July 25, 2011

Hey Family!
We broke a record here!! We had 60 in church. There has been more than that in the past, a long time ago, but it is the most that I have ever seen! Jorge Gonzalez went to Church (that inactive family that we found) with his other *girl-who-is-a-friend* haha.
Rafaela went to church. Her son Cristian was baptized with Elder Thomson, and we have been working with the mom. But problem, she doesn’t read! So we are going to be passing by during the week to help her. At the end of this week we will be going to a missionary capacitation (ability) meeting in Yby Yau, with Concepcion. So I will be seeing some old companions I left in Concepción and a book of Mormón on C.D. So I have asked Elder Salvatierra to bring it for me. We will give that to her (Rafaela) so that she can listen to the Book of Mormón while she is working, cooking, and resting. Her son (18 years old) and his girlfriend just had a baby so we are going to be trying to share with them too.
I will take out money next week to make the orders for the ao´poi (aow-po-ee) The dollar is low. I was thinking of taking out Gs 1,000 mil. I think that would cover 6 nice, well made shirts. Let me know what you think. The dollar is 1=3.80 so it would be about $263, more or less.
We are planning an activity, a big activity called Paraguay Pyhareve (Night of Paraguay). We are going to be inviting EVERYONE!!!! There will be Paraguayan food, dance, music, culture! It will be great. We are planning for the 11th of August.

Send a letter to Josh Hunter and tell him that he has to WRITE ME!!!!! and if he doesn’t....... bad things may occur....just saying....
If it would be possible to attend Brandon Wight´s farewell that would be great. He attended mine, and I am, well-a little far to attend his, to send my congratulations. Tell him to write me, that I have been waiting... haha(And if you see Jordan Crane there gently remind him that I have not gotten his letter...)
I wrote a letter to Brother Godfrey, and sent it with an Elder who was to go to Asuncion for changes, to get sent, but as I had other things to send and they never got to the office I am worried that the letter was never sent properly. So keep me updated if he has received my letter.

Bad news, I think that I may have lost my camera.......although all the pictures are backed up on my drive. It’s not a big loss but I have to do a big search. Our house is only 3 rooms so it shouldn’t be toooo hard to lose something in there.
But thanks for everything, family. I love you all SOOOO MUCH!
Send my love to all!
Élder Lucas Rodgers
LA OBRA DE DIOS ES MARAVILLOSA! ME ENCANTA!!! (The work is wonderful. I love it.)

Luke and Elder Alvarez from Honduras

Quote on wardrobe

July 18, 2011

Hola familia,

Wow, what a week. The weather has been pretty much perfect!

That is great that Emily has got her call!! Tell her congratulations for me!!!!

We had a good Sunday. Our investigator, Ramon, went to church and had a good experience. His beliefs came out on Saturday a discussion that we had with him, that the Godhead are one in being. We had a big discussion with him about that. He has studied a lot about spiritualism... and he doesn’t believe that families can be forever so when we got to church he was walking in and the priesthood meeting was about the eternal marriage.... “Noooo”, I was thinking in my head. That brought a lot of doubts up. It is times like that when missionaries start sweating haha. But the Sacrament meeting was great. An active member came with her sister who had recently moved from Asuncion to PJC and the member told us when we could come by this week to teach her! Miracles!!!! And also we were walking one day with my old companion down the street and a lady stopped us in the street to ask us if we had a bible to give her. We had a short conversation with her, gave her a Book of Mormon, and after a few visits (her mother is 103 years old and still living) she commented to us that her neighbors are members of our church. We clapped their neighbor’s house looking for a ¨Jorge¨. A man comes out and says his name is Lazaro and so we start talking to him. Their whole family (Gonzalez family) were pioneers here, going to church in Brazil because there was no church in PJC, and they moved to Asuncion, came back, and lost contact with everyone. That was 15 years ago! The Lord led us to a very humble family that nobody in the church knew about. The brother of this man’s name is Jorge. He is about 21 years old.

We came back with Elder Vasquez and met Jorge’s ¨friend-who-is-a-girl¨, explained that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesucristo and about his appearance to the Nephites. We saw a very strong look of interest to the story, we shared a story from the Book of Mormon that they liked, and committed them to go to church but of course they forgot. So we will be going and working with this family. Their dad passed away. Our goal is activate the family and get them to the temple.

I’m sending a picture of a quote that some missionary left on the wardrobe that I really enjoy reading. I am enjoying reading the latter chapters of Alma. The ways of Moroni were AMAZING and INTELLIGENT! Because he was (Alma 48:11-18), his enemies were mad at him because he kept the commandments of God and was strengthened (Alma 49:27). Which is, I’m sure, how Satan feels when we keep the commandments, that he wants to ¨beber nuestro sangre¨! (as it says in 49:27)

I think that the reason that I love these chapters so much is because the symbolism is so clear. It is not a war of flesh and blood that we are fighting but a battle of testimony, our souls, and faith-see Ephesians 6 (I think, the last chapter). Thanks for everything that you guys do for me! I pray that you will continue to receive the blessings that God has prepared. I am really enjoying this time to be here and we are working everyday looking for new people to find and to help!

Love Elder Lucas Rodgers

New T-shirt

Luke with old companions Meneses and Salvatierra and other elders

Luke at the Asuncion Temple with Elder Vasquez and President and Sister Madariaga