In the Cold, Cold Night

As the nights get darker and darker, I can't help but be reminded of the
White Stripes song with such a simple guitar riff. Although it never gets
cold enough here as it does back home, sometimes it would be nice to wear a
sweater.

As to more important things, Jusara (learned how to spell her name this
week) was baptized and confirmed this last weekend! The funny story for
this one is that we had the baptism scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday
Afternoon. We had seen Jusara just a half hour before the service, which
looked perfect. However, we waited until almost 4:30 for her to show up,
with everyone that came, including another ward who was doing a joint
service with us. She doesn't have a phone, so we decided to run over to her
house. We got there, worried that something had happened or she was having
second thoughts, and found her... still getting ready. The most obvious
statement of the week was, "I'm late, aren't I?" and we were like well
yeah!!! Now we're laughing about it, so it's all good! Such a great
experience in all! 

At the same time, some sad news to report. Our part of Ribeira da Craquinha
is now in possession of the Sisters on the other side of our ward. That
means that Yannick's family, Jusara, Marina and Elisio, and Mario will now
go to them, to name just a few. Both Recent Converts and some of our
coolest investigators. It's really sad. We were talking to this one family
Nady and David for the last time, and in his prayer, David said "also
please don't let the Elders leave" and we were like noooo you can't say
thaaaaaaat! It was sad, but it needed to happen at some point. Sister
McClellan met some people that she knew from when she did a Humanitarian
EFY trip here, so it also seemed to fit.

We met a new family in Craquinha yesterday that we're going to give to the
Sisters. They lived in a part waaaaay out that we didn't even know existed.
They walk up to Monte Verde every weekend to the plantations that they have
there. They had visited a lot of churches, but had found something they
didn't seem to be right with every one. They were just like "we're only
looking for the true Church of Jesus Christ, but can't seem to find it!"
Well, we had just the thing for them. What a good lesson. Now the Sisters
will be able to work with this family as well, the lucky things.

In happier news, we finally get to mark a date for Erineu and Ronisse's
wedding! We've been impatiently waiting for that for the past month, so
we're stoked that we can actually make some hard plans. Wish us luck! So
stoked to work as hard as ever! Loving life!

Hope you all are great! Our Thanksgiving was nothing special, just some
chicken and a ton of mashed potatoes (I insisted that we make 2kgs of
potatoes and I ate most of them) but it was really good, so we didn't mind.
Can't wait for the Christmas season to really start kicking in this
country! #SejaALuzDoMundo #LightTheWorld

Abraço,
Elder Penner

The House of the Rising Sun

I can't remember who sang this originally, actually. I mostly mention it because I've heard it at least 3 times in the past week when I never really expected to hear that song in this country. Also a couple of Michael Jackson songs I had never even heard. Nice.

Now that I don't have a weird line in front of my paragraph, let me tell you about the week. The main event of the week was a Zone Conference presided by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy. He's the President of the Europe Area right now. With his funny English accent and his hilarious but also spiritual capabilities made it the best Zone Conference I've ever been to. My favorite part was when Elder Kearon was demonstrating the importance we should give in the invitation to be baptized. he pulled me up and asked me what's something I really, really wanted. Typical me said "a trip to space." He then looks me dead in the eyes, and says something like this: "Jordan, (he literally asked me my first name to do this,) now I have been talking for the past 6 years with Elon Musk just for you. And now, after all these years, I'm happy to announce that you will be accompanying Elon Musk..." and then he broke off laughing harder than ever. I was in tears in front of my entire Zone. I think in that moment I reached Nirvana. I even learned a lesson from it, that we should act like we're giving the greatest gift that there is to be given! Because we literally are! What a wonderful experience. The theme of the whole thing was "Just stop worrying," so that's what I plan to do.

Since that day, I've felt a true peace in my work, and in everything I do. We had 5 investigators in church yesterday, which was another wonderful feeling. Our investigator Mario is a really, really cool guy! He came with us to this thing called Integration Night, which is designed to help new people be more familiar with the members of the church, and the next day he came to church by himself! He's really excited about everything, and loves to talk with us. The only thing is that he's incredibly shy. He doesn't really want to respond to some questions that we give. It's not really a bad thing, but we'll need to find him a good friend. He knows a guy that we'll get involved this week.

Other than that, Juçara passed her baptismal interview, meaning she'll be baptized this next Saturday! We're really excited for her, and she's becoming good friends with Yannick and his whole family. Things are really looking up for December as well! I'm just loving life!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. My comp and I will probably be having a humble one on Thursday. Love you all!

Elder Penner

He included pictures from his district's trip to the tallest mountain on the island.  As you can see it was very foggy.  I hope the fog brought some relief from the heat for them.  

