Semana 75 (WE AIN'T HAD NOTHIN' BUT MAGGOTY BREAD FOR 3 STINKIN' DAYS)

For those who have seen and love Lord of the Rings, I'm sure you will appreciate my email title.

Buenas!!

Pdays in Arraijan have kinda been boring, so Elder Clark and I have been trying to spruce things up a bit! Let me just say, 'Chair Soccer' was a big hit! Everyone was going absolutely insane!!!

Tuesday we had our Leadership Conference! So, we woke up really early, and had a good/spiritual time! Got to see a lot of friends, and got to learn a lot! I may have also broken someone's tie.... but it wasn't exactly my fault. Basically they were trying to do an example, and they tied my legs together with a tie, and in the end I accidentally broke it... woops!

Then we had an intercambios! I went with Elder Bailey to Caceres. It was super fun! We didn't have a phone with the internet the whole time, so we were just kinda blind. But, the Spirit sure helped us out! They said they were having problems with contacting people, so we made a goal. We contacted literally EVERYONE. It was really fun! Then their member Abraham was really weird and started driving us to random places. It was really dumb. But, that's a whole different story.

The next day we had our Zone Council! It was super good! One of the leaders in Arraijan came to speak to us... for 2 HOURS! Insane amount. It was really good though! Presidente is actually a good friend of mine! He is kinda like my sensei you could say. At any moment he will just decide to talk to you for an hour about the revelation he is receiving for you. It's quite interesting.

Anyways. Then we had another intercambio that day. I was with Elder Tanner here in Vista Alegre! He is young in the mission, but he is a beast! It was a super fun time!

A member was just walking around showing his garments to the entire world. Then he hugged us and kissed us on the forehead! Awesome!

Then we went to this mission prep meeting. It was cool! We got to help hype up some people for missions! And we talked about technology to try and help them! It was super awesome! Then we got a call from Presidente Vallarino to listen to him speak for an hour! Jajaja!!!

As far as the title goes, here is where the story comes in. Whenever a member cancels their meal with us, they always make us go to Damaris. The thing about Damaris is that her food makes me sick. Well, 6 people canceled their meals this week which meant that we ate with Damaris 6 times. It would have been fine except for the fact that every once in a while we would find maggots in our food.

Hence the "WE AIN'T HAD NOTHIN BUT MAGGOTY BREAD FOR 3 (6) STINKIN DAYS." 

But in the end, we were hungry. And both me and Elder Clark thinking "It Could Be Worse," we ate it anyways.

Spiritual Thought

I was thinking a lot about faith this week. And conversion. In the end there is a bit of a 3 step process. The trial of faith, the demonstration/action, and the miracle. We see this all over in the Book of Mormon. Someone has a problem, they show faith by asking and acting, and then comes the miracle. Well it's the same for conversion. Trial of faith, demonstration of faith, and the conversion or the conviction. I ended up making a mathematical example for this. To clarify, I'm not saying that God uses a math equation like this to bless us with miracles, but it is easier to understand with the example.

Trial of faith x Action = Miracle/Conversion

We will always, always, ALWAYS have problems or trials of faith in our lives. It is unavoidable. We can't control that. But, what we can control is our actions.

So let's say we receive a trial that is really hard. It's number 10. But what happens if our effort/actions is only a level of 1?

10 x 1 = 10.

The miracle or conversion isn't very high. But what happens if our action is a level of 10?

10 x 10 = 100.

Suddenly we get a lot more! But what if we decide to do nothing, and don't act or demonstrate any faith?

10 x 0 = 0.

God can't work any miracle if we don't have faith. The concept is simple. What is harder is to put it into practice. But I know that our trials are opportunities to grow, ONLY if we remain faithful through our actions, doing all we can so that God can bless us with miracles and conversion. Hopefully this all made sense.

Thanks for all the prayers! Please continue praying for my people and my zone! Love y'all! Until Next Time!

- E. Lutze

E. Lutze & E. Tanner or E. Bailey on Intercambios

Leadership Conference with President and Sister Forsberg

E. Lutze & E. Clark

Zone Council with our Books of Mormon

A Hungry Dog?

Yep, there are maggots in our food!

A doll for the dog?

Semana 75

Dear Elder Lutze,

I hope this email finds you well! I continue to pray for your Zone, companion, and Diego. 

