Aug 15, 2012

Helloo family! How are all of you doing?  Doesn´t it feel like I was just on here about 2 days ago? Well that's what I feel like.  The first thing that I want to say is that transfers are this Friday.  We'll we find out who is staying and going.  I am not sure about this one.  I could stay or go, pero, No Se,  Well just pray for the best.  If the Lord needs me here, I will be fine with that.  If he needs me somewhere else, I´ll be fine with that.  I really don´t care.  Well, on to the juicy stuff. This past week we had a baptism!  Rosa, Patricia, and Jonathan!  Wow what a spirit filled day that was.  I tell you what, Rosa has a spirit that can knock. you. out.  It was so strong when she bore her testimony after her baptism.  All three of them had amazing baptisms.  I was honored to confirm Patricia into  La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias.  That was a great experience in and of itself.  It was just so amazing, I just started talking.  Things that I wouldn´t have said, but the spirit told me to do so :)  Well, I have some very sad news.  You all know that Benito and Diana are going to get married.  Last week we found out when.... In October :(  the 5th to be exact:(  Okay I might have cried a little after hearing that.  It is just so sad because I probably won't see it.  That is in 2 transfers.  How sad is that.  I really wanted to see it.  I will just pray that I will still be in Madrid when It happens.  Well on a good note,  we have another family.  I will write about them because well, they are doing great!  It´s a mom, her sister, and her two daughters, Jacaline,  Elizabeth, Kimberly, and Fernanda.  They are doing great and we are going to set a date with them this week.  Just to let you all know, my talk went great.  Everyone said that my Spanish was perfect.  It was dead on and they just knew I was trying my hardest.  It just felt good to hear that from the members.  It was about how we can bear our testimony with everyone, and how we need more effort in our daily life with the missionary work.  I used some of my own experiences with that one.  Many people afterwards said that they will talk to many of their friends about the church.  This is a great sign :)  It just went great.  I am happy that it did go well.  

Well now I have a food story. It´s about Ice cream.  Here they just don´t know how to scoop it.  I kinda want to have a clinic on how to give a good scoop.  Well one night we are walking back to our Piso and we past a shop.  My companion and I wanted some so we went in.  I saw some of these scoops and they were weak!!!!  So when it was my turn, my Dad sense came over me.  I said  "I want a big bowl, okay.  I want big scoops, don´t be giving me  small scoops, okay."  I looked her right in the eyes, she understood.  She gets out the big bowl which is our medium, and she scoops it, it was still small, I said, no, I want  big scoops.  She put it back and she loaded it up! I said I´ll pay for it if you want.  Well i didn´t have too :)  Yeah that´s right, I did that :)

Okay now I have a first timer.  So we get to this lesson.  We were teaching Diana and Benito's friends.  We were talking and I scratch my nose, not that hard.  Well I feel something coming down.  It was blood.  So I get up and get out my hanky, sorry dad, and I blow my nose.... there was a lot.  I fold it up and sit back down.  Well Diana saw that and just freaks out, Ohhh Noo Sangre!!  She wips out her wet wipes for her baby and gives me 3.  I hold it up to my nose and wow their was a lot of blood.  I used 6 wipes.  She rips some and roll it up and said, put this in your nose.  Yes I felt like mom when I did that.  It just wouldn´t stop bleeding, just more and more blood.  Well 30min passed by and it isn´t stopping.  I said that we can just hit on the first 2 points of the Plan of Salvation and we did that.  After the lesson, it stopped, my luck.  hahaha  I said I was so sorry for this but they understood.  It was all good, just really weird.  

 Well family that is it for this week.  Elder Raiano and I are doing great.  We are like best friends right now.  We are just working our butts off over here.  If I go, I´ll be sad but I´ll know that the Lord needs me to Light up another area! :)  I love you all so much! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Alex Laubuagh :) XXOOxxooxoxoxoXOXOX

Aug 8, 2012

Helloo from Spain!! This has been another great week of growing and learning.  I just want to first say that I love my mission.  Yes it is hard, yes I want to die sometimes, but I love it.  I just love everything about it, the people, the language, the food, the times that I grow, everything!  I also want to say thank you.  Thank you family for pushing me to do my best, to be better everyday.  Thank you for just everything.  Now being in my mission for 7 months I have seen a lot of change.  Yes I am a little thinner, yeah maybe a little taller, but more of a spiritual change.  It just started to hit quite a bit this past transfer.  I have to say, I wasn´t the humblest elder out here.  Yeah I knew that I had to rely on the Lord, but there was something missing.  One thing that I have learned is I can get along with anyone I want to.  I am everyones friend.  By that I mean everyone asks, why do you have a smile on your face, why are you so happy alllll of the time?  I just say, well, I love life and my mission, what´s more to ask for?   Lately, I have had to rely more on the Lord.  I have had to pray harder, to read more, to just do more.  With that, I have noticed that I have grown.  I have learned more and more everyday.  I have seen so many blessings from this.  Just putting forth more action has brought me so much more blessings.  The Lord is the best!  :)  

