Life in Technicolor

I went with one of my favorite Coldplay songs this week for my subject. I've realized that I've really learned to see everything in a different light while I've been out here in the field. It sounds lame I know, but I don't know how else to describe it. I've had some really amazing experiences already and I still have about a year and 8 months to go. I think I might've said this before, but I can't believe how fun it is here even though we're doing all that we're supposed to. I overheard another Elder say at zone conference a couple weeks back "If you're not having fun while doing the work, then something's wrong." I agree 100%. Sometimes if an angry Spaniard yells at you a little, you've just gotta laugh it off.

Update on last week's email and the whole Semana Santa thing: I was right. People dressed up as death eaters from Harry Potter marching through the streets of Valladolid playing super intense music. Kind of an odd way to celebrate Easter imo. I prefer the bunny that brings kids treats and hides eggs. Maybe that's just me, though.

Something super cool happened this week. So on Thursday night, we were looking through our old area book to see if we could find anyone to set up lessons with. I came across this one lady named Mirella. She's from Peru and the description in the area book said she couldn't meet because of an "illness." I called her up and invited her to English class the next day and she accepted. I didn't think too much of it at the time. The next day, on Good Friday, where there are some of the best processions of the week, she showed up to English class. We got to talking with her and found out that basically her entire family are members of the church in Peru. Her "illness" is that she was in a motorcycle accident a couple years back. She has been going to physical therapy ever since so it can be a little difficult to find times to meet. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said she agreed with everything. We then, introduced the Book of Mormon to her and she proceeded to tell us that she already knew it was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet (WHAT THAT NEVER HAPPENS). We committed her to baptism right after. Brilliant experience especially since I could've called up literally anyone in the area book, but it happened to be her.

Think that's all for now, folks. We've got two more weeks left of this transfer so we're gonna do all we can to make them count. You'll have to wait until next week to hear from me (sad, I know).

Hasta Luego,

Elder Penner

Pictures:

1. AFTER LIKE A MONTH OF SEARCHING we found a Mexican restaurant. Overpriced, but good feat. zone leaders. (I don't have anything to get the picture of my camera at the moment so I just took a picture of the screen sorry)

2. District playing Catan today (I won, naturally)

Brothers on a Hotel Bed

"And now we say goodnight, from our own separate sides"

In honor of my brother Jordan finishing his mission in Cape Verde this week, I chose his favorite Death Cab For Cutie song - Brothers On A Hotel Bed for my subject. I wish him all the best in his endeavors after he gets home. I hope he can say that "now he lives inside someone he does not recognize." There's no doubt in my mind that the mission has changed him for the better, and I'm so grateful that I have had him as an example. If there's one thing I've already realized, it's that the mission really does change you. Good luck out there in the real world bro.

Anyways enough with the somewhat cringey, sentimental stuff. Onto the weekly update. Crazy that another week has flown by, but it's been a good one. We've taught Cristian a few more times and he's doing really well. At first we weren't too sure he had good intentions or if he was just coming to church because he liked the member that brought him, Emily, but now it seems that he's genuinely interested which is fantastic. We taught him the Plan of Salvation last Monday night and he told us that it made perfect sense to him and he didn't really agree with the Catholic Church which he was raised in. He accepted a baptismal date for the 22 so we've been working hard to prepare him.

We had zone conference this last Friday in Oviedo. We took a train 4 hours Thursday afternoon and working there that night. Beautiful city and a ton of stuff to see. I think the thing I liked the best is that I could actually breath since the air had humidity. It wasn't anything like flat, dry Valladolid. It was in the midst of lush mountains. Don't get me wrong though, I love Valladolid, it was just nice to experience something a little different. Anyway, zone conference was a great experience. President talked a lot about finding people to teach and I definitely learned a lot.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is this next week, and based on what I've heard, I'm in for something special. I've been told that the processions here are the second best in all of Spain. The pictures that I've seen of them are quite strange though. To me, it looks like a big crucifix being carried around by and surrounded by a bunch of people dressed up as what I can only describe as death eaters from Harry Potter. I'll have more detail next week hahaha.

That's about all I got for this update. Hope you all have an action-packed week and enjoy all the things I love and miss about American that I can't have here. Hasta luego!

-Elder Penner

PICTURES (Told you I'd be better)

1. The district in Oviedo 

2. My main man in the branch in Valladolid, Mateo (yes, that's his autograph and I'm gonna sell it when he gets rich and famous)3. 3. Massive cathedral in Oviedo

4. Palm Sunday happened yesterday and we found a branch outside of our piso

Isombard

I'm absolutely convinced that General Conference is about 47 times better while you're serving a mission. For those that don't know, General Conference is a series of broadcasts over a weekend that happens twice a year, where we get to listen to the leaders of the church and what they have to say to teach us and help us improve. One talk, which was probably my favorite, was by Gary B. Sabin. He spoke about always maintaining a positive attitude and getting back up when we're knocked down, or "standing up inside," as he put it. At one point, he was talking about his father in-law who had a ridiculously optimistic attitude, despite being very elderly. When someone expressed to him a concern about his ability to walk, he replied, "that's ok. If I get tired of walking, I'll just start running." This reminded me of a song by Deklan McKenna - Isombard. In the chorus, it repeats the phrase, "If you can't walk, then run" several times. This is something that is good to keep in mind when we're out working. If you feel like you can't walk, and you just want to go home a little early at the end of a long day, that's often the time when we have to run. I have already seen many examples of blessings received when my companion and I have just gone and done a little bit more. I´ll definitely be looking to apply that throughout my mission.

