May 30th letter :)

What a week it has been!! Wow! Just to let you all know, I was not transferd! That is a great blessing for me.  I didn't want to leave.  We are doing great in B9.  People are still the same way, but we have some new investigators and some great progressive Investigators.  Well On the Investigator side.  Benito and Diana are doing great!! Ahh I feel so blessed to teach them every week.  They are so amazing.  They read together, pray together and they do personal prayer.  They just are so amazing.  The great thing is, is that they have their papers.  So this means they can set up a meeting  for their wedding.  Then another to get it all finalized.  So hopefully this or next transfer they will be getting married.  They have everything all set up for his baptism.  Ahh i just can't get over him.


Well a little story.  Remember when I wrote how Diana had a dream about a black shadow adn how it entered into their new piso mate.  Well that dream was real.  Just this past couple of weeks their piso mate went crazy.  She has been picking fights with them, cussing at them, just creating a really hard time for the whole family.  So they are kicking her out.  The Police came over and all this stuff happened so now she is going today or tomorrow.  They now are getting a new piso mate so that is a great blessing for them.  


Well our other investigators are doing well.  Amanda is still hard to meet with.  She works a ton, but she still reads, comes to church, and prays.  We just can't meet with her.  We try to meet after church but she just doesn't have time.  Which is sad, she is really good.  All the rest are doing good.  We have some new investigators so that is very good.  It was a great blessing this week.  We have been contacting a lot and the Lord has blessed us with a great new group to teach. 

 Well we have a little activity that we are planning.  It is an American BBQ.  Elder Woodbury and I thought about it then watched the District episode about them doing the same thing.  We are going with it and the Bishop and President have both said yes for it.  They feel that will be a great idea to get people together and get their friends together.  This is a great way to get our name out and get some new Investigators.  I hope all goes well!  Well also in new news, I have a talk on the 10.  It is of course about missionary work. I have been preparing it for about a week now and have a lot of good notes for it.  If you have anything that would be good, please send it to me.  

Well on the story side, we were walking back to the piso from an appointment.  We get stopped by a man and he started saying that we were wrong.  We just were not right about anything and that we should be baptized in another church because we were wrong. hahah ohhh people of spain.  Well that is about it on the story end..  Sorry no food storys... well I do have some, but it just of me eating way to much because the people do not know when to stop feeding you, even when you say you are full.  Well I love you all so much and I hope that all is well!!! I can´t wait to here from you all!!

Love your best man in Spain!!

Elder Alex Laubaugh

Alex's latest letter!

Hello all!! Well this week has been really good and a lot of work.  Sorry but this letter might be a little short.  We don´t have a lot of time because we went to the mission home which is a good hour away.  This was the last activity and maybe the last time I will get to see President and Hermana Watkins.  Well as I said, this week has been good and a lot of work.  We have been trying to get some new investigators.  Not everyone is like Amanda who stops you and asks you to come by.  Before I mention her more, I'll say a little about our other investigators.  Benito is doing great like always, but his baby got sick and Diana and Eron(the baby) had to go to the hospital.  It was a good expierence for both me and Diana.  I hadn't given a blessing in Spanish yet, just in English.  We, she asked me to do the anointing, so that was cool.  It went well and the spirit helped me remember the words in Spanish.  Susi is also doing good.  She is getting prepared for her baptism later in June.  Eliana is doing okay.  She has missed her baptismal date which was this weekend.  That is fine, she needed more time.  The same with Amanda, her baptism was this week and we still haven't met with her.  She works a lot and she finally had time!  But at the last minute she said she had work. 

 AHHH! Luis is doing great and getting ready to go to the temple and getting ready to recieve the Priesthood. He just looks so much happier than before.  Everyone else is doing well too.  I know that I have left some out but they are doing great.  Well this past week has been kinda long.  We didn't have that many lessons because everyone is at work or just doesn't have time for us which was a big pain.  But the good part is that we contacted a lot.  We had a lot of people listen to us... but not a lot of people that wanted to hear more.  The people who did are actually really good.  We have a lot of real numbers that people have given us and have some visits set up for the end of the week.  Well the awesome part is that we have some new investigators.  Some even went to church this past Sunday!  I will tell you more about them later.  Well, that is about it from this past week from working.  A lot of contacting.   

