Whispers in the Dark

As the new transfer rolls around this week, I hear the whispers of missionaries around me: will I stay? will I go? Who's going to train the supposed 10 new sister missionaries that are coming to the mission? It's all good fun, as long as you don't spend too much time fretting about it or acting like you're going to leave. Due to the fact that Elder Ronces have barely had 2 weeks together, we're pretty segure that nothing will happen to us. I mean, we're only just getting started in this area!

One of the best things that happened this past week is the spiritual progress of Marina and Elisio. We finally managed to get them a copy of the Book of Mormon, and both of them told us this week that they read and prayed about the truthfulness of the book. Both of them felt very strongly that it's true. I especially was touched by Elisio's reaction, because even before he had prayed he told us that he felt it was true when we taught him. I love the power of the Spirit, and what it brings into the hearts of these good people. Marina ended up being the only investigator that ended going to church this week, for the second time! We don't know yet why Elisio didn't go, but we'll see what's going on with him this week. I have super high hopes for them to be baptized by the end of next month!

This week we also found a very interesting character named Cristiano. He works a store, so it's a little hard to talk to him while he has to attend people every 5-10 minutes, but we still have managed to have some good discussions. The second time we visited him, he told us that he had prayed to know if this church was what he should do, and he felt like he should just worship God in his own way. We talked about it, and he eventually told us that he didn't like how a lot of churches were threatening the continent of Africa... I was a little confused about that, but we had a good talk about why we need the restored priesthood authority to know God's will. At the end of the lesson, he asked us in English "Do you like Africa? Because if you like Africa, then I am your friend!" We laughed a bit and assured him we like Africa. Funny guy. He also expressed interest in visiting the church, which is a good sign.

We're very excited for the opportunity that seems to be abounding in the month of November! Next time I write, it'll be Halloween, for which I'll probably just get some candy bar or something. It's not really a thing here. Hope you all have a good one, though!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Falling Slowly

I pull my inspiration from a musical called Once this week. I haven't actually seen it, to tell the truth, but my friend showed me this one song from it and I think it's a very touching song. I'm honestly surprised that I remember it. I feel that sometimes as a missionary things seem to go downhill gradually no matter how you try. In my interview with President Mathews last week, he shared with me that at the point where I'm at in the mission, a lot of missionaries feel like they've hit a plateau in their improvement. He explained that there are no such things as real plateaus, only ups or downs. So if you feel like you've plateaued, you really gotta make sure you're not falling slowly.

This last week was more of a refresher for me than anything else. The interview I had with President was a real rejuvinator, to be sure. Also, because I had been sick the week beforehand, my new companion Elder Ronces and I had the work of picking our area and our investigator pool back up to speed. Seeing as we found a lot of new families, I feel like we did just that! We found a total of 20 new investigators.

Sadly, Patrick was not baptized this past Saturday. He actually doesn't even want to talk to us anymore. On Monday evening he expressed concern that he wouldn't be able to keep the Law of Chastity with his girlfriend. We encouraged him that the Lord would help him to keep worthy, but he didn't seem to think that it was an option. He kept asking if he could go to church without being baptized. We told him yeah, but an important part of living the gospel is also living the commandments. After a couple of days we went to visit him again, and he didn't even want to sit down with us. He kept giving excuses like how he had been baptized in his parents' church, which really confused us because a couple of days ago he was super stoked about baptism. Since then, we've seen him once but he avoided us. I guess he just wasn't ready to accept the Lord's standards. I feel sad that he couldn't follow through, but that's what happened. We'll still try to keep in touch with him.

What is cool is that we could definitely have a marriage here the next month! A recently returned-to-activity member named Erineu has been working hard with the girl he lives with to accept the gospel, and for the past couple of weeks she's been coming to church! We finally got to talk to her this past week, and I'm astounded by how accepting she is of the message of the Restoration. Last time we talked, they said they'd either marry the end of November or the beginning of January. We just shared how we felt impressed to give Ronisse (the girl) a baptismal date of November 26th. It turns out they wanted to have the marriage on the 25th. Coincidence? I think not! We're super excited for them.