This week was quiet. Dad was in SG and work was really busy for me! Dad went to his conference and finished the HVAC. I went to the combined activity on Tuesday. Cami”s endowment was very nice. We enjoyed lunch together and afterwards dad and I did a little DI shopping. Always fun to find great bargains!!!

Planning our Cedar City weekend. You won’t be home by Sept 20 - 22 right? You come home the 25th ish?

Love  

Mom

Thought….

Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote: “As far as the gathering of Israel is concerned, the Book of Mormon is the most important book that ever has been or ever will be written. It is the book that gathers Israel and that reveals, in plainness and perfection, the doctrine of the gathering of the chosen seed. It is the book, given of God, to prove the truth and divinity of his great latter-day work. It contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel and carries with it the evidence of its own divinity. Every person who is truly converted knows by the revelations of the Holy Ghost to the spirit within him that the Book of Mormon is the mind and will and voice of the Lord to the world today. It is the Book of Mormon that causes people to believe the gospel and join the Church, and, as we have heretofore seen, it is the power that brings to pass the gathering of Israel. If there were no Book of Mormon, from a practical standpoint, the gathering of the Lord’s people in the last days would come to a standstill. The lost sheep of Israel hear the voice of their Shepherd as it is found in that book and, heeding that voice, come into the true sheepfold. There is no way of overstating the importance of this book of Nephite scripture in the salvation of men in the last days” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 554).

Semana 74 (Secret Baptisms??)

Buenas!!

Cambios!! Let's gooooo! So fun to see all my missionary friends at the meet up spot! There I picked up my new comp Elder Clark! He is super awesome and fun! Great singer too! I'm really excited for this transfer!

Crazy thing happened this week. We are teaching a girl named Abby. And we need permission from the father. Well, the family of Abby that are members (the mom's side of the family) freaked out at us. They were trying to convince us that we didn't need the father's permission and that they had already baptized other family members before without the permission. That's right folks, secret baptisms! We were mind blown! In the end, we were finally able to explain why that was wrong, and wow, what a headache.

A dude said one of the funniest phrases I've heard. "NO NO NO, AHORA NO! ESTAMOS EAT!!!"

Elder Clark has been way fun to work with! We both are just really direct, and we have been teaching with a lot of passion! It's so fun, and it's great to have a comp like him!

Big miracle on Sunday! A youth named Diego came to church. I thought nothing of it really. I knew he wasn't a member, but the situation had been complicated with him. Well, at the end of church his aunt came up to us asking if we could do a Noche De Hogar that night.

It turned out that Diego went to PFJ (EFY basically) and had a super spiritual experience that sparked his interest a lot! So we had the Noche De Hogar, and wow!! I don't think I've had such a spiritual lesson before! It was amazing! We talked mostly about receiving and recognizing personal revelation, it was really cool!

Spiritual Thought

1 Nephi 10: 19

"For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round."

I love this scripture, because God truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If not, then He wouldn't be God anymore

But truly the miracles, love, and blessings those in the past received, we can also receive! In fact, God wants to give us all of that! But that means we have to do what the people did anciently. Seek diligently, keep the commandments, and do what we can to have the Holy Ghost. God is the same, we are not. But, if we can do what we are supposed to, then God can always bless us! Think about it!

Thanks for all your prayers! Keep praying for my zone. Pray for Diego! Love you all lots! Until Next week!

- E. Lutze

E. Clark & E. Lutze

Cool Artwork on the front and back of a Book of Mormon

Taller Riva

Semana 74

Elder Lutze,

So grateful for your willingness to serve the Lord and His children. How’s your new companion E. Clark? You continue to touch the lives of our ward members with your letters! 

Dad and I went on two dates this week. We saw ‘The Boys in the Boat’ and ‘Clue.’ I would definitely watch ‘The Boys in the Boat’ again! We celebrated Natalie’s birthday with pizza, cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, played a game, and watched a movie on Thursday night. I can’t believe she’s 23! Yikes! We are going with Cami to the temple for the first time on Saturday!!!

I love you!!!

