photos!! Wahoo!!

Alex sent us a cute little letter with a memory card full of pictures! Wahoo! Here are some of my favorites and highlights from our favorite Elder!! Yay! He's seriously doing so good right now and is LOVING his area and his companion, Elder Gonzalez is just as great! They work hard and have a ton of fun. They are seeing great success in their area and are excited for what is ahead! We couldn't be prouder of these two missionaries!

 

i'm not exactly sure what's going on but this is one of my favorite pictures 

october 13, 2012

Well I gotta tell ya, this week has been freaking crazy on my end.  Doing A: Missionary work with a member  B: Going to the hospital and back everyday, it just was too much!!  But..... I got through it.  President pulled some strings, said some words, and now... drum roll please!!! Elder G is back!!!! OOO OOOO!!!!! What a great day that was.  He came back on Monday after 8 days in the hospital.  AHHHH!!!  Well that in itself gets an OO OO! hahaha.  Well he is doing better.  He can´t go on long walks or do activity for one month.  He can just do a little bit at a time.  So it´s going to be a little hard, but he is a trooper.  We just went walking and he just told me when to slow down, but he´s doing great. 

Well our members are sweet!! They are so good!!!  I love them.  I have to say, good members change the work.  I have seen it in my areas and others too.  When you don´t have good members, the elders well, they don´t want to work as hard.  It´s hard up here I have to say, and without members we have no work.  No one wants to talk to two elders on the street for 10secs.  But I have to say I need to give many members a big hug.  They did so much for us.  They made food, called Elder G, visited him, and did many more amazing things for us.  

We had zone conference in the Santiago Zone and that was a good treat.  I got to see President and his wife, talk to them and figure some things out for them.  I have to say I´ve been in many zone meeting and conferences, but this one was one of the best I have ever been in.  There was a sweet spirit in the room.  Just of peace and some other feeling, their isn´t a word for it.  I knew I would be learning a lot.  Through this experience I have had with Elder G I had an open mind on what I needed to learn.  What type of things I needed to do better, do more of, that type of thing.  I came with many questions and through each talk and practice, I learned and my questions were answered.  

For the past couple months I have been praying if my work for the day has been accepted by the Lord.  If I put in my full day´s worth, if I went all out.  Yeah my body was telling me yes, I was tired, dead, sore, headaches that tore me apart, but I felt as though there was a piece missing in my heart, or something like that.  After I would pray I would hear Dad, his voice saying to me ¨Son, just get out there and work, get it done, Light it Up!¨  day in and day out I would hear some voice saying Light it Up Lil A!  Just get it done! I would look around and wonder what the freak, who said that to me.. hahahah, but it pushed me every single day of my mission.  I know I still have a long ways to go but for some odd reason it just made sense to me.  I can´t put it into words. During Zone conf, It just started to make sense to me.  I don´t know, I just pray that when I get done after these 2 great years, that the Lord will accept my work.  I know if I do my best, if I know I did my best he´ll accept it, but it´s just a thought that comes in here and there.  

With that said, I want to say I feel myself changing.  This past week I really started to feel it.  After the little experience with Elder G, with learning a lot about myself, my mission, the work here in Spain.  I just felt this change in me, this change of heart, this change of mind set.  I love it, I feel myself growing, learning day in and day out, it´s beautiful.  Right now I know why I´m here in Ferrol, in Spain, just so many things are starting to make sense.  Like I told President, The Lord knows what I need to learn and when I need to learn it.  The only way He can teach us, is through these experiences.  

I love you so much family.  Elder G loved his cards, thank you for that.  That literally made his whole day, and probably week.  He loves you guys and He loves our family.  I´ll send him your love.  I love you!!

Love,

Elder Laubaugh

P.S  I bought me a new pair of shoes!! YEEEE HAA!! 

October 24, 2012

Hello family.  Sorry for the wait, I´ve been writing back you all from last weeks emails.  Thank you for those. 

I have to tell you, this has been quite the week.  I have to say we have had many blessings.  We have been in contact with a couple of our old Investigators.  They have been progressing a lot since we last met with them.  One of them didn´t believe in God... Now he does, and he wants to read the Book of Mormon, and wants to learn more.  He has been blessed with work as a Doctor for praying.  He now has a testimony.  How sweet it that!  That was a great lesson.  Also, I have noticed recently that I don´t have a stutter.  It's been great.  On Sunday we had a class and we were talking about talents.  I was thinking about my speech.  And I thought back to the last transfer till now and I don´t think I have stuttered much.  I have occasionally, but it is not that noticable.  Elder G knows I have one and he keeps me in check, which is nice.  But how great is that, it has been a great blessing to me.  I can speak in English and Spanish.  I just speak, without a stutter.  That was just great for me.  It gave me so much joy just thinking about that. 

