Robbers

Greetings from Madrid! I haven't really gotten a chance to talk about the area itself so here it goes. I'm in a somewhat Northern part of Madrid. The area where we live is kinda in the ghets, but that's ok because it means more humble people! The only skyscrapers in Madrid are in our area as well. We travel by metro almost everywhere, so I finally know what my cousin was talking about when she described the "I hope no one freaking robs me right now" sensation a while back. That quote was actually inspiration for my song title this week, "Robbers," by The 1975 (don't worry I didn't actually get robbed). The ward is great. There are roughly 110 active members - a big step from the 23 in my last area. I've already met a bunch of them and they're awesome.

This last week and a half has flown by (as usual) and we've got a lot done. After a slightly slow start, it picked up quite a bit. I mentioned a new investigator Yocasta last week - SHE'S FREAKING LEGIT. We've met with her three times since I last wrote and she's got a great desire to learn more. We've invited her to read the Book of Mormon and after doing so, she's noted how she's had a lot of good things happen to her. After asking her what she thought of it yesterday, she told us she thinks it's true. Super exciting times here! 

We also started teaching two other new people this last week. One of them, lives out in a pueblo called Colmenar Viejo and is a member's boyfriend. He's from Nicaragua and his name's Jose. The other is an older Ecuadorian lady named Rosa. She apparently had missionaries over at her house all the time when she was raising her kids back in Ecuador. For some reason, she was never baptized despite the fact that nearly all her children are members. They're both really great and we can't wait to work with them more.

Today I got to go to the temple for the first time in like 5 months. Incredible experience as always. We played some soccer with some other missionaries after. MOST IMPORTANTLY, we went to a taco place that sells REAL AUTHENTIC Mexican tacos. The first that I've had since I got here a year ago. It was a good day for me. I think we're going to go up to Segovia on Monday with our district. I heard it's a really cool city. We'll have to see. I hope you all are partying it up back in the states. I also hope at least one of you has been keeping my legacy of using "dad" as a pronoun alive as well. Love you all!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Algunas fotos hoy:

1. When America meets Spain - tortilla de patata with Dew and Sour Patch

2. Colmenar Viejo

3. Soy yo

This is the Life

Hello everyone! I don't have a ton of time today so I'll make this quick, but we've been seeing so many miracles since I arrived here. No way I'll have time to talk about all of them so I'll just hit a few. Went with another Two Door Cinema Club song this week for my subject. Mission life is the good life.

Earlier this week, we set up a lesson with a Dominican person we met on the street named Clara. We met with her and upon talking a little bit, she told us she was already a member (like the 4th time that's happened on my mission - and all of them have been Dominican). The good news is, she brought her non-member friend named Yocasta. She's also Dominican but just moved to Madrid from Bilbao up north. We taught her the Restoration and it went incredibly well. She told us she could feel something different about us. We invited her to church on Sunday and she came and said she felt peace and loved how happy everyone was. I think that might be the first time I've had an investigator come to church so quckly after we started teaching them. She also mentioned how she thought that finding us was in God's plan for her. We're really excited about her. We'll be meeting with her again tomorrow.

Another miracle: On our way to church yesterday, we were stopped by a British guy who was looking for the chapel. He told us how he's from Manchester and he's been looking for work here. We showed him where the church was and upon finding it, he mentioned that it was his first time coming in years. Glad we ran into him. Only problem, he said he was a United fan smh. He told us he'd come next week too.

We're still in a little bit of a finding mode. We are getting a lot of appointments with new people set up, but then they fail us. Great things are coming here in B1 I know it. The other two companionships in this area saw lot of miracles this last week too. Forgot to mention this last week, but my companion Elder Parkinson has diabetes so basically if he ever passes out, it's my job to stab him in the leg with a needle. Sounds pretty metal I know. He's a great guy though and I think his knowledge of music is better than any of my other companions to this point. 

 My picture taking has kind of fallen off since I moved to Madrid, but I promise some pictures next week. That's all the time I've got. I still gotta send some other emails out. Thanks for all your guys' support. I think I'm enjoying my time here more than ever. Talk to you all next week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Molecules

Don't have a ton of motivation to think of something clever that goes along with the week, so went with Molecules, probably my favorite song by Atlas Genius. It's been a really great, but exhausting first week here in Barrio 1 (Madrid 1st Ward). I just so happened to arrive during the coldest week of the season so far. Those of you that know me know that I hate the cold. On the bright side, I can now say with absolute confidence that it's colder than Africa since I was on the African continent in the Canaries a week ago. It's warmed up a little here the last couple of days, so I'm managing a little better now.