Well this week we had a baptism!  :) It was a great day.  The sad thing, is that Renzo backed down.  Jorge is doing great, but Renzo just wasn't ready.  He prays but not for an answer.  He just doesn´t have any action.  But on the flip side, Jorge is doing great.  He is just loving life.  On Thursday he said he would like to be baptized on Friday, not Saturday:) How great is that!  Benito and Diana are doing great! He had his meeting for his marriage yesterday.  We need to call him to see how it went, but I am so proud of him.  He is just the best of the best!  He´s paying tithing, living every commandment, just doing great!  

Well one thing that I would like to say is that Elder Raiano is a good Elder.  He recently stood up for me.  During a lesson I started to stutter a little bit.  Nothing big but they all noticed.  Well one of our investigators just starts to giggle and laugh at me.  The mom is just oh it is okay, we understand, but this girl who is 22 is just cracking up.  Elder R just rips her apart.  He says "you know that he has a stutter, right? You know that this is very hard for him to say, right?"  He just said some other things and she just stopped and stared at me with sorry eyes.  I went on and started talking like normal.

On the stutter note I have to say something.  When we were in a lesson with Diana and Benito, they said something very nice, just really hit me hard.  Benito was saying that during the first part of him taking the lessons he didn´t really understand me.  But he said when I prayed, bore testimony, he could feel something, very strong.  Just this feeling of this is true.  It was so nice and I just was so thankful that he said that.  I have been having some trouble with just knowing if the Spirit is there.  I feel it but I am not sure if they do.  It was just nice to hear. 

Well I have no food stories which is good, but I had a really good talk with President :)  He was at our district meeting and he stayed just to talk to us.  Wow what a great person he is.  Both of them.  They just are so nice and just so caring.  They really do love the missionaries :)  We just went off on football topics.  He was a surgeon in Utah and also a doctor for BYU.  He has been everywhere.  He just is so cool.  I love him and his wife so much.  He always says that we need to marry a women like his wife.  It´s pretty funny:)

Well family that is it.  Thank you so much for everything, for just supporting me.  I do really love all of you.  If you have any advice, or anything, please send it my way.  I love you.

Love Your favorite Elder in Spain,

Elder Alex Laubaugh!!

July 25, 2012

The title says it all.  Week of miracles.  I tell you what, we had a great week.  Right after I finished writing you all last week, we had a great lesson with Renzo and Jorge.  They have accepted a baptisimal fecha for the 4 of august.  Just on Monday we had a great lesson on the for Strength of Youth.  Renzo has about 4 piercings.  I think that´s how you spell it, but while we read this, we talked to him about this little thing.  We asked him if he will take them out for good, and you guessed it, He said yes.  We actually took them out.  Elder Raiano took them out for him.  He looks so much better.  He had one in his Eyebrow, and 3 in his ears.  It just didn´t look good at all.  Rosa is doing great.  She is just loving church.  Her family is doing great as well.  We had to push back her date just a little bit because she wants to be baptized with her family.  I love that family.

This past Sunday was a great one as well.  We had 7 people assist church :)  One of our investigators that we didn´t teach because he wasn´t home came.  He came with one of the members.  I was so glad he made that great choice.  He said that the last time we spoke I said for him to come to church and learn for yourself.  Another one of our investigators is also doing great, but we did have a little bit of a bump.  It´s nothing that is going to hurt his progress, but something he needs to work on.  He and his family don´t have a lot of money and live in a very small room in a Piso.  Well he loves video games and has his PS3 and a lot of games.  Many of those games are upwards of 70euros each that could easily pay for a good weeks worth of food for them, and then some.  Well we had a great lesson on what matters most, your games or your family.  Well, he is in his little world and just says all of this stuff about technology and that this helps people learn and a bunch of things that didn´t make sense at all.  It´s just something that he has a problem with.  

