Just keep Swimming

Hey Mom and Dad,

 

Starting with dad. Thanks for finding out about Elder Buehner. Sounds like a pretty great Elder. So he has a Namibia visa? I heard that they bearley have missionaries there. Hopefully one day.

I miss doing moves as well. That is the wonderful thing about the gospel. It is Simply wonderful. When people are not willing to follow the path that has been set. It makes me sad. There is so much potential for them but they are not willing to take the steps of faith. Whether current beliefs, family, or habits, it just makes me sad.

 

I love all of the tender mercies that remind me of you guys. Heavenly Father truly does love us and is willing to comfort us when we need it most. 

Fathers and sons sounds like it was such a blast. Fathers are one thing that we need in this area. Fathers lead families. When I teach lesson one, How the gospel blesses families, I know that they will be blessed as they live the gospel. The next generation will be a strong one. I am so very grateful for you, my loving father. I have thought about you alot this week.  I am grateful for all that you have taught me.  Bacon is a good way to die. They have bacon here, but it is not the same. So I look forward to having a nice slice of bacon when I get home. And yes, if your need the guide to the European stock Market, it can be found in the Sock drawer. :) I never really learned how to pack simple. 

 

Thanks for Matt. 7:7-11, I have actually used it alot. I love that scripture. This morning I studied 2 Ne 1. Really cool. It solidifies the idea that if we keep the commandments we shall prosper. Wonderful.

And also I will have to practice and perfect my cooking so that I can treat you when I get back. Have I mentioned that I had open face sandwiches. And they tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. All they lacked was Avocado, which I think I might be able to find if I look in the right places. 

Around here there is no Mcdonalds here in Queenstown (closes one is 2 hours away) but we have KFC, Steers, Nandos, and Spur. Every now and then we like to make visits to such places, when we have a little extra cash. Spur (A Native american themed place, Can you research for me the origin of Chiefs, a local football team, and spurs...to see if there is an american tie) has some pretty good sized burgers. Yummy!

 

Good luck at church, sounds like it will be a wonderful new chapter in the San Tan 2nd, history books. That is if you are still San Tan 2nd. Keep working hard. 

And we had 5th sunday Combined (oh yeah our talks were postponed because they wanted to have fast and testimony meeting this last week, so I will update you on that later) and we had the wonderful subject of Same-Sex marriage. I got to kind of explain to our investigators that came, why such a subject was talked about. It was actually pretty good.  

And Conference. On the 5th it will be from 6-8 pm LIVE. the 6th Priesthood is 11-1. Sat afternoon, 2-4, Sunday morn. 6-8 LIVE. Then on Dads birthday it will be after Church. I am so excited. I actually get to watch it with you all from halfway around the world. I am sad about the 7 layer dip :( I will have to figure out alternative snacks. 

 

Okay Mom, I am so happy you were able to go to the temple. I love that place, and I miss it so much. I am among the few who were able to see any of the new videos in the whole mission, I am quite happy about that, they have a wonderful experience coming their way when they get home. 

And it is really quite cool how when we lose our lives for others sakes, we save our own. I love that Idea!

 

My cooking is going okay. I have been doing it more. We have wonderful people who cook for us. Whenever we have a FHE with members they will cook. They are wonderful. We even have investigators and family members of investigators that care about us enough to make a little something. This is a wonderful people. 

Talk about missionary work, that whole rescuing thing is wonderful, I will pray for you in your endeavours. Good luck. This is the Lord's errand and we all have a wonderful responsibility in it. 3Ne 5:13, 26. He does bless His servants. 

So with the school, you can ask Meagan their vision for us. But no more showed up, they are on holiday for the next week. So yeah, but hopefully it will spead.

No news on Botswana yet.

Thanks for also looking in to the paperwork. I think it will work out fine. 

Thank you for all of your prayers, your funny stories, your emails, your words of comfort. I love you all very much. I keep that wallet picture holder right behind my name tag, to keep you there with me. I love you all, 

 

Love Elder Pennington

I hope you all have a wonderful week this week. Just keep swimming. 

Pictures

This was Porters first baptism

A neighborhood of homes, we are so blessed!

And some super cute kids!

Malungo



Hey Everyone, (that is how I begin my journal entries by the way) 

Well Hey Everyone, 

Everything is going pretty good over here. Nothing as big as ward boundary changes, but stuff has been happening. Dad I am still learning my area boundaries so we are in the same boat. But my mission president has said that with "time and effort" I will adjust.