Yesterday I went on splits.  Elder Wilson is the Zone Leader so he went on splits with Elder Woodbury.  So it was me and Elder Johnson!  This was an amazing experience.  From just one day I saw that my Spanish isn't horrible like I thought it was.  It still needs a lot of work, but it is better than before.  I was understanding and speaking most everything.  It was so amazing to see how much I have progressed.  I am so glad that I had that experience yesterday.  It is sad to say, but I use Elder Woodbury as a crutch.  I just look at him to help me.  I couldn't do that with Elder Johnson.  He is in the same boat as I am.  So I had to pray a lot and just hope that the gift of tongues kicks in.  And I tell you what, it really did.  The Lord helped me out a lot.  We had 2 lessons that went well and we also had 6 received contacts so that was good too.  People said after I said that my Spanish isn't that good that they could understand me and I was doing fine.  That felt good.  Well on the food end, I had Chufa.  It is only grown in Valencia.  It is a small little fruit that they smoosh to make like a milk.  It tastes like it but it is a little bit of a sweet taste to it.  Well that is about it on my end.  I love you all so much and the Lord has been blessing me a lot this past week.  I feel all of your prayers and I look at that North Star every night, well at least the stars at night and I think of you all!  I love you and I am lighting up Spain!!

Love,

Elder Alex Laubaugh

letter after mother's day :)

Hello all!

 

Well this week has been so so good! First off I would like to say that Spain is starting to show its true self.  The past couple of weeks have been kind of rainy and just a little bit to cold.  Well just this past week, it got hot!!  We saw a good 37ºC during the down part of the day! I don´t even know how hot it was during the hot part!  All is well here, I am doing well and getting a lot of work done. 

The Lord has really blessed us this past week.  Our investigators are starting to get a little bit harder to meet with.  They all have work, and they all work a lot, so it is really hard some weeks to meet with them.  Amanda, well is starting to push us away.  Which is really sad.  She has two kids who are members and most of her family are members.  She has all this going on, and she doesn´t have time to meet with us.  We called her up the other day, and was kind of mad at us for stoppping by to say hi and see if  she was there, well she wasn´t.  Her brother was at the door and told her that we stopped by to say hi.  He said that she was at the park.... sooo we went to the park too.  We didn´t find her, but she has been getting really sassy and saying that she has no time and is really tired.  I know that she is tired, but if she wants to get baptized, she has to meet with us so we can teach her.  Well enough of that.  She is good, but just 

Luís was just baptized on this past saturday! He was so ready and so so happy.  He loves us so much, he said that we could come over any time we wanted to to  just have a little talk, have some lunch with them, any time.  He is so funny, he has told us that at least 20 times over the past 2 weeks.  Eliana is doing well too, we talked with her about what we wanted for her and what we needed for her to do.  She was very understandable and really wants to make a change.  The bad part is just like Amanda, she works a lot.  She also is studying a lot as well.  But she has made time for us to come over and visit for a little bit.  We don´t think that she will make her Fecha, but she has said that she would like a little more time.  So we pray that she can make her Fecha for the end of this month.  Susi is also doing well.  She also works a lot.  She is getting really scared because she was saying that she might get fired.  She said that the next week is going to be really packed full of work and seeing if she will have a job or not.  We hope she can keep her job and just calm down a bit.  We shall see what happens at the end of this week.  Well Benito, is being Benito.  He is so good and just loves life.  Even though he has no work, he still loves life.  He is a spaniard and he used to act like one too.  Just being against anything that isn´t catholic.  Well now he is changed and has a new view of life.  We are still waiting to see when they will get married, the papers are in and now we wait. 

Now it is story time :)  This past week we had a lesson with Gelimber.  He is a non member but he is married to a member, so he has always had some church in his life.  He has come to church and talked with the missionaries before.  No one could really get him to do anything.  He is really lazy and just sits at home, goes to work, and watches soccer.  Well this past week I recieved a box in the mail from Uncle Dave.  He wrote a great letter about 3 things to always do for the rest of your life.  Read at least 1 verse of scripture in the Book Of Mormon,  Pray, and keep Jesus Christ as your best friend.  Well a couple sundays ago his new little baby was blessed.  He said that he felt a very good feeling of peace and just felt really good after that.  Well when we were in this lesson, we were stressing the importance of reading your scriptures.  He says he doesn´t have time and just doesn´t want to.  A thought of that letter came into my mind about reading one verse.  Well I promised him that he would have that same feeling if he read at least one verse a day.  Just one.  I told him this was very easy, which it is.  Just one simple verse. Then he could do anything.  If he had time then he should read more, but just try to read one.  He seemed really happy about that.  He said that he would read, so we shall see what happens when we meet with him again. 