Well onto some other really great news about my life in Spain.  Since we use the Metro a lot, I have made a lot of new friends like the Security guards of the Oporto Metro stop.  Every single time we  go in or go out, we always say hi, have a nice little chat and then go on to do more work.  They just love us.  They talk about us and how we use it so much.  We have tried to work with many of them, but they do work a lot, and it is hard to meet with them.  Many of them don´t live in our area, but just wait, I´ll get one of them to listen some more.  I have a little bit of a story to share.  It´s about Diana and Benito's son, Arturo.  During the Sacrament, I hear this little kid say, mommy, daddy, my stomach hurts... then I hear a bunch of water splash on the ground.  Now I am right infront of Arturo and Diana, Beni is up front with me.  I look back and I see nothing wrong untill he pukes again but even more. Let me tell you again, this is DURING the Sacrament.  Benito takes him and he throws up again a good 3 times on his way.  There is puke everywhere in our chapel.  Good thing we have tile and not carpet.  I go out and a couple of the members come out too to get mops and water.  Wow that was a little experience. 

Well I have another talk, and you guessed it, it´s on Mission Work, like always.  I am starting to put some things together.  If you have any talks just send them my way :)  

I've learned so much on my mission so far.  The Lord has blessed me so much with his love in my life right now.  It just makes me so grateful to have a Father in Heaven that loves each one of his children.  It just hit me the other day.  Wow, Our Father in Heaven loves me, and all of his children.  I love you all so much and I hope that you all are doing great!!  I love you and miss you.

Love,

Elder Alex Laubaugh!!

6-18-2012

Hello again!  It has been another great pday and now it is almost over.  First of all I just wanted to say thank you.  Thank  you for the great letters that past few weeks.  It has really helped me out with adjusting to new circumstances.

Our investigators are doing well.  We are trying to get some new people but it´s getting harder to find more.  We do have 2 new people.  We met a less active woman right before Elder Woodbury left.  She has 2 boys that are not members.  Well the 2 boys have gone to church with their mom, and they love it.  Renzo and Jorge :)  They are the best ever.  We are going to set up a baptismal date with them today actually :)    Well also we have a less active father.  His family is great.  They are great members and come every Sunday,  but he doesn´t.  We found out that his wife wants to go to the temple, but the father has a drinking problem and just isn´t on the right track right now.  We will be making sure to fix that  :)   I love our investigators so much.  I love being on a mission so I can see how much a person can change in a matter of months.  It is so great to see!  

Well my Spanish is getting better.  Elder Raiano complements me a lot saying that it has been getting better.  When we were in a lesson he said I sounded different for a good 3-4 minutes.  Just perfect Spanish, nothing was wrong.  The accent, the grammer, everything was perfect.  That night I thanked the Lord for that.  That wasn´t me, I know that for sure.  That was the gift of tongues all the way :)  It was good for me to finally hear, wow that was perfect.  That was the first time.  

Well as Jana has been saying, a new President is different.  President Jackson, is a street President, as he says.  He wants to be with us in our lessons, contacts, everything.  He told us he doesn´t want to be in the office, he wants to be with us.  He has a kid quality to him, which is really nice.  He is one of the missionaries :)  He told us, no more numbers.  I don´t like them, I want it from the heart, I want the lessons from the heart, not a book.  I am going to love President!  That´s what I like to hear! :)

Thank you so much for everything! I love you all so much!  You are all the best and I love you.  Thank you for the letters and the support over the week.  I needed it.  Nothing on the food end, which is good I guess :)  

Thank you again for everything!  I love you!

Love, 

Elder Alex Laubaugh!!

july 11, 2012

Well this week has been a little different, I just want you all to know that first.  Second I just want you all know that I am still in Barrio 9, so I did not leave this past transfer.... Elder Woodbury did. He is now in the Canary Islands!!!!  How crazy is that!! My new companion is Elder Raiano, and if you were wondering, he is from Argentina :)  He has been out one year and 8months, so he has 3 transfers left.  He is really nice, funny and he speaks a little bit of English, just enough to help me out here and there :)   

