sept 26, 2012

Hey all, has it been another week already??? What the freak!  Wow how fast is that.  Just to mention, transfers are coming up this week.  I don´t think I am going anywhere, but I do think some of our district is.  You never know! But yes that is the big news of this week.  Now on to last week.  Lets just say... it was different.  Fast like always but just a lot has happened.  First off, thank you for the pictures.  They are great and Elder G loves them too.  Also thank you for my clothes.  I just needed something a bit different and I just picked up the package today from the post office!  :) 

Well on to last week, sorry, hahah.  I don´t know, I just had a hard time on Friday.  You know when you wake up and you are just in a bad mood, and you don´t want to talk or do anything, well that was me on Friday.  I woke up and I don´t know, I just wanted to punch a wall, yell, scream, do whatever.  I don´t know why, must have been a dream.  With that said, I really wasn´t feeling the spirit.  After I got ready I was feeling fine, I calmed down and all is well, nothing huge.  But I still didn't feel the spirit.  Elder G was in a weird mood too, so we were both off.  Not sure why.  But anyways, we get going to work and we have contacting planned.  Bad idea, I just wasn´t feeling anything.  Usually I talk with everyone and knock doors, and I am in the spirit of the work, just ready to tear it up, but I wasn´t the same.  Something had happend, and I couldn´t put my finger on it.  I ran through my morning and just was lost.  From the moment I woke up to then, I had been praying and keeping a prayer in my heart.  Just trying to bring back this spirit.  But nothing.  Well we were in Naron, a near city to Ferrol.  It has a tad bit more people and is just a great area.  I wanted to pray in peace, just kneel down, and pray.  Well we walked around for a good 5min and I was tired of this mood. I tried to change but nothing.  I was mad, sad, gloomy, not feeling the spirit, not anything good!!!! AHHH!!!  Finally I found a little nook in a road, a dead end.  I turned the corner and there is a little walkway and just no one.  I told Elder G to just go away for a bit.  Finally I am alone, well sort off.  I knelt down and prayed.  This spirit of peace came to me.  I finally felt that love that life that I needed to push on.  At the end of my prayer the scripture Isaiah 41:10 came to mind.  I am telling the truth, I have never read that scripture, maybe once in seminary, but I am not sure.  I personally don´t like Isaiah, it´s hard to read in English and Spanish.  But I looked it up, and wow... just beautiful.  Just look it up.  I love it now.  The words Yo estoy contigo, just got to me.  Just to let you know at the end of the day I was fine, back to normal, and just doing great.  We had a great day too, we both were back to normal. 

Well on to another subject, Yolanda is doing great.  She is a less active and she is getting back into the groove.  She has had a very hard life with many bad things.  She is from Brazil and she mixes up her Spanish with other very hard to understand words.  She just quit smoking.  She said one day she bought a pack, looked at it at her house.  Just staring at it, and just got angry.  She said and she said this loud... well screaming.  "I don´t need you, ahhhh, I was like a buffalo and just started to snort and act like one and I tore the pack up, just tabacco going everywhere and it was all me. Just like a buffalo"  When she yelled, it was like a buffalo sound, like a snort. rawr! hahaha that was a nice lesson :)  

Naty is doing great.  She is really pushing for her baptism and she really wants to get to eventually get to the temple which is great.  Everyone else is doing good.  I am loving life here.  The members are great, the work, well is work, and my comp is great! I am betting there might be a change. I hope not, but you never know.  Well family I love you so much, thank you for everything!!! Thank you so much again for the great package that I got today! Love it!  Ohh by the way I had pig stomach again this week. mmmm tasty! Wish I didn´t ask what it was before I ate it.  hahah ooops! I love you!! Have a great week!

 

I love you!!

 

Elder Alex Laubaugh!! 

Sept 19, 2012

Well, I love Ferrol.  Thanks for writing me and I´ll talk to you all next week, Bye.... Joking! I can´t leave you all hanging like that! haha  Well life has been good.  We work very hard and are very tired and just want to sleep a lot, but we push through.  My back is still out of whack, I´ve been stretching and yesterday, I couldn´t touch my toes... oh snap! The day before I could, but yesterday, I couldn´t.  My back was just hurting.  So we had a companionship strech time.  I know it takes time to get everything good, but ahhh just hurts!  Well time for the good stuff! Ready? Okay, good!

Well this week we have had many milagros, miracles in English.  Remember when I talked about our new family, that we met at church, well, that little girl is a fire cracker.  When I was on splits in A coruña, she said many things to the point of just get me baptized.  After the lesson Elder G asked what she thought about things. Of course being a miracle girl she said, and I quote  "I want to be baptized as soon as possible."  Can I get an amen... AMEN!  Thank you.  What a great blessing that is.  She is so good.  She said that she wants to know more about Joseph Smith.  To tell you the truth, I about cried when I heard that, we both almost.  Just tears of joy just from working so hard, walking up so many flights of stairs and not one person having interest.  The Lord knows his sheep, he knows each and every one of us.  AMEN!  Well she is just a miracle.  We set the fecha for Oct. 6.  and we can do it earlier if she wants it.  

