May 25, 2011

Dear Family,

I love the mission. I am loving every minute of it. I am grateful that all went well with Grandma. I hope that everyone is taking it well. I appreciate what you, mom and dad, said about the situation. I loved the scriptures and the details. I, too, believe in the Resurrection and know that thanks to Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we can see and live with our loved ones forever. This is what I want with my life, to be worthy of that gift of eternal life. I count it as a privilege being able to be a missionary and being able to share the blessing or the opportunity of having eternal life, as that only depends on our personal righteousness.

I am not sure at what time Grandma passed away but the baptism of Lizett Marbeli Perino García was at 4:30 our time and she had asked me to baptize her. That was a special honor to do so. It is interesting that while someone was being born again spiritually, completing with earthly requirements from Heavenly Father, while someone else was leaving this life, having done what Heavenly Father has required of us. I love missionary work and it is so satisfactory, I feel so good trying to bring souls to Christ.

I remember a song written with the words of President Hinckley and the music written by the famous Janice Kapp Perry. There is a special phrase in that song that I can still remember. It says, ¨There is no death, but only change. ¨ What a blessing to know that life goes on. Death is merely opening a door and stepping into another room.  I also love the words to the last verse of ¨Come, Come, ye saints.¨ The verse goes like this, ¨and should we die, before our journey´s through, happy day, all is well. ¨ I know that Grandma is well, where she is right now. I know it! And that thought gives me peace and comfort, to the point that it is not a big burden for me to bear.

Élder Cerro and I are doing well. We are trying to work hard and to find more people to baptize. We have a very firm baptismal date with Fernando Gonzales. He lives in Aranjuez, or a pueblo that pertains to that branch, so I know his brother that is a member and the family of that brother. We are excited that he is going to get baptized.  His date was going to be this Saturday but due to conflicting schedules with the branch we are going to have his baptism on the fourth of June. We were excited because that was almost going to be a baptism every Saturday three weeks in a row, but that´s not really important. The important thing is that people are being baptized and that in and of itself is a witness that the Lord really is preparing people to receive the restored Gospel.

Speaking of people being prepared to receive the restored Gospel, yesterday Élder Cerro received a reference from other missionaries that were looking in their area book for old investigators and came upon a old investigator that looked to be golden. They called him and found out that he happened to live in our area. They sent us a text message with the reference and Élder Cerro called him and set up an appointment with him last night, the same day that we received the reference. We went to his house and it was a huge miracle. Apparently he has heard the missionaries a couple of times and one point was about to be baptized, but didn´t do so because he was living with a girl and therefore not complying with the law of Chastity. As of right now he is not living with anybody. We asked him a few questions and during the lesson he told us that every night he asks, which is the true church. He prays every night and we set a baptismal date, not too firm because we were kind of interrupted by his neighbor that came in the house, but the date was or is for the 18^th of June. He is golden and is willing to read the scriptures every day, pray every day, and come to church every Sunday.  We are so blessed to have been able to teach him yesterday. We hope to be able to teach him tonight as we set an appointment to return tonight at 8:00. The name of this golden investigator is Digno and he is from Ecuador. There are lots of Ecuadorians that get baptized here in Spain, or atleast in our mission.

I really want to see more Spaniards get baptized and accept the church. It is really hard, but we are going to try and exercise more faith by talking to more Spaniards in the street and en todo lugar. J

Gracias por sus oraciones y les amo mucho. Espero que tengan una semana super buena, especialmente los chicos, Cami, Mark and Cari, ya que la escuela ha terminado. Que suerte tienen ellos, y ustedes dos, mamá y papá.

Les amo mucho y que sigan leyendo las escrituras todos los días, orando mucho durante el día, y yendo a la capilla todos los domingos. Es super importante que hagamos estas tres cosas tán sencillas porque obra por medios muy pequeños para realizar sus grandes designios, como dice en Alma 37:6 y 7. Gracias padres, y hermanas y hermano por todo.

¡Les amo!

Con mucho cariño y amor,

Élder Driggs

May 18, 2011

Dear Family,

I love you very much and thank you very much for always writing me. I really appreciate it. I am also glad that everyone is busy and seeming to do well. I wish you lots of luck mom as you hear about the possibility of your teaching job today. I hope that all goes well. I´ll be praying for you.