I have to say this again, I love teaching.  We don´t teach a ton here, but we still do.  I just get this spirit of love for these people that I have never felt before.  It´s amazing what the Lord puts into our hearts day in and day out.  I love it!!  On a different subject, this week has been a tough one.  Elder G is fine he is doing great and getting back into shape, but now it was my turn to get really sick.  Saturday night, I was up practically all night.  I had a fever and just wasn´t good.  Sunday, I had a big stomach ache and it just wasn´t good.  Sunday night I lost it.  I woke up with the chills, but my head was on fire.  I went to the restroom and lets just say, it was bad.  Supppper bad.  I had the runs, vomiting, and a bad fever.  I took some Nyquil and went back to sleep after a good 2 hours in the restroom.  Monday we stayed low, but still worked.  I didn´t eat at all, I just drank a lot of water.  Monday night, same thing, just not getting better.  So Tuesday, We went to A Coruña for our district meeting.  I called up President's wife and told her what´s up.  I go to the doctor, They won't take my health card from the Church (we just got them, it´s a pilot program for us).  So I went to another one, and they still won't take me in.  So I went to the ER.  They took me in and I was hooked up to all the stuff.  They were rushing around and doing what they had to do.  I stayed the night and I didn´t sleep. I still had the runs, but not has bad.  They got back the tests and said I had a case of salmonella.  I think that´s how you spell it, but they said it just tore me up.  The doctors and nurses were really good.  They really liked me.  I was talking with them, cracking jokes and all that stuff.  I kept a smile on my face during this hard time.  Well this morning at 7, they let me out with 4 things of perscriptions to get.  It was a long day but I am better. 

During this time I have to say I was thinking that I was going to die.  Not DIE DIE but just not being able to get out.  Dad wrote me a letter that I read about 2 hours before I went to the ER.  He talked about Adversity.  I thought about that the whole time.  This was just another great experience that I have had.  I am not sure why I have had it, but it was for a purpose.  It gave me a ton of pain, but I got through it.  The Lord knows what he´s doing here in my life, in our lives.  We just have to submit to his will.  I have learned that a lot here.  We want lessons and baptisms.  But the Lord has a plan for us, for me.  It might not be as much as we want, but when we submit to His will, we will learn more, and and recieve more blessings.  I have to say, I still don´t know why I had this sickness, but I have to learn from it, get better from it.  I´ll find my answer in the scriptures or in a talk, but it should be fine. 

Family, I love you.  You are all the best in the world.  I am fine, Don´t worry about it, I am healthy, I am out, I am doing good.  I love you all so much!! Say hi to everyone for me!!

 

Love Your Favorite Elder In Spain!

 

Elder Alex Laubaugh!

October 11, 2012

Elder G in the hospital :( 

 Wow this has been quite a week.  Last week my comp said that he had some stomach problems at night.  I knew because I would wake up when he would get out of bed.  The next day he said he had a fever.  A member checked him out and gave him some medication.  The next couple of days Elder G was not getting better, vomiting, and so forth.  Saturday night, after our baptism and conference, he did not look good.  On Sunday morning I got ready for Conference and Elder G is on the couch.  He called up a member and said to get a taxi and to get him to the hospital.  He asked for a blessing before and I gladly gave him one.  After he said that he was sweating, had a pain in his chest and in his arm.  You all know that I am an Eagle Scout and I am grateful that I am, and that I knew that that pain meant something had to be wrong with his heart.  We went right away to the hospital, but he didnt have his health card.  It took 2 more hospitals for them to accept him.   It's a bigger one and we soon found out that he has a problem with his heart.  Elder Gonzalez is doing a lot better, but I have to say Sunday was a long day for me and him.  The membrane around his heart got an infection and was causing his heart to mess up a little.  He is fine like I said, but he is still in the hospital.  He was in the UCI for 3 days, that´s the only nurse allowed type of deal.  It was hard. I was worried and scared for my comp.  He´s my brother.  Thankfully he is okay.  

 Don´t be worried. I have talked to so many doctors and they said he is fine.  He just needs to rest and medication right now.  He feels great.  Right now I am in A Coruña. I am off to Vigo tonight for Zone meetings tomorrow.  I am actually glad this has passed with me.  I can´t lie, it has been hard.  I turned off my phone for 1 hour to visit him, and I got 15 missed calls.  I have lost a lot of sleep wondering what would happen but there is always something to learn from this, always.  When I was in the hospital I needed to see him.  I was freaking out.  I am very big here and I raised my voice just a little bit.  I said I needed to be with him, I´m his comp, we are missionaries, and they just said sit down, and I wouldn´t.  Finally I had that little small voice say, READ YOUR SCRIPTURES.  How can I read at a time like this?  So I sat down with a member and I read.  Peace, Love, Hope, swept all those hard feelings of anger, madness, doubt away.  I felt my Father with me, and I had a peace sweep over me.  I got up again after a good hour and I walked back. No one stopped me, I just walked and I got to see my comp with all the wires and oxygen hooked up to him.

