March 8, 2010

¡Hola!
Wow what a week! We had worked really hard the whole week and had about 5 people with baptism dates but none of them showed up for church!! But Sunday we had a great baptism so it was a good week. It was a lady named Trifina (Trifi) pronounced ” Tree-fe”. She is a great lady who missionaries have been working with for a long time (over a year). She is a great person. My companion baptized her, and I, my comp and the 1st counselor in the ward confirmed her. It was really powerful. I totally forgot to mention but I got the package that you sent me at zone conference last week. I forgot to mention that in my last email. Everything was in it. Thanks for the Eatmore bars. They were delicious. And during Zone conference, I picked up all my temple clothes. Good thing too because the 16th our zone is going to the temple! I am so excited. ( All in Spanish haha.) I think I am planning on sending a package home soon. I picked up some things here that are kind of cool.
Well it has been a hot summer and I am ready for winter. I remember one day when it reached 50C and my comp has been telling me that it can get down to 0C, so I am ready. Of the two months I have been in Paraguay (wow 2 months already) I have lost 35 lbs!!
 Well our mission goals for January and February were not met so this month’s goals for baptisms have gone up because president doesn’t want us to lose one soul from our goals. The March goal was actually 250. I had it wrong. But this month he set the goal at 384!! The mission held a special fast and President knows that we can get it. He is such a powerful speaker and all his letters have such a strong spirit with them
The time difference right now is 4 hours. I am 4 hours ahead, and when we switch you will go one hour forward and we will go one hour back and we’ll be at a 2 hour difference. P-days are good. We get up clean, exercise, then take a colectivo (bus) to San Lorenzo which is a one hour trip and grab some lunch, buy our food for the week and go back to our house put the food away walk to the computer shop that we use write emails, go back to the house, plan, and get to work. I have a goal to read the book of Mormon and finish it by the end of this month. I just finished Jacob, and chapter 5 is so hard to focus with haha. Well we don’t have any people with baptismal dates for this week but next week we have two. Thanks for the quotes that you send me Dad. I have them all printed off, well I think I got all of them. I read them often. It sounds like you are studying a lot, too. Well thanks for all the support. Paraguay is so unique. I am picking up a little Guarani. Well nobody got mail last week at district meeting. It wasn´t sent to us, it was still in the office so I think that other package will get here tomorrow. Thanks for everything!
Con Amor
Élder Rodgers