Elder Jakob Lutze: 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