April 23, 2011

My dear family,

From what I can tell from the weekly update is that you had a good week and that all is well on the home front. I always love hearing what everyone is doing and how they are getting along, so I thank you for informing me about what is going on.

This week has been a good week and we have had a wonderful day today at the temple. Elder Ketchum, in his very spiritual manner, wanted to go to the temple today to start off the transfer running. This is Elder Ketchum´s last transfer and we have nicknamed the theme of it ¨To the Rescue & Go Big and Go Home.¨ I, of course, am not going home but you get the picture. We and President have been thinking about how we can help certain companionship every week and we have come to the conclusion that we will focus on one companionship, every week, from every zone that needs help overcoming certain obstacles. In that week we will do all that we can, with the zone leaders to attend to their needs. So that is the reason for the title ¨To the Rescue.¨ I hope that makes sense.

So today in the temple Elder Ketchum and I, for the first time, went to the three act play instead of the first two acts or just the second act like we usually do as a church. It was neat. It took a lot of time as we arrived at the temple to do initiatory work at 9:00, attended the endowment session at 10:00 and then had to wait until 1:00 to do sealings. We were able to eat their in the cafeteria before we went to the sealing rooms.

There were quite a few French patrons today so the sealings were all done in French. That was great. It is really fun seeing people who are so faithful that live where the church isn´t like it is in Utah, or like they say here, La Fábrica, or the factory. I was talking to a brother there in the temple who lives near Baurdeux France, and he was telling me, in English of course, that he was baptized in the year 1969, because two missionaries knocked on his door and he saw the Spirit in their eyes. He and his wife got baptized, his life changed, and three of their four children served missions. From what I understood his four children are all active and married in the temple. One of his sons is a stake president in León France and this brother was very special.

He said that many years ago, President Kimball selected one person from 10 European countries to be sealers and this brother was one of them. He had received that power directly from the prophet. He since has been a Patriarch and you could tell just from talking to him and seeing his emotion, how deeply and eternally grateful he was for those two missionaries that knocked on his door many years ago. So you never know the eternal impact of what you do, not only as a missionary but as a member as well. The example that we set, live and show can literally change lives, for the better or, sometimes, and sad it is, for the worse.

Elder Ketchum and I are very busy and very excited to finally be working together again. We loved the special time we had to somewhat train new missionaries, and we are glad that we can work hard together and reap good fruit. I love this work and hope that you have a wonderful week. I love being a missionary and can honestly say that I don´t think I have ever been more happy. I just love doing what missionaries do. Don´t get me wrong, because sometimes it is hard, but I am at that point in my mission where I can know from personal experience that all rough times come to an end where we see big blessings. I trust that that is the case with all of us. Por sacrificio se dan bendiciones. I am not sure how the line goes in English, in the hymn ¨Praise to the Man.¨ As we make sacred sacrifices the Lord will eternally bless us. What a beautiful concept.

I love you all very much y espero que tengan una semana super buena con mucha alegría y Milagros. Nunca dejen de estudiar las escrituras y orar fervientemente con frecuencia todos los días. ¡Les amo mucho!

Y Elder Ketchum les ama mucho también.

Con mucho cariño y amor y aprecio,

Élder Driggs

April 20, 2011

Dear Family,

I love you all soooo much and I am glad to hear how everything is going. I am very glad that you had such a fun week in Oregon. It sounds like it was a blast.

I know that I say this a lot but this last week for us has also been fantastic. We are very busy, Elder Cerro and I. We right now are teaching 4 single women who are absolutely incredible, 3 of them have baptismal dates in May, and 1 needs to get married to set a date with her. I will tell you a little about each of them.

Elisa is still going strong. She is about 35 years old from Ecuador. She has a little 3 year old boy in her country and that is one of the most important things for her. She basically is a miracle. Like I told you last week she came to church after inviting her the day before in the street, even before teaching her. She came again this last Sunday and stayed again the 3 hours. The Relief Society seems to be really strong and really united. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and is making a lot of friends in the church. We hope that she can be ready for her baptism the 14^th of May. We also went with her to a baptismal service in the old Cuatro Caminos chapel, where I used to be.

Lizeth. She is from Honduras and is about 40 years old, maybe. She has 4 children, all of them are in her country. It is amazing to see the sacrifice of some parents that come over here to Spain to get money, or to get ahead, so that there children can study and have a chance in the world. It is, or they are incredible. It seems like Lizeth is one of those faithful parents. She was invited to go to church by missionaries in Cuatro Caminos and went to church there 2 Sundays ago. The sister missionaries there found out that she didn´t belong to that ward so they sent us her reference and we invited her to come to our church the following day. She did so, as the church is only 1 metro stop away from where she lives. She also stayed the three hours and loved it. She is very sensible to the Spirit and has a baptismal date for the 7^th of May. She is wonderful.

Belquis. Elder Ketchum and I taught Hermana Belquis at the end of December and a couple months after, but then we dropped them for a little time because they weren´t really progressing. We went back to teaching them when Elder Cerro and I saw them in the street one day, and they asked us what happened to us. The mom, Belquis, seemed to have missed us and she has come to church the past two Sundays and this last Sunday she stayed for the first time the full three hours. She told us last night that she liked it and sayed something like she wanted to stay the whole three hours again. Her baptismal date is for the 14^th of May, because it is hard for her to read.