Today we went to the Temple.  It was a great time and much needed.  I missed going to the Temple every week in the MTC.  We get to go Every 5th week if you are in the Madrid zones.  After the Temple we went to Gran Via to go eat at Fresco.  It is a great buffet place and is only about 10 euros.  After Elder Woodbury and I went and walked around.  We went to a mall and just walked around.  Well we found ourselfs in the tie section:)  And yes I bought a tie.  I wanted to get a new one but never really found a nice one.  Ties here are skinny and just do not look good on me.  So when I found a good looking tie I bought it :) 

Well a little food story.  As I have said food here is really good. Well also it can be a little bit strange.  Last week we had squid cooked in its own ink.  It was okay, not the best dish I have had, but it was good.  The member that cooked us it was so happy that we liked it and she asked if we wanted more.  I quickly said I was full and couldn´t eat another bite.  So luckily I didn´t get seconds on that dish.  Well this past Monday we ate at Luís´s house.  Well the first course was a Spain favorite! We hade cooked mussels(not sure how to spell that... opps!) and it was topped with a salsa.  It was more of a lemon salsa, it is really good and is just like salsa in the US.. but more of a lemon taste.  Then for the Second course we had a nice Salmon fillet with onions and a lot of potatoes :) It was soo good! :) 

Well I would like to say that our call was great! I loved talking with you and seeing how everyone was doing.  It was good to see you Jana:)  It was soo  good to talk to all the family.  It was a much needed call:) I love you all and I miss you all so much.  We have been working hard over here.  It is soo good to get all of your letters :) I love you all!!!!

 

Love your Elder in Spain,

 

Elder Alex Laubaugh

another great week

Well this week has been amazing!  Many prayers were said and many prayers were answerd.  Well this week, Antonio was baptized:)  He was so happy! Might I add, he is a very short man.  Around 5'4" tops.  So i was towering over him in the photos.  I have some good ones of him and the Elders:)  He was so happy.  After everything he came up to me and gave me a hug, then Elder Woodbury and said thank you.  He is such a nice guy:)  Well on the topic of Baptism, Luis is going to be baptized this week! 4 Weeks after we met him.  He was so ready when he met us.  He is so happy, and he seems so much happier than before.  He has the gospel now and I am so glad that I was able to give him it.  


On sad news though.. Andrea was pregnat.  Luis called us and said that they lost the Baby and it is going to be really rough for them.  Luckly they turned to the Conference talks and not something else.  They read Elder Packers talk and said they had found their answer in it. They said their faith was down a bit till that point.  So this was so good that they this experience.  Yes it is very sad, but he was saying that he feels so better right now and he feels it was supposed to happen.  


Well Amanda is doing good.  She works a ton so we can´t really get to her, but she has been coming to church and doing all the things that she needs to do, we just can´t get a time to visit her.  So we just need to wait a little bit for her.  Eliana is doing amazing. She came to church for the first time.  Usually investigators come dress down, but she dressed up and wore her nice dress and everything. She said she really liked it.  She also has a fecha and is progressing really well.  Susi is also doing great! She now has a fecha.  She still has a lot of doubts but she is working on them.  She reads the Book of Mormon all the time.  She was telling us that she has recieved a lot of answers to her problems from the chapters we have given her.  Diana and Benito are being golden as always.  They are going to here back from the Marrige place soon, so we shall see when they can get married.  He is so funny, He got mad because he couldn´t go home teaching and he couldn´t go to the temple with the youth.  He has been ready since the 3rd lesson we have taught him.  If only this marrige process didn´t take so long!  

Well this pday We went to SAGOVIA!! Look it up on the Web, yeah be jealous of me:)  It is a older city in spain.  It has a sweet castle that we got to go to the top off and see all of the city :) We also got to see a acuaduct.  I don´t know how to spell it.  I think I mixed it up with the spanish word:P well we also got to see their cathedral which is really beautiful on the Outside, we couldn´t go in though.  Well it was a fun pday and yes I have some great pictures of it all.  Well this week I had a really good lesson learned.  A thought came to my mind a little bit ago... Am I worried about the Number or the Person.  I looked back on my little time in the Mission and I could tell that I was worried about how many lessons we had and how many contacts and recieved we had.  I have been working on changing that.  This week we only had 13 lessons, but with that the Lord has blessed us a lot.  We have 5 new investigators to teach.  With the 89 contacts we had 20 recieved, and a couple new families that might be really good.  We don´t know yet because their lessons are later this week.  I have been trying to work on focusing on the person and or the family that we are teaching, instead of the number.  It has really helped me out, I still need a little bit of work and Elder Woodbury has been helping with that.  


