December 15, 2010

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year and the hap, happiest season of all. I love Christmas. I have so many good memories of Christmas in the past, being with family, the snow, skiing, serving others and Secret Santa, and so many other cherished memories in my mind. I love everything about Christmas. Christmas is a little different away from home in the mission field, but that same spirit of Christmas is very present.

I appreciate the beautiful chance that I have to preach good tidings of GREAT joy to people that in other ways might not fully comprehend the life of Christ, like we do. It is so special to be able to invite people to be baptized in this time of the year because it really is the ultimate way of celebrating la Navidad, by entering into the sacred covenant of baptism, committing yourself to remember Christ always and to take upon yourself his name.

Wow!!! President Watkins wanted all of the missionaries to use a similar slogan during this season which was, Cual es la mejor manera de celebrar la Navidad?...Bautizarse (What is the best way to celebrate Christmas, Baptizing.) He wanted us to use that in our contacts, lessons, and baptismal invitations, and to our surprise the people sometimes are in agreement. So the mission is going well and I really do love Christmas. There is no better time to represent the Lord than in His season.

This week has gone great. Elder Ketchum and I are working well together and are determined to help people be baptized. We, right now, have three people who have baptismal dates. Two of them are super firm and they will be baptized the 25th of December, La Navidad. The other woman has a baptismal date for the 15th of January and is working towards it with desires to do so.

The first person with a baptismal date is Kati. She is from the great country of CHILE! and she is just wonderful. Her husband, Marco, was baptized when he was 12 years old but has been inactive for many years. They have 3 precious children, Javiera, 10 years old, Francisca, 9, and Isaac 1 year maybe. We love teaching them and they are so....easy. They are so sensitive to the Spirit and have really seen changes in their lives as they have applied the Gospel in their lives. Kati just loves the church and looks like a member already. They are such a great family and have tons of faith.

The neat thing is that they were a reference from a recent convert couple that were baptized about 3 months ago. That couple is so solid and are great helps to this chilean family. So we are super excited for them. We are working with the girls so that they can also get baptized. They like the primary, so that is a huge step. They were going to get baptized the same day as their mother but the mom said that they would need extra time or that they were not ready quite yet. We are not too worried because they will soon be baptized.

The other baptismal date is Fernando from Ecuador. He is also so good. He was a reference from a member as well and is very special. He loves going to the church and is very active in the activities. He got in a scooter accident a couple of weeks ago when a car ran into him while he was working in his delivery job, and so he is home a lot of the time. This makes it easy for him to read the Book of Mormon but it is hard for him to come to church and the activities. Luckily the ward council is very willing to help him and find people who can help him with transportation.
Things are going really well here in Barrio 2 Spain, Madrid and I am enjoying the mission.

I love all of you and hope that you stay strong and are being examples to all of those who are around you. I pray for you a ton and send my love to you, the family, and everyone over there. Please keep praying for me and the people that are listening to the message of the Restoration that they can have the Spirit with they to help guide them to the waters of baptism.
I love you so much.

Love,
Elder Driggs