Dear family,
Well, I never would have thought that coming to Madrid Spain I would see snow. But Let me tell you that it snowed like a February morning in Provo Utah on Monday.
We woke up at 7 o clock and had our Romanian roommate ask us with a big grin if we wanted to go running. I agreed, still exhausted, and then looked out the window and saw about six inches of snow. It was incredible. The run was very fun as we ran to the top of this little mountain in Aranjuez. Of course coming down was much more fun, sliding in falling in the snow like little school girls…cough, cough…I mean, like missionaries.
So with this unpredicted little event we have had the plug in heaters on full blast, while home, and when we are outside we are bundled up head to foot. That includes the long-john garments, long sleeve shirt, suit, and overcoat, with a scarf and gloves. And let´s just say that it is cooooold. I never would have thought that it would get this cold.
I am not complaining because I love the range of weather experiences I am getting here. I just can´t believe that it was only 3 months ago that I was in a short sleeve shirt and sweating down my back walking to the train station. Now we try to walk even faster just to stay warm. The only 2 words I have to describe the weather situation and the mission in general is, ¨¡Me Encanta!¨ Or I love it! That huge nice coat that we got at Burlington coat factory, I think, has come in handy. I am wearing it right now in this locutorio, or internet café, and I love it.
So Elder Dawson and I are a pretty young companionship, as he has been out about 4 or 5 months more than me. It is his first time being a senior companion and, of course, it is my first time out of the shell. We are doing very well, but have lots of things that we need to improve. We have a lot of goals and are determined to accomplish them. We are definitely lacking in a few things. Our lessons lack a little bit of experience, but our contacts are improving. I am noting more and more every day what I learned from Elder Carr, and the great Elder he is. I took him for granted and could have learned a lot more from him. However, I feel like I am ready to take a bigger jump and improve in a lot of things.
I have improved a ton this week. I am doing tons of contacts and my contribution is now equal to that of my companion as it should be. My Spanish has also improved a lot and I am feeling more and more confident to be myself and really be bold and reach out to those in distress and need. I love being a missionary. This time as we are both young is going to be a time of great growth for me and I can already feel it. Elder Carr was very outgoing as you can imagine, him being the student body president of Mountain View before the mission, and so I was able to rely on him a lot. Now as Elder Dawson is a lot more reserved and still isn´t perfect in the language, I am having more opportunities to take control and share my testimony, and casually talk with the people here. I really do love the mission and I am having more fun every day. I am on an upward swing in almost every area of the mission.
If you recall we had Elder Teixeira from the first quorum of the seventy, who is also in the area presidency in Europe, come talk to us about 2 months ago. His wife made the comment that faith is doing things that are hard for us to do. For example, if I don´t have a problem with going to church and I always go, that doesn´t require a lot of faith as it is something easy because I love it.
I know that this journey will be long and hard, but the time we have in this eternally important probation called earth is very short. And I am willing to give everything I have to help my family be together forever. I love teaching this concept to investigators because every honest, good person wants that for their family and it is completely possible through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His eternal sacrifice for us.
I love you all very much. We have to stay close to the Lord. Without Him and His constant whisperings and help, we cannot make it. We cannot return to Him alone. Thankfully, we do not have to. Heavenly Father knew this great problem, so He sent His Son to prepare the way, and He sent a lot of helps us guide us, like families to teach us the way and the difference between good and evil. He also sent prophets and the scriptures. I am so thankful for President Monson and His inspired calling and love. I feel my Savior´s love through him and every one of the helps we have in this world. Everything has been prepared for us to return to our Heavenly Father, with our families, and all we have to do is believe, and go to work. The Father´s part is paid, and now we have to pay ours.
I love you all and will talk to you soon. Keep praying and smiling and we will find joy every day, even if it´s not obvious.
Love,
Rob
Elder Driggs
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
December 8, 2009
Dear Family,
There have been a few changes here in Aranjuez. Elder Carr was shipped out of here half way through the transfer, yesterday, also known as an Emergency Transfer, to be a district leader in a ward in Madrid. He is excited and so am I. My new companion is Elder Dawson from Indiana. He has been serving for 10 months now. I like him a lot, and we will have a lot of success together.
As to answer your question, mom, we eat probably 2-3 times a week with either members, recent converts, or investigators. They all love feeding us and of course, we love eating food that we don´t cook and that is basically out of this world, especially since there are many south Americans here. I had lomo saltado last Saturday with a part member couple in a pueblo about 20 minutes in bus from Aranjuez. It is a very, very, very small town. But I love it.
My newsletter segment is as follows:
My dear brethren in the work,
Buenos Dias. I would like you all to know that today I had my second meal at an American fast food restaurant. This time it was Taco Bell. I find it very interesting how globalization is taking over the world and how there are signs of America everywhere. However something that Spain still hasn´t caught onto is the miracle of FREE REFILLS. It just doesn´t make sense to me. They didn´t even give me a water cup and there is never a chance to find a water fountain so the only option is to wait till we get back to the piso(apartment) or buy a ridiculously expensive bottle of water. But this tiny issue is of hardly any importance when I am focused on the Lord´s work.
I had an experience with an investigator the other week that I failed to tell you all. We have an investigator couple by the names of Christian and Nina. The man is from Romania and the women from Bulgaria, and they have a child of 4 or 5 months. When we were teaching them the third time we read a little out of the Book of Mormon and after about a couple of verses, my companion felt prompted to change the reading to 2 Nephi 4, which as you know is Nephi´s Psalm. We were going to take turns but Christian ended up reading the whole thing and when he got to the end he stopped and didn´t say anything. We were in silence for about 5 minutes and then started to cry and tried a few times to talk but couldn´t finish a sentence. He managed to say that he always feels the same way as Nephi does here. I want to tell you Elders, that this experience with the Book of Mormon has changed the life of Christian and Nina. They still can´t get baptized because they are married and Christian has a problem with smoking. But after about a month of having a copy of the Book of Mormon, he has now almost read and marked the whole book. He LOVES the Book of Mormon and he now can quote other verses when we are talking about something else and his testimony of this inspired, divine book has helped him gain testimonies of other difficult principles, such as the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, etc. When we taught him these principles, he already new that they were true and that he needed to do all he could to obey them. His powerful testimony has carried him a long way and will carry him in the near future towards the waters of baptism. This experience has changed the way I look at the Book of Mormon. It is a bazooka of the Spirit of God. It is a lion ready to tear open the heart and change the natural desires of an peaceable follower of Christ. I hope that all challenge all to read and apply the principles of the Book of Mormon because it has the power to change the soul and bring someone closer to Christ.
I love you all and pray for you also many, many times every day.
Love,
Elder Driggs
There have been a few changes here in Aranjuez. Elder Carr was shipped out of here half way through the transfer, yesterday, also known as an Emergency Transfer, to be a district leader in a ward in Madrid. He is excited and so am I. My new companion is Elder Dawson from Indiana. He has been serving for 10 months now. I like him a lot, and we will have a lot of success together.
As to answer your question, mom, we eat probably 2-3 times a week with either members, recent converts, or investigators. They all love feeding us and of course, we love eating food that we don´t cook and that is basically out of this world, especially since there are many south Americans here. I had lomo saltado last Saturday with a part member couple in a pueblo about 20 minutes in bus from Aranjuez. It is a very, very, very small town. But I love it.
My newsletter segment is as follows:
My dear brethren in the work,
Buenos Dias. I would like you all to know that today I had my second meal at an American fast food restaurant. This time it was Taco Bell. I find it very interesting how globalization is taking over the world and how there are signs of America everywhere. However something that Spain still hasn´t caught onto is the miracle of FREE REFILLS. It just doesn´t make sense to me. They didn´t even give me a water cup and there is never a chance to find a water fountain so the only option is to wait till we get back to the piso(apartment) or buy a ridiculously expensive bottle of water. But this tiny issue is of hardly any importance when I am focused on the Lord´s work.
I had an experience with an investigator the other week that I failed to tell you all. We have an investigator couple by the names of Christian and Nina. The man is from Romania and the women from Bulgaria, and they have a child of 4 or 5 months. When we were teaching them the third time we read a little out of the Book of Mormon and after about a couple of verses, my companion felt prompted to change the reading to 2 Nephi 4, which as you know is Nephi´s Psalm. We were going to take turns but Christian ended up reading the whole thing and when he got to the end he stopped and didn´t say anything. We were in silence for about 5 minutes and then started to cry and tried a few times to talk but couldn´t finish a sentence. He managed to say that he always feels the same way as Nephi does here. I want to tell you Elders, that this experience with the Book of Mormon has changed the life of Christian and Nina. They still can´t get baptized because they are married and Christian has a problem with smoking. But after about a month of having a copy of the Book of Mormon, he has now almost read and marked the whole book. He LOVES the Book of Mormon and he now can quote other verses when we are talking about something else and his testimony of this inspired, divine book has helped him gain testimonies of other difficult principles, such as the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, etc. When we taught him these principles, he already new that they were true and that he needed to do all he could to obey them. His powerful testimony has carried him a long way and will carry him in the near future towards the waters of baptism. This experience has changed the way I look at the Book of Mormon. It is a bazooka of the Spirit of God. It is a lion ready to tear open the heart and change the natural desires of an peaceable follower of Christ. I hope that all challenge all to read and apply the principles of the Book of Mormon because it has the power to change the soul and bring someone closer to Christ.
I love you all and pray for you also many, many times every day.
Love,
Elder Driggs
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
December 2, 2009
Dearest Family EVER!!!
I am so glad to hear that the Thanksgiving day celebration was a huge hit, as it should be. Elder Carr and I had a wonderful celebration, by ourselves, in our room with a chicken that we bought, the DELIGHTFUL stuffing, and mashed potatoes that you sent me with gravy. IT was absolutely fantastic. We could not even finish it all. That stuffing was incredible. I love stuffing. It smells so good. We finally finished it off yesterday and I was so surprised at how quick it was to make. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you send, do, and pray for. We feel your prayers and are trying to work hard so that we can receive more blessings in this work.
Lately I am realizing how weak I am and how desperately I need the Lord. I am sooo imperfect, but luckily, as mom said, and as President Monson has explained before, all we have to do is do our best and leave unto the Lord the rest. I have faith in this principle and know that if I am trying hard to do what I know is right, the Lord can make me a mighty instrument in His mighty, all powerful, hands.
The baptism was incredible. Just about everything that we had had planned fell through, making it really hard to pull everything together, but in the end it all came out well and there are 5 new members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-Day Saints. Some of the problems that we had during the week were as follows.
-The stake did not approve us doing any more baptisms at the branch meeting house, because there are no baptismal clothes or hot water.
-With this comes the need of calling all the members and getting them to travel an extra 30 minutes to the Temple in Madrid, where the stake center is. (It is important to have member supporting the baptismal candidates so that they will have more help in staying active, as you all know very well).
-Our phone was out of minutes almost all of the week and it made it very difficult to contact others and tell them about the baptism. Luckily the amazing wife of the branch mission leader, who is also the relief society president, scored a touch down, by calling all of the ward and an investigator telling them of the switch and offering help with rides, refreshments, etc. She was an incredible help in the process.
-the ward mission leader forgot to do the program so we threw one together in about 30 minutes in a locutorio or internet cafe.
As I write these down, I realize that they were not that big of a deal, but they did cause a lot of stress and worry for us, but after all was said and done, we are glad for the challenge and have learned a lot about what to do in the future.
The baptism was wonderful and beautiful. The family was very happy and Gina, the wife and mother, had asked President and sister Watkins, our mission president and his wife to come. President Watkins visited our branch about a month ago and met Ronny and Gina and she invited him then. It was wonderful having President Watkins there and it all turned out really well. Two people that were to baptize the children either could not come or forget, so Elder Carr and I were able to help out a little bit more. I baptized the oldest daughter and Elder Carr the youngest. It was a sweet moment with the family and I am very grateful and honored to have been a part of this experience.
Before the baptism Ronny, the father, said that he did not want any pictures because he did not want it to become a social meeting. He had a point as he really understood what the baptism meant and it should not just be something fun, but I also wanted to ¨preserve the moment¨ he later consented and trusted us that it would not get out of hand.
He later bore his testimony along with his family and it was incredible. I know he will be great leader in his family and a huge strength to the church in Spain.
The church is true. I love the work and am trying harder every day to love like the Master and forget myself.
Thank you for all the prayers and love.
love Elder Driggs
I am so glad to hear that the Thanksgiving day celebration was a huge hit, as it should be. Elder Carr and I had a wonderful celebration, by ourselves, in our room with a chicken that we bought, the DELIGHTFUL stuffing, and mashed potatoes that you sent me with gravy. IT was absolutely fantastic. We could not even finish it all. That stuffing was incredible. I love stuffing. It smells so good. We finally finished it off yesterday and I was so surprised at how quick it was to make. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you send, do, and pray for. We feel your prayers and are trying to work hard so that we can receive more blessings in this work.
Lately I am realizing how weak I am and how desperately I need the Lord. I am sooo imperfect, but luckily, as mom said, and as President Monson has explained before, all we have to do is do our best and leave unto the Lord the rest. I have faith in this principle and know that if I am trying hard to do what I know is right, the Lord can make me a mighty instrument in His mighty, all powerful, hands.
The baptism was incredible. Just about everything that we had had planned fell through, making it really hard to pull everything together, but in the end it all came out well and there are 5 new members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-Day Saints. Some of the problems that we had during the week were as follows.
-The stake did not approve us doing any more baptisms at the branch meeting house, because there are no baptismal clothes or hot water.
