Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 36 (Lift One Another)

Buenas!!

I hope you are all doing very well! And, I hope you all had a great week!

I'll start off with Pday. Elder Fabian and I went to La Frontera which is the border between Panama and Costa Rica. Honestly, there wasn't much to do there. But hey, I've been to Costa Rica now! We did check out some cool stores there, but it was more of a nice relaxing day!

This week was pretty normal. Lots of lessons and lots of travel. Well, we did walk a ton this week. Tuesday we didn't have money so we had to walk to Las Lajas which took about 1.5 hours. Super far! Then on Wednesday we went to Tole, but we didn't know that the buses stopped coming at 4:30. So we walked a little over an hour from Tole to the big main road. There we waited 2 hours for a bus to pass by to take us to San Felix.

But we got to see a lot of Tole! It's super pretty there! And we had a lot of fun with La Familia Carreira! Ate food, taught a lesson, and played some Monopoly Deal!

And of course, we had good old Mountain Day on Saturday! I got bored of hiking to Briguni. So I asked my good friend Wiliam where else we could go. He told me "I know a member that lives by Rio Santiago." I had no idea where that was. But it sounded like fun! So we left at 11. We literally walked through the jungle for an hour and a half. I believe through Aguacate. I don't remember, I was completely lost. But it was so lit! Climbed and descended several massive mountains. Crossed some rivers. Went in every direction possible. I'm not sure how William remembers where to go to get anywhere in La Comarca, but eventually we got to the family. We had a good lesson with them. Then we hiked another hour and a half to return. It was so exhausting! When we got to Guabo I literally fell asleep while sitting! But seriously, such an amazing experience! I love Mountain Day!

Well that's about all that happened this week. Jefri didn't come to church... but he's gonna do it! He is seriously so amazing, and understands everything so well! He always asks us how he can share the gospel. Satan for sure is working hard on him. So pray lots for Jefri!

As far as the spiritual thought, one learns a lot while walking through a jungle. First of all is the fact that you need a guide. You can aimlessly walk around hoping to get where you want to go, but trust me, you will get lost in the matter of 10 minutes. So if you really want to get to your destination, well you gotta follow the guide. The person who has been where you want to go, and who knows the paths to get there. Then you gotta have complete trust that they are taking you there. We walked 1.5 hours blindly following William. Let's just say that if we got lost, or if we lost William, we were never getting out! But, we also had complete trust that he knew where he was going. That teaches us to stay close to the guide, and to trust in the guide. Well, I'm sure you can all guess where this is going. But Jesus is our guide in life! He has been where we need to go, and He knows the paths to get there! All we have to do is stay close to Him, and have complete trust in Him! It is as simple as following Him where He leads you. And if you don't know where that is, or how to follow Him I should say that prayer and the scriptures are a great place to start!

The second thing one learns while walking through the Jungle is that every single person is a child of God. That everyone matters to Him. And that they should matter to us. Many of us are very blessed to have churches, temples, transportation, etc. Getting to church is a pretty simple task of driving 5 minutes. Well the people here aren't so fortunate, especially those we visit on Mountain Day. Getting to church is almost near impossible for most. If I'm being honest, I've thought to myself before "why do I completely exhaust myself to teach people that won't ever come to church?" Well, it's like I said above, everyone matters to God. Everyone is a child of God. I may not be able to get these people to church. But I can still lift them up higher than they were before! I can still love them! Give them hope! Truly the people we visit make Mountain Day worth it. Anything we do to help a child of God in any way, even if it be the smallest way possible, it is worth it.

I encourage all of you to develop a closer relationship with Christ, and to follow Him more closely. I also encourage you to give thanks to God for all the blessings you have. And lastly, I plead with you all to love the children of God. To lift them up a little bit higher. Everyone is in need of a little love.

Thank you for all your prayers! Please continue to pray for my people, and especially for Jefri! I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week!

- Elder Lutze