Too Much

Hey fam. This will be a little shorter I think. I don't have a lot of motivation, but this half of a week was bustling. We had barely any downtime and it's the first time in quite a while where I felt that we had too much to do. Hence, the song title "Too Much," by Geographer. Some of our spare time has been sent getting everything together with the change of pisos. With how busy we've been, I strangely feel like I don't have a lot to report. Let's see...

We were able to meet with Ana, who is now on date for the beginning on May. Can't remember if I mentioned that before, but she's doing very well. We also taught Rosa for the first time in forever. She's an older Ecuadorian lady who comes to church almost every Sunday, but she never had any time to meet. She has Saturdays off from work now, so we're hoping to get her progressing quickly. She really likes coming to church on Sundays, so we'll see how it goes. 

On Saturday we did a pretty sick service project. We basically helped a member rebuild his house. We put up a wall in his home with bricks and cement and other fun stuff. Today we went to a pretty cool park. We were gonna rent bikes and cruise around, but we got there and the bike place was closed. Maybe we'll plan better next time :) We ended up just walking around a little and it was still a good time.

As I'm sure many of you already know, the Easter iniciative was released this week and we're really excited to go and use it with the members. I think that's all I got for now. I'll see you all later.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Pictures to come in a second...

Nice House

SURPRISE. Guess who forgot to say that his P-day was changed again?? This last week and a half has flown by. It's probably been one of the best weeks of my mission. So much has happened, so it's gonna take a lot to remember everything. We'll see how it goes. Don't know if I mentioned this before, but the other Elders here in B1 found a bunch of mold in their piso (apartment) a few weeks back, so they closed both their piso and theirs moved us in together with them into a brand new piso! They literally just finished building it and we're finishing up moving in over the next day or two. Por eso, I put "Nice House," by Joywave as the subject. It's been in my head throughout the entire process of moving in. Great song.

LAST WEDNESDAY we had Mission Tour with Elder Sabin of the 70. It was absolutely top-notch. I may have learned more in the few hours we were with him than any other time in my mission. The man is a spiritual giant. Something he said that really resonated with me was what he said about our purpose here. He stressed very strongly that life isn't just about learning and growing, but becoming. Becoming more like the Savior. We are rewarded after this life based on what we BECOME rather than what we do here. had heard that before, but it really stuck with me this time. I wish I could talk more about Mission Tour, but there's so many more things I need to hit.

ON SATURDAY we had Yocasta's baptismal service and it went super well. She was definitely one of the people referred to that was only kept from the truth because she knew not where to find it. It was a really spiritual service. I have no doubt that she'll be active in the church for the rest of her life. She hasn't missed a week of church since we met her two months ago.

I'M LOSING MOTIVATION TO KEEP WRITING SO I'M GONNA WRAP THIS UP. Ok so a couple days back, we committed another investigator named Ana to be baptized at the beginning of May. We've been teaching her for two weeks now. She said that in the time she's known us, she's learned more than in the 7 years she spent in the church she used to go to. She has a crazy amount of potential and I think she can definitely be prepared for her date. EXCITING TIMES.

TODAY TO FINISH THIS OFF, we went to the temple this morning (that's why my preperation day was changed) and then played some soccer after. Funny story actually, while we were playing, an Elder kicked the balled over the fence after a shot and accidently hit an old lady in the face. She's ok and ended up forgiving him after he apologized for a good five minutes. Fun times. Everything is as great as ever here in Madrid. It's going to continue into the rest of this week as well. HAVE A GOOD NEXT FEW DAYS EVERYONE. I'll talk to you all again on Monday!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Fotos:

1-2. Yocasta's baptism!

3-4. Toledo last week

5. Compy at the temple this morning

Take a Walk

Currently on a bus headed to visit one of my old areas, Toledo! We'll be spending the day there today for P-day. Although I served there for 3 months, I never bought a sword, so I'm fixing that today. I'll be able to see a few of my old friends as well. It'll be a little strange being there when it's not 100 degrees outside la verdad.

This was a little bit of a drag to be quite honest. We had a lot of failed lessons and struggled to get lessons set up. We realized that like none of our investigators have time to meet on weekdays. We spent a lot of time walking around on the streets, so I went with the song, "Take a Walk," a classic by Passion Pit, for my subject. We did manage to start teaching someone new this week, and we have a few appointments with new people for next week. Doris moved to Torrejon this last weekend, so we passed her to one of my old companions who's serving there, Elder Waters.

Next week should be ridiculously great though. On Wednesday, Elder Sabin, a member of the 70 is coming and we'll have the chance to learn from him. He gave my favorite talk in the April general conference of last year. I'm excited. We'll have Yocasta's baptism next Saturday as well. It's shaping up to be a good one.

To close this off, I thought I'd share something that I found VERY important this last week. I was talking to a guy from Africa, and we were talking about the weather in the Summer in Madrid and he said the words, "it's hotter than Africa" without me even prompting him to do so. It was a great moment for me. Anyway, hope you all have a good week! I'll attach some pictures of Toledo later when I have time, but I don't have any others for now.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Thunder Clatter

Hey everyone! I don't have a lot of time today, but it's been great here. It's been raining ALL WEEK. And it's supposed to continue through next Saturday. I'm not really complaining though. I'm a fan. I've still kept up my streak on the mission of never going outside with an umbrella. With the ongoing downpour, "Thunder Clatter," by Wild Club (I think that's the name of the band...) has been stuck in my head all week, hence the subject line.

It's been a really interesting week. It started out pretty slow. My companion actually forgot to put on socks one day. I still have no idea how he managed to do that in all honesty. But it really picked up at the end of the week and we found a few new people. Yocasta had her baptismal interview yesterday and passed! Everything should be in place for her baptism on the 17th. She's really excited for it. We went and visited the temple with her early on in the week. I really can't believe how prepared she is.

That's all I've got time for today lads. Everything keeps on moving along here. Chao chao brown cows. Have a good one.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 

Only one:

1. My son's first kebab