Elder Robert Driggs III

June 22, 2011

2011-06-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

Dearest Family in the whole wide world....AKA...MY FAMILY!!!

From the title you can understand that I am trying to endure to the end. I don´t think that it has actually hit me yet that I am ending the mission, this thing that I have looked forward to all of my life and now I am done. Wow, I just can´t believe it.

This scripture in the subject title was shared by President Watkins in a zone leader council a few months ago and is very interesting. Moroni did not think that he was going to live more but the Lord had more prepared for him to do. Moroni kept going forward and wrote some of the most inspiring and impressive chapters of the Book of Mormon, the sacrament prayers, faith, hope and charity, baptism of children, and the famous promise that has led, changed, and touched millions of lives, including mine.

I am excited to see you too, and it will be sad and hard leaving all of this paradise here in Spain. I think and believe that the mission is the closest you can get to the Celestial Kingdom. I love missionary work and hope and plan to do that throughout my life. That makes this transition easier, knowing that I can keep doing and participating in this sacred work, forever, for the rest of my life. How exciting! Once a missionary, always a missionary.

So anyway, it will be great to see you soon. I love you and I know that I have bugged you a bunch already, but just to make sure that you don´t forget to bring those multi vitamins that Elder Cerro asked for. It was his birthday the 21 of June, this last Tuesday and I think that it would be great to be able to give him that as a present for his birthday, even if he has to pay for them. He would really enjoy that. I love you very much and travel safely. Don´t forget to buckle up!!!

Love,

your favorite missionary...Élder Driggs

June 15, 2011

2011-06-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Well, this week has been a good week. Élder Carey and I are working hard and trying to be obedient. We are seeing quite a bit of success. Yesterday we set a baptismal date with an older Spanish man about the age of 50 or 55. His name is Jose Antonio and after the second lesson he seems to have quite a few external problems in his life; like divorce, etc. He is a very nice man and we set the date for the 16^th of July. We will see how things go. He was going to come to church last Sunday, but from what he told us yesterday, he had to go visit his mom and eat with her. He said that he would come this Sunday and we hope that all goes well with him.

I really like Ponferrada and wish that I could stay here some more time, just to see more results from our hard work. I really like the members. They are sooo nice! Last week we ate with members 5 times, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I think that that is a record during my mission, especially since I didn´t get here until Tuesday of last week. Actually Tuesday night we met with the branch mission leader and his wife gave us soup to take home in Tupperware so I guess you could say we were given food everyday of the week. The work is also really good here. We are finding more people to teach and the work is starting to grow.

On Monday we received a huge blessing. As we were contacting in one of the main streets we stopped a girl name María. She was super nice and told us that she had a friend in Barcelona that was a member and I think that she told us that she had gone to family night at the chapel there in Barcelona. I am not sure she said all of that right there in the contact or later, as the information and order of events sometimes gets mixed up and confused. There in the contact we asked if she had time to meet later that day and she said that she did.

We met up with her in a park and started to talk to and teach her. She is super special. She is 30 years and knows 4 languages, which includes Chinese, and she is going to finish a PHD right now in French literature, or something like that. When we met up with her she showed us a really old copy of the Book of Mormon that one of the first members of the church in Barcelona had given to María´s mom about 30 years ago. She told us that she didn´t know how to read the book. She has the same problem with the Bible. She really didn´t know the best way to read them. We taught her a little bit and she said that she was willing to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She wasn´t quite willing to come to church this Sunday but we told her that we were going to call her this Saturday to invite her.

So that is a little bit of what we are doing here in Ponferrada. I am a district leader up here, so I am getting that experience which is nice. I get along well with Élder Carey. He reminds me of Andrew Garrett a little bit in the way he acts sometimes.

To respond to your questions:
If there is anything you need us to bring for anyone over there let us know pretty soon.
I think that Élder Cerro would love some reeses peanut butter cups, the normal ones. He loves those and like I told you a couple weeks ago, he wants some of those like 500 multivitamins that has every vitamin or mineral that you need. He is willing to buy them from you, so if there is room that would be great.

Apart from that, the people that we visit I am sure would love candy or something like that. Élder Ketchum´s mom brought American candy for the people that they visited while they were here and I imagine that they liked it. They had like Pop Rocks and other things like that, things that you don´t really find here.
Remind me, how many suit cases do you (or will you have) on your way home?

I have, and don´t think that I will need more, 2 big suitcases and a carry on. That is how many suit cases that they allowed before, but from what I have heard they have changed the standards and only allow 1 suitcase and one carry on I think. If that is the case, I think that the church pays for that extra bag, the extra price that is required to transport it.

Mom, for Presidente and Hermana Watkins:

I think that Toffee would be the best. I think that they have everything that they need, but I think that she would love some Toffee. She liked the toffee that I gave her on Christmas, and occasionally makes a comment about your cooking blog. I know that President Watkins does a good job about watching what he eats, but I think that he like that little detail of toffee. I am not sure about him. He tries to be pretty healthy.

I remember a long time ago you asked me if there was something that you, the family, could do on Monday, while I am not with you. I was thinking that you could probably visit, El Escorial that day. It is a Monastery/Castle that is really beautiful. It is where many Kings and Queens are buried. Just a thought, if you haven´t made up your mind. To get there I think you take a bus out of the metro stop Moncloa, I think that it takes about an hour, but I really can´t remember how much time it takes.

I love you all very much and hope that all goes well this week. That is really cool that Mark gets to go to Lake Powell. Good luck with everything and keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers daily, especially Cami and Mark and Cari.

I love you all and wish Preston my best on his big day.

Love,

Élder Driggs

June 8, 2011

2011-06-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

This week has been another fantastic week. Anibal Fernando Gonzales se bautizó el día sábado a las 8:00 por la tarde. He was very happy and looked very content to be baptized. It was especially fun because he officially belongs to the branch of Aranjuez. It was so fun because even though the baptism took place in the stake center on temple square, which is about 40 minutes away from Aranjuez in car, there were a few members that came. The branch president came with all his family except for one daughter, the branch mission leader also came, and the biggest surprise was that Ronny and Gina and there 3 children came.

This was the family that got baptized when Elder Carr and I were in Aranjuez. I hadn´t seen them for almost 8 or 9 months, since October of last year at General Conference. It was so nice to see them and to be able to spend time with them. They are less active to inactive but it seems that they are picking things back up again. Ronny and Gina both gave there testimonies in the baptismal service and Gina said that she knew that this was the true church and something to the effect that she has never thought about parting from it. They are really good people but Ronny has had a tough work schedule which has required him to work nights. But maybe a month ago he lost his work and now they can come to church. I had asked President Jarosz from Aranjuez to call Ronny and Gina and invite them to the baptism and they actually. That was a miracle.

Fernando seems to be good and I hope that he can stay the course for the rest of his life. It sure helps to have the support of family members, especially since he lives with his brother and the family of his brother, and they are active members.

So I guess from the title you are wondering where I am right now. This last Monday, the Lord saw fit to have me transferred to Ponferrada to finish my mission there. Ponferrada is a city up north, to the west of León. You will have to look it up on a map. It is really, really pretty here and very green, with mountains. This area belonged to the old Bilboa mission, so it is neat to be able to get up here and see how it is. It is a little bit different than Madrid because there are a lot more Spaniards, but I like that. I wish I could have been able to socialize more in the mission with actual Spaniards.

Most of the people we have taught have been from South America, and most of the wards are made up of South Americans. So it is nice to be in a city where there are a lot of people from Spain and not very many people from South America. I like it a lot. My new companion is Elder Carey from Bountiful, Utah. He went to Woods Cross High School. He has been in the mission 11 months as of yesterday and I think that we are going to have a lot of success. Apart from the things that I want to accomplish here, I think that there is something special that the Lord has for me to do here. So I hope to be able to find out what that is and be able to do it. I am trying to continue to trust in the blessings mentioned in my patriarchal blessing, and to work and obey so that I can receive them.

I love the mission and am so glad for all of the things that I have been able to do while I have been on the Lord´s errand. I hope that my offering has been worthy for the Lord, and I hope that He has been pleased with my efforts. I have not been perfect but I have been able to learn and progress and I feel that I am the missionary that He wants me to be. I still need to keep working and keep progressing so that I can always be ready and worthy for whatever job He wants me to do.

Just so you know, Élder Cerro´s new companion is Elder Hodges from California. They are going to have lots of success. Elder Cerro is a wonderful missionary and I have really enjoyed our time together. I have grown to love him and we have developed a friendship that will last forever. I love him very much. We will have to take him and his companion out to eat when you come out.

I hope that you have a wonderful week. I love you all very much. Please keep reading the scriptures, praying to our Father in Heaven, and going to church every week so that we can renew our covenants with Him. Only by doing these 3 things and by being obedient to the commandments of God, can we find true and everlasting happiness in this life and in the life to come. That is what we want so let´s pay the price. I love you very much. Tell everyone hi for me.

Love,

Élder Driggs

May 25, 2011

2011-05-25T21:38:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

I love the mission. I am loving every minute of it. I am grateful that all went well with Grandma. I hope that everyone is taking it well. I appreciate what you, mom and dad, said about the situation. I loved the scriptures and the details. I, too, believe in the Resurrection and know that thanks to Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we can see and live with our loved ones forever. This is what I want with my life, to be worthy of that gift of eternal life. I count it as a privilege being able to be a missionary and being able to share the blessing or the opportunity of having eternal life, as that only depends on our personal righteousness.

I am not sure at what time Grandma passed away but the baptism of Lizett Marbeli Perino García was at 4:30 our time and she had asked me to baptize her. That was a special honor to do so. It is interesting that while someone was being born again spiritually, completing with earthly requirements from Heavenly Father, while someone else was leaving this life, having done what Heavenly Father has required of us. I love missionary work and it is so satisfactory, I feel so good trying to bring souls to Christ.

I remember a song written with the words of President Hinckley and the music written by the famous Janice Kapp Perry. There is a special phrase in that song that I can still remember. It says, ¨There is no death, but only change. ¨ What a blessing to know that life goes on. Death is merely opening a door and stepping into another room. I also love the words to the last verse of ¨Come, Come, ye saints.¨ The verse goes like this, ¨and should we die, before our journey´s through, happy day, all is well. ¨ I know that Grandma is well, where she is right now. I know it! And that thought gives me peace and comfort, to the point that it is not a big burden for me to bear.

Élder Cerro and I are doing well. We are trying to work hard and to find more people to baptize. We have a very firm baptismal date with Fernando Gonzales. He lives in Aranjuez, or a pueblo that pertains to that branch, so I know his brother that is a member and the family of that brother. We are excited that he is going to get baptized. His date was going to be this Saturday but due to conflicting schedules with the branch we are going to have his baptism on the fourth of June. We were excited because that was almost going to be a baptism every Saturday three weeks in a row, but that´s not really important. The important thing is that people are being baptized and that in and of itself is a witness that the Lord really is preparing people to receive the restored Gospel.

Speaking of people being prepared to receive the restored Gospel, yesterday Élder Cerro received a reference from other missionaries that were looking in their area book for old investigators and came upon a old investigator that looked to be golden. They called him and found out that he happened to live in our area. They sent us a text message with the reference and Élder Cerro called him and set up an appointment with him last night, the same day that we received the reference. We went to his house and it was a huge miracle. Apparently he has heard the missionaries a couple of times and one point was about to be baptized, but didn´t do so because he was living with a girl and therefore not complying with the law of Chastity. As of right now he is not living with anybody. We asked him a few questions and during the lesson he told us that every night he asks, which is the true church. He prays every night and we set a baptismal date, not too firm because we were kind of interrupted by his neighbor that came in the house, but the date was or is for the 18^th of June. He is golden and is willing to read the scriptures every day, pray every day, and come to church every Sunday. We are so blessed to have been able to teach him yesterday. We hope to be able to teach him tonight as we set an appointment to return tonight at 8:00. The name of this golden investigator is Digno and he is from Ecuador. There are lots of Ecuadorians that get baptized here in Spain, or atleast in our mission.

I really want to see more Spaniards get baptized and accept the church. It is really hard, but we are going to try and exercise more faith by talking to more Spaniards in the street and en todo lugar. J

Gracias por sus oraciones y les amo mucho. Espero que tengan una semana super buena, especialmente los chicos, Cami, Mark and Cari, ya que la escuela ha terminado. Que suerte tienen ellos, y ustedes dos, mamá y papá.

Les amo mucho y que sigan leyendo las escrituras todos los días, orando mucho durante el día, y yendo a la capilla todos los domingos. Es super importante que hagamos estas tres cosas tán sencillas porque obra por medios muy pequeños para realizar sus grandes designios, como dice en Alma 37:6 y 7. Gracias padres, y hermanas y hermano por todo.

¡Les amo!

Con mucho cariño y amor,

Élder Driggs

May 18, 2011

2011-05-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I love you very much and thank you very much for always writing me. I really appreciate it. I am also glad that everyone is busy and seeming to do well. I wish you lots of luck mom as you hear about the possibility of your teaching job today. I hope that all goes well. I´ll be praying for you.

So this last week was a good week. We had a baptism this last Saturday and all went well, except for the fact that Lizett couldn´t come. We were a little worried at first but we went through with the program. Before going home that night we received a call from here and we passed by her piso. We talked to her outside her piso and she explained to us why she couldn´t come. We talked to her and were able to set a new baptismal date for this Saturday, or let´s say, in 3 days. She is wonderful and I still ask you to pray for her and for us. Elissa was very excited for her baptism and in her testimony said that she was very happy.

Elder Cerro and I are receiving many blessings right now. Let me tell you about a couple of them. This last Sunday after sacrament meeting a member came up to us and told us that the Bishop wanted to talk to us urgently. We went quickly to his office and there was someone in there that I didn´t recognize. The bishop asked us if we recognized him and we said no. He presented him to us as Ronal, and said that his parents are members in Peru and that he want to tomar el camino de sus padres, or follow the example of his parents. Ronal is 33 years old and later that day we met with him, he had only been able to stay for the 2 hours of church, and later that day we set a baptismal date with him for the 11 of June, a very special day for a special someone. We have met with him one more time and he is wonderful.

The second miracle also occurred last Sunday. The bishop, in Ward counsel, told us that there was a member that had just arrived here from Puerto Rico and had a daughter that is not a member. After church we were able to meet them and that night we visited them both and set a baptismal date with her. Her name is Jennifer and she is 30 years old. She has lived quite a bit of her life in Florida and speaks perfect English and Spanish. Her husband is also from Puerto Rico but lives in Florida. Her baptismal date is for the 11 of June as well.

So these are some of the blessings and huge miracles that we are receiving right now. We are very blessed and desiring to work even harder so that we can receive more blessings and therefore baptize more. I love missionary work and loved the quote that you wrote to me mom from Thomas Fuller, about the best gift that life has to offer is to work in a work worthy of work or something like that. I like it a lot.

It would be a good idea to have some euros when you get here, because obviously there is no way to use American money. Just for transportation in metro and food that day, etc. Don´t use a taxi, as it is expensive, I think. The metro is the best way for transportation. 1 euro for a one way to almost any part of Madrid. Thank you Dad for the scriptures that you cited, I really appreciate it.

I love you all very much. Thank you for the information about the MTC. I guess I won´t worry about anything until I get back, and dad, that would be great if you could get a hold of Lee Stoore. I would love to work up there or anywhere until I get a job in the MTC or somewhere else. I love you all very much and appreciate all of the support and trust.

Elder Cerro and President Watkins Mandan sus saludos. Les quiero un montón y les deseo una semana de maravilla.

Con todo el amor que poseo,

Élder Driggs

May 11, 2011

2011-05-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Dearest Family,

It was sure fun being able to talk to you this last Sunday. I, as you mentioned as well, loved being able to see you and talk to you through Skype. What a blessing modern day technology.

I will start off mentioning a few of the administrative details, just so that I don´t forget to do so later on.

First, I think that it would be best to stay at home while I study at BYU. I agree with Dad, that when I want to focus on studying I will be at the Library. Now the question is where is that?.... No just kidding. I obviously would love to room with Elder Ketchum but I think that it would be good if I could be at home and be able to help out a little bit, even if it is by only getting up in the morning to have family scripture study. I don´t know how that would work with my ¨social life¨ but I assume that something will turn up. I also have a huge desire to serve in the ward where I am in.

I don´t have a huge desire to go to single adults ward, but I guess that will have to do. So these are some of the thoughts. I think, that overall, it would be good that I stay at home. But I give you at home the power of attorney, because I trust in your experience to make a good decision for me. Please do whatever you think is best for me. I am not too sure. I want to be at home and focused, but it would also be so nice to live with Élder Ketchum. He is a great person and is very focused so that would be neat.

Thank you for your regards as to Saturday. We are excited as they both have passed their interviews and are very content. Please keep praying for Elisa Pillajo and Lizett Perino.

Élder Cerro says ¨hi¨ to everyone, and especially to mom and dad. He said that it was nice to meet you.(We talked to him on Skype on Sunday.)

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. Yesterday we had a tri zone zone conference with three zones, about 50-60 missionaries or so. So that went well.

Elder Cerro and I are getting ready for the next transfer. We want to baptize a lot, so we will do all that we can to accomplish so.

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful week. Les deseo lo mejor y les quiero y les amo un montón.

Sigan leyendo todos los días en las escrituras y orando todos los días. Sigan haciendo la noche de hogar los domingos por la noche o los lunes cuando papá no esté, o cuando sea. Tenemos que hacer estas cosas para que el Señor nos pueda bendecir, unir, y proteger contra el mal de afuera. Gracias por todo lo que están haciendo y les digo otra vez….les amo.

Con amor y mucho cariño,

Élder Driggs

P.S. Intentaré a averiguar más en cuanto a reservar el hostal en el templo. No sé cuando podrá ser. A lo mejor la próxima semana. Lo siento por la demora. Gracias y les amo.

May 4, 2011

2011-05-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Dear family,

Well I don´t have tons of time today to write. We are quite busy teaching actually. We have 2 teaching appointments today, one in 20 minutes and the other at 5:00. So first things first, in case that I don´t have the opportunity to write more later.

This Sunday is mother´s day. I have no idea how to use Skype, and as it is Sunday, I do not want to pay to use public internet. So what I have worked out, is that I am going to go to the office and use the Skype there. If the office missionaries are there I have received permission from Hermana Watkins to go to the mission home and use the skype there, both of the options for free. So the only question is at what time. I am sure that all of you have plans for Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. So I was thinking that I could maybe call you before church. I don´t remember what time you start church, but I would think that it would be at 11:00 o clock because I think that the other time you all had to leave to go to church. The call will be only 40 minutes so it will be a quick one. I think that a great time would be at 8:00 your time, in the morning, which would be, if I am correct, 4:00 our time. In this way I could have time to drive to the office and communicate with you during medio dia. I sure hope that that is okay.

We will be able to talk more about the plans in Madrid during the call as well, I think. I love you all, and I am glad to hear that things are going well. Now we need to leave so that we can get to the church in ten minutes and teach Lizett with Carol and our Ward Mission Leader. It should be a great lesson. We are going to teach her a bunch, the Law of Chastity, the word of wisdom, and tithing. We will see how much we can teach.

I love you all and pray for you a lot.

Love,

Élder Driggs

April 28, 3011

2011-05-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Dearest Family

Estamos super bien, Élder Cerro y yo. Todo va bien con los investigadores y estamos entusiasmados por la obra!!!!

Mom, you are speaking really well. I can´t wait to hear you for real speaking in Spanish. Way to go!!!

So this week has been wonderful and yes, well, let´s see. The investigators are doing well. Elisa is progressing incredibly, until the point that she volunteered to offer the closing prayer when the teacher asked who would like to say it. She is doing well, the only bad thing is that she has started to work, as an intern at a home so now, we can only teach her on the weekends. This is okay because she can still come to church, but we can´t teach her like every day, like we have almost been doing. She has now come to church 3 times in a row and is great.

Lizett is super, super nice and she also has come to church three times in a row and is doing well.

Consuelo and Belquis couldn´t come this last Sunday, Belquis because she was sick and didn´t have money to pay for the metro. Consuelo couldn´t come because her son was in the hospital.

