Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 23 (I'm a Tosca Member)

This week was insane! We put in work that's for sure. We are absolutely exhausted, but there's no greater joy than working hard. I saw a lot of miracles from God this week. Literally I can't do anything on my own. God just makes everything work.

First of all, the mission Panamá is the best mission ever. This may be bragging a bit, but I love Panamá, so it's fine. Basically what happened is that a new mission president came in July. He set a new plan in action for Panamá and the mission is taking off. We have the most baptisms in all of Central America and everything is progressing like crazy. God is truly blessing Panamá. This week the mission wanted to get a total of 800 'news.' And so our zone wanted each companionship to get 10. Everyone worked like crazy!!! And Elder Buhler and I got 28 'news' this week which was crazy! This coming week the plan is to get a bunch of baptism dates from those 28. We already got a few on first contacts. The spirit truly is what converts people. Convincing someone to switch their church and be baptized into another the first time you meet them just doesn't work unless you've got God on your side which thankfully we do.

Our neighbors asked us to do service pretty much every morning. So we were getting up at 6 to go help them. It was kinda exhausting, but it was fun! I have no idea what they are doing, but destroying and hammering concrete is pretty fun!! HaHa!

We had a Noche De Grupo with the ward. It was super cool! This was the first time, but so many people showed up! Then Elder Buhler and I led a game of charades, and boy oh boy did the people go crazy. Panamanians get super competitive so it was really funny to watch.

We had intercambios this week too! I was with my beloved Zone Leader Elder Tarbet. He's a super cool guy and very diligent. I learned a lot this intercambio! It was fun, especially because we are good friends!

I saw a river couch, a gang of cats, and we also were doing Cosechas with our cosecha hats.

Spiritual thought today is about obedience. We got a new rule that we can't teach women unless there is a man in the house. We used to be able to teach women outside their house, but now nothing. One day we found this lady, and she was excited to listen to us... but no man = no lesson. We were debating whether or not to teach her, but ultimately decided to be obedient. As we walked away we met this guy Kaldir. We taught him, and he was super excited! He was telling us that he was looking for a religion, and felt that our church was true. Then he said he didn't actually live here, but lived in Chepo - some area in Panama. Then he was telling us that missionaries had never visited him or his people because their village is a bit hidden. Oh also this dude is a chief of his people in Tosca which is the name of his village. He wanted the missionaries to come visit them all and teach them. He even sent a video to his village group chat with us in it saying that we were coming. And now I'm I'm honorary member of his tribe. So basically we found a village chief who wants all his people to get baptized into our church. It was pretty crazy! This was a testimony to me about obedience. If we had not been obedient to the rules, to God's rules, we wouldn't have met this man. I truly testify that obedience brings miracles. It's an act of faith, but faith always brings miracles.

I love you all! Thank you always for everything! Keep me and my people in your prayers! And you're always in mine!

-Elder Lutze