Semana 44 (Cake y Dulce)

 Buenas!!

What a great week as always! After my Pday on Wednesday I went and stayed another night with Aguadulce. We had to wake up very early in the morning! Of course Elder Bray accidentally set the alarm for Friday and not Thursday. By some miracle we woke up at 3 in the morning! Yet, we woke up 2 hours later than we wanted to. We quickly got ready, and headed off to the city!

Our time in the city was fun! All the trainers were waiting to receive their children. To be honest it was a bit intimidating, all the trainers but 3 of us are literally 'dying' this transfer. So they are a lot more experienced than I am. But, it was fun to talk and share stories! We also all played the piano and sang songs together! We had pizza too! It literally felt like another Pday.

Then we finally received our children! My new comp and child is Elder Keck! In reference to the title everyone says his name like "cake" and they say mine as "Dulce" sometimes. So we are the great combo of "Cake and Dulce." He's super awesome! He's from Colorado! And just an awesome guy! Super lucky to be coming to Penonome too! Less lucky to have me as his trainer tho 

Our first "official" day together we were eating lunch at a place called Leonardos. Suddenly two people started talking to us in English. Very strange. It sort of sounded like they were preparing to fight me, but I answered all their questions quite simply. Then I found out they were Jewish too. We became friends and that was that. A bit odd.

THE CHURCH CAME OUT WITH A NEW PREACH MY GOSPEL!

We had some other good lessons with members. We finally got some of them to church which was super awesome!

Saturday there was a baptism! My boy Elder Keck was the one to baptize him! What a beast! He performed it flawlessly. That same day there was a Father's day activity which was super fun! It was a huge party! The branch also had me sing two songs in Spanish which was fun! They started calling me "Peso Pluma" which is just an artist. They had me sing one of his songs.

Then church was super amazing! Trino got confirmed! Anton was a good time! Panamanians don't believe in Sabbath Day observance apparently, so a member took us and bought us lunch. Then I also got Prezzy Arrocha (branch president) fired up. I talked to him about attendance of members and what not. By the end of our conversation he just said, "Time to activate the alarm!" I take that as a very good sign.

Overall it was a great week! As for my spiritual thought it has to do with something our mission President said to us trainers. He said, "All the parents of these new missionaries are praying for them right now. You are the answer to their prayers." I may not always feel like I am, but those words hit pretty hard. And the same applies to all of us. We can each be the answer to someone's prayers. We ourselves can even pray to find people to help. Even more so, we are an answer to God's prayers. In the Book of Mormon, we read that when we are in the service of our fellow men, we are only in the service of our God. God loves all His children, and wants the best for them. He wants to give them blessings. But, those blessings often are received through us. So pray every day to find someone to help! And you, others, and God will all be blessed for it!

Love you all lots! Thank you for all your support! Please keep praying for me and my people! And for Elder Keck! Until next week!

- E. Lutze

E. Keck y E. Dulce

Trino's Baptism

Make up a story and send it to E. Lutze

Semana 44

Dear Elder Lutze,

I hope all is well with you and your new companion! Life here’s been busy getting ready for Trek, work, and the yard. Nothing very exciting!

Rob did come over for me to look at his knee and Foster put some extra stitches in it. I added some steri-strips. And Trek is in two days! 

Our lesson today was on grace! I’ve been thinking a lot about grace. It’s such an incredible gift, it’s hard to find words. Here’s a few of those gifts… cleansing healing restoring identifying strengthening and transforming power. 

Take a minute to review the gifts of the Spirit and see how many you’ve received or that you’re seeking!

Love you!

Mom

Semana 43 (A Death, Baptisms, and My Posterity Begins!)

Buenas!!

This week was absolutely amazing! A bit long because PDay wasn't till Wednesday. I also have been banished to Aguadulce for the time being because Elder Garrett is going home. But, I'm with the boys and it's a great day!

There was a lot that went on this week aside from work. Thursday we had a district council which was good! We threw a "Feliz Muerte" (Happy Death) party for the 3 Elders that are going home. They will be dearly missed! But the party was super fun!

