always, always an adventure (June 30)

Hello!

This week was a little bit crazy! We had 2 Brazil games this week, and an exchange, so the week was really different than usual.

So I got a call on Monday that all of the trainers and their trainees would be having a meeting on Thursday at 10 in Campinas. There's a bus from Itatiba to Campinas at 8:30. Beleza, no problem. Then the Sister Training leader called me because she needed to do an exchange with sister Acevedo. She decided that it would work best if we switched at the meeting on Thursday in Campinas, and I went to Braganca with her companion, and she come back to Itatiba with my companion, and then meet up with sister Acevedo and her companion and do an exchange. A little bit more complicated, but again, no problem. It's the end of the month, so we're really poor, but we had just enough to pay for all of the buses. So, Thursday morning, we go to the bus station to find out that the bus schedule changed and they no longer have a bus at 8:30, but at 9 and it goes through another city, so it takes a lot longer. We didn't get to Campinas until 10:30, and by that time, I was already distraught because we were so late, and then we got on the bus, but missed the bus stop, and I recognized that I was in Barao Geraldo, my first area! So we got off the bus and I called the assistant to the president, and was crazy pants stressed because we had no money and were late and I had no idea where we were...but the assistant is a good human who easily recognized that I was pretty close to tears, so he paid for a taxi to come and pick us up. We got the to meeting just as President Perroti was driving away #mostembarrasingmomentofmylife. But, in the end it kind of worked out...I went to Braganca with Sister Mitillo, and Sister Matos went to Itatiba with Sister Vega...it was kind of crazy pants, but it worked...

Sister Pennington with Sister Vega and two members of the local ward.

Saturday was the first game of the finals for Brazil, and they went into overtime...We were waiting for the game to finish to go back to work, but at 3 when the game should have ended, nobody was in the streets. Literally not one person was in the street. We waited a bit more, and an hour later people start screaming, yelling, honking horns in the streets, setting off fireworks and a bunch of other craziness. Haha it was a good time :)

Things are crazy here, but we've had some really good things as well. Ariani was a referral from a member who went to church a few weeks ago, and we were able to teach her this week, and she is so prepared! She's searching for the truth, and she is loving the things we're teaching. She understands really well what we teach, and has so much real intent. The problem, is that her husband is very firm in his beliefs, and she is worried about what will happen with her relationship when she's baptized. But, she's great!

Sister Pennington with Ira Bia and her family

We had a cool experience of being in the right place at the right time. We were walking in front of the church going to a teaching appointment, and a woman parked in front of the church and asked if it was open. We talked to her a little bit, and found out that she's doing family history work, and she heard that the church has a lot of resources to help her with family history, so she just showed up at the church. We set up another appointment with her at the church and the member in charge of family history, and we were able help her and her family with the genealogy they wanted to do, and we were also able to teach the first lesson. They're pretty great!

This week, like every week, was crazy and full of unexpected adventures. I just love being a missionary!

Love you all, and have a great week!
Sister Pennington

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Uma semana de milagres (June 23)

Hola, familia!

This week really was a week of miracles!

Sister Vega and I were able to teach so many people, find new investigators and help the ones we have. It was awesome...

3 experiences that were particularly miraculous...

1. We had an awesome activity at the church! The ward here has been struggling to feel excited about missionary work, but last week we visited a family in the ward to ask them what they thought the ward needed to feel more excited, and they suggested an activity. So we planned and executed an awesome activity and TONS of people showed up. It was a contest of desserts, but it was the men that made the dessert and the women who judged. It was great!

