Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 49 (The Flesh is Weak, but the Spirit is Strong)

Buenas!!

Gotta love the 9 work days without a Pday in between folks! My Pday was moved to today, as evident by the email! We had transfers this week, and I'm happy to say Elder Keck and I will be staying together here in Penonome! ¡Tiempo para florecer!

This week we had more of our Noche de Grupo with the family whose father died. We had some great messages, and ended with a beautiful message of Christ's Atonement! Some seeds were definitely planted in these 2 weeks with everyone!

The water got contaminated so I got extremely sick this week! I don't really remember Wednesday at all. I just remember being up all night losing all the fluids in my body. Then during the day I somehow ended up from my bed to the floor in the other room. I didn't have very much energy, but we still made it to the Noche de Grupo!

The next day some members fed us Lasagna AND Waffles for dinner. Let's just say that didn't bode well in my stomach either

I got to play with the most adorable puppy I've ever seen! It looked like a little bear.

It was Peru Day this week as well! We live in Panama, but there's a hermana in our branch from Peru! She invited us to her house to eat! Literally the most amazing food I've ever tasted. Once again, did not bode well in my stomach. But! It was worth it! She made something that was essentially mashed potatoes, baked potato, and hash brown combined into one. Stuffed with meat, beans, cheese, and corn. SOOOOO GOOD! Then we learned how to dance like they do in Peru! I was oddly pretty good at it!

Monday we had a Zone Council and farewell for all the dying missionaries! It was a good time! Afterwards, Elder Keck, myself, and the sister missionaries all went to Sister Swift's house to have a little family home evening. It was awesome! Sister Swift is the lady from Africa who lives at a private resort! So we got to walk along the beach, eat yummy food, and then we had a really fun time talking! It was so good and special, especially because Sister Swift is always lonely which is sad. So, I was happy to go visit her and cheer her up! She feels a lot like an Aunt to me!

Funny enough, my thought this week came from the whole water contamination. There were two days where I was really really sick. And during those two days we had like 4 people ask us for blessings. We went to the houses and gave all of them blessings. During the blessings, I remember thinking how much I wanted to just heal these people because I myself was suffering, and I didn't want them to feel the same. Then I thought of the Atonement. Christ suffered all our pains and afflictions which means that not only did he suffer everything, but he doesn't want us to suffer! Not only does he have the power to heal us, but He wants to! Now our hard experiences are necessary to help us grow, but the way we grow is through the healing of Christ! So trust in Him! There was also a huge miracle with these blessings! One of the blessings we gave was to a member's husband who is not a member. He had problems a lot bigger than the water contamination, and was about to make his way to the hospital. We gave him a blessing and he was off to the hospital. Two days later he was back, and we asked him how he was feeling, and he said he felt a lot better now. He also said that when we gave him the blessing he felt so much peace over everything, and had felt hope about his condition for the first time! Such a miracle! He's also getting baptized soon! Sadly he lives in the sister missionaries area... but such a miracle!

I love you all so much! I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Keep praying for my people! Until Next Week!

-E. Lutze