 Mom

Excerpt from a Devotional at BYU

As an example, he shared about the Abol family in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Sister Abol spent seven years searching for the gospel of Jesus Christ. She reads the Book of Mormon every day to her five sons, Elder Nattress said, and she and her husband have been preparing for five years to attend the temple and be sealed as an eternal family. Every Sunday, the Abols and others in their village make the four-hour walk over two mountains and across five rivers to attend sacrament meeting. “There is only one explanation why these Saints endure so much and sacrifice so much each week. It is because they know that the gospel is true,” Elder Nattress said. “They choose to always remember Him. They strive to think celestial.” Elder Nattress then shared three things individuals can do every day that will make an eternal difference in their lives. First, pray. Second, read the Book of Mormon. Third, find someone to serve. For good measure, Elder Nattress added invitations to partake of the sacrament and attend the house of the Lord. 

Semana 73 (Tarde Blanca Confirmed 😎 🌊 🔥)

Buenas!!!

The good old 9 day work week has rolled around once more! Can't believe transfers are already here! I'm a wee bit sad though, cause Elder Zepeda is finishing his mission! We became really good friends!

Speaking of Elder Zepeda, we celebrated his birthday this week! We ate and talked with some members, and it was a good time!

We showed up to a 12 year old girl's party. Long story. But yea, that was kinda weird.

CPEC! LETS GOOOOOOO

Real quick, I want to thank everyone for all your prayers! If y'all remember, we're planning a Tarde Blanca. Let me tell ya, it was kinda, most definitely, extremely chaotic to plan this thing. But in the end, there were a ton of miracles that happened! At the tarde blanca, (the 13th of January), there ended up being 11 people that got baptized! And 93 people came to watch! It was a super spiritual day! So awesome!

Well the transfer news is here! Imma gonna stay in Vista Alegre 2 with Elder Clark! I also get to train him in how to be a ZL! So pray for us lots, cause I also have no clue what I am doing 

But, it's gonna be a good transfer! Please pray for my zone too! There is a lot of fixing to be done! Jaja!

As for my spiritual thought, in my personal study I love looking for examples of Apostasy or in other words people's bad examples. Because, while we learn a lot from the good examples and what we should do, sometimes we learn more from the bad examples and what we shouldn't do. Two of those examples, as you can guess, are Laman and Lemuel. Something really interesting is how much they complain! About everything! It's just interesting to me because Nephi never complains, and is extremely blessed for it. He is blessed for his patience and his faith. While on the other side, Laman and Lemuel lack patience, faith, and complain a whole whoppin' ton!

As I was reading, I came to realize that they complained so much because of their lack of knowledge. They never prayed and asked God for testimonies or answers. They just decided to complain. And many times we are like that! I'm not saying that we are horrible people for that. But we can always improve! I know God loves it when we don't complain. I know He is always willing to give us answers if we ask! Truly God knows more than us, so let us be faithful and patient!

Anyways. Have a great week everyone! Pray for me and my comp, my people, and my zone! Love y'all lots! Until Next Week!

-Elder Lutze

Beautiful Panama!

Blanca Tarde!

Happy Birthday E. Zepeda!

Our Zone

Sharing the Book of Mormon

Semana 73

Dear Elder Lutze,

I love you and am praying for you, your zone, and your mission! God is a God of miracles!!! 

This week was super busy at work! Home was busy with snow removal. We’ve gotten about a foot and a half this week! This morning’s snow was super wet and heavy and guess what?!! It’s snowing again! Imagine that! 

Dad and I went on a date night to Edna’s last night. We tried all new dishes which we enjoyed! We were amazed at a one year old’s birthday party - 21 people, 15 pizzas, 10 salads, and 6 appetizers. The bill had to have been at least $400. 

My thought this week is about 1 Nephi 3:7… dad and I were talking about this. It is our job to ‘go’ meaning to put forward faith and move forward and it is His job to help us with the ‘do’ once He’s seen our initial faith in the ‘go.’ 

Think about your mission…. You had to ‘go’ meaning put your faith in Him that this was right and get out there and He’s been by your side helping you with the ‘do’ ever since!!! He wants to see us act in faith!

I  you!

Mom

Semana 72 (#Goals/Miracles)

Buenas!!!

This was a good week! Very busy and exhausting, but good! So let's get into it shall we...

We started off with an intercambios on Tuesday. That was fun! I was with Elder Perez.He is super awesome! We had some good lessons, and a cool experience at dinner! We went to eat at a member's house whom the Elders had never eaten with before. While at the dinner a guy named Alexander showed up. The members gave him food and he started to cry because he hadn't eaten all day, and he doesn't have work. It was quite the spiritual/emotional moment. 