THE AREA

It's been a blast and honestly a little bit of an adjustment so far. I'll be honest, it's really nice being able to focus solely on missionary work which we couldn't really do in La Palma. This is the first time in quite a while that I've been in an area where street-contacting is effective so I'm pumped about that. It's taken me a little bit to get back into the groove of working in a big city. We don't have a lot of investigators at the moment, but I can see that turning around soon. We've been in finding-mode this week. We've got like 4 lessons set up with potential investigators next week including a guy from Tenerife that we met on the street. I thought that was pretty neat since I had never met a Canarian here in the Peninsula before. One of our current investigators is named Ivan. We got him on a baptismal date for about two months in advance this last Thursday, but I'm not sure how solid that is since my companion tells me he's pretty flojo. They've been working with him for over a month and he hasn't come to church yet. We had a really spiritual lesson with him this week though and he says he feels really good when he reads the Book of Mormon. 

My new comp Elder Parkinson and I are here in B1 with one other companionship of Elders and a trio of Hermanas - 7 missionaries total in the ward. We all sat down earlier this week and made a plan to help strengthen the members. The bishop told us that there are a lot of members who come every week but don't have testimonies, so that's one of our focuses at the moment. We've planned out weekly ward activities that emphasize the content in the missionary lessons in an effort to strengthen their testimonies.

That's about it for now. Pretty standard week as far as missionary work goes. Hope you guys are all doing well back over yonder. L8r sk8rs.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Fotos:

1-3. We went to a little Star Wars museum today

Changing of the Seasons

I'm 20 today, but that doesn't really change anything. I'll probably feel like I'm 12 the rest of my life. (spoiler alert) I'll be spending my birthday on a plane headed back to the peninsula. It's transfer day and they're sending me to Madrid! I'll be serving in Barrio 1 which covers part of the center of Madrid up to the Northern part. I still don't know much about it, but I'll be companions with Elder Parkinson who was just finished being trained and is from California.

I honestly wasn't expecting to be leaving La Palma quite yet. I figured I might spend one more transfer there, but it looks like there were other plans for me. It was pretty hard to say goodbye. I hadn't fully realized how big of an impact I had made and how much I'm gonna miss everyone until I had to say goodbye. We only had time for one hour of church yesterday since we had to run to catch a boat to Los Cristianos (which ended up taking like 5 and a half hours) where we stayed last night. We're in Tenerife today taking a guagua currently to the airport up north where I'll catch my flight back to the peninsula.

The subject line comes from a song by Two Door Cinema Club, one of my favorites by them. It'll be strange going from the super chill island lifestyle in La Palma to the bustling center of Madrid. We'll see how that goes. I'm also gonna experience a drastic change in the weather once my plane touches down in Madrid. I'll be going from 70 degree weather in La Palma to 35-40 degree weather (and snow) there. Summer to Winter in one day. Yikes. 

It'll be kind of a crazy day for me, so I'm sorry if I don't have time to reply to all your birthday wishes. Just know I appreciate every last one of them! Hope you all have a great week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇮🇨🇪🇸

Pictures:

1. Group pic after church ended yesterday

2. With my chikis, the Guasinave lads

3. Goodbye La Palma

Better Days

Happy New Year!

As The Goo Goo Dolls put it, last night was "the night the world begins again." We all get a fresh start going into the new year. I almost went with "The New Year" by Death Cab for Cutie, and then nearly "New Year's Day" by U2, but "Better Days" just got the nod. We spent last night with a couple of families here, but of course, we couldn't stay out until midnight. I was ok with it though since I was sick. It's pretty ridiculous to think that I spent the whole of last year in Spain looking back. 2017 was one big learning experience for me which is kind of funny because sometimes I still feel like I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I still lack a lot, but it's ok since I've got a whole nother year left.

This week was another good one with some ups and downs. We were traveling again, so we didn't have a whole lot of time in our area. We went to Los Cristianos in Tenerife for intercambios Wednesday and Thursday. I went with Elder Meeks. It was our third intercambio together since I was in the same district as him when I was in Toledo. Great guy and really good at frying stuff. He's from Florida and now I'm convinced that they don't eat anything there that hasn't been fried first.

When we got back to La Palma we had a lesson with Javier. It was a little disappointing. We realized that he hasn't been very good with keeping his commitments and now we're not sure if he has the right intentions. We think that after all, it might not be his time. We hope we can continue working with him and help him change, but I don't think we're gonna focus on him as much. The good news is that we had a group family home evening activity at the church on Friday night. A member brought a friend with her and we started teaching her and her son. She has an immense amount of questions so teaching her is really fun for me. I think we're gonna try and focus on more activities like that with the group now so people can bring their friends. 

Don't think much else happened this past week. We didn't have anything to do this morning since everything was closed for New Year's, so we decided to go hiking. We went to La Caldera and La Cascada de Colores that I went to a couple months back. We explored a little more and found another waterfall (lit). Transfers happen this coming weekend, so I'll find out if I get to spend my birthday travelling or not. Hope you all have a brilliant week!

Hasta luego, 

Elder Penner 🇮🇨🇪🇸

Fotos tíos:

1. Fútbol on intercambios

2. Cascada de Colores pt. 2

3. Elder Lowder taught me how to levitate