So that is the quick update on the awesome investigators. We are pretty sure that Elisa is going to get baptized on the 14^th, and I think we might have to wait a little bit more for Lizett and Belquis. Consuelo will probably get baptized in a few months, but it´s definitely worth the wait. J

Yes, we can use Skype. I have no idea how to use it and if you say that I need an account and that you can set that up for me that would be great. It would be fun to see you and for you to see me and Elder Cerro as we talk. The following are the guidelines that we have for the Mother´s day Call. So we can coordinate well.

In response to what to do in Spain. Wow that is way hard. I don´t think that there are many things that I would not want to do with you. I guess that it would be a good thing that you visit the Prado museum without me. I think that it is free after 4 or 7 or something like that. So that would save you a Little bit of money. Apart from that I don´t know what to tell you. You could probably visit El Escorial or Valle de los Caídos(I have never been there). As of the other days, it would be great to go to Segovia, Aranjuez, Toledo, we went to an awesome restored castle the other day and you could walk on it and everything. It was really beautiful. I think that I could call to arrange for the hostal or temple housing. Let me know if you need me to do that.

I love you all very much, and if Brother Williams can´t do anything I will just turn in a resume, because I don´t want to wait very much longer.

I am glad that you could talk to Élder Ketchum, he is wonderful.

I am also extremely glad that Cami is doing well and that they are going to get married. I look forward to meeting Silas and being able to support them both in their good decision to get married. Tell them both that I love them and admire them, and that I am proud of them

I love you all very much and please have a wonderful, excellent week. I hope that you get to work in Edgemont as a teacher. I think that that would be a wonderful job. How fun for you!!! That has been a kind of dream for you right, to go back and teach again?

I love you tons,

Love,

Élder Driggs

April 23, 2011

2011-04-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

My dear family,

From what I can tell from the weekly update is that you had a good week and that all is well on the home front. I always love hearing what everyone is doing and how they are getting along, so I thank you for informing me about what is going on.

This week has been a good week and we have had a wonderful day today at the temple. Elder Ketchum, in his very spiritual manner, wanted to go to the temple today to start off the transfer running. This is Elder Ketchum´s last transfer and we have nicknamed the theme of it ¨To the Rescue & Go Big and Go Home.¨ I, of course, am not going home but you get the picture. We and President have been thinking about how we can help certain companionship every week and we have come to the conclusion that we will focus on one companionship, every week, from every zone that needs help overcoming certain obstacles. In that week we will do all that we can, with the zone leaders to attend to their needs. So that is the reason for the title ¨To the Rescue.¨ I hope that makes sense.

So today in the temple Elder Ketchum and I, for the first time, went to the three act play instead of the first two acts or just the second act like we usually do as a church. It was neat. It took a lot of time as we arrived at the temple to do initiatory work at 9:00, attended the endowment session at 10:00 and then had to wait until 1:00 to do sealings. We were able to eat their in the cafeteria before we went to the sealing rooms.

There were quite a few French patrons today so the sealings were all done in French. That was great. It is really fun seeing people who are so faithful that live where the church isn´t like it is in Utah, or like they say here, La Fábrica, or the factory. I was talking to a brother there in the temple who lives near Baurdeux France, and he was telling me, in English of course, that he was baptized in the year 1969, because two missionaries knocked on his door and he saw the Spirit in their eyes. He and his wife got baptized, his life changed, and three of their four children served missions. From what I understood his four children are all active and married in the temple. One of his sons is a stake president in León France and this brother was very special.

He said that many years ago, President Kimball selected one person from 10 European countries to be sealers and this brother was one of them. He had received that power directly from the prophet. He since has been a Patriarch and you could tell just from talking to him and seeing his emotion, how deeply and eternally grateful he was for those two missionaries that knocked on his door many years ago. So you never know the eternal impact of what you do, not only as a missionary but as a member as well. The example that we set, live and show can literally change lives, for the better or, sometimes, and sad it is, for the worse.

Elder Ketchum and I are very busy and very excited to finally be working together again. We loved the special time we had to somewhat train new missionaries, and we are glad that we can work hard together and reap good fruit. I love this work and hope that you have a wonderful week. I love being a missionary and can honestly say that I don´t think I have ever been more happy. I just love doing what missionaries do. Don´t get me wrong, because sometimes it is hard, but I am at that point in my mission where I can know from personal experience that all rough times come to an end where we see big blessings. I trust that that is the case with all of us. Por sacrificio se dan bendiciones. I am not sure how the line goes in English, in the hymn ¨Praise to the Man.¨ As we make sacred sacrifices the Lord will eternally bless us. What a beautiful concept.

I love you all very much y espero que tengan una semana super buena con mucha alegría y Milagros. Nunca dejen de estudiar las escrituras y orar fervientemente con frecuencia todos los días. ¡Les amo mucho!

Y Elder Ketchum les ama mucho también.

Con mucho cariño y amor y aprecio,

Élder Driggs

April 20, 2011

2011-04-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I love you all soooo much and I am glad to hear how everything is going. I am very glad that you had such a fun week in Oregon. It sounds like it was a blast.

I know that I say this a lot but this last week for us has also been fantastic. We are very busy, Elder Cerro and I. We right now are teaching 4 single women who are absolutely incredible, 3 of them have baptismal dates in May, and 1 needs to get married to set a date with her. I will tell you a little about each of them.

Elisa is still going strong. She is about 35 years old from Ecuador. She has a little 3 year old boy in her country and that is one of the most important things for her. She basically is a miracle. Like I told you last week she came to church after inviting her the day before in the street, even before teaching her. She came again this last Sunday and stayed again the 3 hours. The Relief Society seems to be really strong and really united. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of friends in the church. We hope that she can be ready for her baptism the 14^th of May. We also went with her to a baptismal service in the old Cuatro Caminos chapel, where I used to be.

Lizeth. She is from Honduras and is about 40 years old, maybe. She has 4 children, all of them are in her country. It is amazing to see the sacrifice of some parents that come over here to Spain to get money, or to get ahead, so that there children can study and have a chance in the world. It is, or they are incredible. It seems like Lizeth is one of those faithful parents. She was invited to go to church by missionaries in Cuatro Caminos and went to church there 2 Sundays ago. The sister missionaries there found out that she didn´t belong to that ward so they sent us her reference and we invited her to come to our church the following day. She did so, as the church is only 1 metro stop away from where she lives. She also stayed the three hours and loved it. She is very sensible to the Spirit and has a baptismal date for the 7^th of May. She is wonderful.

Belquis. Elder Ketchum and I taught Hermana Belquis at the end of December and a couple months after, but then we dropped them for a little time because they weren´t really progressing. We went back to teaching them when Elder Cerro and I saw them in the street one day, and they asked us what happened to us. The mom, Belquis, seemed to have missed us and she has come to church the past two Sundays and this last Sunday she stayed for the first time the full three hours. She told us last night that she liked it and sayed something like she wanted to stay the whole three hours again. Her baptismal date is for the 14^th of May, because it is hard for her to read.

Consuelo. She is from Nicaragua and has had a kind of rough life. She had 2 children with another man and then when she came over her, her boyfriend, they weren´t married, was getting married to pastor´s daughter, from a church that she had assisted before. She almost lost her children, but finally she won them and is now here in Spain with another boyfriend from Brazil and they have another baby. They are not married, however the miracle is that her boyfriend wants to get married and has the paper to do so. It is her that has not wanted to. So in the second visit, because she is so good and so ready (sometimes you can just tell when people are ready or have been prepared to receive the gospel), we talked to her about getting married and explained briefly that it is a requirement to be baptized, because we need to comply with the Law of Chastity. She said, as this was yesterday, that she would talk with her husband about this last night, and that he was going to be very happy to hear this.

So this is our life right now. We are very happy and love the work. Élder Cerro is wonderful and we are working well together. Élder Cerro is very motivated and a very driven person and I like that about him.

Today for Preparation Day we went with the Office Elders to visit a castle less than an hour from Madrid. It was precious. I will include one picture of it.

I love you all very much, and please keep informing me about all of the details of life at home. I love hearing about it. I love you all.

Love,

Élder Driggs

April 13, 2011

2011-04-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

Dearest family in the whole wide world,

I am glad to hear that things are going well. It seems to me that life keeps plugging forward like it should, and it sure sounds like you are having and are going to continue to have so much fun in Oregon. I am not sure if I have ever been to Oregon. I am sure that I have driven through it or something like that.

Things are going really well with me and Elder Cerro. Elder Cerro is an animal. He is really good and we are learning a lot together. He is helping me become a better person and I obviously hope that my Spanish can improve as well.

This last week has been great. It was interesting not having Elder Ketchum as a companion but we survived and we are pressing forward. I was able to meet the parents of Elder Ketchum and they are sooo nice. Everything that Elder Ketchum said about them is true. They brought us over a bag of beef jerky and American candy. They are very kind and down to earth people.

Elder Cerro and I, while we were contacting people in the street last Saturday afternoon, were able to find a women name Elisa and we invited her to come to church the next day. We had planned on meeting her at the mouth of the metro Ventas, and the next day she actually came. We obviously want to think positively that everyone we invite will come to church but experience proves that when we invite people the day before in the street, they don´t always come. So she came and stayed the whole 3 hours and lucky for us the Relief Society is getting really strong and unified and it seemed like she liked it. She is from Ecuador and has a 3 year old son in her country. She is planning on going back to her country the 11^th of June. What a coincidence right! I think that that day is special for someone else. ;) (Mom´s birthday)

So she came and liked it, and after wards a member of the ward invited her to her home the next day for Family Home Evening. She came and we went as well and had a great first lesson with her. We taught her again last night and asked her if she felt that what we had said was true before the 14^th of May, would she would be baptized. She said that she wanted to be sure and we promised that she would be before then if she put in her part. She said that she was willing to do so and promised us that she was going to read and pray.

She is basically golden and we are pretty sure that she is going to get baptized. She had a wonderful experience at church last Sunday and has been able to have 2 Family nights with two different family this week and we are going to have another one tonight with the first family again. She also read the pamphlet we gave her the first time about the Plan of Salvation, and we have high hopes that she´s read the chapter we assigned in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11. Elder Cerro was assigned that same chapter when he first received the Book of Mormon from the missionaries, so it is a special chapter for him.

I love being a missionary and can´t believe how fast time is passing. I am glad that every member is a missionary because I want to always be in and dedicated to the Lord´s service.

I love you all very, very, very much and am praying a lot for you. I trust that the Lord is blessing us a lot as a family, and the harder we strive to complete all of his commandments he will bless us more and more.

I love you very much family, Mom, Dad, Cami, Mark, and Cari. I love you, pray for you and hope that you have an extraordinary week wherever you are.

Stay close to Christ. ¨Look unto (Him) in every thought. Doubt not; Fear not.¨

And Never, never quit. A Driggs never quits.

With all of my love,

Élder Driggs

April 7, 2011

2011-04-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I am soooo sorry for not writing yesterday. We had a very busy day and for a few hours we were here in the office doing things for the mission. So I apologize for being so late. I was also registering for classes yesterday so there wasn´t too much time to write until right now. So this letter will be a little short. Sorry…L

This week has been great. I received my new companion this last Saturday and his name is Elder Cerro! He was that missionary that I lived with in Barrio 5 when he was in Barrio 1. He actually replaced me as zone leader when I left B5. If you remember, he is from Argentina but has lived in Uruguay and before the mission lived in the Canary Islands. He is a great missionary and was a convert to the church when he was 13 years old. He is very good and we are good friends. We are going to have lots of success together and we already have. I will have to tell you more about the investigators next time.

I absolutely loved general conference and it was fantastic. I love our Prophet, President Monson.

So you asked me why I am wearing glasses. Well it is not because I am out of contacts, rather, I have or had an eye infection quite some time ago and ever since then when I wear contacts they bother me. So, when I get back I will need to see an ophthalmologist. I saw an eye doctor here, at an eye clinic, but they didn´t see anything wrong.

While we were leaving the temple today, we saw the parents of Elder Ketchum, while they were having a temple tour by the zone leaders there in Barrio 6. We were able to meet them briefly and they are very nice. We will be able to talk more to them later on this week.

I love you all very much and am praying a lot for you.

I congratulate Cami, Mark, and Cari for their efforts to choose the right.

Congratulation Cari, for your dance competition. Way to go!!!

I love you all,

Love,

March 30, 2011

2011-03-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Mi querida y linda familia,

You asked about Elder Ketchum or ¨Ketchup¨, as almost all of the people call him her, because his last name sounds like the red kétchup. This is his last week and he is a beast. In a good way. He is just going full throttle to the end. He is wonderful and he is a great example to me. I can´t wait until you can meet him because he is a fantastic, top class person, in every aspect of his life. So his parents arrive the 5th and they all leave together the 11th. He is sad at the fact that he is going to leave the mission field, but luckily missionary work is a lifelong calling.

We are really excited for general conference and are planning on attending 4 of the 5 sessions. We always miss out on the Sunday afternoon session, so we will have to wait until the Liahona from May comes out. We are also anxiously waiting to get a hold of the new Joseph Smith movie DVD in Spanish. We Heard about 2 or 3 weeks ago that they had released it and finally, a couple of days ago, it came into the distribution center by the temple. Unfortunately, the 28 copies that they had sold out fast, so we are waiting for the second round from Germany. We hope that it gets here fast so that we can show that to investigators and members.

You asked about my new companion. To be honest I think I have been pretty sure who it was going to be, for about 2 months, Elder Ketchum says. So my new companion is Elder _________He is from ______________ I really can´t say too much more as President Watkins has been very, very explicit this time about not talking about transfers so to be faithful to him, you will have to wait one more week. To say the least he is a very good missionary. We are going to let everyone know this Saturday morning what the tranfers are, and since there are 13 missionaries that are going home and three that are coming in, there are a lot of changes.

I really liked the story that you sent me mom last week and this week about moments of happiness and struggle, and about building great cathedrals and no one seeing those outside efforts. They are great stories and have wonderful principles. Thank you very much. I love hearing about how your testimony continues to grow and grow.

The picture of Elder Gomez that I sent Cami was from a long time ago. He is training again in Fuenlabrada a missionary from Manchester England. I have attached two pictures of Élder Ketchum and I in the conference room in the office where we do all of the far away zone conferences. President and Sister Watkins always travel to the zone conferences but as President Watkins likes us to stay in our área, we keep working and go to the office and do our part from there, instead of having to waste much more time in flying to the Canary Islands or the North of Spain to participate in zone and district meetings. But that would be pretty fun if we did go. So this picture was taken after we did the zone conference of the Santiago zone. It went really well as Élder Ketchum and I gave 10 minute talks. Elder Ketchum is an incredible speaker. He will be famous some day!

Well, have a wonderful week. Keep smiling, Reading the scriptures, praying and watch all of the general conference sessions that you can. Tell everyone hi from me please and that I love them. I love you so much!!!

Love,

Élder Driggs

March 23, 2011

2011-03-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I am sooo sorry that I wasn´t able to write very much last week. It had nothing to do with the letter. I really just had really bad luck, because last week we went to visit Aranjuez, Elder Ketchum, Elder Gomez, and Elder Gomez´s new companion, Elder Ashworth from Manchester England. So we got home with really little time to write, because we had an appointment. So I apologize for cutting it so close and not being able to write all of my thoughts and experiences like I normally do.

So just so you know, I love you sooooooo much. I really do and I am praying for you very much. I love you.

This week has gone sooo well. It really impresses me how much Elder Ketchum is working. He only has 13 days left but he is working harder than ever. He is such a good example to me. I am not allowed to talk about him going home because it makes him a little sad and we, he and I, don´t want to get distracted. I sometimes fail on my part and ask him about things, but we are focused on our purpose which is…to baptize.

Speaking of baptism….This weekend Carol is getting baptized. She is the Peruvian reference from the member Sonia. Well she has been progressing so well and is soooo excited to be baptized this Saturday at 4:00. She has asked Elder Ketchum to baptize her and me to confirm her a member of the church. So we are super excited about that. She is probably, to be very honest, the best convert that I have had during my mission. Well, obviously they are not my converts, but you know what I mean.

She is so prepared and you just feel her desire to do this. She had her baptismal interview last Saturday and after wards, we had a lesson with her and the ward mission leader and his wife, and she said that before she felt so empty and that she was missing something, but that now she feels full. She said that as she read and prayed she would say to herself, what is this feeling? She is very special and she has read a little bit more than the book of First Nephi. So I will have to tell you about it after wards.

The time has now come to an end. I am sorry that I cannot write more, but I love you all soo much and am very grateful for all that you are doing. I just have one question. I know that you just sent me a package so it is not urgent, but in the next one that you mentioned in your letter along with the photos of the court of honor and the dance competitions, a lady from the ward has asked for scripture stickers, that go over the scripture mastery verses. Those that you bought for me when I was little. Just if it isn´t too much of a burden. But really there is no hurry. I love you all very much and hope that all goes well this week. Tell Cami that I said hi and that I love her soooo much and that I am praying for her a lot.

Have a great week!

P.S. Gracias por enviarme la carta de Katherine. Que divertido leer de su éxito y su misión. Me gustaría seguir escuchando de ella si sea posible. Y que guay, escuchar de BYU. Ojalá que sigan adelante.

Con mucho amor,

Élder Driggs

March 16, 2011

2011-03-16T22:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Well,I am afraid that I will have to cut this letter a little short. All is well here on my end. I am glad to hear all of the news. I like to be informed so that my prayers can be more specific and sincere. I love you all very much and pray for you a lot.

To answer the questions of Madrid. I don´t think that I have heard of Eurorail, ever. In Madrid the public transportation is wonderful. I would say that it would be less than 15 euros to get to and from Segovia and Toledo and Aranjuez per person. In Madrid a metro pass is fairly cheap. It is 1 euro for a normal ticket but I think that there are great deals for up to maybe 6 or 7 euros for ten passes or a week pass unlimited pass, etc. I am not sure exactly. But with the public transportation we can get basically everywhere.

I will have to send more info to you later.

I love you all very much and still invite you to keep reading the scriptures, praying, doing FHE, and going to church, temple, and fasting. It is all true and it all works.

I love you all and am sorry that this letter is so short. Please do not feel bad for telling me all of that information, rather I thank you for doing so.

Love,

Élder Driggs, a full time servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. :)

March 9, 2011

2011-03-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Buenos días querida familia,

Right now it is 11:23 in the morning and we just got out of a temple session about 45 minutes ago, more or less. Elder Ketchum and I have sure gone to the temple quite a bit lately and I really appreciate Élder Ketchum´s spiritual nature and how much he loves seeking spiritual experiences. I really enjoy being his companion and it was a neat experience today because we went to the temple at the 8:00 session with our ward mission leader, Gino Carión, de Peru. He is absolutely WONDERFUL!!! and he has an amazing conversion story. He actually is a convert of 3 or 4 years and before he didn´t even believe in God. Let´s just say that the Spirit really worked on him and he is a powerful leader and member. He has been Elder´s quorum president, etc. So it was very fun to be able to be together us three this morning in the temple.

This week has been a very successful week for us. We are extremely grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father is giving us and we are seeing a lot of progress in the investigators. Carol is doing super well and is basically ready for baptism. She is reading quite a bit in the Book of Mormon and she has now come to church 2 times. We had a Noche de Hogar, family night, this last Monday with the Bishop and his family, with Carol and her daughter. Luis Miguel, the recent convert from December, also came and accompanied us. She enjoyed it and is really feeling that the things we are teaching her are true. So she is great!

Jhon is a little different. He actually did not come to church because he was visiting friends or family in a suburb of Madrid and said that he woke up late. So, we met with him yesterday with Felix and Carmen, his mom, and he was super tired and wasn´t really involved in the lesson. I hope that he can see the importance of this and I hope that he can change. I think that he is going through those rebellious teenage years and that isn´t helping us at all. Felix and Carmen are great and love coming to church and have now done so three times in a row. I sure hope that Felix can prepare himself to go on a mission. His mom said that he has to do it.

The last big news is that yesterday we set a baptismal date with Gloria, a single mom with a 6 year old son Cristian. She is super special. The story with her is very interesting. Elder Ketchum had seen her 3 distinct times in the street and after talking and always asking her for her phone number and then her not answering we were finally able to pass by and visit her. The bad part is that when the day came that we were to visit her Elder Ketchum was on exchanges with another Elder and I was to visit her with my companion. I think this was when we were with the two new Elders, Elder Jeppson and Elder Gardner.

