Where Are You Now

Seeing as I've planned titles for every week after this one, I was in a little crisis as to what I could talk about here. I settled for the last track in Mumford and Son's album Babel, just because it really makes you think. Where am I now? How have I changed since that fateful day 2 (and a little bit) years ago since I entered the MTC? There's more than a mountainful of answers that I could share, but I'm probably going to go for a couple of experiences from this last week to share just a little bit.

First off, the Lord almost never gives you what you want... in the way you want it. For example, we have been working super hard, because the last few weeks we hadn't had investigators coming to church, and it's impossible to get baptized if you don't come to church for obvious reasons. We really gave it our all, inviting everyone and coordinating with a lot of people, members and nonmembers alike. None of the people we invited showed up. I was a little frustrated, but then came the miracle. Elder Souza talked to us about a girl named Emily that had been coming to Seminary every day, and showed her to us at church. We taught her later in the day, and she's super cool! Already has member friends! Also, at evening church we met Rui, who's the cousin of a guy named Pão (which means bread by the way, meaning that some mother decided that Bread was a wonderful name for their child), who we've been trying to find for the past week. That was his second time at church. All I know is that I love the Lord and He loves me.

Second off, sometimes things that you think would be the worst possible thing to happen ends up becoming a great blessing. We taught Emanuel a couple of times this week, and he had a mountain of questions as usual. While teaching him the Plan of Salvation, he asked so many questions it was hard to keep focused. He kept asking what was going to happen to the Earth once all of God's children had passed through, so trying my absolute best not to confuse him, I tried to explain how the Earth was actually going to become the Celestial Kingdom. I wouldn't recommend doing that. So when we left that lesson we said that we could never have the Souzas (missionary couple that talk FOREVER) with us or we would be there all day. Well, as luck would have it, they were with us the next time that we visited him and his girlfriend. Elder Souza and Emanuel took an hour talking without my being able to stop it at all, but during that time Elder Souza shared his powerful conversion story about how he was training to be a Catholic priest but left because of all the doubts that he had and found the true Church of Christ. Then when Emanuel came with his torrent of questions, Elder Souza simply said that he wasn't ready to learn some things yet, and gave the example of starting a baby on milk before going to meat. It was honestly the best thing for him.

Thirdly, you're as happy as you let yourself be. You could be having the worst day in the world, but if you keep a positive attitude and focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ then you can be happier than ever. We had that lesson in Elder's Quorum yesterday and I realized how well that applies in my life now. I can't think of a time in my life where I have been so constantly happy as I am now. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Having a wonderful time, and hoping that you all are too. I just got my flight itinerary home, so I guess I'll be seeing some of you in about 50 days' time. Not thinking about that though, because that would be trunky of me...

Abração,

Elder Penner

Here's another one from last week that wasn't posted.

Tongue Tied

Going for a Grouplove song because my brother did as well and I just found out that they put out a new album. Sometimes even at this point in my mission it's hard for me to know what to say when investigators are having trouble progressing, in whatever situation they're in. You don't want to tell them the same thing over again to help them see the importance of going to church, but you don't know what else you can say. That's the point where you have to listen the hardest. Listen to your investigators and their concerns (or sometimes lack of concern) and especially listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

This week was incredibly strange for me. We received the order that we're not supposed to even set lesson goals daily anymore. After almost 2 years of carefully counting lessons every single day, including a lot of other things, it's weird. I love it though. I'm not worried about achieving a certain amount of the same activity, so my activities to find, teach, and follow-up with my investigators have been getting richer and richer.

Anyways, about stuff you guys actually care about: Leo was baptized this last Saturday! It was a great service with a really good cake provided by Leo's mom, Neusa. Francisco directed for the first time since he's been called, and didn't do a bad job seeing as his own baptism was a mere 7 months ago! Everything just seemed to be at the perfect moment. Leo's really changed since I met him. At first he was honestly a little hard-headed and always got in fights. Now he's far from perfect but his attitude has really changed and he's a lot more helpful around the house. I love how the Gospel changes people.

Going to copy a paragraph I sent my mom for more stuff (copyright Elder Penner): An investigator we have named Yany had been going to Church for over a year on the island of São Vicente, and moved here recently. We've been working hard with him, but he's been unsure about everything. We weren't sure if he understood the way that the Gospel could change his life. Our last visit with him was simply us watching the Restoration video and bearing our testimonies on the reality of the Restored Gospel. I started to tear up a bit, and he asked me if I felt the Spirit. I said I did. He said, "I feel it, too." We asked him what was stopping him from being baptized and he said he didn't know. We invited him to pray sincerely to know whether he should, and he accepted. I felt strongly, and I know he did, too. I think we're getting really close with him.

