January 10, 2013

How is everyone?  I am doing good, still truckin, just gotta keep on workin, if ya know what I mean!  Well I have had many blessings poured on me.  It's been amazing to see and feel.  I have been really praying hard these past couple of days for my goals for the next 6 months.  I already told you all the goals I have for everyday of my mission goals.  I have been praying a lot to know of other goals that I should have for my mission.  One way the Lord really answers my prayers are through the scriptures.  It has been that way all along my mission.  When I pray, I recieve my answer in the Scriptures.  On Sunday I was reading in Doctine and Covenants in sections 66-68.  I saw many things pop out at me, many great things that will help me out a lot in this next part of my mission, life, and well everything.  I wrote down what I felt was a goal, or just a prompting and I prayed about it.  It just felt so right, I have a good 5 goals that I will be working on.  They will test me, and try me, but I will do it.  It should be a good next 6 months.  

Throughout this week I have seen so many things happen to me, so many great blessings in my life, I love it.  I have been learning a ton also, in my Spanish, in my lesson giving, in everthing.  The Lord has really been helping me out.  He's been really pushing me to do the things that I need to do right now.  One of the greatest blessings is the work has been pickin up in this area.  These past 3 weeks have been holidays in Spain, so many of the shops were closed.  There were a lot of people in the street, but no one wants to meet with us.  I mean no one.  We would give a lesson here and there, but that was about it.  It was super hard to just get a little bit of a lesson in, but like I said, the Lord has blessed us a ton.  We have been doing a lot of pass by´s on the ward list, and a lot of contacting as well.  That has really been good.  The days were long but we had good results.  We have received a ton of people that want to hear our message, and that is great.  Before, I would call many people, but no one would want to meet.  I got a lot of, don´t call me anymore.  Well on Friday after I called up many people during the week, I felt that I should call them up again, knowing that they said no, and they didn´t want us to come by.  Then again, this prompting to call up these people.. again.  Soo I did, I went down our list of  names and come to see that many of them want us to come over again.  They said, well now we have time, the other day was not good, sorry, yeahhh come on by!  Ohhh sawweeeet!!!  How great was that to hear a couple of times!  It was super nice, so this week we are passing by a lot of new faces, so we shall see if some of them can become our new investigators!!  It should be fun!  I am way excited to see what happens.  The cool thing is a few of them are families, saawwwwweet!  I am way excited for the upcoming weeks.  The Lord has really been blessing me a ton.  It's just is a testimony that when you work, you will be blessed, and I am seeing those blessings.  It also means, that you gotta be patient.  It's the Lord's, not ours.  It has really been hard on me when I am working and doing my best, but not seeing any progress going on.  It was hard to see that in Ferrol, but little by little, I saw those blessings I didn´t see before.  I saw those things happen that I never knew could happen.  I saw the hand of the Lord in our work.  It was great, I loved it.  Right now the Lord is just really helping me through everything, helping me by the hand.

It should be a good week, I´m excited to see what´s going to happen.  I hope this will keep on coming and these future investigators become our investigators.  

Well family I love you so so much.  You are the world to me! I love you!!

Lovvvveee,

Elder Laubaugh

pictures of Elder Laubaugh's head wound :)

Here are 2 pictures of Alex's head wound. No worries, the stitches from his Mission President (fyi, his mission president is a surgeon)  were taken out the following week, and his hair is growing back just fine. Mom commented that Alex was lucky to have hair like a seal pup, or else he'd be in trouble. haha

January 2, 2012

Well this week has been wonderful.  I love Alcala.  It is very beautiful, full of people, history, and members.  I love it.  Something that was a suprise to me during the week is that I was assigned a talk, no biggie. It was for 10 minutes.  I prepared some things, found some nice scriptures and yeah it was nice.  When I got up I noticed that there was a lot of time left, so I asked and they told me I could take a good 15min or so.  I used up all the time and they really liked it.  I talked about missionary work and the importance of the members, or member missionary work.  It went great and a lot of the members responded to it well, which was nice. 

Well this week we have been in the books, or should I say, Area Books.  We have a couple of them full of people that haven´t been baptized, and many who have been but just have lost their way.  So that has  been super good.  I have been calling a lot of people and a lot of them seem to want to talk to us again, which is great.  The one sad thing that I have seen, which it breaks my heart, but  some of the people that I see that are less active, are returned missionaries.  I have called up some of them and they just live somewhere else and are very active, but unfortunately there are many that live here and are not active.  Breaks my heart.  We have been visiting a lot of less actives in general, and the main reason they don´t come is because they have work, but then if you dig just a little deeper, a couple of them say that the ward is cold.  It´s a Spanish thing.  I  can see that.  We have an older ward, but at the same time with have a younger group that is super strong.  I can say that this is a ward that is a bit cold, when I came in,  I don´t know, they were nice, but it wasn´t a ohhh ooooowww! How are you!!! What´s your name, ohhh coooll!! It was a, ohhh cool. new missionary... hahah but yeah esta bien!  But I shall work on the coldness and make it more friendly.