2. Vera has been in her daughter's house all week, so we haven't been able to see her this whole week. We were really worried about her, because we hadn't seen her, and we'd already re-marked her baptism so many times, we were just really worried. So we called her to get the address of her daughter's house. I understood the neighborhood, and house number and it was near a futebol field, but didn't understand the name of the road and just as I was about to ask her again, the phone cut out. And we're poor missionaries without credit, so we we out of luck. So Sister Vega and I decided that we would just go on faith. Vera's daughter lives in the area of the other sisters, so I'd never been to this place before in my life. And it was 7 at night on friday. But, we felt very strongly that we needed to visit her. So, we took the bus with the name of the neighborhood and just went. We got off the bus and asked everyone we could find where the futebol field was, and we eventually found the field. With a host of 10 or so streets to choose from, we really were led by the hand of God to the right house. The very first door we tried was the right house. Vera came out and was so excited to see us, and we went inside and talked with Vera and her daughter and it was awesome. Vera is still firm in every way possible. She's awesome and going to be baptized so soon!

3. The other sisters have been teaching an older lady, Jú, for months now. She was taught everything and had already developed a testimony of the gospel, but people kept telling her that she wasn't ready. The sisters had an intense lesson with her on Saturday afternoon, and Jú decided to be baptized on Saturday at 7. So the sisters called us frantically at 4 to say that they needed our help getting everything ready for the baptism. So we knocked the doors of every member that lived in our area to invite them to the baptism, went to the chapel to help fill up the baptismal font and put together a quick musical number to play during the service. It really turned out well, and there were so many people who came that we had to hold the service in the sacrament meeting room. Members even made food to eat after the service! And guess who randomly showed up...A GENERAL AUTHORITY! A member of the area presidency of Brazil came to Jú's baptism! It was awesome, and she felt so special and felt so good. It was a great baptism, and the ward got even more excited about missionary work!

It was a great week, and we were blessed to have so many experiences to see the Lord's hand in this work. I absolutely love the privilege I have of being a part of this great mission!

Love you all!
Sister Pennington

Oi, tudo bem? (June 16)

Hello, everyone!

First world cup game with Brazil ... It was crazy pants in the street for the whole night after the game! And Brazil plays again tomorrow ... wahoo! time to read the Book of Mormon!

So this week was pretty good! Sister Silva was transferred to Campinas, so I dropped her off at the Rodoviaria in Campinas before I went to the mission office. And guess who was in the Rodoviaria going to the United States ... Sister Howell! I got to see her one last time before she went home! She's a normal human now!

But, anyways ... I went to the mission office, and all of the trainers had a lunch and a training from the assistant. I got really nervous before getting my new companion ... I was so nervous, in fact, I didn't even eat dessert because I wasn't hungry ... that's how nervous I was!

But life's good because I got the best companion ever! Sister Vega! She's from Peru, and she's so awesome! She's so sweet, so humble, so willing to learn and I'm pretty sure she came pre-trained! She's awesome!

Sister Pennington and her new companion Sister Vega

Her very first day here, we had our study in the morning like usual, and an extra hour of training, and we practiced how to invite an investigator to be baptized. Later that day, we had a lesson with one of our investigators, and Sister Vega had no fear and incited our investigator to be baptized exactly how we practiced and she accepted! It was so awesome! Sister Vega's the bomb!

Vera wasn't baptized this week, which is sad, but it's because her daughter had a very serious surgery and got out of the hospital this week, so Vera wasn't at home, and we couldn't finish teaching her the lessons. But, she was at her daughter's house Saturday night, and she told her daughter she had to go home to sleep to get ready for church, and she came on Sunday, and absolutely loved it! She feels so comfortable there, and she absolutely loves the gospel! She's so great! (although she did cry when I told her that Sister Silva left! I almost cried wen I saw her crying! But she's going to love sister Vega!)

I love all of you at home so much! I hope that y'all are doing well! I love the gospel and I love being a missionary!

Até mais!
Sister Pennington

crazy pants!! (June 9)

Hello, everyone!

This week has been a little bit crazy pants! It feels like the end of the transfer is always a little bit crazy pants!

