Hurts Like Heaven

Well, as my grandpa always says, how the heck are ya?

I first want to say that I'm sorry to hear about Elder L. Tom Perry. I feel like he's getting some good missionary work done in the spirit world now. A member told me last night and I was like whaaaaaaaat? I wasn't expecting that, but now that I mention it, I do remember someone saying that he was in the hospital a few weeks ago. The important thing is that he did some good work here, and he's probably seeing many blessings of his work now.

I'm not gonna lie, this week feels like one of the toughest that we've had since I've gotten here. Most of our appointments fell, and the members that we planned to join us all canceled on us as well. But we've been working our tails off, so we still managed to get about 26 lessons, a miracle if you ask me. I really don't have all that much to say this week, it's been a little slow. You know a week has been slow and hard when your legs start to give up on you. The problem is, we just won't let them give up on us.

I do want to mention that we've been meeting a fair amount of awesome people this week. It seems like the Lord has been blessing us with a lot of families to compensate for all the walking that we've had to do. We ran into a family who basically told us that they've been trying to find out how to know which church is the true church of Christ. That's a rarity here, most people will just tell us that all churches talk about God, so they all must be good.

Another pretty great thing that happened is that we managed to bump up our number of investigators in church to a solid 8! We were happy to see 6 that we'd been working with, and a member introduced us to his brother who showed up for the first time! We also got told by the Zone Leaders that someone from our area showed up in their ward and is really interested! We were like sweet, man! That just shows you that blessings do come from hard work, and because it's the Lord who we're serving, the reward is always sweeter than the trial was bitter. That's a really awesome thing about serving an all-powerful deity. Also you get to meet crazy and awesome people (sometimes both).

Stay tuned for next week, it's transfers! This is the first transfer so far where I have no idea whether I'm staying or I'm going! The other two, I've had like 90% certainty. Now I have none. We'll see! Stay Frosty, all!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

p.s. Do I look like Kevin from Home Alone? A member here told me that and now I'm a little worried.

Don't feel to bad for him for not having things like running water or warm showers.
He can still get things like frozen pizza there!
Also, he sends the most random pictures.  

Water You Waiting For?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy all.

Well, this week kind of just built up in various trials. Members are taking tests, so our number of lessons with members went down by a fair bit. We had a record low of only 2 investigators getting to church, and one of them not even in our ward! We also have been hard pressed to get any of our other investigators to progress. Also, we're pretty sure that Ivandro guy lied to us about the house he said he was moving to, which means we lost him again.

We also lost our water for the first time a couple of days ago! It was a weird experience, I sat there for about 5 minutes trying to get my shower to turn on before I realized that it was the whole house. We opened our emergency barrel of water for the first time since I got here, to find out that was only a quarter of the way full! We had to struggle through a couple of less than fun days with the bare minimum. That was fun, let me tell you. You can imagine our pure joy when we saw the water slowly but surely return to us last night. You don't really truly appreciate the wonder of the average bathroom sink until it's taken away from you. Count your blessings.

Some really cool things happened, too! For example, Maria Alice was baptized this last Saturday! That was a really awesome experience, and we made brownies to celebrate! Elder Gilbert makes some pretty crazy sweet brownies, so we pretty much feasted. It's been a little while, yo. Also, we had a Zone Conference this last Wednesday, which is always fun! We get to sit for 4 hours while our leaders, including President Mathews himself, give us straight revelation. Afterwards, we get to eat beef stroganoff. Actual beef. Like, meat that comes from cow. It's wonderful.

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say about this week. Not a whole lot of progress, but a sure heck of a lot of work! What else can I say? I just listened to Thrift Shop in here. Forgot about that song. For some strange reason, most elders here like country songs better than rap (that's not Eminem, of course). Oh, well. I'll have my time. Lol.

Tell me if you guys do something cool, like get abducted or drink root beer or something. Ficam bem!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Antonio baptizing his wife Maria and a cute kid who wanted to be in the picture too!
It was his baptism day too.  

