Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 91 (Farewell Banana Land!)

Buenas!!

This week was SO good! But fair warning, this is gonna be a long one!

*Leadership conference last week was super good! Very spiritual! The 12 hour bus rides are always fun too! Elder Ence and I played battleship with paper. It was awesome! Then we got home at 7:30 in the morning.

*Did a CPEC which was fun! We got a 'Makdonald's' breakfast together!

*Did two exchanges. One with Elder Hulme, and the other with Elder Vasquez. It was a really good time! I had a lot of fun with both of them, and they both are really good missionaries!

*I created a Bible Bashing monster. By that I mean, I taught a 12 year girl how to prove our church right, and every other church wrong by using the Bible. She then laughed like a maniac saying how she was going to destroy her friend.

*Almost got killed by a massive dog. We were walking and heard someone say, "Careful with the dog!"

Dog? What dog? We then saw a long line, and attached to the line there was a chain. The chain could move across the line. We then saw a HUGE dog attached to the chain. Well the dog started sprinting towards us, and we turned to run as fast as we could! The only problem was the fact that when I turned around, there was a child right in front of me! So naturally, instead of trampling the kid over, I picked him up and sprinted far away from the dog. It was pretty scary!

*We had Branch conference this week! We also sang in the choir! You would never guess what we sang "JESUS WANTS ME FOR A SUNBEAM"!! IT WAS SO AWESOME!

*I killed a snake outside our house with a rock! We weren't sure if it was poisonous.

*Arellys, Luis, and Yorlenis got baptized!!! I'm so happy for them!! Especially Yorlenis! I met her on my first day here. And I said to my companion, "She is going to get baptized." It took a while, but God really changed her heart! There were a lot of miracles!

Arellys is also kind of a big lady. So we found a massive dress for her! It was so awesome! I may or may not have tried it on, then danced to music in it. But you guys will never know...

Story time

Exchanges - Elder Ence met an old guy who said he was a member, and wanted to come to church. The next day we saw him again. Then he disappeared.

The next week we were assigned to mark down where every member lived, and we were given a list of names. There were 3 names we didn't recognize. Well, one day we were walking, and we were prompted to go visit this one member point on our map. There we saw 3 people. A guy, his daughter, and someone in the hammock. We asked "Is Dionisio here?"

Right then an old man popped up from the hammock. It was the old guy from the week before and his name is Dionisio! We then proceeded to teach him and his neighbors. But Dionisio was very confused. He was saying God and Jesus are the same person, and they don't have bodies.

We pulled out every scripture possible to show him that God and Jesus are different, and they both have bodies. But he wasn't having it. So I said "Hermano, do you believe that God answers prayers? Because we are going to ask God what He thinks."

We said the prayer and left. The next day we came back, explained the Restoration, gave him a Book of Mormon, and left.

The next day we came back. He said the funniest/best prayer ever! "Thank you for Nephi, son of Lehi who married the daughters of Samuel. No no no. Adán. Sí sí. No no. Samuel. No no Ismael. Thank you for the Book of Nephi which ya know, its not that bad."

Then we read 3 Nephi 11 with him. And at the end, he said "Ok, I know now that God and Jesus are different. And Jesus has a body. But I'm still not quite sure about God."

Progress people! Prayer and scriptures work wonders! The second half of this miracle is that we are teaching his neighbor Nidia. She is progressing so well! She is going to get baptized on the 8th! She is so, so awesome, and a big miracle!

I hope you all can learn something from these stories. God is a God of miracles. And He truly changes hearts. In the beginning of my time here, this was an area that no one wanted to be in. But now it's one of the areas that everyone wants to go to. People used to not be receptive. But now people's hearts are being softened. It's becoming a branch. Miracles are flowing, and it's all thanks to God hastening His work! I'm so grateful for the chance to be an instrument in His hands

Sadly, my time has come to leave the area. I'm extremely sad. I may have cried a few times. Goodbyes are the pits. The familia Morales became like a family to me. We all cried together. I'm just grateful that God has helped me to come to absolutely love the people in this area. I'm going to miss them all a lot!

Now I'm going to Tocumen! My new area is called Las Mañanitas! My new comp is Elder Rojas.

Wish me luck! Keep praying for me, my people here in La Esperanza. My new people in Las Mañanitas. And of course please pray for my new zone. Love you all lots! Until Next Week!

- E. Lutze