-With this comes the need of calling all the members and getting them to travel an extra 30 minutes to the Temple in Madrid, where the stake center is. (It is important to have member supporting the baptismal candidates so that they will have more help in staying active, as you all know very well).
-Our phone was out of minutes almost all of the week and it made it very difficult to contact others and tell them about the baptism. Luckily the amazing wife of the branch mission leader, who is also the relief society president, scored a touch down, by calling all of the ward and an investigator telling them of the switch and offering help with rides, refreshments, etc. She was an incredible help in the process.
-the ward mission leader forgot to do the program so we threw one together in about 30 minutes in a locutorio or internet cafe.
As I write these down, I realize that they were not that big of a deal, but they did cause a lot of stress and worry for us, but after all was said and done, we are glad for the challenge and have learned a lot about what to do in the future.
The baptism was wonderful and beautiful. The family was very happy and Gina, the wife and mother, had asked President and sister Watkins, our mission president and his wife to come. President Watkins visited our branch about a month ago and met Ronny and Gina and she invited him then. It was wonderful having President Watkins there and it all turned out really well. Two people that were to baptize the children either could not come or forget, so Elder Carr and I were able to help out a little bit more. I baptized the oldest daughter and Elder Carr the youngest. It was a sweet moment with the family and I am very grateful and honored to have been a part of this experience.
Before the baptism Ronny, the father, said that he did not want any pictures because he did not want it to become a social meeting. He had a point as he really understood what the baptism meant and it should not just be something fun, but I also wanted to ¨preserve the moment¨ he later consented and trusted us that it would not get out of hand.
He later bore his testimony along with his family and it was incredible. I know he will be great leader in his family and a huge strength to the church in Spain.
The church is true. I love the work and am trying harder every day to love like the Master and forget myself.
Thank you for all the prayers and love.
love Elder Driggs
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
November 25, 2009
Dear family,
Today we are going to the summer palace with our district leader and his companion as he was here late last night doing baptismal interviews for Ronnie and his family.
The baptism for Ronnie is this weekend, Saturday at 7 in the afternoon. It has been such a privilege to be apart of this whole experience as this will be my first baptism where I have been with them almost the entire time.
About a month before I came in Elder Carr and his previous companion dropped Ronny, as he wasn´t progressing or putting any effort into anything. He had been found back in April or March, and had been taught every two weeks or so. They dropped him, as they had just taught him, not his family, and when I got here we had a lesson with him and really challenged him to come to church. He agreed, as he had done many times before, but this time he actually came with ALL of his family. This was the start of the journey and they have come a long way. Ronnie has gone from being a boracho(drinker) to not having that be a problem any more. He hasn´t drunk at all for 3 weeks and probably has only drunk 1 in 5 or 6.
His wife Gina, is incredible. She was VERY Catholic, going to mass every week without Ronny, as he didn´t want to go, with all of the children. But she always showed respect to her husband, letting us come over and teach him. He told her he felt good when we were there and then she started listening, felt the same way, prayed, and received her answer one day while reading for the Strength of Youth Pamphlet with her two daughters, Naomi, 12, y Romina, 9. She says that reading the Book of Mormon is hard for her as it is difficult for her to understand, as she isn´t very familiar with it. She has a testimony of the Book and now is almost done reading all of Ether, as that is what we invited her to do. She loves it. She also loves the Strength of Youth pamphlet. She has read it at least two times and says that she loves the way it really is a guide and can help her family be more happy. Her family is the most important thing to her, as it should be. I will send pictures of everything soon. Hopefully today! Or at least tomorrow.
They have another son Ronnie hijo and Elder Carr and I are always surprised at how smart and attentive he is. He is only 10 years old about to turn 11 in a couple of weeks. Elder Taylor, our district leader who did the interviews last night, said that in the interview Ronnie told him that he could see the difference before and after the missionaries started teaching his family. He said that before he didn´t like to listen to his parents, but now he has felt a forgiveness of his sins and is more obedient. HE IS AWESOME!
Elder Carr and I say that he is the reason that this family was found, because we think that the Lord has a lot in store for him. He reads the Book of Mormon almost every night and says his personal prayers every night. When I taught the family the lesson about the seven steps in the Liahona, Ronnie hijo was taking notes and said that he would put the seven points by his bed so that when he would wake up he could remember what he needed to do. They aren´t perfect at the seven, but they are progressing really well, and trying very hard. But Ronnie hijo is impressive and will be fantastic missionary. He actually looks a lot like Mark. He has the same skin type and hair. This family is Ecuadorian and I am excited to see how everything goes this weekend with them. Ronnie, the father, has asked me to baptize him. I would much rather have a member baptize him as that member can be a strength and support for him, but when I asked him if he was sure he said yes. I am very honored and consider it a big privilege to be apart of it. I will be sending fotos very soon.
It really hit me the other day, actually the past couple of days, how short the mission really is. In some ways it seems like I have been here for hardly a week. It is going by way to fast. I want to do so much more while I am here and I am already almost 25 percent done. I can´t even believe it. There are so many things that I am trying to do, such as habits I am trying to develop, skills I want to learn and acquire, as well as a language that still loses me. There are so many blessing that come from serving a mission and there are so many changes that can come to a person, and I just don´t feel like I have ¨changed¨yet.
I really just want to become a new person, have a new heart as Paul received. I also now that this change and new heart will more likely come when I am not worrying about myself and my progress, but more moment to moment action while losing myself in the service of others. I know that as I really focus myself completely, all my thoughts, words, and deeds, in the lives and spiritual welfare of our investigators. I will change or find myself. I will find the person that the Savior and Heavenly Father have prepared me to be.
In the stake monthly letter there was a line that I loved, that said that I was not prepared and sent to fail, but to be a missionary like unto Ammon, Alma, Amulek, and Paul. I really have been prepared to be a excellent missionary like them, and the cool part is, is that it actually is possible. I just need to focus, and make sure that all I am doing, all that I am giving, is for the Lord and the moving forward of His work among the Children of Heavenly Father.
It is such a blessing to be here and to be honest, I wish I could be here for 11 or 13 years like the sons of Mosiah, becuase I have a feeling that pretty soon the Gospel is going to explode here in Spain and in Europe in general. This crisis in the economy is really helping us and we are seeing many miracles every day. With every contact and every person we teach, we see the hand of the Lord in our lives. I feel His love, not only for me but for all His children in this part of the world. It is a special and sacred experience to be here in Aranjuez, Spain, right now.
I love you all and thank you for everything.
I pray for you very much, and my God bless you and seal you His always,
Love,
Rob
Today we are going to the summer palace with our district leader and his companion as he was here late last night doing baptismal interviews for Ronnie and his family.
The baptism for Ronnie is this weekend, Saturday at 7 in the afternoon. It has been such a privilege to be apart of this whole experience as this will be my first baptism where I have been with them almost the entire time.
About a month before I came in Elder Carr and his previous companion dropped Ronny, as he wasn´t progressing or putting any effort into anything. He had been found back in April or March, and had been taught every two weeks or so. They dropped him, as they had just taught him, not his family, and when I got here we had a lesson with him and really challenged him to come to church. He agreed, as he had done many times before, but this time he actually came with ALL of his family. This was the start of the journey and they have come a long way. Ronnie has gone from being a boracho(drinker) to not having that be a problem any more. He hasn´t drunk at all for 3 weeks and probably has only drunk 1 in 5 or 6.
His wife Gina, is incredible. She was VERY Catholic, going to mass every week without Ronny, as he didn´t want to go, with all of the children. But she always showed respect to her husband, letting us come over and teach him. He told her he felt good when we were there and then she started listening, felt the same way, prayed, and received her answer one day while reading for the Strength of Youth Pamphlet with her two daughters, Naomi, 12, y Romina, 9. She says that reading the Book of Mormon is hard for her as it is difficult for her to understand, as she isn´t very familiar with it. She has a testimony of the Book and now is almost done reading all of Ether, as that is what we invited her to do. She loves it. She also loves the Strength of Youth pamphlet. She has read it at least two times and says that she loves the way it really is a guide and can help her family be more happy. Her family is the most important thing to her, as it should be. I will send pictures of everything soon. Hopefully today! Or at least tomorrow.
They have another son Ronnie hijo and Elder Carr and I are always surprised at how smart and attentive he is. He is only 10 years old about to turn 11 in a couple of weeks. Elder Taylor, our district leader who did the interviews last night, said that in the interview Ronnie told him that he could see the difference before and after the missionaries started teaching his family. He said that before he didn´t like to listen to his parents, but now he has felt a forgiveness of his sins and is more obedient. HE IS AWESOME!
Elder Carr and I say that he is the reason that this family was found, because we think that the Lord has a lot in store for him. He reads the Book of Mormon almost every night and says his personal prayers every night. When I taught the family the lesson about the seven steps in the Liahona, Ronnie hijo was taking notes and said that he would put the seven points by his bed so that when he would wake up he could remember what he needed to do. They aren´t perfect at the seven, but they are progressing really well, and trying very hard. But Ronnie hijo is impressive and will be fantastic missionary. He actually looks a lot like Mark. He has the same skin type and hair. This family is Ecuadorian and I am excited to see how everything goes this weekend with them. Ronnie, the father, has asked me to baptize him. I would much rather have a member baptize him as that member can be a strength and support for him, but when I asked him if he was sure he said yes. I am very honored and consider it a big privilege to be apart of it. I will be sending fotos very soon.
It really hit me the other day, actually the past couple of days, how short the mission really is. In some ways it seems like I have been here for hardly a week. It is going by way to fast. I want to do so much more while I am here and I am already almost 25 percent done. I can´t even believe it. There are so many things that I am trying to do, such as habits I am trying to develop, skills I want to learn and acquire, as well as a language that still loses me. There are so many blessing that come from serving a mission and there are so many changes that can come to a person, and I just don´t feel like I have ¨changed¨yet.
I really just want to become a new person, have a new heart as Paul received. I also now that this change and new heart will more likely come when I am not worrying about myself and my progress, but more moment to moment action while losing myself in the service of others. I know that as I really focus myself completely, all my thoughts, words, and deeds, in the lives and spiritual welfare of our investigators. I will change or find myself. I will find the person that the Savior and Heavenly Father have prepared me to be.
In the stake monthly letter there was a line that I loved, that said that I was not prepared and sent to fail, but to be a missionary like unto Ammon, Alma, Amulek, and Paul. I really have been prepared to be a excellent missionary like them, and the cool part is, is that it actually is possible. I just need to focus, and make sure that all I am doing, all that I am giving, is for the Lord and the moving forward of His work among the Children of Heavenly Father.
It is such a blessing to be here and to be honest, I wish I could be here for 11 or 13 years like the sons of Mosiah, becuase I have a feeling that pretty soon the Gospel is going to explode here in Spain and in Europe in general. This crisis in the economy is really helping us and we are seeing many miracles every day. With every contact and every person we teach, we see the hand of the Lord in our lives. I feel His love, not only for me but for all His children in this part of the world. It is a special and sacred experience to be here in Aranjuez, Spain, right now.
I love you all and thank you for everything.
I pray for you very much, and my God bless you and seal you His always,
Love,
Rob
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
November 18, 2009
Dear Family,
Well I am still here in Aranjuez, so that is great news. I am very excited for the next six weeks that I have to be here in this awesome area, with wonderful members and promising investigators. Elder Carr and I have a lot of goals that we want to have accomplished in this rather short time that we will have together.
I apologize in advance that I don´t have very much time as I just wrote a letter to Cami. I hope that you will forgive me and you can expect an extra long letter next week.
This last week was fantastic! The baptism was wonderful. Elder Carr baptized and confirmed her and I spoke at the baptism. I was the only speaker and we had three investigators and including the family of Isa, which are not members, 4 more. There was a good show of members and everything went really well. The President of the branch also baptized his daughter at the same time. It was really beautiful and the Spirit was really strong. If I remember I will give you more details about the baptism next week. I will write it down so I do not forget. I am getting better at doing this, as Elder Carr doesn´t and sometimes forgets to do things, I am feeling more responsible to be in charge of doing so, so that we always do things that we say we will do. So that we can be Elders of our word.
Ronnie and his family are doing fantastic tambien and we are very excited for them to be baptized next weekend. We already have 2 invites to have dinner during Christmas. I really owe this to Elder Carr as he was here 2 transfers before me. He really has a gift to be friends with the members. I am feeling really comfortable with them too and I love having the need to talk to them and make them feel loved. I am learning a lot from Elder Carr and a couple days ago, I wrote down the three things greatest skill that Elder Carr exemplifies that I would like to develop in these next six weeks. They are, to be a good teacher. Elder Carr is an inspired, simple, and loving teacher. He communicates every thing that he needs to in a way that is loving and motivating. He also has a way with the members. I think this one will come, as I don´t feel like I have a big barrier with talking to them other than the language barrier. He also has a gift to be best friends with investigators. This is a great gift as it makes it so easy for us to be honest and bold with our investigators and more importantly them with us.
We are reaping many blessings and feel honored to serve the Lord in a time so special as this.
