June 22, 2011

Dearest Family in the whole wide world....AKA...MY FAMILY!!!

From the title you can understand that I am trying to endure to the end. I don´t think that it has actually hit me yet that I am ending the mission, this thing that I have looked forward to all of my life and now I am done. Wow, I just can´t believe it.

This scripture in the subject title was shared by President Watkins in a zone leader council a few months ago and is very interesting. Moroni did not think that he was going to live more but the Lord had more prepared for him to do. Moroni kept going forward and wrote some of the most inspiring and impressive chapters of the Book of Mormon, the sacrament prayers, faith, hope and charity, baptism of children, and the famous promise that has led, changed, and touched millions of lives, including mine.

I am excited to see you too, and it will be sad and hard leaving all of this paradise here in Spain. I think and believe that the mission is the closest you can get to the Celestial Kingdom. I love missionary work and hope and plan to do that throughout my life. That makes this transition easier, knowing that I can keep doing and participating in this sacred work, forever, for the rest of my life. How exciting! Once a missionary, always a missionary.

So anyway, it will be great to see you soon. I love you and I know that I have bugged you a bunch already, but just to make sure that you don´t forget to bring those multi vitamins that Elder Cerro asked for. It was his birthday the 21 of June, this last Tuesday and I think that it would be great to be able to give him that as a present for his birthday, even if he has to pay for them. He would really enjoy that. I love you very much and travel safely. Don´t forget to buckle up!!!

Love,

your favorite missionary...Élder Driggs

June 15, 2011

Dear Family,

Well, this week has been a good week. Élder Carey and I are working hard and trying to be obedient. We are seeing quite a bit of success. Yesterday we set a baptismal date with an older Spanish man about the age of 50 or 55. His name is Jose Antonio and after the second lesson he seems to have quite a few external problems in his life; like divorce, etc. He is a very nice man and we set the date for the 16^th of July. We will see how things go. He was going to come to church last Sunday, but from what he told us yesterday, he had to go visit his mom and eat with her. He said that he would come this Sunday and we hope that all goes well with him.

I really like Ponferrada and wish that I could stay here some more time, just to see more results from our hard work. I really like the members. They are sooo nice! Last week we ate with members 5 times, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I think that that is a record during my mission, especially since I didn´t get here until Tuesday of last week. Actually Tuesday night we met with the branch mission leader and his wife gave us soup to take home in Tupperware so I guess you could say we were given food everyday of the week.  The work is also really good here. We are finding more people to teach and the work is starting to grow.

On Monday we received a huge blessing. As we were contacting in one of the main streets we stopped a girl name María. She was super nice and told us that she had a friend in Barcelona that was a member and I think that she told us that she had gone to family night at the chapel there in Barcelona. I am not sure she said all of that right there in the contact or later, as the information and order of events sometimes gets mixed up and confused. There in the contact we asked if she had time to meet later that day and she said that she did.

We met up with her in a park and started to talk to and teach her. She is super special. She is 30 years and knows 4 languages, which includes Chinese, and she is going to finish a PHD right now in French literature, or something like that. When we met up with her she showed us a really old copy of the Book of Mormon that one of the first members of the church in Barcelona had given to María´s mom about 30 years ago. She told us that she didn´t know how to read the book.  She has the same problem with the Bible.  She really didn´t know the best way to read them. We taught her a little bit and she said that she was willing to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She wasn´t quite willing to come to church this Sunday but we told her that we were going to call her this Saturday to invite her.

So that is a little bit of what we are doing here in Ponferrada. I am a district leader up here, so I am getting that experience which is nice.  I get along well with Élder Carey. He reminds me of Andrew Garrett a little bit in the way he acts sometimes.

To respond to your questions:
If there is anything you need us to bring for anyone over there let us know pretty soon.
I think that Élder Cerro would love some reeses peanut butter cups, the normal ones. He loves those and like I told you a couple weeks ago, he wants some of those like 500 multivitamins that has every vitamin or mineral that you need. He is willing to buy them from you, so if there is room that would be great.

Apart from that, the people that we visit I am sure would love candy or something like that. Élder Ketchum´s mom brought American candy for the people that they visited while they were here and I imagine that they liked it. They had like Pop Rocks and other things like that, things that you don´t really find here.
Remind me, how many suit cases do you (or will you have) on your way home?

I have, and don´t think that I will need more, 2 big suitcases and a carry on. That is how many suit cases that they allowed before, but from what I have heard they have changed the standards and only allow 1 suitcase and one carry on I think. If that is the case, I think that the church pays for that extra bag, the extra price that is required to transport it.