We went there to her house, with a member and when she opened the door she let us in, and then into her room, as there wasn´t anywhere else we could meet because she is sharing an apartment. When we were in her room she started to get a little nervous because she had never seen us before and we were 3 men in her room and she was a little scared or nervous. I felt bad because she had obviously told Elder Ketchum that he could come because she had already established a friendship with him. So we explained what we do as missionaries and that sometimes we have to do exchanges and we told her that we always have to have a member with us when we teach women alone, etc.

After that explanation she calmed down a little and we asked if we could say a prayer. We shared a message and she showed quite a bit of interest but after that visit, for quite a while, we were not able to get a hold of her to visit her again. I am not exacly sure why. But we visited her last week, she and her son came to church, the three hours, and yesterday she said that she wanted a change in her life. We invited her to prepare herself to be baptized the 10th of April. She said, ¨Me esforzaré.¨ which means, I will try. She is very special and seems to have had a very hard life and you can tell that she really needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. Her son is also very special and very smart. So we are excited that they are also doing very well.

I am sorry to hear that Mark has the shingles! Yikes! I remember that Andrew Garrett had the shingles during EFY and had to go home, once or various times, because it was so painful. I remember him telling me that it was the most pain he has ever been in and that he remembered just screamming because the pain didn´t go away. Andrew said that he gained a testimony of the power of Priesthood blessings when his dad gave him one during that trial in his life. So Mark, ask for a blessing and pray a lot. I am sorry that you are in pain. I hope that you get better fast. Good luck, my brother!

I can´t believe that Joe is already home. I had a letter for him but it was taking me a long time to get it sent. I am a very bad letter writer. I can´t believe that Taylor is going home tomorrow. I can´t believe that the time is far spent. I sure have loved and enjoyed the time that I have had to be a missionary! I love the missionary work.

I wish Cari good luck in all of her competitions. I will be mailing Cami a letter today. I wrote it last week and I have delayed in sending it. I am sooo sorry for taking so long in sending these promised letters. I am horrible. So the promised letter from three weeks ago should come shortly.

I love you all very much and am so grateful for your prayers and thoughts and love. Keep up the good work and know that I love you too.

Have a wonderful week.

Thank you so much for taking care of all of that and for being so aware of what I need to do to be able to study in the fall. Thank you also for the spiritual insights that you send me every week. I love hearing your comments and your thoughts and it makes me want to study better to be able to find similar treasures.

Thank you so much mom for the future package and for always sending such love and detail filled letters. I love and appreciate them so much. You are very kind and thank you so much for teaching me so many things when I was little. I am forever in debt for the wonderful influence of my mother.

I love you all.

Love,

Élder Driggs

P.S. Keep smiling! Read the scriptures, Pray often, and Go to church to partake of the Sacrament!

March 2, 2011

2011-03-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

I am glad to hear that you had, once again, a good week. I like the consistency. I love hearing the details of what everyone is doing and how they are doing. Thank you so much dad for checking things out about jobs, school, etc. I really, really appreciate it. I love you all very much for the prayers, thoughts, packages, and letters. These things are very kind and mean a lot to me!

Elder Ketchum and I have also had another good week. We don´t tend to have bad weeks, as those rarely exist in missionary work. The greatest joy really comes from knowing that you are worthy and that the Lord has called you through a prophet of God to serve among His people in a designated spot in the earth. I love being a missionary and lately, Elder Ketchum and I have experienced much success.

Les cuento un poco del éxito y de las experiencias que hemos tenido.
First, Jhon Saco. Jhon is 17 years old from Ecuador and the story is really neat how we met him. Jhon´s mother, Carmen, and his brother Felix (20), live with him here in Madrid about 25-30 minutes from the church in metro. About 3 weeks ago, Elder Gardner (that new missionary that I ¨trained¨ for two weeks from Afton, Wyoming) and I were running late to the ward council meeting that they have every Sunday before church. We had about 2 minutes, I think, from the metro station to get to the church, so when we got off the metro and started running. We ran in front of the famous plaza de toros and crossed the street and entered into the street that leads to the church, Calle Alonso Maestro.

This street isn´t as busy as the famous Calle Alcalá, and it is only a one way street with one lane, like many streets here in Spain. We were running pretty fast, when we heard someone yelling from behind us. At first, I didn´t think much about it, not even looking back, but the second or third time, I turned around and we stopped running. We could tell that this women wanted to talk to us and we stopped and went towards her.

Well, long story short, it was one of those less-active member miracles where this less active women Carmen, had left that Sunday morning to find the church. She had been here in Spain for, I think, more than ten years, and had gone to another church farther away, but I guess was looking for one closer. We were very happy to meet her and we went to the church together. She went into the other ward´s Sacrament meeting as we went into the ward council meeting. But before we parted she gave us her number and asked if we could pass by the following day.

That was three weeks ago and since then we have taught that family several times and Jhon, has a baptismal date. His mom, Carmen, and brother Felix were already members and they have come to church 2 times. Jhon has only come one time and let me just say that this family is very special. These two young men are giants. About 6 feet two or three inches tall and that is very tall for a Ecuadorian as you can imagine and they tower over everyone at church. The special part is that they love their mom and are very respectful towards us. They offer to pray and are really stupendous people. We are excited about them.

Quickly, just one more story about Carol. Carol is a friend of the family of Luis Miguel, the recent convert that got baptized in December. Luis´s wife Sonya is a member for many years but has just come back to being active in about the last 6 months. She is now the Young Women´s President. So Carol, from Pêru, is 27 years old, I think, and has a 7 year old daughter Dana. She was in the house of Sonya and Luis when we went over to teach them last week and we gave her a brief overview lesson. She agreed to come to church as she had already told Sonya that she was coming.

She came to church and stayed all three hours and the last hour she went with the Bee hives, she thought that that was a funny name. We taught her for the second time last night in Luis´s house again and she had prepared for us a dinner, algo de pollo relleno con puré de patatas, no me acuerdo como se llama, pero fue buenísimo. I loved it! After we started to teach her about the Restoration. She had a lot of questions but I loved them because it showed interest. She started to cry and said that she needed this but it was hard for her because she didn´t want to always be someone who looks for God when things are bad and when things are good, forget about him. It seems like she is going through some rough times right now, but she is basically golden and said that she wants to go to church as many times as they let her….which is forever, so that´s great!

I love you all very much. Les quiero un montón y quiero que sepan que oro mucho por ustedes. Espero que tengan una semana super buena otra vez y que sigan adelante con las escrituras. Justo acabé de leer el Libro de Mormón y lo estoy empezando otra vez. Me encanta el Libro de Mormón y es un libro verdadero. Sigan leyendo este libro, por favor. Puede cambiar todo para nuestra familia y ayudarnos tener mucha más unidad y amor.

I love you so much Cami, Mark, and Cari. Keep up the good work.

Love,

Élder Driggs,

your Spanish missionary :)

February 16, 2011

2011-02-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

My dearest Family in the whole wide world,

Firstly, thank you soooo much for the package that you sent me mom. Wow!!! You know exactly what I love, you really must be my mom. I love Sees candy and that box was too good to be true. I really was surprised by that lovely detail. I will eat that little by little, to saver the taste of home. I received that package on Monday while I was at the office and opened it and shared with the office missionaries and a senior couple the dried bananas that you sent me. They seemed to like them. Thank you so much. I loved the little comments on every one as well. That was very....cute. Haha.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we had a Zone Conference here in Madrid. The three zones here all met in the stake center by the temple and we had a great meeting. Elder Ketchum and I had thirty minutes to be able to address the zones and I was hoping that we would be able to do something together. As this will be Elder Ketchum´s last zone conference he chose to do separate talks instead. I am not as confident as I would like to be in giving talks that have not been written out.

I feel like I can´t communicate very well publicly my thoughts. So it was a little bit of stress for me. However I tried to prepare myself and it went over very well. Many missionaries were nice in complimenting me, which also feels good. I will tell you what, though, Elder Ketchum has an incredible gift in public speaking. He is a natural. He speaks from his heart and does so in a very calm and direct way. Let´s just say that he has mastered teaching by the Spirit. He is a great example to me and he said everything perfectly yesterday. He is incredible.

This week has been a great week. We are getting ready for transfers this next week, this next Monday, so we are excited. There will be about 13 missionaries, I think, that are going to go home at the end of this transfer and about that same number that go home in the next, including Elder Ketchum. So President Watkins is trying to prepare for these big changes. It is weird to think that about a fourth part of the mission is going to go home within the next 7 weeks, especially since a good number of those missionaries are, have been leaders in the mission.

Everything is going really well. We are anxious for a baptism. We haven´t had one for a while and are in need of finding some more good people. There are a few and we are really excited for a man from Honduras that we started teaching this last Sunday night. His sister and brother in law, he lives with them, are members with their 4 year old daughter. He is out of work and it looks like he is fairly active in the Catholic church. We, in the mission right now, invite people to be baptized in the first lesson. We usually do it in a casual way just to understand their desires and to make sure that they are really people that are elect and are going to progress. We usually say something like, ¨Si usted supiera que lo que nosotros compartimos es verdadero y que esta Iglesia es la Iglesia de Jesucristo, usted se preparía para ser bautizado en ella.¨ In this way we can see if the people we are teaching are dedicated or not.

So we invited Mario in a similar way and he said that he was willing to listen and learn about the church but baptism not so much, I actually don´t remember exactly what he said about baptism but like it was really serious or that he wasn´t really interesting in that part of the message. He seemed pretty against it. So we taught him again last night and as a mission or I think as a church, missionaries should invite people to be baptized with a date at least by the second lesson. So we did so with Mario last night and it was incredible the change in his answer this last time. We told him that we were certain that he would receive an answer from God very soon and we invited him to prepare himself to be baptized the 19^th of March. We assured him that as he kept reading in the Book of Mormon, he had read until page ten in the introduction part, and kept praying, that he would be able to receive an answer. He responded, ¨Vamos a ver si estoy preparado.¨WE promised him a baptismal calendar for the next time we meet. I am happy here in the mission and I love the work. It is fun helping people come unto Christ by doing simple things.

Thank you sooo much for all that you do for me. I love you all very much and pray for you often. I love you all and hope that you have a great week. Keep praying for Mario and the other investigators that we are teaching, and please pray for me that I might be a good instrument in the hands of God.

I suppose that Kathryn is already living the dream in Provo MTC. If you write her, tell her that I say hi and that I love her. Wish her luck from me as well.

I love you all,

Love,

Élder Driggs

February 8, 2011

2011-02-09T15:02:00.001-08:00

My Dearest Family,

It´s been a great week. We are busy as usual and there are few moments to breathe in our busy schedules. Monday, two days ago, we had a zone leader council and it turned out well. We ate there in the MTC around 2:30 or 3:00 and then we, Elder Ketchum and I, were off to the office. We were there until 8:30pm and had to make a couple of calls so that we could move the visits that we had scheduled and be able to teach two, Elder Ketchum going with Elder Jeppson, and Elder Gardner going with me. Lately I have noticed that I am really tired when I get home. I think it´s because I just turned 21...I am really getting old and the age must be taking it´s toll on my body.

This last Sunday we were really excited because there were 8 non members in church, 2 of the which were official investigators, but the rest had just been invited in the initial contact and came. They all seemed to really enjoy it and 2 of them, a mom and daughter from Columbia, were really receptive and hit it off well with the members. I think that it helps that our bishop is Columbian.

We are looking forward to the baptism of Fausto the 19^th of February. I think that we are going to do it that week but we have Stake Conference this next week so it will be hard to let all of the members know so that they can come and support him. We will see what happens.

I think that this itinerary is fantastic. I am not sure how I could check train schedules to Paris. I don´t even know where they would leave from. I guess I have a few ideas of where that would be, but those places are not even in our area. I could probably talk to hermana Watkins, who might know more than I do. You, mom, could probably ask her as well. I am sure that she would be happy to help, that is if she knows something about that kind of stuff. I really do like the itinerary. I will sure be fun to see everyone and to be able to do so here in Spain.

Hermana Watkins has created a blog spot, if you wanted to know mom, for the parents of missionaries and for returned missionaries from the Spain Madrid mission. This is the direction: www.spainmadridmission.blogspot.com

Today we went to the temple and it was great. Afterwards Elder Ketchum started talking to Presidente Moore, the temple president, and he invited us into his office to answer a couple of questions. We were there probably 15 minutes or so but it was a priviledge to be with him and to just hear him talk. He is a very special man with a lot of church experience.

The other day I was walking with my companion in the street, I think that it was Elder Veintemilla de Ecuador pero que vive aquí en España ahora, and I saw a women across the street look at me and I had the thought to go and talk to her but I didn´t do it. We walked a loop and then went back to almost that same spot, just a little bit farther down, and I saw her and her dog again off the sidewalk in a grassy spot. I didn´t pass this opportunity up this time and went and gave her a card, even though she was talking on her cell phone. She stopped talking and said to me while I was starting to walk away, ¨Soy miembro.¨ I wasn´t that surprised as I realized that I had had the prompting earlier to talk to her and I realized why the Lord wanted me to talk to her, because she is a member.

We waited until she was off the phone and she told us that she had been here for a month from Paraguay and she hadn´t been to church yet. She gave us her number and now we have localized another member of the Church of Christ. It was another miracle in missionary work and I should learn never to deny spiritual impressions. Luckily or gratefuly, I was given a second chance and I was able to see the fruits behind the acting on that spiritual prompting. I am a witness that miracles do exist and that God is a God of love and miracles. If we are worthy and willing he can make us instruments or angels in his hands.

I am doing really well and am excited about the work. I love this celestial work! I am working hard and Elder Ketchum and I are finding new drives and new focuses to just baptize. To do everything possible to baptize. We are preparing to talk in the next tri-zone conference about this focus, just in doing all that is possible to baptize. Not to be distracted by things that are supposed to help us baptize from actually doing so, getting to the end goal. We are excited and love the work.

I love you all and pray for you. Like I always say and know that you do, keep praying for me.

I love you all!

Love,

Élder Driggs

February 2, 2011

2011-02-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Bad weeks are hard to come by here in beautiful Madrid Spain. As you could probably guess, it was another wonderful week...busy, but surely wonderful! I loved the updates on the family this last week and I loved hearing about how everything went with Cari´s baptism.

Right now, Elder Ketchum and I are in Toledo for preparation day. What a beautiful and ancient city. It is just fantastic. Elder Ketchum has a lot of patience with me as about every corner I stop in amazement and say, ¨Wow, how beautiful is that, oh and that, oh and that too....wow!¨ He is a great companion and I look forward, not complaining at all about the blessing we have to be training right now, but I do look forward to his last transfer in being together more often. It is just a HUGE blessing being able to have companions that are sooo seasoned and perfected and that have devoloped so nicely Christlike attributes and know how to do missionary work. I have been so blessed to have had so many companions like that, and Elder Ketchum is definitely one of the most advanced. It is hard to keep up with him, as he is so outstanding. We get along and we both desire to work hard and, of course, baptize.

This week has been great. We have continued to do 3 weekly exchanges which requires that I be out of the area 2 times every 9-10 days, and 2 other days, I am with another companion and it´s Elder Ketchum that leaves and goes to another area. It is really hard doing all of these, but we are seeing a lot of good results. Most importantly we are able to see how the missionaries are doing the work, their strong and weak points as missionaries, and this knowledge allows us to better analyze the needs of the mission and where we need to go with the training. It is good and from what we have noted so far is that the missionaries are benefiting a lot from these 1 day exchanges and we are also receiving a lot of blessings.

We, right now, oh well yeah. We had a baptism last Saturday. Fernando Andrade got baptized, the same day as Cari, and I spake about baptism. It was a great baptismal service and Fernando was really happy. He said that he felt really good, like aliviated, afterwards.

We, right now, are trying to find more people who are dedicated to being baptized. We don´t have the best investigator pool right now, so we need to do some better finding so that we can help more people. Fausto Jaramillo from Ecuador, I am not sure if I commented about him, is doing really well. He has now come to church 4 times, and has been to 2 baptismal services. He has a baptismal date for the 15th of February and is excited for it. He is really just waiting for his testimony at this point. He says that he is praying and reading in the Book of Mormon, he actually had to work in a far away city all of last week and brought with him his Book of Mormon and was able to read while he was there, so we hope that he is able to receive his answer soon. I am not sure if he actaully reads every day, but his is reading, so that is good news. We are also teaching, well mainly Elder Ketchum and his companion Elder Gardner from Afton Wyoming, a little 10 year old boy whose parents are less active from Bolivia. They have lived here for a while and are now getting back into the church. They have now come to church a few times in a row and the father just received the Aaronic Priesthood in the office of Priest, I believe. They are a great family, two parents and two children. Johann is excited for his baptism and hopefully his dad can baptize him. That beautiful thought just came to me.

Well, I have to go. I am glad that you all had a great week and I hope that this next week goes the same. Say hi to everyone for me, and actually we were reading in a church news newspaper that some missionary got and I was thinking that it would be really neat to be able to work in the MTC when I get back. I have no idea how any of that works. I have heard that Elder Carr might be teaching their right now and maybe one more missionary from this mission. If you could maybe look that up and see if that is possible/a good option, I would thank you for it. I love you sooo much and have the best week ever.

Don´t forget to ¨Look unto Christ in every thought. Doubt not, fear not.¨

I love you all. Congrats on your talk Cami!!!! and Happy Birthday Cari!!!! I give you my welcome into the church. ¡Bienvenida hermana!

con mucho amor y cariño y gratitud por siempre orar por mi. Oro por ustedes también.

