May 31, 2010

Hola Familia!
Wow! What a week. We had a little of everything!
I will try to cram everything into this letter.
We had the last zone conference of President Wade on Thursday. The night before all the bus drivers went on strike and weren’t working so we got a bus to Limpio. (where we buy food like San Lorenzo) On our way someone used a slingshot and broke the windshield of the bus!! All of a sudden the AC was on haha. Luckily we had our suits on. When we arrived at Limpio there were crowds and crowds of people trying to get to work. People were hanging out of buses haha and all the zone was there at the zone leaders’ house because no busses were going to Asuncion. So they called the office elders and they came and picked us up in the mission van. While we were driving we passed police officers walking with their shields! (see photo) It was intense! We got back alright but there were some problems with wanting more money. There were other elders with stories of busses almost hitting each other, and racing (but they’re always racing each other). But at zone conference, President started by explaining how our mission has been the ¨flagship¨ of all the missions in South America (and more), leading in stats. Then we broke it down into characteristics. What do we need to do to be the flagship? What do we need to know, and what do we need to be? We saw a slideshow of our new mission president. I'm excited to meet him. Then since it was the last zone conference of President Wade they had everybody give a brief testimony. It was very powerful. They gave us a Book of Mormon in English and a glued-in letter and photo of their family.
Saturday we had a great lesson with a man named Augustine. He is the ex-husband of Leo. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he said, “Well I need a sign”. We told him about how signs do not bring testimonies. I explained to him how I had come to know that the Book of Mormon is true and I felt the spirit so strong, and I know that he did too. We gave him a baptism date for the 19th of June. He came to church yesterday (along with 12 other people ). Later that day we stopped by Leo’s, and the ex-husband was there. We had come to find out that he had been drinking the night before church, which sucked but he said he felt something different, something that felt good. We explained that that was the Holy Ghost and he started talking like he wanted a vision of something. I want to talk to him while he is sober. I really think he could progress.
We were also blessed to find a lady who wants to be baptized. Her husband is a member from about 6 years ago, but inactive. They need to get married first, and she wants to be baptized in a river so we are thinking that a baptism and a marriage on the riverside would be great. They’re still a little shaky on the marriage but she has a desire to be baptized.
We also made pancakes at an investigators house. (see photo) She wants to be baptized, but her husband doesn’t like the church and they’re not married, so we'll see. That’s great to hear about Elder Webster and the Elder Ursenbachs, If there is anything I can say from here to them it would be, “Enjoy every day. Don't give up. You have 2 years to work and eternity to think about it.” Send my congratulations to Dave!
Thanks for everything you do for me! I love you guys so much!
Love Élder Rodgers