Ludicrous Speed

A couple of days ago Elder Gilbert and I looked at each other and were like this transfer's half over!!! It's been going so much faster for me since I finished my greenie stage of the mission, it's insane. Also, yesterday marks 5 months on the mission. I'm almost a quarter of the way through! I'm sitting here thinking to myself that I just barely got here. And I've heard that the mission only starts going faster from this point on. Crazy.

Anyways, it's been a pretty good week for us here. We were able to reach most of our weekly goals, which was pretty awesome. We'd been having some problems getting investigators to church (only 4 last week, the worst I've ever had here) and with getting references from people. However, this week we've been seeing the results in our hard work in this area, which is always a really nice thing to see. One thing that I've truly noticed here is that true results are ONLY achieved with hard work and prayer. That's the secret. There's no shortcuts or easy way out. But oh, how the blessings are recieved!

I just wanted to give a little update on our recent converts. Nelido hasn't been getting to church for about a month now. We visit him through the week and he says "I'm going this week for sure!" and then doesn't show up. As they say here, we're going to "dar uma faca para ele." We've also got a few facas for Kuk and Janete, because Kuk also hasn't been going to church, and Janete goes, but not every week. Laura and Antonio Evora are as strong as ever though, we don't really have many fears about them. It's only going to grow stronger as we prepare for Maria Alice, Antonio's wife, to be baptized this week by Antonio! I've come to notice that the people who seem to have the least problems staying active are the people who have overcome an obstacle to join the church. That sure as heck doesn't mean that we're going to stop visiting Nelido Kuk and Janete and getting them to get to church every week. It's a little frustrating because we talk with them and they're like we know we're fubecas (i don't think there's a direct translation, but it basically mean's we know we're being dumb and we need to get better) but they still aren't doing what they need to. The answer truly is to read and pray every day and to get to church every week. Again, no shortcuts, no secrets.

Also, we saw a miracle yesterday! So there's this guy named Ivandro, who talked with other missionaries and was almost baptized, but he moved to our area. So we've been spending some good effort for 3 weeks trying to contact him and mark a spot where we can meet him (it's impossible to find people's houses here, there's no such things as addresses or even names to roads). He wasn't showing up to meetups we marked, because of a lot of bad luck. We had been thinking the last two days to stop trying, because it was wasting a lot of money we have to call people. However, yesterday this guy stopped us to ask us if we knew where this other person lived. We said no, but we'd like to visit his house to share a message about the Book of Mormon. We asked him his name and he said Ivandro, but we thought nothing of it because there's a fair amount of Ivandros here. But he also told us he was almost baptized recently. We asked how recently and he said a couple of weeks ago... we were like wait a sec. He said that some Elders had just called him the day before and we were like that was us!!! It was insane how we just found him on the street, because we have one of the areas with the most people in Mindelo. It was nothing short of a miracle. We're so grateful to have finally found him, and hope to report more good news about him.

Well, that's about all I have time for, hope you're all fantastic! Ficam bem!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

The Isaiah Chapters

I say that because we had the opportunity to see Antonio Évora be baptized this past week! We like to call him the modern-day Isaiah, because he used words and phrases that we don't even recognize to explain simple concepts of the gospel. We can't even get a word into the lessons, so we basically just helped him to teach himself with homework and inspired questions. It was some hard work, because he also had a whole lot of hesitation to become a member of the church. We were like, dude, you read the entire Book of Mormon and ditched coffee just like that! You shared your experience of the Holy Ghost confirming the truth to you! Apparently he feared that he wouldn't endure to the end if he became a member too quick. He told us that he entered the baptismal interview still not knowing if the time was right to be baptized, but it's a good thing he made the decision! We were so happy to see him enter the waters of baptism, and the next day during Elders quorum he asked "What is my purpose now as a member?" and everyone was like "Share what you discovered, of course!" I was filled with happiness that we have so many powerful members here to support him and show him the right way. Also, his wife Maria Alice got to church yesterday, which is awesome! She's a whole lot more open to the concept of becoming a member now that she's seen it happen with Antonio. Stay tuned, folks.