Élder Driggs

January 26, 2011

2011-01-26T20:46:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family,
I am very glad that you had a good week. I pray for you a lot. I always try and mention my family when I pray. You are the most important people to me and I pray that Heavenly Father keeps blessing you and us as a family so that we can enjoy Celestial blessings. I want and desire nothing more for us and I know that that blessing is within reach. It depends entirely on our use of agency. What a gift our agency is as it is the key to our progression. We surely learn most when we fall down and what a blessing it is to be able to pick ourselves back up and fix those earlier mistakes.
I did receive the package, Mom. Thank you sooo much. You sure know how to remind me of home and feel your love. I absolutely loved the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Boy, do I love that cereal. I received the package this last Monday while we were in the office. We were on the computers when the delivery guy came in and delivered the package. I opened it right there and took out those prescious pictures. I loved them! A lot of them were really random but what fun seeing how the house is and the changes that you have made. I love the new kitchen table and Cari´s and Mom and Dad´s bedrooms. I was SUPER surprised when I saw the picture of Dad. Holy Cow!!! You have lost a ton of weight. Don´t take me wrong, you were not fat when I left, but you are super skinny now. It reminds me a lot of your wedding engagement picture. You look great, and Mom, you also have lost weight. Congratulations! What a success. I am trying to gain weight but am very unsuccessful. We will see how it goes as time goes on. I am sure that that stage in life will hit some day. So the pictures were great and I opened the Swedish fish up last night and they were really fresh. Ahhh!!! So good!
I am glad to receive the news about BYU. I am pretty sure that President will allow me to make certain arrangements to be able to register on preparation day. I also would love to take advantage of the offer to look for work for me, Dad. I would love to have something lined up for me when I get back. There are three things that I want to do when I get back. 1- Have a good calling at church. Just something to do, I don´t care what it is but I want something to do that will allow me to continue to serve. 2 – I want to work. I want to be involved in earning and saving money for the future, I also think that it would be a good thing to have a part time job while at BYU, to have some sort of income. I am not sure if Lee Stoore is still working at the Zermatt hotel but his number was in my cell phone when I left. Even if he is not working there, I am sure that he would be willing to talk to them and see if there are any job availabilities. And 3 – Of course, I will want to spend tons of time with the family. After being away for so long I want to take advantage of every opportunity to be with you. Laugh with you, talk with, and work with you (cleaning, helping, and fixing in any way, everything I didn´t do before the misión). So those will be my most immediate priorities, I think.
I have made a note to join in on the family fast the 6th of February and to pray at 5:00 mountain time. Except that I will have to pray a Little earlier because I will need to be in bad at that time.
This past week has been a crazy week. It´s interesting the way that things have turned out with Elder Jeppson and Elder Gardner. We have gone through with the exchanges and it has been hard for them to keep learning and adjusting to missionary life when sometimes we are not there and especially when it has been necessary that they two, together, go out by themselves to face the world. It isn´t the best situation but they are learning a ton and they are such good missionaries. They both have no fear whatsoever and contact in the metro and in the Street and everywhere. They are great and their examples are helping me work harder as well. Elder Jeppson speaks Spanish super well. He and I basically only speak in Spanish, except for the times that the English just slips out. I remember telling Elder Carr to only talk to me in Spanish but then I would just end up not talking and that wasn´t good either. I think that I was in my 4th transfer or so, with Elder Dawson when we started setting goals to only speak Spanish, and even then it was really difficult. So, he is way for ahead of where I was. He will be a great missionary, especially since he works hard and loves the work.
The baptisms of Javiera and Francisca this last Saturday were soooo spiritual. Really, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my whole misión. Elder Ketchum and I had been really pushy in having their dad baptize, even though they wanted us to do it. We tried to explain the reasons but they were really resentful. Obviously it was their choice, but their dad, Marco wanted to perform the ordinance. Kati, their mother, was also resisting a Little bit as she wanted us to do it as well, as she had been baptized by Elder Ketchum on Christmas. Well, we got the final Word that Javiera and Francisca had somehow changed their minds and were going to be baptized by their father Marco. We were soooo excited, as Marco has started to come back to church less tan 2 months ago, after being inactive for over 30 years. He had been given the Aaronic Priesthood in December and was very excited, and a Little nervous, for the ordinance.
I cannot write everything that happened that night right now, because of the lack of time, but I will surely tell you more when I get back, as I tried to write it in detail in my journal. To be short and simple, it was sooo precious and beautiful to see a very humble father bringing his beloved daughters into the waters of baptism, just like some missionary had done when he was 12 years old, and baptizing them unto repentance and allowing them to enter into the fold of God, the Church of Christ (as Dad mentioned). It was so sacred as he, while saying their names and the prayer, fixed his sight in the eyes of his wife. He said the prayer both times flawless and not letting his visión be distracted from that of his wife Kati. It was something so special to see, because it was as if he was letting her share in that ordinance. The Spirit was very, very strong and Marco choked up a Little bit during the prayer as Kati started to ball. You can only imagine the extreme joy that she should have felt, as several months ago Marco drank Alcohol and spent less time with his family. Now, he, the father of his family, was worthy to hold the holy Priesthood of God, and was baptizing his daughters. It was a special and sacred evening and I hope that they continue on, because as of right now their sights are fixed on the temple. Marco is taking classes to prepare to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. It is all a special experience.

Thank you soo much for the package, for your love, and your prayers.

I love you all very much!!! And I pray for you!

Love,

Elder Driggs, Rob!

January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

Dear family,

This week has been a great week. Part of what our plan is to help the mission is to do 1 exchange with almost every missionary within metro Madrid. That in total will be 15 exchanges and we plan to do this before the end of this transfer, so within the next 5 weeks. We started the program yesterday and I went to Cuatro Caminos, Barrio 5, my old ward/area, and worked the day with Elder Cardoso, who is a 7 year(I think) convert to the church from Brazil. His family right now is living in Castillo de León and he is a great missionary. He works hard and has only been out in the field for 2 transfers. This is his second.

It was great being back in Barrio 5 for the day and I was able to see a couple of members and it always feels good when people remember you and tell you how much they miss you. It was great to see them and the bishop again. We saw the bishop while we were in the church teaching English classes. So the plan is that we do 3 exchanges for the next 5 weeks so that we can cover all of Madrid we are excited but to add to our excitement is the news that we received this last Monday.

While in the office this last Monday we received the news that 6 new missionaries had received their visas and were to enter the mission Wednesday or today. Well while talking it over with President about who had more space in their apartments and who would be their trainers he selected 3 units, the one of which is Barrio 2. So the great big news is that Elder Ketchum and I are training two American missionaries.

My companion is Elder Jeppson from North Logan. He is a great missionary and he speaks great Spanish. I have basically been speaking only Spanish with him all day and he speaks to me in Spanish. I am being honest. He has the gift of tongues for sure because he is way ahead of where I was. We are excited to work hard and I feel that we are going to have a lot of success. I am not sure if I will be with him just until this transfer ends, but whatever happens we are ready for a great adventure.

Thank you so much for all of the letters for my birthday. I love hearing from everyone. My birthday was great because a family of recent converts cooked us a wonderful meal. Gorki and Gloria who just got baptized a few months ago cooked a three course meal for us. Un caldo de Longostina de Ecuador, An octopus plate from some place in Spain (it was good), and we finished it off with a smashing presentation of a ceviche de pescado from Peru. Ohhh it was soo good. We had been fasting that day and so it was a great way to celebrate my birthday. I felt lots of love from the members and missionaries here.

Love,

Élder Driggs

January 12, 2011

2011-01-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

Oh my wonderful family!

I am glad that this week has been a great week for everyone. It has been the same for me. The missionary work here is going super well and we are finding new ways to help and serve other missionaries as well.

Thank you to all of those who wished me happy birthday. I really appreciate it, and just to let Grandmother and Granddad know, I do receive their letters and love reading them and knowing how they are doing. I apologize for not letting them know otherwise and for never responding. I am horrible.

So Élder Ketchum and I are being blessed a lot right now. We have big goals and Heavenly Father is helping us reach them. The latest news is the progress of the people who are preparing themselves to be baptized. Last week we had the two children, Javiera and Francisca, of Marco and Kati (the Chileans, Kati was baptized on Christmas) with baptismal dates for the 22 of January. They are 9 and 11 years old and are excited for their baptisms. They are children, so they don´t perfectly understand everything but when we asked them why they wanted to be baptized Javiera responded, ¨para entrar en el Reino de Dios (to enter into the Kingdom of God).¨ Super impressive as she basically quoted John 3:5. So, after picking up Élder Ketchum´s jaw off the ground we asked the same question to Francisca who replied, ¨para estar con Dios (to be with God).¨ So we are really impressed with them. They have know been to church 6 times in a row and love the Primary, that blessed organization. Their mother is especially excited because while at a family night with several ward families, she invited everyone to their baptisms.

The other two exciting stories are from two men from Ecuador, Fernando and Fausto. Fernando Andrade is a 33 year old man that was going to get baptized on Christmas with Kati but couldn´t because of complications with his wrist and foot due to a moto accident. We asked President Watkins last night if we could just wrap them up in a plastic bag during the baptism and he said that that would be fine. So we are going to tell Fernando the good news today, as he also has another examine with the doctors to see if he will need rehab or not. He wants to be baptized so we are excited as he will be able to realize his desire very soon.

The last story is someone very new, Fausto Jaramillo. We talked to him last week in the street before we went inside for the day. In the contact we set up an appointment for the next day. It was a really quick contact so we didn´t think too much of it, as usually when people act in a hurry it means that they don´t have too much interest. Unfortunately the next day, we were in exchanges and we didn´t have time to get to the appointment and forgot about him, not calling him or anything. So bad, I know.

Well a couple of days later I called him and he told us that he had been there waiting for us, I apologized big time, and he said that it was fine. We set another appointment up for last Saturday and ended up teaching him in the Church. It was a great experience as he is very humble and willing to listen and act on the message of the Restoration. We invited him to come to church the next day, he came, and we met again Monday. It helps a lot that he doesn´t have work, because he is very flexible, and that makes it easy for him to progress. On Monday we invited him to be baptized on the 5 of February and he accepted. He is great and we have another visit with him today at 7:00 in the church. We are extremely blessed with him and he will be a great member. He reminds me a lot of Segundo Moina in Barrio 5, who was baptized the week after I left that area.

So the blessings are many and the miracles are evident in our daily lives. I thank the Lord for his love and for the blessing of being here in Spain. I hope that you have a wonderful week and that all goes well in your busy daily lives. Keep your chins up and don´t forget to smile.

Dad, I pray for you that things go well as you are far from home. I admire your example of hard work and sacrifice for your family.

I love you very much! I pray for you often and know that you pray for me. Thank you!

Love,

Élder Driggs

January 5, 2011

2011-01-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Family!!!,

Wow, I can´t even believe it that 2011 has come and that 2009 and 2010 have been lost forever in the lovely lanes of our memories. Wow! this year will not be completely dedicated to missionary work as I will be home for almost half of this year. That is a crazy thought and don´t want to think about it too much.

It has been a great week and Élder Ketchum and I have had a lot of fun. We have been busy with lessons, a four hour leadership training program, and the every day missionary life. I love it and am learning a ton about myself and about how to react around others in a way that will help them be better, more like Christ. I need to work on that last part a lot more, because I need to get better at it.

So where to start....How about at New Years Eve!!! Earlier in the week last week, I think it was last Monday or Tuesday where we found a really nice Dominican mother and son and they let us come over and share a message with them immediately after meeting them in the street. They were so nice, and the mother knows that her youngest son here (she has 2 sons and one daughter here, and I think 1 son and her husband in her country) needs to be baptized because he has never done so. She doesn´t quite yet see that need for herself, but we haven´t really had the opportunity to do so, either.

So anyway, we taught them that once and then one more time Thursday, I think. Thursday of last week, they invited us over for their New Year´s Eve dinner, and OF COURSE, we accepted. So we were so honored to have been invited as it was only the four of them, the mom and the three children, and the girlfriend of one of the boys came as we left. It was a huge honor and privilege to have been invited on such short notice and after not even knowing them very well. The mom had contacted missionaries in her country earlier but we were so surprised and grateful. So we went and the food was outstanding....ahhh. She had cooked lobster, shrimp, ham, and this salad that was absolutely delicious. We left very content and we are still pending for our next visit with them.

The leadership training meeting went over really well. It was planned to be four hours. President Watkins was in charge of one hour and Hermana Watkins the other. Elder Ketchum and I covered the topic of teaching to the needs of the investigators and how to start teaching (both of which come from Preach My Gospel). It went well and hopefully all of the missionaries learned a lot. Because of the size of the mission and in order to save time with transportation, we had a huge video conference between the Canary Islands, (there were a few stations there on different islands) and then two more stations in the North of Spain, in Santiago and in León. So it is really neat to see all of this technology working out and be able to communicate with 14 or so other missionaries from around the country at the same time and be able to see and hear them.

Today for preparation day we are planning on playing basketball at the stake center next to the temple. We have planned on meeting a few other missionaries and we are taking with us the other missionaries from B4 (they live with us) as well. I love basketball and it will be fun to play a little bit.

I apologize for being a pest but I would love to hear more missionary stories from you, mom and dad, and from other family members, like uncle Steve, uncle Paul, or others. I would love to be able to hear about when Uncle Steve was with President Watkins, and I would love to hear from Uncle Paul about how the mission was like when he was here. More specifically his areas, etc. I don´t want to bother anyone so just if it is possible.

I love you all and am grateful that you are all well. I am bummed that I am going to miss Cari´s baptism but I understand and support that there is no reason to wait until I get back to do so. The blessing of that saving ordinance is much more important than waiting for a big brother. So take a bunch of pictures to save the moments.

I love you and urge you to keep going with the scripture reading in the morning. What a sacrifice, and what a blessing. I can´t wait to do it with all of you when I get back.

I send my love to all my family and friends.

Have a great week.

Love,

Élder Driggs :)

P.S. Thank you so much mom for the birthday song wish/note. I really appreciate it. I will definitely have you and everyone present in my thoughts that day. I can´t believe I am going to be 21. Yikes

December 29, 2010

2011-01-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Well, it was so much fun being able to talk to you on Saturday. I apologize again for not being able to talk the first time that you called. What a nightmare that must have been for you, having to wait even more time after waiting six months to talk to me. I apologize. It was sure fun hearing your voices and being able to hear you laugh and get along with each other....haha. I am finally seeing, little by little, how our family is going to socialize and react one with another. We are growing up and now have personalities and we are becoming more friends, rather than just brothers and sisters. So that is very exciting. The distance between me and Cami and Mark and Cari, is diminishing more and more and I understand that there really is not a big age difference. So cool!

This week has been great and I actually wanted to share a spiritual experience that I had the other night.

Elder Ketchum and I were teaching a recent convert family of 2 or 3 months and let´s just say that they are absolutely incredible. They are super active and have tons of faith. After the lesson, and the lessons are usually just them telling us how much they love the Gospel and how much it has really changed their lives and how willing they are to sacrifice themselves for the church and other members, etc. So after the lesson the wife of this family with a 6 year old daughter asked us to give her a priesthood blessing.

She was having headaches and she has I think, a mild form of Multiple Sclerosis, but has been told that she could die in the next 15 years. So we gave her the blessing, and in the blessing much was said about the strength of her faith. After we finished the blessing she stood up with tears coming down her cheek and asked, do you want to know something? We said sí. She told us that her head no longer was hurting her. She said it again, rather astonished, and said that it was incredible.

There were several moments of silence and the Spirit was very strong and thick in that room. We were touched and knew that it was because we had complied with the three requirements of a blessing taught by Elder Oaks. We had the priesthood, she had tons of faith, and it was the will of the Lord. I was humbled by the experience and knew that it was a true miracle, wrought about by the faith of this special sister. They are battling all sorts of persecution from friends and have had friends cease to be their friends for joining this ¨sect.¨ The good thing is that we know that all of this is true and that the blessings are real and many.

It was a beautiful and sweet experience and count it a tender mercy to have been able to participate in it.

I love you family and wish you a wonderful week. Just remember that I pray for you. I know that you pray for me and I feel those prayers and your love.

Love

Élder Driggs

December 22, 2010

2011-01-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hey there family!

Merry Christmas o como decimos aquí en la tierra de España, ¡Feliz Navidad! I already elaborated my thoughts and feelings about Christmas last week and so I won´t bore you more this week on the subject. But it sufficeth me to say that I love Christmas and am grateful for the strong seasonal traditions that we have as a family and the wonderful memories that we have had together in the past.

This last week we have had a lot of rainy weather, not huge rain storms but a few drops and a lot of gray clouds. I am not a big fan of the rain as a missionary because it isn´t very fun being in the Street and getting drenched. Luckily, we haven´t been outside just contacting very much.

Things are going really well here. We are still on for this Saturday for Fernando and Kati and that is our biggest excitement for the moment. You will also be happy to know that we are going to be in good hands for la noche buena (Christmas Eve) y la Navidad (Christmas Day). I am a little worried because we are going to be eating a lot, and that is one of the things that I actually don´t like about the mission. When you have already eaten and then someone prepares you another meal and you can´t say no, and you feel obligated to eat it. I hate that feeling and that situation. So I think that we have 2 meals on Friday and 2 or 3 on Saturday, and I am going to do my best to spread out the times so that I can enjoy what we are eating rather than just concentrating on not throwing up.

We are also thinking about going up to the mission home Friday night and eating a turkey dinner there and then spending the night there. That should be fun, as we would go with the Elders that live with us and the office Elders and the missionary that lives with them. Oh yeah, there is an American couple that lives in our Ward and they are have invited us over Saturday afternoon. The wife of the family actually grew up in Driggs, Idaho and lived in the original Driggs home before they tore it down. So that´s a really cool fact.

Well, I am sure you would like to know how Christmas is here in Spain. Spain doesn´t really have very many Christmas traditions. Actually for Spaniards Christmas isn´t that special, because their main holiday is the 3 or 4 or 5th of January where they celebrate the Magos Reyes or the wise men. This is when the Spanish people normally receive presents. However, because of the high population of South Americans here there is a lot of Christmas hype.

Today for preparation day we went to the distribution center and I bought a hymnal because I have promised a recent convert in Barrio 5 that I would give my current one to her. So I bought another one for me.

I do not know if I told you this last time but I found out that someone else got baptized in Aranjuez. The Little brother of Michael Alvarez that got baptized in April of last year. The Little brother must have finally received permission from his mom to get baptized and I Heard that his parents are also thinking about doing the same. I never really knew the dad but the mother was really nice, but doubtful or fearful about learning more about the gospel. Now that she has had 2 good examples of her sons, maybe she and her husband can have the courage to do the same.

I am glad to hear that everything is going well with everyone. I am really excited to hear from everyone, especially Cami, Mark, and Cari, because I don´t hear too much from them.

Rob in his Christmas Sweater - He just can't be left out of the Ugly Sweater Party!

Well, I am out of time. Have a good rest of the week and we will talk more Saturday.

I love you soo much and have fun preparing for Christmas!

I love you,

Elder Driggs

December 15, 2010

2011-01-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year and the hap, happiest season of all. I love Christmas. I have so many good memories of Christmas in the past, being with family, the snow, skiing, serving others and Secret Santa, and so many other cherished memories in my mind. I love everything about Christmas. Christmas is a little different away from home in the mission field, but that same spirit of Christmas is very present.

I appreciate the beautiful chance that I have to preach good tidings of GREAT joy to people that in other ways might not fully comprehend the life of Christ, like we do. It is so special to be able to invite people to be baptized in this time of the year because it really is the ultimate way of celebrating la Navidad, by entering into the sacred covenant of baptism, committing yourself to remember Christ always and to take upon yourself his name.

Wow!!! President Watkins wanted all of the missionaries to use a similar slogan during this season which was, Cual es la mejor manera de celebrar la Navidad?...Bautizarse (What is the best way to celebrate Christmas, Baptizing.) He wanted us to use that in our contacts, lessons, and baptismal invitations, and to our surprise the people sometimes are in agreement. So the mission is going well and I really do love Christmas. There is no better time to represent the Lord than in His season.

This week has gone great. Elder Ketchum and I are working well together and are determined to help people be baptized. We, right now, have three people who have baptismal dates. Two of them are super firm and they will be baptized the 25th of December, La Navidad. The other woman has a baptismal date for the 15th of January and is working towards it with desires to do so.

The first person with a baptismal date is Kati. She is from the great country of CHILE! and she is just wonderful. Her husband, Marco, was baptized when he was 12 years old but has been inactive for many years. They have 3 precious children, Javiera, 10 years old, Francisca, 9, and Isaac 1 year maybe. We love teaching them and they are so....easy. They are so sensitive to the Spirit and have really seen changes in their lives as they have applied the Gospel in their lives. Kati just loves the church and looks like a member already. They are such a great family and have tons of faith.

The neat thing is that they were a reference from a recent convert couple that were baptized about 3 months ago. That couple is so solid and are great helps to this chilean family. So we are super excited for them. We are working with the girls so that they can also get baptized. They like the primary, so that is a huge step. They were going to get baptized the same day as their mother but the mom said that they would need extra time or that they were not ready quite yet. We are not too worried because they will soon be baptized.

The other baptismal date is Fernando from Ecuador. He is also so good. He was a reference from a member as well and is very special. He loves going to the church and is very active in the activities. He got in a scooter accident a couple of weeks ago when a car ran into him while he was working in his delivery job, and so he is home a lot of the time. This makes it easy for him to read the Book of Mormon but it is hard for him to come to church and the activities. Luckily the ward council is very willing to help him and find people who can help him with transportation.
Things are going really well here in Barrio 2 Spain, Madrid and I am enjoying the mission.

I love all of you and hope that you stay strong and are being examples to all of those who are around you. I pray for you a ton and send my love to you, the family, and everyone over there. Please keep praying for me and the people that are listening to the message of the Restoration that they can have the Spirit with they to help guide them to the waters of baptism.
I love you so much.

Love,
Elder Driggs

December 8, 2010

2011-01-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

This week has been a great week. Barrio 2 is a great ward and there is a lot of work here right now. We are going to have a baptism this Saturday at 5 and we are really excited. Luis Miguel, a Spaniard around the age 56, is getting baptized. His wife, from Ecuador, was a inactive member until a couple months ago, and their daughter, 13 years old, just got baptized about a month ago, more or less. So he, Luis, is really excited and he has changed a lot and is very happy. He has stopped smoking and says that he has been in the search of peace and has finally found it. When Elder Ketchum asked him how he feels, he said, ¨Me siento paz,¨ (I feel peace). So we are very excited for him. There are a lot of members here in this ward that are involved in missionary work, and the bishop is wonderful.

