August 31st 2015

Hey You Guys,

This week was a little bit better. We had Bishop's funeral on Thursday. A lot of people showed up. It was a very special one. 

We also had some very good lessons talking about faith and trusting in God. How Heavenly Father wants us to give us and all of us. And He will make of us what He sees we can become. Along with this we had several good member lessons, working hard to get them excited and ready to work more with us. This also provided a way for me to say some good-byes. 

Because transfer news has come and I will be leaving the area. I am going to go back to the Port Elizabeth zone. But I will be in a place called George. Probably one of the most beautiful places in the mission. It is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours from Port Elizabeth. So this is going to be in the middle of nowhere. But I am excited for the work. It is a good area right now, but has some great potential. It is a mission branch. So it will be a new experience. I am very excited for this page of my mission. :)

PS; Try looking George up on Google maps. Walk down the streets. Also try Knysna. Knysna is probably a little prettier than George. We will travel there every other week. The other Elders in my district are there. So I get to experience that too. Should be fun!

But that is about it for now. 

Dad, I think about that sometimes. I look at my mission right now and imagine what would be different if I were in Botswana. I am grateful to be here in SACTM. It has been a proving ground for me. A good place of growth. I will talk about it more later but, I agree, this mission seems to be tailored just for me. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Thanks for the list of people that have seen Christ before his life on Earth. That is so very cool. A great study. 

It is amazing how fast time flies. Winter is fading on this side of the world. Looking forward to summer now, It is going to get hot. Although I will be in the mountains I believe. So that will make it nice. But Cape Town is ending the winter strong with lots of rain. It will be hot one day and then rain for a couple and then be hot again. Crazy weather :) 

But hey, all is good right now for me. Just have to do some packing and then on Wednesday I will fly back to PE and then make the long drive to George. Should be fun!

I love you Dad!

Mom, Yup Transfers are here. I am excited. It was hard hearing of Bishop's passing. The ward is taking it one day at a time. I didn't get the chance to get to know him very well, because he has been in and out of Hospital ever since I got here. But I have learned a lot more about the Lord's grand plan. He knows exactly what He is doing. 

Also church was good. some good-byes. They are a good ward. I will miss it. But also they had 5th Sunday lesson about the Sabbath-day. And so the primary somehow got me and my comp to do singing time and sharing time. So we sang some songs and then played hangman. Let the kids out on time, but their parents got out 15 minute later... so for a little bit of time there was kid chaos. It was funny, they just scattered everywhere. But we got through it. 

Well I am happy to hear things are going great over there. Thanks for the great update. 

I love and miss you too. I love reading all of your letters. You are the best!

Love you!!

Bryant, Bedford. Bedford falls?? I don't know if you remember but Bedford falls is the name of the town in Its a Wonderful Life , Must be a connection. :) 

Oh yeah, My new comp it Elder Si'ufanua from Samoa (if I remember correctly). It will be a fun time with him. I am super excited. 

Love Ya Brother!

Meagan, Thanks for the Pics. You are quite to photographer.

The Struggle is real. We have very similar experiences with asking people to be baptized. We need to be direct other wise they don't know what is going on. I am happy the week turned out okay. Keep working hard. We are doing good on this side. All is moving forward. Just loving life. Well Sis, Love you!!

Heidi, Yoga! Cool. Yoga is great for you. I hope you like it. You will have to teach me some stuff. I am happy you have a good week. I will try and be better at taking pictures. Because it will be a beautiful place. Plenty of pic possibilities. 

Love You Heidi!

Jera, Mere Christianity is a great book. But Narnia is a pretty good movie and book as well. It has been long since I have seen it. 

Things are good, just slow. Over the last little bit we have been kind of cleaning up our teaching pool. Just some people don't want to take it seriously. They don't want to change and they don't see how much we want to help them. But hey, agency is important. Maybe one day. 

Thanks Jera, Love You!!

Well, It has been great to talk with you again. Love you ALL so VERY much! Hope you have a great week. 

