Under Pressure

Alright, here we go. Another good week out here. I went with a classic by Queen this week. I've definitely felt the weight of expectations since arriving here. It's always good to feel a little bit of pressure, though. Without it, we can't grow as people. The change from the peninsula to the islands has been so strange. It's as if I'm in an entirely different mission now. The work is different. The people are different. The language is even a little different. It's all good though. We have to travel around the island a lot to visit members and investigators since we're the only ones here as well.

Ok, I can finally tell you guys a little about the work here. So we're currently working with a couple of people that are great. One is named Rafa. He's the friend of a recent convert. Before we started teaching him, he didn't believe in God, but he's grown so much. He's determined to get an answer to his prayers. The only problem is that he hasn't come to church. We'll be working with him on that this next week. Oh yeah, quick side note - we don't have an actual church building here, so we have church in a hotel bajo. Another friend is Javier. He's super solid and wants to be baptized, but wants to wait until he has a little bit more stability in his life. He's planning on moving to another island, Tenerife. We're not sure when that's going to happen, but we'll keep working with him until then.

Island life is great, honestly. Loving my time that I've been here. Love you all and I hope you all have an above-average week :)

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸🇮🇨

Pictures:

1. Mirador overlooking Santa Cruz

2. From the hike last week

3. nice

4. that island life tho

Life's Too Short

The song I chose this week by Wild Party has kind of a double meaning. One of them is that I don't have a ton of time today guys, so this will be pretty brief. I've also come to the realization (once again) how short the mission is. These last few weeks here in La Palma have been brilliant, but  stressful at the same time. We haven't had time to sit and rest a minute during the day lately. It really makes the time fly. Crazy that two weeks have already gone by here.

We went and climbed to the top of an old volcano here today and it was pretty sick I'm not gonna lie. I've got a whole bunch of pictures this week. I don't really have time for anything else, but just know I'm doing well and enjoying every moment here. Maybe next week I'll actually be able to tell about how the work itself is going here haha. Love you all!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

PICTURES:

1 & 2. Second highest point on the island: conquered

3. The companionship

 

4. Santa Cruz de La Palma

5. AFTER 8 MONTHS of being in Spain I finally found my favorite kind of British candy. Monumental moment (feat. soda that's only found here in the Canary Islands)

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Simple Life

"Be it rain, or sun, or shine, or snow, it's the simple life I lived."

That's the attitude here on La Palma. Young Rising Sons seemed to describe it best. It's incredible to see how tranquilo the life of the people that live here is. It's not quite the same with us as missionaries though. We've still got work to do.

So a little about my new area: It's definitely a lot different than my last two areas. So we live in the city of Los Llanos on the west side of the island. There are roughly 20-25 members that attend church. My companion, Elder Jones, is the group leader here and I'm his counselor. I definitely didn't think I'd be conducting a sacrament meeting on my mission, but I did for the first time yesterday. The congregation used to be a branch, but there have been problems with the members in the past. A lot of our work here is focused on strengthening the members and running things. We're in charge of the young men and young women programs too since there isn't anyone else in the group that can do it at the moment.

The island itself is absolutely beautiful. It was formed by volcanoes, so there are a lot of black sand beaches. The climate is perfect. 70s every day. A nice change from the 100 degree heat in Toledo. Elder Jones and I are the only missionaries on the island, so we have to travel around to visit members quite a bit. We only see other missionaries like once every 6 weeks or so for zone conference. It's a good thing we've been getting along this first week. We still have some investigators that we're working with. A few that we're pretty excited about. It's been a fantastic first week here. I'll talk to you guys next week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Pictures:

1. El Puerto de Tazacorte - black sand beaches

2. East side of the island near Santa Cruz

3. David the legend

Outskirts of Paradise

I'm feeling a lot like the song by Bad Suns at the moment. Today is transfer day! I wasn't expecting to leave Toledo yet, but here I am. I'm currently waiting to get on a plane to go to my new area in the Canary Islands. I'll be serving in La Palma and my companion and I will be the only missionaries on the island. The area was opened fairly recently, so there's only a small group of members there. The Elders there act as the group leaders and run the meetings on Sunday, so that'll be different. I'm unbelievably excited to serve there. It's gonna be legendary.

There's great news about Toledo too. Our biggest problem the last few months that I've been there was getting to pueblos. It was near impossible to visit a lot of the people that wanted to meet because the bus schedules were so bad. The good news is that the hermanas that are going to be replacing us are going to have a car. It'll make things so much easier and I can really see the work taking off. I'm sad to leave, but I know things will only continue to improve.

I don't have a lot else to say today. I get to the islands late tonight. I'll be sure to write a big ol' update next week explaining all the good stuff about La Palma.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Just one, whoops:

1. My good friend Elder Jones (not to be confused with his new companion, Elder Jones)