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