WEEK 27: MOTHER'S DAY CALL AND 6 MONTHS DOWN, 18 TO GO!

No letter from Nathan this week because we spoke with him via Skype on Mother's Day and it was so awesome to see his face, hear his voice, and be able to have live interaction with him.  Our son is a missionary!!  He loves it and we love that he is having this experience.  We have a ton of pictures to share with you this week.  Enjoy!

Inside joke for our family and favorite quote from the 2005 edition of the movie, "Herbie Fully Loaded."

"Herbie is a car."

Elder Pennington runs across some interesting stuff every day on his mission in California.  Here he got to see a movie star - Herbie!

He got a kick out of this sign.  It's a Donkey Crossing sign.  The area he is in is a large farming community and most of those employed are Hispanic so this apparently is a preferred mode of transportation.  Glad he sees things like this that entertain him and make him smile.

 6 MONTHS DOWN!

There is an unofficial tradition carried out by some missionaries in recognition of timeline milestones reached on their missions.  Nathan reached his 6 month mark and for that accomplishment, the tradition is to burn a tie.

We are still trying to figure out why he chose such a good looking tie and one of our favorites to burn.  Here, he and his companion Elder Smith are practicing their Scout fire starting skills.  It looks like they can still build a good fire.

And here he is burning his tie.  It will be November before he burns anything else and I believe then it will be a white shirt for his halfway mark.

Be careful son and don't play with fire!!!  Oops, too late.

 

SUNSET PICTURES OF MORENO VALLEY

 

In his current congregation (ward) there is a large Samoan membership. Here he is at a church activity that was a celebration "Samoan style."  We were excited that he stayed in the USA, but he is getting plenty of experience with other cultures outside of the USA.

One of the great blessings of having the age for missionaries changed is that now there are a lot more "Sister" missionaries.  Here Nathan is with those sisters serving in his Zone.  They asked the Elders for priesthood blessings that day and so they obliged.

This sister missionary (Hermana Jordan) knows Nathan's cousin Brooklyn.  Brooklyn is deaf and so here they are sending their love to her in a picture with Sign Language.  One of the great things of membership in the church is how much smaller the world seems to be at times.

Nathan's good friend from home - Annie Posey - sent him this "Money Shirt" to go along with his "Money Tie" theme that he has started.  Thanks Annie!  He sure got a kick out of this.

 



ELDER PENNINGTON'S APARTMENT