Well this week we have been working a ton.  A lot of it is out on the street.  We walk a ton here, talking to people and just contacting, calling them up, and yeah just the missionary life, which is nice.  I like it.  One experience that I would like to say was in a contact.  Since it is the holidays, there are a ton of people out, just all over, it is swwweeeet!!  There are a lot of people doing things, playing instruments and all that.  Well there are these 2 guys from Ecuador that play their native music.  They use all sorts of really nice flutes and they were dressed up in a native clothing.  I thought it was cool, so did Elder V.  So we watched for a bit, and a lady asked if we would like to take a picture with him.  Well sure!! I would love that.  Well we get to talking and this man, Patricio, is a less active!! annnnddd just waite, he was the ward missionary leader back in Ecuador.  He was very active, but just lost his way.  He reallly wants to come back, so we got his info... then found out he doesn´t live in Alcala, that is fine.  That happens a lot to us.  Just talking to people then come to find out they are less active. 

Well times have been good.  I love my mission.  I just get soo happy talking to people, just so ready, wanting to do more.  I am glad that I haven´t lost that new missionary drive. I want to keep that.  It helps me out a lot on those long days of contacting. 

I have to say that this area has been teaching me a lot such as why past experiences happened.  It´s super sweet.  I love it, just things unfolding in my mind.  Just many things coming to pass.  I love this work in my life. 

I loved talking to you all last week, it was a really good pick me up.  I loved seeing all of you and I really loved talking to you all!! Esp to mandy in Spanish, that was nice, not a huge convo, but just enought.  :)  Gracias.  Hey I love you all soo soo much! My holidays have been good.  The members have invited us over to eat, not a lot though.  I hope they really get this drive like ferrol to invite, invite, and invite, not just us, but their friends to hear this great gospel. 

I love you!!!!

Love,

Elder Laubaugh!

December 19, 2012

Well hello family. It´s a bit early for me to write, but I have some things to do this afternoon.

Well life is going to be different.  Elder Gonzalez was transfered out.... and well, so was I.  They did a white wash to El Ferrol, :´´´´(  It´s hard to say, and it was hard to leave.  I left about half of my heart there.  I was moved down to Alcalá. It´s a bigger Pueblo near Madrid, so I am now in Madrid.... again.  I was super sad!!!! I wanted to stay! I love those people there. They were amazing members, friends, and well my new family members.  Alcalá has a good thing going. It´s like the north, actually a lot of the areas around Madrid are like the north, just not as much rain, cold, and Spaniards.  There are a lot of Spaniards here, but we also have a good amount of individuals from South American.  That was new to see.  Here's my new address.  I do not know the new address for Elder G, sorry!!!  He is in Mostoles, another Pueblo near Madrid. 

Mine is:

Paseo do la Estación

9 Bis 4ºC 28807

Madrid

Spain

Well yeah, I have a new comp!!  His name is Elder Verdu!! He is from northern New Jersey and he is supppper awesome! I met him before, but not a lot.  He was up north in Orense in the other District.  He has been out for a good year and a half.  His dad is from Spain, and his mom is from Uraguay.  How cool is that! But, he never knew Spanish before the mish.  He has 2 sisters, one is older and the other younger.  I have to say we get along pretty well.  I will inform you more when I find out more, haha

I have a lot of sweet stories for you all, from Ferrol and Alcalá. Alcalá is a college town. There are a lot of students here from all over, like the states, London, and Spain of course. 

Well onto the stories, first Ferrol. 

