Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 16 (Happy Panamanian Mother's Day!)

I first would like to say "Happy Panamanian Mother's Day" to all you wonderful mothers out there! They go hard on that celebration here. For good reason too, because mothers are awesome!

This week was good! We started off with intercambios. I was with Elder Wutckee in Don Bosco. It was a pretty fun time! I had the best salchipapa yet! (Salchipapa is basically hotdogs and fries mixed together.) However, the true highlight of intercambios was a noche de hogar with La Familia Gutierrez. The Gutierrez house is the nicest house I've seen in Panama. Mostly because every house in Samaria is a concrete block with metal sheets for a roof. I genuinely felt uncomfortable being inside their house because it was so nice. We had a good time and enjoyed some pretty dang good lasagna. In addition to being nice, their home was also full of the Spirit because they are a family centered on Christ. There's not a lot of that here in Panama which is sad. This experience strengthened my testimony on having a family centered on Christ because this family is happy! Genuinely happy!

Anyways. Food this week was interesting. It's summer here and the rain has ceased. But the sun, not so much. It's blazing hot outside and we walk all day which I really don't mind. We had a bunch of people offer us food this week, and I kid you not, every single one of them gave us the most scalding hot foods. We had soup, more soup, Crema, more soup and hot chocolate... which was very good... but still! The food was very appreciated. I just thought that it was funny that the only time I've had soup here I either puked it all up or it's the middle of a hot summer.

Other food highlights would be eggs. I love eggs and we have been eating a lot of them. However, we kinda get sketchy eggs from the chino. Well, we were cooking eggs this week and we opened one.... and uh... out came this liquid black goop. It smelled horrible! It was soooooo gross. But I can't stop laughing, because you would think that this would stop me from eating eggs from the chino. But no. I simply learned to put the eggs into a bowl before the pan.

We had more noche de hogares this week too! I always love to watch the birth of Christ video. It brings me so much joy and peace. I am so beyond grateful for my Savior. I love going to homes and sharing with them "Light the World." I encourage you to share it too! We've been involved in lots of service this week and get to wear pretty dope shirts while doing it. We painted a house (a nice hot pink) and we put up Christmas lights at our house for Hermana Moran! Safe to say that the Christmas hype is going strong in Panama.

Spiritual thought this week came from listening to a talk by Elder David A Bednar. He talked a lot about deepening our conversion to God. There's a difference between having a testimony and being converted. I'll use myself as an example. I have had a testimony of God and Christ my whole life. I've always believed that they exist and are all powerful. I've always believed in this church. That's what a testimony is. But I never really did much. I didn't act on anything. This is conversion - when we act based on what we believe. We experiment upon the words of the scriptures. We experiment on the doctrine, in prayer, with faith, with everything. As we do this, we become more and more converted to God. It's no longer just a belief. It's a knowledge, a hope, and the faith that drives us to become saints through the Atonement of our Savior. The Atonement is the only way we can become anything. It enables us to be converted to God, and become what He wants us to be. I love God and Christ with all my heart and becoming more converted everyday is how I can show that love. I am nothing without them. I hope you all have a desire to draw closer to a loving Heavenly Father and I hope that desire will drive you to act on your beliefs.

I love you all! And I know God loves you all even more. Thank you for all the support! Keep enjoying the holidays! And keep praying for me and my people!

-Elder Lutze