"we were about to toottooottoot this house" - week 18

(written August 3rd)

sœur banks likes the house!! shes comin to hang out when she gets home lol in jan. but that's awesome!! what school is everyone going to orem or AF? naha i am so excited for goob he's gonna love it you'll have to send me pictures the colors don't change here but it's so green lol plants grow on the power lines here its crazy!! naha that's what I'm talkin about what a good lookin sign i made ;) HEY sœur banks said you and her mom are hanging out tomorrow I'M SO EXCITED sœur banks is awesome she's gotta have awesome parents if it ever gets awkward she is an artist and has her own studio lol just tryin to help you out but your not an awkward person so you'll be fine! mom guess what 23 missionaries go home this transfer!! WHAT it'll be like 4 sister missionaries in french side this coming transfer and 3 new sister missionaries are coming in!! this is so exciting well find out saturday our calls and stuff i am so excited i want to stay with banks in abymes because this place is awesome and banks is awesome!! OH! haha i forgot to tell you but i got your package only 1 i got the second duplicate package that's what you wrote on your card anyway like last week!! THANK YOU SO MUCH but i gotta do other stuff on the 14 and need my birth certificate? sorry if you could send that it could be good lol and thank the shulers for the package!! I LOVED IT i was like craving twizzlers and she sent them!! so that was real cool!

alright so this week was so good!! seems like all our amis dropped us so our teaching pool went way down but we prayed and fasted to find some new people who sincerely want to be closer to our heavenly father and we found some super cool people!! We still are teaching our cute couples too and guess what! There is the cutest family and they are getting married in October and the wife whose name is annie asked banks and i to be her maids of honor if her sister and mom cant make it which was so sweet and honestly i have grown so close to these people here i never want to leave!! She took down our sizes so she could buy us dresses for it oh my goodness she is the sweetest but i really hope her mom and sister can make it cuz like its a wedding i donno lol you know! were supper excited for them! and we've been teaching marc and kethlie and took two members to teach with us and we walked up to the door to Knock and it started pouring on us so marc let us in but his wife was passed out we felt so bad there was like 4 of us in there cute little house and she basically woke up to a house full of strangers we've only had like 3 lessons with her but she's so cool and SO CUTE she was up and like alright what are we singing today lol it was awesome we're really excited to teach them! We have been really struggling this past week to have our lessons we plan earlier in the week stick throughout the week i donno why but everyone has been canceling or just not being there....that Caribbean time though lol but it has been so cool to see how when something falls through most of the time it's because we needed to be in that place at that time to talk to someone that is there and we've definitely seen it this past week finding those people who are looking for something and sometimes they're not sure what and i know without a doubt when someone feels that way it's the gospel that they feel is missing it's so amazing to see how it fills the hearts of the people here and how they can feel it but sadly we'll teach some people and we know they have felt the goodness and what it can bring them but they decide later on that its not for them and its amazing to me to see how quick they are to forget how they felt when we taught them or there little experience while reading the scriptures i donno it makes me sad. OK cool story right here so a few weeks ago someone stole our lights for our bikes lol we've been riding lightless for a while and i know its not safe and i am sorry mom but we do wear reflectors and were good. Well we had that lesson with the supper cute couple and walked out of the lesson around 7 at night and Banks tire was flat they didn't have a pump brenden who is actually their neighbor didn't have a pump so we just went like house contacting asking people if they had a bike pump and we asked this lady she said she didn't and pointed to a house across the street a ways a way and was like i think he has one! so we were like cool and walked over there we were about to toottooottoot this house when their neighbor walked out carrying a bunch of chairs we asked if he needed help he said no then we asked if he could help us lol and asked for a bike pump he was on it! he was like a man on a mission to help us get this tire going again it was so cool he found a little pump got her tire workin again and was like where are your lights?!? we told him someone stole them so he was like wait here walked Inside his house and gave us both a front light and a back light. Were going to teach him later on this week but i know heavenly father watches out for us as missionaries and i know he is helping us help the people here and the people here to help us! It was so cool to see how that man didn't give it a second thought to give us the bike lights and to help Banks with her tire. earlier on in the week we had a few incidences with just the boys here being gross and it was just a testimony to me that there are those good people and those people who helping others is just like second nature to them i donno it was a cool experience mom i donno if it even sounds as cool as it was but yeah anyway i hope you have a good week!! love you:)

bisous

sœur driggs

Soeur Banks

shes all GWADA out! lol oh i ate a fish eye the other day they are not to tasty.

