July 23, 2009

Hello family,

I received your email and it looks great, luckily I don´t have to read it during my 30 alotted minutes and I can print it off to read later. I looked at your shorter email mom and I can´t open picture documents because our computers are too slow or something, we really just aren´t allowed to open pictures on these computers, so if you could send it through the mail along with Joe´s letter that would be great. I am also glad I have the rest of my 30 minutes, 25 minutes, to write to the people I love most... my family.

I have been thinking a lot about all of you recently and I think that I am really missing you now. I´m not dying to get back but I just would love having you to talk to for a little while, because I know all of you think about me and pray for me so much and I feel I don´t do justice to the explanation of details that you deserve. However, I will do my best.

I would love to get mail by the way, because I can only open my email once a week.

Well, where to start. I feel like I have been in this MTC forever. The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. I can´t believe I already have been out a month. Every night here we at least teach one lesson or work on teaching a certain part of a lesson. Either way my companion and I are teaching in Spanish every night. This does two things for me. I love the practice and I feel like I am improving, but it also really humbles me because I really don´t know Spanish and I feel like I could contribute so much more to the lesson but I can´t say it in Spanish. My companion lived in Spain for 6 months four years ago and he is almost fluent again, because he forgot it all, and so that helps our lessons go well, but it also makes me more frustrated because we don´t transition as often as I would like. My Spanish classes are crazy too, because my teacher is sooooo fast at speaking and she basically only speaks Spanish. I really started off understanding about 40 percent of what she was saying. Now she either has slowed down or I have improved because I understand about 60 percent now. I think it is more of the first answer.

The meals were great to start with but lately it has been a roller coaster. You never know what to expect, except for breakfast, which you can always count on their being chocolate pebbles, plus the milk in the box IS cold. So that is nice. But the dinners and lunches have ranged from the good things of Fajitas and egg omelets without cheese, to the worst of them all... CAT burgers. It was good until I fathomed the idea that I was eating Cat. Gross. The thing I loved that was way out of the ordinary was when we got to go to that big famous park near the middle of MADRID to go contacting. I hope you got the picture that brother Sproul sent, because that experiences was way hard. The guy with the accordion that we talked to didn´t speak much Spanish and the next guy we talked to spoke English. We talked to him for about 45 minutes about how you can really know the gospel is true. He just didn´t understand why we know our church is true and how a Muslim thinks he receives revelation and thinks his church is true. I don´t think that he was ready to accept that Gospel, but we challenged him to pray about our church and said that he prays all the time but is trying another religion right now. I invited him to come hear all of the about 25 missionaries here sing in front of the temple on Sunday, but he didn´t come. That´s okay though. It was a big learning experience, and I wish that I could speak, and more importantly, understand Spanish so I could be more comfortable and confident around them. It is really hard to do that right now when I feel so out of place. Nevertheless, I press forward.

My other teacher is the son of Faustina Lopez, who is a friend of Uncle Paul, so tell him that, because he wanted me to look out for him. His sons name is Efrain Lopez. He is really nice and he speak a lot more English in class. I am learning a lot more Spanish here, in comparison to Provo, I think because everyone speaks it, even all of the teachers, and during the reunion de santa cena.

These last couple of days we had the privilege of having Brother Stephen B. Allen come to our CCM to evaluate and encourage us. He was great. He is the chief managing director of missionaries or something like that. Basically the highest position that is still paid in the church. So he came and I actually conducted a devotional where he spoke, luckily the mtc president had written it all out.

I have a poem for you that I wrote in Provo during sacrament meeting there and I wanted to share it with all of you. I am doing well and keep praying for me. Know that I love you and I am trying to put the Lord first in all that I do.

Title Because I know

Becasue I know Christ lives
Those without, I want to give.
Because I know he died for me
I know I´ll live again eternally.
Because I know, I strive to obey .
and when I fall, it is he who is loving to save.
Because I know, I lift those who have not yet the truth.
Because I know I love, as I am perfectly loved by HE.
Becuase I know, I am ,known,
By one who for the world, spilled his blood alone.
Because I know, I love those who seek.
Because I know I constantly feel peace.
Because i know i can be worthy to see the god of glory.

Because I know, I do.
BEcasue I do, I live.

2nd July 23, 2009

I just got word that I can email you again, I just have to log out and log back in for another 30 minutes. I hope you got my email that I just sent you, I am sorry for the bad grammar and spelling, but it is hard to deal with this keyboard that is kind of different, and the idea of being rushed doesn´t help either.

I hope you like the poem. I am not a poet but I felt that those words came so easily to mind and had to write it down, and I wanted to share it with you. They perfectly captured my thoughts as I was pondering the question, what does my knowledge of the Savior cause me to do?

A little bit about our schedules is that every day we have PE at 5 for an hour and 15 minutes where we can either go play basketball or four square at the stake center next door, or play soccer about a half a mile away at the sweet ghetto pit that has amphitheater seating with a cement soccer field. It is way cool and really fun when local come to play with you. They are naturally good at soccer and I wish that I had played more before so I could be better now. But that doesn´t matter too much.