I am not sure if I commented very much last week about the area, but it is still here in Madrid, in the north east part. If you want to look at a map the area includes the metro lines 5 and 7, roughly, starting from Ventas, which is where the church is, and then up the line to Pueblo Nuevo, Suanzes, San Blas, etc. So it is still very central. Not as much as Barrio 5, because nothing gets more central than that, but for example we have a lot of Calle Alcalá in our area. It is a very long street with tons of shops. We do a lot of street contacting on that street and in the past, missionaries have found tons of people that are ¨golden¨ so we stick with the tradition and so far so good.

I love you all a bunch, and I am sorry that this letter is short. I did receive the package mom and it was amazing. I loved the jeans, and hope that I can have a chance to wear them soon. They fit perfectly. There is nothing better than skinny jeans haha. I also loved the 24 days of Christmas sheets that you sent me. I started late, but am trying to catch up. I of course loved the candy as well. I absolutely loved the package and am so grateful for an amazing loving family like all of you. Thank you sooo much. It means a lot to me.
I think that toffee would be a great idea for investigators and members here in the ward. But if you have a better idea, I am open to everything.

I have one request this week. Elder Gomez, my last companion, has not been receiving constant emails from his mother. He does receive emails from his father, who lives in California, his parents are divorced and his mom remarried in Guatemala and his dad with a girlfriend. So his mom has been sick recently and I would love it if you, mom, and Cami, and whoever else in the family could write him. It would be great if you could write him. He would really appreciate it. So his address is: michael.gomez@myldsmail.net
So if you could send him a little note that would be fantastic.

Well, have a great week and know that I love you sooooo much and pray for you tons!

Love,

Élder Driggs

December 1, 2010

2010-12-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

To start off, let´s just say that I am not in the usual locutorio, or internet café, that I tend to be in on Wednesday´s. In fact, I am not even in my own area of barrio 5, and in fact, just so that you know, I am not even in the same zone....and my companion right now is not el Élder Gómez. Yes that is right, last week was...TRANSFERS!!!

Last week Monday, I got a phone call from the assistant Elder Gerrbo, who told me that I, Elder Gomez, and the two other Elders in our piso were going to train the start of next transfer. That means that there would be atleast 3 more missionaries that we were going to receive. We were sure that Elder Gomez and I were going to divide the area and train two new missionaries, but still be the zone leaders. It wasn´t too clear with the other two missionaries in our piso, but we thought that they would be training a new missionary in a trio, or threesome. We were soooo excited, because, well, I have never trained before, so I was completely stoked and us four missionaries are like best friends, so the thought of being together while training three new missionaries was absolutely ecstatic. So that was the plan/news until Thursday, I wanted to write you about this last Wednesday, but time was short and you really can´t be too sure about things with President Watkins because he can change his mind at the last second and so you never know until it actually happens. For this reason I didn´t tell you about it earlier, and you know what I was absolutely right, because on Thursday morning I received another phone call. This time from President Watkins....

He called me and said that he was sharing with me some pre-transfer information. He told me that I would be the next companion of Elder Ketchum as Elder Gerrbo was at the end of his mission and was going home at the end of the transfer. So I received THE news, that I would be the next assistant and would be serving in one of the best wards in Spain, Barrio 2 (Barrio 2 is second best baptizing ward in Spain). So....my thoughts on the matter, were at that moment, sadness because I was leaving behind an area that was very recently progressing a bunch (Segundo Moina passed his baptismal interview and should be baptized tomorrow, Thursday). I was also excited for the chance to work in Barrio 2 and to be close to President Watkins and see him work. So it was a trade off, and it still hasn´t set in. It feels like I am on a really long exchange. So the funny thing is that I will probably be in this barrio for the rest of my mission, which means that in total I will have only 3 areas. I am excited for the opportunity ahead to learn, and serve, and really become a more Christlike missionary. So, my Companion....

Elder John Patrick Ketchum from Princes Lakes, Indiana of about 1500 inhabitants. He has a family of 7, 4 brothers. His older brother served a mission in Guatemala and Elder Ketchum is number 2. The interesting thing is that his dad is not a member. He is actually really active in the Catholic church. His dad, when Elder Ketchum was really little, was a WWF wrestler and his name was ¨The Assasin.¨ His dad, since has given that up and know dedicates his life to the police force. I will have to tell you more about Elder Ketchum in emails to come because there are a lot of details. But it is sufficient for me to say that Elder Ketchum´s mom is a rock. You can tell that he has been brought up well, and he is a fabulous missionary. His love for the people and for me as a companion is very evident. I am grateful for the opportunity to work and serve with him in this labor of love. It will be a privilege. This morning we went to the temple to think about the possibilities of the transfer and have been impressed to do certain things. We are excited to get to work and to help the rest of the mission have success. I have already learned a ton from him, as you can imagine.

Sunday night, the assistants picked me up and we dropped off my luggage at their apartment and then we went to the mission home(I still haven´t seen the package but surely it will come soon). Sister Watkins cooked us ribs and we had the priviledge to have the presence of an area seveny Elder Wright. He is very young, from England but his spirit and the experiences that he has had are fantastic. I was very impressed with him and it was a delight to share the evening with him.

Monday morning we went to the office and received all of the key indicators(numbers) from the zone leaders and then started preparing all of the information to have our weekly meeting with President Watkins, to talk about how the week went and other matters. President Watkins is an inspired man, and actually while I was there in the office he received your email dad and read me a part of it and said that it would be a pleasure to meet you and the family. Elder Ketchum´s family is planning on coming as well. We ended up leaving the office at 5 o clock and to be honest, I am not a big fan of spending sooo much time there. We will see how it goes, but I am sure being more appreciative of the time that I had to be a full time proselyting missionary. We ended up getting lost the rest of the day and getting caught in traffic, so we didn´t teach at all. Driving is a lot different here in Madrid and I have stalled the car tons of times.

Well, we are excited for the work here in Barrio 2. There are 4 people that have baptismal dates, and the plan is that this weekend one of them has his baptismal interview. We will see how that goes.

Please continue to pray for me. I feel the strength and the love of those prayers.

I love you all. Please have one of the best weeks ever. I am loving the work and am feeling the Spirit´s influence more and more. It is so gratifying to feel the Spirit testifying through me that what I am saying is true. I want to feel that more often and I believe and feel that this transfer is going to be very special. Elder Ketchum and I are going to have a lot of success. The Spirit will be our guide.

I love you all,

Love,

Élder Driggs

November 24, 2010

2010-12-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad,

Les felecito en español hoy, ya que han cumplido 25 años de matrimonio. Increíble. Fantástico y Estupendo.

It sounds like your week has gone well so far and it sounds like you have great plans for tomorrow, the big turkey day. Our plans for thanksgiving....trabajar! Wooohooo! I actually am not complaining. I am very excited to work tomorrow because we have a ton of appointments. It doesn´t bother me one bit, working on holidays when I am on the Lord´s errand.

This week has gone great. We are very excited with the things that are happening, actually, we are absolutely stoked with the progress of the area. We, were so privileged last Thursday to receive the visit of Elder Caussé. He was inspiring. So inspiring that that night we set 6 baptismal dates. 1 couple from the Dominican Republic, and 1 family of 4 from Bolivia. We hope that they keep progressing, because they are wonderful people. The next visit we had with them was the Friday afterwards, last Friday, and we asked the Bolivian family what they thought about making the decision as a family to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. The father responded sincerely, me gustaría. They are a wonderful family and hope that things continue to go well for them.

The last time we were with the Dominican couple the girl asked us if she had to read all of the Book of Mormon before her baptism, her date is for the 18th of December. We responded with a smile, no. We are receiving many, many, many blessings from the Lord at this time in this area and we hope and pray that these special people, our brothers and sisters accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized. We are at least excited that they have some initial desires to do so, which sometimes people don´t have at the beginning of this teaching process.

Just to inform you about Segundo Moina. He is awesome! He came to church this last week and stayed again for the 3 hours. He wanted to go home before the third hour, but we and some other members gently persuaded him to stay. He is getting more and more friends and acquaintances at church and the bishop is really hot on him. Before Priesthood started the bishop presented himself to him, and asked him immediately, When are you getting baptized? Segundo told him the 2nd, and the bishop said, good, I want to be there. It made Segundo feel really good that people told him that they wanted to be there when he gets baptized to support him. He loves that feeling of being important and feels very special. He is a wonderful man, very humble and will be a great member of the church. He is stoked for his baptism.

We have a bunch of miracles that are going on in our area and there isn´t any time to even begin to tell you about all of them. I had an incredible exchange with Elder Cerro, El Argentino, Uruguayo, y Canario o de las islas Canarias. We were in our area and had nothing planned as all of our appoinments had canceled on us. We passed by a potencial investigator and it was just a series of miracles. 1st, that she was there, that she let us in and that there was a man in the room. To invite her to be baptized we showed her and the father of her son the picture of the baptism of Jesus, with John the baptist in the River Jordan. The really famous image in the church. We showed it to her, explained briefly what it was, and then as I began to invite her, something like , ¨cuando ustedes sepan que lo que compartimos es verdadero ....¨, she interrupted me, and said, ¨Ya se lo que me va a preguntar y la respuesta es sí.¨ Nos quedamos sorprendidos. We were shocked. We had talked to her one day in the street a long time ago, maybe 3 months, and we talked to her about baptism then, so something must have stuck with her, because she was prepared to say yes. We have another appointment with her and him tomorrow, and we are so excited because we are going to set a specific date with them. They weren´t sure about setting a serious goal the last time, but tomorrow they will be.

To end my letter today, I just wanted to congratulate one more time, Mom and Dad. I love you soooo much. I thank you for your perfect examples of love, dedication, service in the church, service in the community, hard work, testimony, and sacrifice. Thank you for all of the sacrifices that you have made and continue to make for me. I am and will be eternally grateful to you for them. What and who I am is because of you. You have taught me so much, and recognized more than ever, here on the mission, that I, like Nephi, have been born of goodly parents. I have grown in my love for you while I have been away from you these 15 months, today. If you remember it was 15 months ago, today, a Wednesday at 11:30, when we last saw each other. That was a long time ago, but the time has literally flown by, and soon, too soon, we will be together again. I am grateful for the support, love, and prayers, that you give me while I am out here completing my duty to God: being away from my family for two years, so that other families can be together forever. My love and gratitude for you is forever and words cannot describe it. The two most important words in the English language that you deserve are simply: THANK YOU!!!

I love you! Keep up the good work with Cami, Mark and Cari. We all will get to a certain point when we will finally understand what sacrifices you have gone through, which sacrifices you have done with love. Gracias.

Have a great week! or as Ignacio (Nacho libre) says it so nicely and exquisitely ....Take it eassssy!

Love,

Elder Driggs

P.S. Today for our Preparation Day, we went ice skating at an Ice skating rink 20 minutes or so from Madrid. It was way fun and think that that is one of my secret talents that I need to develop. Haha, Just kidding!!! But it was way fun. Love, Rob

November 17, 2010

2010-12-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

This week has been great as usual. Nothing really new, except for the fact that it was rough being out of the area for so long, like I explained to you last week. We had an awesome Halloween activity this last week, on Saturday, and we were able to have a few investigators come. We, the missionaries and the mission leader were in charge of the activity and it happened to be the first activity in more than a year for the ward. It was a huge success, despite the fact that it didn´t start perfectly. The members loved it and the leadership and the bishopric of the ward were very content. They are excited to get planning on what we are going to do for Christmas.

Elder Gomez and I are a little concerned as the 3 people that had baptismal dates have basically disappeared. We haven´t been able to put us into contact with them. Well, we have talked to Carlos Gomez on the phone but have not been able to meet with any of them. None of them came to church either. We are sad because they are such special people and are so close to being baptized. They have testimonies that are growing so quickly and we need to pray more for them, that they can get back into contact with us.

We are really excited for tomorrow and Saturday as we are going to have a zone conference with Elder Causse of the 70. We will certainly be spiritually blessed to have him with us.

Elder Gomez and I have set some goals that are going to help us increase our level of obedience. I am convinced that if we are more consciously obedient to all of the mission rules and commandments that we will receive the promised blessings, be happy, and really see and participate in miracles. That is really what we want and the entire reason why we are here.

I love you so much and I apologize that this email is so short. We have had a busy day and we have to run to a teaching appointment. Know that I love you, pray for you and think of you as much as is allowed.
haha

Have the best week ever. Don´t get frustrated, don´t get angry, just be happy as much as possible, and when not thought possible to do so, breathe, say a silent prayer and smile, even if you don´t feel like it. Our lives will change little by little if we consciously do all that we can to be happy. That is why we are here.

Have a great week.

Love,

Rob, Elder Driggs

November 10, 2010

2010-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

Dearest and most loving, good lookin´, family,

This week has been extraordinary. I will just be honest that I love to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we teach a lot of people and talk to a lot of people in the street, I am happy. We, this last week, were able to teach a lot of people, and it was a lot of fun. There was even one point of the week, where we had two appointments at the same time, and Elder Gomez and I had to do splits. We have planned to do splits in the past but there has always been something that has gotten in the way, members not being able to help us, investigators bailing out on the appointments, etc. But this time all worked out and Elder Gomez went with one of the young adults in the ward who just received the Melchizedek Priesthood two Sundays ago and who is preparing to go on a mission, and I was the lucky one who was able to go with a 70 year old high priest temple worker. It was a lot of fun! and we were able to take advantage of the little time we had. 2 appointments instead of 1 is always better.

To explain my title for today, let´s just say that this week I have not and will not see much of him, who is known as, Elder Gomez, or in other words, mi compañero. Starting this last Monday until this morning we were in exchanges with the Elders of Villalba. I went there and the other two stayed in Barrio 5. Tomorrow we are doing exchanges with the assistants and I am again leaving the area. It is rough leaving our area. I don´t really love it, but it is fun seeing how other people do missionary work and be able to observe and learn. Luckily the area is in good hands...well great hands actually...El gran Elder Gomez.

Segundo is doing really well this week. He came to church this last Sunday, but he had to come to the earlier ward that meets at 10 instead of 12. He came and stayed through the whole sacrament meeting even though we had planned that he leave early so he could get to work on time. He started work at 12. He came, stayed, and loved it, and even better he got to work on time. Whewww!!! We are going to teach him tonight at 7:30.

Carlos Herranz isn´t going super well, because he lost his voice last Friday and we haven´t been able to get a hold of him since. He also wasn´t able to go to church this last Sunday. We, of course, are not giving up hope, and we are patient and willing to work with his extremely busy and complicated schedule.

We have another baptismal date, that we set this last week. His name is Carlos Gomez, he has to be an extremely extended relative of Elder Gomez. Haha. He is from Argentina and is really cool. He came with us two weeks ago to the stake conference and came this last week and stayed for the first two hours. He seems to be more dedicated because he wants to change his life, drop the bad or worldly things behind, and be more spiritual and calm. He has been showing us more and more that he wants this for himself and we are hopeful that he can continue to progress. We have taught him for awhile but we had to stop for a month or so as he went out of town to the Canary Islands to work. He is back in action and the only problem is that he doesn´t have an established work, so he is always working little jobs here and there and has a rather unpredictable schedule.

Today, we as a zone went to Segovia. Elder Holub and I came over from Villalba and met up with the other missionaries that went straight there from Madrid and we spent a fun day there looking through the Cathedral and walking down below the Castle. We had fun looking through some caves and were able to see some bats. We ate at a doner kebab hut, these are really famous here in Spain and there are tons of them all over the place. You are all going to love Segovia when you come. It is awesome and I know it enough now to get around.

Well, Elder Gomez is already done and we´ve got to hit the road and get to work. I hope that you have an awesome week. I am glad to hear that you are losing so much weight. That is so exciting! I also love the thought of seeing pictures from all of you. I love you all and pray for you. I was especially happy to hear that you had PPI´s with the kids. I think that that is a fundamental principle that helps unify families and increase love, success, and spiritual and personal progress.

Keep doing what is right. And be wise.

Love,

Elder Driggs

November 3, 2010

2010-11-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Hello, Hello. I hope everyone has had a good week thus far. I am saddened by the news of Grandma. I hope and pray that all goes well with her, and you mom, and the whole family. Thankfully we have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation that helps us understand and comprehend death and other misfortunes during our journey here on earth. I am very grateful for this knowledge as it has helped me many times during my life be happy, despite the surrounding circumstances.

This week has been wonderful for Elder Gómez and me. We love the work. I have been trying lately to be more focused and concentrated in the work, and to really establish and develop a love for the people. I have been getting better, I think, and I continue to enjoy the work.

We are excited as we are finding more and more people, or should I say miracles, that are really ready to prepare themselves to be baptized. Or more importantly, are desirous to do so. We are still very excited for Segundo Moina. He wasn´t able to come to church this last Sunday, which happened to be Stake Conference, because he was working, and he won´t be able to come this coming Sunday, either, because of work. His schedule seems to have changed a little bit, but we are patient and hopeful that all will work out. We have invited him to ask his bosses to see if there is a possibility to have his shift a little later, so that he can still come to church. We will see what happens.

I have been trying lately to put the advice of Elder Pederson, the nephew of the Ernst, in practice, which is to talk about baptism in every lesson. I think I do so normally but I don´t make it a huge focus. With Segundo, I am especially trying to at least mention his baptism in every visit. A couple of lessons ago, I asked Segundo how he was feeling in terms of his baptism. He responded, ¨I feel a lot more calm and I hope that the day gets her quick.¨ I was surprised and very happy to hear this, and asked him why he was excited for his baptismal date, just so that we could know what he was thinking.

He told us that he wanted to be a member of the Iglesia Mormona. He is very humble and very receptive, it seems like. He is understanding more and more and continues to read everyday from the Book of Mormon. He will be a wonderful member of the church and we are excited to his date, which will probably be the 18th of November. Please pray for him, so that he can come to church, he has already come twice and stayed for the three hours, but he needs to at least come one more time to be able to be baptized. He should be able to at least come twice a month to church, which certainly isn´t the best, but ok.

It is hard, the balance with church assistance and work here in Spain, because fathers or mothers separate themselves from their friends and families for years to come over here to just work. Their only goal and vision is to get money and to support their family, and for some it is the only hope to get ahead or help their children attend the university, etc. It is a rough situation but as we know, sacrafice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and we know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and we have all of the truth. So what else matters?

We are also very excited about a new investigator named Carlos Herranz. A month or more ago we received a reference from the bishop of the second ward here in Madrid. We called him a couple of times and seemed super nice and very excited to learn more, but do to his work schedules, we could never meet with him. We ended up losing contact with him. We called him last Friday and set up an appointment Saturday evening. During the phone call he told me that he had already read the Book of Mormon and prayed at the end. He told me that he wanted to read the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants as well.

I was shocked. When we went to his apartment on Saturday...let me just say that this guy is an animal...in the good meaning. He is incredible. We sat down and started talking to him and listened to his story. He had met with missionaries before and they gave him the Book of Mormon. He read it and felt that it was true. He had to travel to Wales for work and lost contact with the missionaries and lost his Book of Mormon. He is a very impressive man as he is a musician, theologists-he taught theology during a certain period in his life, and among many other things he is a Spaniard.

After hearing him, and hearing that he wanted to learn more we presented him with a ¨Conversion Plan¨, which includes the lessons needed receive and a baptismal date. We set the date for the 4 and 5 of December and he was willing to put it as a goal. He has a ton of experience and we invited him to the stake conference the next day and he came. He came in taxi because he wasn´t sure that he was going to make it on time, and apparently the taxies here are not the cheapest way of transportation here.

He stayed for almost all of it, and he had to leave before the last hymn and the closing prayer. He seemed to enjoy it and told me that he had already read the assigned reading, and he is just really neat. He is one of those golden investigators that you always look for and hear about. We hope that he continues to be great, as we really don´t know a whole lot about him, but until now all goes well. In 1 hour and 40 minutes we have an appointment with him. At 7 o clock in the church. Wish us luck! Haha.

Well, that is basically what we are up to, in a very short, brief report. I am loving the work and am nervous that my time is already coming to an end. I still have time left, but I have that feeling that the end is drawing near, and I don´t want to stop living this dream. I have loved the experiences that I have had up until this point and I have become a better person. When someone is really devoted in the service of others, they change permanently for the better. I need to serve with more love and devotion so that I can become closer to Jesus Christ.

