Elder Jakob Lutze: Semana 99 (We'll Make Something Work!)

Buenas!!!

This week we had our leadership conference! It was super fun and super spiritual! And the best part... we ate tacos! That's a win in my book!

Wednesday we did a CPEC which was fun! And after, we did an invasion as a district. We just went to the Hermanas area to contact and find people. It was cool tho! Elder Smith and I found an inactive member, and we were definitely supposed to be there. Very cool.

Elder Arias left for Brazil on Thursday! I'm super happy for him! It was fun to be with him for a little bit!

Thursday we went to another area called 'La Cabima.' A member there wanted Elder Smith to baptize her 8 year old son. It was a good time! Elder Smith slipped in the baptismal font and everyone started laughing. It was so funny! He was laughing too. I guess he really wanted to go swimming!

We had our Zone Conference this week too! I enjoyed it a lot. It was weird because a lot of my friends gave their final testimonies. But it was also really cool, because we took a big picture of all of us that started in the same zone together! Time flies.

After the conference, we were trying to help a new Elder contact. He did a really good job! He can't speak much Spanish, but he was giving it his best! It was awesome! And it led to a few funny situations - at one point he said to a woman around our age, "We can text you and plan a dinner."

He meant to say plan a day to go by and teach. Elder Bowen and I were trying so hard not to laugh. But we couldn't keep it in. We both just burst out laughing super hard! It was hilarious! But hey, she said yes to having the missionaries over.

It was Elder Smith's birthday on Saturday! Happy Birthday to Elder Smith! (Mom note - and Elder Lutze's birthday was on Sunday... so if you're still reading, wish him a belated Happy Birthday! at jakob.lutze@missionary.org)

I got locked in the subway bathroom.

Big miracle at church! All our friends that are going to get baptized on the 27th came to church! It was awesome! But there was also a really special miracle that happened. About 3 weeks ago we started teaching the Elder Quorum President's dad. He has always rejected missionaries, and has NEVER come to church. Well, this Sunday he came!!! We invited him, he came, and it was a really special moment for Angel and his son! It was almost enough to make a grown man cry. So special.

Overall the week was super good! Lots of miracles always!

My spiritual thought for the day has to do with my shoes. They were getting a little too beat up, so I took them to a shoe repair shop. The lady kind of stared at the shoes like "What is this?" She was very confused. She then took them to the back saying, "Let me go see if there is anything we can do!"

About 5 minutes later she came back and said, "I don't know how, but we'll make something work!"

I left the shop just laughing at that comment because I don't know how she's gonna do it either! But, I trust that she'll make it work somehow. And in the end there's a valuable lesson to be learned from this. Sometimes we are like old beat up shoes that probably don't smell the best. But God looks at our lives and says, "Let's see what we can do."

He examines our lives. He knows exactly what we need to be made better. And then He says, "We'll make something work."

And the beauty of it is that if we trust in God, He not only will fix us, but He will make us better than we could ever imagine! All our scrapes, bruises, scars, pains, and experiences will be used for our benefit. So, when we can't seem to get a break, or can't quite get anything right, or life is just down right hard, let's have a little faith that God will look at us 'old shoes' and say, "Don't worry, I'll make something work."

Anyways. Love you all lots! Keep praying for my people and my zone! Until Next Week!

- E. Lutze