As for other events, we're finding a lot of cool new people, and making some decisions that'll probably help those not progressing. For example, we found this guy Ivan on the street and marked an appointment. Usually those appointments never come through but he was sitting there waiting for us! The next appointment he was there with Book of Mormon in hand just waiting for us again! And yesterday he was already prepared to get to church when we got there (NEVER happens here.) We felt truly blessed to have met the guy, and we're gonna work hard to help him learn and progress in the gospel, as we should! The sad thing is that Doris and Airton (pretty sure I've mentioned them) are progressing very well, but they just found out that they have to find a new house. Now they have to wait until they move until they get married. We wish there were something that we could do to help them out, but sadly us missionaries don't have real estate capabilities here in Cabo Verde.

Just to let you all know, yesterday Elder Gilbert and I made mashed potatoes and gravy and we literally rejoiced at the glory of it. It truly is the little things here that make you appreciate America all the better. Also as a side note, I need to go to Fogo. Legend tells of a place there where you can find real live actual bacon there. Like, bacon. From America. I'm getting hungry as I write this.

But enough of my mindless ramblings. How are you all? Having a good time? Anybody hear any good jokes recently? I'd share mine with you all, but you guys need to learn Creole first to understand it. Get on that. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Abraçozão,

Elder Penner

p.s. Is All About that Bass still a thing there? No, wait, I don't want to know.

Antonio's baptism

The mashed potatoes they rejoiced over

A New Hope

What a week! Hope you guys had a calm one, this one was kinda crazy for me.

Elder Gilbert arrived at almost Midnight on Monday night. He's a really really awesome Elder. It's nice to have a native English speaker that'll understand your American references. He's been in Fogo for most of his mission, and he has some really crazy stories about the place. First thing, he was there when the volcano was erupting (though on the safe side of the island) so he got like the coolest view ever. He says that investigators used the volcano as an excuse to not go to church somehow. Also on Fogo there's this religion they don't have here called Admontists or something who basically are Christian with the only difference that they believe Saturday is the holy day. It makes a little more sense in Portuguese, because Sabado literally means Sabbath and Saturday at the same time. It's funny.  Also the goats are dying, and they're not completely sure why. Strange things, man.

But anyways, our area is still normal! Antonio Évora is so close to the waters of baptism! We're going to mark an interview date today, so wish us luck! As for other things this week, we mostly just spent a lot more time than usual on the street. New investigators, though! Also we found DOG CATCHERS here and we were like whaaaaaaaat???

I'm out of time for this week, sorry, but not too many crazy things happened. I give a promise for a fuller update of things happening here next week!

Bizot Ficam Drêt!

Elder Penner

FYI, they see a lot of stray dogs so he was surprised to see a dog catcher.  I keep waiting for this "mythical" longer update he's going to give!  Oh well.  We get to Skype with him on Sunday, so part of next week's entry might be about that call.
  ~ Kirsten

A hopeful transmission

I love relevant Coldplay references.

Anyways, what an awesome week! We were able to bring two of our less active members to an official Resgate (which means they got to church 3 times consecutively), which we were so excited about! We'd been working really hard with Cristina and Gracinda for a while. Cristina was really strong in the church, and was one of the most active Ward Missionaries, but she had some problems with some sins and slowly fell away. When we talked to her, she said she was having trouble forgiving herself and getting over her fear of showing her face in church again. We encouraged her to talk to the bishop, and she did! And with Gracinda, she wanted to come back to church since we had gotten there, but just couldn't make it happen consecutively. We talked with her about planning her week so that Sunday can be free, and she's been able to make it happen! It was so awesome to help bring these two sheep back into the fold.

