April 21, 2010

Dear family,


This has been a great week. I am glad that you were able to use some of the spiritual experiences that I have had only in the last couple of weeks in your talks. I am doing well here in Aranjuez and am very content here on the misión. I love it. It is so hard some times, but I love it. Every day is a challenge and I am constantly recommitting myself to doing my best.

Elder Dawson and I work well together. I would say that our strengths are completely opposite and it helps us perfect every phase of the work. Elder Dawson is almost a perfect missionary in the piso…apartment. He is very clean, organized, and he loves keeping exact up to date records of all the progress of every investigator. This is how it should be, but it is not one of my strengths. Elder Carr was much more a perfect missionary outside the piso and I was able to incorporate some of his traits in the phases of finding, teaching, and loving the people. Elder Dawson and I are very compatible and I am trying to learn and mimick his constant diligence in planning, keeping the area book up to date, and organizing. Some things that have been harder for me while I have been on the misión. I love having the opportunity to learn from all the companions that I have had and be able to become a better person by including those attributes in my daily life.

Michael Alvarez is pushing onward. He is very excited about this Saturday and despite the confusión that we have had making sure that he would be ready this Saturday, as of now, we have complete confidence that he will be able to not only be baptized and confirmed, but also press on as a strong, faithful member of the church.
As we continue to work with Giselle, we are coming to understand that there are going to be some obstacles in her spiritual progression. One of the biggest is that she believes in order to receive revelation or a manifestation from the Holy Ghost that it has to be through a dream. We obviously know that more often than not, we receive revelation through our feelings and through our thoughts. She has been taught in her church that the heart is easily tricked and that we have to trust the mind. We taught her Saturday night and she promised us that she would come to church again and stay for all three hours.

When we rang her doorbell Sunday morning, she came down and told us that she wouldn´t be coming today. We were puzzled and asked her why. She related the dream that she had had the night before (she has lots of dreams, some good, some…just dreams), in the which she and her family were on the path and Giselle began to part from her family. In her dream her mom began to cry because Giselle had left them . So Giselle told us that this dream freaked her out and thought it to be a warning from God not to leave her church. We asked her to recount the feelings that she had had in that dream and she sad that she was so scared and nervous. We told her that these are not feelings that come from our God of love. That He only gives us feelings of confidence, peace, and love. We told her that feelings of fear and nervousness come from the devil. I told her that we would wait for her as she went to get dressed and then we went to church.

She stayed for Sacrament Meeting and then had to leave saying that she had to go and pay her tithing at her other church. Elder Dawson asked her how she felt, knowing that the night before we had promised her that if she stayed for all 3 hours that she would know if she should be baptized or not, and she responded saying that she was really confused. I took this response very well because I think that she is realizing how powerful the Spirit is in this the true church of Christ, and she is becoming more and more humble. We haven´t been able to talk to her since but we are going to call her today, or tonight.

I thought that you would like to know that approximately 6 hours before you were speaking in your sacrament meeting, I too spoke to the members. Elder Dawson and I received assignments to speak on la obra misional…como siempre (missionary work). So we talked and they went well. Elder Dawson basically taught about the Restoration and it was hard core. I related a story of how a 5 year old boy in Chile, after sharing the Book of Mormon with his cousin, helped prepare her for baptism, and not only her but she shared the Gospel with her friend. So because of this selfless faithful act of a 5 year old boy, the lives of two Young women were changed. I talked about the need to develop Christlike or childlike attributes to help us be more effective instruments en las manos del Señor (the hands of the Lord).
We had a zone conference yesterday and it was great. We learned a lot and I just love being with the missionaries. There is a powerful spirit when 70+ missionaries get together, with the united purpose to learn how to serve the Lord better.
Well I have to write my letter to the misión president right now, but to answer your question Dad, I am not quite sure what to tell you. I always did that because I knew that it was the right thing to do. I don´t say that bragging, but it was just what I did. I didn´t even want to risk not having bread for the Sacrament, and have 200 people wait on me. So I always wanted to do everything possible to ensure that the sacrament was blessed on time. I realize now how great it was that I did that and how much of a sacrifice it is to do that, bringing the bread or an extra loaf, but when I was 14 o 15, it was something that I just did. I don´t think the answer no passed my mind. I wish I still had that same innocence, because that faithful obedience brings big blessings.

I have learned a lot on the mission that to the degree that we obey Christ's teachings is a measure of how much we love him. Actions speak louder than words, and everything that we do, should be done, because we love the Savior and want to serve him. I am not sure how you can help a quorum of teachers understand that and their sacred duty, but I feel that the root of their obedience and desire to hearken to the counsel of their leaders is the love or the lack of love that they have for Jesus the Christ.

I love you all and have a fantastic week.

What are some things that we can do that we are not doing, to show Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we love them?

I love you all,

Elder Driggs

P.S. Look unto Christ in every thought. Doubt not, fear not.