Well, Benito loved his gifts.  Thank you all so much for sending that to me.  Seeing his eyes light up like that when he saw Marvel things was amazing, thank you for making that happen.  Also, Elder Woodbury gave him a white shirt and a tie and I put in a tie of mine.  He loved it all.  It was a great sight to see him just so happy.  They don´t have that much.  Diana does have work, but it still isn´t a lot for them.  What is so good, is that they still want to tithe out of their money.  Which is amazing.  I told them that they will be blessed for this.  The Lord always keeps his promises.  Well, Antonio just used his priestood and passed the Sacrament.  I was trying to look for him during church then I see this  45 year old man sitting with a bunch of 12 and 14year old boys :)  He was so happy and he was in his nice little suit.  Rosa is still on fire.  She really likes church, which is really good.  It´s an I told you so moment.  I told her she has to put forth a little action to know if this is the true church or not.  She just didn´t understand until she went to church.  Her daughter- in-law is great too.  Her husband came to church as well.  They really liked it.  They have 2 boys.  Jonathan and Christian.  They both love church and all the youth.  Our ward has a lot of youth.  They really like how we just are a family here.  

Well last week, I was a wreck.  It was a hard week for me.  I was just nervous for change, for the unknown.  It was hard for me to do anything, like speaking.  I finally figured out what was up.  It was because of transfers.  I didn´t want to leave, nor did I want Elder Woodbury to leave.  But the Lord needed him in Santa Cruz and the Lord needed Elder Raiano out here in Madrid. I have calmed down now and my stutter has gone away, well most of it. Elder Raiano is really helping me with it and speaking.  He really knows how to teach, which is good for me.  He really likes to work and everything.  

Things here are still good.  I am the area trainer and I am glad that I know my area pretty dang well.  I do have to do a lot more work, which is a little stressful, but Elder Raiano knows what to do also :) which is always good.

Thank you all for everything. This week has been good, change is a good thing.  Thank you for all your support and love :) I feel it :)

Loves all around!!!

Love You All!!!

Love,

Elder Alex Lobo :)

july 7, 2012

Hello All!!  

This week, wow.... it has been a lot of ups and downs if you know what I mean.  I would like to thank you all for the package, it really means a lot to me, I am sure that Benito will love those little Marvel things :)  He tells me every visit what I have missed that past week. It´s pretty funny.  Well on the topic of them, they could be a lot better, but they are still kickin!  They moved to a very small room.  They don´t have any work... until Diana fasted!! Now she does!!  It was a blessing that was very needed!!  We taught them more about why it is important to fast and to do those things.  So Diana did and now she has a job working for a family in Pozuelo, about 45min away, so some of our members paid for a Abono so she can go out there.  I love good members that care about our investigators. 

Well we have had many great blessings this past week.  First off, Rosa, is really good.  She told us about 2 weeks ago she didn´t want anything and that our church was a joke.  She hadn't been to church or prayed about it.  She likes the Book of Mormon but it´s just a book to her.  Well, we took another chance, we had a good lesson about doing things and having faith in our message.  Well, she finalllly went to church... and she LOVED it!!! She wanted to bring her sister inlaw and her family!! She just couldn´t stop talking about it. That Saturday we met with her sister in law and her son and they wanted to go to Engish class and come to church too.  That Sunday, I see a huge smile on Rosa´s face and her sister inlaw is there and her son!  Ahhh what a great blessing that was.  We had a lesson right after church, and her son pops a question  "how do I become a member of your church?"  Well let´s tell you how.  That lesson we set a fecha for all 3 of them.  Wow that really was a great help.  They love going to church, and they are really getting it.  The Lord can do some amazing things :)  

So with that said, we just had a great week of teaching and just everything.  We just have been really blessed this past week.  Elder Woodbury and I have been on our knees thanking the Lord for these great people and great blessings we have.  People just need to take a step of faith, then they will see what we are talking about.  

Well this week has been a bit tougher for me.  My Spanish is good enough to get me by, but I want to be better than that.  Unfortunately, this past week my stutter just wanted to come and say hi in full force.  It was really hard to speak.  I don´t know what happend.  It was hard and I just wanted to sit down and cry some days.  People couldn´t understand me and my Spanish just took a dive down.  It was hard, very hard for me this week, even talking in English was hard.  I tried to slow down, breath more, but nothing was helping.  I got very frustrated and very angry of why this was happening.  Then, on Monday I was reading in the Book of Mormon.  I was praying hard on what do you want me to learn?  Why is my stutter back now?  I had a very strong impression  to read in Doctine and Covenants.  I was reading in section 122, I was reading in this and i started to read in Verse 7.  It just hit me.  I don´t know why I was freaking out.  In the verse it just says that when you are in the worst part, in the hands of the bad guys, it´s all for an experience.  It´s gonna be okay.  I felt a lot better after that, I just thanked God after that, for giving me just a plain answer about what he was doing right now.  My stutter is doing better, my breathing is good still, it is still hard to speak but it has been better.   Just yesterday I had a lady tell me I didn´t sound like a person from the US.  I sounded like I was from Brazil or somthing :) that was new.  hahaha 

Well I have a food story (Dad I would skip this if I were you).  Well on Saturday we are at a members home that is known to give us bad food.  Well we get there and it doesn´t smell good.  She said she has spent 4 hours making this soup.  Oh noo... Well she said it is sheep.  Well that´s fine, then she said, well just the insides.  Say what lady???  Well I had sheep heart, liver, stomach, everything, even solid blood from the sheep.  Yeah that was gross.  And yes, I said no when she offered more.  