So when we found out we were getting transferred, of course told everyone, one by one, not all at once.  That was an experience by itself.  It was sad for the members and suppper sad for me because I was crying too and I didn´t want to leave :(  Still a little depressed on this, but I am getting better, and well it´s the life of the mission, gotta live with it and go with it, and still work your hardest.  So sweet amazing story.  Our President of the branch asked us to prepaire a quick 3 minute talk, just our testimony, so I got a nice little scripture and my testimony.  I dídn´t really write down any notes.  So we get to church and they were saying we might not have to talk, they have 4 people with us and just maybe not a lot of time.  Well the first speaker gets up and gives a great talk but only 5 minutes... oh snap.. Then the second, only 5 or 7 minutes.  Ohh freak!  then we sing and they said that it is now the time for the Elders.. we still have a good 30min left of church.  I go up first and ask how much time, President told me I had time for 15-20min to talk, and Elder G had that time as well.... Well here we goo!! OOO OO!! I get up there and just say a little prayer.  And I let the spirit take over.  I have to say, I have never felt the spirit so strong, okay maybe a few times, but it just filled me,  I felt as if I was floating.  I just started talking and using some of the experiences I had learned from Ferrol and my mission.  Then I started getting out my scriptures and and just wow... I spoke for those 15min.  No awkward moment pauses, no ahh or uhh, or what should I say.  I have to say that, that was the gift of tounges.  During my talk..it was the hardest.  I made a little joke that someone must have cut an onion on stage, and I just broke down.  I couldn´t handle it.. It wasn´t that awkard loud cry of sadness, just tears of sadness...  It was hard.. the members were all crying and weeping, and just a wreck, we all were.  Then Elder G gets up and gives a great talk, just took it to them!  He did great.  But this was just a great experience for me.  15min, in Spanish, without any notes at alllll. Love it!  I don´t know, I have never done that before, I always needed notes because of my Spanish, but I had no problem speaking, alot of the members said my Spanish was almost perfect.  I was using many words that were larger for me and my grammer was almost dead on.  That was sweet to hear.  :) 

Okay second thing, I am done with the BOOK OF MORMON!! How sweet is that! I might have said it before, but I´ll say it again.  It helped me out so much reading it in Spanish.  It was just a nice feeling, the feeling of accomplishment.  :)

Okay third, okay before I say this, I have to say that I am okay right now, I am fine and feeling great!

 

So on Monday we arrived in Madrid and I went to Alcalá.  That night we get a call from the office elders because we had to move some things for them for the new piso fo the hermanas here.  We get the stuff and just doing great. So they have a van with a back door that goes up, not the double doors, just the one that goes up when you open it.  Well Elder Johnson didn´t see that I was coming out, well he did, but he thought that I was out of the way, and he closed it.. and it hit my head pretty hard.   Yeah it hurt, but nothing big.. well he´s alll ohhh Elder are you all right?? I was fine and I said that... then I see blood... dripping from my head.  Then I touch my head and my hair has a lot of blood.. Okay so I have a nice little scrape, nooo biggie, I get some tissues and people on the street are freaking out. I was just standing there just chillin.  Then we call up Hermana Jackson to see what to do. I hadn´t seen it yet, but some of the other Elders saw it and it didn´t look so good... so thankfully Pres. Jackson is a doctor surgeon man, so he knows what to do.  We all get in the van and drive over to the Mission home, and it so happened to be the last day and the last super for a couple elders and a sister.  So I´m chillin there with all of them and my comp.  President jackson gets up and just is wowed.. He´s said... you need stiches, I´ll go get my kit.  This isn´t good, but you´ll be fine...  So he gets his stuff and well he did a little operation on my head.  I have I think 4 stiches in my head.  Some of the elders have some pics of it, and it is nasttttyy!! Just all open and gross!! Well, I ruined a good white shirt, I´ll send it home for yall to have, don´t want´to throw it away, ;) but yeah, I am fine and just putting a bunch of meds on the cut.  I get them out on Sunday, ohh yeah... He had to shave a little part of my hair.  Good thing I got it cut last week!! OOO OO!! So yup I have a nice little pach of hair missing, bit it´s fine. My hair grows fast and Elder V said he can´t even tell, just when I show people.  Good times on the mish huh?!  Love it!!  Don´t worry, I am fine right now! It hurts but I´m fine.  Just one of those moments when you want your mom to hold your hand...and your dad to tell you to man up ;)  I was about to rub some dirt on it and go on with my night. hahah jk.  Ohh and don´t worry, I got to hold sister Jacksons hand, that was nice, Miss you mom!!! Good thing I get to talk with you all next week!!!! AHHHHH!!! SAWEEETT!! 

About that, Elder V said that he would like to chat about 8ish in a locutorio.  So I am good with that, and it´s 8 at night my time, so about 2 your time, is that good?

Well hope so!! ohh and It´s pday so I can email you in the mornin if needed!

 

Hey all I love you! Hope you have a great week and welcome home Jana!! Can´t wait to chat with you!! Hope all is well on the home front. Alcalá is about to be lit up!!!!  Can´t wait to really work here!!  Can´t get me down, phhht head wound... !

