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)

Golden Age

Hey everyone! Don't have a ton of time today, but there are some super cool things going on here. There have been some changes announced in the way that we'll be doing missionary work in the mission. With all of the changes it feels like we're headed into a golden age. For that, I picked the song by Zayde Wolf. We went to the temple this morning and then spent the day playing ball in Madrid, so that's why I'm emailing today instead of Monday. I'm bad at remembering to announce it the week before.

Ok so the huge news is that we found out that this last week, we were added to only 6 other missions in the world to be approved to use smartphones for proselyting. In addition to that, we'll also begin working online through Facebook and Instagram. We'll also be able to use WhatsApp which is a big game-changer since so many people use it instead of actual texting here. I'm really excited for all the different and new opportunities we'll have to teach and find using these new resources. THE HYPE IS REAL.

As far as the work goes here, it was a slower week. We didn't have too many lessons, but we did start teaching a couple from Cameroon. We got a call from them a few days ago and they asked us if we could pass by and tell them about the church. We quickly accepted. One of them, Andrew speaks English pretty well but his wife, Jemen only speaks a little English and mostly French. It was pretty weird teaching the first lesson in English I'm not gonna lie. I've grown so used to doing it in Spanish over the last 8 months (I hit 8 months a few days ago btw). Anyways, they're both pretty great and are gonna come to English class tomorrow and church on Sunday. 

We've had a bit of cooler weather lately so we've been enjoying that. We've been trying to ride a steady curve upward lately, which to be honest, is nearly impossible in missionary work, but we're doing our best. Hope you all enjoy this next week as much as I'm going to. You'll hear from me on Monday which is transfer day.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

PICTURES:

1. BART or the Madrid Metro?

2 & 3. Views

4. Un león in all its glory

Moving Forward

Here we go again. Colony House's song, "Moving Forward" describes the week we've had pretty well. After getting next to nothing done last week due to Elder Ward being sick, we went into overdrive to get things going here this week. We're starting to see some fruits from our labors. We started working with two new people who are both great.

Mauro is doing stupendous as we found this week. He told us about experiences that he's had with the Book of Mormon. He believes it's true. The only thing he needs is to come to church more regularly which is hard with his work. We'll be hoping and praying that he manages to get Sunday mornings off. We started teaching the niece of the bishop who is visiting from Argentina. We're not entirely sure when she returns home, but we'll see what happens. One of the only downsides this week was that we were expecting to have 4 investigators at church on Sunday and only one actually showed up.

Over the time I've spent here in Spain, my companions and I have been mistaken for so many different people. This last week, someone walked up and asked us if we were real estate agents which inspired me to make a list of everything that people thought when they saw us:

- Real estate agents

- Employees at Zara (clothing store)

- Tour guides

- Tourists

- Jehovah's Witnesses (A LOT)

- Police officers

- Lawyers

- And many more

Spain is such a funny place. There are so many different cultures to experience here I love it. That's about it for now, guys. Vale, me voy. Buena semana a todos!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

PICTURES (it's about time, I know):

1. MTC squad at zone conference this week

2. I found a member from my old area at the temple ft. random other missionaries

3. Roman helmet swag in one of the sword shops here

Cough Syrup

Don't have a lot to report this week, guys. My companion got sick on Tuesday and didn't feel well enough to go out and work until Sunday morning. Due to that, I chose Cough Syrup by Young the Giant for my subject line. We needed some of that this last week. It's also a pump up song for me for this upcoming week. We sat down on Sunday night and planned the week out to try and make it as productive as possible since we've lost some time now. 

The good news is, we had two members bring friends to church yesterday, so we've got got lessons set up with them this next week. We definitely need some new people to teach since almost all of the people we're currently teaching don't have time to meet or are on vacation. I'm exciting for this next week. I'm sorry this update was kind of lame. I'll return in a week with a bunch of glory and exciting things I promise. Love you all!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Balconies

Hey everyone! I don't have a ton of time this week. We had some missionaries come down from Madrid so we spent the day running around the old part of the city with them going to museums and such. We checked out an old catapult and torture museum which was super cool. I'll try to keep this fairly brief.

I chose one of my favorite songs to listen to before I left for my subject this week. It's by Paper Route, and says in the chorus, "And for every wound, there's a hill to climb. Can we reach that height? Reach that height?" Sometimes the work can feel like a series of hills to climb, both physically and mentally/emotionally. Especially these last few weeks. We have had a lot of lessons fail us recently with potential investigators. The question at the end of those few lines of the song always comes to my mind through the harder times though. Can we reach that height? The work is almost always a matter of overcoming the personal struggles we have, brushing the dust off our shoulders, and moving on with hope. Although this last month or so we've had trouble getting the work going here, we'll just keep trying new things until we find something that works for us. 

