November 10, 2010

Dearest and most loving, good lookin´, family,

This week has been extraordinary. I will just be honest that I love to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we teach a lot of people and talk to a lot of people in the street, I am happy. We, this last week, were able to teach a lot of people, and it was a lot of fun. There was even one point of the week, where we had two appointments at the same time, and Elder Gomez and I had to do splits. We have planned to do splits in the past but there has always been something that has gotten in the way, members not being able to help us, investigators bailing out on the appointments, etc. But this time all worked out and Elder Gomez went with one of the young adults in the ward who just received the Melchizedek Priesthood two Sundays ago and who is preparing to go on a mission, and I was the lucky one who was able to go with a 70 year old high priest temple worker. It was a lot of fun! and we were able to take advantage of the little time we had. 2 appointments instead of 1 is always better.



To explain my title for today, let´s just say that this week I have not and will not see much of him, who is known as, Elder Gomez, or in other words, mi compañero. Starting this last Monday until this morning we were in exchanges with the Elders of Villalba. I went there and the other two stayed in Barrio 5. Tomorrow we are doing exchanges with the assistants and I am again leaving the area. It is rough leaving our area. I don´t really love it, but it is fun seeing how other people do missionary work and be able to observe and learn. Luckily the area is in good hands...well great hands actually...El gran Elder Gomez.

Segundo is doing really well this week. He came to church this last Sunday, but he had to come to the earlier ward that meets at 10 instead of 12. He came and stayed through the whole sacrament meeting even though we had planned that he leave early so he could get to work on time. He started work at 12. He came, stayed, and loved it, and even better he got to work on time. Whewww!!! We are going to teach him tonight at 7:30.

Carlos Herranz isn´t going super well, because he lost his voice last Friday and we haven´t been able to get a hold of him since. He also wasn´t able to go to church this last Sunday. We, of course, are not giving up hope, and we are patient and willing to work with his extremely busy and complicated schedule.

We have another baptismal date, that we set this last week. His name is Carlos Gomez, he has to be an extremely extended relative of Elder Gomez. Haha. He is from Argentina and is really cool. He came with us two weeks ago to the stake conference and came this last week and stayed for the first two hours. He seems to be more dedicated because he wants to change his life, drop the bad or worldly things behind, and be more spiritual and calm. He has been showing us more and more that he wants this for himself and we are hopeful that he can continue to progress. We have taught him for awhile but we had to stop for a month or so as he went out of town to the Canary Islands to work. He is back in action and the only problem is that he doesn´t have an established work, so he is always working little jobs here and there and has a rather unpredictable schedule.

Today, we as a zone went to Segovia. Elder Holub and I came over from Villalba and met up with the other missionaries that went straight there from Madrid and we spent a fun day there looking through the Cathedral and walking down below the Castle. We had fun looking through some caves and were able to see some bats. We ate at a doner kebab hut, these are really famous here in Spain and there are tons of them all over the place. You are all going to love Segovia when you come. It is awesome and I know it enough now to get around.

Well, Elder Gomez is already done and we´ve got to hit the road and get to work. I hope that you have an awesome week. I am glad to hear that you are losing so much weight. That is so exciting! I also love the thought of seeing pictures from all of you. I love you all and pray for you. I was especially happy to hear that you had PPI´s with the kids. I think that that is a fundamental principle that helps unify families and increase love, success, and spiritual and personal progress.

Keep doing what is right. And be wise.

Love,

Elder Driggs

November 3, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello, Hello. I hope everyone has had a good week thus far. I am saddened by the news of Grandma. I hope and pray that all goes well with her, and you mom, and the whole family. Thankfully we have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation that helps us understand and comprehend death and other misfortunes during our journey here on earth. I am very grateful for this knowledge as it has helped me many times during my life be happy, despite the surrounding circumstances.

This week has been wonderful for Elder Gómez and me. We love the work. I have been trying lately to be more focused and concentrated in the work, and to really establish and develop a love for the people. I have been getting better, I think, and I continue to enjoy the work.

We are excited as we are finding more and more people, or should I say miracles, that are really ready to prepare themselves to be baptized. Or more importantly, are desirous to do so. We are still very excited for Segundo Moina. He wasn´t able to come to church this last Sunday, which happened to be Stake Conference, because he was working, and he won´t be able to come this coming Sunday, either, because of work. His schedule seems to have changed a little bit, but we are patient and hopeful that all will work out. We have invited him to ask his bosses to see if there is a possibility to have his shift a little later, so that he can still come to church. We will see what happens.

I have been trying lately to put the advice of Elder Pederson, the nephew of the Ernst, in practice, which is to talk about baptism in every lesson. I think I do so normally but I don´t make it a huge focus. With Segundo, I am especially trying to at least mention his baptism in every visit. A couple of lessons ago, I asked Segundo how he was feeling in terms of his baptism. He responded, ¨I feel a lot more calm and I hope that the day gets her quick.¨ I was surprised and very happy to hear this, and asked him why he was excited for his baptismal date, just so that we could know what he was thinking.

