WEEK 58: A COWBOY CHRISTMAS

The Elders with Santa at the Ward Christmas Party

We didn't receive a letter from Elder Pennington, but we did receive quite a few pictures that do tell a story for the week.  The ward had their Christmas Party which was a lot of fun. 

One of their investogators

Their investigator and his father

Clowning at the Christmas Party

Hope we aren't having too much fun

All aboard!  Choo! Choo!

I hope she gave Elder Pennington a run for his money.

Apparently, he and his companion went to someone's house who was a cowboy and they let them hang out with the horses and ride the tractors.  These pictures will be used later for their Christmas card they sent to us.

Enjoy the pictures!

Look Ma!  I'm a cowboy

Driving tractors

A side view of Mater... like ta-mater, without the "ta"


And a few pictures of our Chevy Malibu:

WEEK 57: LIGHT THE WORLD & SERVE AS CHRIST DID

Elder Pennington is loving his mission in Riverside, California.

Pennington and Dunn - two ZL's just chillin'

Transfer calls were this past Saturday, and Elder Dunn and I escaped from being transferred so we will both be here for at least six more weeks!  We are happy we get to stay another, but sad that they are breaking the four man up :(  They are moving Elder Langley and his new companion to a different apartment complex :( :(  Sad day, but it is okay now I get my own bathroom...darn.

One of their investigators gave them a Christmas tree

Anyways, the work is going great.  We are working with four families right now, and it is awesome being able to meet with them.  I am super excited for this Christmas season, and the next six weeks to continue to work with Elder Dunn and our investigators.  If you haven't already, go to YouTube #lighttheworld or go to:

                                       Light the World

and watch some super awesome videos about serving like Christ served.  Love ya’ll.

Have a great week!

EP

Elder Pennington made a filipino lunch

One of Elder Pennington's favorite things to do on his
mission is to provide service to the community

MLC day of service

Great job cleaning up Elders & Sisters

And yet another selfie

WEEK 56: LAST THANKSGIVING IN THE MISSION

Last Thanksgiving in the Mission Field.

This week was really good.  It was crazy to think that this was my last Thanksgiving in California :/  We had the turkey bowl that morning so we played football with a couple of wards, and it was a ton of fun! We had dinner at the Martindale’s house, and it was sooo good!  Afterwards we played pool, corn hole, and just hung out. That night we played glow in the dark trashball which was a ton of fun!!!!

Young men who go live with the missionaries for a couple
of weeks to get a taste of mission life are called mini
missionaries.  Here is Geronimo, but he is anything but MINI.

It has been a really good week.  We also had a member from Lake Elsinore spend the week with us because he wanted to see what the mission life was like, so that was pretty fun!  We had Crossfit today and got to play basketball so that was a ton of fun.  Other than that things are going well. The people we are teaching are doing great.  We had 5 at church so that was awesome.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Love you all!!!

EP

The Soto Family is awesome!

The whole Nielson Family - also awesome!

Rainy days means trachting

Good-bye Elder Sy

WEEK 55: AFTER A TOUGH WEEK, PLAN A BETTER ONE

Elder Pennington's first MLC as a Zone Leader

This week was a super slow week for Elder Dunn and I.  Weeks like this make me grateful for really good weeks haha!!  So I appreciated being humbled, but I’m not looking forward to having another week like that for a while.

Elder Langley was in the Missionary Training Center with
Elder Pennington.  Now they are sharing an apartment
and here they went on exchanges and worked together.

Some highlights of this week – I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Langley, who came out with me. We are living together in a four man right now which is super awesome!  We did a ton of biking and I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss it just a lil bit.  But something super sad happened – my Ray bans cracked :( Super sad day for me but that's okay life goes on...

Crazy Elders at the MLC.

I'm super excited for this week.  We have a ton of stuff planned, and we are going to be doing a ton of service so I am super excited about that!  I hope everyone has an awesome thanksgiving! 

Love,

EP

Loving the "coats inside out" look

Muddin' in the Malibu

Made a grocery trip to Aldi's and they
don't have grocery bags - no problem for
Elder Pennington

Elder Pennington with Elder ??

WEEK 54: LEARNING NEW THINGS

Silly Elder Pennington 

Hey everyone, this week was awesome for our zone.  We baptized two people this past Sunday so that was awesome!  We had an interview for an investigator yesterday, so he is good to be baptized in 2 weeks!

Elder Dunn driving the streets of Menifee.

