September 19, 2011

Hola Familia,
We are doing good out here. We are working hard and looking for the success. We had a baptism this last week of a 10 year old girl, Nayeli (Nay-jely). Her parents would have been baptized too but they need a divorce first so that’s a hard spot. We started making the cake Friday night and put it in the oven, then got ready for bed and went to sleep and FORGOT about it!!!!!!!!! We woke up to a slab of charcoal, haha, so early in the morning we left to a supermercado called “España Supermarket” but it was still closed so we walked a little further to one called “Los Jardines” and bought a new cake, went home, got all our stuff, and went to the church to cook it because the baptism was at 10 AM.
Luque is pronounced (Loo-k) or (Luke-eh). It is a más o menos (more or less) rich place. I really like it. There are some great members that are willing to work and help us. We have been working a lot with the members. It will be so much more effective with them than without. I am so grateful for this chance to be a missionary. We had to give talks on Sunday and I was talking about living what you believe. There was one part where I really felt I said what the spirit wanted me to say and it was really special for me to feel that and be the means for transmitting this message.
There was something that happened yesterday that really got to me. We were looking for the family Isfran (E´s-fran) and we found the mom. It was starting to rain a little but we got to the house and pushed the buzzer. The mom opened the upstairs window and told us ¨Elders, we have our church now. I have been received as a pastor there.¨ (the mom said that....) It was so sad to hear that they wanted to leave the church. How could someone taste the fruit that is ¨most sweet¨ then throw it to the side? The thing that got to me is that if they do not come back as a family they will not be able to be with their family in a state of never ending happiness. That really hit me.
Saturday night it was raining all day long and we had been working in the street. We got home, drenched. I will admit I was a little discouraged. NO ONE LET US IN and it was raining out. We had clapped many doors, including less active members to teach and NO ONE. So I decided and thought to myself ¨I will not go through this if we do not find a miracle¨, so I told my companion that I wanted to say a prayer and find a family that would receive us. Then we walked, clapped, walked, and clapped. Then all of a sudden we passed a house where we had received a reference of some youth. We pushed the buzzer and a youth (Fernando) came out to greet us. He let us in and we gave a good lesson. He accepted a book of Mormon and the invitation to be baptized (ALL our new investigators have to accept this invitation to be called a new investigator). He accepted and said that he will start reading to see if it is true, then his Mom/sister came out and told him to come inside. I felt that this was an answer to our prayers. We are excited to go visit him again. I feel that he will progress.
There are some quotes that we have been using as of lately ¨Work harder than Heck!¨ and “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Leonardo DaVinci. And the quote that I quoted in my talk ¨Preach the gospel in every moment, and if necessary, use Words¨ - Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
Thank you for everything, Mom and Dad, and everyone. The church is true!!
Con amor y cariño, (love and affection)
Elder Lucas Rodgers