 

Love you!!

Elder Alex Thor Laubaugh

(one of the elders said the cut looks like a lightning bolt.. so he calls me thor.. haha)

december 12, 2012

Hey all, it was another great and super quick week for me.  Well let me just start off by saying that I have the packages and I have opened them.  Elder G and I had 12 mins of Christmas. hahah get it, 12 days, 12 mins. hahah Jk JKJK  Don{t worry we shall be waiting to open one gift each day.  Well now is time for the bad news.  You know how last week I said that Pres moved transfers to the 27.  Well that was denied by the district, so they moved it to this week.  We find out if anyone is leaving Sunday night, and they leave Monday night.  Bummer huh, so Yeah, we both think that Elder G will leave.  By the way he says thank you so much for the things that you got him. He loves you all so so much! Thank you!!!  

Well, on to this week. What a power house week it was.  I have to say the Lord has really been blessing us a lot lately.  First off, Julio and his mother came to church.  His wife couldn´t come, but next week she will.  How sweet is that.  Ohh what a great blessing that was.  Our class was about the spirit world and he had really good questions about it.  He loved it.  But wait there's more!! Our LA, Gustavo came to church, he has never come in the 5 months I´ve here.  He brought his friend, Alberto, who is our investigator also.  How sweet is that!! Such a great sight to see.  He loved church too, he just is awesome.  His wife is active and so are his kids, but he isn´t.  I have to say, doing all the service for him, giving him a pair of my pants, and a tie, has really helped out.  Well that´s what we have been doing with him, cleaning a bunch of new things and all that.  SO great.  

Well yeah, it was good. I was so happy to see so many people really grasping what we have been teaching.  It was such a great heart warming experience to see these people really wanting to know more.  Also Enrique is doing better, he is getting along,  We are still helping him with his addictions.  He´s just having a hard time, but we all do.  

Well I had a great experience this week, yet again with prayer and my scriptures.  It was so neat-  For the past month or so I really had a question on my mind. Do I confuse people more than I teach and help them?  I just was thinking of that.  I know spanish, I can talk to people in a convo or in a lesson, I know a lot.  Yeah, at some points I don´t know a word, but I can explain it and it{s all good.  But I really started to wonder, well Do I help them?  I started praying about it well since a good month or 2 back.  Everyday just searching and praying.  A couple of days ago I was reading in Doctine and Convenants.  I was just flipping through, looking for some scriptures.  I just got an impression to go to D&C 100.  I started to read at section 100 verses 5-8 and it just answered everything.  It was amazing, just a couple of versus just helped me get over this little hump.  I felt so much better, it was bugging me, just a question that does that.  The Lord really blessed me this week.  Just so  much through everthing that I am doing.  More and more blessings.  He really is looking after me.  When I was thinking of this little thing, just these little experiences that I have been having a thought came to mind.  The Lord taught that this path is straight and narrow, that we really have to hold to the rod, but he doesn´t say if we won't have hills or mountains in our way.  It just really has been hard. Luckily life is getting really good right now.  Everyday has it´s new challenges, its mountains, but I have the Lord on my side.  Like I said, He has been helping me out so much this past weeek, just with a lot of my questions..  They have all been answered in my scripture reading.  Ohh and fun fact, I just finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish a couple days ago.  How sweet is that! Love it!  hahah,

Well fam, I love you.  Thank you so much for everything.  For your love, prayers, and well being there for me.  Hey for the family call, I am not sure.  We have a eating thing at 2ish, sooo maybe at 5ish my time, we shall see. Christmas is also my pday so I will email you all when I am on and ready.  That sounds good.  Hey I love you!!!! Have a great dayt!!!

Love,

Elder Laubaugh!!!!    