Well I love you all!!  I am home sick right now.  I miss you all so much.  We had a 4 of july party, and our new president was there :)  He is very nice and his wife is just so great.  That´s what got me home sick, just seeing them and she acted like mom, it just got me a little home sick.  I love you all so much, I miss you all like crazy!! I hope everything goes well!! I love you all!!!

Love your favorite son in spain!!

Elder Alex Laubaugh

june 28, 2012

Well this week has been really good :)  The sad thing is, weeks have been going by fast, a little to fast!  In one of my letters from dad, he said that this wasn´t a 2 year mission anymore, the time is ticking.  Something of that sort... I tell you what, that is so true! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was on this computer! Ahhhh!!  Welll last week I was a little weak on the response of how the language was.  Well I am happy to say that I can now translate for people :) I know, I was amazed myself,  the Church is true :P  I learned this from the barbaque and that next sunday.  Well we have a couple American families in our ward.  They just work here and they really don´t know Spanish, so usually we just sit by them and translate sometimes.  Well, one of them, The Bidolfs, had their parents come in.  Sister Bidolf had her baby so her Mom and Dad came.  Well, during Priesthood meeting, the dad looked a little bit confused.  I wonder why :P Well I asked if he would like me to translate, knowing very well I have never done that before.  I wasn´t sure if I could do it, but I took a leap of faith.  After the first sentance out of the teacher's mouth, words started to come out of my mouth.  Then the rest is history.  I got a good 70% of what the teacher was saying to us.  It was a great experience that really helped me out.  After the meeting I told him sorry that I didn´t get everything, my Spanish was still a little shaky, he didn´t mind at all, thank goodness.  It just felt good to do that, to know that I can understand more than I thought.  

Well This past sunday was a great one!! Antonio recieved the Priesthood!! He was so happy! The week before Luís recieved it.  It's good knowing that they are on there way in the church! We still meet with both of them at least once a week.  Antonio is so funny!  He just comes up to me and gives me a big ol´ hug :)  You will see that he is not the biggest person out there.  Well on Monday, we met with Antonio and we found out that he has read the whole Book of Mormon. I was so proud of him and he really knows his stuff.  He was naming off scripture about this and that, and I am just so happy for him.  

Well I just want to say thank you to dad :)  He sent me a great letter with one great question that I should tell someone.  "Where do you want to be in 5 years?"  Well in a lesson on Sunday, this same question came into mind.  The lady is just lazy, so I asked her.  I could tell that it hit her hard, but she just said, back in my country with my family.  It was a lame response but that´s what she wants.  I told her that our Savior can give her way more and can make her more happy than anything in the world.  She seemed to like it, but she was still in the lazy state..  So thank you dad for giving me that great letter. 

Well on the food side, I had some great dish from Ecuador.  It´s called Ceviche!  They don´t cook it at all.  They told us that they boil water then dunk the fish in twice real quick then put it into the lemon acid mixture.  It was so good!! It had shrimp, fish, and some other great seafood things in there!  :)  

Well today we went to the temple :) It was a great time and this was the last time I got to see President and Sister Watkins.  The new President comes in tomorrow!  Well the great thing is is that I got a picture with President :) Also I got a hug from Sister Watkins.  She was so funny.  We were just standing around, and she comes up to me and Elder Woodbury and just says "Give me a hug!  I´m allowed :)"  hahah it was funny but everyone really liked it.  

Well this week has been filled up with contacting and lessons like always.  It has been fast, really fast, but so good at the same time.  I really love how the Lord works on his servants.  He has taught me a lot this past transfer.  A lot with patience and just being humble.  He has put a lot of hard days in my path, and yes I hate it, but I have learned so much from them.  

I love you all so much and I can´t wait to hear from you all!  I love you! 

Love your Son and Brother,

Elder Alex Laubaugh