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