So this last week was a good week. We had a baptism this last Saturday and all went well, except for the fact that Lizett couldn´t come. We were a little worried at first but we went through with the program. Before going home that night we received a call from here and we passed by her piso. We talked to her outside her piso and she explained to us why she couldn´t come. We talked to her and were able to set a new baptismal date for this Saturday, or let´s say, in 3 days. She is wonderful and I still ask you to pray for her and for us. Elissa was very excited for her baptism and in her testimony said that she was very happy.

Elder Cerro and I are receiving many blessings right now. Let me tell you about a couple of them. This last Sunday after sacrament meeting a member came up to us and told us that the Bishop wanted to talk to us urgently. We went quickly to his office and there was someone in there that I didn´t recognize. The bishop asked us if we recognized him and we  said no. He presented him to us as Ronal, and said that his parents are members in Peru and that he want to tomar el camino de sus padres, or follow the example of his parents. Ronal is 33 years old and later that day we met with him, he had only been able to stay for the 2 hours of church, and later that day we set a baptismal date with him for the 11 of June, a very special day for a special someone. We have met with him one more time and he is wonderful.

The second miracle also occurred last Sunday. The bishop, in Ward counsel, told us that there was a member that had just arrived here from Puerto Rico and had a daughter that is not a member. After church we were able to meet them and that night we visited them both and set a baptismal date with her. Her name is Jennifer and she is 30 years old. She has lived quite a bit of her life in Florida and speaks perfect English and Spanish. Her husband is also from Puerto Rico but lives in Florida. Her baptismal date is for the 11 of June as well.

So these are some of the blessings and huge miracles that we are receiving right now. We are very blessed and desiring to work even harder so that we can receive more blessings and therefore baptize more. I love missionary work and loved the quote that you wrote to me mom from Thomas Fuller, about the best gift that life has to offer is to work in a work worthy of work or something like that. I like it a lot.

It would be a good idea to have some euros when you get here, because obviously there is no way to use American money. Just for transportation in metro and food that day, etc. Don´t use a taxi, as it is expensive, I think. The metro is the best way for transportation. 1 euro for a one way to almost any part of Madrid. Thank you Dad for the scriptures that you cited, I really appreciate it.

I love you all very much. Thank you for the information about the MTC. I guess I won´t worry about anything until I get back, and dad, that would be great if you could get a hold of Lee Stoore. I would love to work up there or anywhere until I get a job in the MTC or somewhere else. I love you all very much and appreciate all of the support and trust.

Elder Cerro and President Watkins Mandan sus saludos. Les quiero un montón y les deseo una semana de maravilla.

Con todo el amor que poseo,

Élder Driggs

May 11, 2011

Dearest Family,

It was sure fun being able to talk to you this last Sunday. I, as you mentioned as well, loved being able to see you and talk to you through Skype. What a blessing modern day technology.

I will start off mentioning a few of the administrative details, just so that I don´t forget to do so later on.

First, I think that it would be best to stay at home while I study at BYU. I agree with Dad, that when I want to focus on studying I will be at the Library. Now the question is where is that?.... No just kidding. I obviously would love to room with Elder Ketchum but I think that it would be good if I could be at home and be able to help out a little bit, even if it is by only getting up in the morning to have family scripture study. I don´t know how that would work with my ¨social life¨ but I assume that something will turn up. I also have a huge desire to serve in the ward where I am in.

 I don´t have a huge desire to go to single adults ward, but I guess that will have to do.  So these are some of the thoughts. I think, that overall, it would be good that I stay at home. But I give you at home the power of attorney, because I trust in your experience to make a good decision for me. Please do whatever you think is best for me. I am not too sure. I want to be at home and focused, but it would also be so nice to live with Élder Ketchum. He is a great person and is very focused so that would be neat.

Thank you for your regards as to Saturday. We are excited as they both have passed their interviews and are very content. Please keep praying for Elisa Pillajo and Lizett Perino.

Élder Cerro says ¨hi¨ to everyone, and especially to mom and dad. He said that it was nice to meet you.(We talked to him on Skype on Sunday.)

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. Yesterday we had a tri zone zone conference with three zones, about 50-60 missionaries or so. So that went well.

Elder Cerro and I are getting ready for the next transfer. We want to baptize a lot, so we will do all that we can to accomplish so.

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful week. Les deseo lo mejor y les quiero y les amo un montón.

Sigan leyendo todos los días en las escrituras y orando todos los días. Sigan haciendo la noche de hogar los domingos por la noche o los lunes cuando papá no esté, o cuando sea. Tenemos que hacer estas cosas para que el Señor nos pueda bendecir, unir, y proteger contra el mal de afuera. Gracias por todo lo que están haciendo y les digo otra vez….les amo.