Jacob 1:17 is a wonderful scripture. This morning for my studies I read 1 Ne 17, Ether 12, and Hebrews 11. I loved this study about faith. First of all I love the description of Ether. One day I want to be a missionary like him. I know that this is mine errand from the Lord. I will do it!

Thanks for your many words of love and support. They bring me added strength.

My week was great we had multi zone conference in East London Monday and Tuesday. Wonderful!! I was very much spiritually uplifted. As a Zone we practiced and we performed "This is the Christ" while there. Beautiful! I could have cried :) 

It is very crazy that the kids are growing up so fast. It has been only two months, but I feel like I am going to get a Graduation Invitation for Heidi soon :) life does fly by. So we have to make every day count. 

This week was a good week. We talked to a lot of people. Everyone wants to listen. The only thing is getting the ones that want to progress, be baptized, go to the temple and so forth. I taught the plan of salvation this week. Mostly the Atonement. And boy does my testimony grow everytime I can teach and learn more about that subject. The key to the whole plan of happiness. 

And it truly is amazing the sacrifice that some make and that some are not willing to make. Church is so important but so many fall away because they do not truly commit. It makes me sad. That is why we as missionaries work hard with the less actives. 

This last week though, I got to teach a little at a high school. Crazy! It was a class (SCO- student christian organization) Short, little, get to know you lesson. We plan on going back on Tuesday. Kinda a cool experience. The class wasn't too big but we got word, that word went around the campus that there was a Malungo (white guy) at the school. So here might be a little bit more of an audience next time.  And this next sunday is missionary sunday. I get to give a talk. YAY! I will let you all know how it goes.

General Conference, I am excited for it. TWO WEEKS :) So we watch it on a funny schedule being the other side of the world. One Saturday we will watch the morning session live. But from 6-8pm. Then Sunday we will have Priesthood, and the afternoon session in the morning. And then we will have the Sunday morning again live at 6-8. Then on dads birthday we will watch the final session. 

It is all through brodcast at the church, so no seven layer dip and sitting on our couch, but I will need to buy some other little snacks. 

I am so excited for this though!! Everything here makes me grateful for what I have at home. 

Everything happens for a reason. I am here for a reason, so I work hard and push forward. 

I love you all!!! So Very Much!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

Love Elder Pennington

Happy and Grateful

Hey You Guy!!!

This has been a wonderfully busy week! I am very happy and grateful to be sitting down and reading your emails. Thank you for your words of wisdom and support.

 

(I don't know if you have had a chance but my Patriarchal Blessing is on my desk somewhere, so much of that wonderful blessing is going on in my life right now...all of this growth and such.) 

I am loving my mission right now. The Baptism went great. I am so happy for Odwa. It was an exciting time for all of us. As soon as I find Wifi, I will send the pictures. Such an exciting day. The rest of Sunday was pretty slow compared to the morning. (This ward only has baptisms on the third sunday of each month, kinda funny, but that is how they work.)

Thank you mom of the Recipes. We have a microwave, toaster, stove, an oven and a fridge. So the funny thing about our appliances, our washing machine is made by SamSung and plays a song at the end of a cycle. No dishwasher or dryer. Everything air dries. Not too bad.

 

The work moves forward in my area. We are busy teaching. I still enjoy being a little silent but I will speak up when I need to. I pray for more courage. We have FHE almost every night. Everyone loves the missionaries and are willing to have a lesson with us. Again very busy...my area has little need of tracting, just fellowshippers. Still conquering fear, but now I am getting more able to look the day in the eye and say "Bring it on" and then live it to its fullest. 

 

Thanks for the update on the emergency account. All is good right now. The missionary funds I am given do okay. I live pretty good! Thanks for your prayers and words of encouragement. Keep praying for those missionary opportunities. 

 

Dad, I have been great. My faith grows everyday. I still get a little overwhelmed but I get through and serve as much as I can. This last week we as missionaries got to clear an entire yard of its weeds. And now everytime I see that yard I feel so good. This place has plenty of opportunities to serve. I love it. Charity grows within. 

 

I love hearing the funny stories from home. There are small little things like that, that happen here. I can't wait until I have ample amounts of time to tell you them. Oh yeah, so we are teaching a family that has a little boy that has eyes very similar to Bro Maughans. It is kinda crazy. 

I am healthy. I feel good. but I do need to drink more water. This last week I had three headaches. They are not the worst I have ever had. But I need to do something different. Thanks for asking! 

Thank you so much for your emails they mean alot. I don't have a lot of stories yet but I will get better. Thanks for you prayers and support. I love you all!

Have a great week. 

