Hello from Tennessee

Hi, family!

Alright, so it's been a very eventful week, and so I'll try to type extra fast to get through everything.

Firstly, transfers! We said goodbye to Sister Jacobsen on Wednesday and she went off to serve in the Ashville stake which is in North Carolina! It's apparently very beautiful there, and she seems to be doing well!

We also picked up our new companion, Sister Sume! She is 21, and is from West Jordan, Utah. She went into the mission field when I went into the MTC, so she's been out one more transfer (6 weeks) than I have. She served in Farragut before she came here :)

Anyways, I guess we should go with the bad news first...Cindy cancelled her baptismal date and kind of dropped us. We haven't been able to have a lesson with her in 3 weeks, and she's had a lot of questions and concerns especially about modern day prophets and commandments. We were finally were able to schedule a lesson with her and we set it up so it was going to be in a member's home, and she called us right before the lesson and cancelled. We were in another appointment, so we couldn't answer the phone so she just left a voice mail saying that she wanted to stop meeting with us for a while and think about things, and that she was looking at some other churches now. She said that she'd give us a call if she felt like she wanted to become a member.

As missionaries, we don't want to compel people to convert people to this religion. We really truly don't and if people don't want to accept our invitations, that's completely fine. We are only here the invite and to help.

With Cindy, however, I was able to see the joy and the light that she was able to gain from the gospel during our lessons. She is such a spiritual woman and has been searching so long for the truth, and I could tell in our lessons that she knew what we were teaching was true. She loves the Book of Mormon and told us that it feels like what she's been searching for her whole life.

Anyways, after we listened to the message, we prayed and felt very strongly that we should go see her as soon as possible. We weren't able to see her that same night, but the next day we were able to see her, and we talked to her for about an hour about what's going on. She has lots of questions and concerns about things, and we tried to help her understand that these concerns all go back to whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet and really did restore the Lord's church. We talked about how reading the Book of Mormon is how we are able to gain that testimony, and she said that she would continue reading and praying.

We haven't lost all hope with her yet. I know that if she really does earnestly read the Book of Mormon and pray with a sincere heart, she will come to know that this church is true.

Heavenly Father has been so merciful to us, however. We were pretty bummed about Cindy, but we were able to get 5 new investigators this week! That is more than we had all of last transfer! It was a flat out miracle! We started teaching this Indian family and they are so sweet and so open. The mother is very shy about her English, although she speaks very well, and so when we asked her to read the Book of Mormon before our next visit, she said that she wouldn't. We asked her if we found a Book of Mormon in Hindi would she read it, and she said yes. Challenge accepted! We called the mission office the next day, and they "just happened to have" a Hindi Book of Mormon. Coincidence? I think not! Anyways, we showed up three days later with the Hindi Book of Mormon and gave it to her. I don't think that she thought we'd actually get one, but she promised to read it, so it's all good :)

Also, we started teaching the Sanders family. We met them a few weeks ago on a "faith walk" I think I mentioned that. He's the one who went inside and got his entire family before we prayed :) Anyways, we came back earlier this week and prayed with the father again, and he was going into a job interview and he said that he'd been looking for a job for a long time. We prayed that his interview would go well and that if it was the Lord's will that he would get the job. He called us the next day to tell us that he got the job! It was incredible! We came back to teach him and his family and they were all so great. I felt very strongly that I should be bold with him and tell him that he should get baptized, and he said that he really wanted to! Him, his wife and two of his kids also said that they wanted to be baptized! What?! Anyways, they're such a wonderful family, and they are so excited to learn more about the gospel, and so we're going to teach him about the restoration tomorrow! So exciting!

I've come to realize just how true the saying is that when God closes a door, he open a window (or 5!)

Anyways, I love you all so much and appreciate so much the e-mails, letters and prayers.

Sister Pennington