March 31, 2010

Dear Family,

Everything sure sounds great on the home front. I love hearing what everyone is doing and the exciting accomplishments that they are achieving. It sounds like Cari had a wonderful competition in St. George. Way to go Cari!!! I was super impressed with Mark´s talk. Holy Cow! It looks like we have a future general authority in the family. ¡¡¡Madre mía!!! And Cami, she is just all over the scale. Soccer, plays, and sounds like she has the biggest smile whenever I read her letters. Que bien!!! I love hearing about the family, my first love. And always mom and dad seem like things are busier and crazier than ever. As it should be as parents of 4 little angels...Right?

Well, this week has been another busy week. Elder Dawson has been a little sick with a cough and sore throat but we are pressing on. The baptism of Jorge Ca was absolutely wonderful. The president of the branch baptized him and in his testimony he said the words that have fed his fire from day 1. Me siento feliz (I feel happy). He has always said that as he has read the Book of Mormon, prayed, gone to church, that he has felt peace and been happy. We love him so much. He is so humble and his baptism was so wonderful and beautiful, with many members and family there to support him. He will be a member for life.

We are now teaching his brother in law, who was at the baptism and also felt the Spirit very strong, and sees the change in Jorge. He desires to share the same happiness and things are going very well with him. We challenged him to be baptized last night and he didn´t readily accept. We told him to pray about it and in about 15 minutes we will meet with him and Jorge to see how it went, to challenge him again. Luckily, he loves the Book of Mormon.

We are very, very excited for General Conference this weekend. I also get this excitement and hype before every one, remember the times I was able to assist there in Salt Lake, and now I get to watch, listen, learn, and rejoice with the saints here in Madrid, Spain. I am loving the work and my love for the people is growing everyday. I feel like I am at a hump right now with everything. The language, my knowledge of the scriptures and lessons, Preach my Gospel, etc. And the danger with this feeling is that I am not as motivated to push myself to learn the most I can. I need to keep going and not just settle for mediocrity, but to be the very best that I can. The best teacher, a great speaker of Spanish, and a great knowledge of the word of God.

I need to set some more goals so that I can focus my studies more on what I need to accomplish as a missionary, so I can help more the needs of our investigators. Many investigators are progressing and we are excited for them. We are doing a lot, and trying to work as hard and as efficient as possible, so that the Lord will be bound in preparing their hearts for baptism. We are motivated and desirous to bring more souls unto Christ. We are thirsty for more people to be baptized and it occupies our minds almost 24/7.

I love you all and absolutely loved Mark´s talk. My eyes moistened a little (men don´t cry...just kidding) as I read the story of the boy and the father. I sure am getting more sensitive as a missionary.

I love you all so much and hope that you take advantage of General Conference this weekend and the blessing of being with family. You and all of the family, including Grandpa, are in my prayers always. Please tell Grandpa I love him, from me.

Have a great weekend and send everyone my greeting and love.

¡Besos y Abrasos!

Elder Driggs

Rob