January 4th 2016

Hey you guys!!!!

Happy New Year! Boy has time flown. Like nothing else. Meagan and i were just comparing ages and sizes and things. Another year over and now we are in 2016. Do you realize that Meagan is going be part of the graduating class of 2017. Crazy!!! And for me on this side we have finished week 6. But we finished well. Had the baptism of Siyabonga. It was great. One of those paydays for us. He has been so great to teach. So humble and excepting of everything. Just takes it in. Awesome guy. Going to make a great strength to George. Made for a great week!! 

Anyways... With time lets push forward.

Dad, hope is so much better than peanut butter cups.  Thanks for sharing that on hope. Over here i have finally connected faith, hope and charity. I have always known that they are together, but here i have made the connection in my mind. And hope is a big part of it. Faith is that belief. That belief nurtures a hope or firm conviction in Truth and Light. And then that charity moves you to help others gain such faith and hope. That is when the others are strengthened even more and we become more Christlike. 

Christ is always there. 

"Satan trembles when he sees even the weakest on his knees."

I also like what you said about putting on the yoke of Christ. We are never with out a yoke. The question is whose yoke do we have? 

James seems pretty powerful. 

Loving each moment. I am grateful to know relationships are eternal. I am going to miss this good people, alot, but i have that hope that i will see them again. One day. 

Love you dad!!!

Mom, good-bys are never easy. 

The baptism was great. Everything went smoothly. Great way to finish. 

Yup that looks like a busy week. For my side. Monday, drive to PE. Tuesday, final exchanges with zone leaders. Hard core day. Wednesday. Fly to Cape Town. Yummy food. Thursday chill with President Merrill. And Friday, i can't remember what was going to happen, but it did have something to do with 30 hours and a pair of wings.

Go with the flow. I will let you know somehow if i need more. 100 should be good. I am underweight now. I am kind of worried about getting food in London. I might be hungry, but then again i might just fast. No matter what 100 should be good. 

You have been a great and faithful teacher. Thanks for it all, you will be missed by the youth.can't wait for the weekend. Especially for the temple. It has been a while. 

Love you Mom!!!

Bry. Deep cleaning is fun. And when did you learn french? You got the subject heading right on. I just found the song on lds.org. Liked it. I hope everything is good over there. Looks like President Johnson trusts you alot. Hey, do you have any cool war memorials in your mission? 

Happy New Year, Elder Bro. Love you!!!!

Meagan, time has flown quick quick. 2 years down. Yoh, Meagan, 17. No way. When i left you and Heifi, you were knee high to a grass hopper. I left just after duke was born. But now he is kora's size, at the the kora i know. Have a great week. Enjoy school. Love you!!!

Heidi, hey bud. Aren't you quite the athlete. Are you going to join any sports in jr. High? Track and field or cross country. You'd have fun. Or there is dance. Or softball. Or you could go for football. Many opportunities. Looks like you are having fun. Enjoy the week. Love you Heidi!!!

Jera, see you in two minutes. Or after a 30 flight including layovers. Either way. Friday will be a long day for me. Time will be at a stand still. Yay. 

Looks like you had a fun trip. We'll talk about scriptures later. For now, they are pretty important for spiritual life.

Love you Jera!!!!

Well, my dear family. The time has come to sign off and say see you soon. I love you all so very much. Can't wait. But this will be a great week for us all, so lets make every moment count. 

Love, Elder Pennington

December 28th 2015

Hey You Guys!!!!

It was so wonderful to see you all on Christmas. I love technology these days. The world is getting smaller and smaller. I don't feel that far from you all whom i love so much. The highlight of my week was seeing all of your pretty Mahlungu faces. :) you truly would love driving down the street and every kid that sees you (as well as some grown adults) say umlungu. Makes me smile everytime. 

But besides that wonderful time spent with you, had a great chance to have some wonderful lessons this week. 

One sister we met ordered a dvd. We delivered it, got a return appointment. Came back had a very wonderful lesson with her. She asked some great questions. Her first one, being asked before we really talked about anything, was "do you really think that all Christain churchs teach the same thing?" I answered but only after asking what she thought. It was a great lesson. But also along the lesson we found out that her family has already joined the church. Back in 2005 she had visited the church a couple times but never really joined. Her family is very less active right now. Not really interested with us coming over. But this good sister with a desire to know for herself might be a great way to put a foot in their door. The Lord is in control. He knows what needs to happen. Just another one of those small miracles that we found this sister. 

Made for a great week. Also did a lot of cleaning. As a mission we are doing a deep clean. It has been fun as we cleaned our flat as well as Knysna's flat. It feels good to clean like that. 

So yeah. 

Dad, experiences experienced by others. That is a cool part of mission, the level of learning that goes on. Simply wonderful. So true. I am soaking it up. Right now the answers seem so simple. Faith in Jesus Christ being the foundation of the solutions. Sometimes i look at some of the problems that these people have. Some of their excuses that they give in not moving forward or coming to church or whatever. I think of all the times the Savior said, O ye of little faith. I feel like the father who said I believe, yea Lord, help thou my unbelief. Funny how answers seem so clean from a far. 

My talk went okay. I feel like i had to keep everyone awake. The previous speakers had great talks. I know this because i was right next to them. But unfortuanately they didn't get heard by the mike or the congregation. They had moved the mike just out of the way and people missed almost everything. But it was a great program.

Plans for the week. Teach some great lessons. Say some good-byes. Trying not to cry. The cool thing is most people think'i am joking when it comes to my going home. I like that. I tried hard to have that effect. 

Cool pictures. Did you go to an old age home. Looks like and sounds like a fun experience. 