We only have activa física Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, because on Thursday its preparation day and on Wednesday we do service instead. Last week I weeded a flower bed near a fountain near the temple and this week I pushed around a huge leaf sucking machine and picked up leaves around the stake center and the temple. It is nice being able to help out around the temple becuase it is sooo beautiful and it is nice having it soo close. We go to the temple every thursday morning and it is really neat. It is so beautiful and I could stay in the Celestial room for hours if they would let me. All of the sessions have been in English so far becuase they just take the majority of the native tongues and have that be the language. Obviously since most speak english first they will probably all be in english, but I will keep crossing my fingers, because it would be cool to hear it in spanish.

A senior missionary here who plays the piano for us when we sing at the temple, says that she was in Granddad´s mission in Peru. Her name was Hermana Fulton from Kearns, Utah. She only has nice things to say about him. I had to agree with everything she said.

I love you all and feel your prayers. Keep praying for me and also for my mission president, President Watkins, because he will have a big impact on my service in a short month and a bit. Also, pray for the people of Spain, who need help as well, they look like they are lost. Yesterday we had a devotional with this MTC´s director, Manuel Arjona, who is a great man and he gave us his testimony of how much he loves the missionaries. He is a convert and I felt how appreciative he is for the gospel in his life and also for the missionaries who sacrifice so much to bring the same happiness that he feels to others of his native country.

I can´t wait to speak the language and be able to talk to them and show my love for them more. I love testifying about Jesus Christ and His gospel to people that have never hear of him before, and especially in a language that I hardly know. Hopefully this Saturday will go a lot better with the park and that I will be able to talk to more people and get more than the 1 referral that I received last week. That was my first referral so that was really neat.

I really do love you all and love looking at your pictures. Be safe and love all those around you and a be good examples because someone is always watching.

In Matthew 3 or 5 it has the famous scripture, ¨let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.¨ I know that if you strive to do this that the Lord will give you more blessings and show more miracles in your life. I know that He is aware of all of your struggles and desperately wants all of His children back to live with Him again. 3 NEphi 14:9-11 is a great scripture about that. I love you and know that you are all trying to do what is right and what is expected of you. Keep up the good work.

There is someone who smiles on high, when there´s love at home. My heart and prayers are with you.

Your son and big bro,

Love,

Elder Driggs

July 15, 2009 First day in Spain

I am so glad that we are able to email you today. It has been a crazy day, very long and getting longer. We finally got to Atlanta and I called you there, which was awesome, and then I stepped off American soil and endured the 8 hour, or so, flight to Spain. It was long and hard to be productive during, but nonetheless, I am glad to be in Spain. It was awesome landing in the country and area that I will be living and preaching in for two years. I love the people already, and there are a lot of them too! Right when we landed, all the Spaniards clapped, and it made me realize how much I love my homeland. I love patriotism everywhere. It was cool finding our way around the airport trying to get through immigration and then finding our bags, with everyone speaking Español. I love it, and the zeta ¨theta¨ sounds sooo cool. I can´t wait to learn it and use it better.

Our MTC, or CCM, president, President Hill and another man met us right outside the baggage claim and put us on a bus to head towards the CCM. It is about 15 minutes from the airport. There are three airports in Spain and I think that ours was the Carrabas or something, I can´t remember. Anyway, we were all excited but very tired too. Right when we got on the bus he told us, as nicely as possible after being awake all day, that he wanted us to stay awake until 7 PM there time which is, I think, 11 AM your time. Remember that we awoke at 3 AM yesterday, so that is crazy. I am really tired right now but it is so AWESOME here. I finally think it is hitting me. There were 12 missionaries here in the CCM today and four left before we got here with our 17, so we basically tripled there capacity today with our arrival, and I think that I am going to learn and grow much quicker here. The Lord surely has played a role in getting me here and I know that this is where He wants me to be, to do my best, to grow the most, so that I can preach what He wants me to, where He wants me to, and to whomever He has prepared. The Lord´s hand is evident in all of our eyes, we just can´t look with our temporal eyes. These tender mercies our seen with our spiritual eyes. Yo sé que el Evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero.

Right when we got to the Spain CCM, we were all astounded at the grandeur of the temple. It is sooo beautiful! and we get to go tomorrow. So that will be a bunch of fun, hearing it all in Español. After we saw that we walked in and took a test to see where we were compared to the other missionaries so that we could be placed in homogenous groups of similar abilities. I was placed in the higher out of the two, with only 5 missionaries rather than the other district which has 8. So it is a very intimate group and the first teacher we met is a girl. She speaks wonderful spanish, obviously, and really fast, so I´ll keep you posted. She basically only speaks in Spanish which I like. However, in this group I am no longer at the top of the class as I felt I was in Provo. I feel like they are all a little bit above me, but I don´t know. My companion lived in Spain for 6 months a couple years ago and his Spanish is great too. So hopefully we can work hard together and learn much, spiritually and culturally. On Saturday we get to go to a big park nearby and actually try to teach people that are there in SPANISH, so that is also really crazy. Luckily, we get to go to bed at 7 tonight because I am really tired. President Hill, who he and his wife are really good friends with the Thomas´in our ward, said that the best way to overcome jet lag is to stay up longer like until 7 and then sleep until 630. So hopefully it works, because I don´t like being tired. I love everyone here so far, and it is not like the Provo MTC where we were pretty much confined to the bounderies. Here we have time set aside to go to the grocery store and other places to get stuff.

