June 13, 2011

Hola Familia,
Well, a few notices. I got the package with the boot and the memory card, two blue ties and mac. & cheese. I wrote a letter to Elder Bishop and Robert Godfrey and I sent them with Elder Packard when we had changes and they went to Asuncion, so it should be on its way. So it sounds like you have had a lot of changes in the house! But with Mom knowing house design I know it will turn out great. Good Luck!
Yesterday we had District Conference. President Madariaga came and talked. We had some investigators attending, especially a man named Ramon Ortega. He talked with missionaries a looooooooong long time ago and was praying to ask God if the LDS church was true but never got his answer because he was not reading, or going to church. So we have been focusing on those three things (church, read, pray). There is no other formula to know if it is true or not. He is currently attending an Evangelical church. He has gone to many different churches to find the right one but he says that he has not found it yet. This week we are going to be focusing on visiting him with members. He has had a doubt that the Sabbath day is Saturday and not Sunday. We felt to tell him that if he makes an effort to go to church on Sunday that God, through the spirit or through one of the speakers, would answer his question. Then he made it to the general session of conference (for everyone) and WOW the first talk was almost pure Guarani and he was talking about the día de reposo (day of rest --> Sabbath Day). I felt very grateful that God would answer his prayers and ours too, as we were praying that the conference would touch his heart. When we said bye to him he seemed really happy, his countenance. Then if that wasn't enough I kinda waved over President Madariaga and he shook his hand and told him that were real representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We also found a family that were members, like 10 years ago, (or something like that) and now they are Jehovah's Witnesses. It is really hard to teach people who have hardened their hearts. We bore strong testimony and they threw it off. Then the wife said something that disturbed us. They invited us to listen to the JW missionaries when we finish our missions because they said they found the truth through the LDS Church. I know the church is true. They never had a testimony. I can see how necessary a testimony from the Holy Ghost is. They said things along the lines that they are not 100% sure that their church is true and we told them that we know our church is true and that’s why we are thousands of miles away to bring this message. We need to always be reading, praying (especially to build our testimony), asking if the church is true, and go to church every Sunday.
We had some funny experiences making pumpkin pie. We didn’t make it like Grandma makes it but it will do, for now. But the conclusion is that people from Paraguay HATE pumpkin pie haha. They said that the crust was delicious haha. There was one family that thought that we were kidding when we said it was made of pumpkin and thought it was chocolate. None of them liked it!!!! Leftovers! I will admit it was NOT 5-star so maybe you guys can send us a recipe to make the pumpkin. I don’t think it is turning out 100% right.
Today I finished Predicad Mi Evangelio (Preach my Gospel) in Spanish. :) so that felt good to read. Thanks for everything, family. I love you all soo much. We are entering winter. It is getting a little nippy over here. haha.

Love you all so much. The church is true!
Elder Lucas Rodgers