This week we were going to meet up with a family at McDonalds. We got in the taxi and said "Vamos a McDonalds". The taxi driver was very confused and asked "Donde?" My comp then just said loudly "MAKDONALDS"! Essentially if you don't say things in a Latino way people are very lost. This was especially funny because the same exact thing occurred to the Elderes of Aguadulce last week.

ANTON GOT APPROVED TO BE A GROUP!!! It is now official. And we have made history. A lot of work has gone into this group, and now it is ready to start taking off! I'm super excited for Anton! The group now also has a podium, a sacrament table, and chairs! Elder Garrett and I helped move everything into the meeting home which is literally just a members house. But this is a crazy big deal!

We went and tried some Colombian dessert. Wow! It was literally the best thing I've ever tasted! There's a pic below to make you all jealous.

Then Saturday rolled around. Baptism day! We had 3 baptisms that day! Trino, Idelka, and Alexandra! Alexandra was the first baptism of the newly established Anton group! I was so happy for all 3 of them! Such a great day!

It got even better on Sunday! Idelka brought her sister and some friends to her baptism. Then they also came to church! Idelka was literally showing them around and also teaching them about the Book of Mormon! So amazing! Then Elder Garrett and I wanted to teach Sunday School to the youth. Prezzy Arrocha was fine with it. So we started to teach the Plan of Salvation. But then Prezzy was a bit mad and was like "Elders, you have to follow the Come Follow Me lessons. You can't just teach your own thing. Do you even read Come Follow Me?"

I just said to him "Of course I read Come Follow Me. This week literally talks about The Atonement of Christ."

It was a pretty lucky coincidence. But we had a great lesson! Our investigators also loved it! I even put my drawing skills to the test on the whiteboard. It's not the best drawing, but it was fun!

Then Monday we had another District Council. Then the branch had a huge party for Elder Garrett! There was food and we also did Karaoke! Super fun! It was kinda weird though because we were all saying goodbye to Elder Garrett. Literally didn't even feel real.

I officially said bye to Elder Garrett on Tuesday. It was pretty sad saying goodbye. I've always had to say bye to comps, but this time it was different. We had become great friends and have had some of the funnest discussions. We had good times and I'm not sure when I'll see him again, but someday I'm sure we'll meet again!

We also got transfer news this week! Obviously I'll be staying in Penonomé with a new comp. But little did I know that I would receive a call saying that I'd be training! I'm gonna be a dad! I'm not sure who I'll be training, but I'll find out tomorrow! And so my posterity begins. Funny enough, my trainer is also training, and he is in my district. So it is literally me, my son, my father, my brother. Which means Elder Bray's two sons and grandson! So crazy! Wish me lots of luck and pray for me! I need it.

Apologies, but no spiritual thought today. But I promise one for next week! Keep praying for my people of Penonomé and Antón! And of course mi hijo. Love you all! Until next week!

- E. Lutze

Alexandra's Baptism

Idelka's Baptism

Trino's Baptism

Podium for the Anton Group

E. Lutze's Plan of Salvation Drawing

Death Day

Elderes & Hnas of Penonome

The Colombian Dessert Are you jealous?

Semana 43

Elder Lutze, 

I know this transition appears potentially difficult at the moment. I also know the Lord knows you’re ready for more growth! You’ve got this! One thought I had in the temple this week is that our garments protect us not only physically but more importantly spiritually from the power of Satan when we are faithful to our covenants. I love that thought! I also really liked this quote I came across this week by Elder Holland!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m73ulx4sd4r6f5t/AACxTVzIByFfJ3-p62y__Yifa?dl=0

Let me know if the link worked for you!

I love you!

 Mom

Semana 42 (I am... Spider Man!)

Buenas!!

This week started off with a fantastic Pday! This member in our ward let us come to her private resort and chill at her house and beach. We had tons of snacks and played a lot of volleyball! It was sooooo nice! Hermana Swift is the coolest! She is this white lady from Zimbobway (Not sure how to spell it, but that's how it sounds). She has the coolest Australian accent because she lived there for a bit too! You meet some of the most random people in Panama.

We went to teach the family Salazar, and while we were waiting for everyone to come, I got really tired of all the stupid flies flying around. They didn't have a fly swatter, but I still managed to kill 27 of them. I kinda felt like Spider-Man.

