Elder Penner Spain Madrid Mission: 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)