 I am so gratefull for great members.  I have to say I had some doubt in me.  I just thought, okay, the members just want to feed us and that´s about it.  It´s just a little tradition.  No lie, I told 2 people about this.  Out of those two people (President of the branch, and a member.) I recieved a call from about all of our members.  They all joined in, wrote cards and called me.  Members came so fast to see him, to see what was going on.  That took out my doubt.  They said if I needed anything, just call. I have done that and they did it so fast for me.

Alex eating "chinese food" 

 This week has been hard and long I gotta tell ya.  It´s hard talking Spanish in doctor terms.  It´s really hard.  Another great blessing was Irina.  She´s a member that called up the taxi and took us to each hospital while missing conference, and stayed till everything was all taken care of.  I now have a hate for doctors.  Not a hate hate, but come on, I am from the states, don´t know a lick of this type of spanish and they think I know the whole world. They are saying his heart is stopping and this and that, and I´m freaking out.  She steps in and just takes it to them, just tells them what is up.  I then step in and say, what is wrong, and in simple terms they say what´s up.  hahaha, ohhh good times.  Elder Gonzalez is still in the hospital and he has visitors all the time from the members.  Which is great.

 I have to tell you I have learned a lot from this experience.  I can´t put it into words, It´s just things that made sense in my head.  My Spanish has been very good. I am understanding a whole lot more from reading in Spanish all the time and just talking in it alllll the time.  People do get frustrated, I do to, when I ask a million questions but it´s been good.

 Well I am doing well also.  I feel this was more for me than for Elder G.   I just learned a lot of good life lessons.  The Lord heard my prayers of help, of strength throughout this whole journey.  He truly loves his servants.  I have been on the phone a lot with President, his wife, and everyone. haha, but it´s been good.  I love you all so so much, I am doing well.  I am also sick, but that´s the least of my worries right now.  I have a sore throat and all that from talking and a little bit of sickness, but I am doing good.  Just know that I am learning a ton right now and that I am safe, Keep Elder G in your prayers, He needs them.  He got to talk to his parents and do all of that so they know.

 One thing I want to say is that the conference that I did see was great.  Ahhh I love it! I only saw Saturday morning and then I was gone for the rest of the time.  Santi came to that and he loved it!! Ahh He just was ohhh wow that was sooo cool! One of our less actives watched all of it online in her house.  she said that the prophet's words just filled her whole house and soul.  What a great experience that was.  I love you all so much!! have a great week and I love you!!!

Love,

Elder Laubaugh!!

Naty's baptism! 

Naty's family and the Elders! 

October 3, 2012

Hey, how are you all???  Well this week has been a great week that I have been learning a lot about me, about my future, and well, about everything.  Many things... many questions have been answered over this past week, which is super nice.  Of course many have been answered through the scriptures.  I´ll inform you all later in the letter.  Well this week has been good.  It was a little slower, but we have been doing a lot of exchanges.  I have been running around a lot just me and another comp.  I was in A Coruña for one and the rest in our area.  The ehh thing is that I have been with the Jr. Comps.  They are very new, like first or second transfer out, sooo I have been talking a lot, going to bed feeling like I have been run over by a train, wake up feeling the same thing.  Fun times here.. OOO OOO! But I have been learning a lot, which is sweet.  Ohhh just almost forgot, we are still the same in Ferrol.  Neither Elder G or I am getting transferred.  I still have Elder G as a comp and we are all good, but they white washed A Coruna and took out the other comp, so they took out 3 elders from there.  Fun Fun.  Well yeah, things have been good.  One thing that is sweet is that I am here with one of my best friends, Elder Levorsen.  He is in my district and we get along great. Sweet! haha, but yeah, nothing changed here.  But yeah, we get one older elder and 2 new ones.  They often send new missionaries to the north.  Many go up here for a couple of transfers then get sent down to Madrid. 

Well that´s enough of that.  On the other hand we had a great week with Santi.  He has been feeling a lot of the spirit.  He says something is different in his life.  He says he has more joy.  Last week, we set a fecha with him.  He just was saying he wanted some goal, something to work towards. Well that hit my bell and I heard, give him a fecha.  So we did.  He was so happy, he was like a little kid in a candy store.  I´m going to be baptized, yay! Exact words right there. hahaha He is so awsome! He is 70years old, and just wants to change.  He has some problems with some things, but we are working with him.  He gives me these big hugs and I give it to him back and he just loves it.  He just has changed from the day I met him.  Naty is getting baptized this week, so I hope things go well! I am so excited for her, she is so ready! haha :) She just wants it so bad, her parents are right there for her which is great!

I love you all so much, i love you more than anything.  Have a great week. My back is good, not 100percent, but good.  I am still looking for shoes, just a good pair. I´ll buy one by the end of this week.  I love you all!

 

Love, Your favorite in Europe,

 

Elder Laubaugh!