want you all to know that I am meant to be here, that I am meant to be in El Ferrol at this time with my new comp, Elder Gonzalez.  We are having an amazing time. He is such a great worker and Elder. We have a blast while contacting.  We just crack little jokes and laugh and just have fun.  People like that, they always comment to us that why we are so happy, why? Well, we´ll tell you why.  Well that is about it for this week. It has been rough, but I can get through it.  I love you all so much and I am sorry that this letter is a bit long! Thank you all so much for the support and for everything!! I love you!!!

 

Love,

Elder Alex Laubaugh!!