January 3, 2011

Hola Familia! ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!!!!!!!
Como esta, Voy a espesar a escribir en español, o sea castellano. Tuvimos un semana calidad, pero yo estuve un poco enfermo, ahora ya estoy bien. Sí, es verdad acerca de Skype, y en nuestro misión los misionarios tienen permiso para usarlo. English is better. We had a good week. I was feeling a bit under the weather but now everything is good. But today I have a story! Don't worry, it has a happy ending.
Elder Lucas had to go to Asuncion for a conference of zone leaders and yesterday Hna. Madariaga called me and told me that I could go with Elder Lucas to Asuncion because I have had some weird feelings in my teeth and have felt that something was wrong. So I mentioned to Hna. that I wanted to visit a dentist but that it wasn't anything urgent. She told me to go with Elder Lucas to Asuncion so I went to go buy my ticket. When I got there, the bus he was going on was all sold out so I had to buy with another company to leave Sunday at 11:30 but that meant that we would both be on different buses, so we both left on the buses. Elder Lucas got to Asuncion earlier, and I didn't have a cell phone so I had to use a pay phone. I called Elder Lucas and Hna. telling them that I was here then, I took a taxi to the dentist, but the driver didn't know the way... We get there, talk to the dentist and they tell me that I have to go to another place to get a full jaw x-ray. So I call the office to come get me because I was still alone. Two elders came in the van and took me to this other place. While we were waiting they had to leave!!! So there I was again...alone. UGH! But I had the x-ray, waited for the results. I tried calling a few of the members in Mburucuya to see if one of them could come and help me but I couldn't get hold of anyone. So I took a taxi back over to the dentist and she said there was something wrong with one tooth, so she took a closer-up small x-ray which said that nothing was wrong..... She gave me a prescription and told me not to bite hard. Apparently with this new jaw setup, if I bite hard it affects my teeth. So now I am fine and with Elder Lucas, writing a letter in an internet shop. So that was my excitement for the day and at 10:00 our bus leaves for Concepción this night.
Now for something more spiritual. We have an investigator whose name is Norberto. He is really smart with things of the Bible. He tried telling us that tithing was stopped in the New Testament. He read us a scripture in Hebrews 6 or 7 (it also talks about Abraham). We told him that that makes no sense and that tithing is still a strong law. Then he tried again. Then I shut the Bible that I was using and bore him my testimony. After that he didn't give any other response. The power of a testimony is the most powerful set of words one can say, ONLY if they come from the heart. Yo sé que la iglesia es verdadera, sin dudas, Estoy muy agradecido, por esta oportunidad que tengo a servir el Señor en Paraguay especialmente en Concepción, para ayudar Concepción ser una estaca!
I have been reading “Jesus the Christ” about John and Jesus (Elisabeth and Mary) and the story of them. You can really learn a lot from this book.!
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all that you do for me!!!

Con mucho amor
Élder Lucas Rodgers

P.S. Enjoy your 11:00 church. Mine is at 8:00!!