He told us that he wanted to be a member of the Iglesia Mormona. He is very humble and very receptive, it seems like. He is understanding more and more and continues to read everyday from the Book of Mormon. He will be a wonderful member of the church and we are excited to his date, which will probably be the 18th of November. Please pray for him, so that he can come to church, he has already come twice and stayed for the three hours, but he needs to at least come one more time to be able to be baptized. He should be able to at least come twice a month to church, which certainly isn´t the best, but ok.

It is hard, the balance with church assistance and work here in Spain, because fathers or mothers separate themselves from their friends and families for years to come over here to just work. Their only goal and vision is to get money and to support their family, and for some it is the only hope to get ahead or help their children attend the university, etc. It is a rough situation but as we know, sacrafice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and we know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and we have all of the truth. So what else matters?

We are also very excited about a new investigator named Carlos Herranz. A month or more ago we received a reference from the bishop of the second ward here in Madrid. We called him a couple of times and seemed super nice and very excited to learn more, but do to his work schedules, we could never meet with him. We ended up losing contact with him. We called him last Friday and set up an appointment Saturday evening. During the phone call he told me that he had already read the Book of Mormon and prayed at the end. He told me that he wanted to read the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants as well.



I was shocked. When we went to his apartment on Saturday...let me just say that this guy is an animal...in the good meaning. He is incredible. We sat down and started talking to him and listened to his story. He had met with missionaries before and they gave him the Book of Mormon. He read it and felt that it was true. He had to travel to Wales for work and lost contact with the missionaries and lost his Book of Mormon. He is a very impressive man as he is a musician, theologists-he taught theology during a certain period in his life, and among many other things he is a Spaniard.

After hearing him, and hearing that he wanted to learn more we presented him with a ¨Conversion Plan¨, which includes the lessons needed receive and a baptismal date. We set the date for the 4 and 5 of December and he was willing to put it as a goal. He has a ton of experience and we invited him to the stake conference the next day and he came. He came in taxi because he wasn´t sure that he was going to make it on time, and apparently the taxies here are not the cheapest way of transportation here.

He stayed for almost all of it, and he had to leave before the last hymn and the closing prayer. He seemed to enjoy it and told me that he had already read the assigned reading, and he is just really neat. He is one of those golden investigators that you always look for and hear about. We hope that he continues to be great, as we really don´t know a whole lot about him, but until now all goes well. In 1 hour and 40 minutes we have an appointment with him. At 7 o clock in the church. Wish us luck! Haha.

Well, that is basically what we are up to, in a very short, brief report. I am loving the work and am nervous that my time is already coming to an end. I still have time left, but I have that feeling that the end is drawing near, and I don´t want to stop living this dream. I have loved the experiences that I have had up until this point and I have become a better person. When someone is really devoted in the service of others, they change permanently for the better. I need to serve with more love and devotion so that I can become closer to Jesus Christ.

I love you all very much and please tell Grandma hi for me. I will be praying for her and all of you.

I love you,

Élder Driggs

October 27, 2010

Dear Family, Mom, Dad, Cami, Mark and Cari,

I love you all sooo much. I don´t have tons of time today but for these precious minutes I will try to communicate my love to you and help you live my mission with me.

This week has been great. Elder Gomez and I have been struggling to reach the goals of the mission in lessons taught. We are not depressed but motivated to find a better way to find success. We are super happy, however, with the progress of Segundo Moina. He actually wasn´t able to come to church this last Sunday, because he came home late, at around 4 o clock in the morning. We met with him that night and were able to talk to him a little bit more regarding about how we missed him at church and we shared with him the Word of Wisdom. He has had problems with this in the past as he occasionally smokes, drinks, and drinks coffee in the mornings(I believe everyday). He is so cool, because after we explained to him what was that law, he honestly told us that he had never known about it and in his closing prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for us and in teaching him some commandments that he had never known. He is really special and I love being a missionary in moments like that, because you realize that some people, like it says in D and C, don´t know where to find the truth. He is very willing to do what is right and is progressing wonderfully.

I had to mention quickly what we did a couple of weeks ago. We had a district lunch, together. Two companionship of Elders and two of sisters. Elder Gomez and I were going to use a recipe in your cookbook ¨Oh my Gosh your going to like this, Casserole¨ but we ended up switching, and cooking Chicken Enchiladas in the same recipe book. It turned out fantastic and chose to swith the name t0o ¨Oh my gosh your gonna love these Enchiladas.¨ We thought it was a very appropriate name and we had a bunch of laughs out of it. They turned out perfectly.


I am sorry that I have run out of time. I love you all and pray for you.

I love you and wish you a wonderful week,

Love,

Elder Driggs,

Keep smiling.