Life is wonderful. It's like I have that one happy song from the Muppets movie on repeat in my head. Hope everyone back home is doing great! I can't believe I only have 2 more months in this wonderful country!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

p.s. haha finally figured out how to send my pics as an attachment what a dunce

PICS:

1. My district (without me cause I don't know how to work a $60 camera)

2. Me with the fam and a couple of homies at Leo's batismo

3. Bem gostoso cake saying happy baptism

Miracles

Yes, it's a Coldplay song. But it really ties into what I've been experiencing and learning this week, so I feel justified. Also if you haven't heard this song and are able to, I highly recommend it.

To be honest, this week started off a little rough. Elder Olsen and I talked about it, and it seemed like out of all the people that we had been talking to, none of them have been progressing like they should. So we set off trying to find a lot of new people and working harder to get our current investigators to progress. It wasn't really working out like I thought it would. Elder Olsen was getting a little hard on himself for not knowing the language well enough yet, and I was getting a little hard on myself because we weren't teaching enough to have him practice well.

My first Miracle was in our Zone Meeting. The training was specifically directed at me. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ, and how we needed to do a way better job at teaching it than just talking about it like some 5-step program or anything like that. It is NOT a 5-step program. You don't just stop growing your faith and move on to repentance. You don't just get a remission of your sins once in your life. It is a continual process that in order to work includes every step, during the entire course of our lives. I realized that I wasn't showing the importance of the Atonement and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will change my investigators. So we started teaching it that way with immediate effect.

My second Miracle was Emanuel. I didn't notice this one house in an area where we knocked most of the doors, so we decided to try this place. Emanuel answers and starts bombarding us with questions the second we step in the house. I thought at first that he was trying to bash on doctrine, because he asked, "Why are you following this religion? Did you have a manifestation, or was it just that you followed the same church as your parents? I bet you never thought of that, did you?" We told him that we in fact had prayed to know the truth, and testified that we had felt the Spirit as an answer. We then went to talk to him about the Restoration, and when we got to Joseph Smith, he said "I have never heard about him from any pastor ever!!" and we laughed and explained that's what makes us so unique. He acted the same way about the Book of Mormon. When we invited him to pray about these things, he didn't seem to understand the importance of asking, because he said that all religions have the same purpose really and it doesn't matter too much which one we take. We explained a little more clearly the doctrine of Restored Priesthood Authority, and he just said, "Woah! So I really have to pray to know if these things are true, don't I?" and we were like yeah! This guy is super cool, and since then we've talked to him in his doorway and he says he has a million more questions for us, mostly about the Ressurection. We're super stoked!

The third Miracle, similar to the first one, happened in our Zone Conference. Another training that struck me to the core of my being. President Mathews gave a training based on Elder Bednar's last conference talk, If Ye Had Known Me. What struck me the most was the analysis on how we need to not only believe in our Savior, but we need to believe Him. President then went on to explain how a missionary can be obedient, hard-working, and a really good planner and efficient worker, but if he or she does not trust in the promises that the Lord will open their mouth, and bring the people prepared to receive the message unto them, they won't be reaching the potential that He wants them to have. It was incredible. I realized that I just need to believe in miracles. Nothing less. I don't remember feeling so good after a Zone Conference, and my interview with President afterwards just solidified it. I just gotta believe.

Life is better than ever. It's incredible the pace that I'm learning, even near the end of my mission. I hope that you all can have spiritual experiences like this. Oh, and about Leo, he got bumped up to this next Saturday but he's getting baptized, I promise!

Okay that was a lot and now I'm really out of time but gotta go bye!

-Elder Penner

pics:

1. Me with Jenny and Davidson, a married couple of RMs that are my bros that feed us a lot here. Rule #1: we like people that feed us.​

2. Just Elder Olsen looking fly at our church building. I just remembered that churches back home have basketball courts and stuff like that. Weird.​

Beautiful Day

My attitude is still at record high as we pull through with a new wonderful week here in the Cabo! The weather has been really nice recently, and the nights have actually been pretty chilly. I hope it stays this way for the rest of my mission, because I love this kind of weather. Also we went through a pretty drastic change in the daily schedule this week. Then new schedule allows for an optional extra hour of sleep, and even gives us more time to prepare in the mornings, without us missing any teaching time during the day. We also saw a change in the Key Indicators, the numbers that we send to the Mission Office every week. In the past they counted how many lessons we had, and how many were with or without a member, and such. Now they focused on new and progressing investigators in the numbers that we send. I think it's really inspired, because it focuses more on our real purpose here as missionaries, instead of worrying us about how many lessons we're teaching or other less-significant numbers. While lessons are important, the real importance lies on helping investigators be converted and progress towards baptism. So I'm pretty stoked about all of that.