Fun fact, I actually recognized the dude because my comp and I had contacted him a while back. The member wanted us to help figure out where he lived and which missionaries could go teach him. Well, interestingly enough, my companion and I were the only ones who already knew where he lived! So, we passed by a few days later and started teaching him. God's timing is pretty cool! Just like a wise turtle once said, "There are no accidents!"

The next day (Wednesday) we had another intercambio! It was good! I was with Elder Leon. He is an interesting little fellow... but it was a good time!

District council was good too! In the end, we did this little activity of sharing a spiritual experience with another missionary. And it was amazing! It was interesting for me because I was with a missionary who I didn't get along with too well. But, after sharing our experiences, we had a lot more respect for each other and became a lot better friends!

Friday as a mission, we did a "Día en la Finca." Basically we set apart time in the day to just go find people! My comp and I set a goal of 10 people. We were running around like madmen! We found and taught 8 people, but it was getting pretty late. We thought about ending the day, but we had made a goal. We were pretty determined to complete the goal. So off we went looking! We felt impressed to contact this one house, and there ended up being 2 people there. We had a super good lesson with them! #Goals/Miracles

CPEC!!! Gotta love doing CPECs! I must say I'm starting to get used to waking up at 4:30/5. Not really, it kills me. But it makes waking up at 6:30 a lot easier for sure! This CPEC was for sure interesting, but we don't need to talk about that 

Church was really good too! Lots of people started their resolution of "reactivate in the church" strong! Testimony meeting was on fire! A lady dropped bars when she said, "Donde hay amor, está el Señor."

The class was fun as well! I kinda feel bad tho... the teacher wanted to do a practice of explaining the Book of Mormon to a nonmember. She picked a member, and she picked me to help. I was like "perfect! I explain the Book of Mormon everyday! This will be fun!"

Well, it turns out that she made me the nonmember. And worse was that she wanted me to ask questions about the Book. I kinda looked at her with a face saying "are you sure about that?" But, that's what she wanted. The thing is, I have a decent amount of time on the mission and I have taught an INSANE amount of Católicos and Evangélicos. The poor member didn't know what was coming for him.

He explained what the Book of Mormon was, and invited me to read it. Then I destroyed him with a single question. I honestly felt really bad. But at the same time it was pretty funny.

Spiritual Thought :)

1 Nephi 4: 15 we read "Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law."

SCRIPTURES ARE SO IMPORTANT! Without the scriptures, we can't follow God and obey Him. That also means that we can't receive the blessings from obeying God! If we don't know how to follow God, how would we be able to receive blessings from our faithfulness and obedience? You can't. And the sad problem today is that many people don't even know the 10 commandments! Let alone other blessings and commandments God has for us.

I listened to a conference talk where the speaker made a pretty funny joke.

One man once said to his friend, “I will give you five dollars if you can repeat any one of the Ten Commandments.” His friend accepted the challenge and proceeded to demonstrate his knowledge by saying, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” His friend said, “Here’s the money. I didn’t think that you could do it.”

Anyways, you get the point.

Love y'all! Have a great week! Keep praying for my people and my zone! Until Next week!

-E. Lutze

Another Beautiful View of Panama

A Rescue Bus?

Panama Freeway

Sunrise Shots - CPECs

Walking with Christ in 2024

We mad our goal!!!

What's wrong with E. Lutze?

Semana 72

Elder Lutze,

You’re amazing! We love you and pray for your success!!! Thank you for being a great example of sharing the Book of Mormon. 

This week has been a whirlwind!!!  We came home from SG Monday and then I proceeded to work 50 hours in 4 days! Two of those were literally nonstop!! Definitely not as enjoyable as a nonstop flight  somewhere warm! The snow is coming down and it is super windy  today! Dad and I did enjoy a play at the Hale and I went to the temple on Saturday! I wanted to share with you the tender mercy from my temple experience. At times we all need reassurance that He knows us personally and hears our prayers. As I received my 5 names for initiatories, I looked at the first name and it was a lady from Salta Argentina! I’ve never had a name from Argentina, much less from Salta. Definitely a tender mercy for me that my Heavenly Father and His Son do know me personally and hear my prayers. And apparently, I was saying the names so well, one sister stopped me and asked where I was from?

Have a great week! I may not be able to talk tmr… depends on when you call, if not we’ll talk next week.

 Mom

Thought ~ I’m grateful you are earnestly contending for the faith!!

