Remain

Transfers have come and gone and both my companion and I survived. We're both staying here for another six weeks. Mutemath's song Remain is the song of the week. I'm definitely glad to be staying. We've made some great progress this week. Also I'm pretty sure La Palma is one of the only places in the world where you can see a pine tree, a cactus, and a palm tree all growing right next to eachother naturally.

This week we had a lesson with the person that was a reference from a member that I mentioned last week and it went incredibly. We felt the spirit strongly as we went over prayer and reading the scriptures. She shared a couple of experiences that she's had with prayer. She came to church yesterday too! She mentioned to her friend that's a member that she can definitely see herself becoming a member in the future. We're really excited to work with her more as well as the rest of her family. Her mother is also moving here from Venezuela this week.

Things have settled down a little bit here. Running the group is still crazy. Not sure that will ever change. Elder Jones and I found out at 11:00 Saturday night that we had to give talks in church the next day since members of the bishopric coming from Tenerife couldn't make it. All in a weeks work. We're getting things moving on the missionary work side and helping members as much as we can along the way. Hope you all enjoy your week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Just one picture this week:

1. El Teide, Tenerife - Highest point in Spain on the flight back from Gran Canaria (picture doesn't do the view justice imo)

Army of One

I guess technically my companion and I are an army of two here, but you get the idea. It's just he and I out here seemingly against the world. Coldplay highlights that well in their song off the album A Head Full Of Dreams. Sometimes it seems everything is against us here to be quite honest, but every roadblock we hit is designed to help us in some way even if we don't see it at first. If there's one thing I've learned here, it's that we go through trials to help us grow.

ALRIGHT THIS WEEK. On Tuesday we had Zone Conference so we flew to Gran Canaria to meet with all the other missionaries here in the Canary Islands. It was almost all preparation for the smartphones and Facebook which we are now using in our proselyting! It's already helped us even more than I imagined. I'm now in contact with a few old investigators as well as a few converts. It's really nice to be able to check in and see how they're doing. In addition, we keep in contact with everyone we work with here so much easier with WhatsApp. Can't wait to see what other blessings these new improvements bring.

This week we went by Javier. We've decided to try and help him see that baptism and the church is something that can really help him in his life. He accepts everything else we teach to him, but when we talk about baptism he's unsure and just wants to wait until his life is stable. He's a great guy. He jokes a lot about converting me to be a Real Madrid fan as well. I always tell him I'm City til I die though. 

Great week. It really seemed like a blur. We have transfers next weekend. I think it's likely that both Elder Jones and I will stay another month and a half, but you never know. Until then, guys.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 

Pictures:

1 & 2. Zone conference

3. We were real proud of our Oreo pie

Island in the Sun

This week's subject line is brought to you by Weezer and my companion, Elder Jones who suggested it. I felt it pretty accurately described my area. Today, we flew to another island in the sun, Gran Canaria, for zone conference tomorrow. Gotta say it's not nearly as lush and cool looking as La Palma. It's a lot more populated too. I lucked out with where I got sent. We'll be receiving our new smartphone at the conference tomorrow and we'll be authorized to use Facebook and WhatsApp in our proselyting as well (pretty sure Instagram is coming later). I'm unbelievably excited for it all.

General Conference was this last weekend! For those that are unfamiliar, General Conference is a worldwide broadcast that the church does twice a year where all the members have the chance to hear from the leaders of the church. It's an amazing opportunity we have to learn how we can improve as people and also how we can help others do so. On of my favorite talks was by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom. He spoke about miracles including the ones that maybe aren't as obvious. He also mentioned that our faith should be firmly centered on the Savior when we have trials and not on wanting to have the pain taken away.  There were several other talks that were also fire (President Uchtdorf, Elder Hollamd, etc.). If you weren't able to watch it last weekend, I strongly suggest you do so asap.

The week itself was the least eventful since I arrived about a month ago. I hit my 9 month mark a few days ago. Our investigators that we have seem to be stalling a little, so we're gonna try our best to get them up and running again this next week. We also started teaching a new family that was a reference from a member. Excited about them.

Mission life is the good life. Soaking up every moment I have to spend in the sun here trying to make it last. Love you all and hope you have an incredible week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸🇮🇨

Pictures:

1. Trying to figure out why that door is there

2. Played a quick game of chess while waiting for our flight

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)

SaveSave

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)