4 crazy pants things...
1. The world cup starts this week, so it's about to get straight up crazy pants here! Brazilians love fútebol more than anything in the world. We received direction from our mission president that on the days when Brazil is playing, we're not to leave our house ... I think I'll have enough time to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover at least twice ... I'll let you know how that goes :)

2. On Friday, we left the house of an investigator and started walking, and Sister A. Silva had a crippling pain in her leg, and it wouldn't go away, and she couldn't walk, so we went to the hospital. We're both sheltered 20 year olds, and had never been to the hospital alone, so we didn't know exactly what to do. But, Heavenly Father loves Sister A. Silva a lot, and as I was struggling to push the wheel-chair bound A. Silva out of the elevator, a couple from the ward, Zeca and Camilla, came to the rescue. The Lord put them in our path at just the right moment! Sister A. Silva and I waited and then went to talk with the doctor and she was the worst! She didn't want to do anything, and when we protested a bit, she got impatient and just ordered a bunch of unnecessary tests just to make us stop talking. So we were on our way to get x-ray (which obviously wouldn't help anything, because the pain wasn't in her bones) and we explained the situation to Zeca and Camilla who were waiting for us. Zeca reminds me a LOT of Geza Lengyel - so needless to say he was outraged at the uselessness of this doctor and he demanded that we see someone else. He went in to talk with another doctor with us, and he said he was A. Silva's father and he demanded something to be done for her. It was pretty awesome. The doctor ended up giving an IV with some pretty heavy medicine to A. Silva, and so she felt a lot better. Zeca stayed with us while A. Silva was getting the IV, and there's only supposed to be one family member per patient and 3 or 4 different nurses came up to Zeca and said that he had to leave, and he only said, "ok" and didn't move. It was fantastic. He and his wife stayed with us for 3 hours in the hospital and then drove us home. They're absolutely awesome! Sister A. Silva's doing better, but she's going to have to see a specialist, because the doctor thought that it could be something nerve related...

3. VERA'S GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!!!! She's the absolute best! She reads the Book of Mormon every day, and even more, she reflects on what she reads, understands it, and applies it. She understands and believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and wants to choose the right. She is so excited to be baptized. Up until this week she said that she wanted to be baptized, but that she wasn't ready yet. But this week she decided that she was ready and that she was going to prepare to be baptized! The baptism will be Sunday afternoon...keep her in your prayers :)

4. The assistant called me on Friday morning to let me know that I'm going to be training a new missionary this next transfer! I'm panicing just a little bit! I'm staying here in Itatiba, and Sister A. Silva is leaving. I'm going to be very sad to see her go! She's great! I pick up my "daughter" from the mission office tomorrow afternoon...keep her in your prayers too! Poor thing has no idea what she's getting into with Pennington as her trainer!

Love you all so much, and hope you have a great week!
Sister Pennington

It gets cold in Brazil?! (June 2)

Hello, familia!

I don't know if I've become a wuss since coming to Brazil, but holy cow it's flippin' cold here! I'm literally going to have to go buy a winter jacket! Who knew!

Cake Sister Pennington made for Sister A. Silva

Anyways, highlights of the week....

- Vera - I wrote about her last week that she came to church and LOVED it! She's just eating up the gospel - reading the Book of Mormon, the Gospel Principles book she got in church, the pamphlets we left for here, and even more than that, she's talking about what she's learning with her family! She's so excited about learning more about the gospel! And, we brought the president of the relief society with us, and she is awesome! Just to explain a little bit about how awesome the president of the relief society is, she served a mission and she "only" had 2 baptisms. But guess what? One of the people she baptized is now the area president of Brazil, Elder Costa. She and her husband served as mission president. She gets missionary work. She's awesome. Anyways, Vera obviously just loved her to pieces, and they talk a lot during the week. It's awesome.

Sister Pennington and her companion Sister A. Silva

 - Carlos - We found Carlos last week knocking doors. We went back this week, and he is so prepared! We were teaching the restoration of the gospel to him, and we were teaching about prophets, and he stopped it and asked us, "If God always called prophets, then why don't we have prophets today? That doesn't make sense." We then had the privilege of telling him that we do have a prophet today who received revelation directly from God to lead this church. When we got done teaching him, he was very excited to read the Book of Mormon, and come to church. He's awesome!