We played ultimate frisbee today which was a ton of fun, but then again not really, because it reminded us all how out of shape we are haha!  It is super weird to think that it has already been three weeks of this transfer.  It has been going by super fast.  The work is going really good, and of course trying to learn another new area after being in my last one for 7 and a half months is a little struggling, but I’m getting there.  And there are three areas (Menifee, Winchester, and part of Murrieta) so like when you try asking someone in the street if they have been in this area long, you have a 1 out of 3 chance to get the area right or they just correct you like it is the biggest deal in the world. Oh well :)

Elder Pennington's first zone as a Zone Leader
after their first ZDM meeting.

Other than that, it has been nice learning a new area and not seeing the same stuff every day.  I knew that Moval area a little too well.  We had 7 people come to church this past Sunday, but we were expecting 12 so that was a little sad, but we are going to challenge our investigators to be more honest with us in keeping their commitments.  If they don’t, we will move forward with finding new folks to teach and help.  Always a bitter sweet moment when that happens.

Thanks for all the love and support everyone. 

Love,

EP

Art by Owen Thunstrom - a young man in Elder Pennington's
ward made this cartoon for him and Elder Dunn.

Elder Osberg - the Canadian

On exchanges with Elder Whiting

WEEK 53: HUMP DAY & HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL

Elder Pennington with his Hump Day shirt on that
he received on hump day along with a box of
some Corky's barbecue - spoiled by his Momma!

This past week I hit my one year mark.....it is super weird how fast that went.  I hope this year slows down a bit.  Thank you everyone for the emails, letters, packages, and pictures!  It was awesome to get all of that, it made my day!!!

Elders Pennington and Dunn with their most recent
baptism Neva and her father who is preparing
for the ordinance of baptism next.

This week was awesome, we had another Baptism!  It was sweet to see Treva enter into the waters of Baptism.  Her dad is going to be getting baptized hopefully in a couple of weeks!  We have 7 other awesome souls that we are working with that have a date, and I am super excited!

Elder Pennington, the man who plays Judas Iscariot in the
church's Bible Videos, Coach Bolton (Bart Johnson) from High
School Musical, and Elder Dunn.  Nathan said he came to
recruit him for the Wildcats or maybe the next sequel.  :)

This Sunday Elder Dunn and I had Coach Bolton from High School Musical and Judas Iscariot from the Bible Videos at church!  We saw them walking in and we were like “Oh shoot, is that”....and we were like it can't be... and after we got him to say “BOLTON!...DANFORTH!” ...It was so cool.  Well that is all for this week.  I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Love, 

EP

=============================================

More pictures of his Hump Day week below:

A Hump Day Feast for breakfast

Don't worry moms, we are eating good!

Special Hump Day plates decorated by Elder Pennington's little sister.

All 3 of these Elders go home together in 1 year

And apparently this Elder doesn't!!

Elder Pennington & Elder Dunn - it's evident that these two love
each other like brothers.  When we think of them working together
in unity to do the Lord's work, it makes us proud and reminds
us of the kind of relationships that Peter, James, and John
had or Alma and Amulek.

T-shirt swap on P-day, time for some exercise

Playing ball at the church on P-day

Elder Pennington was so excited to receive his Hump Day box that
contained all these awesome pictures of dear friends and family
congratulating him on his half way mark.

Elder Pennington with his "Picture Mobile"

Innovative Elders with their name tag holders

Not sure why he sent this picture but my favorite part is
seeing the fan that's hanging in the background on the
bunk beds.  These guys make do with the little they have.

WEEK 52: TRICK OR TREAT IN MENIFEE

Elder Pennington said that this girl he was teaching
reminds him alot of his mom.

     Week One of the Zone Leader life was really good.  My new companion Elder Dunn is super cool.  He is from somewhere in Idaho haha.  He had to go home for a few months because of his knee and now he is back and will be going home the same time as me!  We had a good week this week, we had a baptism for a 11 year old, so that was sweet.

Cruisin' in the Chevy Malibu

We are spoiled here.  I am no longer on bike.  I am in a 2017 midnight blue Chevy Malibu!  It is pretty sweet.  The work is going good.  We picked up a ton of new investigayors that Elder Dunn and I are working with right now, and the people are super cool and receptive.  I am looking forward to working with everyone this transfer.

Headed to go do some service on Preparation Day.

We have MLC this Thursday, so that should be fun.  Next week we have ZDM so we will give a three hour meeting with different trainings.  Not gonna lie…  I am a little nervous.  But it will all be Gucci.  I am enjoying everything so far.  Everyone stay safe, and have a great week! 

Love, 

EP

Elder Dunn making some phone calls and setting
up some teaching appointments on Halloween.

Elder Pennington's Halloween box his mom sent him - Scary!