I love you all very much and please tell Grandma hi for me. I will be praying for her and all of you.

I love you,

Élder Driggs

October 27, 2010

2010-11-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Mom, Dad, Cami, Mark and Cari,

I love you all sooo much. I don´t have tons of time today but for these precious minutes I will try to communicate my love to you and help you live my mission with me.

This week has been great. Elder Gomez and I have been struggling to reach the goals of the mission in lessons taught. We are not depressed but motivated to find a better way to find success. We are super happy, however, with the progress of Segundo Moina. He actually wasn´t able to come to church this last Sunday, because he came home late, at around 4 o clock in the morning. We met with him that night and were able to talk to him a little bit more regarding about how we missed him at church and we shared with him the Word of Wisdom. He has had problems with this in the past as he occasionally smokes, drinks, and drinks coffee in the mornings(I believe everyday). He is so cool, because after we explained to him what was that law, he honestly told us that he had never known about it and in his closing prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for us and in teaching him some commandments that he had never known. He is really special and I love being a missionary in moments like that, because you realize that some people, like it says in D and C, don´t know where to find the truth. He is very willing to do what is right and is progressing wonderfully.

I had to mention quickly what we did a couple of weeks ago. We had a district lunch, together. Two companionship of Elders and two of sisters. Elder Gomez and I were going to use a recipe in your cookbook ¨Oh my Gosh your going to like this, Casserole¨ but we ended up switching, and cooking Chicken Enchiladas in the same recipe book. It turned out fantastic and chose to swith the name t0o ¨Oh my gosh your gonna love these Enchiladas.¨ We thought it was a very appropriate name and we had a bunch of laughs out of it. They turned out perfectly.

I am sorry that I have run out of time. I love you all and pray for you.

I love you and wish you a wonderful week,

Love,

Elder Driggs,

Keep smiling.

October 20, 2010

2010-11-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Hello, hello!!! I am sorry to hear that today hasn´t been one of the best days. Sometimes we have them, but we learn, we grow, and we get back up on our feet to run harder the next day. Like you said mom, the sun will rise again tomorrow. I love the idea of restarting, new days, new weeks, new transfers, and new goals. It is so nice to repent and then start over. What a blessing, repentance, and being able to apply it in our daily lives. It is hard to understand the way repentance works, but it is real and I need to make it more of a habit. I think it has been a lot easier on the mission to repent, or at least I have been more focused on doing so more regularly, than it was in real life.

We as missionaries are constantly evaluating, setting goals, striving to achieve those goals, and then re-evaluating. We try to specialize in one area, missionary work. On the other hand, being a regular person, there are a lot more things that you have to juggle and sometimes we get caught up in...life. Repentance is one of the most relieving ideas that we teach as missionaries. The idea of change and improvement and letting go of the past and improving.

We have started a new focus in the mission and that is to talk about baptism in every contact, unless the Spirit tells us otherwise, of course. It was a little interesting at first, because I always liked to talk about eternal families when I saw a family, for example, but baptism is the focus of everything in missionary work, and it is interesting that when we ask people how they would feel to be able to erase all of their sins and mistakes that they have had, they almost always say that it would be great. Baptism is our way out. It is the only way back to our Father in Heaven.

Without the receiving the baptismal ordinance in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, our brothers and sisters, neighbors, friends, and family cannot return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We see the importance of baptism and there is no reason why we shouldn´t be talking about it with everyone. If we talk more about it, people will know what we are all about and they who want to listen will already have that idea in their minds and know what our mission really is. So that is what we are trying to focus on right now in our everyday lives.

This week has been a good week. Not exceptional but not bad either. We had 7 people that had committed to come to church earlier in the week and only one person came. It was somewhat disappointing because the family of Luz, she and her two sons didn´t come. Luckily they had come to the baptismal service the night before and they felt the Spirit. (I played the violin for a musical number and the next day in Sacrament Meeting I accompanied while someone sang ¨Oh Savior Thou Who Wearest A Crown.¨) Hopefully they can come to church soon, because if not we might have to drop them. It would be really sad because they are a wonderful family, but it is hard because we can´t teach them very often as their schedules are really busy.

We are really happy because the one investigator that came to church is incredible. O si hablamos en español, es de maravilla, pero en serio, es increíble. His name is Segundo Moina, and we talked to him in the street a month ago, probably, and we invited him to church. We met him half way and he came, without ever having a lesson with us. We lost contact with him for a little while, as he didn´t seem to enjoy the reuniones, even though he stayed for the three hours. But we called him and taught him the first time two Sundays ago and again last Thursday, both with members acompanying us.

On Thursday while asking him if he had read what we had left him, 3 Nephi 11, he responded, well the first time I read it, I was a little confused. The second time I read it, it made a lot more sense, but the third time, it was as if the heaven´s had opened up and I understood everything. He said that he had read everyday and believed that what he had read was true. That was truly a miracle. We invited him to be baptized the 20th of November, and he said he wasn´t sure. We asked if we could pass by the following day in the morning. There was actually only about 12 o 13 hours diference between that appointment and the next one, Friday morning. He said that that we could come by and we invited him to pray and ask Heavenly Father if he should be baptized that day. He accepted the invitation and we left him with 3 Nephi 27. We all knelt down, and Segundo offered the closing prayer.

In the prayer he thanked God for the change that he had felt in his life, for the blessing of bumping into us that day a month ago, and many other beautiful things. We could tell, and he expressed to us, that he felt a difference in his life by reading the Book of Mormon. He felt that change in his life and the next day he had read the chapter, understood it well. When we asked him to tell us what it was about, he immediately said, Baptism. He is incredible. We invited him again to be baptized and after asking us if he, being baptized in this church, could still accompany his wife to the Catholic masses and us responding him, he said yes, let´s start preparing.

He came to church, stayed the three hours, and the priesthood hour really impacted him, as the lesson was miraculously on baptism. A few brethren shared experiences before they were baptized when they were involved with alcohol and how as they felt the need to be baptized, that desire was washed away. Segundo told me after that he has felt the same thing, that as he has met with us he has not felt the need like before to drink alcohol. I am not sure if he has stopped completely, but certainly, he has gotten better.

The miracles are many here in Madrid Spain. I am here for at least 6 more weeks and I can´t complain. We have a few goals and we plan to accomplish them. I am loving the people more and more and the work is going well. Elder Gomez and I get along great and I am really privileged to have him as a companion. Elder Moreno went home yesterday, but he is going to come back up on Saturday because his last area, Alcalá (where uncle Paul served) has a baptism and I heard that the person wants Elder Moreno to baptize them.

Luckily Elder Moreno lives within range to be able to come back. Elder Moreno opened back up Alcalá his last six weeks, after President had taken the missionaries out for 6 (Alcalá normally doesn´t have very many baptisms). But when Elder Moreno left they had 8 baptismal dates, which is unheard of, anywhere in the mission, let alone Alcalá. He told me that they were all miracles, but Elder Moreno is a good missionary and he works hard and loves the people. There are a lot of Spañiards there in Alcalá so I sure he got along really well with everyone.

Well, I have to write my inform to President Watkins, so I hope that all of you have a great week. Take care and keep praying and studying the scriptures. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Driggs.

P.S. Keep smiling and loving life, this is our only chance to do so.

October 13, 2010

2010-11-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family ever,

How are things going in your part of the town. I absolutely loved the letters today. I appreciated the spiritual thoughts, the scriptures, and the surprising events about the Stokers, Ernst´s, and just how life is so busy at home. I love being busy and I fear the time when I get home and have very little planned. However, that day will come. I need to worry more about the now.

Thanks for the thoughts on staying focused and enjoying to the max the time I have here to dedicate myself to the Lord and His service. It honestly makes me sad to think that I am on the other side of the mission and to think that I will not be doing this forever. I love the work. I love the people. It is hard work and sometimes I don´t love it, but I try to do my best during those times and it helps shape who I am.

It is also hard to see my progress during the mission. You always want to change so much during the mission and sometimes I fear that I am not changing at all. I´m sure I have changed in some aspects, well hopefully most aspects, but these changes are certainly so gradual that I don´t note them at all. But don´t get me wrong. I love the mission and want everyone to serve one. Holy Cow, it is the best. I am still waiting to hear from Kathryn. I want to know where she is called. I hope she comes here to Madrid. That would be way sweet.

So yeah, Mom, I do know Élder Pederson. It´s actually kind of funny, because he asked me that the other day. I actually don´t know how he found out, but apparently you are friends with his mom too. But he asked me if I knew the Ernsts and I said yes and it was really neat to draw that connection.

He used to live in California when he was really little, in San Francisco and in Concord. He was actually in the ward of President Watkins, when President Watkins was a bishop. Apparently, Elder Pederson´s mom is really good from with Hermana Watkins. So that is really neat. He is a great missionary, and he only has 4 days left and then he goes home. He has been the assistant for the last transfer, or last 5 weeks, and so it has been fun to get to know him a little bit more and to learn from him.

Elder Pederson bore a really strong testimony the other day in mission council and I really came away really impressed with what he had learned during the mission. The two things that I remember that he mentioned were, 1 – being honest with yourself and with God. 2. Talking about baptism in every contact and in every lesson. If we do that we will baptize more. He is a really good missionary and even though I hardly know him, because was from the old Bilboa Mission, it would be fun to stay in contact with him. I am going to tell him about the concert, because that will make him happy that we know the Ernst´s so well. He also told me that Nicole is really serious with someone. That made me laugh when I heard that because I still remember the family joke that everyone always played on us. I guess things are not going according to plan. Haha

Everything is going really well here. I will tell you what though. I want to baptize more people. We have a baptismal service this Saturday with the 25 year old man, I think I told you about him last week, Luis Jaime Males. He is a really good person. We had a few minor complications in the whole progress because last week we found out that he was going to have to go to Columbia to see his brother get married, the week before his scheduled baptism. We asked if he could postpone the flight two days and leave on a Monday. We also asked permission from President Watkins if he could get baptized because he had only come to church 2 times officially, the first time he missed the Sacrament Meeting and we don´t count it if that happens.

For someone to be baptized in the Spain Madrid mission they have to come to church atleast three times. President had no problem with that and so we are all good to go. Our district leader Elder Cerro interviewed him last night and all is well. All systems are go for this Saturday at 7 o clock. We are very excited, especially because the whole ward is excited about it. Our new bishop is super focused in the missionary work and wants all of the organizations focused on that. So he and our awesome new ward mission leader have everyone excited for this Saturday and many members are helping us out and calling to see if there is anything else they can do. I love it, because that is the way a ward should work. I would love to hear that Luis goes on a mission too. His girlfriend told him a few weeks ago that she wants to serve a mission, so hopefully he can get the chance to go. We will see. That is my dream, to help someone get baptized that at the same time serves a mission and helps many more people.

We are really excited about a certain family Luz, Napoleón, Jasmani, and Saul. They are the family of four from Ecuador that I think I commented about last week. Napoleón has left to work out of Madrid for a couple of weeks and we have seen tons of progress. He was a little stubborn, and Luz is super sensible to the Spirit. Last night we taught tithing to her and her two sons, and her niese(who is a little like Napoleón), because she had seen the word in the guia de las escrituras, at the back of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. We taught it to her and she understood it perfectly. We invited her to live the law after her baptism and without thinking she immediately responded, Sí. As you can see she is just awesome and is being prepared by the Holy Ghost to be baptized.

She and her sons and her husband, who brought the Book of Mormon with him while away for work, are reading the Book of Mormon every day, and she and her sons, at least are praying everyday as well. We just need to make sure that they are asking Heavenly Father everyday in their prayers if these things are true. She is really great and will be a really strong member pretty soon. She has committed to come to church this Sunday with her sons and she is also planning on coming to the baptism this Saturday, also, there is an activity for all of the youth in Madrid this Saturday and she said that if we went, Elder Gomez and I, she would let her 2 boys go too.

We are just really excited about them and pretty soon you will here that they have a date and will be baptized. We invited them to be baptized already the 20th ish of November, I can´t remember exactly, and she said, well, I can´t say that it will be that day, but in the future I can´t deny that I might do it. So she is there progressing little by little. She read the first half of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, yeah it is also the same in spanish, and she said that she liked it, she shared concerns that she has for her youth especially while living in Spain, and she said that she agreed with everything that it said so far. She told us that she wants to know more about Alcohol the next lesson, so teaching her is really easy now, because we teach in accordance with her interests.

Well, I love being a full time missionary. I sometimes forget the eternal importance of this sacred calling. But I do love being here.

I love you. I pray for all of you by name. Thank you for your prayers. Thanks for writing Cami, and the letter is almost finished being written and will be in the mail today. I love you, Cami, very much and I also am excited to be with you and the family again. It will be great, but for now my time, thoughts, and actions are to be focused on the Lord´s holy errand. His labor of love.

Love, Elder Driggs

October 6, 2010

2010-11-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Mi Querido Familia,

Esta semana ha sido una semana muy buena. Me encant'o la carta de Marcos. Me dio mucha alegria de escucharle.

Ahora en ingles, para no molestarles m'as.

This week has been great. I have been a little sick, mainly just a cold and the sniffles, but other than that we are trying to help people progress towards baptism. It was sooo much fun going to conference. I have explained to you the schedule in past emails, but basically there is one session in the evening on Saturday, and priesthood and two more on Sunday.We don't get the priviledge of hearing the last session because it starts at 10 and ends and 12 at night. We went Saturday night with a less active 14 year old from Ecuador, and right when I got off the metro on Saturday I saw Gina, and two other sisters from Aranjuez. I was thinking I was going to see them that weekend but not so soon. I was so happy to see them. It has been so long since I have seen them and after 9 months of being around them, you forget a little bit how much you love them. It was especially nice to see Gina, that she is active and that she is participating and has friends in the Relief Society.

I don't think that I told you but about 3 months ago, President Watkins pulled the missionaries out of Aranjuez. This was a semi surprise to me, but I know why. President Watkins has been threatening the units, wards and branches in the mission, that if they don't meet certain requirements, like weekly coordination meetings, weekly ward coucil meetings, ward missionaries, ward mission leader, and a actual and functioning ward mission plan, than he will take the missionaries out. He has sent letters to the presidents and bishops of every branch and ward and many have lost missionaries and those missionaries have gone to other areas where the units function better.

Aranjuez was always, in a way, exempt from this consequence because of the amount of baptisms. There was branch support, but for example home teachers, and others organizations didn't work like they should. So he took the missionaries out. I was obviously worried because of the recent converts there without missionaries visiting them. So with that in mind it was a treat to see Gina there super active. She and Ronny and the entire family came Sunday to the 6 o clock session and it was soooo nice to see them and talk with them. Even though there wasn't much time, they are wonderful.

Of course the first question I asked Gina was if they were still planning on getting sealed. She told me, claro, Elder. I asked her about tithing, as I knew that would be one of the hardest requirements for them and she told me that she is paying for the family, even though she is not working. Its harder for Ronny to pay tithing, but she is doing it because if not, they will not be able be sealed as a family. She is very, very special. She told me that she is having family night almost every week. And their 11 year old son told me that they are having daily family scripture study, and just the 4 of them, when Ronny is not there. He also said that he is reading the Book of Mormon personally. Gina told me that her daughter Naomi, 13, I think, likes Young Women, went to there form of Girls Camp, learned the standards of how to dress, and feels really close to her young women's leader.

I was sooo happy to hear from them and could talk to them forever. I sadly heard, that Michael Alvarez is inactive, not going to church, but that his dad wants to get baptized as well as his little brother Gerald. So that was the Aranjuez scoop. The whole time seeing them made me desire more baptisms. We need to work harder and are very excited that we are going to get a new ward mission leader. He is phenomenal. He was an assistant in his mission 15 years ago and is a fantastic person. I will be talking in Sacrament meeting this Sunday with him and one of the sister missionaries. I feel that this ward is about to explode with baptisms, now that we have everything that we need for the ward to be ready and prepared for more people to enter it.

I love you all and hope that you enjoyed conference. I love living in Utah, and being able to go to the Conference Center, and say that I have been there. It made me just a tad bit trunky, because I love going to the conference center and watching it and being with Dad, Mark and Granddad and the boys at Priesthood. But those times will come again. There is certainly no rush.

Favorite talks, President Uchtdorf, Elder Nelson, Elder Jensen, and of course all of President Monson's. I listened to all of the sessions in spanish except for Priesthood. It just isn't the same in Spanish, especially after knowing how their voices sound in English.

A little not for Cami, I now have a letter written from Elder Gomez, and Elder Cerro from Argentina, who lives with us is also going to write you, I think, so we are going to send these letters to you soon. I love you Cami.

And Mark thank you for writing. I love you too.

Thank you for all of your prayers and endless love,

With all the love that I possess,

Elder Driggs

P.S.Almost the whole time while listening to Elder Holland talk about parents sacrificing I thought about you two, Mom and Dad. I believe that the only thing I can say to you is...thank you. Thank you for sacrificing everything for me. I really am grateful for that sacrifice and will try to show that gratitude more each and every day through my efforts. Thank you o Muchisimas Gracias como dicen aqui en Espana.

September 29, 2010

2010-11-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

Thank you for the weekly update. I love hearing from Cami every week too! That is a new treat!

This week has been a great week. We are just cruising Elder Gomez and I, and actually, the past two days I have been in exchanges with Elder Meek. He is from somewhere near Farmington, Utah, and went to Davis High School. We got along well and the work in his area, Villalba Collado, is incredible. They have a wonderful Young Men´s Program there and have baptized two young men in the last 2 or 3 months and there are more on the way. It is wonderful to see when the church organizations really work as they should, it help in la obra misional or missionary work. Elder Meek and Elder Holub, his companion from Colorado are great missionaries and they have the goals to accomplish equilibrium every week. Equilibrium is short for the weekly goals of the mission. Elder Meek is a great missionary, despite the fact that he has been sick for the past month. He was diagnosed with gastrointeritis, I don´t know what it is called in english, which makes him throw up almost everything that he eats. He threw up a couple of times in the street after we would eat, and I felt really bad for him. Interestingly enough, he is very used to it. He is a hero in my eyes because he doesn´t complain one bit.

During my time out of the area, Elder Gomez and Elder Holub have been working hard. This last Sunday we were sitting in our class of Principles of the Gospel with Hermano Clever Rojas teaching the lesson and we hear the door open and see the new bishop come in with the first counselor of the stake presidency, and they were accompanying a young man to the class. The bishop asked us to have him presented and he stayed during the class and even during priesthood. Elder Gomez talked to him after the meetings and we set up an appointment with him on Monday. So I received the call on Monday night from Elder Gomez and he told me that this young man Luis now has a baptismal date. His novia, girlfriend, in Ecuador is a member and he has been in Spain for about 3 months looking for the church and already had a triple combination, hymn book, and a manual for principles of the gospel. When I got back today, I heard that he even asked them if he could go on a mission, because he is 25 years old. So this guy is just incredible. He wants to be baptized, go on a mission, and just wants us to teach him. Super cool and super easy. The miracles are just coming in left and right, and there is hardly room enough to receive them.

William, our baptismal date for the ninth of October is also making solid progress. During our lesson on Saturday with him, we affirmed his desires to be baptized, calmed his fears, and he just started connecting all of the dots or signs from the Holy Ghost, like his increased happiness, peace, and the answers he has received from reading the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and prayer. We then asked him if his heart was telling him to be baptized. He waited for a couple of seconds pondering, and then said...¨que sí.¨ We testified that the feelings of joy are from the Holy Ghost and that he is ready. He is very excited and we brought him a white shirt and tie so he could where it in church. He looked great, even though he didn´t like the tightness of the tie and collar, and ended up taking the tie off.

During the exchange Elder Gomez and Elder Holub found William and his sister in law in his apartment and it was an answer to Williams prayers. The whole time William has been changing and seeing the blessings come into his life he has desired the same for his sister in law. The missionaries started the lesson, but basically the whole time, William was testifying of the Book of Mormon and that you just have to pray with faith and you can get an answer. He taught everything and perfectly and said that it was a miracle that the missionaries were there, because it was n´t planned. William said that it was the first time in more than a year that his sister in law has visited him in his apartment, and the exact time that she is there the missionaries rang the doorbell. The lesson went great, William wants to be baptized, and we are happy!