- João Batista - HE FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH! We've been doing everything we can to help him quit smoking, and make changes in his life, but he wasn't progressing - so we explained very clearly to him, that if he doesn't decide to start making changes in his life and acting, there's nothing more we can do to help him. He came to church on Sunday and absolutely loved it! It was great!

Can you guess which side is Sister Pennington's ;)

 - Cremilda and Luis Claudio - I wrote about this family a few weeks ago - that they were an inactive couple with 3 boys who aren't members that we miraculously found at the bus stop. We were about to give up on them, because we've been trying to meet with them, and it seemed like they were avoiding us, and not really wanting to come back to church. BUT, we decided to try them one last time, and we found just the mom, Cremilda, at home, and she said the she wanted to come back to church, and that she would be at church. They'd promised this before, so our faith in them was unfortunately a little weak. But guess, what?! THEY CAME TO CHURCH! After being inactive for over 10 years, they finally came back, and they loved it! The ward got so excited! Everyone was so welcoming to them, and they absolutely loved it!

It was fast and testimony meeting yesterday, and a young woman, Fiorella, who's only 14 years old bore one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. She talked about how she had a friend who recently lost her father, and how she was sharing the gospel with this friend. Fiorella talked with her friend about the eternal nature of families and that through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be sealed to our families forever. Fiorella bore testimony about missionary work, and how good she felt when she shared the gospel.

In a simple testimony, Fiorella really summed up the purpose of missionary work, and the blessings associated with it. We're here to help families be together forever. There's a definition of "missionary" that you've probably already heard; "someone who leaves their family for a short time so that others can be with theirs for eternity".

This is why I'm here, and hope that I can be of service to the people I teach.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Sister Pennington

Hello! (May 26)

Hola, minha familia!

This week was really tiring! Not going to lie! Almost none of our investigators were progressing, so we literally dropped almost all of our investigators, so this week we're going to be finding new people to teach. The Lord is preparing the people in this area, and we just need to go find them.

We do have one investigator who is progressing and super awesome! Her name is Vera Lucia, and she's an older lady, very sweet, who truly has a desire to serve the Lord. She's reading the book of Mormon, praying, and truly willing to do what the Lord requires of her. She has a lot of back pain, so it's kind of hard for her to get around. But, we went with a member to pick her up for church yesterday, and she was waiting in her house all dressed up for church. She's so stinkin' adorable! And she absolutely loved church! The ward was so welcoming to her, and she absolutely loved it! She's already accepted baptism, we just need to set a date with her.

2 funny stories for y'all :)

1. "Voce vai jantar conosco?"
- So I still don't speak Portuguese. I really can understand almost everything, and I can say what I want to, but sometimes I still get a little bit mixed up. Especially at night at the end of the day when I'm tired. Anyways, we went to go see an investigator at 8 at night before starting to head home. Our investigator wasn't there, but his family was there making dinner (his family likes us, but wants nothing to do with the church). When we arrived, I thought that his brother asked if we had walked a lot that day. I wasn't paying much attention, and didn't fully understand what he said, but we had walked a lot, so I responded yes. My companion started to help make the dinner, and I got really confused, and annoyed because we had no reason to stay there, but my companion was helping make dinner so we couldn't leave. So we waited until the dinner was done, and neither of us was hungry, so we got a little tiny plate, ate as fast as we could and then left. After we left, I was annoyed because we had wasted so much time. Sister A. Silva could see that I was annoyed and asked why I had accepted to eat dinner. And I said I hadn't, but it turns out that the question that I hadn't fully understood, but responded yes to, was "are you going to eat dinner with us". And so it was that Sister Pennington didn't speak Portuguese and ate dinner with the Jehovah's Witnesses that want nothing to do with the church :) We laughed for the next two days about it :)

