March 9, 2011

Buenos días querida familia,

Right now it is 11:23 in the morning and we just got out of a temple session about 45 minutes ago, more or less. Elder Ketchum and I have sure gone to the temple quite a bit lately and I really appreciate Élder Ketchum´s spiritual nature and how much he loves seeking spiritual experiences. I really enjoy being his companion and it was a neat experience today because we went to the temple at the 8:00 session with our ward mission leader, Gino Carión, de Peru. He is absolutely WONDERFUL!!! and he has an amazing conversion story. He actually is a convert of 3 or 4 years and before he didn´t even believe in God. Let´s just say that the Spirit really worked on him and he is a powerful leader and member. He has been Elder´s quorum president, etc. So it was very fun to be able to be together us three this morning in the temple.

This week has been a very successful week for us. We are extremely grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father is giving us and we are seeing a lot of progress in the investigators. Carol is doing super well and is basically ready for baptism. She is reading quite a bit in the Book of Mormon and she has now come to church 2 times. We had a Noche de Hogar, family night, this last Monday with the Bishop and his family, with Carol and her daughter. Luis Miguel, the recent convert from December, also came and accompanied us. She enjoyed it and is really feeling that the things we are teaching her are true. So she is great!

Jhon is a little different. He actually did not come to church because he was visiting friends or family in a suburb of Madrid and said that he woke up late. So, we met with him yesterday with Felix and Carmen, his mom, and he was super tired and wasn´t really involved in the lesson. I hope that he can see the importance of this and I hope that he can change. I think that he is going through those rebellious teenage years and that isn´t helping us at all. Felix and Carmen are great and love coming to church and have now done so three times in a row. I sure hope that Felix can prepare himself to go on a mission. His mom said that he has to do it.

The last big news is that yesterday we set a baptismal date with Gloria, a single mom with a 6 year old son Cristian. She is super special. The story with her is very interesting. Elder Ketchum had seen her 3 distinct times in the street and after talking and always asking her for her phone number and then her not answering we were finally able to pass by and visit her. The bad part is that when the day came that we were to visit her Elder Ketchum was on exchanges with another Elder and I was to visit her with my companion. I think this was when we were with the two new Elders, Elder Jeppson and Elder Gardner.

We went there to her house, with a member and when she opened the door she let us in, and then into her room, as there wasn´t anywhere else we could meet because she is sharing an apartment. When we were in her room she started to get a little nervous because she had never seen us before and we were 3 men in her room and she was a little scared or nervous. I felt bad because she had obviously told Elder Ketchum that he could come because she had already established a friendship with him. So we explained what we do as missionaries and that sometimes we have to do exchanges and we told her that we always have to have a member with us when we teach women alone, etc.

After that explanation she calmed down a little and we asked if we could say a prayer. We shared a message and she showed quite a bit of interest but after that visit, for quite a while, we were not able to get a hold of her to visit her again. I am not exacly sure why. But we visited her last week, she and her son came to church, the three hours, and yesterday she said that she wanted a change in her life. We invited her to prepare herself to be baptized the 10th of April. She said, ¨Me esforzaré.¨ which means, I will try. She is very special and seems to have had a very hard life and you can tell that she really needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. Her son is also very special and very smart. So we are excited that they are also doing very well.

I am sorry to hear that Mark has the shingles! Yikes! I remember that Andrew Garrett had the shingles during EFY and had to go home, once or various times, because it was so painful. I remember him telling me that it was the most pain he has ever been in and that he remembered just screamming because the pain didn´t go away. Andrew said that he gained a testimony of the power of Priesthood blessings when his dad gave him one during that trial in his life. So Mark, ask for a blessing and pray a lot. I am sorry that you are in pain. I hope that you get better fast. Good luck, my brother!

I can´t believe that Joe is already home. I had a letter for him but it was taking me a long time to get it sent. I am a very bad letter writer. I can´t believe that Taylor is going home tomorrow. I can´t believe that the time is far spent. I sure have loved and enjoyed the time that I have had to be a missionary! I love the missionary work.

I wish Cari good luck in all of her competitions. I will be mailing Cami a letter today. I wrote it last week and I have delayed in sending it. I am sooo sorry for taking so long in sending these promised letters. I am horrible. So the promised letter from three weeks ago should come shortly.

I love you all very much and am so grateful for your prayers and thoughts and love. Keep up the good work and know that I love you too.

Have a wonderful week.

Thank you so much for taking care of all of that and for being so aware of what I need to do to be able to study in the fall. Thank you also for the spiritual insights that you send me every week. I love hearing your comments and your thoughts and it makes me want to study better to be able to find similar treasures.

Thank you so much mom for the future package and for always sending such love and detail filled letters. I love and appreciate them so much. You are very kind and thank you so much for teaching me so many things when I was little. I am forever in debt for the wonderful influence of my mother.

I love you all.

Love,

Élder Driggs

P.S. Keep smiling! Read the scriptures, Pray often, and Go to church to partake of the Sacrament!