December 5, 2012

Pues, HOLA! Cómo Estan?? Bien o mas o menos??  Pues Yo Estoy PERFECTO ahora :)))  Well It has been a really good week, not sure why, but I just feel so good! I feel added strength comin in everyday from my Father in Heaven.  Well first I just want to say the Lord has really been blessing us up here in Ferrol.  In some letters I have said that I have a large area.  That´s an understatement.  If you look at a map of Spain, and find Ferrol, see that area next to it, it´s all coastal and that´s my area.  It´s HUGE!! We got to go out to Cedeira on Sunday, which I have to say, has one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  White sand, with water that looks light blue. Oh it was sooo beautiful! But we were there to work! We have a less active fam, that lives out there, well they are less active, cause there is no bus that comes to Ferrol on Sunday, only one goes out at 1:30, and comes back at 5, so they can´t, and they don´t have a car!! So double bad, but we met with them.  Comes to find out the mother and daughter have super strong testimonies. And guess what, they brought a friend that isn´t a member, oh and they(the mother) has a son and daughter that aren´t members. Oh but wait, there's more?? Why yes, the husband isn´t a member either!! So we have some more work!!! HURRAY!! :) How sweet is that!! I am so blessed to be here.  The Lord has not forgoten about the Elders in Ferrol.  Oh what is that I hear, another great miracle that happened.  Why yes it is!  So Roy, Naty´s papa, knows a lot of people, esp. from Peru, and he gave us a reference to a friend of his that is a member, but not active.  We called him up and the reason he has not been coming to church is because he lives 2 hours away, by train, from the church in Ferrol! Soooo we are planning on makin a trip out there to see what we can do! He was saying that he and his fam all pray and read the Book of Mormon, but they just can´t come.  We shall see what we can do to get these people to church! YAY! 

Well some more good notes, transfers have been changed to the 27 of december!  So If there was a change here, no one would leave before Christmas, so that´s good!  Also, did you know that I was in a play?? Well I was, and I had a lead part :) Yes it was in Spanish, and I felt I did well.  It was put on by the church, and it was about the Plan of Salvation, and about missionary work.  So that was sweet.  It was short, 30min and one of our recent converts, Amanda, her father came with his wife. They used to be really against the church, but we met with them and they want to learn more about us, and about the gospel.  So that is amazing!! 

Okay I have a food story, I know it´s been awhile, sorry, it gets boring saying, well I had pig skin, or pig stomach, blah blah blah. Well the other day I learned how to make Papa a la Jaun Caina.  Mandy might know what this is, it´s from Peru, and it is sooo good!! Roy and Flor taught us how to make it!  It´s boiled potato with lettuce, but the dressing the Jaun Caina is a spicy cream sauce that is sooooooo good! To die for!!  Well with it they gave us some corn and some of this meat.  Like a teryake strips.  I have learned not to ask what it is till after I have eatin it.  Welll I messed up, yeahhhh not good.  But it was super good and lean and ahh so good!! So I asked and they said well it´s Anti cucho.  Anti cucho??  What´s that? (bad question on my part) Well it´s pig heart.  OHHH Really, I look at it and think, mmm pig heart, and take another bite.  It was just nice little slivers of heart cooked up.  Yum huh? hahah well it´s been good. Soo good.  Ohhhh and the best part this was all put into my last book.  The first book of Elder Laubaugh.  It´s my journal.  Good timing too huh.  I am almost half way done with my mission. Sad thought.  Well yeah I have all these notes and entrys and a lot of good pictures.  SOOO GOOD! Well fam I love you, I love you so so much! I hope all is well on the home front!!  LOVE YOU!!!

 

Love,

Elder Laubaugh!

 

November 29, 2012

I have to say this has been one of the better times of my mission.  Sorry for not emaiing yesterday.  On Sunday night we found out that we were going to León to the other zone for a meeting with Elder Richards of the Seventy.  He is in the District Presidency over Europe.  I will talk about that later on in my letter. 

Well this week has been again a good one.  Yes still hard and I´m still tired, but oh well, let us all push on.  Their are many reasons why this past week has been good.  We first have been getting new people to teach, new but old, like Enrique.  He is super awsome!! AHH LOVE HIM!!!!!! I hope I see the day he gets baptized.  He knows that these things are true.  He tells us all the time, and he just wants to quit smoking, just something is holding him back.  We have had many good, heart felt, spirit filled lessons this past week with him.  He is in a hard time in his life. On Sunday I had a sweet spirit experience. He has been sick and couldn´t come to church, but he came after and pulled us two out to give him a blessing.  He chose me to give it.  I felt the love our Father in Heaven has for him, I said things I didn´t even know I could say.  It was beautiful.  I loved it.  He thanked us and we talked for a bit.  He´s doing better. 

The amazing thing is that we have been in contact with a lot of our old investigators over the past months, before I was even here.  It has been great because a lot of them have changed their attitude towards the church, and some have just come to church and we met them for the first time there.  That has been a real boost for me. 

One thing that has done my heart good is seeing people wanting to go to the temple.  We have many recent converts that want to go that want to make those covenants in the temple.  How great is that.  We have been having lessons on that as well.  Such a great experience to see. 