I love you all so much and I hope all is well in The USA and Germany! I sure do miss you all.  Also the best time for me is around 4ish my time.  That is about 10 your time.  I hope that works out good for all of you, I know that is when jana is calling so I hope I can talk with her a little bit.  I might call a little bit later after 4.  We have a lunch appt with a member at 3 so we can be at the Locutorio by 4ish.  So i hope that is all good with all of you!! I love you so much!!

Love,

Elder Alex Lobo!!

Pictures!!

Here are some pictures we recently got of Alex at the MTC! He did great and is now loving his time in Spain! 

Alex by the Provo Temple

 Alex and his MTC companion

This week's letter!

Hello Family!

Well hello all! How is everyone?  Let me just start out by saying that this past week was really amazing.  Many great things are coming to Barrio 9 :)  First off, Antonio has his baptism this Saturday!! How great is that.  He was a little scared but he is all good now and is ready for it.  Luis is also getting ready for his baptism next week:)  He has been waiting for about a month and he can´t wait for it.  As I said before, his wife is a less active member but she has been coming back and wanting to come.  Benito also is so ready! He would so get baptized right now if he could.  He is still waiting to get married,  Diana is from Peru and she has been waiting for her papers and has them, but Madrid is taking a little time with this.  It takes some time here so they should be getting married in about a couple of months, no one really knows.  It is just good to know that they are ready for this.  They have been coming to church every single week and attending all the activities we have, which is so good.  They really want to get married and the amazing thing is they want to go to the temple and do work for his father and get sealed in the temple.  Benito is on fire right now.  As you can see, our investigators are doing well.  They all are progressing at their own speed, which is fine.  Some aren't doing as well, which is not so good. Amanda has her date set for the end of this month, but we can never meet with her.  She has time to go out and play, but not for us.  She does work a lot, but she always says, oh, I just have no time, I´m sorry.  We set up lessons with  her, then she drops us, but we get to meet with her almost every Friday and Saturday.  Soo it could be worse.  Well other than that, our investigators are doing great! 

Well, I have had some amazing food this past week.  First off, as I have said, I am in South America. Well this past week I have had a lot of great dishes from Peru, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and other places.  Well the best are these two.  First, I had this drink from the Dominican, It´s called Morir soñando... ohhh wow this was so good.  It has milk ,lots of surgar, and a lot of lemon juice.  It might sound gross, but it is so good!! Second was this dish from Ecuador.  Our investigator, Luis, loves to cook and he and his wife made rice, mashed potatoes, and a lot of meat.  Well it was sooo good and yes they gave us a lot of it.  He gave Elder Woodbury and me a big plate of rice, like a mound of it, basically, it covered the plate with a big dish of mashed potatoes.  Then there was a slab of meat on the side.  Ohhhh it was sooo  goood!!! And yes, I ate it all.. And yes, I didn´t eat till the next morning because I was so full!!! 

Well something sweet is I Met JC Carrol, He plays for Madrid Basketball and I guess he is pretty good.  He just came to Sacrament because he had a game that night, but he was super nice and talked to us about the mission.  He went to Chile I believe. Well onto some funny things that have happend to me.  Well we were talking to Diana about a dream she had.  Scary dream.  She says that she feels something dark is around their piso, but she said it was gone until this dream she had.  She said that she saw this Black Shadow jump onto their Piso mate and come back into their piso.  I was kinda freaked out but she says that Fernando (the mission ward leader) came over and talked to them and calmed them down.  Well the funny part is we were talking about satan.  Well the word for satan in spanish is Santanas... welll I said Santana... kinda similar but not.  She looked at me and started laughing and said... like the rocker?? hahah well ooops I corrected myself and said sorry for the oops I just had :P 

Well when we are on the street, I stand out.  I am a tan so I kind of blend in, but my size screams American.  We were contacting and I just stopped and turned around to run down some lady I saw.   Well as I turned around this little old Spanish Lady runs into me.  I stay still, she goes flying.  Her glasses about fall off and she is madder than a wet hen.  Ohhh she was about to scream at me.  I of course am shocked and help her get her balance.. I say sorry and just go on my way to get the lady I needed to stop.  Well that´s happend a couple of times, but not as bad.  I tell you what, Spanish old women are mean.  They stare at you and say some weired things..