Con amor y mucho cariño,

Élder Driggs

P.S. Intentaré a averiguar más en cuanto a reservar el hostal en el templo. No sé cuando podrá ser. A lo mejor la próxima semana. Lo siento por la demora. Gracias y les amo.

May 4, 2011

Dear family,

Well I don´t have tons of time today to write. We are quite busy teaching actually. We have 2 teaching appointments today, one in 20 minutes and the other at 5:00. So first things first, in case that I don´t have the opportunity to write more later.

This Sunday is mother´s day. I have no idea how to use Skype, and as it is Sunday, I do not want to pay to use public internet. So what I have worked out, is that I am going to go to the office and use the Skype there. If the office missionaries are there I have received permission from Hermana Watkins to go to the mission home and use the skype there, both of the options for free. So the only question is at what time. I am sure that all of you have plans for Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. So I was thinking that I could maybe call you before church. I don´t remember what time you start church, but I would think that it would be at 11:00 o clock because I think that the other time you all had to leave to go to church. The call will be only 40 minutes so it will be a quick one. I think that a great time would be at 8:00 your time, in the morning, which would be, if I am correct, 4:00 our time. In this way I could have time to drive to the office and communicate with you during medio dia. I sure hope that that is okay.

We will be able to talk more about the plans in Madrid during the call as well, I think. I love you all, and I am glad to hear that things are going well. Now we need to leave so that we can get to the church in ten minutes and teach Lizett with Carol and our Ward Mission Leader. It should be a great lesson. We are going to teach her a bunch, the Law of Chastity, the word of wisdom, and tithing. We will see how much we can teach.

I love you all and pray for you a lot.

Love,

Élder Driggs

April 28, 3011

Dearest Family

Estamos super bien, Élder Cerro y yo. Todo va bien con los investigadores y estamos entusiasmados por la obra!!!!

Mom, you are speaking really well. I can´t wait to hear you for real speaking in Spanish. Way to go!!!

So this week has been wonderful and yes, well, let´s see. The investigators are doing well. Elisa is progressing incredibly, until the point that she volunteered to offer the closing prayer when the teacher asked who would like to say it. She is doing well, the only bad thing is that she has started to work, as an intern at a home so now, we can only teach her on the weekends. This is okay because she can still come to church, but we can´t teach her like every day, like we have almost been doing. She has now come to church 3 times in a row and is great.

Lizett is super, super nice and she also has come to church three times in a row and is doing well.

Consuelo and Belquis couldn´t come this last Sunday, Belquis because she was sick and didn´t have money to pay for the metro. Consuelo couldn´t come because her son was in the hospital.

So that is the quick update on the awesome investigators. We are pretty sure that Elisa is going to get baptized on the 14^th, and I think we might have to wait a little bit more for Lizett and Belquis. Consuelo will probably get baptized in a few months, but it´s definitely worth the wait. J

 Yes, we can use Skype. I have no idea how to use it and if you say that I need an account and that you can set that up for me that would be great. It would be fun to see you and for you to see me and Elder Cerro as we talk. The following are the guidelines that we have for the Mother´s day Call. So we can coordinate well.

 

In response to what to do in Spain. Wow that is way hard. I don´t think that there are many things that I would not want to do with you. I guess that it would be a good thing that you visit the Prado museum without me. I think that it is free after 4 or 7 or something like that. So that would save you a Little bit of money. Apart from that I don´t know what to tell you. You could probably visit El Escorial or Valle de los Caídos(I have never been there). As of the other days, it would be great to go to Segovia, Aranjuez, Toledo, we went to an awesome restored castle the other day and you could walk on it and everything. It was really beautiful. I think that I could call to arrange for the hostal or temple housing. Let me know if you need me to do that.

I love you all very much, and if Brother Williams can´t do anything I will just turn in a resume, because I don´t want to wait very much longer.

I am glad that you could talk to Élder Ketchum, he is wonderful.

I am also extremely glad that Cami is doing well and that they are going to get married. I look forward to meeting Silas and being able to support them both in their good decision to get married. Tell them both that I love them and admire them, and that I am proud of them

I love you all very much and please have a wonderful, excellent week. I hope that you get to work in Edgemont as a teacher. I think that that would be a wonderful job. How fun for you!!! That has been a kind of dream for you right, to go back and teach again?

I love you tons,

Love,

Élder Driggs