Semana 94 (What Would Jesus Do?)

Buenas!!

It was a good week this week! Tuesday we got absolutely poured on! It was awesome! We basically ran from house to house for shelter, but no one let us in. So we enjoyed a nice shower! About time we took one 

*We played Calle 7! It's a sport here in Central America. It's awesome! It's kind of like an obstacle course race. It's hard to describe. But, I beat everyone! It's a really popular thing here in Panama.

We had our leadership conference. It was good! Got to see Elder Ence and catch up a bit with him. Love that man!

We had exchanges. I went with Elder Rápalo! We also left with 2 members. Basically everyone who was with me was new to missionary work. In other words, I felt like I was training 3 people at once! It was awesome!

*Miracle Moment

We were walking to visit some people, and I saw a guy walking in the opposite direction. I felt impressed that I should talk to him, but then my other half made some wimpy excuse not to. We walked past each other. But, I then remembered reading a really good email that talked about doing what Jesus would do.

What would Jesus do? Follow the impression and talk to the guy. So I flipped a 180 and chased the guy down. We asked if he had talked to the missionaries, and he told us that literally the day before he had filled out a Facebook announcement to talk to the missionaries. He then INVITED US to his house to teach him! Anyways, his name is Diomar. He is super awesome! And super positive!

Our friend Dereck got baptized on Saturday!!! I'm so happy for him! It was a good time!

We absolutely destroyed in soccer today! Me and my comp both played soccer before the mission, so we were playing with all the Latinos, and we just absolutely wrecked them. Such a good Pday!

My thought for the week is actually  'a learn from my own mistakes moment.' Me and my comp wanted to celebrate after Dereck's baptism. So we were gonna go get a treat. On our way, we both wanted the other to decide where to go. Our pride took over, and we both decided to wait for the other to chicken out and decide. We waited a good long while. Then we went home without a treat!

It's kind of funny because of how stupid it was! But, I learned that pride is dumb! And it's not worth it! We both lost in that situation. But we both learned our lesson! And I hope y'all learn the lesson from my mistake too! Don't worry tho, me and my comp are really good friends. 

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

- E. Lutze

Dereck's Baptism

E. Ence & E. Lutze

Leadership Conference

Preparing for or Recovering from the Heat?

Trio Missionary Moment

The Joy of the Gospel

Training a new missionary E. Rápalo and two members

Yes, it's pouring rain!

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

Awesome Ties

Dancing in a Dress

E. Ence, Nidia, Yorlenis,  Luis, E. Lutze

E. Ence, Yorlenis, Luis, E. Lutze

E. Lutze, Yorlenis, E. Ence

Yes, I'm in a dress!

Leadership Conference

The Snake

Semana 90 (Banana Fever)

Buenas!!

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms! Moms are absolutely amazing! And I'm especially grateful for my mother! She has done more for me than anyone else ever will! Besides Jesus, of course.

This week was good! We had our Zone Conference which was really fun! Super spiritual!

On the way back home one of the Elders 'lost his dinner.' By that I mean that the bus is super fast through a ton of switchbacks. So if you don't have a strong stomach, anything you ate before the ride is coming right back up! It's kind of like a roller coaster.

Had exchanges with the APs. That was super fun! My dear friend Elder Tarbet is finishing his mission. My last exchange I'll ever have with him.

Ismael, our recent convert, decided to follow us around for the day. He is a funny kid! He kept saying that he wants me to be his dad. He also told us a story of how he and a kid at school made a bet of who Mormon was. And Ismael walked away with 5 dollars 

Friday Elder Ence was really sick, so we had to stay home.

Saturday he was still really sick, so we stayed home again.

Those two days were tough! I was so bored! My body was agitated from not walking around outside. One might say I quite literally went Bananas. I also realized how much I love being outside and in the sun! I did finish two books tho! 

Sunday we had church. We were really praying for some miracles here, because we didn't work for two days in a row. And God certainly answered our prayers! 6 of our friends came to church! There were also over 50 people at church! The little house was packed! It was so full that we literally had people outside!

It was pretty funny too, because the day we had a ton of people, there was no electricity. This meant that everyone was sweating buckets! But who cares! It was awesome! 

Now for the really exciting news! Drum roll please! **

Las 30 is becoming a branch!!!! LETS GOOOOO!! I'm so excited! The papers have already been submitted to Salt Lake City! Pretty soon this group will be a branch! And its new name will be "La Esperanza." So cool! God really is hastening His work!

As for my spiritual thought, I want to talk about the influence of mothers. Because they really are amazing! In the Book of Mormon, one of my favorite stories is of the Stripling Warriors. How did they receive so much strength? Here is what we read:

"Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."

I love that so much! They were so influenced by their mothers, that it caused them to have an extreme amount of faith in the Lord. So much faith, that even though they had never fought in their lives, the Lord delivered them in their battles. I just want to say Amen and Hallelujah for mothers!! There is no greater faith that exists than the faith of our mothers!

Love y'all lots! Keep praying for my Zone and my people! Until Next Week!

- E. Lutze

APs and ZLs

E. Tarbet & E. Lutze

Mission Leaders

Sis. Forsberg, E. Lutze & E. Martin

Zone Conference