I read Alma chapter 26 today, I think, started from verse 27 maybe. I loved this as it is sometimes know as Alma´s homecoming talk. It was really touching and if you have some time, I recommend that you take a peek at it. I found particular comfort in the verse near the end that mentions that they were wanderers in a strange land. I sometimes feel like that here in Spain and I love it. I love being with a people that is so different but at the same time need the Gospel of Jesus Christ just as much. I remember Brother Call saying a couple Sundays before I left, when they spoke in Sacrament meeting when they returned from their mission, that ¨Heavenly Father´s play is big enough for all of His children.¨ I am recognizing this more and more everyday. That Heavenly Father loves these precious souls here in Spain just as much as the people in Provo, Utah or Guatemala or Germany or anywhere else. He loves all of His children equally and desperately wants all of them to accept His Son and return to live with Him. I feel honored to share this message of the Restoration, this message that brings healing to the wounded soul.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers of faith. I feel the strength and love that comes from them. Thank you, thank you. When was the last time I told you all that I love you? I love you all! It is hard to communicate love through an email. I really am so thankful for all that you do for me. And the packages are not distracting at all. I am not homesick and in fact the packages help me. They remind me of you and make me want to be better and work harder. They are so motivating. I think of the sacrifice to send them and it makes me have greater desire to work hard and not waste a second of time aqui en España. So thank you thank you. I hope that you are being safe and careful. I pray for you all a lot. I love the advice that is given from E.T.
¨Be Good.¨
Love,
Elder Driggs
Well I am still here in Aranjuez, so that is great news. I am very excited for the next six weeks that I have to be here in this awesome area, with wonderful members and promising investigators. Elder Carr and I have a lot of goals that we want to have accomplished in this rather short time that we will have together.
I apologize in advance that I don´t have very much time as I just wrote a letter to Cami. I hope that you will forgive me and you can expect an extra long letter next week.
This last week was fantastic! The baptism was wonderful. Elder Carr baptized and confirmed her and I spoke at the baptism. I was the only speaker and we had three investigators and including the family of Isa, which are not members, 4 more. There was a good show of members and everything went really well. The President of the branch also baptized his daughter at the same time. It was really beautiful and the Spirit was really strong. If I remember I will give you more details about the baptism next week. I will write it down so I do not forget. I am getting better at doing this, as Elder Carr doesn´t and sometimes forgets to do things, I am feeling more responsible to be in charge of doing so, so that we always do things that we say we will do. So that we can be Elders of our word.
Ronnie and his family are doing fantastic tambien and we are very excited for them to be baptized next weekend. We already have 2 invites to have dinner during Christmas. I really owe this to Elder Carr as he was here 2 transfers before me. He really has a gift to be friends with the members. I am feeling really comfortable with them too and I love having the need to talk to them and make them feel loved. I am learning a lot from Elder Carr and a couple days ago, I wrote down the three things greatest skill that Elder Carr exemplifies that I would like to develop in these next six weeks. They are, to be a good teacher. Elder Carr is an inspired, simple, and loving teacher. He communicates every thing that he needs to in a way that is loving and motivating. He also has a way with the members. I think this one will come, as I don´t feel like I have a big barrier with talking to them other than the language barrier. He also has a gift to be best friends with investigators. This is a great gift as it makes it so easy for us to be honest and bold with our investigators and more importantly them with us.
We are reaping many blessings and feel honored to serve the Lord in a time so special as this.
I read Alma chapter 26 today, I think, started from verse 27 maybe. I loved this as it is sometimes know as Alma´s homecoming talk. It was really touching and if you have some time, I recommend that you take a peek at it. I found particular comfort in the verse near the end that mentions that they were wanderers in a strange land. I sometimes feel like that here in Spain and I love it. I love being with a people that is so different but at the same time need the Gospel of Jesus Christ just as much. I remember Brother Call saying a couple Sundays before I left, when they spoke in Sacrament meeting when they returned from their mission, that ¨Heavenly Father´s play is big enough for all of His children.¨ I am recognizing this more and more everyday. That Heavenly Father loves these precious souls here in Spain just as much as the people in Provo, Utah or Guatemala or Germany or anywhere else. He loves all of His children equally and desperately wants all of them to accept His Son and return to live with Him. I feel honored to share this message of the Restoration, this message that brings healing to the wounded soul.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers of faith. I feel the strength and love that comes from them. Thank you, thank you. When was the last time I told you all that I love you? I love you all! It is hard to communicate love through an email. I really am so thankful for all that you do for me. And the packages are not distracting at all. I am not homesick and in fact the packages help me. They remind me of you and make me want to be better and work harder. They are so motivating. I think of the sacrifice to send them and it makes me have greater desire to work hard and not waste a second of time aqui en España. So thank you thank you. I hope that you are being safe and careful. I pray for you all a lot. I love the advice that is given from E.T.
¨Be Good.¨
Love,
Elder Driggs
November 11, 2009
Dear family,
So...one question....When was the last time I told you that I love you...? because madre mia, you all are way to nice. The two packages that I did in deed receive last Thursday were INCREDIBLE. I felt so bad when I opened the box and found those decorations, but don´t worry, Elder Carr and I are using them to the best. I want to put the big spider up on our door like at home, so that when it opens it will drop down. I haven´t had time to do it yet, but it will be done.
Thank you soooo much. I, of course, loved the Roasted Rasberry Chipotle Sauce. We had our district meeting in Aranjuez yesterday and Elder Taylor from Idaho, our district leader, interviewed one of our baptismal candidates, Isa. She was my first lesson in Spain and she has been approved and will be baptized this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. We are sad that her husband doesn´t want to be baptized yet but she is a fire ball. About 24 years old from La Republica Dominicana, and she has faith like none other. She has a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and that testimony has helped her have faith in a living prophet and Joseph Smith. She hasn´t received a personal witness of these two yet but she said that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and, doing the connection, the others must be true too.
This is how my testimony was in the beginning. I knew that the Book of Mormon was true, which led to me believing that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, until I received the answer that I was looking for. And now, I have received that answer many times and now realize that I had received it before that time that it hit me, but did not recognize it. We met with Isa on Monday and she told us that she had a question about why she could not have 2 piercings in her ears, as she had read in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet that the prophets have counseled against it. We told her that we didn´t really know why. I told her that with this commandment as with some others, I just have to exercise my faith in the calling of a prophet and my testimony of him.
For me, if the prophet says something, you just do it and are blessed. It is different coming from a background of believers and members like me, because people usually want a reason, and the walking by faith, not by sight, is hard for a lot of people. She told us that the first hole was one she had done by her mother when she was a baby and then got another one when her ear grew later on. We just told her that she needed to make the decision and the next day at the interview she showed up with one earring, and didn´t even tell us. I just happened to look at her ears and saw that she only had one. I was so happy for her, knowing that this little thing was a tiny test of faith, that would begin a life long journey of faithful action in the words of the prophets.
But to regroup back to the previous thought, the roasted raspberry chipotle sauce, after the interview the other two missionaries came over to our chaleaut and we cooked hamburgers that Isa had given us. When they were done, I thought about the chipotle sauce. I had already eaten one stick of cream cheese with it and thought that it might be good on a hamburger. I was so right. They were incredible! The other three tried it and said the same thing, making weird noises and praising the ¨magical sauce.¨
We then went on to the second dish which was pita bread and refreid beans. I again had the inspirational thought to try the ¨magical sauce.¨ I did and again it turned out fabulous. The other three did so as well and began calling it the ¨makes everything good¨sauce. It was hysterical, because it really made everything else amazing. A big burst of flavor all in your mouth, with a kick at the end that just bites you. I loved it. IT IS AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for that and the TONS of candy and the decorations. I use the cool pen every day and thank you for getting two of the bigger things. Elder Carr appreciates that.
Transfers are coming up this Sunday and am hoping that I will at least stay here one more. That would mean that I would be here in paradise for la Navidad. This place would be so fun and beautiful during the magical time of Christmas and the members are amazing. Pertaining to the transfers, I will give you my address but don´t send it until I write you next week, and let you know if I am still here. The address is Aranjuez, Madrid Calle Abdon Bordoy 57. I actually do not know the area code, maybe you can find it. But I will let you know again next week.
Thank you for all that you do and thank you for telling me again about your goal to accomplish the 7 steps. This is inspired because it is perfect for the investigators. This is something that they can do, that is fairly simple, just requiring a little bit of effort and consistency, that would really make all the difference. Thank you sooo much and I will go home and read the article out of the Ensign.
I am really trying to focus and the more I do the more weaknesses I discover in myself. I am really trying to change all my bad habits on this mission and I realize that if I lose myself in others then I will find myself, with a new heart. I am also realizing the importance of daily repentance. Even as a missionary I am very far from perfect and am trying to involve the perfect love, strength, and help of Christ everyday.
I love you all. I cannot thank you enough for those two packages, they really were... a little bit of home. Just what I needed. Don´t worry I am not homesick, but it is nice to have a little reminder of how life is back in Provo Utah, or as they say here... La Fabrica.
Adios, por una semana. They are flying by. I can´t believe I have almost been out for 5 months. WOW!!! When I think about that I just want to work harder. I have a lot to work on to be the missionary that the Lord has prepared me, called me, and sent me to be.
Have a great week.
Love,
Rob,
So...one question....When was the last time I told you that I love you...? because madre mia, you all are way to nice. The two packages that I did in deed receive last Thursday were INCREDIBLE. I felt so bad when I opened the box and found those decorations, but don´t worry, Elder Carr and I are using them to the best. I want to put the big spider up on our door like at home, so that when it opens it will drop down. I haven´t had time to do it yet, but it will be done.
Thank you soooo much. I, of course, loved the Roasted Rasberry Chipotle Sauce. We had our district meeting in Aranjuez yesterday and Elder Taylor from Idaho, our district leader, interviewed one of our baptismal candidates, Isa. She was my first lesson in Spain and she has been approved and will be baptized this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. We are sad that her husband doesn´t want to be baptized yet but she is a fire ball. About 24 years old from La Republica Dominicana, and she has faith like none other. She has a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and that testimony has helped her have faith in a living prophet and Joseph Smith. She hasn´t received a personal witness of these two yet but she said that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and, doing the connection, the others must be true too.
This is how my testimony was in the beginning. I knew that the Book of Mormon was true, which led to me believing that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, until I received the answer that I was looking for. And now, I have received that answer many times and now realize that I had received it before that time that it hit me, but did not recognize it. We met with Isa on Monday and she told us that she had a question about why she could not have 2 piercings in her ears, as she had read in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet that the prophets have counseled against it. We told her that we didn´t really know why. I told her that with this commandment as with some others, I just have to exercise my faith in the calling of a prophet and my testimony of him.
For me, if the prophet says something, you just do it and are blessed. It is different coming from a background of believers and members like me, because people usually want a reason, and the walking by faith, not by sight, is hard for a lot of people. She told us that the first hole was one she had done by her mother when she was a baby and then got another one when her ear grew later on. We just told her that she needed to make the decision and the next day at the interview she showed up with one earring, and didn´t even tell us. I just happened to look at her ears and saw that she only had one. I was so happy for her, knowing that this little thing was a tiny test of faith, that would begin a life long journey of faithful action in the words of the prophets.
But to regroup back to the previous thought, the roasted raspberry chipotle sauce, after the interview the other two missionaries came over to our chaleaut and we cooked hamburgers that Isa had given us. When they were done, I thought about the chipotle sauce. I had already eaten one stick of cream cheese with it and thought that it might be good on a hamburger. I was so right. They were incredible! The other three tried it and said the same thing, making weird noises and praising the ¨magical sauce.¨
We then went on to the second dish which was pita bread and refreid beans. I again had the inspirational thought to try the ¨magical sauce.¨ I did and again it turned out fabulous. The other three did so as well and began calling it the ¨makes everything good¨sauce. It was hysterical, because it really made everything else amazing. A big burst of flavor all in your mouth, with a kick at the end that just bites you. I loved it. IT IS AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for that and the TONS of candy and the decorations. I use the cool pen every day and thank you for getting two of the bigger things. Elder Carr appreciates that.
Transfers are coming up this Sunday and am hoping that I will at least stay here one more. That would mean that I would be here in paradise for la Navidad. This place would be so fun and beautiful during the magical time of Christmas and the members are amazing. Pertaining to the transfers, I will give you my address but don´t send it until I write you next week, and let you know if I am still here. The address is Aranjuez, Madrid Calle Abdon Bordoy 57. I actually do not know the area code, maybe you can find it. But I will let you know again next week.
Thank you for all that you do and thank you for telling me again about your goal to accomplish the 7 steps. This is inspired because it is perfect for the investigators. This is something that they can do, that is fairly simple, just requiring a little bit of effort and consistency, that would really make all the difference. Thank you sooo much and I will go home and read the article out of the Ensign.
I am really trying to focus and the more I do the more weaknesses I discover in myself. I am really trying to change all my bad habits on this mission and I realize that if I lose myself in others then I will find myself, with a new heart. I am also realizing the importance of daily repentance. Even as a missionary I am very far from perfect and am trying to involve the perfect love, strength, and help of Christ everyday.
I love you all. I cannot thank you enough for those two packages, they really were... a little bit of home. Just what I needed. Don´t worry I am not homesick, but it is nice to have a little reminder of how life is back in Provo Utah, or as they say here... La Fabrica.
Adios, por una semana. They are flying by. I can´t believe I have almost been out for 5 months. WOW!!! When I think about that I just want to work harder. I have a lot to work on to be the missionary that the Lord has prepared me, called me, and sent me to be.
Have a great week.