Be Above It

Disclaimer: As a missionary, I'm not allowed to discuss really my political opinion. However, I do want to mention that as I learned early Wednesday morning that Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, I realized just how disattached I really am from things that happen back home. I realized that I was so ingrained into what I'm doing here that these things just don't have any real importance to me. Even seeing the flash of the Fantastic Beasts trailers on local TVs doesn't really affect me too much. I just think of how I was almost literally set apart from these things of the world. That's why I chose the Tame Impala song, because "I know that I gotta be above it now."

We had an absolutely incredible week. Something about it just got us powering through with a lot of energy. One thing that was notable was that we found a lot of new people that seemed to show some real interest in hearing the Gospel. For example, we ran into this one woman named Carolina that really wanted us to help her 40 year old son Mario with his drinking problem. As we taught him he showed such a sincere desire to change for the better, that we really felt impressed to share the message of the Restoration. Yesterday when we visited he said that he had received an answer of the truth of these things! We felt that he needed a priesthood blessing, so we asked if he believed in Jesus Christ and that His authority was restored on the Earth again. He said yes, so we gave him a powerful blessing. It was really spiritual, so I think we'll hear a lot more from him.

In other great news, Elisio finally got to church!!! After missing him again last week, we asked Marina to show us his house. After finding his house, we just decided to show up on Sunday morning to knock on his door. We went up to his parents and they were like "he lives on the street behind us, but he's asleep right now." So we went back there and asked where his door was and they just said "but he's asleep right now!" so we insisted and they showed us. Sure enough, he was asleep, but he woke up and said he'd go with Marina. We go over to Marina's house and said that Elisio was coming, but she said "but he's asleep!" We were like we know we woke him up! People have this strange thing here that they think just because someone is asleep that they have absolutely no right to wake them up. Well, we woke him up and he ended up coming to Stake Conference, which just made our entire week! Moral of the story: this country needs to learn D&C 88:124.

Juçara is going absolutely great as well. She doesn't talk a whole lot and is a little shy, especially at Conference yesterday. However, she feels the Spirit, and Yannick's family has been so good at being there for her, especially the 13 year old daughter Lily. We think that she's going super well, so that means that we could be having 3 baptisms on the 26th of this month! Marina and Elisio are going strong for it as well! The Lord just seems to keep blessing us with these incredible people. I'm so blessed to be here.

One thing that was kinda lame, but not super lame: Erineu and Ronisse, that were supposed to be married on the 25th so Ronisse could be baptized on the 26th, can't be married on that day anymore. We went to the Registro (can't remember the name in English) with Erineu to mark a date for the marriage, but they said that they were super busy, so they now have to come back on the 29th just to mark a date! We were a little bummed out, but it'll still happen in December so we're still stoked for them. I just hope that both Elder Ronces and I can still be here! Transfers happens the first week of December.

Something unimaginable happened at Stake Conference yesterday. We met a native Cape Verdean who had actually been to Brentwood, California. It's a miracle that he's even heard of it, let alone been there! Most people know California, but think that California is a city that's relatively close to Boston, Massachusets. It blows their minds when we tell them how far it actually is, and how many cities are part of it. Apparently this guy used to live in Orange County. I feel like I've made one of the craziest connections that I'll ever make in my life.

Life is great! We'll have Zone Conference with Elder Kearon this week! He's the President of our Area, so it should be good! Hope you all are well, have a good week!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

p.s. Is Thanksgiving this week or next week? I can never remember how it works...

Disclaimer: As a missionary, I'm not allowed to discuss really my political opinion. However, I do want to mention that as I learned early Wednesday morning that Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, I realized just how disattached I really am from things that happen back home. I realized that I was so ingrained into what I'm doing here that these things just don't have any real importance to me. Even seeing the flash of the Fantastic Beasts trailers on local TVs doesn't really affect me too much. I just think of how I was almost literally set apart from these things of the world. That's why I chose the Tame Impala song, because "I know that I gotta be above it now."

We had an absolutely incredible week. Something about it just got us powering through with a lot of energy. One thing that was notable was that we found a lot of new people that seemed to show some real interest in hearing the Gospel. For example, we ran into this one woman named Carolina that really wanted us to help her 40 year old son Mario with his drinking problem. As we taught him he showed such a sincere desire to change for the better, that we really felt impressed to share the message of the Restoration. Yesterday when we visited he said that he had received an answer of the truth of these things! We felt that he needed a priesthood blessing, so we asked if he believed in Jesus Christ and that His authority was restored on the Earth again. He said yes, so we gave him a powerful blessing. It was really spiritual, so I think we'll hear a lot more from him.