Now on to what happened yesterday in León.  Elder Richards is amazing, he´s going to be in Germany in a week or 2 so Jana, look out for him, he is taking a tour of Germany as well and visiting with all of the missionaries.  Hope you get to meet him.  Well in the past bit has been hard for me, just a lot on my mind and a lot going on.  I also have been praying a lot on what I could do better on, a lot of what I need to do, not do, all of that stuff.  Now that I have almost a year sad day :( I have been seeing what needs to change. I work each week to learn what I  need to do better.  It was amazing that we had this great meeting because he is like my coach.  He was telling us things that I have been praying for, for about a month or two, or just a day.  It was great, a spiritual feast.  Right before he and his wife told us that they don´t prepare anything and just let the spirit guide them. Everything that was said felt like it was diricted to me.  When he said a point that I needed to learn or hear, he just stared at me. I was in the second row, middle.  I was one of 30 or 40 people.  He could have looked at anyone, but no, he looked at me and I felt that he was talking to me for most of this meeting, a good 4.5 hour meeting.  Many of my questions were answered in his words, and the spirit just touched my heart.  I have to say that I got a little emotional at some points.  It was just a great time, being with him and talking with him. 

I am doing well, learning, growing hopfully, and just doing mission things.  I love you all so much. I feel I don´t say that enough.  I love you all very much.  Thank you for your prayers and for you love, I love you!!

Nov 22, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! How are you all doing??  I hope that your Thanksgiving is sooo good! Mine was amazing.  Today is my pday. President switched it so we could play today.  The sweet thing is that we have a Senior couple here, sooooo they cooked for us a great meal!! OHHH SWEEET GOODNESS!! hahah, yes we had turkey and stuffing and all the good stuff.  It was great.  Thank you for your letters, emails, and all the love!  I love you all so much!!  

Well, Ferrol is getting better, we are starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. It´s been a long, hard, and dark tunnel, and at times, I didn´t know what to do or say.  But right now we are seeing some light, which is great.  I am glad that  some things are starting to pick up.  One great thing is that we are seeing a change in an enternigator, Enrique. He has a great testimony, and he knows a lot about the gospel.  He has read the BoM a couple of times and has been coming to church.  He just has one problem, he smokes.  We just started to meet with him again, and there is a real change in his acciones in his manner of meeting with us.  He really wants to change, so we set some goals and we shall see what else we can do.  It has been a good soul lifter for me that we now have someone to work with.  Thank you God! 

Well right now I would just like to say what I am thankful for.  My appreciation of things has grown on my mission.  I am thankful for my mission, for this calling that I have right now.  I am thankful for it so much.  I have truly learned so much here on my mission.  I have seen many things that have really opened my eyes to the important things of this life.  I am thankful for you all, my family.  I will always be thankful for you all.  I truly feel all of your love day to day here.  I feel your prayers for me.  You don´t really understand somethings till you don´t have them.  Like you all, I am here alone, with my comp, and my Lord, I love it, but you know, I´d love to get a good mom hug, or a dad hug, or a nice talk with mandy or mitch or jana. I am so very thankful for the challenges that the Lord has put in front of me.  These challenges have changed the way I look at many things.  My whole mission has been a challenge, from the language, to the people, to the day to day troubles here.  But I am thankful for it, you know why? Because I´m learning.  I am gaining more of a testimony of the strength of this message everyday as it holds up to countless bashes from these spaniards.  I am thankful for my testimony that I have of these teachings, of this gospel in my life.  It has truly blessed me on my mission.  Having this testimony is priceless, it is my testimony, that no one can take away from me.  They can question it, the can bash it, they can spit at it, but it´s mine, and I´m thankful for that.  The last thing I want to say is that I am thankful for, My God, My Savior, and My Companion.  All three of them have helped me so much.  through the rough times and challenges, My God, My Savior, and My Comp have always been there, never fearing, there wavering, always at my right and left hand when I need them.  Always.  It has been a great blessing for me in my life, whenever I needed Elder G, he was there for me.  He is my best friend, through the times that I wanted to cry, yell at the world or do whatever, he was there to help me.  

I have so much to be thankful for, for this gospel, for the scriptures, for my friends, everything.  One thing that I have learned in the past little bit is that everyday I should be thankful for everything, not just one day :)  I love you all, have a great Thanksgiving.  Ferrol is getting better.  Our minds, hearts, and strength are on the up beat, that´s always good, they´ve been on the down for awhile.  We are workin our little tails off over here :P  I love you, thank you for everything you do for me and Elder G.  

