Zoom

This week I officially hit the six month mark in my mission. That means I'm a fourth of the way done here. It's insane to think about how fast the time has gone. It feels like I just got here a few weeks ago. Everyone tells me that after you hit 6 months, the time REALLY starts to fly, so I'm preparing for it to move even faster. I felt the song Zoom by Last Dinosaurs was appropriate for this week. It demonstrates how ridiculously short my time has felt here, even though the first month or so seemed to last so long. As Ferris Bueller said in the greatest movie ever made, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it." I'm not planning on missing any of it. I'm gonna take advantage of all the time I have left.

We had some investigators take some good steps forward this week, and had a miracle in church on Sunday. Diana accepted a baptismal date about a month in the future. We're hoping that with the goal in place, she'll start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon every day like she needs to to gain a testimony. She came to church this last Sunday too which is always a good sign. We met with the Jaramillo family as well this week. We shared with them the Restoration movie and they liked it a lot and were interested to learn more about Joseph Smith. There's potential there, but after telling us they would come to church this week, they didn't show up. We're work with them on that for sure.

Ok so in church on Sunday, we were talking with a few members when one of them pointed out to us that a man in the back, who had come with his member-wife, wasn't a member. It was strange because he knew exactly what was going on. We never would've guessed that he hadn't been baptized. We talked to him and found out that he had met with the missionaries here about a year or so ago. We got his number and went home to eat lunch without thinking about it too much. We decided to open our area book and see if we could find the teaching records from when the Elders here met with him before. To our surprise, he had been taught literally everything already and was keeping all of him commitments. He even had his interview to be baptized, but then was unexpectedly called to work in Barcelona before they had the service. I can't wait to meet with him this week and see what we can make happen. He told us he goes out of town for work for long periods frequently, so we'll see how it goes, but overall, it's pretty amazing that he came and we found him.

Things are starting to pick up here. It's hard to believe I've only been here two weeks. I've already made some great friends here. We explored the city a little today, so I've got some sick pictures on the way. Love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2 Oficina 8-B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes
Madrid, España

Pictures:

1. & 2. El Casco in the city (Spanish as heck)

3. View of the Casco from El Valle, a lookout point just south of the city

You are a Tourist

There are two different ways that this song by Death Cab for Cutie applies to my mission, and I couldn't decide on one, so I'm gonna go ahead and explain both. At the bridge of the song, it says, "When you feel just like a tourist in the city you've been born in, it's time to go. And you'll find your destination, with so many different places to call home." In the mission, your first area is called where you're "born." Last week was my time to go, and that destination for me was Toledo. Valladolid was left in good hands. I'm not worried. El legado de Elder Penner perdurara para siempra alli.

The song also applies in the sense that there are tons of tourists here. I had more people come up and start talking to my comp and I this week than probably the rest of my mission combined. It was almost strange hearing and speaking so much English on the streets here. The super touristy part is called El Casco which means, The Helmet. It's built on the top of a hill which is how it gets its name. We generally don't go up there a ton, but it's a ridiculously cool part of town with sword shops on every corner. Another cool thing about serving here is that there's a member that can drive us and get us in to Costco (pretty sure the only one in Spain). We're planning on going next week. I can already taste the blueberry Costco muffins. Really, the only downside I can think of is the heat here. It's been at least 105 every day this week. We finally got some overcast today so it isn't quite as hot. Our piso doesn't have air conditioning, so basically we've just gotta make sure we have a fan on us at all times hahaha. 

Ok so as far as investigators go, we're working with a few different people. There's one Colombian part-member family that we've met with on a couple of occasions. We've been focusing on Diana, who is 17 and isn't a member. She had a baptismal date in the past, but the Elders here found that she didn't really have a testimony, so we've been working on building it with her. We had a really good lesson and talked about faith and how it's an action word. It doesn't grow if we don't exercise it. A week before I got here, a family named the Jaramillos pulled over in their car and told Elder Davis and his old companion that they wanted to be taught. The mother was actually almost baptized when she was 12. We've got high hopes for them. It's been a while since the ward here has seen a baptism, so I'm planning on changing that. We also played a game of soccer this last Saturday with a bunch of less active members and an investigator or two. It was a blast and I'm still a little sore from it. 

Well, we're off to go explore El Casco a little bit and get lost. Hope you guys all have a week that's almost as good as mine is going to be. Love you all!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2 Oficina 8-B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes
Madrid, España

Pictures:

1. Branch President in Valladolid - a legend (ft. Xavi chillin on the right)

2. Cathedral in Leon last week

3. pants-less Darth Vader graffiti

4. Selfie at the Casco con Elder Davis

5. Missionaries take Subway 

Changes

This is the second week in a row I've chosen a song by Mutemath, but this one was just so blunt I had to go with it. Excuse my unoriginality I promise I'm better than this. Change is happening, people. I'm getting transferred out of Valladolid and going to Toledo. It's technically in the community of Madrid, but like an hour south of the actual city. I'm on a bus headed there right now, so I don't know a ton yet.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT MY NEW AREA:

- It's the most famous city in the world for swords.

