Stable Song

"Time for the final bow..."

Lame jokes based off of Death Cab songs aside, had another wonderful week here in Sal! In our Zone Meeting, our Zone Leaders gave an example of how we can get the fire stoked for our Cachupa to turn out delicious! It was a funny example just saying that we gotta keep our investigators constantly motivated to act outside of just teaching them the lessons. A lot of the time we find people that are really cool, but when we go back to teach them more, they still haven't read the Book of Mormon! How do you expect to keep up with the other things when you still haven't taken the first steps? So we're making a bigger effort to pass by our investigators every day just to give them little reminders to read, pray, and keep up with other commitments.

One really cool thing that's been happening is the jump in the leadership in our Branch. We're getting our Branch functioning much better now than ever. Neusa, a Recent Convert here and basically the closest thing I have to a mom here, skipped church this past Sunday because she was getting overloaded with stuff to do. She told us if she wasn't released as Young Women's President, she can't keep going to church. After a few good lessons on how the Lord qualifies who He calls, and some great help from President Da Veiga, she's doing a lot better now. She has a couple of counselors now, so she'll get the support she needs. It gave us a little scare, but it's all good now.

MIRACLE: For the first time ever in my mission, I have an investigator who was already planning to get married before we even taught the Law of Chastity. I think I mentioned Rui, who's living with a member of the Church right now, named Albertina. Well, the Souzas have known Albertina for a while and for the longest time were begging and pleading with her to do something about the Law of Chastity. Just before entering into the lesson, I asked Elder Souza and he just said "I did all I could. If you can make something happen that would be a miracle!" Well, it turns out that something the Souzas taught Albertina really struck deep, so now they're going to make an official separation of houses, and they're going to get married in June! We're pretty stoked about that!

ALSO: A couple of new investigators Sulamita and Blada are super cool as well. When we taught them yesterday, they still hadn't read the Book of Mormon, so we opened to 3 Nephi 11 and started reading about Christ's visit to the Americas. Well, Blada had some really good questions that showed he was paying attention. "How is Christ the light and life of the world?" "Why were the people gathering together?" Then we mentioned briefly life after death and Sulamita got super interested. "Life? Like after this one?" It was a really neat experience, and proof that the Lord has prepared people to receive us.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE: We ate a buffet meal for the Cape Verde equivalent of $2.50. This restaurant owner that we're friends with is the coolest guy ever. So while the Dutch tourists were chowing down their £10 buffet meal, we just slipped on in with our super deal. Probably the best deal that I've had for a meal here in Sal.

Anyways, that's all I have time for today. Hoping that everyone is well, and reminding everyone to keep up their scripture study! Do it! Anyways love you all!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Sorry, I guess my pics won't send this week... :(