Week 6 at the MTC

So, on this last Tuesday we got to hear an awesome talk by Elder M. Russel Ballard! Just like Elder Nelson, I can tell he's truly an inspired servant of God. It was a really cool talk about basically what a Preach My Gospel missionary does.

Other than that, I don't think all that much has happened this past week, except for the fact that two members of my district left yesterday. Elder Hunt and Elder Buhler were reassigned to the Portland, Oregon mission to serve while they wait for their visas to Brazil. We figured it was going to happen, as they hadn't heard of any progress since they came here. Most of the Elders and Sisters going to Brazil get reassigned while they wait, Brazil is so picky on who they let in. With Portugal and Cabo Verde, I'm pretty sure they just send you with a travel visa if you don't get your full visa yet. We got the flight plans for our trip a few days ago, and the funny thing is that the missionaries going to Cabo Verde leave an hour and a half after the missionaries going to Portugal, but they get to Portugal 20 minutes before the Portugal Elders and Sisters do. For some reason, we just go to Spain, but they go to France to get to the Lisbon airport. I don't get it. We have like a 5 hour layover in Lisbon, so we figure we could meet up with them until they have to head out, so that'll be cool.

Watching Elder Hunt and Elder Buhler leave was kind of hard, because I've gotten really close to them. Elder Hunt is one of the sassiest people I have ever met, and Elder Buhler is crazy about literally all music. I feel happy for them, though. They're going out to serve the Lord, and I know that it's going to be my turn soon. My companion and I got a really nice compliment from our teacher after a lesson we taught that just filled everyone with the Spirit. I hope I'm able to teach lessons as good as that in Cabo Verde, because that was such a great experience. As usual, I cried a lot.

But that's pretty much my week. Hope everyone is doing well! 

Elder Penner

A note from his mom:  He flies to Cabo Verde next Tuesday, so it might be 2 weeks until I get an email from him.  He will get to call us next week when he flies there.

He specifically asked me to put this picture up on the blog.  He just loves his companion's (on the far left) expression. 

Here is a picture of him and Carter Blaise, a friend from home who is going to Rome, Italy.  He arrived last week, and they saw each other in the cafeteria.  He runs into lots of people in the cafeteria.  It's the watering hole of the MTC.