I mentioned before, but the transportation is really good.  The buses are fast and get you to where you need pretty quickly.  Yesterday we needed to get to the church.  We walked to the bus stop and the bus was about to leave.  Well, I start sprinting.  I tighten up my back pack and just sprint.  I caught the bus, and my companion, Elder Woodbury just takes his time seeing that I got the bus.  That's happend a couple of times.  Well family I love you all so so much!! I miss you all and I can´t wait to call in a little bit!!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOUUUUU!!!!!

Love Your Favorite Spanish Missionary,

Elder AlexLaubaugh!

Last week's letter

Hello all!!!
How is everyone?? Well this week has been reallly good and yes still very hard.  Well just to let you all know, I had an interview with President Watkins yesterday :)  It went really well and he was really impressed how much we are teaching and how the members are coming along.  Yes Mitch, I told President what you told me to tell him.  I told him that I am here to work, and to Light up Spain.  I also told him that if he needs a missionary that is willing to work, that I am that Missionary :) He told me thank you and we went on our way with the interview.  Well this week we also had 19 lessons.  Our investigators are doing so well!! I am so glad that they are really wanting to change their lives around for this.  I am so glad for the people who listen.  We have another investigator.  It was a member referral and she seems really nice.  I hope she wants to hear more after the 2nd lesson.  Well, as I said, our investigators are doing well.  Luis and Andrea are doing super good! Every lesson that we have had with them, he has cried.  He wants to be baptized so bad! I love it!!  :)  She is already a member and so is her family, but this is a really big step for him.  Diana and Benito are doing super well too!! On Sunday he spoke up during class and said a comment that he wasn´t a member, but he will be soon and that baptism is just the first step he needs to take.  He wants to go to the temple and do the work for his dad.  I am so proud of him.  I am so glad that the Lord has poured these blessings on us.  He has helped me out so much this past week with Spanish.  Our other investigators are also doing well.  Some are doing really well, but need a little help with some of their doubts, but it´s life and they want to make sure on this decision they are making. 
Well, today I got my residency card!  YAY!! I don´t need to bring my passport to get food anymore! :)  While we were going there, we had a great time.  When we got to Aluche metro stop we got off and saw a guy being held down by 3 gaurds and a girl yelling at him.  He tried to break free... bad idea.  I wanted to see a good fight but all I saw was a random guy take his head and slam it to the ground to help out the gaurds.  It was getting really intense so we stayed and watched him get slammed up against the wall.  Well after that I got my haircut.  It was much needed!  Well we went to this cheap place that did a nice job.  Well before I got it, the lady got a phone call.  Well she started yelling in Chinese.  She went outside and started yelling and yelling and saying all this Chinese words.  She then stopped, hung up and came over to me and said, what would you like.  I was freaked out because I didn´t want to get this messed up haircut because she is mad at some person.  But she did a good job :) 
Well this week I have been is Alma.  Wow I love the Book of Alma.  There is so much about missionary work and I knew that, but not to this level.  I now have a favorite chapter, Alma 26. Wow what a great chapter! I love 10-13 about boasting in God, it really hit me for some reason.  I was just thinking about it a lot this past week and this week also.  I also love Ammon.  Man was he a great missionary!  I love how he was saying everyone laughed at them for going up to the Lamanites, but he showed them and converted thousands upon thousands of people.  Love it!  Well that is about it for this week.  It has been really busy and we had a great day of contacting yesterday.  We had 9 people that wanted to hear more, so hopefully a couple of them really do want to hear this message that we have!  I hope that the trip went well!! I am not sure if you are still in Utah, but I hope that it was great!!  And Great Job Mitch!!! Way to go!! Muy guai!!
I love you all so much and I hope that you are doing great!!  By the way Dad, the other Elders in the Piso are really hard workers, they are really good.  Well all get along really well and we both have great investigators.  They just had a baptism last week and it went so good!  Well I love you all!

Love your favorite Elder,

Elder Alex Laubaugh