December 29, 2010

Dear Family,

Well, it was so much fun being able to talk to you on Saturday. I apologize again for not being able to talk the first time that you called. What a nightmare that must have been for you, having to wait even more time after waiting six months to talk to me. I apologize. It was sure fun hearing your voices and being able to hear you laugh and get along with each other....haha. I am finally seeing, little by little, how our family is going to socialize and react one with another. We are growing up and now have personalities and we are becoming more friends, rather than just brothers and sisters. So that is very exciting. The distance between me and Cami and Mark and Cari, is diminishing more and more and I understand that there really is not a big age difference. So cool!

This week has been great and I actually wanted to share a spiritual experience that I had the other night.

Elder Ketchum and I were teaching a recent convert family of 2 or 3 months and let´s just say that they are absolutely incredible. They are super active and have tons of faith. After the lesson, and the lessons are usually just them telling us how much they love the Gospel and how much it has really changed their lives and how willing they are to sacrifice themselves for the church and other members, etc. So after the lesson the wife of this family with a 6 year old daughter asked us to give her a priesthood blessing.

She was having headaches and she has I think, a mild form of Multiple Sclerosis, but has been told that she could die in the next 15 years. So we gave her the blessing, and in the blessing much was said about the strength of her faith. After we finished the blessing she stood up with tears coming down her cheek and asked, do you want to know something? We said sí. She told us that her head no longer was hurting her. She said it again, rather astonished, and said that it was incredible.

There were several moments of silence and the Spirit was very strong and thick in that room. We were touched and knew that it was because we had complied with the three requirements of a blessing taught by Elder Oaks. We had the priesthood, she had tons of faith, and it was the will of the Lord. I was humbled by the experience and knew that it was a true miracle, wrought about by the faith of this special sister. They are battling all sorts of persecution from friends and have had friends cease to be their friends for joining this ¨sect.¨ The good thing is that we know that all of this is true and that the blessings are real and many.

It was a beautiful and sweet experience and count it a tender mercy to have been able to participate in it.

I love you family and wish you a wonderful week. Just remember that I pray for you. I know that you pray for me and I feel those prayers and your love.

Love

Élder Driggs