Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 59 (Tacos and Baby Showers)

Buenas!!!

Hope everyone's well! This week was really amazing! So here's the highlights!

Tuesday absolutely poured rain! But it felt so good! The miracle of this day was Yajaida. That night with Elder Tarbet in exchanges we felt impressed to knock on someone's door. We never knock on people's doors, they hate it. But, we met Yajaida and she was really excited! So then we taught her for the first time, and it was a crazy good lesson! She loved it so much. She then started crying, and explained that in the very moment we had knocked on her door she had started talking about God. Pretty neat experience.

Wednesday we had exchanges! I went with our Zone Leader Elder Griffiths! That man is literally a tank. Physically and spiritually. We had a super great day! We talked with every person we saw! We had some really good lessons. Then we passed a house that was closed, but we saw someone through the window and paused. We thought about it for about 10 seconds, then we said the most Panamanian thing possible "Como no." We taught the family inside, felt the spirit really strongly, and put down some baptismal dates! It was super awesome!

Thursday was wild! After consejo and everything, we decided to start working in Rio Hato for the first time. As we left, we realized we forgot something at home, so we hurried back, and then we finally left for Rio Hato. We didn't want to just start going around blind, so we asked for some references from a member. We headed to the general area of the reference, and we saw a bunch of people outside talking, so we decided to talk to them. They all were really surprised, but really excited to talk to us! They had a million questions, but we kept telling them we had to start at the beginning. It was a long, long, loooong lesson. But it was really good! At the end of the lesson, they explained to us that we arrived at literally the perfect time. Things apparently were super super tense right when we got there. And to make the explanation really short the mom told us "You saved my daughter's life." Which may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but not really. Let's just say that God's timing is real. Lots happened so that we would get there at the house at that time.

Friday was seminary. Hype! And then the members gave us tacos! THEY WERE SO GOOD! To top it off they gave us what is called a Dona Rellena. It's basically a cream filled donut but better because the cream is actually Dulce de Leche which is so so so good. Turkish Tela Novelas are also the bomb.

Saturday we went to a baby shower held by members for a nonmember that we are teaching! It was so fun and awesome! We didn't know, however, that we would be directing the entire thing and that we were in charge of the games. But we made it really fun, and everyone had a really good time! Then later that night we got to go play some basketball which was really fun too!

SUNDAY WAS SO HYPE! First of all, Humberto, my Abuelito/favorite human, finally came to church. He has been inactive for a long time, and when I found out I was coming to Anton, my first goal was to get him to church. And he finally came! He gave me a massive hug when he got there, and he gave an awesome testimony! Then, after church, I got to go be a part of Blanca's baptism! It was so amazing and special! Especially to see everything from the beginning! Her daughter Idelka got baptized, then Yasmina a few months later, and now finally Blanca! I learned, Blanca isn't actually her name jaja. All 3 of them were crying and so happy. Their little family is complete! Then there was a birthday party for Yasmina, and a ton of members came, and it was a really fun time!

As for my spiritual thought, I have been reading a book called His Holy Names, and I've had some pretty inspiring thoughts from reading that. But I'll explain more after I finish the book. A scripture I love is 2 Nephi 25: 26

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Christ truly should be the center of what we do and say. It should be what we teach to the children and others. Our examples, and what we say really makes an impact. And it's even more important that all can know that Christ is the source of their salvation. I encourage you all to read this scripture again, and to take a little bit of time to think about it!

Love you all! Hope life is treating you well! Have a great great week! Keep praying for my people of Anton! Until Next Week!

-E. Lutze