Love Elder Pennington

A Marvelous Work

Hey Mom and Dad,

 

This has been a very crazy week. With transfers and all. My companion had to go to Cape Town for trainers training. So I went with Elder Slabbert and Elder Lawson as a trio. This was a pretty cool experience for me. Kind of getting a different side of it all. A different way to do everything. I don't know how it was for you dad, but each companion you get is a little different and has their own special way in which they go about the work. To be able to work as a trio was kind of cool. I love working with Elder Ramat and learning from his experiences too. I look forward to the day in which I can look back on my mission and think about the wonderfully different personalities I worked with. 

Dad, you brought up another good point, testimony. Right now I feel like that is the best I am able to do. I can stumble through a lesson, stumble to cover all of the points that need to get covered. But to be able to end off strong, I love bearing my testimony. And I love saying a prayer. I can't always say the families name, YET. So I will say "our new friends" or "this wonderful family" or something similar, nevertheless I pray for them with all sincerity of heart. I love this people. They are a wonderful and kind people. Some are just not ready to listen to the Gospel yet, but the Lord continues to prepare them. We have some who are ready to be taught. This last week we have had people come up to us...wanting us to teach them. There is so much potential here. There is a marvelous work and a wonder to be done here. 

 

Our biggest problem is how far the area is from the church. Most everyone in the area does not have a car, so it takes sacrifice and commitment, which many people are not yet willing to make. And this makes me sad. But we have some who do make that sacrifice. For example the Amos family. They were less active for a while but last year they had a family member die, and after some help from a loving ward they made their way to activity. But every Sunday they have to hire transport to church. And they keep that commitment. Yesterday that transport fell through and they could not come. And it killed them inside. When we stopped by they mentioned how sad they were they could not go to church. Their commitment is strong! Since their reactivation they have had one baptism in the family and we are working on another, so within the family there is a recent convert, investigator, and less actives (not all of them have returned).

 

Thank you guys for your prayers and your words of support. I love looking forward to Pday to talk with you guys. There are moments when only the idea of an email home gets me through. I love you guys so much. So when I was with Elders Slabbert and Lawson, we meet with a couple of families that reminded me a little bit of home. This one couple has two sons that remind me of the Probst boys. Then this less active that they are working with has a little 5 year old girl. Very cute. Very funny. She is yet another one of those girls you can't help but smile around. While we were over there she insisted on painting our finger nails. I will have to get you that picture...some time. I was able to talk her down to one finger. She is a sweet little girl. She so reminds me of Heidi.  And I am happy that her father is returning, because she will one day be a strong member. Her father has a testimony of home teaching. Since trying to return he has been working on his home teaching. And he loves it. It is like missionary work, he told us. HT is something that encourages him to study his scriptures more and be more receptive to the spirit. Oh the importance of Home Teaching!

So this week has been pretty good. We have had some power outages but nothing too serious. It is only a little weird to have a lesson in the dark. 

 

I hope the kids all have a great spring break. Funny how that came up so fast. Time sure does fly. There will only be one more Spring Break until I come home :) I love this whole "you only have two days on a mission, make sure you make each one count" thing. It makes every moment so much more meaningful. I am so happy to hear that all is going great back home. I do miss Blackberry cobbler. Enjoy it for me! I told Heidi this, but every now and then I just have to get a root beer or bag of M&Ms. Because "Happiness is a bag of M&Ms on your mission far from home."

Thank you Mom for the things you have taught me. I am not that unprepared, I think my only problem is either I am not as confident as I would like or I am just too tired to make anything. I am grateful, very grateful for what you have taught me. The stores down here are a little like Fry's or something a little smaller. But we do have just about everything. So simple and inexpensive recipes are just wonderful. Thank you. 

 

I hope you all have a great week. This week I get to be a part of a baptism, I am so happy for her. She has been a great investigator. And hopefully within the next 5 weeks we will have a couple more with a baptismal date. Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting on missionary work. The work of Salvation is for sure going to catch fire around here. The field indeed is white.

Day by day it is hard, but I am slowly having more confidence. I love the chance to be here in South Africa. I can't wait to get to go up to Botswana, but the Lord has need of me here. I watched the Work of Salvation DVD this week and during the "I will go where you want me to go" video...I got a little teary eyed. Boy has this been a very emotional week for me. 

I hope you all have a great week. I look forward to next week.

 

Love Elder Pennington   

Sweet is the Work

Hey You Guys!!

Guess what? Its transfer week. And Guess What Else? I am staying here in the Queenstown area of the South Africa Cape Town Mission. I am happy to be here but I hope that sometime soon I will be able to go up to my original mission. I love this mission and the Elders here but I don't feel like it is meant to be home. I have a little bit of a feeling like I need to be somewhere else. But that is probably just me thinking, because the Lord has kept me here. So I will put my shoulder to the wheel. Which is kinda good because we have some baptisms coming up. One investigator for sure has a date and there are a couple who are willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. It really will be a good transfer.