Love,
Rob,
Monday, November 9, 2009
November 4, 2009
Dear Family,
To to answer your questions… I am fantastic. The weather is crazy here. Sometimes it is a little chilly with a cool wind, enough to wear a jacket. Other times it is really hot. It has been very hot this last week and we are now in November. Luckily today and yesterday it cooled off, and I am afraid that I have put my last short sleeve shirt on for the winter. The food is great. I probably spent a little more than I should have these past two weeks, not too much, but luckily it was food that will last a long time. I have no problems with the food. I love cereal, which is usually what I eat for breakfast, and for lunch I will have a ham and cheese sandwich, a hand made pizza with pida bread, hot dogs, or pasta. Really Spanish huh? I haven´t really ventured off to cook something that is really exquisite, mainly because I am not good at cooking, especially here with weird measurements, and not much time to do so. We have 2 hours in the middle of the day, during what is commonly known as MEDIO DIA, to study for 30 minutes, plan for the rest of the day, and eat for about an hour. We are right now trying to make this time most effective.
I have to regret that I still haven´t received any of the packages, other than the Bible and the BYU stuff, and candy. We haven´t received pedidos for 5 weeks or so. I am not quite sure the reason, other than schedules didn´t work out to meet other missionaries half way or that we can just wait for an interview or a zone conference. Fortunately, tomorrow is both of those, the interview that we have every transfer, and the zone conference. I get to give the opening prayer tomorrow in Zone Conference, which is a little scary, but will go over fine. I am excited to get them, as I have had my cream cheese waiting in the fridge for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Luckily it doesn´t expire until January. So if worse comes to worst, I could at least get the pedidos, mail, by Christmas and still be safe. But we have been told that we will get them tomorrow. 100 percent certain. I am sad, as I fear that you had Halloween treats in there, but Elder Carr and I will have a special celebration by ourselves and roommates, and it will still be greatly appreciated. In the future I am not sure what the best way to send things is. This is the only sure and safe way, just a tad slow. In the future I think that we will be better at receiving mail at least every 3 weeks, but again, I am at the bottom of the chain, have no influence, and have no idea what is going on.
The language is great somedays and really bad other days. It just depends on who I talk to. It´s not really bad, just not where I would like to be. I can talk fine with just about everyone, and I understand just about every as well. Except for the Spaniards who have an incredibly thick accent and talk without moving their lips. It´s impossible to follow and an amazing talent that I think I would like to learn. The sound of their voice is like they have a bit of apple that they are not trying to chew in their mouth, while also trying to cough up phlegm and mucus that is stuck in their throat. It is incredible, but still is very hard to understand these people. I can speak well, more so when we are talking about the Gospel, because we do that most. But the day to day activities and just chit chat, is a little bit more difficult for me. I do feel confident thought that I can go up to someone and just talk to them, without having the fear that I will not understand them or worse, that they will not understand me. I am still going and almost desperate to improve my ability to speak the language, so that I can continue to feel more confident, contribute more during lessons, and be able to focus more on others, rather than myself and be preoccupied about trying to communicate clearly. Todovia estoy en ello, pero tirando. Tirando is a term they use here that means, just going. Working and going, not giving up.
Have a great week, keep doing everything that you do so well like you are.
I love you,
Elder Driggs
To to answer your questions… I am fantastic. The weather is crazy here. Sometimes it is a little chilly with a cool wind, enough to wear a jacket. Other times it is really hot. It has been very hot this last week and we are now in November. Luckily today and yesterday it cooled off, and I am afraid that I have put my last short sleeve shirt on for the winter. The food is great. I probably spent a little more than I should have these past two weeks, not too much, but luckily it was food that will last a long time. I have no problems with the food. I love cereal, which is usually what I eat for breakfast, and for lunch I will have a ham and cheese sandwich, a hand made pizza with pida bread, hot dogs, or pasta. Really Spanish huh? I haven´t really ventured off to cook something that is really exquisite, mainly because I am not good at cooking, especially here with weird measurements, and not much time to do so. We have 2 hours in the middle of the day, during what is commonly known as MEDIO DIA, to study for 30 minutes, plan for the rest of the day, and eat for about an hour. We are right now trying to make this time most effective.
I have to regret that I still haven´t received any of the packages, other than the Bible and the BYU stuff, and candy. We haven´t received pedidos for 5 weeks or so. I am not quite sure the reason, other than schedules didn´t work out to meet other missionaries half way or that we can just wait for an interview or a zone conference. Fortunately, tomorrow is both of those, the interview that we have every transfer, and the zone conference. I get to give the opening prayer tomorrow in Zone Conference, which is a little scary, but will go over fine. I am excited to get them, as I have had my cream cheese waiting in the fridge for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Luckily it doesn´t expire until January. So if worse comes to worst, I could at least get the pedidos, mail, by Christmas and still be safe. But we have been told that we will get them tomorrow. 100 percent certain. I am sad, as I fear that you had Halloween treats in there, but Elder Carr and I will have a special celebration by ourselves and roommates, and it will still be greatly appreciated. In the future I am not sure what the best way to send things is. This is the only sure and safe way, just a tad slow. In the future I think that we will be better at receiving mail at least every 3 weeks, but again, I am at the bottom of the chain, have no influence, and have no idea what is going on.
The language is great somedays and really bad other days. It just depends on who I talk to. It´s not really bad, just not where I would like to be. I can talk fine with just about everyone, and I understand just about every as well. Except for the Spaniards who have an incredibly thick accent and talk without moving their lips. It´s impossible to follow and an amazing talent that I think I would like to learn. The sound of their voice is like they have a bit of apple that they are not trying to chew in their mouth, while also trying to cough up phlegm and mucus that is stuck in their throat. It is incredible, but still is very hard to understand these people. I can speak well, more so when we are talking about the Gospel, because we do that most. But the day to day activities and just chit chat, is a little bit more difficult for me. I do feel confident thought that I can go up to someone and just talk to them, without having the fear that I will not understand them or worse, that they will not understand me. I am still going and almost desperate to improve my ability to speak the language, so that I can continue to feel more confident, contribute more during lessons, and be able to focus more on others, rather than myself and be preoccupied about trying to communicate clearly. Todovia estoy en ello, pero tirando. Tirando is a term they use here that means, just going. Working and going, not giving up.
Have a great week, keep doing everything that you do so well like you are.
I love you,
Elder Driggs
October 28, 2009
Dear Family,
This week has been great. We are working hard with our investigators to help them be ready to accept the covenant of baptism and after, be able to endure to the end with the help of the Holy Ghost.
We had to move one of the baptisms back a week because we felt that he wasn´t ready. After we did that we felt much better and now have more time to really get him ready for this big day that will change his life.
It is interesting teaching about baptism, because it really is so eternally important, and almost impossible to help them understand this significance. But it is so thrilling to have them receive answers to prayers and then have them act in faith, set a baptismal date, and know through their feelings that they want to follow the example of Jesus Christ down into the waters of baptism. Their examples of faith are incredible. The baptismal covenant requires a lot, not in comparison to the blessings that we receive because of it, but for someone to change their life from not doing anything other than mass every week, it is a big commitment and a big leap of faith. It truly is inspiring. It is easy to just see it as a baptism, but when you think that it is someone committing to the follow the Savior, removing themselves from the sins of the world, and accepting to live a higher law, it is something so tender and beautiful. I take for granted the blessing to be apart of this way to often.
We are working with our other 7 dates, the family of Ronnie(Ronnie, Jina, Naomi, Ronnie (hijo), and Romina, a woman named Isa, and another woman named Olga. It is a lot of fun teaching them, because they want to learn and want to progress.
We also have a couple people who are very close to accepting a date of baptism. We have a man and a couple who have committing to being baptized but don´t feel ¨ready.¨ This answer bothers me a little bit, because they have received answers to their prayers by feeling good when we are there and when they read The Book of Mormon and they still don’t feel ready. It is hard in these cases, because we obviously want them to have faith and get baptized because you know that they will never regret it, but they need to make the decision for themselves or it would not be faith. It is easy for us to see the people who have been prepared by the hand of the Lord for baptism because they are really searching to find the truth, they always read the Book of Mormon, and they really understand what is being taught.
We also have two more that we are working with and who came to church this past Sunday that have so much potential. They are a women named Zuni from Paraguay, and a man name Julio, from Columbia. We have only taught Zuni once, last Friday, and asked her if we could pick her up to attend church and she accepted. She came with her 10 year old daughter Jessica and she felt it. She cried a little bit in Sacrament meeting and during the Gospel Principles class she made very applicable, conclusive comments. The next time we see her she should have a baptismal date. Julio should also, but it is hard to find time to teach him. He is usually only available on weekends, which is our busiest time as a lot of people don´t work those days.
We had the privilege of receiving a call from President on Sunday morning around 9:40 that he was ¨en camino¨ to our piso to attend church with us. He took a quick look at our living areas and said, very interesting. We went to church, picked up Zuni and Jessica, and had a wonderful time having him with us. He gave a powerful testimony of the Restauración during sacrament meeting and during our class after wards his presence was greatly appreciated. He loved the branch and the love and closeness of all the members. I love it too and am learning a lot.
I love you all and if you could send the letter to Cami that would be great.
Have a great week and keep doing all that you do the best you can. The Lord always takes care of the rest, if we do our part.
I love you all and am strengthened and motivated to work harder by your thoughts, prayers, and faith. Your efforts are felt here in Spain.
Thank you, thank you.
Love,
Elder Driggs
This week has been great. We are working hard with our investigators to help them be ready to accept the covenant of baptism and after, be able to endure to the end with the help of the Holy Ghost.
We had to move one of the baptisms back a week because we felt that he wasn´t ready. After we did that we felt much better and now have more time to really get him ready for this big day that will change his life.
It is interesting teaching about baptism, because it really is so eternally important, and almost impossible to help them understand this significance. But it is so thrilling to have them receive answers to prayers and then have them act in faith, set a baptismal date, and know through their feelings that they want to follow the example of Jesus Christ down into the waters of baptism. Their examples of faith are incredible. The baptismal covenant requires a lot, not in comparison to the blessings that we receive because of it, but for someone to change their life from not doing anything other than mass every week, it is a big commitment and a big leap of faith. It truly is inspiring. It is easy to just see it as a baptism, but when you think that it is someone committing to the follow the Savior, removing themselves from the sins of the world, and accepting to live a higher law, it is something so tender and beautiful. I take for granted the blessing to be apart of this way to often.
We are working with our other 7 dates, the family of Ronnie(Ronnie, Jina, Naomi, Ronnie (hijo), and Romina, a woman named Isa, and another woman named Olga. It is a lot of fun teaching them, because they want to learn and want to progress.
We also have a couple people who are very close to accepting a date of baptism. We have a man and a couple who have committing to being baptized but don´t feel ¨ready.¨ This answer bothers me a little bit, because they have received answers to their prayers by feeling good when we are there and when they read The Book of Mormon and they still don’t feel ready. It is hard in these cases, because we obviously want them to have faith and get baptized because you know that they will never regret it, but they need to make the decision for themselves or it would not be faith. It is easy for us to see the people who have been prepared by the hand of the Lord for baptism because they are really searching to find the truth, they always read the Book of Mormon, and they really understand what is being taught.
We also have two more that we are working with and who came to church this past Sunday that have so much potential. They are a women named Zuni from Paraguay, and a man name Julio, from Columbia. We have only taught Zuni once, last Friday, and asked her if we could pick her up to attend church and she accepted. She came with her 10 year old daughter Jessica and she felt it. She cried a little bit in Sacrament meeting and during the Gospel Principles class she made very applicable, conclusive comments. The next time we see her she should have a baptismal date. Julio should also, but it is hard to find time to teach him. He is usually only available on weekends, which is our busiest time as a lot of people don´t work those days.
We had the privilege of receiving a call from President on Sunday morning around 9:40 that he was ¨en camino¨ to our piso to attend church with us. He took a quick look at our living areas and said, very interesting. We went to church, picked up Zuni and Jessica, and had a wonderful time having him with us. He gave a powerful testimony of the Restauración during sacrament meeting and during our class after wards his presence was greatly appreciated. He loved the branch and the love and closeness of all the members. I love it too and am learning a lot.
I love you all and if you could send the letter to Cami that would be great.
Have a great week and keep doing all that you do the best you can. The Lord always takes care of the rest, if we do our part.
I love you all and am strengthened and motivated to work harder by your thoughts, prayers, and faith. Your efforts are felt here in Spain.
Thank you, thank you.
Love,
Elder Driggs
Monday, October 26, 2009
October 21, 2009
Dear Family,
This week has been great and I am learning more and more every day, how to be a better missionary. I apologize again for my short letter last week and I hope to ¨fill your cup¨ this week.
We are receiving tons of blessings! Our area is on fire and I feel bad sometimes because I don´t think we deserve them. We are not being ¨obedient with exactness¨ as the Sons of Helaman were, and yet we are receiving countless blessings. I think that these blessing are evidence of the love of God for these people in this area. I know that I can´t be perfect, but I do think that there is always more I can give. These blessings make me think of the covenants that we make at baptism and in the temple. All the Lord asks is that we do all that we can to obey and live like Him and He will bless us. Always!!! I think the Lord is blessing us so much because He loves the people here and is merciful. He is not going to punish the people for us not being exactly obedient but He will still bless us as we strive for that goal. The more we give the more we will be blessed. I would think that sometimes these blessings are not really visible, but are more spiritual blessings. I feel that we are being blessed both temporally and spiritually and I hope to give all that I can to be obedient, so that I might bind the Lord and require His blessings. I love living, and knowing that we are entirely dependent on the Lord. It is much more obvious in missionary work because if we don´t have the Spirit in our contacts, lessons, and lives, nothing will happen. This work really is His, and if we all that we can to do it His way, by keeping His commandments, and loving Him as we serve His children we will receive His Holy Spirit and be blessed. Life, sometimes, seems much simpler in the mission, because we have only very few things to focus on. And that´s it!!!
