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 Madrid. We aren´t really that far but in comparison to other places we are, most of the missions are in Madrid or the suburbs closer in. Every week we have district meeting in Cuenca, a really Spanish town that is actually very modern, but apparently there are a lot of old Spanish buildings in the old part, which I still haven´t been too yet. I had my first transfer last week and I worked in Cuenca for a day. I liked the area, because it was different, but I sure am glad that I am in Aranjuez, because I don´t think I would like as much, walking around huge buildings all day, and there area right now is kind of dead. However, it was a good experience and my companion and I learned a lot of things from los intercambios (companion changes) that we can implement and help our area and the work a lot more. So this district meeting in Cuenca is about a two and a half hour, very bumpy, train ride through the Spanish countryside to Cuenca, which is about directly east from Aranjuez. I would compare the two having Cuenca be like Salt Lake City, and Aranjuez like Provo, more hometown feel and not to big. So the bus ride is long and bumpy, and very hard to study on, but I try hard to do so.

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 Spain, I give you my greetings and hearty hello. I trust all is well and that the work is moving forward as it rightfully should. Things are wonderful here in Aranjuez, I am out of the CCM or MTC finally and love everything about it. My trainer is wonderful and we are having a lot of success. Everyone I have heard that has been here, says that it is their worst area, but I love it and so does my companion. We are working hard and trying to love the people and doors are opening left and right. It is easy to see the hand of the Lord in the work. We had 8 investigator/non members attend church this week and we were really stoked! We have one family of five that can be really close to a baptismal date very soon and one women who should be baptized already but is hindered by her lazy husband. We hope that she will just go along with it and enjoy the blessings, hoping that her husband joins her after. But she needs to make the decision and not I.

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 Alma, What say ye my sons…will ye go against them in battle? And then their faithful responses relying on their faith and the faith of their mothers. What a joy and honor we have to serve in these ladder days, where the field is truly white, and the laborers are few. We have been prepared for these days and the days of our missions are here. I hope and pray for all of you. When I think of you I take courage in the thought that you are all soldiers in the army of our God, and that you are all faithful, and doing what the Lord wants you to do. Continue on, Hold up your Head, and Smile. For we are missionaries and this sacred calling is one of the reasons we are on this earth. To spread the Word and love of God.

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 Spain, in twenty years. I am not sure if it is true or not, but I do agree that it is hot. When I was in the CCM (Spanish MTC), when we would go and play soccer during Actividad Física (Physical Activity), it would be about 45 degrees Celsius. Which is about 110, 115 Farenheit. So it is hot, and it is even harder because I haven´t had a bus pass, because it is better if you get it at the beginning of the month so you have the whole month to use it, and so we have had to walk from our house to the train station. It is a long way and with that dry heat, it cooks you. But I love it! I am always sweating and luckily we both wear deodorant and we don´t stink. Thank goodness for that.

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.