Keep Together

Hello family. This first week in Torrejon was legit. In the mission my area is known as little Africa because there are so many Nigerians. We already have a lot going on. We met with an aunt and her niece named Teresa and Monica like 5 times this week. They're Colombian and are progressing super well, but Teresa is moving to Madrid today and Monica is going to Ibiza for 3 months. They are some of the most prepared people I've ever taught, so it's sad to see them leave. We'll continue occasionally talking with Monica over Skype. We saw lots of other miracles this week as we found new people and taught others.

This week the new Spain, Madrid Mission was officially formed with a large part of the old Malaga mission joining us. It was my inspiration for the song title this week by Hunter Hunted. We had zone conference and met our new mission president and his wife, the Bussey's. I can already tell that they are going to do a phenomenal job. 

Everything is going great. It was a super busy week which is always good. Talk to you all next week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Where We Gonna Go From Here

Went with a song by Matt Kearny this week. We received transfer notifications on Saturday, and well, now I'm in Torrejon de Ardoz. My 6-month stay in Barrio 1 has come to an end. It was hard to say goodbye. Especially when we had so much work there. I'm really excited for the challenges that are awaiting me here in Torrejon. It's a pueblo that is about 20 minutes outside of Madrid. My new comp is named Elder (Dallin) Jones. He was in Valladolid with me when I started my mission and we get along super well. I'm pumped for this transfer. Downside: no air conditioning in our piso (rip). 

My last week in B1 was just as great as always. At the beginning of the week I went on an intercambio with Elder Burt. We taught two lessons that went incredibly well. The first with Ismael and Narcisa who are still both doing great. The second was with Elizabeth (The reference from Doris, who I'll now be seeing a lot since she lives here in Torrejon). We showed her the church and taught her the first lessson. She seemed SUPER prepared. I hope things go well with her. That's all for now family. Until next time!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner

Glass of Water

It is P-day my dudes. This week was a little wild, but also pretty fantastic. This week's song title (by Coldplay) is brought to you by the elders in B5. They had a baptism on Saturday and overflowed the font and flooded the capilla which we share hahaha. We had to go and help them get it all cleaned before the service started. It took like 2 hours. Lots of fun. Today we went and played soccer with like 30 other missionaries at a field we rented. My futbol sala boots that I brought from home finally gave out. It was loads of fun. The World Cup started this week which has made it harder to concentrate not gonna lie. Gutted that I won't watch any of it.

This week Narcisa and her 20 year old son Ismael, our investigators from Ecuador, accepted a baptismal date for the 28th of July. They are super legit and we were told that Ismael is thinking about serving a mission. We also recently got a call from Doris, who we taught for a while before she moved to Torrejon, called us. She recently got baptized over there and told us she wants us to teach her sister Elizabeth who lives in our area. We're meeting with her tomorrow. This might be my last week in the area. We'll find out if I'm leaving or not on Saturday. I'd be down to stay one more transfer. You never know...

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

Rivers and Roads

Hey, sorry you didn't hear from me last week! Things are going great here. We took a bus up to the mountains and went on a hike with a couple of members today. It was brilliant. Spain is pretty neat. Went with Rivers and Roads by The Head and The Heart today. We saw a few of those.

We went to the temple last week and had our last zone conference with President and Hermana Pack. It was pretty bittersweet. I'm going to miss them when they leave in a couple of weeks, but I know the Bussey's who are replacing them are going to be great. Our mission officially merges with the Malaga mission in two weeks as well. The week after is gonna be crazy. Hope all is well back home! Talk to you all later!

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸

sick day

Hey. I'm not really feeling like writing a weekly update today. I'm sick again for like the 3rd time in 3 weeks and have 0 ganas to try and think about what happened. Elder Burt had a sinus infection so I'm thinking it might be the same thing. Idk tho. The temple was great today as always.

Everything is going well here. We've found a lot of new people recently, but still not anyone super solid. A lot of time spent on the street, but I don't mind it here. We see a lot of miracles while street contacting. Love you mom and hope my brothers are driving you too crazy 😁

Elder Penner

The Trap

Hey everyone! This has been a pretty interesting week. It's been frustrating, exciting, and just straight weird all at the same time. Today marks 17 months in the mission. Can barely believe it. Anyway, I'll start with the slightly less interesting stuff.

So the latest on Krissia is that she's actually not going to move to Toledo until the end of the year, so we'll continue to teach her. We're at a bit of a stand still with the people we're working with. In fact, pretty much everyone this week has taken a step back. We've got a focus on finding new people now. Wish I had more positive things to report regarding the work, but things have been average at best regarding investigators. The hermanas have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday. I'll be interviewing their investigator after P-day ends. Things are awesome here like always.

Ok so I chose the song "The Trap" by Satellite Stories this week. One of my favorite ways to get people to stop on the street is by asking who has the better tie, me or my companion. This week someone called me out on it. They were like "wait that was a trick wasn't it??" Super funny. I also saw (for the SECOND time in my mission) a lady walking with a little pig on a leash. This time I managed to get a picture. Today we went to Sol (Madrid center) and wandered around in the rain. Twas pretty aight.

Hasta luego,

Dr. Penner 🇪🇸

Fotos:

1. LEGENDARY PIG ON A LEASH

2. Great find

3. Sol metro stop today (S/O to Donald Glover)

4. Comp ft. graffiti that looks like Elder Burt

5. More graffiti fun

Fumes

It's Monday as heck. To be honest, this has been kind of a slow week. My comp, Elder Sorenson, and I have been sick like all week, but we've been working anyway. Much of this week has been spent "running on fumes" (by EDEN). We still got a lot of work done this week nonetheless and I'm feeling much better. Elder Sorenson and I already get along super well. I'm looking forward to the rest of this transfer.

A couple things with investigators:

After teaching him for like 2 months, (not sure how it didn't come up before lol) we found out that Jorge Luis doesn't even live in our area. We'll probably be passing him over to the B5 elders this week. A little sad since he's got great desire, but he'll continue to progress with them. This week we also found out that our investigator Krissia, is super down to join the church, but her husband has holding her back. The bad news is that she dropped a bomb and told us that she's going to Valencia for a week and after she's planning on moving to a pueblo outside of Toledo. 

Other than that, it's been another week of hiding potatoes in other people's stuff in piso and doing missionary work and stuff. Oh I also went on an intercambio with Elder Merrill that was pretty ok. We got failed a lot, but had a cool lesson with a Dominican guy at the end of the day. Bueno, nada.

Hasta luego,

Elder Penner 🇪🇸