Do I earnestly contend for the faith? 

President Wilford Woodruff (1807–98) related how as a young man he had sought after the faith that had been taught by Jesus Christ and the Apostles: “I read the New Testament. I learned verse after verse and chapter after chapter. … It taught me the Gospel of life and salvation; it taught me a Gospel of power before the heavens and on the earth. It taught me that the organization of the Church consisted of Prophets, Apostles, Pastors and Teachers. … “These are the things which I learned, and they made an impression upon me. I believed in them; yet I had never heard them taught by any clergyman or divine upon the earth. … On one occasion I attended one of those great meetings which were sometimes held in Connecticut, at which forty or fifty ministers of various denominations were gathered together. … At this meeting permission was given for anybody to make remarks. I was quite young then. I arose and stepped into the aisle, and I said to that body of ministers: ‘My friends, will you tell me why you don’t contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints? Will you tell me why you don’t contend for that Gospel that Jesus Christ taught, and that His Apostles taught? Why do you not contend for that religion that gives unto you power before God, power to heal the sick, to make the blind to see, the lame to walk, and that gives you the Holy Ghost and those gifts and graces that have been manifest from the creation of the world? …’ “The presiding elder said: ‘My dear young man, you would be a very smart man, and a very useful man in the earth, if you did not believe all those foolish things’” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff [2004], 35–36). 

 3 ​Beloved, when I gave all diligence to ​​​write​ unto you of the common ​​​salvation​, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort ​you​ that ye should ​​​earnestly​ ​​​contend​ for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/jude/1?id=p3&lang=eng#p3

Semana 71 (Feliz Ano Nuevo)

Buenas!!!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!! We had a really fun time! We went caroling, drank hot chocolate in 97 degree weather, and enjoyed our day! Caroling was the highlight for sure! We went singing at inactive members' houses. We even made a few cry! Whether they were crying because they felt the spirit, or because of how bad our singing was, they were still brought to tears!

Feliz Año Nuevo!! 2024... that's kinda weird. Time on the mission goes by too quickly sometimes!

This week was great! If I'm being honest, I don't remember much, and writing in my journal has just been progressively getting worse...

But the highlights were the Noche de Hogares that we had! We had some really fun families to share with! And they cooked really good food :)

Had exchanges with the APs. That was a ton of fun! I got to go with Elder Tarbet. The guy is a machine! Also one of my best friends in the mish, he is super awesome! Anyways, we had a really fun time together!

New Year's Eve is fun! Basically everyone just gets crazy drunk and parties all day/night. The fireworks are cool too! Last night literally sounded like a bunch of bombs going off. For 30 minutes it was just "BOOM BOOM BOOM.". It's because, in Panama, they make life-size dolls and fill them with fireworks. Then ya know, BOOM! The dolls are cool, but also kinda creepy.

Sometimes I think that Panama can't get any weirder. That I have seen it all. Yet somehow, people just keep proving me wrong! For instance, I saw a guy cooking barbecue... with a machete. That's pretty normal I guess. Today I saw something REALLY strange, but it's a little too descriptive to tell. 

Spiritual thought for the week comes from John 15 when Jesus says "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

This one is hard for me to express my thoughts on, but I'll try. This verse is really impactful when you think about it! Jesus will always be with us. He is always here to help. Yes it's important to accept Him. But the reality is that Jesus has chosen US. He has called us to do His work, and to be His friends! We shouldn't decide everyday whether or not we are gonna follow Jesus, because He has already chosen us! Whatever role Jesus wants or needs from us, we should be there to fulfill it, because He has chosen us!

I'm just saying that it's pretty dang cool that the perfect, most amazing, wonderful, fantastic person has chosen the non-perfect, not always amazing, sometimes (usually) wonderful, weak people we are. Christ trusts in us. He sees us as His friends. So we should act that way! Obviously show respect for Him. But love Him as our friend, and do what He says. Think about it!

Anyways... love you all! Thanks for all the prayers! Keep praying for my zone and area! Until Next Week!!

- E. Lutze

A Very Cool Plant - Christ's Crown

A Cool View

Animal Drawing - PAPU

Christmas Caroling

E. Tarbet (AP) with E. Lutze on Exchanges

The Rock is Jesus

An EARLY morning CPEC

The Elders didn't know I was on the bus, so I snuck up on them and scared them!