We had a good week here in Valladolid (pronounced Vay-uh-doh-leed, not sure if i ever included that before). We started teaching this guy named Cristian. He was a reference from a member here and he really seems solid. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and says he likes what he has read. We're meeting with him again today to follow up and teach him the next lesson. He told us he's done karate for years, so I'm hoping we don't ever say anything that offends him hahaha.

Another thing, we called Mikchael, the recent convert, about a week ago to see if we could meet with him, and he told us he was in Paris out of nowhere. Apparently he's there with his uncle for the next month or so. He told us he's going to church there, so that's still good. I just hope there's a Spanish branch there. He's been struggling to learn English and doesn't know French at all hahaha. Love that guy. Hope he returns before I get transferred to another area.

Alright here's your guys' Spanish culture lesson of the week. So Spain has this thing called Mediodia, where pretty much the entire city shuts down during the middle of the day, from roughly 2:00 to 5:30. Everyone goes home and eats lunch and takes a nap, then they go back to work after Mediodia ends. The streets are practically empty at some points, so we usually return to our piso and do our studies if we don't have a meal appointment during those hours.

We've got zone conference this week up in Oviedo which is my comp's old area, so stay tuned for an update on that next week. Until then, I'm Elder Penner. Goodnight (morning) America.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Pictures:

1. Group that came to play basketball and soccer with us this last Saturday (my team won as always) 

2. Graffiti that describes the feelings at the end of a long day (S/O Bay Area)

3. Valladolid is pretty

Winter Winds

Just when I though winter was gone and we started to get nice, sunny, 70 degree weather last week, it decided to return this week seemingly colder than before. It snowed a couple times this week for the first time since I've been in Spain. Thus, I thought the song Winter Winds by Mumford and sons seemed fitting for my subject line this week.

This week has been solid. We've mostly been focusing on finding new people to teach. We also met with Pablo (the guy I mentioned in my update last week that found us on the street and said he wanted to meet) last Monday. He had so many questions that we barely even got through half of the first lesson. We haven't been able to meet with him since. He works as an elementary teacher, so he doesn't have a lot of time to meet. We seemed to have trouble setting up lessons this week and when we did get them set up, they fell through. That's just the way it goes sometimes. People have far less free time here, especially on weekdays. Students need to study a lot more because the school system is so competitive with the economical crisis going on, and people with jobs work long hours. We did meet this guy named Jesus yesterday. He's from Colombia and we ran into him again today. When I asked him if he liked soccer, he proceeded to show me pictures of Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez of the Colombia national team holding his daughter when she was smaller. We've got a lesson set up with him soon. I've got a good feeling about him.

We also went up to León and went on intercambios (exchanges, which is basically when we switch companions for a day) with the leaders of our zone. I got to spend the day with Elder Kiser and he's a top class lad for sure. It was interesting to see what another area was like. In their branch, they only have about 20 active members compared to our 60 in Valladolid. We had a lesson with this guy who we thought was an investigator, but when we started teaching him, we found out that he had actually been a member for 30 years hahahaha. Anyway it was a good experience in general.

Sorry if my update seemed a little lame this week, haven't had a ton of time for writing today. I'll be back next week better than ever  I promise. I love you all and hope each and every one of you have a great week :)

-Elder Penner

Just one picture this week (I really need to get better with that)

1. A member here with a snapchat air dropped this to me (ft. Elder Jones)

Something Good Can Work

Greetings from Spain! We're out here working hard as always and we've had a decent amount of success this week along with some interesting experiences. I've realized that it's always best to view our investigators as what they can become and work on helping them progress to that potential. That's a word that can mean a lot or a little depending on how much work we put in: potential. As the song by Two Door Cinema Club says, it's important to always see that something good can work. We had transfers the other day, but everyone in my district is staying so that means for sure another great 6 weeks.

We managed to meet with Luisa, the woman I mentioned that didn't know where the chapel was last week. She's a super nice Dominican lady that lives with her daughter, Sasha. Her daughter isn't a member and told us she was really religious either, but every time she left the room  during our visit, Luisa whispered to us that we had to meet with her to teach her hahaha. Luisa told us she would cook us some Dominican food next time we visit which sounded amazing the way she described it. Real excited for that.

