WEEK 59: KRISPY KREME & CHINESE ELDERS

Our Ward Mission Leader (WML)

So I know the mainstream thing to do for weekly emails is to tell you about what happened last week, but I am very excited for this week so I'll let everyone know about that first.  We are having half of the mission get together this Wednesday for a Christmas devotional and slideshow of the past year.  That is going to be a ton of fun.

WML - "thug life"

Also we have four baptisms on Friday.  Two at 10am and two at 4pm.  Hopefully everything goes well with those so keep those people in your prayers. Then we get to have a zone activity on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas!  So it will be an awesome week, but also this past week was pretty good.

Elder Kligge - go greenie!

We went on exchanges with Elders Langley and Kligge.  Kligge has been out a whopping week and a half so I made him breakfast on exchanges haha.

Everything is going well, the area is doing good, and I am super excited for the rest of this week.  Hope everything is awesome back home and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! 

Love,

EP

Krispy Kreme 

Krispy Kreme - sugar rush

The Chinese-speaking Elders

Elder Pennington has always loved the Asian culture

Hanging with the Chinese Elders

Elder Pennington can get anyone to do anything!!

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