Get Back

I guess President wanted to help me follow the advice that the Beatles gave
so long ago, to "get back to where you once belonged" So here I am back on
the wonderful island of Mindelo! I can't begin to tell you how stoked I am
to be here! This time I'm in Fernando Pó. I'm serving with Elder Bowman,

who's now on his 5th here! He's still going strong, and I think we're going
to do a lot of good here! Of course I'm gonna miss Congresso and all the
people there, though. I put a lot of work into that area, and I've come to
be really good friends with a lot of members there. I'm excited for what's
coming up, though.

One of the first things that I'm going to have to get used to is the number
of people that there are here! And the number of people that are willing to
sit down for a few minutes to talk. When I arrived, Elder Bowman told me
that they didn't have a lot of investigators here, so we're currently
working on finding a lot of new people to teach, to share our wonderful
message with. So far, it's going swimmingly! There are just so many people
here that need the gospel in their lives, I mean just like everywhere but
still it's incredible!

One person who we started really teaching this week is named Yannick. He's
the older brother of a family of recent converts. Elder Bowman said he
didn't show interest when they first taught the family, but now he's
progressing well! He said that he got an answer that the Book of Mormon's
true, and he really wants to read more. Also, when we first invited him to
church, he was hesitant at first because he worked 11 pm Saturday to 8 am
Sunday. Well, I told him about a member in 5th ward here that did pretty
much the same thing but never missed church, and that gave him the reserve
to go! It was awesome! He seemed a little tired, but he really liked it.
Last night we gave him a baptismal date for the 8th of next month, and he
enthusiastically accepted! He shows a real desire to come unto Christ!
We're excited to work even more with him!

We've also worked with their nearby neighbor, Jessica, who also shows a
strong desire to progress and come unto Christ. She lives with a super
strict mom, so it was a miracle that she came to church and didn't get
ordered to do chores instead! We hope to work a lot more with her as well.

I think best of all by far I got to see Tetone and Maria again! Ever since
Elder Figueiredo and I met them, they'd been pretty strong in the church,
but they didn't get married and baptized until last May! Well, now they're
strong and active members of the church. It was such a blessing to see how
much the gospel has changed their lives. I'm so happy for them, and hope to
see some other recent converts at a stake activity or something. Maybe
General Conference.

The work is great! Hope you all are doing well! Have a good one!

Abraço,
Elder Penner