"its like your their best friend in seconds!!" - week 17

Bonjour!! MOM get in contact with soeur banks mom she lives in utah don't know why i haven't thought of this sooner!!! ____ that's her number kathline is her name also soeur banks is giving her her mom your name and number too lol WHAT gabe that's really cool!! oh man that MATC though so should i expect to be going to a home in utah in a year and a half? are you moving out there?? oh man that's rough i will keep them in my prayers for sure!! GAAAH how was is?? i love MOTAB i wish i would have found more cool songs sung by them! but they sing really cool stuff!! 

This week was really good we were struggling to find people who were really progressing we felt like we were teaching people but no one was coming through on their engagements so we fasted to know how to discern who to teach and what to teach them and this week we really saw miracles. The people we were teaching and we even found a few new people who are following through and seeing immediate results. One investigator names Stephans who totally remind me of snoop dowg just loves the jewelry and has two braids coming off his beard ill take a picture with him this coming week he is supper cool though we invited him to pray and read and he did it!! usually its like two or three lessons before people will actually read and pray but he did it!! and the day after he prayed he said he found a job and he wants to met the members of our church and go to church! He came to church with us this sunday and said he liked the feeling there, we are excited to continue teaching him. Also it was so cool to see but the members just welcomed him more than any of our other investigators which was so awesome!! Remember Brenden that was going to paint the first vision? He dropped us this week and we were heart broken honestly he just needs a job and is putting that first right now he told us he will call us when he is ready so that was actually really hard and supper disappointing i wonder kinda like what could we have done more and better? but he has his free agency and soeur banks and i tried so hard to do our best and the spirit was their in our lessons and we know he felt it because he even commented when he came to church that it felt different. But we have a feeling he will call us again :) MOM coolest experience involving brenden we had a rendez vous avec brenden and he said to meet at some ladies house that he was painting so soeur banks and i ride over and when we got there he said he thought he would have been done painting by then and that we couldn't teach him but we were already there so we were like well we'll help you paint this woman's house she had real paint brushes this time lol and so we were painting the inside with her hubby and brenden was painting the outside so we started talking to this woman and her husband. GUESS WHAT this woman's sister is a member of our church and she lives in france..; that's what I'm talkin about.. she had questions about our church and so we ended up teaching her instead of brenden and gave her a book of mormon!! she has been reading in it and is going to come to church with us this next sunday were so excited about her. shes got such a solid faith in christ and is searching for the correct church. she is so cool and shes got a son who is like older so were trying to teach him too eternal families are amazing!! mom it has never hit me so much but our family is eternal and we have the chance to be together for eternity!! that's amazing to me i am like getting all teary eyed right now lol yeah anyway we are trying to teach families so they too can be together for forever it brings so much happiness to our lives others need this in their life too!! We have been teaching loic and katcia they aren't married yet but katcia prayed for the ability to get married and they are just such a cute couple were excited for them!! and then Mark and kethlie are so cute too they are also not married but were working on that with them!! they're reading and its awesome we teach them together on sundays and then on wendesdays we go over and read with kethlie because she doesn't talk to much in the lesson we have with marc cuz he like to talk!! but they are SO CUTE kethlie loves praying its the coolest thing to see shes got s solid testimony of prayer I have met people here that seriously are just amazing no matter what circumstance they are in they are so happy!! anyone we talk to on the streets here its not weird they love talking and its like your their best friend in seconds!! the french is coming slower then i thought it would but it is coming a member gave me kind of a wake up call yesterday so i gotta start working hard on my french again!! love you hope you have a good week this week :)

soeur driggs 

"people were cheering us on" - week 16

(written July 20, 2015)

MOM!!! sounds like a pretty solid summer lol yeah!! so excited to get the package:) they don't tell us when we get stuff they just bring it when they see us which is like every 2 or 3 or 4 weeks lol so hopefully well see them soon!! I GOT BOOS LETTER!! i loved the pictures she sent in them they were awesome!! sounds like her and goob just loved trek!! go goob and his rock skipping skills lol oh my goodness the new mission president and his wife are SO SWEET seriously they are some of the nicest people i have met they are awesome; yeah so we've got 2 more weeks of this transfer then transfer week happens in other missions its just a day i guess but because people fly everywhere and all that fun stuff we have a week to get transfers in and the ap's just call us on the phone to tell us where were going! sooo well find out soon if ill be with sister banks again or not!! uhh i donno but i don't want to leave abymes lol abymes is awesome!! the ward is supper solid here and the most unique people live in abymes! it does always smell like road kill and trash but its gorgeous! church was so good sunday soeur banks gave a talk!! it was so good sundays are awesome. uhhhh my calling as a missionary that's it though lol there are probably about 13 primary kids i think? naha no i haven't told anyone I cut hair and i would mess up so good black people hair it is not the same. 