October 20, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello, hello!!! I am sorry to hear that today hasn´t been one of the best days. Sometimes we have them, but we learn, we grow, and we get back up on our feet to run harder the next day. Like you said mom, the sun will rise again tomorrow. I love the idea of restarting, new days, new weeks, new transfers, and new goals. It is so nice to repent and then start over. What a blessing, repentance, and being able to apply it in our daily lives. It is hard to understand the way repentance works, but it is real and I need to make it more of a habit. I think it has been a lot easier on the mission to repent, or at least I have been more focused on doing so more regularly, than it was in real life.

We as missionaries are constantly evaluating, setting goals, striving to achieve those goals, and then re-evaluating. We try to specialize in one area, missionary work. On the other hand, being a regular person, there are a lot more things that you have to juggle and sometimes we get caught up in...life. Repentance is one of the most relieving ideas that we teach as missionaries. The idea of change and improvement and letting go of the past and improving.

We have started a new focus in the mission and that is to talk about baptism in every contact, unless the Spirit tells us otherwise, of course. It was a little interesting at first, because I always liked to talk about eternal families when I saw a family, for example, but baptism is the focus of everything in missionary work, and it is interesting that when we ask people how they would feel to be able to erase all of their sins and mistakes that they have had, they almost always say that it would be great. Baptism is our way out. It is the only way back to our Father in Heaven.

Without the receiving the baptismal ordinance in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, our brothers and sisters, neighbors, friends, and family cannot return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We see the importance of baptism and there is no reason why we shouldn´t be talking about it with everyone. If we talk more about it, people will know what we are all about and they who want to listen will already have that idea in their minds and know what our mission really is. So that is what we are trying to focus on right now in our everyday lives.

This week has been a good week. Not exceptional but not bad either. We had 7 people that had committed to come to church earlier in the week and only one person came. It was somewhat disappointing because the family of Luz, she and her two sons didn´t come. Luckily they had come to the baptismal service the night before and they felt the Spirit. (I played the violin for a musical number and the next day in Sacrament Meeting I accompanied while someone sang ¨Oh Savior Thou Who Wearest A Crown.¨) Hopefully they can come to church soon, because if not we might have to drop them. It would be really sad because they are a wonderful family, but it is hard because we can´t teach them very often as their schedules are really busy.

We are really happy because the one investigator that came to church is incredible. O si hablamos en español, es de maravilla, pero en serio, es increíble. His name is Segundo Moina, and we talked to him in the street a month ago, probably, and we invited him to church. We met him half way and he came, without ever having a lesson with us. We lost contact with him for a little while, as he didn´t seem to enjoy the reuniones, even though he stayed for the three hours. But we called him and taught him the first time two Sundays ago and again last Thursday, both with members acompanying us.

On Thursday while asking him if he had read what we had left him, 3 Nephi 11, he responded, well the first time I read it, I was a little confused. The second time I read it, it made a lot more sense, but the third time, it was as if the heaven´s had opened up and I understood everything. He said that he had read everyday and believed that what he had read was true. That was truly a miracle. We invited him to be baptized the 20th of November, and he said he wasn´t sure. We asked if we could pass by the following day in the morning. There was actually only about 12 o 13 hours diference between that appointment and the next one, Friday morning. He said that that we could come by and we invited him to pray and ask Heavenly Father if he should be baptized that day. He accepted the invitation and we left him with 3 Nephi 27. We all knelt down, and Segundo offered the closing prayer.

In the prayer he thanked God for the change that he had felt in his life, for the blessing of bumping into us that day a month ago, and many other beautiful things. We could tell, and he expressed to us, that he felt a difference in his life by reading the Book of Mormon. He felt that change in his life and the next day he had read the chapter, understood it well. When we asked him to tell us what it was about, he immediately said, Baptism. He is incredible. We invited him again to be baptized and after asking us if he, being baptized in this church, could still accompany his wife to the Catholic masses and us responding him, he said yes, let´s start preparing.

He came to church, stayed the three hours, and the priesthood hour really impacted him, as the lesson was miraculously on baptism. A few brethren shared experiences before they were baptized when they were involved with alcohol and how as they felt the need to be baptized, that desire was washed away. Segundo told me after that he has felt the same thing, that as he has met with us he has not felt the need like before to drink alcohol. I am not sure if he has stopped completely, but certainly, he has gotten better.

The miracles are many here in Madrid Spain. I am here for at least 6 more weeks and I can´t complain. We have a few goals and we plan to accomplish them. I am loving the people more and more and the work is going well. Elder Gomez and I get along great and I am really privileged to have him as a companion. Elder Moreno went home yesterday, but he is going to come back up on Saturday because his last area, Alcalá (where uncle Paul served) has a baptism and I heard that the person wants Elder Moreno to baptize them.

Luckily Elder Moreno lives within range to be able to come back. Elder Moreno opened back up Alcalá his last six weeks, after President had taken the missionaries out for 6 (Alcalá normally doesn´t have very many baptisms). But when Elder Moreno left they had 8 baptismal dates, which is unheard of, anywhere in the mission, let alone Alcalá. He told me that they were all miracles, but Elder Moreno is a good missionary and he works hard and loves the people. There are a lot of Spañiards there in Alcalá so I sure he got along really well with everyone.

