December 6, 2010

Hola Familia!
Wow this Christmas has come fast! It's a little scary if you think about it. This will be first Christmas in my life without snow. It will be weird! Haha. Well there is so much going on here in Concepción. A) With the HOT HOT HEAT there is a heat rash on my back. When I sweat it breaks out and hurts. I have been talking to Hermana Madariaga about this and she has been giving me ideas on what I have to do so that it will stop. It feels like needles poking in my back, especially when its hot. The temperature says it will be raining a lot this week. B) There are 2 sister missionaries coming to Concepcion 1 branch so we have to give them our old house and in January we are leaving the house behind the chapel and going to a house a little further away. C) Thursday - Sunday President and Hermana Madriaga are coming to Concepción to have a Christmas party. All the elders from the zone are coming so we need to find a place for 16 missionaries to sleep! D) Thursday is Changes (transfers)! and there are apparently going to be A LOT of CHANGES! We are expecting one of the biggest changes in the Mission. My brain is overexploding. hiná
Elder Jones is a friend of mine, he started his mission the same change that I went to Emboscada, and we were in the same zone. I was wet becuase it was hot and I was lifting bricks, I sweat so much here haha
GOOD NEWS!!! I got my second shoe!!! :) but the package was opened then taped shut, so send a list of what was in it. That was the last package that I received.
Christmas phone calls - I am talking with the elders to see what we can do. Elder Jolley told me that we can use Skype and that for missionaries apparently it is legal haha. He said that President Wade allowed missionaries to use Skype which I believe would be a little bit cheaper. If not I will give you a phone number of a regular land line to call. I will be finding more information on the Skype idea, tell me your thoughts.
I don't think I have received any answer about work after the mission. I have been thinking about engineering. Tell me what you think about that.
I am sending one more picture that you could send to Élder Bishop. It is pretty funny. It’s a sign that is for an optics store with the sign that is for seeing how your vision is.
This week we tried setting up a table to have people come to us who have questions. It wasn't too effective but there were some people who stopped. Also we found someone who has a toucan which I found was awesome haha. I’m also sending another photo of us playing with knives with our branch president.
Thank you guys for everything. I am blessed to be here in Paraguay. I am having some amazing spiritual experiences. I can see that this mission is preparing me for my life. There are some awesome people here!
Love Élder Lucas Rodgers
P.S. I love the Spanish language, or in Paraguay they call it ¨Castillano¨. For me it is a grand accomplishment to have learned this language. I REALLY, REALLY want to learn Guarani!!!