In other great news, Elisio finally got to church!!! After missing him again last week, we asked Marina to show us his house. After finding his house, we just decided to show up on Sunday morning to knock on his door. We went up to his parents and they were like "he lives on the street behind us, but he's asleep right now." So we went back there and asked where his door was and they just said "but he's asleep right now!" so we insisted and they showed us. Sure enough, he was asleep, but he woke up and said he'd go with Marina. We go over to Marina's house and said that Elisio was coming, but she said "but he's asleep!" We were like we know we woke him up! People have this strange thing here that they think just because someone is asleep that they have absolutely no right to wake them up. Well, we woke him up and he ended up coming to Stake Conference, which just made our entire week! Moral of the story: this country needs to learn D&C 88:124.

Juçara is going absolutely great as well. She doesn't talk a whole lot and is a little shy, especially at Conference yesterday. However, she feels the Spirit, and Yannick's family has been so good at being there for her, especially the 13 year old daughter Lily. We think that she's going super well, so that means that we could be having 3 baptisms on the 26th of this month! Marina and Elisio are going strong for it as well! The Lord just seems to keep blessing us with these incredible people. I'm so blessed to be here.

One thing that was kinda lame, but not super lame: Erineu and Ronisse, that were supposed to be married on the 25th so Ronisse could be baptized on the 26th, can't be married on that day anymore. We went to the Registro (can't remember the name in English) with Erineu to mark a date for the marriage, but they said that they were super busy, so they now have to come back on the 29th just to mark a date! We were a little bummed out, but it'll still happen in December so we're still stoked for them. I just hope that both Elder Ronces and I can still be here! Transfers happens the first week of December.

Something unimaginable happened at Stake Conference yesterday. We met a native Cape Verdean who had actually been to Brentwood, California. It's a miracle that he's even heard of it, let alone been there! Most people know California, but think that California is a city that's relatively close to Boston, Massachusets. It blows their minds when we tell them how far it actually is, and how many cities are part of it. Apparently this guy used to live in Orange County. I feel like I've made one of the craziest connections that I'll ever make in my life.

Life is great! We'll have Zone Conference with Elder Kearon this week! He's the President of our Area, so it should be good! Hope you all are well, have a good week!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

p.s. Is Thanksgiving this week or next week? I can never remember how it works...

Radio GaGa

As the Queen song rightly states, sometimes radio ga ga is all we hear. I feel like there's been a lot of ga ga happening that has tried to distract us and other people around here. I've been hearing a lot about the US elections, which is honestly the last thing I want to hear about. Also, this week I saw a trailer for the new Fantastic Beasts movie coming out, and in so doing saw and heard way too much for me to be thinking about here. Thirdly, a game between Benfica and Porto yesterday meant that 80% of the population here were busy at that time.

And yet life goes on! Yesterday we had a couple of incredible lessons, despite the game. The first one was the first time that we marked with Bispo to go teach with us. We talked to one of our lesser progressing investigators, Claudia. It's hard to meet with her, because even though she has a marido, he's never there at the same time she is. The lesson that we had with Bispo was incredible because when Bispo explained how he learned the truth of the Restoration, he explained it in a way that Claudia seemed to totally related with! She was super attentive every time that he spoke, and she seemed even more determined to search for the truth by the time we left. Bispo's such a cool guy, and he even asked to leave with us more this week!

Another cool thing that happened this past week was a lesson we had with Adilson and Lenira (the delicious ice cream treats people). We taught them about the first principles and ordenances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with a focus on baptism. Lenira was pretty doubtful when we explained that the baptism she made in the Catholic Church wasn't enough because it didn't have the right authority. We went right back to testifying about the Prophet Joseph Smith and how we know that this church does have that restored authority. I think she finally understood why it was so important to ask of God. Because we still don't have copies of the Book of Mormon to hand out, Elder Ronces lent them his so they could read 3 Nephi 11 and learn what Jesus Christ had to say on the matter of baptism. When we passed yesterday, they said they read! The only bad thing about it all was that we marked to take them to church but we didn't write it down, so we forgot! I felt pretty dumb about that, but they forgave us and said we could try again for this next week.

I think the coolest of all moments this week was with Marina and Elisio. Having taught them the Law of Chastity, we wanted to get them planning for marriage. As they don't live together, it's not technically necessary before baptism, but they have 2 children together so we weren't sure. We decided to take Totone and Maria over to talk to them about their experience. It was honestly one of the most perfect lessons I've ever been in on my mission. Their experience was similar enough that when they talked, you could just tell that Marina and Elisio were feeling the Spirit testify of marriage to them. They talked about how they wanted to marry, but they didn't have any way to sustain themselves. Then, suddenly, I got the impression that they didn't need to marry before baptism. I asked if they were willing to completely obey the Law of Chastity, and to be baptized by the end of the month. They agreed. So now the biggest obstacle is for Elisio to get to church. We'll definitely take care of that this week.

Anyways, This was a pretty good sized update for me, so I think I'll leave it at that. I love the Holy Ghost, and the way it's able to testify through me. Remember that this church is so freaking true. Love you all!

Abraço,

Elder Penner