Love, Elder Pennington

PSSSSSSSS. Did you know that the song above is in our hymn book? I found that one out this week. :)  

August 25th 2015

I love the update so much! I hope that everything is going well! I don't have a ton of time, but I love you so much! I will be transferred, and I will let you know when I can, my new address! It looks like I am going back to the west side of the mission, closer to pit! I will let you know! I love you so much! Thanks so much for the watch! It is great, looks like it has a mustache as well:) I love having a good watch again! I love you so much! I hope that you have a great week!

Love

Elder Pennington the younger!

August 25th 2015

Hey You Guys!

This has been quite the week. Some craziness has been going on. We had some great lessons. Some good exchanges. Some great moments to think and ponder on how things are going. On Friday our Bishop passed away. He had been struggling with his Liver and they called him up on Friday saying that he was good to go now for a transplant and he did not make it. That has kind of set the week. 

We nevertheless had a missionary activity of watching Meet the Mormons with the ward and their friends. A small turn out, but due to circumstances it was pretty good. I mean the week was good, one of our best as of lately, but it has been one that has had me try and look forward. But it has been one of great learning. But we are getting there :) Gotta Keep Your Head Up!

Dad, Yup, Progression is there. I do love the progression that comes on mission. So many choices that help us grow as we are willing to follow and obey. Focus comes with that Discipline. "Doing what you don't want to do, when you don't want to do it, because you know you should." Or "Not doing what you want to do, when when want to do it, because you know you shouldn't." My thoughts on focus have been growing lately as well. Just as it was when his focus left the Savior that Peter began to sink, once we think about the other things around us, even good things, our task that we are doing might most likely suffer. Focus is important. Sometimes I feel like I have a little ADD getting caught up in something so unimportant and trivial. But it just distracts. And it kind of slows things down. Whereas as we REMEMBER then we will be able to move forward. 

A couple of weeks ago you asked about the secret to missionary work as well. I truly feel that that Love or Charity that we seek for will help us keep that focus, remembering that it is not about us. 

But just as you had mentioned with the goals and what our approach should be, in inviting Heavenly Father more into the process. Counseling with Him in all of our doings. That is when we will be able to grow in our faith and walk on the water. :) 

But here is a quote that I had found this week in "the Fourth Missionary." It is by CS Lewis. 

          "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work: I want You. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man. but to kill it. No half-measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and another there; rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart." (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, p. 167)

But it looks like things are moving forward Nicely over there. Shawn will be on mission soon. A Black widow did not take you away from us. And you have three missionaries serving in the ward. Sounds like a lot of fun. It is interesting being in a Tripanionship. :) 

Thanks for the email Dad. I love you Bunches!

Mom, Things are getting hot on this side. We have had some hot days lately. And also some days with a drizzle of rain. But I also got the chance to index 44 names. Not like someones 900 or my grand total of 8000. But I hope it helps us win :) 

Change is always going to be there. Hopefully we keep getting plenty of good people who will help the church grow even more. Over here the ward just seems to be the same. But things are moving forward. We will see how things go with the upcoming transfers. 

Mom, I love you so much. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Bryant, I love you  Brother! You are the best! Kia Kaha! 

Meagan, I love Tuesdays with Morrie. That is a fun book. I don't know if you already are, but I wrote some notes in my book (and took out some of the bad words and stuff :) Enjoy your reading. Don't forget to sharpen your saw. Get a good nights rest. You are doing great. Just keep swimming :) 

Love ya Sis!

Heidi, I hear you are falling asleep. You can do it! You are the indexing champ. Keep working hard and enjoy your time of rest. Keep working hard and give tatum a hug and a kiss on the nose for me :) Love you more than chocolate mountains :) 

Jera, Hope you had a great week. Wanted you to know that I love you too!

Love you all so very much. I hope you have a wonderful-terrific-great-fantastic-fabulous-awesome week! :)

Love, Elder Pennington

August 17th 2015

Hey You Guys!!!