Well, I have to write my inform to President Watkins, so I hope that all of you have a great week. Take care and keep praying and studying the scriptures. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Driggs.

P.S. Keep smiling and loving life, this is our only chance to do so.

October 13, 2010

Dearest Family ever,

How are things going in your part of the town. I absolutely loved the letters today. I appreciated the spiritual thoughts, the scriptures, and the surprising events about the Stokers, Ernst´s, and just how life is so busy at home. I love being busy and I fear the time when I get home and have very little planned. However, that day will come. I need to worry more about the now.

Thanks for the thoughts on staying focused and enjoying to the max the time I have here to dedicate myself to the Lord and His service. It honestly makes me sad to think that I am on the other side of the mission and to think that I will not be doing this forever. I love the work. I love the people. It is hard work and sometimes I don´t love it, but I try to do my best during those times and it helps shape who I am.

It is also hard to see my progress during the mission. You always want to change so much during the mission and sometimes I fear that I am not changing at all. I´m sure I have changed in some aspects, well hopefully most aspects, but these changes are certainly so gradual that I don´t note them at all. But don´t get me wrong. I love the mission and want everyone to serve one. Holy Cow, it is the best. I am still waiting to hear from Kathryn. I want to know where she is called. I hope she comes here to Madrid. That would be way sweet.

So yeah, Mom, I do know Élder Pederson. It´s actually kind of funny, because he asked me that the other day. I actually don´t know how he found out, but apparently you are friends with his mom too. But he asked me if I knew the Ernsts and I said yes and it was really neat to draw that connection.

He used to live in California when he was really little, in San Francisco and in Concord. He was actually in the ward of President Watkins, when President Watkins was a bishop. Apparently, Elder Pederson´s mom is really good from with Hermana Watkins. So that is really neat. He is a great missionary, and he only has 4 days left and then he goes home. He has been the assistant for the last transfer, or last 5 weeks, and so it has been fun to get to know him a little bit more and to learn from him.

Elder Pederson bore a really strong testimony the other day in mission council and I really came away really impressed with what he had learned during the mission. The two things that I remember that he mentioned were, 1 – being honest with yourself and with God. 2. Talking about baptism in every contact and in every lesson. If we do that we will baptize more. He is a really good missionary and even though I hardly know him, because was from the old Bilboa Mission, it would be fun to stay in contact with him. I am going to tell him about the concert, because that will make him happy that we know the Ernst´s so well. He also told me that Nicole is really serious with someone. That made me laugh when I heard that because I still remember the family joke that everyone always played on us. I guess things are not going according to plan. Haha

Everything is going really well here. I will tell you what though. I want to baptize more people. We have a baptismal service this Saturday with the 25 year old man, I think I told you about him last week, Luis Jaime Males. He is a really good person. We had a few minor complications in the whole progress because last week we found out that he was going to have to go to Columbia to see his brother get married, the week before his scheduled baptism. We asked if he could postpone the flight two days and leave on a Monday. We also asked permission from President Watkins if he could get baptized because he had only come to church 2 times officially, the first time he missed the Sacrament Meeting and we don´t count it if that happens.

For someone to be baptized in the Spain Madrid mission they have to come to church atleast three times. President had no problem with that and so we are all good to go. Our district leader Elder Cerro interviewed him last night and all is well. All systems are go for this Saturday at 7 o clock. We are very excited, especially because the whole ward is excited about it. Our new bishop is super focused in the missionary work and wants all of the organizations focused on that. So he and our awesome new ward mission leader have everyone excited for this Saturday and many members are helping us out and calling to see if there is anything else they can do. I love it, because that is the way a ward should work. I would love to hear that Luis goes on a mission too. His girlfriend told him a few weeks ago that she wants to serve a mission, so hopefully he can get the chance to go. We will see. That is my dream, to help someone get baptized that at the same time serves a mission and helps many more people.

We are really excited about a certain family Luz, Napoleón, Jasmani, and Saul. They are the family of four from Ecuador that I think I commented about last week. Napoleón has left to work out of Madrid for a couple of weeks and we have seen tons of progress. He was a little stubborn, and Luz is super sensible to the Spirit. Last night we taught tithing to her and her two sons, and her niese(who is a little like Napoleón), because she had seen the word in the guia de las escrituras, at the back of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. We taught it to her and she understood it perfectly. We invited her to live the law after her baptism and without thinking she immediately responded, Sí. As you can see she is just awesome and is being prepared by the Holy Ghost to be baptized.

She and her sons and her husband, who brought the Book of Mormon with him while away for work, are reading the Book of Mormon every day, and she and her sons, at least are praying everyday as well. We just need to make sure that they are asking Heavenly Father everyday in their prayers if these things are true. She is really great and will be a really strong member pretty soon. She has committed to come to church this Sunday with her sons and she is also planning on coming to the baptism this Saturday, also, there is an activity for all of the youth in Madrid this Saturday and she said that if we went, Elder Gomez and I, she would let her 2 boys go too.