Love the talk though. Didn't fall asleep. I love the topic of rescue. That was a nice story to depict rescue. Thanks for sharing it. 

I love you Dad!!

Mom, we talked about the Second Coming as well. I feel that it was a great way to end the year. To end with a strong desire to be better. More prepared for when He comes again. 

I love it when the family is all together as well. It was great to see everyone. 

I can't wait to see the pictures. there is a man here in George that makes shoes. Use to do it for work years ago, but now it is a hobby. Bry would love him. He has a pair of purple suede shoes and also snake skin shoes. Pretty cool. 

Yup, we are excited for the baptism. Everything is on track for it to happen on Sunday. But we will move forward according to the spirit. A baptism will be a great way to end. Strong. I am excited.

Mom i love you very much!!!

Bryant, Elder Bro. Sad i missed you on Christmas. That's okay. See you on mothers day. :) so where are you now? How is it? You and your comp getting along well? I hope so. Are you still district leader? I hope you are doing well. For me life is good. Working hard. Sorry i havn't been the best at sharing things with you. With the new year, i will try and be better. Love you brother!!!

Meagan, yes, Christmas takes too long to come but is gone so fast. Too much. But it was great to see you all. And to see your presents before you :) that is a first. You are growing up. Make each day before Christmas count. Make everyday Mandela day :) love you Meagan.!.!

Heidi, i can't wait to see the pictures. Especially of the shoes. I love hot Cocoa too. I have had some on mission. But not a lot, most people give us tea. So i will come and have some with you soon. 

On p-days we email, clean, do laundry, sleep, shop, and maybe play a game or hike or something. But most days are simple things. For me i like to cool chicken-in-a-bag. Yum. And will eat just about anything. I like food. 

After talking to you, we went and ate more food. A lot of yummy Christmas food. Love you Heidi!!

Jera, sounds like you will have some fun now now. Enjoy snowboarding. I like this weeks pics though. Looks like Gavyn's doing well. In his pic though i like the funny little man in the back. Long hair and gotee thing. Round glasses. Funny. And then the corned beef. Simple meals rock!!

Duke has discovered his alter ego with a spiderman costume? Cute kid. 

Well cool beans. All these pictures show good ol' Pennington fun. :) love you!!!

Well i love you all so much. Hope you have a great and wonderful week. Enjoy. And Happy New Year!!

Love, Elder Pennington

December 21st 2015

Hey you guys!!!!!

Here we come to talk again. This was a wonderful week. Had a great zone conference in PE. Talked about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. As part of it we watched a cool documentary  on the first bit of the Book of Mormon. It was cool. It follow Nephi's family. So much more realistic than the Book of Mormon movie we saw long ago. Very nice video. Also watched a movie called Freetown. Great movie. True story. I want to find it and watch it with you soon. But the training was very nice to. We broke down and connected the bible and Book of Mormon more that we might be able to show how they testify of each other and especially of Christ. 

The rest of the week was nice. Some good appointments and chances to talk of the true Spirit of Christmas. 

Had a great Christmas party. Lots of fun. Lots of food. 

And church was more full than it has been. There were about 30 from George, which is less than normal. But then we had like 20 others who were visiting. Half of them were senior couples from the area office. It was cool. 

Lets begin. 

Dad, i am happy to hear that Tatum is still kicking. It was a great week teaching and learning.

Missionary minded is a good state of mind. I guess that might be the state of mind we want to be in when it comes to the spirit world. In paradise. And we must have to cultivate it in this life. To be missionary minded is good. 

Thanks for setting up all your kids. We'll trust you on this one. 

I have a talk next week too. Topic is President Monson's "be an example and a light" i am excited. 

I like Isaiah 61:1 that defines very nicely Christ's role for us. He was born for those reasons. To preach good tidings. To bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty, and to open prison's doors. We couldn't do this life with out Him. 

Yep PE was nice. No interview though. In a couple weeks. I love Mission Presidents. President Merrill is the best. A very special calling. 

Thanks for the funnies. I love you Dad!!

Mom, i love this season too. 

There are no problems with the same email. Dad has been doing it for some time, and we love him still. :) i am just so happy to hear from you. Some missionaries lose contact with people about this time. Thanks for your diligent love. I am happy and grateful to hear from you.

And with Heidi, Jr. High has come too fast. I was thinking back. It seems like yesterday i was in Mr. Davis's class. That was when i lost your palm pilot. That doesn't feel too long ago does it? 

Good trip to PE. I only drove back home. The other Elder in Knysna drove down. Felt good to sit in the back. 

70 is good. That provides so much. Right now the exchange is 15 to 1. For now i think i might just hang tight until after Christmas, when the prices won't be so sky high. Thanks.

But hey, Mom i love you so very much!!!! Can't wait to speak to you too.

Bryant, love you too!!! Happy Christmas!

Meagan, way to go with finals. That is cool the Sub4Santa. We only did food drives and stuff. The normal things. 

Christmas parties are fun. Our this last week was great. We even got some of the left overs. I love being a missionary. :)

I love you Meagan!!!

Heidi, moving isn't fun. Especially at classrooms. Sorry bud. 

Hey i can't wait to see you either. Christmas is now now. Love you little sis!!!

Jera, thanks for the pictures. Ice skating is fun. Those ones are too cute. And nice bread as well. Tasty Christmas treats. Yumm!! We got fruit cake and liver pâté thing last week. Christmas is great. Can't wait. Love you Jera!!! 

Well everyone. I love you all so much that i want to eat some lunch. :) hope you all have a Happy Christmas. I can't wait to see your little faces. It brings me such great joy.

See you soon!!!

Love, Elder Pennington the Elder