This has been a very interesting week. We have had many small funny moments. From Cedric (a Muslim) complaining to us about a happy clappy church waking him up at 3 in the morning. To a former investigator telling us about the new church he is a part of. A church that was started by a Meth addict. In fact this investigator told us that this man was high at the time he received the heavenly direction to stat this church. To several good lessons. One of which is a couple from Malawi. We met the Brother on Saturday. Gave him and testified of the Book of Mormon. Then the next day We met with the Sister. Asked if she had any questions about the lesson we had last week. And all of a sudden the Brother took over and taught the restoration again, this time in her native tongue. It was pretty cool to witness how much he had understood and was able to repeat to her. Small little miracles. With that it was a pretty good week. Enjoyed it a lot. 

Dad, Surprise visits are always nice. We also had an Area 70 come and visit our ward. Elder Giddy is from the Mowbray ward but came over to us because they were going to have ward conference. So he came and gave a talk at our ward. Talked about what it means to preside. The responsibility. It was very interesting. I love those thoughts though. It has been fun trying to involve and get the members more excited in this work of salvation. All part thereof. It really is a great work we are a part of. 

Hey I found this really cool talk from Elder Corbridge. He gave it to his missionaries. It is called the Fourth Missionary. It is a very interesting talk. (BRY you would like it too)

I am doing good right now. Thanks for everything. I love you Dad!!

Mom, my weeks have been good. No major headaches lately. 

I am happy Heidi is enjoying school. That is nice. 

Family history is great. Our Priesthood lesson was on the Elderly and all the things we need to do as Elderly (some of the things we need to do before we are Elderly). It was good. 

Transfers are coming up in two weeks. It is hard to believe that the time is moving so fast. Matthew comes home soon. WOW. Then the Young Women are now off to college. Am I going to recognize anyone? :) Things have been good over here though. Just pushing forward and having a lot of fun. Just a thought that I had. With Africa places like Zimbabwe and DRC the gospel is moving forward with great haste. We will run into people from those places and they know the Book of Mormon. They might recognize the church. Or know people from the Church. It is such a small world. So much fun finding those being prepared.

Thanks Mom. I hope you Enjoy your week. Love You!!

Bryant, Love You Brother! Keep up the Great Work!

Meagan, Your week was crazier than mine. That is a funny story. I am happy you were able to find Victoria. 

Although my first thought was last I checked you were a young 14 year old girl. Crazy how time flies. But it sounds like your school days are going to be mighty busy. Too much running around. 

Megs I love you too!!

Heidi, Just a note Heidi, we had a skeleton in Mrs. Townsend's class and we named her Porterella. That was alot of fun. Stanley is a good name too.   

I did some indexing too. I don't have much time, but I try and take a moment when I am at the office. Add to the Pennington numbers :) 

And Heidi, I don't know if you know this but you are missing a tooth in that picture you sent me. Where did it go? You too are growing up so fast. That is so crazy. I hope you have a great week at school this week. Love you Bud!

Jera, Thanks for the pictures. Those girls are so funny. They always provide smiles on this side. I am sorry that you are the one to attract the bad luck. But stuff like that happens. Those funny lake creatures. But sounds like you are having fun over there. 

Thanks for the stories. Love you Jera!!

Well Looks like we all had a pretty good week. Looking forward to another great one. I love and miss you all too. Hope you all keep well. 

Love, Elder Pennington the Elder

August 10th 2015

Hey You Guys!!

Well this has been another pretty simple but good week. Highlights of the week come from Zone Training where we talked about the Sabbath Day Observance. It was a good training, also had a great interview with President Merrill. (Actually I had two of them, one just a normal one, the other I got my Temple Recommend interview). 

Taught a great institute lesson. Meet some cool people as we were street contacting. That is the thing about mission, we meet so many wonderful people. But then they choose to not go forward with things. But some do. We taught Violet's cousin, Elled. He had stolen Violets Book of Mormon from her and started reading it on his own. Had a good lesson with him. He had some great questions. Like Who is Nephi? Simple things like that. But we answered the best we could. 

Then we have been trying hard to have some good member lessons. To be able to visit the members and ask them their conversion story. This will help us to get to know them more and led us into the Family Mission Plan. My area is a little far from the church and their are not many members, but the handful of members we do have are pretty solid. 