This idea makes much more sense in my head and it´s hard to express these feelings, so sorry to bore you.
We have 7 baptismal dates and 2 really close ones and 2 others that are right behind them. It is so fun having a schedule every day planned out, and having so many people that you are helping prepare for this great ordinance, that you just get excited to go out and meet with them. I am in love with lots of our investigators. Not really, but more spiritually, haha, don’t worry. What I mean to say is that I get so excited to go and teach our progressing investigators a new principle or a new lesson or a new commandment, because I know the way it is going to help their lives. My companion gave a parallel to teaching people the commandments. He compared the commandments to a menu at McDonald´s. He said that you can go in, look at the menu, and see all of the possible blessings that you can receive from obeying these laws. It really is as simple as picking a commandment, obeying it, and receiving the blessing attached. As we teach people more commandments and invite them to keep them, they have the opportunity to broaden their spectrum and add more light and love and power to their lives. I love the connection between obedience and power. Obedience really is power, and as you keep even the simplest of commandments like reading the scriptures every day, you gain actual power, that helps you combat Satan, but also gives you power to obey another commandment, like praying frequently. By obeying these two you know have enough power to go to church, and then keep the word of wisdom, and then the law of chastity, tithing, fast offerings, etc. The Lord really does know that way to get us back to Him, and that way is through daily obedience, in the little things. As we do this, and as our investigators do this, they change. They get more light in their countenances, they are more happy, they love deeper, their relationships are stronger, and they gain the power and the faith to wield the sword of righteousness against the wiles of the devil. Obedience is the first law of everything and is the only way that we can lay claim to the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we take our first step in acting and becoming like Him, He automatically blesses us. He blesses us even when we are imperfect, because He loves us and He loves those that we can serve. I love teaching people the importance of obedience and the commandments, and especially following up and seeing how excited they are to tell us that they read and kept their commitment to follow the Savior. It truly is a blessing to see the changes of life, firsthand.
Elder Carr and I had a very special experience this week as we visited one of our progressing investigators Christian and Nina. We only had the chance to teach him as his girlfriend was with their baby. Things in Spain are really strange with these kinds of relationships. We like teaching him because he keeps his commitments. We had taught him maybe three times before and every time he did not really open his heart to the Book of Mormon. He always read but always said that it was the same as the Bible or confusing to understand. We decided to read a little bit of his reading assignment, chapter 9 of 2 Nephi, when Elder Carr had the stroke of inspiration to instead read a little bit from 2 Nephi chapter 4. We told him that we would start reading in the middle and go to the end rotating every three. As he began reading in his Romanian copy of the Book of Mormon, we began to fumble along, trying to stay with him, knowing where to come in. As he kept going we realized that he had passed his 3 and kept going. He read for about 10 verses, paused, reread a verse, and then kept going until the end of the chapter. After he was done he put the Book down and kind of muttered a ¨whoa.¨ Elder Carr commented that these were the desires of a humble prophet, a humble servant of the Lord that desperately wanted to do all he could to do the will of the Father. Christian said that the words he read were his same desires. After he said this he cut off and went quiet. We waited knowing that listening is always better than talking, because it allows the Spirit to teach, testify, and confirm. We probably waited for about 5 minutes during which, he began to cry and sob. He tried to speak a couple of times but couldn´t. He apologized after this and we asked him to express his feelings and he said that he was speechless, that he felt something in his chest, and that he couldn´t express it. Obviously when he said that he felt something in his chest we knew what it was and were so excited, knowing that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true. He wife got some tissues for him and we began to talk to him about what he was feeling. We told him that this feeling was a witness of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, and that he needs to get baptized. He, still being speechless, tearfully nodded as we said these words, and then asked if we could have him say the closing prayer, as we were now out passed curfew, not knowing that the lesson would go over like this. He said that he was speechless and couldn´t do it. We pushed him, knowing that he needed to say the prayer to confirm the feelings he was having, so we encouraged him again. He agreed and said a short prayer. We were glad that he did this and he said that he would talk to his wife about getting married, as that is an obvious requirement for baptism. As he regained his breath, after this literal breath taking experience, he walked us to the door and thanked us. I truly feel it a privilege and a tender mercy of the Lord to have been present during this incredibly spiritual experience. He felt the Spirit and the Spirit bore witness to me of the true, life changing power of the Book of Mormon. This book is evidence of everything in our church, and once one has a testimony of it, they know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that this is the only church on the earth that has the power and authority of God, to not only perform the saving ordinances but to lead Heavenly Father´s children back to His loving arms.
I love this work and find it easy to see the Lord´s powerful hand in His work and in my life. I do see that as I lose myself in this work, that I become the servant that Heavenly Father prepared me, and sent me, to be. His love is evident in all things. I love the song, I feel my Savior´s love in all the world around me.
I love you all and pray for you a lot. Have the best week ever!!!
Love,
Rob
Elder Driggs
This week has been great and I am learning more and more every day, how to be a better missionary. I apologize again for my short letter last week and I hope to ¨fill your cup¨ this week.
We are receiving tons of blessings! Our area is on fire and I feel bad sometimes because I don´t think we deserve them. We are not being ¨obedient with exactness¨ as the Sons of Helaman were, and yet we are receiving countless blessings. I think that these blessing are evidence of the love of God for these people in this area. I know that I can´t be perfect, but I do think that there is always more I can give. These blessings make me think of the covenants that we make at baptism and in the temple. All the Lord asks is that we do all that we can to obey and live like Him and He will bless us. Always!!! I think the Lord is blessing us so much because He loves the people here and is merciful. He is not going to punish the people for us not being exactly obedient but He will still bless us as we strive for that goal. The more we give the more we will be blessed. I would think that sometimes these blessings are not really visible, but are more spiritual blessings. I feel that we are being blessed both temporally and spiritually and I hope to give all that I can to be obedient, so that I might bind the Lord and require His blessings. I love living, and knowing that we are entirely dependent on the Lord. It is much more obvious in missionary work because if we don´t have the Spirit in our contacts, lessons, and lives, nothing will happen. This work really is His, and if we all that we can to do it His way, by keeping His commandments, and loving Him as we serve His children we will receive His Holy Spirit and be blessed. Life, sometimes, seems much simpler in the mission, because we have only very few things to focus on. And that´s it!!!
This idea makes much more sense in my head and it´s hard to express these feelings, so sorry to bore you.
We have 7 baptismal dates and 2 really close ones and 2 others that are right behind them. It is so fun having a schedule every day planned out, and having so many people that you are helping prepare for this great ordinance, that you just get excited to go out and meet with them. I am in love with lots of our investigators. Not really, but more spiritually, haha, don’t worry. What I mean to say is that I get so excited to go and teach our progressing investigators a new principle or a new lesson or a new commandment, because I know the way it is going to help their lives. My companion gave a parallel to teaching people the commandments. He compared the commandments to a menu at McDonald´s. He said that you can go in, look at the menu, and see all of the possible blessings that you can receive from obeying these laws. It really is as simple as picking a commandment, obeying it, and receiving the blessing attached. As we teach people more commandments and invite them to keep them, they have the opportunity to broaden their spectrum and add more light and love and power to their lives. I love the connection between obedience and power. Obedience really is power, and as you keep even the simplest of commandments like reading the scriptures every day, you gain actual power, that helps you combat Satan, but also gives you power to obey another commandment, like praying frequently. By obeying these two you know have enough power to go to church, and then keep the word of wisdom, and then the law of chastity, tithing, fast offerings, etc. The Lord really does know that way to get us back to Him, and that way is through daily obedience, in the little things. As we do this, and as our investigators do this, they change. They get more light in their countenances, they are more happy, they love deeper, their relationships are stronger, and they gain the power and the faith to wield the sword of righteousness against the wiles of the devil. Obedience is the first law of everything and is the only way that we can lay claim to the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we take our first step in acting and becoming like Him, He automatically blesses us. He blesses us even when we are imperfect, because He loves us and He loves those that we can serve. I love teaching people the importance of obedience and the commandments, and especially following up and seeing how excited they are to tell us that they read and kept their commitment to follow the Savior. It truly is a blessing to see the changes of life, firsthand.
Elder Carr and I had a very special experience this week as we visited one of our progressing investigators Christian and Nina. We only had the chance to teach him as his girlfriend was with their baby. Things in Spain are really strange with these kinds of relationships. We like teaching him because he keeps his commitments. We had taught him maybe three times before and every time he did not really open his heart to the Book of Mormon. He always read but always said that it was the same as the Bible or confusing to understand. We decided to read a little bit of his reading assignment, chapter 9 of 2 Nephi, when Elder Carr had the stroke of inspiration to instead read a little bit from 2 Nephi chapter 4. We told him that we would start reading in the middle and go to the end rotating every three. As he began reading in his Romanian copy of the Book of Mormon, we began to fumble along, trying to stay with him, knowing where to come in. As he kept going we realized that he had passed his 3 and kept going. He read for about 10 verses, paused, reread a verse, and then kept going until the end of the chapter. After he was done he put the Book down and kind of muttered a ¨whoa.¨ Elder Carr commented that these were the desires of a humble prophet, a humble servant of the Lord that desperately wanted to do all he could to do the will of the Father. Christian said that the words he read were his same desires. After he said this he cut off and went quiet. We waited knowing that listening is always better than talking, because it allows the Spirit to teach, testify, and confirm. We probably waited for about 5 minutes during which, he began to cry and sob. He tried to speak a couple of times but couldn´t. He apologized after this and we asked him to express his feelings and he said that he was speechless, that he felt something in his chest, and that he couldn´t express it. Obviously when he said that he felt something in his chest we knew what it was and were so excited, knowing that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true. He wife got some tissues for him and we began to talk to him about what he was feeling. We told him that this feeling was a witness of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, and that he needs to get baptized. He, still being speechless, tearfully nodded as we said these words, and then asked if we could have him say the closing prayer, as we were now out passed curfew, not knowing that the lesson would go over like this. He said that he was speechless and couldn´t do it. We pushed him, knowing that he needed to say the prayer to confirm the feelings he was having, so we encouraged him again. He agreed and said a short prayer. We were glad that he did this and he said that he would talk to his wife about getting married, as that is an obvious requirement for baptism. As he regained his breath, after this literal breath taking experience, he walked us to the door and thanked us. I truly feel it a privilege and a tender mercy of the Lord to have been present during this incredibly spiritual experience. He felt the Spirit and the Spirit bore witness to me of the true, life changing power of the Book of Mormon. This book is evidence of everything in our church, and once one has a testimony of it, they know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that this is the only church on the earth that has the power and authority of God, to not only perform the saving ordinances but to lead Heavenly Father´s children back to His loving arms.
I love this work and find it easy to see the Lord´s powerful hand in His work and in my life. I do see that as I lose myself in this work, that I become the servant that Heavenly Father prepared me, and sent me, to be. His love is evident in all things. I love the song, I feel my Savior´s love in all the world around me.
I love you all and pray for you a lot. Have the best week ever!!!
Love,
Rob
Elder Driggs
October 14, 2009
Dear family,
This week has been busy as ever and very exciting. Seven people have committed to being baptized in the next month and a half. We are teaching a lot and should be teaching more. We really are so blessed right now. Almost every lesson we go to is effective and most of the investigators that we are working with are progressing. Our area is very blessed right now and the people are more and more seeming ready to embrace the gospel. We love the work and wish that we had a car so that we could drive between appointments in our pueblos and not have to take time to ride the train. We are trying to contact more and more people as that is where we are struggling right now. We have been blessed with a good base and we need to keep working to keep that base stable, or else when our investigators are baptized there will be no one else to teach.
I actually don´t have very much time this week, and I apologize immensely.
Here is a copy of the letter that I wrote to Grandmother and Granddad. I am sorry that it is all in Spanish. I have a letter that I am going to mail today with a picture to Cami.
I love you all and thank you, thank you for the letters and prayers. Next weeks letter will be extra special.
Here is the letter to Grandmother and Grandad:
Querido Abuela y Abuelo,
Muchas gracias por su carta con amor y sus oraciones para mi. Yo tambien encantó la Conferencia General y aprendí mucho que necesito poner en práctica para llegar a ser el misionero que nuestro Padre Celestial, y Jesucristo me quieren ser. Muchisimas gracias por sus oraciones y los de abuelo. Yo siento el poder de estas oraciones y me ayudan hacer todo lo que es requisito en esta obra.
Gracias por todo lo que hacen ustedes dos, para mi, Cami, y mi familia. Ustedes me han ayudado mucho en mi vida, y estoy agredicido por eso.
La obra esta progresando aquí en España y estoy muy agredecido que puedo servir el Señor en estos tiempos aquí en esta tierra.
Cuando Élder Clayton habló en la conferéncia acerca de una experiencia en Peru, siento mucho amor de Dios. Porque supe que mi abuelo tenia oportunidades para ayudarle aprender y progresar en su misión, y que ahora, Élder Clayton esta en la presidencia de la setenta, testificando a todo el mundo y a mí, en mi mision en España, el mismo testimonio que tenia en Peru. Yo puedo ver el ejemplo de mi abuelo Driggs, y tambien puedo ver la impacto de su ejemplo en muchas otras personas.
Es icreíble que puedo ver este impacto en la conferencía general en España.
Yo tenia la misma experiencia en la CCM aqui en España, cuando encontré que nuestra pianista y obrera en el templo, fue una misionera en su misión tambien. Ella, no recuerdo su nombre pero vive en Kearns, Utah, tenia solas buenas cosas para decir acerca de Presidente Driggs.