Anyways, we've had a really great week here! On Monday we were a little disappointed because we talked with Leo about the baptismal interview questions and he didn't seem able to respond to them very well. Well, I made him a bit of homework to help him out (nothing too fancy, just a few related questions) and the next time we visited he'd answered every question really well! I think when he was talking to us he just didn't know how to say what he wanted to. So we're going through with the baptism for this upcoming Saturday. It's always best to make sure about these things before jumping into it. This is an important saving ordinance we're talking about.

As for other cool stuff that's been happening, I can talk a bit about Aritson. He's living with his cousin Valtinho, who's a super cool member, and he loves to talk to us and really loves the church. Recently he's been acting a little weird though, so we went in this week to figure it out. We entered the house and some random woman walks in behind us and starts saying, "Sorry, sorry! I'm talking with the Sisters and I saw the Elders so I wanted to talk to them too!" It was one of the stranger moments that I've had for sure, but not the strangest, so we talked to her too. The next time we got down to business and Aritson really just wants us to talk with his girlfriend as well, because he mentioned baptism to her once and she seemed disapproving. We're talking to them both now, and his girlfriend Crisolinda is super cool as well. She just has an anti-Mormon family, as we found out. We'll have to play this one out to see how it goes, but I'm shooting for a happy ending.

Elder Olsen is learning a lot more quickly than I expected he would, which is sweet. He says he already understands almost everything that I say, which is always good. It's just that Creole that gives him the biggest headache. I know that was the hardest struggle for me, too. We had Cachupa the other day, and he fell in love with it as soon as he ate it. Cachupa is one of the greatest things about this country, to be honest. I'd learn how to make it, but they say it takes about 3 hours! So I'll take a recipe home and try it for my family.

This email was a pretty good sized one. I forgot to mention that today I turned 21 years old. I'll leave it to you guys to come up with some bad joke about how I'm legally good to drink now. Don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Hope you all have a great week!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

PICS:

1. Us chillin at my boy Leo's house. We brought our homies Francisco and Djamila, who are farthest back by Elder Olsen

2. Our Branch President's son Abdel turned 2 a few days ago, so we stopped by for a couple of minutes. I'll do anything to get a good cake.​

(sorry the pictures are so blurry)

Sweet Child O' Mine

Well, transfers happened, and for the first time I have a fidju!!! Elder Olsen just arrived from the Provo MTC. He's from Oakdale, which is in the Bay Area #represent and he's an all-around boss of a person. We've only had 3 full days together, and I can already tell that we're just going to tear it up here in Espargos. Training is a lot different of an experience than I expected. It's a whole lot more of me talking and helping my companion to understand the people than I expected. It doesn't help that here in Sal everyone speaks their own native Creole so everyone is saying something different. It'll be a lot of fun helping him over the next few weeks.

So the past week was pretty interesting for me, because Elder Teela went to Boa Vista on Wednesday and Elder Olsen didn't come until like Thursday at Midnight. I spent most of the time hanging out with the Zone Leaders in Santa Maria, but for a bit I was with Elder Gomes and Elder Podzikowski, who came from São Nicolau and were headed to Praia. Once that was over and by the time that Elder Olsen came in, we had all of one appointment marked with an investigator. Luckily and with the help of the Lord, we managed to teach 11 lessons over the past 3 days! We're just hoping that we're going to find even more cool people to share our message with as time goes by. I want to make these last 2 transfers count more than any other time in my mission.

Also in great news, Leo is going to get baptized this upcoming Saturday! We talked to Neusa, his mom, about it yesterday, after Leo came to church. She asked if we thought that Leo was ready. I said that I have seen some good changes in him over the past couple of weeks, and he seems to really want it. If he has his incredible mom to keep him on the right path and show him the way, I have no problem in his getting baptized. She agreed with us, and now we're just planning everything to do with baptism! It's going to be a great spiritual experience for my new kid.

Well, that's all I have time for! Hope you all are well!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

After being blown off my feet with information about what's going to be happening with school once I get back home, I realized that I've got to make some decisions that are going to have some impact here in a few months. As The White Stripes say it best, I have no idea what I'm doing when I think about that. Put me in any area in this mission, and I'll work hard to preach the everlasting gospel to the good people there. It almost comes naturally to me now. But try and figure out my own life? I'm just lucky I still have a few months of a buffer before it really hits me.