We are just really excited about them and pretty soon you will here that they have a date and will be baptized. We invited them to be baptized already the 20th ish of November, I can´t remember exactly, and she said, well, I can´t say that it will be that day, but in the future I can´t deny that I might do it. So she is there progressing little by little. She read the first half of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, yeah it is also the same in spanish, and she said that she liked it, she shared concerns that she has for her youth especially while living in Spain, and she said that she agreed with everything that it said so far. She told us that she wants to know more about Alcohol the next lesson, so teaching her is really easy now, because we teach in accordance with her interests.

Well, I love being a full time missionary. I sometimes forget the eternal importance of this sacred calling. But I do love being here.

I love you. I pray for all of you by name. Thank you for your prayers. Thanks for writing Cami, and the letter is almost finished being written and will be in the mail today. I love you, Cami, very much and I also am excited to be with you and the family again. It will be great, but for now my time, thoughts, and actions are to be focused on the Lord´s holy errand. His labor of love.

Love, Elder Driggs

October 6, 2010

Mi Querido Familia,

Esta semana ha sido una semana muy buena. Me encant'o la carta de Marcos. Me dio mucha alegria de escucharle.

Ahora en ingles, para no molestarles m'as.

This week has been great. I have been a little sick, mainly just a cold and the sniffles, but other than that we are trying to help people progress towards baptism. It was sooo much fun going to conference. I have explained to you the schedule in past emails, but basically there is one session in the evening on Saturday, and priesthood and two more on Sunday.We don't get the priviledge of hearing the last session because it starts at 10 and ends and 12 at night. We went Saturday night with a less active 14 year old from Ecuador, and right when I got off the metro on Saturday I saw Gina, and two other sisters from Aranjuez. I was thinking I was going to see them that weekend but not so soon. I was so happy to see them. It has been so long since I have seen them and after 9 months of being around them, you forget a little bit how much you love them. It was especially nice to see Gina, that she is active and that she is participating and has friends in the Relief Society.

I don't think that I told you but about 3 months ago, President Watkins pulled the missionaries out of Aranjuez. This was a semi surprise to me, but I know why. President Watkins has been threatening the units, wards and branches in the mission, that if they don't meet certain requirements, like weekly coordination meetings, weekly ward coucil meetings, ward missionaries, ward mission leader, and a actual and functioning ward mission plan, than he will take the missionaries out. He has sent letters to the presidents and bishops of every branch and ward and many have lost missionaries and those missionaries have gone to other areas where the units function better.

Aranjuez was always, in a way, exempt from this consequence because of the amount of baptisms. There was branch support, but for example home teachers, and others organizations didn't work like they should. So he took the missionaries out. I was obviously worried because of the recent converts there without missionaries visiting them. So with that in mind it was a treat to see Gina there super active. She and Ronny and the entire family came Sunday to the 6 o clock session and it was soooo nice to see them and talk with them. Even though there wasn't much time, they are wonderful.

Of course the first question I asked Gina was if they were still planning on getting sealed. She told me, claro, Elder. I asked her about tithing, as I knew that would be one of the hardest requirements for them and she told me that she is paying for the family, even though she is not working. Its harder for Ronny to pay tithing, but she is doing it because if not, they will not be able be sealed as a family. She is very, very special. She told me that she is having family night almost every week. And their 11 year old son told me that they are having daily family scripture study, and just the 4 of them, when Ronny is not there. He also said that he is reading the Book of Mormon personally. Gina told me that her daughter Naomi, 13, I think, likes Young Women, went to there form of Girls Camp, learned the standards of how to dress, and feels really close to her young women's leader.

I was sooo happy to hear from them and could talk to them forever. I sadly heard, that Michael Alvarez is inactive, not going to church, but that his dad wants to get baptized as well as his little brother Gerald. So that was the Aranjuez scoop. The whole time seeing them made me desire more baptisms. We need to work harder and are very excited that we are going to get a new ward mission leader. He is phenomenal. He was an assistant in his mission 15 years ago and is a fantastic person. I will be talking in Sacrament meeting this Sunday with him and one of the sister missionaries. I feel that this ward is about to explode with baptisms, now that we have everything that we need for the ward to be ready and prepared for more people to enter it.

I love you all and hope that you enjoyed conference. I love living in Utah, and being able to go to the Conference Center, and say that I have been there. It made me just a tad bit trunky, because I love going to the conference center and watching it and being with Dad, Mark and Granddad and the boys at Priesthood. But those times will come again. There is certainly no rush.

Favorite talks, President Uchtdorf, Elder Nelson, Elder Jensen, and of course all of President Monson's. I listened to all of the sessions in spanish except for Priesthood. It just isn't the same in Spanish, especially after knowing how their voices sound in English.

