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 18th 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
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