Estoy muy agredecido por ustedes, por sus perfectos ejemplos, de siendo instrumentos en las manos del Señor todos sus vidas.
Gracias por eso.
Les amo mucho,
Elder Driggs
P.S. I am not very good at writing in Spanish, so I hope that you can read and understand this. I have been told that one way to learn the language faster is to write letters in Spanish. Thank you and I hope it made sense!
I love you all,
Elder Driggs
This week has been busy as ever and very exciting. Seven people have committed to being baptized in the next month and a half. We are teaching a lot and should be teaching more. We really are so blessed right now. Almost every lesson we go to is effective and most of the investigators that we are working with are progressing. Our area is very blessed right now and the people are more and more seeming ready to embrace the gospel. We love the work and wish that we had a car so that we could drive between appointments in our pueblos and not have to take time to ride the train. We are trying to contact more and more people as that is where we are struggling right now. We have been blessed with a good base and we need to keep working to keep that base stable, or else when our investigators are baptized there will be no one else to teach.
I actually don´t have very much time this week, and I apologize immensely.
Here is a copy of the letter that I wrote to Grandmother and Granddad. I am sorry that it is all in Spanish. I have a letter that I am going to mail today with a picture to Cami.
I love you all and thank you, thank you for the letters and prayers. Next weeks letter will be extra special.
Here is the letter to Grandmother and Grandad:
Querido Abuela y Abuelo,
Muchas gracias por su carta con amor y sus oraciones para mi. Yo tambien encantó la Conferencia General y aprendí mucho que necesito poner en práctica para llegar a ser el misionero que nuestro Padre Celestial, y Jesucristo me quieren ser. Muchisimas gracias por sus oraciones y los de abuelo. Yo siento el poder de estas oraciones y me ayudan hacer todo lo que es requisito en esta obra.
Gracias por todo lo que hacen ustedes dos, para mi, Cami, y mi familia. Ustedes me han ayudado mucho en mi vida, y estoy agredicido por eso.
La obra esta progresando aquí en España y estoy muy agredecido que puedo servir el Señor en estos tiempos aquí en esta tierra.
Cuando Élder Clayton habló en la conferéncia acerca de una experiencia en Peru, siento mucho amor de Dios. Porque supe que mi abuelo tenia oportunidades para ayudarle aprender y progresar en su misión, y que ahora, Élder Clayton esta en la presidencia de la setenta, testificando a todo el mundo y a mí, en mi mision en España, el mismo testimonio que tenia en Peru. Yo puedo ver el ejemplo de mi abuelo Driggs, y tambien puedo ver la impacto de su ejemplo en muchas otras personas.
Es icreíble que puedo ver este impacto en la conferencía general en España.
Yo tenia la misma experiencia en la CCM aqui en España, cuando encontré que nuestra pianista y obrera en el templo, fue una misionera en su misión tambien. Ella, no recuerdo su nombre pero vive en Kearns, Utah, tenia solas buenas cosas para decir acerca de Presidente Driggs.
Estoy muy agredecido por ustedes, por sus perfectos ejemplos, de siendo instrumentos en las manos del Señor todos sus vidas.
Gracias por eso.
Les amo mucho,
Elder Driggs
P.S. I am not very good at writing in Spanish, so I hope that you can read and understand this. I have been told that one way to learn the language faster is to write letters in Spanish. Thank you and I hope it made sense!
I love you all,
Elder Driggs
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
My dear family,
How is everything!? I love hearing from you mom and dad, it is great to hear how the family is doing. I am glad that you loved general conference and it amazes me how there are so many people in Utah and all over the world that just do what is right. I don´t have to worry about all of you not watching conference or going to church, but here it is a little different.
In Spain the church is very young, only 40 years, and though there are many families that have 2nd and 3rd generations of membership in the church, there aren´t many in our little branch. Elder Carr and I still worry every week before church, as we are almost always the first people there, who is going to come; because with the long distance from the church to the outlying pueblos, it makes it very easy for big families to miss a Sunday and just stay home. These are good people and they have been taught well but some of them, at least in our branch, don´t have the mentality that you just go to church every Sunday, rain or shine, and you get blessings from doing so.
I am very thankful that I was raised in an area and in a family where obedience, in this manner, was something that you did. We were able to watch conference at the stake center right on temple square on Saturday night for the Saturday morning live session, we watched it live at 6 ´o´clock at night. We then went back home, got home late, and then woke up in the morning, picked up a recent convert and his friend who is the one who has a baptismal date and took them to conference up in Madrid, an hour and a half away on train and metro, at 9 o´clock.
We arrived in time to watch the recorded priesthood session at 11 o clock and then had an hour break until the recorded Saturday afternoon session started. We watched that and then had a two hour break until we watched the Sunday morning session live again at 6 o clock our time. It was one of my most favorite conferences ever. I loved the setting. I loved traveling all the way up to Madrid and to watch conference with all of the missionaries in a special room in English. I loved being with many of the members and investigators on temple square during the breaks. I love the temple here! It is gorgeous! And I loved being able to basque in its beauty almost all day and be able to feel of its Spirit while watching conference. The stake center was packed with members and investigators and during the breaks the square was filled with people. It was so much fun, talking with other missionaries etc. We had to leave after the Sunday morning session to get back and go to bed, even though we still arrived late.
One of the best ways to report to our district leader the number of investigators that are progressing is to see how many keep the commitment to come to church. We have had a lot lately come to church, despite the sacrifice to do so, for 3 long hours, that they are not used to. But this week was a little different with conference and we were unsure if many would come to hear the voice of the prophet, because it is a much longer commute.
We invited our family of 5 who are progressing very rapidly to come to the 6 o clock session because that is when the prophet speaks and we were going to take our baptismal date, and we invited one investigator who works in Madrid to stop by and he responded enthusiastically that he would love to and would be there all day. We were very excited to see all of our investigators and even more excited for them to see the prophet and leaders who we had been testifying about during our lessons. The baptismal date came with us and he was there all day, the investigator who wanted to be there, called in sick, and during the 2 hour break before the session we were looking all over for the family of five and didn´t see them. We were bummed.
After the session was over and as we were walking up the stairs Elder Carr saw two little girls run by and they looked exactly like the two girls in the family of five. He looked at me with a huge smile, still unsure if it was really them and then turned around and saw the father, Ronnie. We rejoiced and were so happy that they had come. He said that they couldn´t find the place and had left late, so they arrived at about 7, an hour late. We didn´t care, because the prophet spoke last. The 2 girls and boy loved the temple as did the parents. We spent about 30-45 minutes with them in front of the temple. Answering questions and just enjoying ourselves.
We always talk about baptism as missionaries, but in reality it is only the first step. It is only the gate that we need to enter in order to really progress in the Gospel. The ultimate goal for every person we talk to is the temple. The family is the symbol of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was fun having them there and taking pictures of them and with us. It was special and the Spirit was very strong. I can say just as Elder Holland has said that I can´t imagine heaven without my family. You all are everything to me. I am so glad that we are sealed together for all eternity, because there is no one else I would want to spend that time with then all of you.
I felt the Spirit testify to me that the temple is meant to help the family be more united here on earth and together forever after this life. They are a great family and we have mainly been working with the father, but the wife is basically a member. She is always so happy and enthusiastic and their children are very disciplined. They do things just like a LDS family would do them. Whenever they feed us they always have the children set the table and they do just like I did at home. I love it.
Before we left we found a part member family where the husband showed up and we were able to count him as our other non member investigator to attend. We met our goal and it was a wonderful wonderful day.
I love you all, pray for you, and hope that all goes well this week.
Love,
Elder Driggs
Keep smiling!
How is everything!? I love hearing from you mom and dad, it is great to hear how the family is doing. I am glad that you loved general conference and it amazes me how there are so many people in Utah and all over the world that just do what is right. I don´t have to worry about all of you not watching conference or going to church, but here it is a little different.
In Spain the church is very young, only 40 years, and though there are many families that have 2nd and 3rd generations of membership in the church, there aren´t many in our little branch. Elder Carr and I still worry every week before church, as we are almost always the first people there, who is going to come; because with the long distance from the church to the outlying pueblos, it makes it very easy for big families to miss a Sunday and just stay home. These are good people and they have been taught well but some of them, at least in our branch, don´t have the mentality that you just go to church every Sunday, rain or shine, and you get blessings from doing so.
I am very thankful that I was raised in an area and in a family where obedience, in this manner, was something that you did. We were able to watch conference at the stake center right on temple square on Saturday night for the Saturday morning live session, we watched it live at 6 ´o´clock at night. We then went back home, got home late, and then woke up in the morning, picked up a recent convert and his friend who is the one who has a baptismal date and took them to conference up in Madrid, an hour and a half away on train and metro, at 9 o´clock.
We arrived in time to watch the recorded priesthood session at 11 o clock and then had an hour break until the recorded Saturday afternoon session started. We watched that and then had a two hour break until we watched the Sunday morning session live again at 6 o clock our time. It was one of my most favorite conferences ever. I loved the setting. I loved traveling all the way up to Madrid and to watch conference with all of the missionaries in a special room in English. I loved being with many of the members and investigators on temple square during the breaks. I love the temple here! It is gorgeous! And I loved being able to basque in its beauty almost all day and be able to feel of its Spirit while watching conference. The stake center was packed with members and investigators and during the breaks the square was filled with people. It was so much fun, talking with other missionaries etc. We had to leave after the Sunday morning session to get back and go to bed, even though we still arrived late.
One of the best ways to report to our district leader the number of investigators that are progressing is to see how many keep the commitment to come to church. We have had a lot lately come to church, despite the sacrifice to do so, for 3 long hours, that they are not used to. But this week was a little different with conference and we were unsure if many would come to hear the voice of the prophet, because it is a much longer commute.
We invited our family of 5 who are progressing very rapidly to come to the 6 o clock session because that is when the prophet speaks and we were going to take our baptismal date, and we invited one investigator who works in Madrid to stop by and he responded enthusiastically that he would love to and would be there all day. We were very excited to see all of our investigators and even more excited for them to see the prophet and leaders who we had been testifying about during our lessons. The baptismal date came with us and he was there all day, the investigator who wanted to be there, called in sick, and during the 2 hour break before the session we were looking all over for the family of five and didn´t see them. We were bummed.
After the session was over and as we were walking up the stairs Elder Carr saw two little girls run by and they looked exactly like the two girls in the family of five. He looked at me with a huge smile, still unsure if it was really them and then turned around and saw the father, Ronnie. We rejoiced and were so happy that they had come. He said that they couldn´t find the place and had left late, so they arrived at about 7, an hour late. We didn´t care, because the prophet spoke last. The 2 girls and boy loved the temple as did the parents. We spent about 30-45 minutes with them in front of the temple. Answering questions and just enjoying ourselves.
We always talk about baptism as missionaries, but in reality it is only the first step. It is only the gate that we need to enter in order to really progress in the Gospel. The ultimate goal for every person we talk to is the temple. The family is the symbol of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was fun having them there and taking pictures of them and with us. It was special and the Spirit was very strong. I can say just as Elder Holland has said that I can´t imagine heaven without my family. You all are everything to me. I am so glad that we are sealed together for all eternity, because there is no one else I would want to spend that time with then all of you.
I felt the Spirit testify to me that the temple is meant to help the family be more united here on earth and together forever after this life. They are a great family and we have mainly been working with the father, but the wife is basically a member. She is always so happy and enthusiastic and their children are very disciplined. They do things just like a LDS family would do them. Whenever they feed us they always have the children set the table and they do just like I did at home. I love it.
Before we left we found a part member family where the husband showed up and we were able to count him as our other non member investigator to attend. We met our goal and it was a wonderful wonderful day.
I love you all, pray for you, and hope that all goes well this week.
Love,
Elder Driggs
Keep smiling!
September 30, 2009
Dear family,
Here can be my segment for the newsletter:
Elderes!
How is everyone doing? I hope all is well in your part of the world. This last week I had the most fun Preparation day ever. We live in a chalet with two other people, a 24 year old Romanian that works as a translator in the court, and a young Spaniard, probably about 21 years old, who is going to the university here. So last Wednesday, preparation day, our Romanian friend, Miguel, knocked on our door at about 10:30, and asked us if we wanted to go fishing. Of course, we accepted and started getting ready. 30 minutes later we hopped in his car and went for a 30 minute spin to a very quiet lake in route to Toledo, the famous place where all of the swords and weapons from Lord of the Rings were made. We arrived and hiked a little bit and set up our gear. After that we just cast our lines and waiting for the bitin´ to happen. It took me about five times to get the hang of it, as it was basically my first time fishing, but I finally was able to cast a good one. After a twinkling in the eye, I saw my string get tight and I really a huge, mean, 6-foot sword fish in from the lake. It almost pierced my side as I was trying to get it on shore, but finally we got a hold of the guy and…. Well, okay, it wasn´t that big, maybe pushing 18 inches, but it was way fun and seamed extremely intense, as it was my first fish caught, not to mention in Spain, with a Romanian. I ended up catching one more and got pictures with both of them and will send them in next months newsletter. Stay tuned for next month for some of those. It was an amazing day and one that will change my life forever, haha. While we were leaving, hiking back to the car, a shepherd and about 100 sheep or goats passed by, which was crazy, but the whole day was very fun.