Second miracle.  I am just saying the Lord has worked on Santi for the past transfer.  He is a 65 old Spaniard.  He has 5 kids, all of them out of the house, and his wife passed away.  He is great and very nice, but he talks a lot.  That is totally fine.  Well the first couple of lessons he would just pull the  "how am I supposed to believe this crap" on us.  But after some time he warmed up and started to listen.  He came to church, prayed, and now reads all the time, and wow, a total change.  We haven´t set up a fecha, but he has been feeling something.  He´s called us up about 5 times saying thank you and I feel different.  He gave me and Elder G a big hug the other day and he just started crying.  He said sorry, but no need, and just left.  What a guy! But he is great, he is so ready, just needs to change a little still. It´ll be some time but he will.

Well things have been good, the Lord has blessed us a ton!  Also I have a challenge.  It´s a zone one.  To read the Book of Mormon by Christmas.  Seems good, but I decided I wanted to challenge myself, so I´m reading it in Spanish.  It´s hard, but the good thing is that I understand a lot of it.  Spanish has been coming along this past transfer.  I´m talking more, reading more, and having more of a convo with people, which is super nice!  

Well Pday was also good.  I just want to say that before I thought that seeing the mountains in Utah was beautiful, or seeing a nice sunset was just grand... but I was wrong.  Today, we went to A Coruña, and we went to the coast.  It was sooo beautiful.  Waves crashing up against the rocks with a nice big view of the ocean.  Just beautiful.  We went to torre de Hércules.  It is just the Roman built tower that just has this great view.  I have a lot of pictures that I will send later! Don´t worry a lot of them are of me and my district.  I love you all so much! I hope that you all have a great week!!

 

Love your favorite!!

Elder Laubaugh!

Sept 12, 2012

Well hello again! It just feels like yesterday was Pday, but guess a week has gone by.  Wow how fast was that, well for me at least.  This week in Ferrol has been good, hard... super hard, but the outcome has been great.  Like I have been saying for the past little bit, we contact a lot.  Not just on certain days, but everyday.  When we get a little bit of free time, we contact, knock doors, talk to everyone we see, just trying to be a missionary.  Well, as I have said it has been hard,  I have been very sore in the mornings. The north is a little more hilly and steep.  The streets are so steep and seem like they just go on forever.  We walk everywhere.  We don´t have a bus or metro so it´s straight walking.  That´s always fun.  But it´s been good.  I get up in the morning rolling on my knees and just praying that my body can get up with me.  hahaha  I´m fine, just really tired all the time.  Eight of sleep goes by fast, then you get up, then it seems like I lay right back down  to go to bed.

Well the Lord has definitely been with us, a lot.  He has put many people in our paths and in our church, wait what, in the church. Oh did I just hear a miracle? haha Well, that has been the best thing that has happened.  Mandy told me that since we are new we will see many miracles.  Well this is one of them.  On Sunday we get to church, greet everyone and sit down.  I saw some new faces in the middle of the chapel, so I sit with them and talk just a bit before the meeting.  I thought they were just passing through and were just attending our church.  Well after the meeting I talk with them some more.  The father Roy said that they are less active members and that he and his wife, Flo, haven´t gone to church since they were in Peru.  He said it had been a good 7 years.  They have a daughter.  She looked older, but come to find out she is only 12 and is not a member.  Say what! Can I get a Amen! AMEN!  We just talked with them on Monday, and the daughter told us that she wanted to be baptized, and the father and mother want to be sealed in the Temple.  They said they just wanted to come back.  They live very far from the church a good 30min walk and they said that they just passed by it walking and they just felt they should go in.... During the lesson I was just speechless.  I couldn´t talk.  We were in awe that the Lord has put this wonderful family in our way.  

We have been working a ton and have been doing a lot of contacting.  The President is impressed that we are bringing many less actives to church.(He didn´t believe that this would work)  One of them, Yolanda, (she´s from Brazil and has a pretty sweet accent) got up and she bore the most amazing testimony of how she is coming back, quiting smoking and wants to get married with her boyfriend.  That´s a miracle.  It just has been great here.  It´s super hard, don´t think that it isn't. I go to bed and I wake up and I haven´t even moved.  Usually I roll around, but nope, I am dead.  

