Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 15 (Navidad y Monos)

Buenas!!! Another amazing week! Monday always starts the week off right. On Pdays we go to the mall in Los Andes to shop. I love it because they have all the Christmas stuff out and Christmas music playing. The music is also in English which is pretty funny. I finally understand why people listen to Christmas music year round. It brings me so much joy!!!

Some random things for you all.

We were doing cosechas and were going to offer a prayer for a family, but there was this monkey freaking out at us, and we could not stop laughing.

Hermana Barbara fed us 5 potatoes each and she also gave us 2 whole fish. The fish were kinda just looking at us. But they tasted good! All part of the Panamanian diet.

We also did intercambios this week which was awesome! Elder Rojas came here to Samaria to be with me.The funny thing is that he is brand new to the mission and I have been here for one transfer. So we had two people who couldn't speak Spanish going around. But it was a fun time! I love meeting and getting to know other missionaries. I enjoyed being a little bit like a trainer. Elder Rojas was a beast! He speaks better Spanish than me, and he's doing awesome for his first weeks. This was definitely a humbling experience for me which was a really good thing.

There is this one lady that we got as a reference. Her name is Edix. Wow, she might be the most chosen person I've met. We had one lesson with her that was super good. Then the second time we came to visit she was like "So I read, and I felt really good... so I think you should baptize me!" So she's on date now.

Then there is also Angela. If you remember the picture of me with Said Y Rosemary, there was also an older lady that was with us. That was Angela. She is their grandma who has been to every lesson with them, and has gone to church with them every time. We have been trying hard to get her baptized, and this week she finally said yes! I'm so excited!!

My thought for this week occurred while I was at Edson's and Tania's. We had the rest of the night to be at their house and Edson brought out this big TV. He wanted us to watch a movie with him. Not just any movie tho... Black Panther...and I love Marvel and I want to see this movie soooooo bad. The worst part of this, is the fact that he turned it on in English too. He knew we weren't allowed to watch movies, especially that one, but he wanted us to do it anyway. If I'm being honest, I really wanted to, and it would have been really easy to do it. It would also have been really easy to justify it. But I knew that it was something I shouldn't do. So, I prayed in my heart, pulled out my scriptures, and I started to read in my head. I chose to read Helaman 5:12 which essentially says build your foundation on Christ and the devil won't have any power over you. Suddenly my thoughts were a lot more clear, and I recognized fully that I should always do what Christ wants me to do. I'm honestly disappointed in the fact I even had to fight myself not to watch the movie. Edson stopped the movie, and he and Tania just looked at me in confusion. They asked me why I didn't want to watch the movie and I explained to them that it was because it wasn't what God wanted me to do. They were still a little confused, but we then turned on a short video about the birth of Christ and experienced a spiritual and meaningful moment with them. The prophets have invited us as members to be true disciples of Christ, and sometimes that means doing things that others think are weird. As Elder Rafael Pino of the Seventy said in General Conference, "What is normal for some may be odd for others..." Choose now to be a disciple. That way, when the time comes, you don't even have to hesitate like me to make the correct decision. Make Christ your foundation, and you will always make the right choice!

I love you all so much! I'm always praying for you! I hope things are going well! Thank you for all your support! Keep praying for me! And of course, keep praying for my people!

-Elder Lutze