I love you all and pray for you a bunch. I really do love you and apreciate your love and prayers on my behalf and for the investigators here. They need all of the help that they can get. People are always changing there schedules and it is hard for them to find time for us. Nevertheless we love the work more and more every day y estamos deseando un bautismo!

Les quier un montón y que tengan una semana super buena. ¡Que el Señor les bendiga!

Élder Driggs

P.S. Me encanta la obra misional y me asusta mucho pensar en que tengo muy poco tiempo quedando. Sin embargo, disfrutaré del tiempo que tengo. Hata logo.

September 23, 2010

2010-11-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

I am sooo glad to hear that you went to hear Elder Carr speak. I am glad that you enjoyed his talk. I can imagine that he stumbled a little bit on his English. It is really hard sometimes when you find someone that speaks English and you try to share your testimony. It is really difficult. For the normal daily things it isn´t that hard, but when we teach, which we always teach in Spanish, it is hard to do so in English. Plus, he speaks very well. I will also be interested to hear what his parents say about Spain and what is good to do here.

I am very sorry I haven´t told you anything lately about the package you sent me. There are no excuses but it is hard to remember and write about certain things 4, 5, or 6 days later. I did get the package and I loved it. The cookies were wonderful, a little dry, but that doesn´t matter one bit after you dunk them in milk. Hmmmm. The package was wonderful. I think I got a stomach ache that first night from all of the cinnamon bears that I ate. Haha not really, but I did eat a lot. I also loved the honey nut cheerios. They were delicious. I got the license as well, and as usual, the best treat is the CHIPOTLE sauce. I love that stuff. I had to wait a few days until I could buy some cream cheese, but that just brings me back to eating that with Cari, and when she would always take too much cream cheese, haha. I love you all soo much. Haha.

I am sure that you were all worried when I didn´t write you yesterday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday some of the missionaries participated in a special training meeting where they presented us with 8 themes to help us better use the Preach My Gospel Manual. It was interesting and very well done. I learned a lot and felt a lot too. The biggest focus was to really focus on the needs of the people and on the spirit and our love for them. So hopefully we can carry on and show more love for the people and not just teach them, but help them, love them, and walk with them to the waters of baptism.

I really don´t think that there is anything that I need from home, mom. I can´t think of too much. I love the fruties, cinnamon bears, and whatever type of candy. Those decorations were fun last time, but I like whatever you send me. It is sent with so much love that it makes me want to work that much harder when I receive a package.

That is sooo exciting about Kathryn. I hope to hear soon that she is going to be called to Spain on a mission. Hopefully to Madrid, but if not, at least to Spain, so I can see hear around in the MTC or something.

Before I sign out and write the weekly report to President Watkins I wanted to tell you about a spiritual experience I had yesterday.

With all of the focus from the training that we have been receiving lately on listening for the Spirit and following it, yesterday I was able to have an experience that helped fortify my testimony. As we were going in the metro to a metro stop, Palos de la Frontera, we had no plans. Our main plan had been dropped and so we were lost as to what to do.

Normally, we have back up plans but this time we had nothing. We were calling references and contacting when we stepped out of the metro and my first instinct was to head for the exit like normal, when I felt that I should stop and just wait and think about what we should do. I stopped, thought about it, and looked one more time in my agenda and specific name and person jumped out at me. I looked at it and couldn´t remember who it was and we decided to pass by him, he actually lived very close to there. We went in the direction of his house, and after talking to a few people in the street we went up.

We knocked on the door and the address was wrong. We knocked on the door in front and asked for Alberto and he said that he was Alberto. I began to vaguely recognize his face and we asked to share a brief message with him, that we had been sharing in his neighborhood that day, for 5 minutes. He accepted and we went in. It was a very spiritual message, with a lot of love and participation on his part. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and at the end invited him to prepare himself to be baptized on the 23rd of October. He humbly accepted. We went into his room and knelt and prayed together. He offered the closing prayer.

It was a wonderful and spiritual lesson and we felt very guiding during the whole experience. He actually has a few people he knows that are members that live in the same building. So we are very blessed here. Please pray for him that he might be able to find work and that he will be humble enough to keep going and progressing towards his baptismal date.

I love you all and pray for you so much.

Please keep praying for me and the people that we come into contact with. Please follow the teachings of Jesús Christ always. We need His help.

Love,

Rob

September 15, 2010

2010-11-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

It is always so hard to think about what I should write you. I just have so much going on that it is so hard to capture it all and put it in a letter in so little time.

Well life is great here in Cuatro Caminos, Barrio 5. We are sooo excited because we finally have a bishop. His name is Bishop Rick Whitmore and apparently he is in charge of the finances for IBM in Spain. So he is pretty well known, and after talking to President Watkins, the father of our bishop was also really well known in the business world. We are just ecstatic. Sunday afternoon, the same Sunday he got sustained, we received a call from him asking us if it would be good to switch out the ward mission leader. He then asked for suggestions on who could fulfill that calling. The next day we got another call from him. This time he was asking us for a few phone numbers and if we could come to his house and meet with him sometime this week to talk about the work. OF COURSE, we said. So we are really excited and are grateful that he is acting as fast as he is because this ward needs a man of action like him. Things are just going to blossom here on out.

Some of our best investigators right now are Napoleón, Luz, Jasmani, and Saul. They are a family of 4 from Ecuador. They are progressing really well and this last Sunday we invited them to be baptized the 9th of October. They accepted the date as a goal. They were will to work and learn more until that date and if they ¨receive a reaction¨, as Napoleón said, before that date they would be baptized. But if not, then they would call it off and just continue being friends. They are a wonderful family and they remind me a lot of Ronny and Gina and their 3 children that got baptized almost a year ago this November.

It is fun comparing how I have progressed in this last year and how much more I participate now than I did then. The two children are 17 and 12 and they are incredible. Saul offers incredible prayers and they are reading a lot in the Book of Mormon. The best thing is that they do everything together. They read the assigned chapter together, they all come and play soccer with us, except Luz, every Saturday, well at least the last 2 Saturdays. So it is really fun teaching them and we hope that they can come to church this Sunday with us. So please, please, please pray for them. They are really special and elect.

My funny story of the week and the story for the newsletter is the following.

On Monday we had a mission council and after wards President Watkins took us to a Chinese buffet. While we were getting into the elevator to go up we looked at the sign that said 8 people only and were about to obey it when President came from behind and said ¨métense, métense.¨ He pushed the 10 of us in and tried to fit himself but when he stepped in the elevator, it sunk down a foot and while trying to back out he almost fell backwards onto his back. Then the doors shut. Time passed, we couldn´t go anywhere, the doors didn´t open. We were stuck in the elevator. 10 missionaries for 17 minutes were stuck in an elevator while trying to go to a Chinese buffet. Pretty embarrassing but it was really funny. When the engineers finally were able to free us, President Watkins was there speechless. He apologized and we had a lot of good laughs. The lesson learned: obey all rules and customs, even when your mission president doesn´t want you to. haha.
Keep up the good work Elders. Always remember to smile and don´t let me down out there!!!

love, Elder Driggs

Thank you family for all that you do.

I love you all.

Elder Driggs

September 8, 2010

2010-11-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Well, this week has been great. I am always glad to hear from you and your fun and exciting lives.

Just so you know, I saw the Carr´s on Sunday morning. They had just gotten into Madrid and went straight to church, changed in the bathrooms and were able to assist sacrament meeting. It was nice to see them in person and they were very happy to see Elder Carr. I did receive the cookies and, as usual, they were delicious. Last night I was going to eat more, but I didn´t have cold milk. When we get back, I hope to have a little bit of time to be able to eat some more. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THOSE!!!
love them. It was fun to see the parents of Élder Carr. Apparently they all knew me from Elder Carr's emails as ¨the Driggster.¨ So that was funny to hear. I sure have changed a lot from the time that I was with Elder Carr. I count it as a blessing of being with him for so long. I learned a ton and he definitely is one of the best missionaries in the mission. He is a baptizing machine!

I am glad that you love all of my friends. I love Kenny and my friends too. I am lucky to have such good friends. When times get rough I think of them, dad, granddad, cousins, and other great examples of stalwart missionaries. Thoughts of them and how they are and were as missionaries gives me courage and strength to carry on. I am blessed beyond measure, thus, the Lord requires much of me, many times, beyond my known personal limits.

I hope that Lake Powell goes well. I am glad that you are making lunch for Cami and Mark. You are so nice to have always done that for us and it is great that they can have that opportunity, just like I did. Those memories that I had there will last throughout the ages, and my friends and I will cherish those moments of youth with you mom in our home. You are probably one of the reasons why we always raced well because we ate so well for lunch on Friday. Haha. The team and all my friends will be eternally indebted to you.

I love you too mom and dad!!! Tomorrow I will be close to the temple and will try and get a chance to put your names there on the prayer roll. We always need a little bit of extra help.

Thank you dad for all your spiritual thoughts. I learn a lot from them and they keep me motivated. I really appreciated the one from these last two weeks and from today about Helaman 5: 17.

Sólo una experiencia esta semana que quiero compartir. We were talking to our investigador Carlos from Argentina, and we were talking to him for the third time, and we were reviewing the Restoration, and asking him questions to see if he believed in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he had prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We try and ask this question a lot to help them understand that to know the truthfulness of something you have to put forth the effort to pray. A lot of people don´t do it for the first couple of times, I think. But he told us that just a few nights before he had gone into the bathroom and kneeled down to ask God if these things were true. He exlained that he felt of lot of peace and tranquility. We knew and bore testimony that this feeling comes only from the Holy Ghost and he agreed and we invited him to be baptized the 25 of September. He didn´t agree completely but was willing to keep going and changing his life. He has recognized that he feels the spirit with us and that he wants to change his life to live in a more spiritual manner.

Well, hopefully the next time I can tell you about Zuraima Jimenéz from Venezuela that got baptized this last weekend and about Saúl, a 13 year old boy that has a super strong testimony.

I love the mission and hope it never ends. I love the focus and energy that it requires to do all that is required for us. It is hard, but I love the challenge to be diligent with our time and to do the Lord´s will.

I love you all, and yes I have received the package. I still haven´t opened it, as I received it only 5 hours ago at the mission home, where we went today to have a zone activity. It was a lot of fun and the burritos that Hna Watkins made were so scrumptious.

I would love to hear from Cami, Mark, and Cari again. It seems like a while since I have heard from them. I would also like to have the direction of Ryan Hill, if possible. I need to write him.

Thank you very much for your prayers. I hope that you know that I pray for you a lot too.

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Rob,

P.S. Dad, I loved all of that stuff on the geneology. I have always felt that I was Portuguese. Haha. Well, know I can claim it as a sort of founding for my family. That was very interesting and I hope that the search continues.

Love,

Élder Driggs

September 1, 2010

2010-10-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Well, I am sure that you would love to know about how the week went. Élder Gomez and I will be together for at least 6 weeks more as we found out today that we are not going to be transferred. We are very excited for two reasons. First, because we are teaching a super, amazing investigator named William Lerma Vaca. He is from Cali, Columbia and he is just out of control. He is really funny to start out and we are always laughing and having a good time when we are with him. He is very outgoing which has certainly helped in his conversion.

I have found out that it is a little harder for someone to convert to the church if they are not outgoing. Many of the reasons people have drawn closer to the church is because of the members and their friendly character. Luckily, William has felt this warm member spirit and desires to have that in his life. He is very special and is making leaps and bounds to change his ¨evil¨ life and become a saint through baptism. He has dropped smoking, alcohol, and coffee (everyone knows that coffee in Columbia is almost a necessity to life, and very hard to give up). He also has agreed to live the law of chastity and understands everything.

I feel so blessed to be able to associate myself with him because he is doing so much, reading a ton in the Book of Mormon, he has now read more than 20 pages and is marking as he goes. He has read in the Conference Edition in the Liahona, and he believes everything. He believes that Pres. Monson is a prophet, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true. He feels the Spirit at church( he has come twice, the first time he stayed all three hours without a single complaint - we even found him running up the stairs to get to the third reunion-, the second time he was not able to stay the whole time but wanted too). He has done all of this because of one faith and one hope that he has, and it is a witness that he has been prepared for many years to receive the restored gospel in his life.

From the first day we taught him, we told him, well, more than that, we promised him that he could see his 3 brothers that have passed away. He has stuck to that bit of hope and it has just fanned a flame in his heart and he really is on fire. Everything that he does in regards to the church just throws another log on the bonfire. We gave him a temple tour and he loved the idea of being able to go there after being baptized to do baptisms for the dead.

After that, we had a lesson in the building al lao y ....uuuuuffff increíble. So anyway, we are very blessed to be teaching him. We have set the goal together us three that he gets baptized the 11th of September. So please pray for him that he can keep going and changing his life. He recognizes this as his only opportunity to change, so it is really neat.

I wanted to tell you about two more people but I think there is only time for one more. So remind me to write you about Zuraima, who is going to get baptized this Saturday. We taught her the first 3 times and set a baptismal date with her and then gave her to the Hermanas. She is awesome and are glad that she has done so well. The Hermanas are really good, so it was better that she was with them.

The last story of the day happened a few days ago, last Friday, when I was on exchanges with Elder Cerro, from Argentina, Uruguay, and the Canary Islands. We were in a bus going to a certain place in his area, and when we entered the bus we began to talk to a young man from the Dominican Republic. He accepted the invitation to hear more and then got off. We started talking with each other and then a women of 30 years old got on and sat next to me. I had to talk to her, because I am trying to talk to everyone in whatever situation.

She told us she was from Honduras and began to tell us that only a few days before she had received a phone call from her 10 year old son, who is in Honduras, who was begging her permission to be baptized in our church. Apparently her son is with some uncles and they are members. She told her son no, despite the begging and said that he would have to wait until she got back so she could learn a little bit more about the church. We told her that we didn´t believe in coincidences and that we wanted to talk to her again so that she would be able to learn more about the church. She was excited to her about the church activities that we have her and was excited to learn more.

I count it a blessing to be able to be found worthy to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I can just imagine this 10 year old boy begging permission from his mom thousands of miles away to be baptized in the church, and her saying no. Then this boy would tell the missionaries she had said no, but they wouldn´t let him lose hope. I am certain that they told him to prayer for a miracle and that God would work it out. I know that Heavenly Father guided us to that bus and her also to sit next to me. It was really special to realize how many people there are that are so ready to hear the message of the restoration and be baptized.

I probably didn´t explain that very well. Sorry. I love you all so much and am trying to do my best as a missionary. Time is short and can´t have any regrets. This time is prescious and estoy intentando a aprovechar y apreciar este tiempo tan sagrado. Gracias por sus oraciones y su amor.

¡Que Sigan adelante con fe siempre puesto en el Señor, Jesucristo!

con mucho cariño y amor,

su hijo,

Élder Driggs

un representante de Jesucristo en España Madrid

August 25, 2010

2010-10-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

Dear family,

Well I hope that all is well with everyone. All is well with me and I just love hearing from you every week. It is so much fun to hear all of the incredible events and activities that you do. I am glad that you are busy and happy.

Elder Gomez and I are also busy and happy. Today we woke up and 5:55 to get ready and be at the temple at 8 o clock. We made it perfectly and were able to be in there with a few other missionaries and a sister in our ward. It was a great session and I felt so much peace in the Celestial room. I really do love the temple and am so blessed to have one so close, where I can attend during my mission. It really helps me feel the Spirit and receive answers to my questions. I received a few answers today, to questions that I have had for a little while. So I hope that you are able to go to the temple to. Today while we were in the endowment session, while I was standing up I hit my head on the chair in front of me, I am not sure how still, and my glasses fell off and it left a 1 inch mark on my forehead. It was way embarrassing, but after session Elder Gomez and I shared a few laughs. I have been quite clumsy recently and so we laughed while jogging the memory of that moment. It was rather embarrassing. Haha.

Mom, I am so sorry that you can´t see any pictures for that DVD. It was supposed to be a DVD and not a CD, but I paid 8 euros for that, because there was a ton of pictures. I would love to make another one and send it to you. I am sorry that you can´t see any. I will do that as fast as possible. Pictures from you would also be fantastic. I really do apologize though, that you have had to wait so long to see more pictures of me. I will surely get them to you ASAP. Hopefully this time you will be able to see them.

Thank you so much for sending me another package. You are soooo nice and I love the things that you send me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Also, thank you for sending the driver´s license. Hopefully there were no problems in getting that.

In the future I will try to write more information about the investigators that we are teaching. I am sorry that sometimes I don´t put as much detail as I should. Please tell me if there are things that you want to hear about or no. I am open to all ideas and want you to enjoy my mission as much as possible. So if you have any questions, ask me and I will do my best to respond. Please forgive me for not being so clear in the past, or for not writing so much as to what is happening with us in the work. The miracles that we see everyday should be the main topic of conversation.

I am not sure what the return address was for the letter that I wrote Callie. I wrote that letter a long time ago and the address of the mission has changed recently. So, just so you know the address for the mission office is the one in Calle Fuerteventura. I have given you that address in a past email. That is the one that you should use to send things to me. Whichever the one you used, it should get to me.

I am so glad that Mark is going to receive his patriarchal blessing. I vividly remember when I received my patriarchal blessing and, of course, I still read it fairly often. It has definitely been a source of personal guidance for me and I treasure it, knowing and trusting that the promises within can be received if I am obedient and worthy. So Mark, good luck, and please, do all that you can to prepare for that special day.

That was way sweet to hear about the genealogy that you have done Dad. There is a genealogy center in our church building and hopefully when I get back, and when I am a little older, I can dedicate myself to do that sacred work. That is way exciting and please keep me posted on what you hear and find out about our families origin.

Please do me a favor and congratulate Heather and Ryan for their new baby Austin. How exciting and....weird at the same time that the next generation is starting. Time sure does fly. Life come at you fast. I have always liked the quote that was on our fridge,.I think, for the longest time: Tough Times don´t Last, Tough People do!!!

I am so proud of Cami and all of her hard work this last year. I am glad that she is going to start school again at Timpview and I am confident that she is going to exceed. Go Cami. This Friday, just imagine Cami, that I am there cheering you on. I can´t be there in person but I can in Spirit. I love you and hope that you have a great first couple of weeks at Timpview. Just one thing so important. Never, never stop reading the scriptures every day, even when you are sooo busy or sooo tired. It will make the biggest difference every day and I am sure that you have already found that out.

¨Well, now I have to go. I love you all and hope that you keep working hard and enjoying the lives you lead. It sounds like fun and I assure you that I am very,very happy too. I am even more happy when I receive the letters on Wednesday and they tell me that my family is safe and well, and that they are striving to be faithful to the commandments of God. May the Lord bless you, yet another week.

Love,

Élder Driggs.....Rob J

Corinthians 13:4-8

May we strive every day a little bit more to have more charity. For Charity NEVER Faileth.

Next week I will update you more on the little miracles, spiritual experiences, and the investigators that we have. Thank you for your patience. Love, Rob

August 18, 2010

2010-10-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

Dearest family in the whole wide world,

Today is Elder Gómez´s birthday, so, to celebrate, we went to El Escorial, a huge palace that Elder Moreno and I and the Hermanas had visited just 3 weeks earlier. But as it was his birthday we let him choose and there were no complaints. It is a beautiful palace and the cathedral at the end is outstanding. It is beautiful in its peculiar form. I took a few pictures, so you can be expecting those in the future. Speaking of pictures, I hope that you are looking in the mail because the package should be arriving in a couple of days, hopefully Friday, with the following items: pictures cd, two letters (one to Callie and one to Timpview), and the driving permit. I hope that you enjoy the pictures as it is all you can see of me.

The reason for the subject heading as it is, is because while I was thinking of what to write that might be able to summarize the efforts of the week, I felt that that fits it perfectly. The past couple of weeks have been trying weeks for Elder Gomez and me. Not extremely hard, just that the results searched for were not found. However, this past week has been one of the best weeks of my entire mission and these past 2 days have been absolutely outstanding.