Love,

Elder Laubaugh 

November 15, 2012

Hey all!! How is everyone doing??  I have to say I had a good week.  With all our sickness going on, it was nice to finally get a good week in.  We have people to teach, but just not as many as we used too.  Yeah we still are getting on track, but it just feels better.  I have to say that I still don´t know why I got sick, I don´t know why my comp got sick, I still have no clue why everything went wrong during those weeks, but what I do know is that the Lord is still with me.  I know that he still cares, that he is wanting the best for me.  I know that he wants me to find the answers to these things, he wants me to really search. He just can´t give it to me, I gotta do some work.

I have to clarify some things.  Today I got a letter from Mom, she was wanting to know what type of "hard" is this?  Emotional, expectation, or what?  I have to say all of it.  During this time when all of this was going on, I didn´t know what to do.  That was the hardest part.  During the first part of my mission I went through this same type of deal, when I didn´t know what to say or do.  But I had my trainer, I had people to help me get through those times, and I learned a ton by that.  Time goes by, I learn more, gain more knowledge of this gospel, things started to get easier, the language, the teaching...  When both our sicknesses hit, I didn´t know what to do.  That scared me, I didn´t know who to turn to or what to say.  My friend is in the hospital, I´m sick, our area is going down the drain and I am here... alone, with my mission leader trying to do everything at once.  Of course it is impossible to do it all at once.  Visit my comp, go to a lesson and all that.  It was hard on me, on my mind, my body, everything.  Soooo when I was saying it was hard, that is what I was saying.  I didn´t know what to do, I turned to my Lord and that´s all I could do.  My president couldn´t do a lot and others as well, they just watched me do it all, but I have to say I have learned a lot from this. I started to learn a lot more in my scripture reading and my prayers.  I have always turned to those 2 things when I am in my hour of need, and always, I have gotten my answers.  This past week I have been finishing up the chapters of Alma, good ol war chapters and things just started to make more sense.  I have to say, my studies have meant more to me. Also I have to say my man Capt. Moroni, Alma, Helaman have really been helping me through this.  This isn´t my time, this isn´t the time of Elder Laubaugh, but this is the time of the Lord.  I have learned that these things too shall pass, I won´t be stuck in this time for all eternity, that there will be an end, that I will learn from this.  I had really been in the moment latey and it´s been bringing me down, that ohhh nooo this is going to last forever, but it´s not, it will take some time yes, but it too shall pass.  That has helped me out a ton with this little problem right now.  We are both doing better, we are learning a ton.  Our bodies are getting better and stronger, I´m working out a little more and getting better. 

Well on to some fun things that have happened to me in the past week.  Well we have been helping a MA with a new house, we have been doing some service for him.  One of the members is moving out and is letting him and his fam live there for free.  So we ask if we can help.  He said sure and off we go.  Welllll what we didn´t know is that this house is bad... It´s not ohhh a little messy, it´s realllly messy.  Lets just say this fam is a fam of hourders.  They keep everything!!! It smelled sooo bad like something died.  So of course we get down and dirty.  I´m cleaning the shelves and finding weird things and old food and mold and all this grossness, but i have to say, now that house is alright, still needs a lot of work, but it´s better.  So yeah, it was a good day. 

Well on to some food things.  So in Madrid, I ate a lot of different things, as you all know. Up here not as much, a lot of octopus, pig, that stuff.  Well Naty and her fam love us... they feed us all the time. Well Flor cooks amazing food, yes good ol peruvian food.  mmmmm soo good! good ol papas a la juanciyna(spelling) its potatos, with this amazing sauce that I lovvveee!!! Then of course we get to have ceviche!! I loveeee ceviche!! yes raw fish that is cooked by lemon juice, yes it might be gross to you all but it is so good.  We had sooo much of that the other day!! AHHHHHH I miss Madrid!! I used to have that a lot.  Did you know that each country has ceviche, just made differently, I didn´t know that till a couple of weeks ago, pretty cool. 

But yeah it´s been good, still truckin along, but the Lord has really been helping me out for the past couple of days, well this past week.  Thank you all for your love, for you letters.  I love them! Family, I love you so much, keep on being great!! I love you!!