oh awesome!! uhhhh ill try to figure out how to do that!! oh my goodness HK is a genius i am going record myself this coming sunday to see what i sound like!! WHAT WHEN DOES KENNEDY LEAVE that is soooo rad is she going with anyone or just by herself??? 

yeah that's what I'm talking about family is awesome!! were searching hard for them right now eternal families are the best!! that's one of the greatest blessings i think we have like mom i get to live with you for forever that's amazing to me!! also i had like a weird revelation this week we say all the time like were all brothers and sisters but this week hat like hit me like were all brothers and sisters!! it makes me feel more responsible? that's not the right word i hope you get what i mean!! anyway it was a cool moment! 

alright funny story time:) haha so this week we contacted this man named latino a few weeks ago and we called but we couldn't get another rendez vous and then i guess he saw us on the street and called us so we went and taught him! he was like kinda listening to us kinda not so we decided to leave and asked him to say a prayer and in his prayer he asked if i crystal driggs could be his next princess... i started laughing i couldn't hold it in but i don't think he could tell i was laughing and i told him my name was soeur driggs i don't even know where crystal came from? lol then two days later we were contacting this guy and he was like oh yeah were all brothers and sisters points to soeur banks and was like soeur points to me and said brother i was like i am a girl... anyway it was supper funny those caribbean men though.

ok another funny story soeur banks and i teach these two brothers around 17 18 and we were trying to get them top come to bball but their bike was broken so i told soeur banks to get on my bike and they road on soeur banks bike soeur banks sat on my seat and i peddled oh my goodness it was so funny people were cheering us on and then emilo and evans were on the same bike too but we got them to bball and it was awesome!!

ok so we've been teaching this supper cool couple right now names markl and kethlie they're so cute!! and they just haven't been reading the book of mormon and honestly that's like how we find our answer to know the church is true that and prayer are so important!! so we kinda just told them that and mark was like alright i have time at work to read so ill take it to work and his cute wife said she needed one for at home so she could read then and so we gave her one it was so cool to see them both be like alright ok we need to start reading this to know so were hoping this next week they'll have read!! loic and katcia are still doing so good we gave them a baptismal date but they just need to get married so were trying to help them get married!! and annie and steve are finally getting married!! i think all their papers finally went through and so annie can get baptised the 29 of aug or the saturday of that week and were so excited for them they've been trying to get married since before my time here!! shes so cute though she was like ok i am getting married on the 27 that means i can get baptised on that saturday right? shes awesome!!! were seeing miracles and it is sooo cool!! were also teaching this man right now who totally reminds me of snoop dowg hes got a date too were excited to teach and help him out!

i love you!! sounds like a supper awesome week:) 

until next lundi lol 

soeur driggs 

"Friday is going to be an awesome day" - week 14

(written July 6, 2015)

i am so sorry this is going to be real short we did not plan p day supper well today and only had 20 min to write today!!

   friday we met our new president!! Friday is going to be an awesome day. This week went well my family is doing good they are on vacation in Utah visiting family right now. Our area is doing well we have this really awesome investigator right now his name is brenden and a few weeks ago we talked to him supper briefly about the temple i cant remember how it came up but it wasn't even part of our lesson it was like after prayer talk if that makes since? anyway we had a lesson with him yesterday and he was talking about how he really wants to go to the temple and just to see the temple because of how we talked about it he said he just felt like it was something he wanted to do. It is after experiences like that where my testimony just sky rockets and i truly feel that joy of bringing closer to christ its amazing!! My companion is doing good she is such a hard worker and loves this work experiences like the one we had with brenden just bring us closer too. I can not even express how this work has strengthened my testimony. Seeing how this message can truly change a persons life and  see how our message can bring a desire for people to change is just a testimony that this is true and the things i feel are real and that the Holy spirit is testifying that these things are true. This week we helped a woman take out her trash while she was looking after her baby it was a cool experience because after we did that she was so much more open to talking to us and we had the chance to share a little message with her. I hope you have a good week! love you guys!! 

soeur driggs 

"read with an intent to know" - week 15

(written July 13, 2015)

mom!!!