Really, really good week. I loved it. I even got to see my recent convert Laura yesterday, on the way to church. Sometimes the Lord shows his mercy in ways that we expect, though not often. I feel like I received that kind of mercy this week. Hope you all are well, have a good one!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Feel Good, Inc

There are a few of reasons that I chose this to be the title of my update this week. First off, it's a message of hope, because after a week of really coming to undertstand the human digestive system from a different perspective, I can happily report that the nightmare is virtually over. I think I was at the worst at the beginning of last week, with only an upwards curve. They put me on some antibiotics at first (fun fact, believe it or not: not to be taken at the same time as probiotics. I may be dumb.) They helped. Now I'm practically back up to speed.

Second off, a little bit of sad news. A really good friend of mine passed a way this past week. I just learned about it today, so it's a little shocking to me. I'm sad that he's gone, but I know that he's not completely gone. I wasn't going to mention it, but I feel like I need to get it off my chest. I will miss Max. I hope that those that knew him are okay. I'll be praying for you all.

In much happier news, our investigator Yannick was baptized and confirmed this past weekend! It was such a great experience to see how happy he was. One thing I've come to love here on the mission is the change in peoples' countenances when they are converted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Saturday night, we had a Family Night in his house, where we watched the Restoration video. It was a really spiritual experience, and he had a lot of friends there, too. I'm excited to see what's in store for him!

Patrick is also going along very well, and is headed for baptism on this upcoming Saturday! He came to Yannick's baptism in a white shirt and tie! He was a little bummed out when he saw that he should tuck in his shirt, though, haha. It's super cool to have one baptism after another here. I feel like the blessings of the Lord are here with us in Fernando Pó.

Well, that's most of what went on this week, other than the fact that I met a lot of good friends from when I was here over a year ago now. Hope you enjoy the pictures, most are the view from the coolest point in our entire area. Have a good one, all!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

The Funeral

"And every occasion, we'll be ready for the funeral" says the Band of Horses. The funeral for what, you may ask, the answer being the funeral of my digestive tract. So if this email doesn't seem very well written, just put yourself in my shoes: try to eat an entire brick and then write an essay. Maybe it's not that bad, but you get the picture.

Despite the pain that my insides have been giving me this past week, we managed to see some miracles happen and continue in the process of happening! First off we have the absolute stud Yannick, who passed his baptismal interview with flying colors. He is so ready to be baptized, it's almost unbelievable. I don't even feel like we really did anything at all. He always read the pamphlets before we talked about them, he's always had an Interstellar (starring Matthew McConaughey) reading record, and when we talked to him about the Law of Tithing, the only thing he had to say was "the Church is so cool!" I'm blessed to know him, that's for sure.

Another really cool thing that happened is on Saturday, at conference, we had a new investigator named Patrick show up with his really good member friend, Kevin. Kevin's an absolute boss, by the way. Patrick loves conference so much, he shows up 20 minutes early the next day for Priesthood session, just so he can see the Prophet of God. The best part of it all was that after it was over, we asked it how it was, and he said he loved it. He asked us how he could be baptized! We just told him, "we can definitely help you out with that!" It was so cool.

Other than that, we've been working with others to progress as well. I love this place, and I hope that whatever I have clears up soon so I can get back to working this area good! Hope all of you are well!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Somewhere Only We Know

Sometimes I like to save certain songs for the right moment, and the more I think about it, the more that this song by Keane describes my reaction to a lot of things:

"Is this the place we used to love?

Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?"

I'm finding a lot of people and places that I used to know so well, and it seems to me that it was only a dream all that time ago. General Conference is coming next weekend, though, so I hope to be able to see a lot of people from Ala 5!

As for Fernando Pó, we're having an incredible experience here! This week was just filled with hard work, and one of the biggest successes that we've had is that we had 19 new investigators! How neat is that? Well, having found such a large amount of new people, now we're going to focus more on progressing our investigators (or really helping them to progress). The only problem that I have with all these new people is that we're completely out of Book of Mormons, lol. I'm not sure if we're going to have any more at anytime soon either. I guess somewhere in my switch out of the office, someone forgot to make the new order. Whoops.

It may have been my bad...