It was a good week overall. But nevertheless I am super excited to be able to email and talk with you all today. Begin the week right :)

Dad, That is a pretty cool talk. Great Blessings come as we keep the commandments. I especially like Paul... No matter the price. That is the test.

But it looks like you all had a great staycation. panning for gold and having Bahama Bucks and swimming. So many wonderful things. 

Although I can't believe that school is starting up now. I especially can't believe that Meagan is going to be in 11th grade. Dad, just as you gave permission to Nick for him to sit next to Heidi, Do you think you might have a chance to stop by Meagan's classes and see what Boys are sitting next to her. :) That would be great. 

Also Brother Nansel will do great in his new calling. We finally got a new Ward Mission Leader called. Since our last one was called to the Bishopric we have not had correlation. But we were supposed to have it yesterday, but that didn't work out with Brother Theo's Schedule. So we will hopefully catch him next time. Busy guy. But it will be nice to have someone else to work with. There is some great need to correlate with the move forward we are having with the Member Missionary work. But I wish Brother Nansel luck :)

Thanks for your great email. I love you Padre Amigo :)

Mom, Sounds like it will be a great but interesting year for the girls. At least Heidi is sitting next to Nick. But hopefully things figure themselves out. 

But that also looks like a great weekend staycation. Also new bikes, that is nice. A lot of fun. 

I just want to mention that I bought a couple of T-shirts and some sandals (I had to leave my other ones in PE, so I have been without for a while, but now I have some new roach squashers :) But I also bought a Fan T for the Springboks. In light of the Rugby World Cup they were selling them. Now I don't know if you all remember the movie Invictus, but it dealt with Nelson Mandela and the Springboks (probably one of the first movies I will watch when I get home). But yeah, thats the Springboks. The shirt says "Springboks have Gees." I thought that Gees was a funny word choice but in fact it means "Spirit, Wit, Intellect..." in Afrikaans. So that will be fun. And also the G it makes that sound when someone (no names will be given) tries to rid the though of flem. So that is my language lesson today :)

But this week was very simple. No cool stories this time. We just met alot of normal people this week. Really I think it just comes down to Dad's talk. As we are obedient God will be with us. He watches over us and will help us be the best we can be. 

Mom, I hope this week goes well and that school won't be too crazy this week. Thanks for everything. I love you Mom!!

Bryant, This egg is an ostrich egg that has a carved design in it. But I still have not been able to get a hold of Owen (the man who does them) so I think that the thought might have to count this time around :) My time is running out in this area so Yeah :) I hope you have a great week too though. Keep well. Work hard and have some fun! I love you Bry (oh yeah... expect those miracles)!

Meagan, You are in 11th grade. In 11th grade I was over at the other building (that small one). We were about 70 kids and had some small school feel. The dance room was just about the size of a normal classroom. and they had weights just there divided by a wall that didn't even touch the ceiling. Did baseball with Coach Huggins. And that is about all I can really remember right now. But You are going to love it. But I am happy to hear that you had a great staycation as well. I hope those last moments of summer were great. Time is a gift... that is why it is called Present :) You will do well this week with school. I hope you take care and work hard. You are a great student. Enjoy the journey! I love you Meagan! 

Heidi, I hear you are sitting next to Nick, sounds like a cool kids. I also hear you went panning for gold. I feel like if you make several more trips you are going to be a rich kid. Maybe with all of the gold you are finding you will be able to buy us a family airplane. Do you think you will be able to do that for us? That would be awesome. I hope you are well. I believe you are in 6th grade. That was a fun year for me as well. That was probably when I started understanding who I was as a Member of the Church. I did a presentation on religion and I figured out how blessed I was to have the gospel in my life. That was also not the year that I was stung by a scorpion, but it was still a pretty good one. I think I tried to learn latin. Still played the drums a bit. I also accidentally lost mom palm pilot (sorry Mom). So if you borrow anything be sure to keep it safe and sound okay :) You too are a great student and you will have fun. Look for the good in every day. I am sure you will do just excellent. I do love you Heidi!!