Finally the outward success, apart from the feelings of joy and peace from hard work and diligence, that missionaries always seek for surely surrounds us now. We do have some much more joy from the work as we see the fruits of our labors. I find myself getting less tired and many times just smiling because I am happy what I am doing. I realize that the joy that we receive as missionaries is a joy that is achieved bit by bit, here a little there a little. As we struggle and work hard week after week, that joy descends upon us and we find ourselves happy and motivated by a new energy that only comes from the knowledge that Heavenly Father is pleased with what we are doing. I love being happy, that is my purpose in life, and the only way to do it is to struggle, obey, strive to do what is right, and the promised blessing always come.

We have started teaching many new investigators and we hope that with the little time that we have now to talk to people in the street, that we can be diligent and focused at always searching for the pure in heart. I count it an extreme blessing to be able to serve with Élder Gomez because he has special gifts that make the work more satisfying and successful. He truly has a love for the Lord, Jesus Christ, and that special love is manifested every time he talks to someone. He has a smile that is so inviting and loving that everyone who sees him feels comfortable and special. He actually has a voice that is very tender and sounds exactly like some of the Spanish recordings for church materials. It is really cool and the people like it too.

Well, what else do you want to know...Oh yeah, here is something really interesting. Two weeks ago we started English classes to find more people to teach, and the first class that we had only 1 person showed up, a member. We decided to mix a few things up and instead of teach English to the member, we decided to let her teach us French. So much fun. I couldn´t keep a straight face and after it was done left the church just laughing my head off. Elder Gomez and I kept practicing the few phrases that we learned and try to do it with the voice of a very serious, educated French man, and it just cracks us up. For us, French is the language of love for life.

I was glad to hear about your trip to Washington and all of the little adventures that entailed. I hope that all goes well with your decision making and realize that parents, and especially fathers have the right to receive this type of revelation for their families. From what I have heard, the complexities of this decision seem to be many. It is a good thing that we do not have to make this decision. The Lord, if we our worthy and ask Him with faith, must respond and tell us what to do. That´s better anyway! He, who is all knowing and all powerful, can make the decision. When we have the faith to hand our lives over to the Lord, things just work out, many times in the strangest ways, never even thought of. But they always work out for our eternal good. So all that I say to you, Mom and Dad, is that, do what you have already mentioned that you were going to do and I will support your decision, which in reality will be the Lord´s decision for the Driggs family at this time. I have a testimony that he can let us know perfectly what we need to do in every moment of our lives.

I love you all and desire that all our happy. I trust all of you a lot and hope that you are doing well. Don´t let me down, as I am trying to do the same. The Lord truly expects much from us, as He has given us so much.

I love you and pray for you,

Élder Driggs

August 11, 2010

2010-10-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Before I forget, I wanted to wish Dad a great, big, happy birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!!!! I would give you a hug if I was there. I have now missed both of Mark´s birthdays and dad´s. I will not miss your birthdays again, while I am serving this mission. So time flies and I feel a sense of rush and urgency in the work, as I feel more and more each day, that there is an end to these two glorious years. At the beginning it is too big to comprehend and you just work, but when you have been out as long as I have, you decide to work harder, knowing that you will never have these days again.

Well, I wish I had more to report to you from the work. As of about two weeks ago we had 4 investigators, 3 of the which were progressing. Now we have given the 3 progressing to the hermanas that are now in our ward. So, estamos en la búsqueda, or we are in the search, for more investigators, just like Kathia and others that are ready to progress and be baptized. We have received so many blessings this week.

Even though we are not teaching very much, we are talking to a ton of people every day, trying to sort through the fields of people, to find the elect. Some missionaries don´t talk to people in the street until they feel like they should talk to them, or they look elect. I have found that many times, revelation comes in movement, and we come to distinguish those that are teachable to those that are not as we just talk to everyone.

There is a section in Preach My Gospel about talking with everyone and the last two days I have gained a whole new testimony of the importance of doing so, ALWAYS. There is no way we can relax during the day and give ourselves excuses that we don´t have to contact during certain times. It has to be done always. These last two days Elder Gómez and I have been in exchanges with the Elders in Villabla (A city about 30 minutes to the north in bus). We have received permission from President Watkins, that we have the option to have exchanges that last more than the 1 day limit, and so this exchange was the first I have ever had for 2 days.

At first I was hesitant, knowing that the missionary that was going to come to Madrid with me was new. But right from the start I new that this missionary was special. His name is Elder Holub and let´s just say that he is an ANIMAL! He, from the first minute of our exchange until the last minute, talked to everyone in sight. It was great for me, as I have recently set a goal to do the same, but he was so impressive as he started his mission in Provo in April.

This exchange, was actually the first he has had during his mission, including his first time working in the great, big city of Madrid. He had no fear, no doubts. There was nothing that could stop him from talking with the people, and I just loved it! It was one of the most fun exchanges I have ever had, and it is definitely one of the days where I have worked the hardest. It´s Interesting, that my level of fun, is in direct relation with my personal level of effort and hard work.

During the day, as we talked to tons of people, we went to a lesson that we had planned, but unfortunatly, the person was not there. As we were calling his cell phone, a man came out of the building with a trash bag in his hand. We started talking to him and asked if he had a couple of minutes to share a message. He said yes and we started with a prayer right there in the street.

After the prayer we asked him what his expectations were and then if he had some worries in his life that the word of God could help with. He answered and said that he didn´t have work, he was worried about his family, and that above all he was worried about his personal salvation. He wanted to know what he needed to do to be saved. Obviously, this last answer brought a huge smile to our face, knowing that this man was sincere and wanted to know what he needed to do to be saved.

We explained that there were five steps and he asked for a piece of paper so that he could write them down, and after we were done with the explanation, he shared with us a scripture from the bible in Acts that explains perfectly what we had just taught him. We invited him, there to be baptized the fourth of September, and he said that he was interested in knowing more and if he felt he was ready by that day, he would be baptized.

The whole experience was obviously a huge tender mercy and I thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of being an instrument in His hands in being able to find him and share with him that message. It isn´t coincidence that his name is Rolando, because we have already nicknamed him ¨ORO¨lando, because he is golden. The whole experience was a feeling of great joy and peace. Every once in a while you need those feelings to know that what you are doing is good, and to confirm your steps.

As a missionary we feel that peace quite a bit and it is a big blessing. I believe that as we had talked to many people before him that day, we were blessed because of our efforts. As we open our mouths and share the message of the Restoration, someone will always listen. That is where the faith comes into play. We talked to someone else that day named Rosa and she too was very interested in the topic of baptism and was willing to learn more so about it. So we are happy with the fruits of our labors and count them as great blessings.

We are happy to be counted worthy to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to represent Him and His church. We are trying to ¨seek out the righteous where´er they may be,¨ and we are seeing the fast results of that decision. It is fun being a missionary when you realize that you are trying your best. Two nights ago I went to bed with a feeling I have had very few times during the mission. It was a feeling that I had done my absolute best. I couldn´t think of anything that I hadn´t done. There is always a couple of things that I could have done better and a few more people I could have contacted, but that night was something special.

I was so tired and knew that I had done my best. That feeling is driving me to do even more every day and to push away those temptations to slack off, taking advantage of every second possible. This requires an energy that is very rare to me, but I love it. It is so fun just to be thinking, always, who else can I talk to. So that is my goal this week, to talk to every single person possible, and not to waste one bit of time. I am getting to understand that concept a little bit better every day, the concept of using your time wisely and diligently. It is fun being a stickler about it and pushing yourself to never rest or relax but to always be a missionary. It is great stuff.

I love you all, and hope that all continues to go well, and that Heavenly Father continues to bless us.

Tell Grandmother and Granddad and Kelli that I got their letters and tell them thank you. I love hearing from the extended family too. Mom, I am sorry that I still haven´t sent that package. It is hard finding time to do it, as stores close early and are far away, but I will be able to do it this week. Just keep an eye out for it. Thank you so much, everyone, for your love and prayers.

¨Never Give Up, Never Surrender.¨

Love,

Élder Driggs

August 4, 2010

2010-08-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Dear family,

Well, this week has been a great week. Elder Gómez and I are trying to work hard so we can find more people to teach. We are definitely seeing the blessings of our efforts as well. It is interesting being a missionary in Spain because several times in the past couple of weeks we have run into less active members that haven´t been to church for a lot of time. When we are trying to talk to people in the street we usually get an address or a phone number of the person 1 out of every 4 or 5 people. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse.

It is not too bad, but the chance that these people will have time to meet with us and that they will have desires to progress, is very slim. So we are trying to sort through the fields and find the elect. It is hard, but I have noticed that as we have been working harder, the Lord is blessing us in other ways.

For example, last night we received a phone call from a less active that said he wanted to return to the church. We set up an appointment for today. Two weeks ago we ran into another less active member that had been here in Spain for 2 months. She is from Peru and didn´t like how there weren´t very many youth members so she didn´t attend church again. We started teaching her and she came last Sunday and bore her testimony. These are some of the examples that we are seeing that manifest to us that Heavenly Father is aware of us and will bless us in our efforts. Maybe not directly, but we will receive those tender mercies. We had nothing to do with finding these two less active people, because they both contacted us. Cool huh? Oh yeah!

I just remembered another little miracle. Last night as we were walking home for the day a women from the Dominican Republic with 2 children stopped us and asked where the ¨Mormon Church¨ was. I immediatley asked her if she was a member, thinking that only a member would stop us and ask us that. She said no, and we wrote down the direction. We said goodbye, and started walking away when I thought, wow, I didn´t even ask for her direction. We turned back and asked her if she would let a couple missionaries came by to teach her about this church. She seemed very enthusiastic and said yes.

I was so glad that we turned around and asked her. Even though she had asked for the direction for the chapel, you never know if she really would have come. This is yet another example of little miracles that we see daily as missionaries. It is fun and neat being able to dedicate ourselves to something so special for two years, where we become so sensitive to little things like these. Some missionaries say that two years is a long time, but I can´t complain.

So I wanted to make sure that you understand what happened with Adam and Ericka Hamblin, to assure you that all is well, and to bring ease to your mind. Last Saturday, my companion and I were in the metro station sol, waiting for the metro to arrive. I was talking to a young man and as the doors to the metro opened, I stepped in expecting Elder Gomez to follow me. I turned around when Elder Gomez yelled at me saying, ¨Elder Driggs, espere (Wait).¨ I said goodbye to my new friend and went to Elder Gomez who appeared to be talking to 2 Americans. (Americans are really easy to distinguish here in Spain, just the way they act, because they are usually lost and when they speak English you can always hear the word ¨like¨ really loud).

So I assumed that they were Americans and that they were members because they said hi Elder when they met us. They told us there story why they were here and, obviously, they didn´t speak a lick of Spanish. They said they were from Georgia and had left on a plane flight to Madrid on a date. The plan when they left was to come to Madrid, 8 hours in plane, and then get on the same plane going back to Georgia, just so they could have some time alone. They had 5 children waiting for them at home, with the babysitter, all of them under the age of 6 or 8, I can´t remember. Luckily the babysitter was an uncle, of 24 years old.

So the problem was that when they wanted to return the plane was full and they couldn´t just hop on. The only other flight that wasn´t booked was going to leave on Monday, meaning that they would be away from their family for 2 days instead of one. So they decided to book a flight that left Sunday morning at 10 or so that left from Valencia, which is 3 hours away from Madrid. They did so and went to the train station to book the train there. Anyway, apparently, they went to take out some money at an ATM and the machine ate their card thinking that it was a stolen card. So they were at that point out of money, no Spanish, foreign country, and needing to get to an airport 3 hours away.

So we went with them to a couple of internet cafe´s to see if they could schedule a train trip on line...that doesn´t work. They then tried to call their bank to see if they could get some money wired to the money transfer places here. That also wouldn´t work until Monday. So after a long time trying every option, and with their 16 euros, we decided that we would buy their train tickets. They almost missed their train when we finally decided that and Elder Gomez bought them with his card. I gave them my email so they could communicate with us and get us the money.

So that is what we did and don´t worry, we didn´t give anyone a credit card number, just an email address. They did send us an email and have put the money in a Western Union and we have the control number to get it out. So, that story probably doesn´t sound very convincing but I wasn´t worried at all. They were members, and I know that doesn´t mean anything but you could tell that they were telling the truth and were going to get us the money. They said they had money, just not a way to get a hold of it then. So we took the chance and all is well.

They probably called you just to double check that or to reassure that they were sending the money. They were really, really nice people and actually sent us more money than we lent them. So, I don´t know what to think about that, but I do find it a blessing to be a help and really an angel in the hands of God. It would have been almost impossible for them to return without us. Really, it was a nightmare for them.

I am very glad that all is well with all of you. It sounds like there is lots of work to be done at home. Keep working hard and the blessings will certainly follow. That is rough, dad, that you can´t return every week, but at least you have work. That is such a BIG blessing. That is also way cool that you ran into the missionaries.

Here is the newletter portion mom, and I will try to send the flat overnight letter tomorrow morning. Thanks for your help.

Queridos consiervos del Señor,

Elder Gómez and I are trying to work hard so we can find more people to teach. We are definitely seeing the blessings of our efforts as well, even though they are not direct blessings.. It is interesting being a missionary in Spain because several times in the past couple of weeks we have run into less active members that haven´t been to church for a lot of time. When we are trying to talk to people in the street we usually get an address or a phone number of the person 1 out of every 4 or 5 people. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse. So it is not too bad, but the chance that these people will have time to meet with us and that they will have desires to progress, is very slim. So we are trying to sort through the fields and find the elect. It is hard, but I have noticed that as we have been working harder, the Lord is blessing us in other ways. For example, last night we received a phone call from a less active that said he wanted to return to the church. We set up an appointment for today. Two weeks ago we ran into another less active member that had been here in Spain for 2 months. She is from Peru and didn´t like how there weren´t very many youth members so she didn´t attend church again. We started teaching her and she came last Sunday and bore her testimony. These are some of the examples that we are seeing that manifest to us that Heavenly Father is aware of us and will bless us in our efforts. Maybe not directly, but we will receive those tender mercies. We had nothing to do with finding these two less active people, because they both contacted us. Cool huh? Oh yeah! I just remembered another little miracle. Last night as we were walking home for the day a women from the Dominican Republic with 2 children stopped us and asked where the ¨Mormon Church¨ was. I immediatley asked her if she was a member, thinking that only a member would stop us and ask us that. She said no, and we wrote down the direction. We said goodbye, and started walking away when I thought, wow, I didn´t even ask for her direction. We turned back and asked her if she would let a couple missionaries came by to teach her about this church. She seemed very enthusiastic and said yes. I was so glad that we turned around and asked her. Because even though she had asked for the direction for the chapel, you never know if she really would have come. This is yet another example of little miracles that we see daily as missionaries. It is fun and neat being able to dedicate ourselves to something so special for two years, where we become so sensitive to little things like these. Some missionaries say that two years is a long time, but I can´t complain.

Have the best week ever, and remember that we have the decision to be happy. So let´s be happy as we go about doing the work of the Lord, preaching the Gospel of Happiness.

Love,

Élder Driggs

July 28, 2010

2010-07-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello!!! family,

Well, first off, I would like to affirm that miracles happen and that because of our faith we receive ¨tender mercies¨ as Nephi explains in the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. I, too, am happy that we can stay in Utah another 5 or 6 months. How fun to be around family and friends for a little longer, and who knows, we might be receiving even more miracles before that time runs out. At least we as a family have been reassured that if we are faithful, things work out, and ultimately we are happy.

I have been thinking about that lately. As we know, the divine purpose of this life is to be happy, and the only way to be happy is to be obedient. Wow, is that really it? Just by obeying God´s commandments are we really happy? Well, I know that that is true. As missionaries true happiness doesn´t depend on how much success you have, how many baptisms a month you are having, how funny your companion is, etc. The times where I have been most happy have been those where I haven´t seen much success but I have tried to be obedient with exactness, not only to the rules and commandments, but also to the Holy Ghost. When I have tried my hardest to follow the small whisperings of God, I have been happy. When that is accomplished, we can step back at the end of the day and see the countless times where we have been instruments in the merciful hands of Christ. These are the days where I feel like I have done my best. I just wish I could live like this every day. It requires a lot of focus, but as it goes with putting every Gospel principle in action, at the end...it´s worth it. Oh if only we could remember this every second of every day, to keep us concentrated on what is actually most important. But anyway...

This week, as many weeks in the mission, has been a week full of surprises. I sure that you would like to know that I am no longer with el Élder Moreno. This last Thursday we received a phone call from the assistants informing us that he was to be transferred. Monday (two days ago) to Torrejón de Ardóz, to be with Élder Jackson, and that the companion of Élder Jackson, el Élder Gomez was to be my new companion. So, on Monday morning, Élder Moreno finished packing up his bags and we left at 11 to arrive at the stake center near the temple at 12, where we were to meet with our new companions. Elder Moreno and I were anticipating the change, as he only has 2 transfers left, I think I told you that last week.

So anyway, Elder Gomez is an animal. He is such a good missionary and I have been wondering for quite some time, why he isn´t a leader in the mission yet, because not only does he speak Spanish fluently, he is just about perfect in every phase of missionary work. So I am very blessed and privileged to be able to have him as a companion. Élder Gomez is from Guatemala, his city is called El Progresso. He will finish the mission in April so has a little bit more time in the mission than me. He actually lived a year in California before the mission in Los Angeles, where he went to school for his senior year. His parents are separated, his dad living in Cali and his mom in Guatemala. He is a great missionary, just to say that again.

It is a little rough right now in Barrio 5 just because there really isn´t much work for us. But we know what we need to do to generate the type of work that we want and we are in the process of doing so. There have also been of few changes in the zone. One of the districts of 4 missionaries has left the zone and now is part of the Leon zone. This means that now there are only 2 districts in our zone or 10 missionaries. This is good for several reasons, mainly because it will allow us to work more specifically with the missionaries and be able to help them on a more personal level. I am excited for the opportunity to serve and to be able to help others.

I am really happy that you had so much fun on the river. However, if I was there, I don´t think I would have supported Cari going on the river. But I am also sure that she swims much better than I did. She probably swims better than I do now. haha. But it sure sounds like you had a rad group up there. I would love to see some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I have sent Cami and Taryn letters, both containing pictures, and I will be sending the bigger package with the cd and a few other letters in it today. I have a letter for Callie Johansen (I do not know her address, because she sent it to me when she was at Snow), and also a letter for Timpview High School. I don´t know the address for the school, so if you could send it to them that would be great.

Also, I received an email today stating that President Watkins wants several of the missionaries in the mission to get an international driver´s license. I am going to forward you the email that I received, but unfortunately, it is all in Spanish. But I am sure you can understand it just as well as I can. Apparently the only thing that I have to do to be able to have this license, instead of take classes and tests here, is send you my Utah license, two passport photos of me with my signature on the back, and a form filled out by me, and 15 dollars. The thing is that you have to take all of these things to the AAA and they will give you the license. Nothing else. It seems pretty simple, and they also suggested that I do it even faster, so instead of sending all of this stuff in the mail, I could do it all by fax. So I will need you to send me your fax number and I will send you the stuff once I am done with everything.

Just FYI. I am not sure if that makes any sense but I will let you know with further details, but I do need to know if you have any passport pictures of me, because if you don´t I will have to send you some through the mail, and it will take 3 weeks. Which is okay. But if you have them, I can just give you permission to sign them on the back and turn them it with the rest of the stuff. So if you could get back to me on those two things, I would be very grateful. The passport pictures and the fax number, if we still have it?. I think it is 802-8229. I don´t remember.

Well, I have had an excellent week and I hope that the miracles of God continue to lighten your ways and brighten days. Please, never quit smiling and enjoying life. Remember that is why we are here, to be happy. To learn and grow. We can´t ever let Satan distract us from that divine, eternal purpose. It is too important.

I love you all so much and I, too, add to your faith and prayers.

Thanks Cami, for sending me the letter, and don´t you even worry. We will always be best friends, even when I am married and have my family. Just keep focused on reading your scriptures and praying, so when I get back we can go to the temple and participate in Baptisms for the dead. We will always be ¨bestest¨ of friends.

Have a stupendous week,

Con mucho amor y cariño,

el Élder Driggs

P.S. He incluído una foto del Élder Gomez y yo, hace mas o menos una hora y media, en el ascensor de nuestro piso. Así que puedan ver que es super guapo también, y no sólo un misionero de éxito.

con amor,

Rob