I am so happy about your experience with the temple dedication and the cultural celebration. I loved hearing everyone's stories. And to see everyone's testimonies grow. I am sad I missed it, but I am happy to be here.

I am still here in the Queenstown ward. The Bishop really is a great man. I enjoy talking to him. His son just got back from a mission to JoBurg, I really enjoy spending time with their family. In fact we are going to have an FHE over at their house on Wednesday (with the new elders who will be coming into the ward). The Ward Members are very accepting. I love shaking everyones hand each Sunday before church.

I love it here. Pres. and Sister Woods are great. They come from Alaska and will be released in June. They have been a great part of this mission. And they live in the Mission Home which is in CapeTown Which is about 17 hours away if you drive. Our Boarders are not as big as my original mission but are still quite big. You have to take a plane to get about anywhere. And if a plane doesn't work then you have to drive for a couple of hours. Namibia used to be in our boundaries but is now no longer like that. 

 

The temple is a two hour drive then a 5-7 hour flight away. So it takes a lot of saving and commitment. One brother here has plans to go the the temple in August. So I think that for most of the members it is on their own and when they have saved enough.

We have many people who are willing to let us in and teach them. But most of the time it is out of courtesy. One of the craziest situations we are finding come from those devoted to their church, but still want us to come and talk with them. They like to hear the things we say but they are not willing to leave their old ways.  Commitments are a big thing down here, when they keep them it is powerful. For example Odwa, our one with the Baptismal Date. The missionaries (before I was here) gave here the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet. She read it all and when they returned, she practically taught them. She has a strong growing testimony. I am so happy for the 16th. Ultimately commitments are a hit and miss here. But I pray for everyone we teach, because there is so much potential in each one.

Another trouble is distance from the Chapel. Most don't come to church because they live too far and they don't have a car. There are a few that hire people to take them. But for a majority many don't come. So lots of less actives. One thing I think of is if enough people in my area return to activity and invite their friends and their friends are baptized... then they will have facilities of their own within the area. They just have to be willing to do something about it. I know that if they put forth their faith and trust, the Lord will provide a way. 1 Nephi 3:7 says that.
I am grateful for your emails. I love being in an area where I can take a little bit of time to give you semi good reports. Oh yeah...We hiked a mountain called HangKlip here in Queenstown. Hopefully I can get you some pictures soon. I think I have a chance at some WiFi sometime soon. It was fun. Kinda reminds me a little bit of a very grassy Flatiron. Good Hike. I just about had to deal with a tick, but due to my prayers it just disappeared. After I noticed it we were very close to the cars, and to the end, so I just waited until the end. And When we got there...it was gone. Pray works! Besides that adrenaline rush it was a great hike. 

My week was pretty good. I give a thank you to Stuart for the Atonement FHE he mentioned a while ago. This week I got to do it. We got some sweets (candy) and offered it to everyone who came to the FHE. And then if they said yes I would do 10 push-ups. If they said no i would still do 10 Push-ups. Then we as a group of about 8 Elders shared our testimonies and thoughts around this and Alma 7:11-12 and D&C 19:15-19. My testimony grew a lot as I was able to experience this. The pain lasted for about 2-3 days. I could barely move my arms. But I was able to build a stronger testimony of the Savior. Because did I mention that we had 12 people there?

Oh yeah Bry...Learn how to cook. Learn how to shop. and Be confident with both. Keep it simple and rather quick but know how to do it. It will bless your mission life. And Mom. Thanks again for you example in both. Last night I tried to make hamburgers. A little burnt but not too bad. I have been hesitant at trying such things but I think I will be okay. I for sure love having Dinner Appointments :)

I am slowly feeling a difference but I still have my little challenges that fill my prayers. But one thing I know is that as I "forget myself and get to work" it will turn out okay. I need to remember that I am not on my mission. I have the honor of serving this mission for the Lord.

The language is only starting to click ... that was very clever mom :) I have problems with my clicks but everyone knows that I have a hard time, so most put up with my American accent and lack of Xhosa.

I love you guys so very much. You have been on my mind a lot lately with the wonderful events happening for you. But one thing that keeps me going is the fact that hopefully one day similar things will happen in this area. And there is a definition of a missionary as "one who leaves his family for two years, so that others can be with theirs for Eternity." Oh how wonderful is the work!

I love you all. I hope you have a great week.

Love very much
Elder Pennington