We found out this past week that Fabricio moved to Arenjuez, which is actually my cousin's area, so we won't be teaching him anymore. It's nice to know that he'll be in good hands. We finally met with Mauro and got him on a baptismal date for the end of the month. It may be hard preparing him for it since he doesn't have much time with work, but we'll be pushing ourselves to make sure he can be ready. Other than that, we've just be in full on finding mode. Our plan for the next couple weeks is to try and visit some more pueblos. We'll see how it goes.

Well, that ended up being a little longer than I thought it would, so you're welcome for that hahaha. Despite the struggles we have, there's still no other place in the world I would rather be than in Spain. I love you all and I'll talk to you guys next week!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Pictures:

1. Giant Roman battering ram from the catapult museum. (I named him Phil)

2. Torture chair🤙

The rest are on my camera which is dead. I am bad sorry.

Maybe IDK

Another week come and gone, and another weekly update to write. I went for a song by Jon Bellion this week. Something that has always been a little hard for me is just to accept that there are some things that I just don't know. I don't always know the Lord's will or what he has planned for me, but one thing I've learned on the mission, is that often times it doesn't really matter. Bellion says, "Maybe I don't know, maybe I don't know, but maybe that's ok." Often times we just need to be able to trust that what comes next is exactly what we need, whether it be a trial or a lifeline. I've learned to be confident in that in the time that I've spent here.

Work wise, we've had a lot of signs of beginnings. Our increased efforts of working with the members here are in the process of starting to pay off. We've received a few references the last couple weeks. Although none of them have led to anything more than just one lesson, the intent from the members is there and that's what really matters. Another thing that we realized is that there are a ton of people that are contacts in our phone who we have no idea who they are. We started calling a them all up and have got a few visits set up for this coming week. We've still been doing a lot of finding on our own. Knocking doors, talking to the few people that are actually outside during the day, just grinding overall. We had a few visits with less active members this week, but haven't been able to meet with our investigators that have a lot of potential. People here work so much, so it can be difficult. It is what it is though, we press on.

Fun Toledo info: So our building that we live in is located at the very top of a hill here. Elder Ward and I have pretty appropriately named the hill "At the end of a long day." We're planning on starting to run up and down it for exercises in the morning and I already regret the decision hahaha. Another fun side note, I made a list of countries from which I have met people here, and I'll be adding to it for the rest of my mission. I'm up to 47 already which is even more than I thought it would be. 

That's all I've got for this week. Love you all. Sorry I don't have pictures again this week. I'll do my best to remember to take a few this week. ¡Que tengáis una buena semana!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Back to the Beginning Again

It's been a wild week, ladies and gents. Much of our time was spent saying goodbye to everyone that Elder Davis wanted to bid farewell. Transfers were today and since Elder Davis is going home, that meant someone new was coming to Toledo to be companions with me. Elder Ward, my companion from the MTC, is the lucky missionary that now has the privilage to be my companion hahaha. Hence, the song "Back to the Beginning Again," by Switchfoot. It's a little weird to be with him now that we actually can speak Spanish, but I'm so pumped to be able to serve with him out in the field. He's coming down from Madrid where he has been since we left the MTC. We're gonna put forth all our effort this next transfer. I also got called to be the new district leader here, so I've got responsibilities and such now. Exciting stuff hahaha.

As far as the work goes, it was a pretty ok week. We went by Fabricio's house and talked with him about some doubts that he had about the Restoration. We got them all resolved now, so we're going to move on as planned. He came to church on Sunday and in Gospel Principles class, we talked about faith and he explained to us his reasoning for coming to church and meeting with us, which we were a little bit concerned about before. He told us he wanted to make sure he was doing it for himself and not his wife, who is a member, or his two kids. That's exactly what we needed to hear from him. He has buckets of potential. I just hope he stays in town long enough for us to meet with him frequently to help him start building his testimony. Mauro got a job and was working all this week, so we weren't able to squeeze in a visit with him. We still need to finish lesson 2 with him and set a baptismal date. I'm excited for what's to come with them.

This last week at zone conference, President Pack issued the challenge to all missionaries in the mission to teach the message of the Restoration to every member in their respective areas by September. We're only supposed to spend a very short amount of time in the members' homes as well. I think it's a brilliant idea. It'll help gain the members' trust and also get them excited about the work here. We've been trying to pass by at least one member a day for the last week or so, but it can be hard when so many live in pueblos. We're gonna do our best to get to all of them in the next month and a half.

That's it for me today. Hope you all have an amazing week. I love the work I'm doing here and love the effects that I'm seeing. Love you guys!

- Elder Penner

Pictures:

1. Yet another picture of my cousin and I, this time at zone conference hahaha

2. Don't have any others so I guess I'll just attach another cool view of El Casco. (please note the taco dinosaur socks)