The Final Countdown

I had to...

Well, transfer calls happened earlier today, and due to the absence of a call I am lead to assume that Chã de Matias will be my dying area! I've pondered a little bit about it, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my comp, I love training, I love the Zone, I love my area and all the members, and I'm learning so much as the weeks go by. Just hoping to get a lot done with the time that I have left!

We have had some good progress with people. We were a little saddened that Rui was the only investigator of ours to show up to church, but he's doing wonderful. Ever since we met the guy, we've been running into him on the street everyday, and we've taken the time to give little follow-ups about his reading and other things. We marked him for the 8th of April, giving him enough time to figure out what he's going to do about the Law of Chastity (he lives with a member of the church, but it was recent and they don't have kids yet). He has a real sincere desire to follow the Gospel. It's really cool to see.

Emily's doing well, too. We've been trying to talk with her family, but it doesn't seem like they're interested, so we'll keep trying this week. As for her, there's a pair of twins named Lea and Abigail that are really close friends and are offering her some good support. The only sad thing is that the twins were in Santa Maria yesterday and I don't think that Emily wanted to go to church without them. It's understandable, because she's still only learning about the gospel and it's some new stuff, but I hope to be able to work with her to the point where she's coming of her own free will. She wants us to get progressing just about as much as we want her to, though.

Funny story from yesterday: an investigator contacted us at our own house. As missionaries, we're told not to go telling everyone where we live, so the easiness that this guy had in finding our house was pretty surprising. His name's Ezekiel, and he says he'd been going to church over in Craquinha, which is one of the zones in my last area in Mindelo. The way he was talking, I thought he was a member at first! We're going to try and meet him this week.

We ran into this member named Joana this past week. She's a Cape Verdean living in Spain, who came here to visit some family members. As luck would have it, she just happened to know Sister Penner, my cousin that's serving there now! I didn't have much time to talk to her and ask her more, but isn't that neat! *It's a Small World starts playing softly in the background*

I think that's it for this week's news. We're leading up to what feels like will be the greatest weeks of my entire mission, so I'm pretty darn excited. Hoping you are all well.

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Pic:

Just eating some good old CousCous at our Branch President's house. I'm going to try to learn to make it so I can show it to you all. They say I can do it with a steamer if I don't have the traditional clay pot.​