 first off you don't look like you don't like the motorcycle in the picture that's all i gotta say. naha that's awesome boo is famous!! i did get your package so thanks!! we will see how quickly it gets here i am excited:) and thanks so much for sending all that stuff i felt bad for asking lol

yeah we" met the president it was so awesome he is like so crazy nice and loving its awesome!!  i know but Kevin has like 3 cats so we thought he could use another one lol he is cool we actually gave him a brochure and stuff but he's not to interested we've made it a goal to get him to Church lol well have to get to know him a little more he just usually isn't home during the day so we don't see him to often. Sonia did not get baptized sorry i forgot to tell you i for some reason just think you already know lol but here is a little story when we read the book of mormon we always tell people to read with true intent like it says moroni 10:3 4 5 and to pray to know if it true. that true and real intent is SO IMPORTANT because she read it and loved it loved anything about it but when we asked how she felt about it she would answer and change the subject. when you read to acquire the knowledge of something that's awesome but to read with an intent to know if these things are true and to know if they come from god and pray and ask god if they are true is when you feel the truthfulness of our message. sœur banks and i had the impression that sonia was praying and reading and had that desire. she told us recently she didnt think she had to prey to know if it was true but if it made sense then it is true. i was reading this morning in 2 nephi about how when we put our trust in god and ask him if these things are true then he helps us out but when we put trust in ourselves and trust in our own minds nothing will happen we don't gain anything because we need god and we need that holy ghost to confirm these things we read as well as teach us new things. sonia said she's not sure she wants to see us anymore but were going to continue working with her and see what happens. but yeah we've got a font!! we had a baptism a few weeks ago and we did it at the chapel! loic and katcia are awesome!! they came to Church this sunday and were there and they didn't know which room to go into because Church already started and its different here its not like we have couches like in the States so anyway they just didn't know what room to go into and they left... they tried calling us but sœur banks turned off the phone cuz its sacrament and stuff they said they'll come next week though!! so stoked.

My companion is amazing as always we have become very good friends and she is so hard working its amazing and i honestly really look up to her she is such a good teacher and know how to follow the spirit in the lessons i am blessed to be with her. My testimony grows more and more everyday its truly amazing this last week has been rough i was getting frustrated with the language to be honest and in our lessons i would get frustrated when i couldn't understand what was being said and the second i would do that it just would get worse i decided to do a new thing instead of sit in frustration which just sounds silly that i would even do that in the first place now but i would just start to pray for my companion for the inspiration and for the spirit to be there the second i started doing that it was like a light switch in my heart i immediately felt better and i could feel the spirit very strong. we ended up having an awesome lesson sœur banks got teary and our investigator asked us if he could come to Church! it was a humbling experience and just a testimony that when we pray and ask and put faith in our heavenly father he is truly there for us. This week we helped an older woman rake up leaves we taught her while we were helping she said she wanted us to come over and teach her and her son service is the best!! hope you have a good week!
sœur driggs oh and we went to the zoo this week!! for pday today lol it was cooll the main attraction.... raccoons!! lol also the older woman is mamie pouline shes so cute!! it was her birthday so we stopped by said hi and i got a picture for you mom lol and the the other woman is sopeur gamiott she's an awesome member and works with us all the time!! she cool LOVE YOU!!

new mission presidents wife

thats a no farting sign on the buss is thought it was funny...

also a monkey put his hand through the cage and i held its hand!!!! gaaahhhh i was so excited about it lol

"families are the best" - week 13

(written June 29)

no package yet! but i hear they take forever to get here so... maybe soon my companion said they go to France first before they get sent here because we are technically France soo it might be a while? also sorry i know you just sent a package but if you send another one will you send me some bike shorts that go to the knee!! or past the knee lol im using my comps right now but she may not be here next transfer and they are like 40 euros here just get me some cheaper ones! that could be awesome:) and if possible could you send me the smaller bag that you bought online the one i brought is huge!! the cute one you got with the pink and gray? if not that's totally fine!! annnd deodorant lol the secret version. France sells weird deodorant or just different but it doesn't really work i think that is why most everyone has some solid bo. annnd lastly a Watch that is water proof!! cuz i bought one last week on monday annd it said it was water proof and it rained on us on our bikes the other day and it broke. lol just if you send another package anything would be nice sorry i didn't tell you sooner i just forgot every week to write it i almost forgot again but you said package so i remembered! sorry i dont know if its expensive or not! alright i will figure out the drop box thing ill try to send stuff next week!