Anyways, Yannick is progressing really well! We've been teaching him the commandments this week, and it almost seems like he's already received these commandments at an earlier point in his life, because he's already following them! He's getting really excited about his baptism, too. The family is super cool as well. They're all recent converts, except for the mom, who goes to church every week, but won't get married to her marido. I guess she tried to get him legally removed at one point and he said that he would only leave that house in a coffin. We're going to talk with President about her situation again. Anyways, Yannick's 13 year old sister Lili is at almost the same place that I am in the Book of Mormon, so I challenged her to a race to the end. I'm winning still >:)

I went on a second division with President this week. Holy cow that man is inspiring. He just knows exactly what I need and how I need it. He focused a bit on how we invite people to know about our message. Due to the lack of Book of Mormons, we had just been inviting investigators to pray about the prophet Joseph Smith. President explained that the invitation to know the truth has to include a way for them to act. That's why it's about the Book of Mormon usually. For now I think we'll just put the focus on invites to chruch.

The week was great, the food is great, life is great! Have a good one!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

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

Transatlanticism

"The Atlantic  was born today, and I'll tell you how:

The clouds above opened up at let it out."

Boy oh boy do I love the rain. And rain it has! Maybe not as drastic as the Death Cab for Cutie song here makes it out to be, but still pretty impressive. On Wednesday we were about to leave when it just started to pour, and that's when my comp said, "I left my poncho in Praia!" Well, without an extra coat to be found, and not wanting to just throw my comp under the bus, I decided that I wouldn't put on my rain jacket either. We got drenched, to put it lightly, but it was all good fun!

I think my highlights of the week can all be described through one event: earlier this week, we had the pleasure of going out teaching with none other than President Mathews. The big man. The head honcho. The eye in the sky. Anyways, it was a super cool experience. Here's what happened:

First, we went and talked to an investigator we have named Suzana. She's super cool, has a strong desire to follow Christ. Her marido, Osvaldo, has no interest in talking with us, though. We talked with Suzana about if she asked God whether the Book of Mormon's true. She said that she did, and we talked to her about how she felt when she did it. When we asked if she thought she got an answer, she said yes! It was super cool, and President testified about how he started reading the Book of Mormon every day 30 years ago and how it blessed him. Yesterday Suzana came to church! She said it was actually Osvaldo that convinced her to get ready. She was super excited, and said that she wants to bring some friends next time, especially Osvaldo.

Then, we talked to a returned missionary of a few months. Knowing that one or two of you may know him, and feeling that he may not want people to know where he's at right now, I'll call him Djony. For the past couple of months, Djony has really been struggling with the church. President came and just took over the lesson. He shared  cool message on Lehi's dream. He talked about how when you grab hold of the Iron Rod, it's like the day of your baptism. He then pointed out that it says after people got a hold of the rod, THEN the mists of darkness came, and some were lost. But those who hold true always find their way. Djony interjected, saying that he hadn't seen the blessings that were promised him for serving an honorable mission. President said plainly that he had to trust in the Atonement of Christ, and he had to trust that the blessings would come. He also made it to church!

Lastly, we talked with a couple named Pina and Ana. They are members of the church for almost 20 years now, Pina having been a District President in the past. Now they're pretty weak in activity. President also talked a lot with them, first exhorting them to wear their garments right (it was a little obvious to see that they weren't) and then shared a story told by Elder Bednar. Elder Bednar, as a stake president, visited a lot of less-active members, and almost all of them said that they left the Church because of some meager offense. He would then list off all the blessings, including the Sacrament, the blessings of the temple, the Spirit of the Lord, and the responsibility they had to help their children (and ancestors) to salvation, and asked "and you're saying that you're going to lose all of that because you once got offended by another member?" Almost all responded, "I didn't think of it that way." Then President simply said that the Church needs them, and they need the Church. Guess who showed up to church yesterday? They did!

It was incredible, and I'm astounded by how all of them showed up at church after that. President Mathews is a powerful man, and taught me a lot about the power that comes with my calling as a missionary. I'm really going to apply it by making sure people know that I represent noone else than Jesus Christ. That's a powerful statement.

Oh yeah, today I saw Weston Adams, my old comp! He came back to visit the country with his dad. It was cool to meet up and bug each other one more time. Super weird though, he's like normal and everything. That's weird. I don't like that.

Well, that was my main highlight of the week, and the rest of the week wasn't bad either! Hope that you all have a good one! Transfers will be happening on Wednesday, so we'll figure out what that means for Elder Jhangiani and I!

Abraço,

Elder Penner