A little not for Cami, I now have a letter written from Elder Gomez, and Elder Cerro from Argentina, who lives with us is also going to write you, I think, so we are going to send these letters to you soon. I love you Cami.

And Mark thank you for writing. I love you too.

Thank you for all of your prayers and endless love,

With all the love that I possess,

Elder Driggs

P.S.Almost the whole time while listening to Elder Holland talk about parents sacrificing I thought about you two, Mom and Dad. I believe that the only thing I can say to you is...thank you. Thank you for sacrificing everything for me. I really am grateful for that sacrifice and will try to show that gratitude more each and every day through my efforts. Thank you o Muchisimas Gracias como dicen aqui en Espana.

September 29, 2010

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

Thank you for the weekly update. I love hearing from Cami every week too! That is a new treat!

This week has been a great week. We are just cruising Elder Gomez and I, and actually, the past two days I have been in exchanges with Elder Meek. He is from somewhere near Farmington, Utah, and went to Davis High School. We got along well and the work in his area, Villalba Collado, is incredible. They have a wonderful Young Men´s Program there and have baptized two young men in the last 2 or 3 months and there are more on the way. It is wonderful to see when the church organizations really work as they should, it help in la obra misional or missionary work. Elder Meek and Elder Holub, his companion from Colorado are great missionaries and they have the goals to accomplish equilibrium every week. Equilibrium is short for the weekly goals of the mission. Elder Meek is a great missionary, despite the fact that he has been sick for the past month. He was diagnosed with gastrointeritis, I don´t know what it is called in english, which makes him throw up almost everything that he eats. He threw up a couple of times in the street after we would eat, and I felt really bad for him. Interestingly enough, he is very used to it. He is a hero in my eyes because he doesn´t complain one bit.

During my time out of the area, Elder Gomez and Elder Holub have been working hard. This last Sunday we were sitting in our class of Principles of the Gospel with Hermano Clever Rojas teaching the lesson and we hear the door open and see the new bishop come in with the first counselor of the stake presidency, and they were accompanying a young man to the class. The bishop asked us to have him presented and he stayed during the class and even during priesthood. Elder Gomez talked to him after the meetings and we set up an appointment with him on Monday. So I received the call on Monday night from Elder Gomez and he told me that this young man Luis now has a baptismal date. His novia, girlfriend, in Ecuador is a member and he has been in Spain for about 3 months looking for the church and already had a triple combination, hymn book, and a manual for principles of the gospel. When I got back today, I heard that he even asked them if he could go on a mission, because he is 25 years old. So this guy is just incredible. He wants to be baptized, go on a mission, and just wants us to teach him. Super cool and super easy. The miracles are just coming in left and right, and there is hardly room enough to receive them.

William, our baptismal date for the ninth of October is also making solid progress. During our lesson on Saturday with him, we affirmed his desires to be baptized, calmed his fears, and he just started connecting all of the dots or signs from the Holy Ghost, like his increased happiness, peace, and the answers he has received from reading the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and prayer. We then asked him if his heart was telling him to be baptized. He waited for a couple of seconds pondering, and then said...¨que sí.¨ We testified that the feelings of joy are from the Holy Ghost and that he is ready. He is very excited and we brought him a white shirt and tie so he could where it in church. He looked great, even though he didn´t like the tightness of the tie and collar, and ended up taking the tie off.

During the exchange Elder Gomez and Elder Holub found William and his sister in law in his apartment and it was an answer to Williams prayers. The whole time William has been changing and seeing the blessings come into his life he has desired the same for his sister in law. The missionaries started the lesson, but basically the whole time, William was testifying of the Book of Mormon and that you just have to pray with faith and you can get an answer. He taught everything and perfectly and said that it was a miracle that the missionaries were there, because it was n´t planned. William said that it was the first time in more than a year that his sister in law has visited him in his apartment, and the exact time that she is there the missionaries rang the doorbell. The lesson went great, William wants to be baptized, and we are happy!


I love you all and pray for you a bunch. I really do love you and apreciate your love and prayers on my behalf and for the investigators here. They need all of the help that they can get. People are always changing there schedules and it is hard for them to find time for us. Nevertheless we love the work more and more every day y estamos deseando un bautismo!

Les quier un montón y que tengan una semana super buena. ¡Que el Señor les bendiga!

Élder Driggs

P.S. Me encanta la obra misional y me asusta mucho pensar en que tengo muy poco tiempo quedando. Sin embargo, disfrutaré del tiempo que tengo. Hata logo.

September 23, 2010

Dear Family,

I am sooo glad to hear that you went to hear Elder Carr speak. I am glad that you enjoyed his talk. I can imagine that he stumbled a little bit on his English. It is really hard sometimes when you find someone that speaks English and you try to share your testimony. It is really difficult. For the normal daily things it isn´t that hard, but when we teach, which we always teach in Spanish, it is hard to do so in English. Plus, he speaks very well. I will also be interested to hear what his parents say about Spain and what is good to do here.