On a more spiritual note, I am very excited for General Conference. I also read in the Ensign this month a excerpt from an Ensign article from 1996 by Pres. Monson. He had some words of wisdom that I would like to share. He said, ¨Love causes change. Love brings healing to the wounded soul. But love doesn´t grow like weeds or fall like rain. Jesus taught, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. As I have loved you that ye also love one another….The desire to lift, the willingness to help, and the graciousness to give come from a heart filled with love. True love is a reflection of Christ´s love.¨ I really loved this quote because it goes so well with Moroni´s plea in Moroni chapter 7; to pray for charity, the pure love of Christ, with all the energy of your soul. That when He comes again you may be like Him, and be able to see Him as He is. That isn´t exact, but I feel very strongly that one of the main things that we can do is express to the people that we are teaching that there is a diving being that loves them. And we can have this love in our hearts and in our countenance, and we can share that love with them. We can lift fallen hands, brighten peoples days, and bring the power of God unto salvation unto the children of Men. I know that we can have the love of God and Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lessons and contact if only we pray for it and have faith unto obedience and continual repentance. This love can cause change in the lives of our brothers and sisters. ¨For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear, but of faith and power. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.¨ 2 Timothy, I think. I think of the phrase, ¨love them into the Gospel.¨
I am very excited to watch conference. Here in Spain they have almost all of the members who are in the Madrid mission boundaries come to the stake center on temple square, right next to the CCM or MTC and watch conference together. So we have a lot of members and almost all the missionaries plus, a couple of investigators that want to go and watch for a session. The missionaries have a room to themselves so that they can watch it in English. I am very excited to see the other Elders in my group and to see some of my teachers in the CCM. I think that this will be an even greater experience once I have served in more areas and know more members and missionaries because, like my companion, Elder Carr, said, he will get to see all of them between all of the sessions. We have kind of crazy schedule of conference. We watch Saturday morning, Saturday night, and then watch the other three, including priesthood on Sunday. We have to leave before the last session on Sunday because it will end its live broadcast, I think, at midnight. I am very excited though. Have fun and love everyone. It is the only way to go. As we love others they automatically love us. Who doesn´t want that. All we need is love.
Have a great week.
I love you all and pray for you almost always!
Love,
Rob
Here can be my segment for the newsletter:
Elderes!
How is everyone doing? I hope all is well in your part of the world. This last week I had the most fun Preparation day ever. We live in a chalet with two other people, a 24 year old Romanian that works as a translator in the court, and a young Spaniard, probably about 21 years old, who is going to the university here. So last Wednesday, preparation day, our Romanian friend, Miguel, knocked on our door at about 10:30, and asked us if we wanted to go fishing. Of course, we accepted and started getting ready. 30 minutes later we hopped in his car and went for a 30 minute spin to a very quiet lake in route to Toledo, the famous place where all of the swords and weapons from Lord of the Rings were made. We arrived and hiked a little bit and set up our gear. After that we just cast our lines and waiting for the bitin´ to happen. It took me about five times to get the hang of it, as it was basically my first time fishing, but I finally was able to cast a good one. After a twinkling in the eye, I saw my string get tight and I really a huge, mean, 6-foot sword fish in from the lake. It almost pierced my side as I was trying to get it on shore, but finally we got a hold of the guy and…. Well, okay, it wasn´t that big, maybe pushing 18 inches, but it was way fun and seamed extremely intense, as it was my first fish caught, not to mention in Spain, with a Romanian. I ended up catching one more and got pictures with both of them and will send them in next months newsletter. Stay tuned for next month for some of those. It was an amazing day and one that will change my life forever, haha. While we were leaving, hiking back to the car, a shepherd and about 100 sheep or goats passed by, which was crazy, but the whole day was very fun.
On a more spiritual note, I am very excited for General Conference. I also read in the Ensign this month a excerpt from an Ensign article from 1996 by Pres. Monson. He had some words of wisdom that I would like to share. He said, ¨Love causes change. Love brings healing to the wounded soul. But love doesn´t grow like weeds or fall like rain. Jesus taught, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. As I have loved you that ye also love one another….The desire to lift, the willingness to help, and the graciousness to give come from a heart filled with love. True love is a reflection of Christ´s love.¨ I really loved this quote because it goes so well with Moroni´s plea in Moroni chapter 7; to pray for charity, the pure love of Christ, with all the energy of your soul. That when He comes again you may be like Him, and be able to see Him as He is. That isn´t exact, but I feel very strongly that one of the main things that we can do is express to the people that we are teaching that there is a diving being that loves them. And we can have this love in our hearts and in our countenance, and we can share that love with them. We can lift fallen hands, brighten peoples days, and bring the power of God unto salvation unto the children of Men. I know that we can have the love of God and Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lessons and contact if only we pray for it and have faith unto obedience and continual repentance. This love can cause change in the lives of our brothers and sisters. ¨For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear, but of faith and power. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.¨ 2 Timothy, I think. I think of the phrase, ¨love them into the Gospel.¨
I am very excited to watch conference. Here in Spain they have almost all of the members who are in the Madrid mission boundaries come to the stake center on temple square, right next to the CCM or MTC and watch conference together. So we have a lot of members and almost all the missionaries plus, a couple of investigators that want to go and watch for a session. The missionaries have a room to themselves so that they can watch it in English. I am very excited to see the other Elders in my group and to see some of my teachers in the CCM. I think that this will be an even greater experience once I have served in more areas and know more members and missionaries because, like my companion, Elder Carr, said, he will get to see all of them between all of the sessions. We have kind of crazy schedule of conference. We watch Saturday morning, Saturday night, and then watch the other three, including priesthood on Sunday. We have to leave before the last session on Sunday because it will end its live broadcast, I think, at midnight. I am very excited though. Have fun and love everyone. It is the only way to go. As we love others they automatically love us. Who doesn´t want that. All we need is love.
Have a great week.
I love you all and pray for you almost always!
Love,
Rob
September 23, 2009
Dear family,
So this week….where to start?
Let´s just say that this last week was verrry busy and we worked very hard to realizar nuestras metas. We have a mission goal to teach at least 20 lessons a week and in my area of Aranjuez, we checked in the archives of the weekly progress records, and the most lessons Aranjuez has every had in one week is 15. These record date back to about 2004, mas o menos. So last week in our planning session, actually two weeks ago tomorrow, we set the goal to teach 22 lessons. It was an act of faith, because even though you schedule a certain amount of lessons in a planning meeting, you don’t always know if you are actually going to teach that many. You can´t always count on people being there and there schedules staying open, not having work, etc. However we planned out the week, had very little free time between lessons and just set the goal to teach ALL of the lessons that we had planned. So the goal was 22. It was a rough week and we knew that we had to teach about 3 or 4 lessons a day to get this. Well we ended up teaching 10 member present lesson, 5 other lessons, 6 lessons to conversos recientes y menos activos, and 3 to members. You do the math and we taught 2 more lessons to less active and recent converts that we planned. We taught 24 lessons last week and we worked hard! We obviously still aren´t perfect but in the planning meeting we realized that in order to receive the blessing of teaching all of these lessons we had to give more of ourselves and give up more of those little things that poke at our sensitivity to the Spirit. We made a lot of sacrifices last week and tried to be really obedient, even in the little things. We weren´t perfect but we tried hard and we received the blessings. We also have 2 people with baptismal dates and we are loving the work! I couldn´t be more happy right now! Because we really are having a lot of success and the Lord is blessing us for our relatively small efforts.
A funny story with our 2 people with baptismal dates. First of all, we have to make two baptismal challenges every week as it is a mission goal, and on this last Sunday night when we were coming home and opening the front gate, my companion was reviewing outloud our two baptismal challenges for the week. He was counting one where we challenge our friend Ronnie to be baptized and he said he wasn´t ready. We read in Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 and assured him that all you really need is a desire to follow the Lord to be baptized, there are other things of course, as are mentioned in the scripture. We asked him to pray about it and read 2 Nephi 31. When we came back later that week he had read it and we asked if he had prayed. He said no, and we asked if we could pray right then with him. He said that would be fine and we asked if he would say it. He said he wasn´t comfortable with offering the prayer to see if he should be baptized, which possibly is a sign that he doesn´t pray very much, another thing we need to discuss with him. I explained to him that in order to receive personal revelation he, himself, needed to pray and that he, himself, would receive the answer that he was looking for. He prayed and felt really, really good. He was speechless for a good 30 seconds and then ran out to get the food that he had prepared for us. Unfortunately, and it was our huge mistake we never challenged him again after that powerful prayer, where he certainly received his answer. This is the second challenge that Elder Carr was counting, the one we didn´t, but should´ve had.
So while he was recounting this out loud I told him that we had had only one this week and he kind of got mad and starting saying that he hated numbers and just wanted to do the work, etc. I was just laughing because I thought that it would be no big deal just to go out and make a contact and ask someone to be baptized right then and then be done with it. His pride got to him, the good pride that helps people do what they know is right, and we went back out to make a contact and challenge someone to be baptized. Now the whole time, he did not have any faith that this contact would go any where and that someone really would accept to be baptized on the street without prior connection.
However, we challenged the second person we saw after a group of men, and told him we were here teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him if he wanted to commit to prepare to be baptized on the 31 of October, I think it was. This whole thing was kind of a joke, because usually the baptismal challenge is so planned out and really heartfelt, and this was so spur of the moment and, I don´t know if I would say shallow, because we always want people to be baptized, but it wasn´t normal. We asked him and asked if we could teach him and help him be ready for this day. This man, looked like a thug, just punk looking and after we asked this he looked at his phone and said well tomorrow isn´t good but Wednesday would be great. We were so shocked that he said yes, in essence. That he was willing to start learning and prepare to be baptized. He gave us his phone number and we asked him his address and he said he forgot. We understood and were about to say goodbye, thinking the phone number was enough, when he said that we could walk with him to his piso and find the direction there. We agreed of course, thinking that this man was golden, and then on the way he said that he was living with a bunch of friends from Bolivia and asked if we could teach them too. We, both completely shocked, especially Elder Carr, said por supuesto, es mucho mejor! We shook hands and parted ways as he went inside. This was a golden contact and really count our blessings. There really is power in obedience, whether it is to a rule or law, or whether it is doing all that you can to accomplish a goal. Heavenly Father will always bless you if you are obedient and trying your best to follow the Savior. These blessings might not always be evident right away, but they will always come. I know that this is true and all of our success right now is evidence and testimony of it.
The other person with a baptismal date is a friend of our recent convert who are both about 16 years old. We hope that all goes well to have him ready when October 31 comes.
I´m out of time, but I think you would like to know that I gave my first talk in a real sacrament meeting in Spain, and it was on the topic of the vale. It was rough, but they said they like it, which isn´t a sure resource. We had 5 investigators there and afterwards a visiting high counselor said that we were doing a fantastic job and asked if he and the stake could do anything to help. The branch loves us too and thinks the same, thankfully. And with the Lords help and by seeing the fruits of our labors, with lots of investigators at church, we are receiving lots of new referrals, that you can tell come with a lot of trust, because they are close friends of the members.
We are counting our many blessings and feel your prayers. Thank you for everything, I pray for all of you too. I love you all and am excited for General Conference. We are also excited about the new bible in Spanish. It is now just like the one we have in English.
I love you all with all my heart.
Love,
Elder Driggs
So this week….where to start?
Let´s just say that this last week was verrry busy and we worked very hard to realizar nuestras metas. We have a mission goal to teach at least 20 lessons a week and in my area of Aranjuez, we checked in the archives of the weekly progress records, and the most lessons Aranjuez has every had in one week is 15. These record date back to about 2004, mas o menos. So last week in our planning session, actually two weeks ago tomorrow, we set the goal to teach 22 lessons. It was an act of faith, because even though you schedule a certain amount of lessons in a planning meeting, you don’t always know if you are actually going to teach that many. You can´t always count on people being there and there schedules staying open, not having work, etc. However we planned out the week, had very little free time between lessons and just set the goal to teach ALL of the lessons that we had planned. So the goal was 22. It was a rough week and we knew that we had to teach about 3 or 4 lessons a day to get this. Well we ended up teaching 10 member present lesson, 5 other lessons, 6 lessons to conversos recientes y menos activos, and 3 to members. You do the math and we taught 2 more lessons to less active and recent converts that we planned. We taught 24 lessons last week and we worked hard! We obviously still aren´t perfect but in the planning meeting we realized that in order to receive the blessing of teaching all of these lessons we had to give more of ourselves and give up more of those little things that poke at our sensitivity to the Spirit. We made a lot of sacrifices last week and tried to be really obedient, even in the little things. We weren´t perfect but we tried hard and we received the blessings. We also have 2 people with baptismal dates and we are loving the work! I couldn´t be more happy right now! Because we really are having a lot of success and the Lord is blessing us for our relatively small efforts.
A funny story with our 2 people with baptismal dates. First of all, we have to make two baptismal challenges every week as it is a mission goal, and on this last Sunday night when we were coming home and opening the front gate, my companion was reviewing outloud our two baptismal challenges for the week. He was counting one where we challenge our friend Ronnie to be baptized and he said he wasn´t ready. We read in Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 and assured him that all you really need is a desire to follow the Lord to be baptized, there are other things of course, as are mentioned in the scripture. We asked him to pray about it and read 2 Nephi 31. When we came back later that week he had read it and we asked if he had prayed. He said no, and we asked if we could pray right then with him. He said that would be fine and we asked if he would say it. He said he wasn´t comfortable with offering the prayer to see if he should be baptized, which possibly is a sign that he doesn´t pray very much, another thing we need to discuss with him. I explained to him that in order to receive personal revelation he, himself, needed to pray and that he, himself, would receive the answer that he was looking for. He prayed and felt really, really good. He was speechless for a good 30 seconds and then ran out to get the food that he had prepared for us. Unfortunately, and it was our huge mistake we never challenged him again after that powerful prayer, where he certainly received his answer. This is the second challenge that Elder Carr was counting, the one we didn´t, but should´ve had.
