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!