Anyways, in the world of Sal where everyone speaks a different language and things make sense, the week started off a little slow, but picked up to show a lot of real promise! After a strange turn of events, we now have two new Zone Leaders: Elder Nemelka and Elder Thorsen. This makes it the third place where Elder Nemelka has been my Zone Leader. He's one of the coolest, most sincere people that you could ever meet, so I'm stoked. The guy bought 5 shwarma for us all, and ate 2 of them by himself! I think he's going to realize soon enough that he can't afford to do that on this island. $12.50 seems like nothing back home, but to us that can feed you for 2-3 days.

We met a really really really cool couple a little over a week ago, who we've been trying to find home a lot this past week. Last night, we saw their car park in front of their house, so we decided to go over and corner them into letting us talk to them. They were absolutely stoked to let us in and talk to us! Luis Carlos is the husband's name, he's lived on most islands (I was especially impressed with his Fogo Creole) and also lived in Rhode Island for a while. The wife, Claudia, spent most of her younger years in the Netherlands, so she speaks Dutch, English, and French on top of Portuguese and Creole. They are incredibly intelligent, and were super interested in our entire message that we shared with them. When we asked if they had any questions, Luis Carlos asked "Who was the last prophet, then?" to which we testified that there's a living prophet today, named Thomas S. Monson. They were amazed! We're super stoked to teach them more, and I really think that they can progress well.

I just ran into this one dude I knew on Fogo. He was raised in America, and when he came to Fogo we always visited him because he made some really good food for us. He told us how we could make some American-tasting pickles, because they don't really have those here. He came here to be a tour guide for English speakers. It was just really random to meet him, and it shows how Sal is just a big melting pot of all the islands. A lot of people eventually go to Sal, because people can get work here pretty easily in the tourism industry. I like meeting people I once knew. It brings back good memories.

Anyways, I think that's it for the week! Hope that you all are doing well, and have a good one!

Abraço,

Elder Penner

Welcome to the Jungle

Boa Tarde from the City of Espargos in the zone of Morro Corral (which is surprisingly hard to say in Portuguese.) Shout out to my brother Cameron yet again because he just passed a birthday in the MTC! Which means he's old. Which mean's I'm old. I don't like to think about it much.

First things first, we've had some luck in finding some references that have just been slipping through our fingers as of late. One of the coolest things that's happened is that we were looking for this one guy Djão and finally located the guys house (what I wouldn't give to have street addresses made for every house here) and we didn't find him, but we found his sister and his dad. Well, the other day we taught the sister, Euritz, the entirety of the message of the Restoration, and she was super into it and accepted baptism with no questions asked and almost excited for it! Well, we had just finished the closing prayer when Djão himself walked into the room. We really wanted to talk to him, and we had some time, so we asked if we could share the same message with him as well. I expected Euritz to go into another room, but she stayed where she was and heard the entire message for a second time! Djão was just as receptive as his sister was, and it was a good experience all in all. Just a little longer than usual in the same chair.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what to think about Leila and Roberto at this point. There's not all that much that we can do for them. Leila will be able to go to church in the mornings now, but Roberto doesn't have any choice on when he gets a day off and when he doesn't. They were supposed to go to church yesterday because they both had a break, but they didn't because they slept through it... both times. Have I mentioned that there's church in the evenings here? It's made for people that work at hotels and aren't allowed to change their hours and have to go to work on Sunday mornings. It's mostly for members that still want to take the sacrament, but sometimes we can have investigators come as well. Anyways, they didn't come! We'll have to see what we can do with them.

Funny story: I like to tell people that I'm from Fogo, and then speak a little Fogo creole to convince them, and I tried it the other day with this one kid. He took two looks at me with the funniest expression, and said, "no, it can't be... you're waaaaaaaaayyy too white to be from Fogo. Like Fogo has some pretty white people, but not THAT white!" It was pretty funny to Elder Teela and me. I guess I sometimes forget that I stick out here in a little more than just the white shirt and tie.

To explain my title, we went to what I'm 99% sure is the only zoo in all of Cabo Verde! Well, half zoo and half botanical garden. It wasn't all that crazy, but it was only 3 bucks to enter and the best part was that it had real grass! After stepping on it and feeling it under my feet, it was like walking on a cloud. It's been so long. Some other cool things were a monkey that shot around its cage, a couple of geese that hated Elder Teela with a passion and kept hissing at him,, and a donkey that kept trying to eat our bags when our backs were turned. I can't send the pics this week, but I'll make sure to get them out next time!

I think that's about it for me. It's so weird that the transfer is almost over. Time literally cannot go any faster. Hope that it treats you all well!

Abraço,

Elder Pena (I just learned that pena means feather this week. The more you know amirite.)