- It's one of the hottest areas in in the entire mission.

- Pretty touristy

- Hace calor 

- It's built on hills (aka death for a missionary in a walking mission)

- It's hotter than Africa.

My new companion's name is Elder Davis and he's from Kaysville, Utah, which is where I lived for like 8 years. It's been awesome chatting with him about who we both know from there. He already seems top class. It's gonna be a good transfer. ALSO: I found out that my cousin is going to be in an area right next to mine, so I'll be able to see her quite a bit. At first I thought we were going to be in the same district, but it turns out that the missionary who told me that was wrong. Still super cool that we'll be so close when I thought that I might not even see her again for the rest of my time here.

This week was full of running around saying goodbyes, and teaching lessons where we weren't sure if they were going to show up since we still had no phone. We made it work, though. No worries.  I had a couple more really cool experiences this week. When we went to say goodbye to Julio, Loventa and Miguel, Loventa made us a Nigerian dish called fufu. It's basically raw dough that you dip in a spicey soup and swallow whole. Pretty interesting, but good hahaha. Miguel afterward said that he's really gonna miss me and told me he's felt something different about me when we're in lessons. He feels at peace and can feel the Holy Ghost testifying of truth. It was a little surprising to hear to be honest. I never thought I could have that profound of an effect on someone. I'm gonna miss him as well as all the other people we're working with as well. Xavier should get baptized in the next week or so. He had his baptismal interview this last week and passed. Kennis should follow a couple weeks after. I'm a little sad that I won't be there to see it, but happy for them as ever.

Well, I'm ready to lose myself in the work in my new area. It's game time. If there's ever a bit of advice I've heard in the mission, it's to get to your new area and hit the ground running. Vale chavales, me voy.

Hasta Luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2 Oficina 8-B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes
Madrid, España

Picture:

1. My new area in the mission/weather

All the rest are on my camera and I haven't had a chance to get them off. Sorry lads. Next week.

Joy Rides

"I'll give you the bad news first, cause the good news is probably worse," as the song by Mutemath goes. That's how this week has felt a little bit. We lost our phone early on in the week, and they can't get us a new one until the beginning on next week. We've just been using the phone at the church, but for now, people have no way of getting ahold of us. I've been without my wallet for the last couple days as well. I think I may have left it at a member's house, but we haven't been able to figure out exactly where it is or if it got stolen or not. Hopefully I can get that sorted out soon. As of now, I'm without a phone, money, residency, and my bus card. Oh well. Es lo que hay.

On the bright side, however, everything is going great with the work here. Xavier is set to be interviewed for his baptism this week, so we should be having his baptismal service in the next few weeks. We met with Kennis and we've got her on a baptismal date again for the 17th. The biggest news with her is that her work schedule changed, allowing her to come to church roughly every other week as opposed to never before. She's still super solid and is only going to keep progressing now that she can get to chruch. We found 3 new people to teach this week. Two are from Bulgaria, Ivan and Nicolai, and one from Romania, Rradi. Potential with all of them as well. We met with Loventa this week too. Can't remember if I've ever mentioned her, but she's from Nigeria and has a strong belief in God. She told us earlier this week, that she didn't feel ready to accept a baptismal invitation yet, so we'll keep working with her. Her husband Julio I think is the most skeptical guy I've ever met. The man doubts EVERYTHING. There's rarely a principle that we teach that he doesn't have a problem with, so we've mostly been focusing on Loventa. 

DUODECIMA:

The Champions League Final was Saturday night and it was one of my favorite experiences here so far. Real Madrid played Juventus and ended up winning 4-1 which meant their 12th European Championship. Whenever Real scored, whether we were in piso or on the streets, we heard it. We heard fireworks later that night too. When one goal went in, a drunk Spaniard ran up to me and hugged me he was so happy. That's just another thing I can check off my list. He, then, offerred to buy us drinks. We kindly turned him down hahaha. It can be a little rough serving here when I really don't like Real at all.

There you guys have it. That's how my week was. Ups and downs for sure, but that's the mission. Hoping you all have a brilliant week. I'll catch ya next time.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Pictures:

1. Only in Spain

2. The District

3. A shirt we found in Pull & Bear, a SPANISH clothing store (I don't think they even know where Utah is)