Mom, for Presidente and Hermana Watkins:

I think that Toffee would be the best. I think that they have everything that they need, but I think that she would love some Toffee. She liked the toffee that I gave her on Christmas, and occasionally makes a comment about your cooking blog. I know that President Watkins does a good job about watching what he eats, but I think that he like that little detail of toffee. I am not sure about him. He tries to be pretty healthy.

I remember a long time ago you asked me if there was something that you, the family, could do on Monday, while I am not with you. I was thinking that you could probably visit, El Escorial that day. It is a Monastery/Castle that is really beautiful. It is where many Kings and Queens are buried. Just a thought, if you haven´t made up your mind. To get there I think you take a bus out of the metro stop Moncloa, I think that it takes about an hour, but I really can´t remember how much time it takes.

I love you all very much and hope that all goes well this week. That is really cool that Mark gets to go to Lake Powell.  Good luck with everything and keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers daily, especially Cami and Mark and Cari.

I love you all and wish Preston my best on his big day.

Love,

Élder Driggs

June 8, 2011

Dear Family,

This week has been another fantastic week. Anibal Fernando Gonzales se bautizó el día sábado a las 8:00 por la tarde. He was very happy and looked very content to be baptized. It was especially fun because he officially belongs to the branch of Aranjuez. It was so fun because even though the baptism took place in the stake center on temple square, which is about 40 minutes away from Aranjuez in car, there were a few members that came. The branch president came with all his family except for one daughter, the branch mission leader also came, and the biggest surprise was that Ronny and Gina and there 3 children came. 

This was the family that got baptized when Elder Carr and I were in Aranjuez. I hadn´t seen them for almost 8 or 9 months, since October of last year at General Conference. It was so nice to see them and to be able to spend time with them. They are less active to inactive but it seems that they are picking things back up again. Ronny and Gina both gave there testimonies in the baptismal service and Gina said that she knew that this was the true church and something to the effect that she has never thought about parting from it. They are really good people but Ronny has had a tough work schedule which has required him to work nights. But maybe a month ago he lost his work and now they can come to church. I had asked President Jarosz from Aranjuez to call Ronny and Gina and invite them to the baptism and they actually. That was a miracle.

Fernando seems to be good and I hope that he can stay the course for the rest of his life. It sure helps to have the support of family members, especially since he lives with his brother and the family of his brother, and they are active members.

So I guess from the title you are wondering where I am right now. This last Monday, the Lord saw fit to have me transferred to Ponferrada to finish my mission there. Ponferrada is a city up north, to the west of León. You will have to look it up on a map. It is really, really pretty here and very green, with mountains. This area belonged to the old Bilboa mission, so it is neat to be able to get up here and see how it is. It is a little bit different than Madrid because there are a lot more Spaniards, but I like that. I wish I could have been able to socialize more in the mission with actual Spaniards.

Most of the people we have taught have been from South America, and most of the wards are made up of South Americans. So it is nice to be in a city where there are a lot of people from Spain and not very many people from South America. I like it a lot. My new companion is Elder Carey from Bountiful, Utah. He went to Woods Cross High School. He has been in the mission 11 months as of yesterday and I think that we are going to have a lot of success. Apart from the things that I want to accomplish here, I think that there is something special that the Lord has for me to do here. So I hope to be able to find out what that is and be able to do it. I am trying to continue to trust in the blessings mentioned in my patriarchal blessing, and to work and obey so that I can receive them.

I love the mission and am so glad for all of the things that I have been able to do while I have been on the Lord´s errand. I hope that my offering has been worthy for the Lord, and I hope that He has been pleased with my efforts. I have not been perfect but I have been able to learn and progress and I feel that I am the missionary that He wants me to be. I still need to keep working and keep progressing so that I can always be ready and worthy for whatever job He wants me to do.

Just so you know, Élder Cerro´s new companion is Elder Hodges from California. They are going to have lots of success. Elder Cerro is a wonderful missionary and I have really enjoyed our time together. I have grown to love him and we have developed a friendship that will last forever. I love him very much. We will have to take him and his companion out to eat when you come out.

I hope that you have a wonderful week. I love you all very much. Please keep reading the scriptures, praying to our Father in Heaven, and going to church every week so that we can renew our covenants with Him. Only by doing these 3 things and by being obedient to the commandments of God, can we find true and everlasting happiness in this life and in the life to come. That is what we want so let´s pay the price. I love you very much. Tell everyone hi for me.

Love,

Élder Driggs