okay down to business this week was awesome!! we met the coolest family they reminded me of our family there name is loic and katsia. loic owns his own business because he said he doesn't like having a boss lol so he owns his own carpentry company if that's what you call it anyway they are supper awesome!! we had such a good lesson and this was like the first lesson we've had where i could solidly participate is was awesome!! and okay throw back sœur banks and one of her old companions found them. they gave them a stop home one day and they said that they felt like something was mission in their lives but they didn't know what and sœur banks and her comp then tried to get a time when they could see them again but it never worked out.. so we ran into them i cant remember if it was this week or the week before that but we met them and they said they wanted to meet up with us again and the lesson went through!! they live so far away on top of this huge hill on a dirt road. biking it is awesome lol but the lesson was awesome they were both there and they had there kid listen too! and we taught them about the restoration and it was so cool they said it felt different and they wanted to learn more and more about where we came from and what were doing here and oh my goodness were so excited to go see them again!! and after the lesson they drove us to our next appointment because they really do live so far away lol and our bikes are going through a rough time right now and loic just fixed them up! after the lesson he looked at our bikes and was like what are you doing.. took out his tool box and fixed up our tires and everything. it was so sweet of him. and today i read an article i cant remember the name of it i think it was something like teaching with the end in mind and the end is having those eternal families and how important it is. we don't just want baptisms they are very important because that's our first step but we want eternal families and the grandchildren of the parents we teach now to continue to make those covenants and how important it is to help people really gain a testimony and feel of the truthfulness of this gospel. oh my mom i have never worked so hard and have had so much fun working! its the best feeling ever!! we come home everyday literally dripping in sweat and you get backpack sweat and its really disgusting but half of that is thanks to the humidity here and its just kinda hot either raining or your sweating anyway this work is awesome!! i cant even express how i feel being here but its awesome! and we found this baby kitten on the road we saved it and gave it to our neighbor kevin lol and lastly we painted this persons house the other day! with a paint brush that was almost as long as my thumb and the width was like a third of my thumb lol best way to paint a house if you ask me:) i hope you guys have a good week!! love you! bike life is the best life:)

"THIS WORK BRINGS SO MUCH JOY" - week 12

(written June 22)

hahahaha i am so behind on these emails i am so sorry but seriously it was such a funny week when we turned off his water!!! gaaaah thats awesome how is the house coming along,?? send me pictures of everyones adventures. i tried to send pictures from my camera today did it work?? lol basketballl is so fun! sometimes like 15 people will come and sometimes like 2 will come but it is fun all the same:) are you just spending the entire summer in the house in Utah?? 

ok mom Sonia is doing so good she seriously just loves everything we share with her and she asks a TON of questions!! its awesome shes real smart and totally participates in the amies class and shes got a baptism date. ok another cool story i cant remember if i told you about brenden but he is supper cool we have been trying to get him to come to Church with us for a while now like 6 weeks and we didn't drop him for whatever reason it just didn't feel right. well he came to church with us this sunday!! We had a lesson with him the day before sunday so saturday lol but he told us he had a dream that he needed to get baptised and he got baptised in his dream and there was sœur banks and i and then a third person he didn't know who that other person was though. Then he told us he said he knows he needs to get baptised. It was so cool then at Church we walked through with him and he speaks English lol so i was all about talking to him and we were walking to the amies class and there was a painting of joseph smith's first vision on the wall, he starred at it for a moment and i was about to say that's... brenden finished my sentence "joseph Smith vision i know, i want to paint that, you think i should paint it?" I was so excited on the Inside i said of coarse and he had to show it to me when he finishes it. This week was so good mom!! I have never truly seen how heavenly father influences us and others and its amazing. serving a mission is the best decision i have made in my life. THIS WORK BRINGS SO MUCH JOY. to me and to our investigators nothing is more rewarding than sitting in a lesson and just seeing that our investigator can feel the spirit and what we are saying clicks. I know without a doubt in my mind when the spirit is not there no one can learn. I didn't realize just how much the spirit influences people and us even when we don't know it or realize it at first! but even a thought of hey we should go visit this person in this area today and then all of a sudden that person you planned for isn't there but we always find someone else in that area who is interested or asks us a question. it is truly so amazing! and i always thought it had to be like a burning in my heart or some grand experience every time but its not. its just thoughts we have and then it comes down to our agency and what we chose to do. I am working on knowing and feeling the spirit and searching for the spirit more. it says in preach my gospel we can't force the spirit to come but create an environment where we can invite and protect it when it is there. so that's my goal. lol sœur banks and i are going to create the best environment possible because nothing else is possible without the spirit. i also don't think i have worked and studied this hard for anything else either. the french is coming! its harder than i thought it was going to be honestly in my head i was like gift of tongues yeah and i totally 100 percent believe in the gift of tongues but it is also tons of hard work. some lessons i have no idea whats going on and others i feel like i understood every word. i asked for advice on how to learn french and one of the elders said to force myself to think in french... easier said than done lol but that's what I'm working on this week!! 

how has the family been??? send me pictures lol I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

sœur driggs