2. "Voce pode tocar o piano?"
In the October 2012 conference, Elder Nelson challenged the members to ask the missionaries for help with whatever they needed. Two weeks ago, one of the members, Tayla, accepted this challenge, and asked for help with the choir because she need more women to sing for the devotional/ conference that happened yesterday. No problem. Of course we can help sing. We sang I need thee every hour, and another Brazilian song that I'd ever heard. But, it wasn't too hard. It worked out. Yesterday, an hour before the devotional, Tayla came to me frantically telling me that  the person who was going to play the piano bailed and she needed someone to play for the devotional. I need thee every hour I can play with no problem, so I agreed. But she also wanted piano for the other piece. So I played a hymn that I heard for the first time last week and had never played in my life in front of 200 people. But, there was literally nobody else to do it. It wasn't horrible, but, yeah... I think "it wasn't horrible" sums it up. I don't know if y'all are familiar with the Spongebob episode when Squidward makes a band to play in the bubble bowl, and when they start out practicing they break the windows of the building they're practicing in. It was kind of like that, except we weren't practicing :) I think Tayla owes us about 200 referrals now, all families with parents legally married without word of wisdom problems who have been looking for the church for 20 years. We're going to get on that :)

Anyways, hope y'all had a wonderful week! Just remember, the sky is blue, and the church is true!
Sister Pennington

Hello, everyone! (May 19)

Oi, familia!

Hope y'all had a great week! Mine was pretty great!

Actually there was one thing that was not great...

All missionaries use the missionary daily planner - the little white book that missionaries carry around. And inside this planner, we plan everything for at least a week in advance. We have goals, plans, appointments, addresses, phone numbers...literally everything. And for the first time in 10 months... I LOST MY PLANNER!!!!!!! It was horrible! If I had tear ducts, I would've cried! But, this is why we have companions...luckily Sister A. Silva had mostly everything that we needed and I was able to recreate my planner (mas ou menos). But that became the joke of all of the sisters here in Itatiba. They'd say, "hey, do you remember that one time you lost your planner?" Or when something didn't go well, they'd say it was because I lost my planner. It was a good time :)

But, in other news, I mentioned the family we found at the bus stop last week. The parents are members who were baptized 10 years ago, and have 3 sons who aren't members yet. Well, we had the privilege to teach them this week, and they're SO PREPARED!!!! It was absolutely 100% the hand of the Lord that helped us to find this family. We got to their house, and the husband, Luis Claudio, ran to get the pictures of their baptism. He showed us their baptism and the elders who taught their family. He showed us the baptismal certificates, and the certificate of ordination of the Aaronic priesthood that he received. He was completely overjoyed to talk with us! We taught the restoration to him and his family. His 3 sons are so awesome! They are very good kids, especially given their age (11-15). They were attentive and interested, and when we recited the first vision, they felt the spirit very strongly. We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon, and the oldest son was reading it before we even left. They are so amazing! We went back another day to talk about sealing in the temple, and the parents were so excited, and said that they definitely wanted that! They're such an amazing family and I feel so honored to be able to have met them!

I was reading today in the Book of Mormon Heleman 5, which I think is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. The beginning talks about what Heleman taught his two sons, Nephi and Lehi, who later became powerful missionaries. Heleman pleads for his sons to remember. To remember to keep the commandments, to remember the words and deeds of prophets of the past, and above all to remember that it is only in and through Jesus Christ and His gospel that we can have a sure foundation in this life, and hope of eternal salvation in the life to come. When I was teaching Luis Claudio, I wasn't really teaching him.  I was just reminding him of what he already knew. He already had felt the power of the gospel in his life, and that is why he decided to follow the example of Jesus Christ. When we were reminding him of these things, we could tell that he really was remembering not only what we were teaching, but how he felt 10 years ago when he was baptized. And he wants it again. And he wants it for his family.

I feel so privileged to be a part of this gospel, and to have the opportunity to teach people and remind them of the joy and happiness that really can come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Sister Pennington