We had exchanges this week. I went to Aguadulce with Elder Moran. He's pretty dope. He is waiting for a visa to go to Brazil, as everyone who goes to Brazil does. Not much really happened. But it's a 4 man house so at night we played Monopoly! That was pretty dang fun!

Saturday we had a mission activity with the ward. It was basically just our sports activity. But we got to play a ton of soccer and volleyball which was fun!

Sunday we gave talks in church. Sang in church. Then we went to Anton and gave talks there. But it was good! I definitely wrote my talk last minute, but it turned out fine. We also met a white guy named Richard! He just casually pulled up to the group in Anton. He is from Oregon. He is a member and lives in Panama City. It was pretty fun to talk to him! Old people just have endless amounts of stories to tell.

The biggest highlight of this week is definitely Alexandra and Ide. Wow, they are so elect. We taught Alexandra the commandments, and her biggest hurdle was the commandment to not bear false witness or lie. She doesn't even have a problem with that. She just knows she's not perfect like the rest of us. We laughed pretty hard at that. As far as Ide, she was a reference from a different place in Panama. She wants to get baptized so badly. They both came to church this week! They loved it so much! It was really fun to see all the young women together, because our recent convert was showing them around and they all became friends super quickly. It was just a happy moment. And they are completely ready to be baptized on Saturday! So pray for them!

I had kind of a strange thought this week. I was thinking about the premortal life and worlds and things like that. The thought then popped into my mind "Of all the worlds and of all the time periods I could have been born in, I'm so happy and lucky to be in the one where my family and friends exist." We aren't here by chance! God knows us, and we are here for a reason! I love all of you! Keep praying for my people!

-Elder Lutze

Resort Beach 

Resort Entrance

Resort Pond

Resort Pools

Semana 42

Dear Elder Lutze, Maybe you haven’t missed my emails, but I’ve missed writing to you! Europe 🇪🇺 was awesome! I’ve attached some pictures of you in each country. You loved it! (Separate email) Same old same old this week… work at work and work at home. Thinking a lot this week on how we truly come to know Him! I’ve decided it’s most definitely during our trials, through prayer and scripture study. What are your thoughts? I’ve also been pondering the word abide! I love Elder Bednar’s talk on this topic from last conference! Hopefully you’ll have time to review it! 

 Love you! 

 ❤️Mom

Semana 41 (Life is Good!)

Buenas!!

This week was fantastic! As always. Monday was a super fun pday! We went biking at the beach. And today we are going to an even better beach! Life is good my friends.

One of the highlights of this week would be Thursday. We held our district council meeting in the morning. After going through all the missionary things it became lunch time. We sent two Elders to get pizza while the rest of us waited and played ping pong. It was so much fun! Happy to say that I won every single match. The pizza was good too! Then the Senior Missionaries, the Barkers, went out to work with us for the day! They literally just drove us around everywhere. But it was fun to talk to them and get to know them! They are so amazing!

A bunch of children were giving me cereal! Big win. And they also loved to touch my hair, especially during the prayer. Jaja!

It was a pretty funny moment when a member asked me if I ate like a Tongan because I absolutely devoured all of the lasagna.

Another funny moment was that the baptism font drain broke, so Elder Garrett had to take a little swim. Luckily it was right before we were playing soccer at our sporting event. This event is always so much fun! We played soccer, jammed out to music, and played more soccer! So so fun!

In terms of work this week, things were super good! We were able to teach all our people on date! We also put another girl on date to be baptized! Her name is Ide. Super elect! We have really high hopes for the 17th! Currently we have 4 people that are planning on being baptized that day, so please please please pray for them! And all the people we are teaching!

I listened to a bunch of different speeches this week. All super amazing! But there was one in particular that I liked more. It would take too long to share about it, so I'll just share the poem he mentioned.

"There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."

I love this poem so much. In fact, I memorized it and recite it a lot in my head. The purpose of our life essentially is to become like God himself. I'm nowhere even close to that, and I definitely need a lot of help. We also know that God's grace is sufficient AFTER all we can do. So keep that poem in mind and do all you can to reach your goals! Then God's grace will see you through!

Love you all so much! Keep praying for my people!! Until next week!

- Elder Lutze

E. Garrett fixing the baptismal font drain

Obedient missionaries enjoying the water from afar

We love the beach!

Penonomé