For the past few weeks, my back has been killing me.  Elder G´s back has been hurting him too.  We called up President's wife and she said to put some hot pads, take some advil and all that stuff.  Well, we have been working out and doing crunches, working on our backs to strech them out.  But I´m sorry, it´s not helping.  So we shall see here soon.  But going on, I have just been a tired and sore all the time, just really hurting, so I do the thing I know how to do.. pray..  That´s all I can do, some scriptures came to mind and also during our lessons,  Alma 31:31 and Nephi 7:17.  I´ll let you read those but a quick sum up is that they both prayed for strength to get through the tough times.  That´s what I got out of it.  So that´s what I´ve been doing.  It´s been hard, but the Lord is right with me and Elder  G.  We have felt him very strong for the past couple weeks, guiding us to where to go.  We might contact for hours and find just that one person.  He knows his fold, his sheep and he is guiding us to them.  It´s hard to do it, but it´s so worth it.  I have told him many times a night, Padre, dame fuerzas.  Just like Nephi said.  

This has been a learning experience.  I'm learning things that I couldn´t learn at college or anywhere, just here.  The Lord needs me here, and I am ready to serve him.  He has given me a lot of strength, a lot of it to get through this past week.  I love you all, I am doing great, don´t you worry about me, I am fine. I´m on His errand and he has been showing me the way.  I love you, I hope the best for you, and I am lighting up this place.  Love you!!!!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Alex Lobo

Sept 5, 2012

Welllll what a week it has been!! wow!  I have to tell you what, Mandy was right.  She told me my comp and I will see many miracles since we are both new here, or something like that... she was right.  The Lord has blessed us a lot.  Like I have said before, our teaching pool was pretty slim when I arrived.  Well since that, we have been really pushing on the contacts, member referrals, everything.  This past Sunday we of course fasted for more work, more people to teach.  Well the Lord has given us that.  First I would like to say the area book is a great way to find people, yes we have called many people, but we got one person.  He is gold.  When we called Jacobo, he said he just started to read the Book of Mormon.  Hmmm thats weird.  He said every time that I read this book, you all call me.  Must be a sign.. Right??  We just had a lesson with him and he just said, I want to be baptized.. on the first lesson! :) What a miracle!  That same day, we go out contacting in the ghetto part of Ferrol (not really ghetto, just a lot of apartment buildings and old places.) The first building we knock on has 13 floors. We pick the very top floor.  The first door said no, but let us in.  The 2nd door we knock, a man comes to us says no and slams the door.  During this time I would like to add we have been focusing on the less active members of the ward.  We fasted, prayed, worked a lot with the members just to find them.  Well we go to the next door... A different man comes to the door that we just knocked and tells us to come over to him.  We get to talking and he lets us in.  Hmm thats sweet.  We get to talk some more and he´s a less active, actually his whole family is less active.  He is about 70yrs old.  Has 2 kids and his wife doesn´t live with them anymore.  Just another miracle.  The Lord has blessed us so much in the past week. 

On the same end, this is a hard area, very hard.  Like I´ve said there are a lot of people that don´t believe in anything. They just think that they are here to die, it´s super sad.  I just say hi to people and they say "NO!" I was just saying hi. hahaha, oh well.  So Jana, I know how you feel now.  But this just means that we have to lean on the Lord even more now.  We need to let Him guide us.

I had a great experience with that the other day.  We had a good 2 hours to contact, so we just started to walk.  I just started praying to know where to go, what to do in this moment.  Well I see this building a couple miles off.  We started to walk to it and there is no one on the street.  A lot of old people and what not.  People say hi, we stop them, they say no, just no luck with this.  We finally get to this building. I said a silent prayer of what do I need to do here. This building was yet again a good 11stories high.  We knock every single door.  Each floor has 4 apts and we got 1 referal.  Yes, that seems kind of silly and wow, good job Elder Laubaugh, 1 referal. but to us that was a miracle. She was in her mid 20s, seemed to live with some other people and she seemed really interested, we made her think and she asked if we could come back.  I don´t know, to me that was a big miracle. 

Well on to some sweet things to talk about.  Yes the members still feed us... a lot, but I have learned to be a little better on my wording with things... And my comp has used me a lot. When we go over he just says, well Elder Laubaugh can´t eat a ton, he gets some weird stomach ache thing.  Or I just say, well, I am full, I´m sorry... okay heres some more... no, I´m fine, thank you. hahah ohh Members!

Well one neat thing about ferrol is that it is a stop in the Vuelta!  It´s like the Tour de France, but in Spain.  It is huge and we lit up that place. Ferrol grew a good 25,000 people, so we just took a good stack of cards and started contacting a ton of people. I also got some sweet video and pictures of the Bikers.  I will send you my card soon!! 

I also have to say that Elder Gonzalez is amazing.  He just is a wonderful companion.  He loves to work and has a great attitude.  I am having a great time in FERROL!!

Well Family I love you!! I love you all so much!! Have a great week!!

 

Love, Elder A!!

More pictures!

 So, I found these in my email from my mom recently, and I can't remember if I posted them at all...so here they are now! wahoo!!!

 

Here are some recent photos of Alex!!! Wahoo!!!

tie-dying some t-shirts

Alex, his companion on the right, and another set of Elders

Alex on one of his preparation days

Alex, his companion Elder G, and Amanda