Consuelo. She is from Nicaragua and has had a kind of rough life. She had 2 children with another man and then when she came over her, her boyfriend, they weren´t married, was getting married to pastor´s daughter, from a church that she had assisted before. She almost lost her children, but finally she won them and is now here in Spain with another boyfriend from Brazil and they have another baby. They are not married, however the miracle is that her boyfriend wants to get married and has the paper to do so. It is her that has not wanted to. So in the second visit, because she is so good and so ready (sometimes you can just tell when people are ready or have been prepared to receive the gospel), we talked to her about getting married and explained briefly that it is a requirement to be baptized, because we need to comply with the Law of Chastity. She said, as this was yesterday, that she would talk with her husband about this last night, and that he was going to be very happy to hear this.

So this is our life right now. We are very happy and love the work. Élder Cerro is wonderful and we are working well together. Élder Cerro is very motivated and a very driven person and I like that about him.

Today for Preparation Day we went with the Office Elders to visit a castle less than an hour from Madrid. It was precious. I will include one picture of it.

I love you all very much, and please keep informing me about all of the details of life at home. I love hearing about it. I love you all.

Love,

Élder Driggs

April 13, 2011

Dearest family in the whole wide world,

I am glad to hear that things are going well. It seems to me that life keeps plugging forward like it should, and it sure sounds like you are having and are going to continue to have so much fun in Oregon. I am not sure if I have ever been to Oregon. I am sure that I have driven through it or something like that.

Things are going really well with me and Elder Cerro. Elder Cerro is an animal. He is really good and we are learning a lot together. He is helping me become a better person and I obviously hope that my Spanish can improve as well.

This last week has been great. It was interesting not having Elder Ketchum as a companion but we survived and we are pressing forward. I was able to meet the parents of Elder Ketchum and they are sooo nice. Everything that Elder Ketchum said about them is true. They brought us over a bag of beef jerky and American candy. They are very kind and down to earth people.

Elder Cerro and I, while we were contacting people in the street last Saturday afternoon, were able to find a women name Elisa and we invited her to come to church the next day. We had planned on meeting her at the mouth of the metro Ventas, and the next day she actually came. We obviously want to think positively that everyone we invite will come to church but experience proves that when we invite people the day before in the street, they don´t always come. So she came and stayed the whole 3 hours and lucky for us the Relief Society is getting really strong and unified and it seemed like she liked it. She is from Ecuador and has a 3 year old son in her country. She is planning on going back to her country the 11^th of June. What a coincidence right! I think that that day is special for someone else. ;) (Mom´s birthday)

So she came and liked it, and after wards a member of the ward invited her to her home the next day for Family Home Evening. She came and we went as well and had a great first lesson with her. We taught her again last night and asked her if she felt that what we had said was true before the 14^th of May, would she would be baptized. She said that she wanted to be sure and we promised that she would be before then if she put in her part. She said that she was willing to do so and promised us that she was going to read and pray.

She is basically golden and we are pretty sure that she is going to get baptized. She had a wonderful experience at church last Sunday and has been able to have 2 Family nights with two different family this week and we are going to have another one tonight with the first family again. She also read the pamphlet we gave her the first time about the Plan of Salvation, and we have high hopes that she´s read the chapter we assigned in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11. Elder Cerro was assigned that same chapter when he first received the Book of Mormon from the missionaries, so it is a special chapter for him.

I love being a missionary and can´t believe how fast time is passing. I am glad that every member is a missionary because I want to always be in and dedicated to the Lord´s service.

I love you all very, very, very much and am praying a lot for you. I trust that the Lord is blessing us a lot as a family, and the harder we strive to complete all of his commandments he will bless us more and more.

I love you very much family, Mom, Dad, Cami, Mark, and Cari. I love you, pray for you and hope that you have an extraordinary week wherever you are.

Stay close to Christ. ¨Look unto (Him) in every thought. Doubt not; Fear not.¨

And Never, never quit. A Driggs never quits.

With all of my love,

Élder Driggs

April 7, 2011

Dear Family,

I am soooo sorry for not writing yesterday. We had a very busy day and for a few hours we were here in the office doing things for the mission. So I apologize for being so late. I was also registering for classes yesterday so there wasn´t too much time to write until right now. So this letter will be a little short. Sorry…L

This week has been great. I received my new companion this last Saturday and his name is Elder Cerro! He was that missionary that I lived with in Barrio 5 when he was in Barrio 1. He actually replaced me as zone leader when I left B5. If you remember, he is from Argentina but has lived in Uruguay and before the mission lived in the Canary Islands. He is a great missionary and was a convert to the church when he was 13 years old. He is very good and we are good friends. We are going to have lots of success together and we already have. I will have to tell you more about the investigators next time.

I absolutely loved general conference and it was fantastic. I love our Prophet, President Monson.

So you asked me why I am wearing glasses. Well it is not because I am out of contacts, rather, I have or had an eye infection quite some time ago and ever since then when I wear contacts they bother me. So, when I get back I will need to see an ophthalmologist. I saw an eye doctor here, at an eye clinic, but they didn´t see anything wrong.

While we were leaving the temple today, we saw the parents of Elder Ketchum, while they were having a temple tour by the zone leaders there in Barrio 6. We were able to meet them briefly and they are very nice. We will be able to talk more to them later on this week.

I love you all very much and am praying a lot for you.

I congratulate Cami, Mark, and Cari for their efforts to choose the right.

Congratulation Cari, for your dance competition. Way to go!!!

I love you all,

Love,