I can see the temple outside as I am writing. Go to the temple oft because it is great and the blessings are remarkable. I love you and miss you but love the Lord the most.

July 7, 2009

July 7, 2009

Dear Mom & family,

I had a nice long email written up, but I ran out of time before I sent it. I apologize. In it I said how appreciative I am of all your letters and gifts. Everyone in my district is so jealous.

I also said that the surgery went fine. I can do almost everything but it just takes me longer to do it. yesterday, I played spped or knockout in gym and I shot left handed and did pretty well. It was way fun.

We got our itinerary and flight plans for Spain and we leave a week from today at 5:00 a.m.

Sorry my handwriting is so bad, I can't write well with this splint on. Luckily, it doesn't hurt that bad. In fact, it only started hurting a little bit yesterday (Surgery was July 2). I'm okay, so don't worry. I have my follow up appointment for my writs on Monday, July 13. They'll take the splint off and the stitches out then. Then we are off to Espana. I am so super excited. The only challenge lately is setting goals and falling short. We aren't perfect and we are trying to do better each day, better than the last.

I hope all is well with all of you. I love you all and I will try to write you again. Thanks for all of the scriptures and movie quotes that keep me focuesed and make me laugh. I am finding out more and more about my companions. They both live up North and don't have a great relationship with their families.

I want you all to know that I love you so much and that I feel so blessed to have such an outstanding, loving, funny, enjoyable and wonderful family. I also want to tell you how all that we do and all that we are is deeply rooted in the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all. Keep writing and lifting my spirits and making me want to do and be better. "Pray for me and I'll pray for you, and we'll all make it out together." quote by President Monson at his first general conference as Prophet.

We all have problems that we can't fix on our own and that we need to access divine help to overcome. The way we do this is through mighty prayer.

Love with all my heart

June 30, 2009

I love this place! It is going so well. So far the language isn't too bad, its mainly a review of Spanish classes that I had in Timpview, and the missionaries that have been here about two and a half weeks say that I speak well. My companions are awesome! They are just what I had wished for in a first companion. I actually have two companions, so nosotros tres espanoles compartir a room of four beds. So its nice that we have a little extra space in our room for comfort.

My companions have a desire to work hard and improve and progress each day. I can tell that all of us were the most disciplined people before we came here but we have all said to each other that we have a desire to change and become more Christlike. We have been waking up at 6:00 in the morning so that we can have enough time to get ready and not be rushed for breakfast at 7:00. Normally the time is 6:30. I'm glad that I am not the only one trying to magnify my calling because that would be very difficult. We have a companionship inventory meeting every night and that goes really well. We talk about the good and bad things that happened that day and we set goals as to how we can be better the next day. A couple nights ago my companion Elder Adams, from Smithfield, Utah, said that he wanted to make sure after we had been here for a while, that we don't get lax with the rules like many other missionaries are. Its sad to see that not all the missionaries are doing exactly what they should do. Obviously no one is perfect, but I think that a lot of them could try harder.

Every one is very nice in our zone and district! The older missionaries, I say older but I mean that they have been here longer, are very accepting and kind. My district is awesome. We all get along very well and we are trying to stay focused on the work, learning the language and teaching the doctrines of Salvation.

I can already pray and testify in Espanol, so that is cool. Our companionship is really progressing. Elder Scott and I knew Spanish at a similar level but Elder Adams took a year of German in high school, which doesn't help. He is very honest and open, when he doesn't understand and I really appreciate it.

I went to choir practice on Sunday and that was good. I sat by Elder Lake from California, the one we would bowl with Mom, Stuart lake. I see people I know all of the time. I have probably seen 8 people from my BYU ward and tons of people from Timpview. It really makes it easier and I don't feel homesick at all...yet. It hasn't hit me yet, I guess. Sorry if that offends you. I still love you but, this place is so spiritual. The only thing that I can compare it too is a huge EFY, a long Youth Conference, or an extended General Conference; because we go to these meetings with all of the new missionaries and we get so excited to work hard and live and teach by the Spirit, it's so cool. I love singing the hymns because they are so powerful. That's where most of my spiritual experiences have come from.

We were so privileged to have the Mission Presidents Seminar last week starting Wednesday going to Sunday because we had all of the 15 prophets, seers, and revelators here over the course of those 4 days. I only saw 7 of the Apostles when they gave a Friday night devotional. Unfortunately, I didn't get to sit int he gym because there wasn't any room so our district had to go to the overflow in the cafeteria. It was awesome. They have a special spirit that everyone can feel.

I really love this place and everyone says that the first couple of days are very hard, but I haven't really felt that yet. I love this place! It's so cool to put that name tag on every morning and to try and do the will of the Father every day as best as you can. I truly am on the Lords errand.

Love,

Elder Driggs