 

Love,

Elder Alex Laubaugh of Spain 

November 7, 2012

Hello alll!!! First off all, I need to thank you all for the birthday wishes!! thank you!!!! I loved my gifts as well!! My birthday was good! I didn´t tell a whole lot of people, but many knew about it(thank you Elder G), but yeah it was super cool.  The Stephensons(couple missionaries)  made me a cake with cream cheese frosting(my fave) it was soooo goood!!!  Then after we go to a members home and they made Empenadas also, another fave of mine.  They didn´t even know it was my bday, but they still made the best ones I´ve had! hahaha.  After we went to play practice, Yes I am in a play in the church, it´s about the Plan of Salvation. Everyone made me cards and got me a little gift.  It was cute and it really meant a lot.  After we went to another members house to eat.  My special dinner was Pulpo or octopus.  That was super good, well yeah I guess it was super good, it was rubbery but the taste was right.  They got me all these cookies, and chuches, and all that good stuff.  They are so cool!! They decorated their whole house with birthday stuff.  I have to say it was a good birthday.  Also I got your package last week, I opened it yesterday and I loved the gifts... Also Elder G says thank you so much, he loves it! hahaha, thank you all so much.  

We are slowly but surely getting back up to speed.  Elder G is still recuperating, but he is getting better.  I am mostly better as well. Life throws you some curveballs here and there. I do my best to keep on a smile.  I gotta keep happy.  I can´t get sad and be like wo is me, my life is so hard, well it is, but it´s just time to suck it up.  I´m on a mission, things pass.  I have learned so much so far, in a short 10 or so months. It´s my life right now, I have to learn from these things.  Elder G and I had a really great moment on sunday.  We just talked a bunch just about all of this stuff, we just feel bad, we haven´t been able to do more lately.  If you really look at it, yeah good we had a baptism but after the sickness and all that, it just has been hard.  The Lord knows, and President knows and thats all that matters. It was hard because well I felt I was being judged by others... Ohh he hasn´t been working or anything, but after that talk and after some other little things said and written to me, i forgot about that, it doesn´t matter what people think, I just have to put it all out, do it for me, and that is good enough for the Lord.  That has helped me out a lot, knowing that my Lord is there for me.  That is a big part of my testimony that I didn´t get to finish the other week.  That he knows us so well.  He is there for me every step of the way, guiding us, yes there are times that we need to take that step of faith, but that´s when we learn and grow the most.  Yes I have to say, during those times of adversity and all that, it was hard, but I had to rely on him, really trust in him... I have to say I made it through, it´s not over but I´m making it.   

I love you all so much, you know that right? I hope you do.  I love you all so much and you make me so happy.  Thank you for everything, for your love, support, and your testimony in this gospel.  Thank you.  

Like I said, life is hard, and I´m ready to Fight in the Shade any day.  ;)

I have to say that I have eaten some different things lately, I have had some good lil experiences putting down food.  Like I had a tortilla thing, i forget the name but it was filled with olives and all that, which is fine, then just huge chunks of big skin and fat! What the freak! haha, then some pig things here and there, then some big pieces of pig skin and that, I´m gettin used to it ;) hahah Ihope! haha I love you!

I love you all!!! 

Love,

Elder Alex Lobo

october 31, 2012

Hey everyone, sorry but this letter will have to be very short. I finally got to see the Fort in Ferrol. It is a bit of a trip so it took most of the day.  So in that case, I don´t have time to write a nice good letter. 

On the me front, I am doing well.  My health has been much better this past week.   I got some good meds from the Hospital that put me back on my feet.  That was a great blessing.  President as well can´t believe the things we have to go through up here.  Well Elder G is doing good as well.  He has been better since last week, but we still have to take it slow.  It´s really hard for me to take it slow, but it´s what I need to do.  I have to say it was hard to keep a smile on my face these past couple of weeks, but I kept advice I got when I was in Madrid in my mind all the time.  This sister from my ward told me this.  Elder Laubaugh, first off, don´t lose those eyes, people get lost in them, Second, don´t lose that smile, people just melt when they see that smile.  Never lose it.  Thirdly, work, don´t ever stop.  I have been keeping that in mind.  That smile was hard to put on this past week, really hard.  When everything was going against me, I kept it on.  When I was just in pain, just wanting to go home, sleep in my own bed, hug you all, I kept it on.  Just a smile kept me going.  I´m glad I smiled during that time, my mind changed when I did.  It was nice, just to smile, be happy, not sad. 

Well Mom this is for you, well all of you.  I sent you some advice for my talk but I have to say I just felt I needed to tell you some more of my testimony.  

 

Life is hard, when everything piling up on me, all the area work, health issues and just everything else.  I just knew that the Lord was with me.  I know that My Savior lives, that he loves me that he cares for me.  The reason I love Isiah 41:10 so much is because it says I am with thee.  God is with us, always.  In this work I have felt his love for me, my investigators, and the members, every day.  I want to say that he loves you too, that He is there for us.  I know that the Book of mormon is true.  I love you all I need to go.

 

I love you!!

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!

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