WEEK 17: LASSO COURT OR LASSO CULT?

Elder Pennington loves to bike! He found a
pest control business bearing his last name.  Thumbs up!

So this week was pretty good.  Elder Olsen and myself hit Standard of Excellence again.  I think we are working super hard, and we are being blessed by our diligence. (Insert by Dad: I asked Nathan what exactly was the "Standard of Excellence".  He explained it is a goal that they strive for weekly which includes talking to 65 new people every week, begin teaching 3 new individuals/families each week, have 2 of those being taught attend church on Sunday, as well as 2 or 3 other things.  It's not an easy goal to attain each week, but he and his companion did so 3 weeks in a row which means they have been working very hard and been diligent.)

Quite a surprise for Elder Pennington !

Have I said lately how much I love being on bike?  I am going on my third time for having a flat so that is just great. The dirt roads out here are terrible and are not the best for biking but I guess I can't complain. Luckily Elder Olsen has a hand pump and I have a presta valve tube and so it needs a special pump but thank goodness he had one.  So 400,000 pumps later my tube was full enough for us to bike home!  Also, we talked to a guy that was high because everyone has a medical card out here and he randomly pulls up his shirt and has the goonies tatted on his chest so that is something that I wasn’t expecting hahaha!!

In the area where he works, domesticated animals include
cows and chickens, not cats and dogs.

So this past week I asked a guy how to get to a street named Lasso Court,  and he said, “I can tell you how to get to heaven, you go to Calvary and keep going straight.”   He then went on to say that the cult I'm in or whatever is gonna mess me up so I told him, “Thank you so much for your thoughts.  They will be noted, but for now I'm gonna put a pin in it and I'll get back to that later.  In the mean time, I need to know where Lasso Court is.”  He then said, “Do you mean Lasso cult?” I then told him that the definition of a cult is a small group or organization and that our religion is frankly quite large so it would be quite presumptuous to call our faith a cult.  Then, I extended my hand and held it there for about 5 minutes so that was pretty interesting, but he wouldn't shake my hand :) so I gave him a smile told him to have a blessed day and then continued down to turn right on Calvary and keep going straight :)

Elder Pennington

Anyone who knows Nathan knows of his love
of ice cream.  Luckily there's no shortage in CALI!

On preparation day, played a little putt putt golf with the District

Elder Dyer - they were Bros in the Pre-Earth Life!

Elder Dyer - he is one of the Chinese-speaking Elders.

Oh, so the sister missionaries played too!

Loving sunny southern California!