As with investigators, we kinda hit a point where there are a whole lot of investigators ready to be baptized in one or two weeks, with just one or two problems in the way. There's Doris and Airton, who we just talked about how they need to be married and they said they would start as soon as money would allow. Also good old Tutone and Maria, who seem set on being married in August :(... A man named Toy, who wants to be baptized and gets to church, but during the week he's always in another area hanging out with Sister Judith. Melissa, daughter of Cidario, a strong member in the church, she just has fear of not enduring to the end after baptism. Antonio Evora, who just found out about the church a couple of weeks ago, is now past 4th Nephi and has about half of the church library in his house, but he and his wife Maria Alice are still a little hesitant to go all in for some reason. And these are just a few examples of the many various trials that us missionaries have to work with investigators. I swear we're on the verge of a breakthrough though, I never lose hope. Stay tuned for some awesome follow-up stories.

And last but most certainly not least, today was transfer day! I have finally emerged from my status as a greenie missionary. The sad thing is, I had the unhappy experience of matando meu pai (killing my dad), seeing Elder Figueiredo go home. He was such an awesome missionary, and if I'm not mistaken probably the most well-known Elders in the entire mission. He served as a District Leader, Zone Leader, Assistant to two Mission Presidents, and trained 3 Elders in the field, including me. He truly was a consecrated missionary. His best quality was that he never gave up, in my opinion. But now it's time for him to move to another phase of his life. I just wanted to tell you all that I stand as a witness that Elder Figueiredo served the Lord with all his heart, might, mind, and strength, and I know that to be half as good a missionary as him is to be an awesome missionary. But now I get to show the awesomeness of this area to Elder Gilbert, an Elder who's been in Fogo for his full mission up until now. The Elders here say he's an awesome Elder too. Nice. It's gonna be fun to be able to make American references again.

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say about this week. Today's been a weird day, the first time since I got here that I've been somewhere else than in my ward boundaries or downtown. I'm hanging out with Elder Ralph until my new companheiro arrives. I'll probably have quite a bit to say next week, so be prepared!

Abraços por todos,

Elder Penner

He really needed that shoe polish I sent him!  These are the shoes he walks in every day.  He keeps the nicer looking pair clean for church.

"I felt the love so strong when I opened it, I almost was in tears." ~ Elder Penner

4/20

How's everyone doing? Good? Well that's good.

As for this week, not a whole lot of incredibly amazing things happened with our investigators, really. Seems like some weeks are just filled with success and breakthroughs and others are filled with more and more new challenges to overcome. I feel like this one was a challenge week.

So for anyone not familiar with happenings in the mission field, there's a 12 week thing we do that basically just makes sure that we're prepared to become a self-sustaining missionary that could teach another new missionary by the end of the second transfer. This last week just happened to be the week where the new missionary takes the lead responsibility for pretty much every aspect of the missionary work. I began to appreciate the things that my companion does to keep things going and in order a whole lot more this week.

We had a Division this week (is it exchanges in English? I forget...) and I got to stay in my area with our District Leader, Elder Nymeyer! The guy's an incredibly cool American Elder, which means that I got to make some references that my companion actually understood for a day. It was cool, but that was a hard day. Not one single member was available to go with us, and almost every one of our lessons fell. We only had 4 lessons, only one being with a member! That seems like a good number for some missionaries, but for this awesome area it's pretty terrible. All in all, it was a good division though, and I learned to bring just a bit more fire into my lessons.

Other than that, I can only think of a few small noteable occurrences this week. Our new investigator Antonio Evora is probably in the middle of Alma right now, a week after learning about the church. His wife is a little hesitant, because she doesn't feel like her religion has had a bad influence on her life, so we gotta show that she had some good teachings, but not all of Christ's true doctrine. I contacted someone in his door, and he invited us in before I could explain our message. We were like okay, and taught him about the Restoration right then and there with his wife. It was cool.

That's really pretty much what I have for this week. The next week is probably going to be about twice this size, this is Elder Figueiredo's last week of the mission and I'll be getting a new companion (though 99% sure I'm staying in this area) next Monday. Gonna be a blast. Who knows, we got a couple of investigators who could be baptized any Saturday if they would just get a couple of things done. We'll see. Hope you all are Dimma-Dabtabulous!

I don't know what it means, just go with it.

Abraço,

Elder Penner