November 24, 2010

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad,

Les felecito en español hoy, ya que han cumplido 25 años de matrimonio. Increíble. Fantástico y Estupendo.

It sounds like your week has gone well so far and it sounds like you have great plans for tomorrow, the big turkey day. Our plans for thanksgiving....trabajar! Wooohooo! I actually am not complaining. I am very excited to work tomorrow because we have a ton of appointments. It doesn´t bother me one bit, working on holidays when I am on the Lord´s errand.

This week has gone great. We are very excited with the things that are happening, actually, we are absolutely stoked with the progress of the area. We, were so privileged last Thursday to receive the visit of Elder Caussé. He was inspiring. So inspiring that that night we set 6 baptismal dates. 1 couple from the Dominican Republic, and 1 family of 4 from Bolivia. We hope that they keep progressing, because they are wonderful people. The next visit we had with them was the Friday afterwards, last Friday, and we asked the Bolivian family what they thought about making the decision as a family to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. The father responded sincerely, me gustaría. They are a wonderful family and hope that things continue to go well for them.

The last time we were with the Dominican couple the girl asked us if she had to read all of the Book of Mormon before her baptism, her date is for the 18th of December. We responded with a smile, no. We are receiving many, many, many blessings from the Lord at this time in this area and we hope and pray that these special people, our brothers and sisters accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized. We are at least excited that they have some initial desires to do so, which sometimes people don´t have at the beginning of this teaching process.

Just to inform you about Segundo Moina. He is awesome! He came to church this last week and stayed again for the 3 hours. He wanted to go home before the third hour, but we and some other members gently persuaded him to stay. He is getting more and more friends and acquaintances at church and the bishop is really hot on him. Before Priesthood started the bishop presented himself to him, and asked him immediately, When are you getting baptized? Segundo told him the 2nd, and the bishop said, good, I want to be there. It made Segundo feel really good that people told him that they wanted to be there when he gets baptized to support him. He loves that feeling of being important and feels very special. He is a wonderful man, very humble and will be a great member of the church. He is stoked for his baptism.

We have a bunch of miracles that are going on in our area and there isn´t any time to even begin to tell you about all of them. I had an incredible exchange with Elder Cerro, El Argentino, Uruguayo, y Canario o de las islas Canarias. We were in our area and had nothing planned as all of our appoinments had canceled on us. We passed by a potencial investigator and it was just a series of miracles. 1st, that she was there, that she let us in and that there was a man in the room. To invite her to be baptized we showed her and the father of her son the picture of the baptism of Jesus, with John the baptist in the River Jordan. The really famous image in the church. We showed it to her, explained briefly what it was, and then as I began to invite her, something like , ¨cuando ustedes sepan que lo que compartimos es verdadero ....¨, she interrupted me, and said, ¨Ya se lo que me va a preguntar y la respuesta es sí.¨ Nos quedamos sorprendidos. We were shocked. We had talked to her one day in the street a long time ago, maybe 3 months, and we talked to her about baptism then, so something must have stuck with her, because she was prepared to say yes. We have another appointment with her and him tomorrow, and we are so excited because we are going to set a specific date with them. They weren´t sure about setting a serious goal the last time, but tomorrow they will be.

To end my letter today, I just wanted to congratulate one more time, Mom and Dad. I love you soooo much. I thank you for your perfect examples of love, dedication, service in the church, service in the community, hard work, testimony, and sacrifice. Thank you for all of the sacrifices that you have made and continue to make for me. I am and will be eternally grateful to you for them. What and who I am is because of you. You have taught me so much, and recognized more than ever, here on the mission, that I, like Nephi, have been born of goodly parents. I have grown in my love for you while I have been away from you these 15 months, today. If you remember it was 15 months ago, today, a Wednesday at 11:30, when we last saw each other. That was a long time ago, but the time has literally flown by, and soon, too soon, we will be together again. I am grateful for the support, love, and prayers, that you give me while I am out here completing my duty to God: being away from my family for two years, so that other families can be together forever. My love and gratitude for you is forever and words cannot describe it. The two most important words in the English language that you deserve are simply: THANK YOU!!!

I love you! Keep up the good work with Cami, Mark and Cari. We all will get to a certain point when we will finally understand what sacrifices you have gone through, which sacrifices you have done with love. Gracias.

Have a great week! or as Ignacio (Nacho libre) says it so nicely and exquisitely ....Take it eassssy!


Love,

Elder Driggs

P.S. Today for our Preparation Day, we went ice skating at an Ice skating rink 20 minutes or so from Madrid. It was way fun and think that that is one of my secret talents that I need to develop. Haha, Just kidding!!! But it was way fun. Love, Rob