Jera, I love you too. Hope you had a great week. 

I love you all. Keep working hard this week. Enjoy every step you take. I will email, same time (maybe) same place. :) Love you very much!

Love, Elder Pennington

August 3rd 2015

Hey You Guys,

Well this has been another interesting week. My companion has been a little sick. So that somewhat slowed down somethings. But he didn't want to stop working so we pressed forward. It was a good week. Had plenty of interesting lessons with people. People wanting to argue about the Book of Mormon and such. People who also asked some brilliant questions like "How can we know a true prophet?" And so on. It was a very tiring week. 

We also had a Zone Meeting. Meet together to discuss how we are moving forward as a mission. We are making a nice move with Member Missionary work. Helping people with their Family Mission Plans. Beginning with Getting to know them, Conversion stories and such. Then moving forward and working closely with them to "test the promises." Helping them also grow in their faith and help in this wonderful work. It was a good Zone Meeting and we are looking forward to moving in this direction. 

It was overall a pretty good week. 

Dad, Yes. His name is Anyway (spelled just like that) Kambeva. From Zimbabwe. Zim has many interesting names. But they do provide variety to our teaching pool. We have a sister named Silence as well. 

I will take some time with your question. What a very nice one. I have been thinking a little bit about that now. I am in the final couple of transfers and I am in a position of seeing and meeting the new missionaries. I love greeting them and talking with them a bit. It is fun to spend time around them. I remember how I felt in their shoes. I remember how some older missionaries would rub it in. I didn't like that much. Instead I try to comfort, befriend and encourage. 

I am sorry to be thinking about this but It is August. Two years ago I was going through President Derricks 30 challenge for me. To find out for myself if then was the time to go. Shortly after I went to the temple for the first time. I have missed the temple and everything there. I will be having to renew my recommend just now. Time has flown by. I am grateful and happy to be here on my Mission. To be here in the service of the Lord. Now is just a matter of continuing to make everyday count.

But yeah. 

Maybe I will have to take a moment while in the Office to do some Family History as well. Indexing. Something else I miss. Penningtons are going to win :) 

Thanks dad for your great emails. I love you Dad!

Mom, I love being your son. 

I am waiting to meet up with the Owen. He is just a busy guy. So I probably will not get a chance to get something before I leave this area. I will have to think of another cool thing to buy. But I will go get something. Thanks. 

Indexing would be fun. Those are some great team leaders :) But I feel I will be a little bias on this one. 

The work is good. Moving forward. Especially with this member missionary work. It is going to be exciting. It is always nice to walk down good old memory lane. :) I hope you had a great trip. 

Mom, thanks for the wonderful email. I do love reading them. Hope you have a great week! I love you Mom!

Bryant, I love you. I hope you are having a great transfer! I do love ya Brother!

Meagan, There is a new Mission Impossible. Wow. :) Sounds like you are going to be pretty busy now. Give your all but don't forget to sharpen that saw of yours. 

And I did not guess that you didn't make it, you are the best dancer in the family thus far. You will do great out there. It is just how I missed the baseball team by two. After Ari. Strange things right. I hope you have a great week. Love you Meagan!

Heidi, Bahama Bucks, Lucky :) I loved those weeks in which we did not do much. You are preparing for school Eh. That will be fun. Enjoy every moment of summer you got left. Just keep on Swimming!!! I love you so much as well! 

Jera, That is so cool. Yesterday we had a little boy pray in one of our lessons. He said. "Dear Heavenly Father, I go to the church. I go to the school. I go to the Shoprite. Amen." Everyone had a great big smile on their faces at the end of that prayer. :) 

I have only biked for about 4 months out of the 18 thus far. So I have not logged in very many miles. I have been in driving areas for the most part. It is hard when we have many cars in the mission but very few licensed drivers. But I get by :) I do like biking though. Makes me feel like a normal missionary. 

I love you Jera!

Well Everyone the time has gone again. One more P-day is slowly going away. Thanks for the great emails. I love reading your wonderful words of love. I hope you all have the best week ever. Keep well. I love you all very much!

Love, Elder Pennington