I am very sorry I haven´t told you anything lately about the package you sent me. There are no excuses but it is hard to remember and write about certain things 4, 5, or 6 days later. I did get the package and I loved it. The cookies were wonderful, a little dry, but that doesn´t matter one bit after you dunk them in milk. Hmmmm. The package was wonderful. I think I got a stomach ache that first night from all of the cinnamon bears that I ate. Haha not really, but I did eat a lot. I also loved the honey nut cheerios. They were delicious. I got the license as well, and as usual, the best treat is the CHIPOTLE sauce. I love that stuff. I had to wait a few days until I could buy some cream cheese, but that just brings me back to eating that with Cari, and when she would always take too much cream cheese, haha. I love you all soo much. Haha.

I am sure that you were all worried when I didn´t write you yesterday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday some of the missionaries participated in a special training meeting where they presented us with 8 themes to help us better use the Preach My Gospel Manual. It was interesting and very well done. I learned a lot and felt a lot too. The biggest focus was to really focus on the needs of the people and on the spirit and our love for them. So hopefully we can carry on and show more love for the people and not just teach them, but help them, love them, and walk with them to the waters of baptism.

I really don´t think that there is anything that I need from home, mom. I can´t think of too much. I love the fruties, cinnamon bears, and whatever type of candy. Those decorations were fun last time, but I like whatever you send me. It is sent with so much love that it makes me want to work that much harder when I receive a package.

That is sooo exciting about Kathryn. I hope to hear soon that she is going to be called to Spain on a mission. Hopefully to Madrid, but if not, at least to Spain, so I can see hear around in the MTC or something.


Before I sign out and write the weekly report to President Watkins I wanted to tell you about a spiritual experience I had yesterday.

With all of the focus from the training that we have been receiving lately on listening for the Spirit and following it, yesterday I was able to have an experience that helped fortify my testimony. As we were going in the metro to a metro stop, Palos de la Frontera, we had no plans. Our main plan had been dropped and so we were lost as to what to do.

Normally, we have back up plans but this time we had nothing. We were calling references and contacting when we stepped out of the metro and my first instinct was to head for the exit like normal, when I felt that I should stop and just wait and think about what we should do. I stopped, thought about it, and looked one more time in my agenda and specific name and person jumped out at me. I looked at it and couldn´t remember who it was and we decided to pass by him, he actually lived very close to there. We went in the direction of his house, and after talking to a few people in the street we went up.

We knocked on the door and the address was wrong. We knocked on the door in front and asked for Alberto and he said that he was Alberto. I began to vaguely recognize his face and we asked to share a brief message with him, that we had been sharing in his neighborhood that day, for 5 minutes. He accepted and we went in. It was a very spiritual message, with a lot of love and participation on his part. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and at the end invited him to prepare himself to be baptized on the 23rd of October. He humbly accepted. We went into his room and knelt and prayed together. He offered the closing prayer.

It was a wonderful and spiritual lesson and we felt very guiding during the whole experience. He actually has a few people he knows that are members that live in the same building. So we are very blessed here. Please pray for him that he might be able to find work and that he will be humble enough to keep going and progressing towards his baptismal date.

I love you all and pray for you so much.

Please keep praying for me and the people that we come into contact with. Please follow the teachings of Jesús Christ always. We need His help.

Love,

Rob

September 15, 2010

Dear Family,

It is always so hard to think about what I should write you. I just have so much going on that it is so hard to capture it all and put it in a letter in so little time.

Well life is great here in Cuatro Caminos, Barrio 5. We are sooo excited because we finally have a bishop. His name is Bishop Rick Whitmore and apparently he is in charge of the finances for IBM in Spain. So he is pretty well known, and after talking to President Watkins, the father of our bishop was also really well known in the business world. We are just ecstatic. Sunday afternoon, the same Sunday he got sustained, we received a call from him asking us if it would be good to switch out the ward mission leader. He then asked for suggestions on who could fulfill that calling. The next day we got another call from him. This time he was asking us for a few phone numbers and if we could come to his house and meet with him sometime this week to talk about the work. OF COURSE, we said. So we are really excited and are grateful that he is acting as fast as he is because this ward needs a man of action like him. Things are just going to blossom here on out.

Some of our best investigators right now are Napoleón, Luz, Jasmani, and Saul. They are a family of 4 from Ecuador. They are progressing really well and this last Sunday we invited them to be baptized the 9th of October. They accepted the date as a goal. They were will to work and learn more until that date and if they ¨receive a reaction¨, as Napoleón said, before that date they would be baptized. But if not, then they would call it off and just continue being friends. They are a wonderful family and they remind me a lot of Ronny and Gina and their 3 children that got baptized almost a year ago this November.

It is fun comparing how I have progressed in this last year and how much more I participate now than I did then. The two children are 17 and 12 and they are incredible. Saul offers incredible prayers and they are reading a lot in the Book of Mormon. The best thing is that they do everything together. They read the assigned chapter together, they all come and play soccer with us, except Luz, every Saturday, well at least the last 2 Saturdays. So it is really fun teaching them and we hope that they can come to church this Sunday with us. So please, please, please pray for them. They are really special and elect.