So while he was recounting this out loud I told him that we had had only one this week and he kind of got mad and starting saying that he hated numbers and just wanted to do the work, etc. I was just laughing because I thought that it would be no big deal just to go out and make a contact and ask someone to be baptized right then and then be done with it. His pride got to him, the good pride that helps people do what they know is right, and we went back out to make a contact and challenge someone to be baptized. Now the whole time, he did not have any faith that this contact would go any where and that someone really would accept to be baptized on the street without prior connection.
However, we challenged the second person we saw after a group of men, and told him we were here teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him if he wanted to commit to prepare to be baptized on the 31 of October, I think it was. This whole thing was kind of a joke, because usually the baptismal challenge is so planned out and really heartfelt, and this was so spur of the moment and, I don´t know if I would say shallow, because we always want people to be baptized, but it wasn´t normal. We asked him and asked if we could teach him and help him be ready for this day. This man, looked like a thug, just punk looking and after we asked this he looked at his phone and said well tomorrow isn´t good but Wednesday would be great. We were so shocked that he said yes, in essence. That he was willing to start learning and prepare to be baptized. He gave us his phone number and we asked him his address and he said he forgot. We understood and were about to say goodbye, thinking the phone number was enough, when he said that we could walk with him to his piso and find the direction there. We agreed of course, thinking that this man was golden, and then on the way he said that he was living with a bunch of friends from Bolivia and asked if we could teach them too. We, both completely shocked, especially Elder Carr, said por supuesto, es mucho mejor! We shook hands and parted ways as he went inside. This was a golden contact and really count our blessings. There really is power in obedience, whether it is to a rule or law, or whether it is doing all that you can to accomplish a goal. Heavenly Father will always bless you if you are obedient and trying your best to follow the Savior. These blessings might not always be evident right away, but they will always come. I know that this is true and all of our success right now is evidence and testimony of it.
The other person with a baptismal date is a friend of our recent convert who are both about 16 years old. We hope that all goes well to have him ready when October 31 comes.
I´m out of time, but I think you would like to know that I gave my first talk in a real sacrament meeting in Spain, and it was on the topic of the vale. It was rough, but they said they like it, which isn´t a sure resource. We had 5 investigators there and afterwards a visiting high counselor said that we were doing a fantastic job and asked if he and the stake could do anything to help. The branch loves us too and thinks the same, thankfully. And with the Lords help and by seeing the fruits of our labors, with lots of investigators at church, we are receiving lots of new referrals, that you can tell come with a lot of trust, because they are close friends of the members.
We are counting our many blessings and feel your prayers. Thank you for everything, I pray for all of you too. I love you all and am excited for General Conference. We are also excited about the new bible in Spanish. It is now just like the one we have in English.
I love you all with all my heart.
Love,
Elder Driggs
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
September 16, 2009
Dear family,
Thank you so much mom for the newsletter. It is so wonderful being able to hear how all my friends are doing and it really is inspiring. Thank you, thank you for all the work that you put into that.
This week has been busy and very exciting as usual. There are definitely pros and cons to being in a pueblo so far away from
Last week we had exchanges on Monday and District Meeting on Tuesday, preparation day on Wednesday, where we visited El Estadio de Santiago Bernebéu, the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium, which was really cool, and then on Thursday we had a special zone conference with Elder José A. Teixeira which is a member of the first quorum of the seventy and also in the European Area Presidency. This special conference was awesome.
At the beginning he asked the missionaries who had more than two progressing investigators and we rose our hands, because that week we had eight, and he actually picked my companion and I to go up to the front and help him with the discussion. To make a long story short, he had us right our two investigators on the white board and we talked about them and he asked us if they had a baptismal date. We said no, and he said, ¨There should be no reason under the sun that these two GOLDEN investigators don´t have a baptismal date.¨ This was in front of half of the missionaries and it was very humbling. I wasn´t embarrassed because I thought it was a great idea, that we need to have them have a date if they are progressing.
He went on to tell us that we work very hard to find a golden investigator but after we find them we dig and teach their families, neighbors, and friends. He drew two triangles on the board, the first one pointing down and the second pointing up. He said that as we contact hundreds we narrow those hundreds down to 1 or 2 Golden investigators, but with those 1 or 2 golden investigators we find hundreds of other golden investigators directly linked to those first two, signifying the second triangle pointing up. If this makes sense, you are very smart. He bore testimony that this is how he joined the church.
His aunt first met the missionaries and 3 and a half months later 30 relatives of hers were also baptized. He bore testimony that as the missionaries were teaching his aunt that the Lord knew who he was and meant for the missionaries to teach his immediate family as well. That the Lord is preparing families to accept the Gospel and that the Lord doesn´t want you to just baptize a golden investigator, but also the families and close ones of that golden investigator. Well, he said all of this while we were with him up by the board and I felt this was exactly what we needed to spur us on in the work.
I felt like it was a one on two discussion with two of our most cherished investigators. Afterwords we went up to thank him and he said that he wanted to hear through Pres. Watkins how this method works. We loved the personal assignment and we have faith that we can not only help these two into the waters of baptism but also their families and neighbors and friends. It was an inspiring meeting and I felt it was meant for Elder Carr and me.
Since last Thursday we have challenged both Isa and her husband Miguel Angel, as well as Ronnie. We felt that it would be better to have them pray, as they were a little hesitant if they were ready, to see if the Lord thought they were ready. We prescribed some reading out of the Book of Mormon, and they all said that they would pray about it very seriously. The only one that is a little ify is Miguel Angel, who is really motivated by his wife, who is practically a member, but wants to be baptized with her husband.
When we challenged Ronnie last night it went really well and when we looked at the time after an hour and a half talking to him with a member present he said that it seemed like the time had flown by and almost missed his appointment picking his wife up from the station. We apologized and he said, No pasa nada, and we left quickly so he could go pick up his wife after kneeling in prayer. As we were walking to the train station we crossed the street and had a car honk at us and we realized that it was Ronnie.
He told us that he had been weaving all through the streets trying to find us, it was very hard because there was a fiesta going on and a lot of the roads were blocked off, but he was glad that he found us and offered to give us a ride. We accepted and while in the car, he explained to us how peaceful he felt when we were teaching him and kept pounded his chest saying that he was very happy and peaceful. He said that after we left he knew that he had to thank us some way for the way that he felt the whole time. He said that he had had a bad past few days and was really depressed but when we were there he was very at peace. We thanked him for always being so accomodating and open and honest while we were there and we can´t wait to go back on Friday to teach him again and see how his prayer went. He knows it is true and we can´t wait to set a fixed date on the baptism on Friday.
The Lord´s loving, omnipotent hand is in this work and in the details of our lives. We love it and love the special Spirit that was with us while we taught Ronnie. What a blessing to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. I loved hearing how you love to be obedient and how you can´t imagine living without the blessings of obedience. I am sure learning a lot about obedience here and I have found that once obedience ceasing to be an irritant, and starts becoming a quest, it is power. I strive to be exactly obedient every day, so that I can bind the Lord and have his blessing with me. Without Him and the Spirit this work is hopeless. I try and depend on it always.
I love you all and pray for you!
Love,
Elder Driggs
September 9, 2009
Dear Family,
This week has been wonderful! I wish I could have more time to talk about it. My companion and I have a lot of investigators, I think about 8 right now. Technically they are all progressing because they all came to church this last Sunday. It was sooo exciting. I can already tell that I am going to miss this alter two years because we called people on Saturday night and tried to remind people, but some didn´t answer their phones. On Sunday we arrived about 20 minutes early and got ready and mingled with the few members and then they asked me to play the piano, because the normal pianist was not there. I, of course, agreed and began to play some prelude. Before the meeting started my companion and the ward mission leader went down to the train station, about 5 minutes away in a car, to get our recent convert and his mom and brother, who now are attending regularly.
It took him forever to get back, so I was playing the prelude and the meeting started without them. We were just saying the prayer on the sacrament for the bread when they all walked in, and to may great surprise with one of our investigators Ronnie, and to my even greater surprise, with his wife and 3 children. All of whom are above baptismal age. It was wonderful. He was dressed in jeans and a polo, but it didn´t matter and we waved at each other and, I think he had a great time. We also had Isa come with her 15 month old come and then the two family members of the recent convert. So it was packed and this week we actually held our gospel principles class that we teach every week if our investigators or non members show up. It was a wonderful testimony meeting and then our class went wonderfully. We even had a few members come to the class and their comments were wonderful.
I am sorry that I can´t write very much, the time is rough, because now I have to read all of the emails during the 1 hour and not just print them off to read them later. By the way, to answer your question last week, we email in a local locutorio. It is one euro for one hour. I am also glad to hear about all of my friends, staying strong. It will be wonderful to get back and reunite with them.
I also am extremely excited that BYU won!!!!!!!! Holy Cow, I wish I could have seen that. It sounds so thrilling. It sounds like Max Hall wasn´t outstanding, but at least he pulled through in the end. Hopefully this is a start of a great season.
Here is my entry to the newsletter:
Elderes!
From the outpost in Aranjuez
It is such a privilege to be a servant of our Savior and I hope that we never let ourselves get down. We have the Lord on our side and we cannot fail with Him. What a marvelous work and calling. I think of the line that Helaman uses in
Shall we not go on is such great a cause?...Oh we will, and we will do it in honor!
Your Faithful Elder in the work.
Elder Driggs
September 2, 2009
Hello again,
First off, I want you to be pronouncing my area correctly, so if you recall from my first quick lesson, since there is a ¨z¨ at the end, you pronounce it, Aranjueth, and as you know the j has a slight guttural sound, like you´re coughing up mucous. Just FYI...
This first week has been really fun and very, very tiring. I haven´t walked this much forever.
I think that I have heard twice now that this summer has been the hottest summer, here in
Our address, I think is Calle Abdon Bordoy, Number, 57, I think. I am not sure though. It is right towards the end of that street on the South Side. I think the street runs North to South. My companion says that it isn´t the best to send letters to our house, which I still don´t understand why, but to send them back to the mission home. We meet the zone leaders once a week in Al Casar to pick up the mail, on Tuesdays I think. So that way you can send letters to the mission home my whole mission, and not have to worry about making it to my area before I transfer etc. That way it is safer to get it to me, and doesn´t have me looking in the mail box every day. I think that is best. But here is my address so you can look on google earth. I live in that house on the east side of the street and we are very close to a park that is more south than us that has basketball hoops and a playground.
The church is on Calle Ancha, number 1. It is very small. 4 classrooms and a chapel. The classrooms have about 10- 15 seats and the chapel probably 40 – 50. This is vacation month so this week at church there weren´t a lot of people there. On time there were about 15 people and even the first counselor of the presidency was 15 minutes late. He was the one conducting and presiding, since the president is out of town, so we waited for him. Most people, well maybe not most, but a lot of people live about an hour away and it takes them forever to get to the church, especially with bus and train schedules, and it is hard to be on time. We ended up with a good size crowd of about 35 but we only had 22 of them for the sacrament.
My companion and I blessed the sacrament and the ward mission leader/second counselor of the branch presidency passed it to the tiny congregation of strong Spanish members. We have a few really active women who have either left husbands for the Church or who go every week without them. There are a lot of sacrifices being made in this tiny little branch. But it is funny, and very unique that our church is universal, and even in this small pueblo of about 30,000 people, I don´t know really, that the church is exactly the same. Sacrament meeting first, in which they had me introduce myself, and then Sunday school or primary for the children, and then since it was the fifth Sunday, we had priesthood and relief society combined. The teachers were prepared and very good, even though I didn´t understand very much. I played the closing hymn of the last meeting, because the other pianist was conducting the meeting.
A lot of the members have multiple callings to help this branch function and it is really neat, how unified it is. After church, some of the member had made sandwiches, and we ate and had some drinks of sprite for a little while after. It was a nice unified way to have everyone get together with members like themselves after church and renewing our covenants with our Heavenly Father that day. So that was church, and they have a nice ping pong table in the chapel, I guess that it is popular among the youth, and I don´t blame them.
All this week we have been busy everyday going in between the neighboring pueblos, Valdemoro and Ciempozuelos, on the short distance train, called the Renfe, and have been trying to contact people and teach lessons. Valdemoro is a lot bigger than the other two pueblos and there are a lot of inactive members, that we want to get in touch with and help.
By the way, I realized that mail does take a while to get over here, and so it is fine if you want to just email, it is probably more convenient for you and I get the updates quicker. So do what you want but know that I don´t care anymore, either way. Thank you for writing though, email or mail…I love it!
Yesterday, Elder Carr and I, taught 2 really good lessons on the Restoration. The first to a family from the Dominican Republic, 2 parents and a 18 month year old son. The wife desperately wants her husband to be more religious and come to church, and she wants to be baptized but says that she won´t until her husband makes efforts to attend. She realizes the huge blessings that come to her family from prayer and going to her church, and has said that she would join any church as long as her husband would join too. She wants to be to be unified with her husband and son with God. It is an interesting situation, but the lesson went well and we watched the Restoration DVD.
After words we talked and, luckily it was the first time we could actually teach him, because most of the time he is working, and I am sure he felt the spirit. We had a family prayer afterwords and his wife, Isa, said it and it was so heart felt, a little teary, but you could tell that she had a testimony of the church and just wanted her husband to have the same, so that her family could be blessed.
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