Breathe

Well, this week I felt that I really had some time to "breathe in the air," as the Pink Floyd song simply states it. This week has given us a lot of time outside of the office, which has really been refreshing. Like, the stress that we normally have just wasn't there at all. We were able to put a real focus in our area, and actually were able to teach a full 20 lessons! It was pretty incredible, a new record for Elder Massey and I here.

Elder Massey ready to go teach!

Something that turned out to be a real focus for us was to mark some more baptismal dates on people. Sometimes I think that I'm hesitant to put a date on an investigator, especially if I see something holding them back, but I've realized that I need to to better at making sure that they know the real purpose behind our visits. We're here to change their lives, to help them to come unto Christ. How the heck are we supposed to do that without inviting them to be baptized? It's impossible. We've already seen some sweet results come out of it, so we want to continue on our upwards trend.

Some cool new folks that we've come to know are a family, of which the heads of house are named António and Gracinda. We found them in our area book the other day and felt impressed to go and find them, and I think that it was a great idea. They have many children and grandchildren, a lot of which we still haven't met yet, which is super cool. One of the most absolutely radical facts about them is... they're already married! When that happens in Cape Verde, it's a miracle. I'd only found 3 other married couples that weren't already members in my time here, and 2 of those couples were soon baptized. I have really high hopes for this couple, too. They also have the cutest little granddaughter I've ever seen here. She likes to call us "tio" which means uncle, and she's just fascinated by us. Yesterday we were talking with her and she was just saying things like "You have cat eyes!" or "You both have the same kind of teeth!" and we laughed at that. We've only met António once, but we've seen Gracinda and her daughter Gourette a few times now. They have a date marked for the 21st of May.

We also had a new investigator come to church this week! His name's Dani, and honestly the first time we taught him (about a month ago I think) we didn't think he was interested at all while we taught him and his friend the Restoration, but at the end he got excited and asked us where our church was and invited us to come teach him at his house. He's got a pretty busy schedule, so we hadn't found him for a week or two after that, but we finally ran into him and started teaching him, and set up a time to bring him to church. We got to his house yesterday, and his kids told us that he went to church already! That was super rad, and he really enjoyed it. He really wants to continue coming.

Another newer investigator we have is called Nelito. He has a lot of interest in the gospel, and asks us a lot of questions about our beliefs about certain things like the Second Coming and where we go after death and such. We also had marked to bring him to church, and he actually called us yesterday morning to tell us to meet him at a place close by the church! We were super stoked about that, but 15 minutes later he called again and said that he didn't feel prepared, and maybe he'd come next week. We didn't have much time to talk then, but we stopped by later to ask what was up. Apparently he got into a little dispute with his dad about going to church or something. He didn't want to get into the details, but at the end he apparently decided that he didn't feel super good about going. We shared Alma 32:28 with him and talked with him about how he could grow the seed of his faith to come to know that the things we teach are true, which seemed to make him feel a little more comfortable about giving a visit. We have high hopes for him, too.

Well, this next week should be a hectic one, but with some pretty neat stuff coming up. At this very moment, President Mathews is with the Assistants planning out the next transfer in a couple of weeks, so we'll be put through the stress of trying to figure that all out. On the bright side, Marlene's baptismal interview is this Saturday, which we're pretty giddy about! Who knows what else is prepared for us, there's always something new and exciting and maybe just a bit stressful for us!

Love you all! Feel the love that Christ has for you, in case you haven't recently! He loves you like a lot. Don't forget that.

Abraço,

Elder Penner

I asked for a little picture tour of his area.  Where he walks to each day, so I could better sense what it's like for him in Praia.  Here are some of the pictures he sent me.  

A paved street

Overlooking part of his area

P-Day hike

The district