My funny story of the week and the story for the newsletter is the following.

On Monday we had a mission council and after wards President Watkins took us to a Chinese buffet. While we were getting into the elevator to go up we looked at the sign that said 8 people only and were about to obey it when President came from behind and said ¨métense, métense.¨ He pushed the 10 of us in and tried to fit himself but when he stepped in the elevator, it sunk down a foot and while trying to back out he almost fell backwards onto his back. Then the doors shut. Time passed, we couldn´t go anywhere, the doors didn´t open. We were stuck in the elevator. 10 missionaries for 17 minutes were stuck in an elevator while trying to go to a Chinese buffet. Pretty embarrassing but it was really funny. When the engineers finally were able to free us, President Watkins was there speechless. He apologized and we had a lot of good laughs. The lesson learned: obey all rules and customs, even when your mission president doesn´t want you to. haha.
Keep up the good work Elders. Always remember to smile and don´t let me down out there!!!

love, Elder Driggs


Thank you family for all that you do.

I love you all.

Elder Driggs

September 8, 2010

Dear Family,

Well, this week has been great. I am always glad to hear from you and your fun and exciting lives.

Just so you know, I saw the Carr´s on Sunday morning. They had just gotten into Madrid and went straight to church, changed in the bathrooms and were able to assist sacrament meeting. It was nice to see them in person and they were very happy to see Elder Carr. I did receive the cookies and, as usual, they were delicious. Last night I was going to eat more, but I didn´t have cold milk. When we get back, I hope to have a little bit of time to be able to eat some more. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THOSE!!!
love them. It was fun to see the parents of Élder Carr. Apparently they all knew me from Elder Carr's emails as ¨the Driggster.¨ So that was funny to hear. I sure have changed a lot from the time that I was with Elder Carr. I count it as a blessing of being with him for so long. I learned a ton and he definitely is one of the best missionaries in the mission. He is a baptizing machine!

I am glad that you love all of my friends. I love Kenny and my friends too. I am lucky to have such good friends. When times get rough I think of them, dad, granddad, cousins, and other great examples of stalwart missionaries. Thoughts of them and how they are and were as missionaries gives me courage and strength to carry on. I am blessed beyond measure, thus, the Lord requires much of me, many times, beyond my known personal limits.

I hope that Lake Powell goes well. I am glad that you are making lunch for Cami and Mark. You are so nice to have always done that for us and it is great that they can have that opportunity, just like I did. Those memories that I had there will last throughout the ages, and my friends and I will cherish those moments of youth with you mom in our home. You are probably one of the reasons why we always raced well because we ate so well for lunch on Friday. Haha. The team and all my friends will be eternally indebted to you.

I love you too mom and dad!!! Tomorrow I will be close to the temple and will try and get a chance to put your names there on the prayer roll. We always need a little bit of extra help.

Thank you dad for all your spiritual thoughts. I learn a lot from them and they keep me motivated. I really appreciated the one from these last two weeks and from today about Helaman 5: 17.

Sólo una experiencia esta semana que quiero compartir. We were talking to our investigador Carlos from Argentina, and we were talking to him for the third time, and we were reviewing the Restoration, and asking him questions to see if he believed in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he had prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We try and ask this question a lot to help them understand that to know the truthfulness of something you have to put forth the effort to pray. A lot of people don´t do it for the first couple of times, I think. But he told us that just a few nights before he had gone into the bathroom and kneeled down to ask God if these things were true. He exlained that he felt of lot of peace and tranquility. We knew and bore testimony that this feeling comes only from the Holy Ghost and he agreed and we invited him to be baptized the 25 of September. He didn´t agree completely but was willing to keep going and changing his life. He has recognized that he feels the spirit with us and that he wants to change his life to live in a more spiritual manner.

Well, hopefully the next time I can tell you about Zuraima Jimenéz from Venezuela that got baptized this last weekend and about Saúl, a 13 year old boy that has a super strong testimony.

I love the mission and hope it never ends. I love the focus and energy that it requires to do all that is required for us. It is hard, but I love the challenge to be diligent with our time and to do the Lord´s will.

I love you all, and yes I have received the package. I still haven´t opened it, as I received it only 5 hours ago at the mission home, where we went today to have a zone activity. It was a lot of fun and the burritos that Hna Watkins made were so scrumptious.

I would love to hear from Cami, Mark, and Cari again. It seems like a while since I have heard from them. I would also like to have the direction of Ryan Hill, if possible. I need to write him.

Thank you very much for your prayers. I hope that you know that I pray for you a lot too.

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Rob,

P.S. Dad, I loved all of that stuff on the geneology. I have always felt that I was Portuguese. Haha. Well, know I can claim it as a sort of founding for my family. That was very interesting and I hope that the search continues.

Love,

Élder Driggs