DECEMBER 13, 2010

Hola Familia!
como están?
Wow, this week went by sooo fast! President Madariaga was here for church and we had a dinner with him and a fireside. It was really nice to hear - he was telling us that before his mission is up he wants to see Concepción as a stake and that we have to focus reactivating and finding families with fathers. He also mentioned that he put some of the best missionaries here in Concepcion. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside haha. During church he taught a Gospel Principles class which was awesome! He bore a very strong testimony about the plan of salvation.
I had a really cool experience the last Saturday. Let me give a little background. Me and my companion are together still. Elder Jolley and his comp both left and Elder Lucas came and is training. Another elder got changed into Rama 3, and 2 sisters came to our rama. Sooooo,of course they come in and take ALL OF OUR INVESTIGATORS!!!! and in church we had one person (a boy that was hanging around the church and I invited him to come in) and the sisters had 5 people, (3 of the 5 were men. But back to the story, we were in a lesson with a lady that had seen a lot of poverty with children, and lost hope in God. She had a huge question, "Why doesn't God help poor children", and I told her that if she went to the church on Sunday, she would hear something about how children are special to God and how he will never leave them. I was surprised because this Sunday there was a primary presentation, and the song ¨Soy un hijo de Dios¨ (I am a child of God) was very prominent. It was sung 2 times, and the Primary President gave a little talk about los niños and how awesome they are. We also had 2 confirmations of the 2 girls that were baptized.
Yes, the baptism where Elder Jolley is there, was of Tomas. But his real name is Adriano Franco. We found out that "Tomas" was his nickname.
Ok I will find the number for you guys to call. and the next Monday I will send it to you. Thanks for the information on University. That bug, I really don't know what it is. President Echague (branch president) came up to us with that in a box.
Hows the weather doing, is it cold and snowy? We have had some HOT days here.
I LOVE it here in Concepción. People tell us it is one of the hottest places in Paraguay, I wouldn't mind if somebody turned on the a.c. My companion is really cool but always seems tired. I will just say (I'm not sure if I said this yet), the only companion that I had that got up on time was Élder Hanchett! So after being with him I have done a lot of getting up and starting the day by myself (pretty much every day after that). I am always hoping for a comp. like Élder Hanchett. This is his last 6 weeks in the mission, which is weird.
Thanks for everything you guys do for me, I love you guys so much
Con Mucho Amor,
Élder Lucas Rodgers