A few days ago, we were contacting on the street and something a bit strange, but definitely cool happened. We tried to talk to this one lady who gave us the usual "I'm in a hurry" excuse and kept walking. Right after however, some guy we had never seen before said to us "yo les escucho" (I'll listen to you) before we could even try to talk to him. He told us he had met some missionaries about a year ago and he wanted to learn more, but they never called him (smh). We have a visit set up with him tonight and I can't wait to see how it goes.

We also had a lesson with one of our investigators, Kenis, this week. She's basically golden, but has just one problem. She works a lot, so we can't, meet with her often, and she can't go to church on Sunday's. We taught her about temples showed her a Mormon Message about a family who saved for a long time to be able to go to the temple. When it finished, she said that she really liked the part where it said "no sacrifice is too much" and expressed to us her desire to go to the temple someday. Unfortunately, she's leaving to visit the Dominican Republic at the end of the month and will be gone almost all of April. We'll have time to meet with her 1 or 2 more times before she leaves, but she says she's going to try and go to church while she's there and will be able to come to the one here when she gets back! I've got high hopes for her for sure.

THE SMELLS OF SPAIN

After being in the country for nearly 3 months now, I believe I have picked out the four most distinct smells in Spain. Easily the most frequent smell is cigarette smoke - no contest. The second noteworthy stench is diesel fuel. Most cars run on it opposed to unleaded here - quick side note, almost all European made cars that you don't see in the US are super ugly. Third is a certain cologne that I swear at least 80% of Spanish men wear. Not sure why it's so common, but I seem to smell it everywhere. The fourth thing is quite the opposite. The other 20% of men here just smell like straight BO, so it's always an unpleasant surprise when we get a whiff while walking around. I hope you got a little bit of an idea of what the air in Spain smells like from reading this. The more you know 💡

I love you all and hope you all have a top class week. You'll hear from me this time next week. 

-Elder Penner

Only have one picture this week. Sorry I'm lame and I gotta take more.

1. We went over to my man Edward's house and he made us this drink that's literally just orange juice, sugar, and milk. Very good imo.

Morning in America

Hello to all of my adoring fans. It's time for your favorite part of the week again 🤘 It's been a pretty solid week here in Valladolid. The work is moving along quite nicely I've gotta say. We've got a pretty good teaching pool now and we're working hard to help them progress and to find even more people. The time difference from here to the States is something I forget about sometimes. Spain is eight hours ahead of Brentwood so when it's late afternoon here, it's morning in America there, hence the song title in the subject by Jon Bellion.

We started teaching a guy from Brazil this week named Dani. He's a pretty solid guy and goes to a 7th Day Adventist church. It's been interesting to see what he believes as we teach him. He told us that if we went to his church on Saturday, he would come to ours on Sunday. It was actually pretty neat to go to another church's service. It's something I don't think I'd ever done before. Dani seemed intrigued by the Book of Mormon, so we committed him to reading it, and he's been doing so. It's just a matter of whether he gains a testimony of it now.

We also received a referral for a woman who has been a member for a couple years now. Apparently she's been living in Valladolid for like a year now, but hasn't been to church because she doesn't know where the chapel is hahaha. We've been trying to meet with her all week, but whenever she tells us a time to come over, she ends up not being home. She's a little elderly, so maybe she's just forgetful.

The other elders had another investigator baptized yesterday! His name is Jose and he's really just a top quality guy. He comes to the sports activities we hold on Saturdays and plays soccer with us. We just recently found out that he knows how to speak English. He actually claims he learned by playing video games and watching soccer hahaha. 

Think that about wraps it up for this week. I'll talk to you all again next week!

-Elder Penner 

Pictures:

1. How to make missionaries happy

2. José and us on his day of getting dunked

Man in the Mirror

Wow it's been a spectacular week and I can't wait to tell you all about it! We were able to get everything done in time for Mikchael Yadckson, so he was baptized this last Saturday! In light of this, I had to choose a song by the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson, who our investigator Mikchael is named after. I chose Man in the Mirror because he really had to take a look at himself and make a change as the song says. He willingly made so many changes in his life in order to be baptized. It's amazing to see how the gospel changes people.

I'm so incredibly grateful that I was able to be a part of a baptism so early in my mission. It's has given me so much motivation for the rest of it. I honestly didn't think I would have this much desire to share what I know to be true so early in my mission, especially with the language barrier, but I just have a great amount of desire. It's hard here, but there are definitely people to be taught and to baptize. We're in an area that is on fire right now, as far as Spain goes anyways. The other elders here already have another baptism scheduled for next weekend. I never thought I'd be as into this as I am honestly. There are few things that compare to the joy that comes from an investigator progressing towards their baptismal date or setting up a baptismal interview. I've really been trying to focus on everything good that's been happening and I'm starting to really love every minute I'm here.

That's about all I got for this week, I love you all and hope you have spectacular weeks wherever you may be!

-Elder Penner