Dec 14-26, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! =) I hope you all had a awesome Christmas. Christmas is totally different in the mission field and in the Philippines. So it has been a fun, busy 2 weeks. Like every night there were groups of kids and teenagers "caroling". But the caroling here is way different, the soul purpose of it is to get money. They bang on cans or play guitars and they all sing the same songs. A lot of times it is just a few little kids goin around late at night. Crazy.
We had meetings these last two weeks, special training the first week, where afterwards the assistants and even the mission president and his wife split up and went proselyting with us. One of the assistants went with me and my comp. It was fun and i learned alot from him. Then we had Zone Conference the next week, where we just asked President some questions and concerns we have as missionaries. It was good.
These last two Saturdays we cleaned the church, one time we had some youth help us out but the other time it was just me and my comp. But we got it done in 1 and 1/2 hours, which is pretty good. We wanted the church cleaned because we had a Baptism. Sister Geraldine, 19, got baptised. I was afraid she wouldn't be fellowshipped in the church because there were no members who went with us to teach her. But with the Christmas parties at the church and at the members houses she made alot of friends.

The Christmas parties were way fun, one with the branch, where we had alot of games and food.

Then a Christmas party with just the missionaries. We had games, food and a gift exchange/swap. It was alot of fun. So I had a pretty fun Christmas even though i was away from my family for the first time. On the actual day of Christmas we worked a little then went to 2 member's houses to eat and have FHE. The work is doin pretty good. We are finding new investigators and they are also priesthood so that is way awesome. Cuz the branch is really short on priesthood.

This was the lst week of the transfer and my companion, Elder Niar, is now done with his mission. So I will get a new companion and i am excited for this coming transfer. I probably will be senior companion. Well everything is going great. Love you all. Elder Pennock

Dec 6-13, 2010

Its actually cooling down!!!! Thank goodness for December! Its still pretty hot but it is getting better. The nights are quite a bit colder now. Alot of cool things happened this week. Last Monday was the last couple days of the Fiesta in Bani. It is similar to a Town Fair in the States, their were rides, like a ferris wheel and all the local schools competed/performed at the Plaza. And there were a bunch of people selling stuff around the plaza in town.

On Thursday and Friday, after working in Bani for a couple months now I got to work in a different area. We did exchanges, and I got to work in the newly opened area, Mabini. They dont have a chapel there yet, and there is only a few members, but missionary work is doin good there. The good thing about this new area is the people there haven't heard or don't know much about the church, so we can easily talk to people and get new investigators. Also since it is newly opened area, people are not used to seeing missionaries, especially an American. There were some girls who asked to take a picture with me. . . crazy. So goin on exchanges was really cool and fun.

The work in Bani is doin pretty good. We have one sister, Sis. Geraldine, who just had her baptism interview. So she is goin to be baptized next Sunday! =)

Other than that we are just working with the new investigators we have and continuing to find new ones. One guy, Br. Ernieng is really interested in the church and is thinking about joining. He is reading the Book of Mormon and is really impressed with the change of one convert a few years ago who was an alcoholic. The only problem with Ernieg is he lives far away and we only got to teach him once, cuz he returns home from work late in the evening. I hope we can teach him.

On Saturday our whole day was takin up doing a service project at an elementary school in Alaminos. One classroom's roof blew away, and we demolished and started replacing a wall around the boundary of the school. So even until now I am sore from that, mixing cement, and carrying cement blocks.

Sunday evening was the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional which was really cool. And it was the first time I saw it or even knew they had one, that is actually what the pics are about, where we are showing number 1, cuz it was my first christmas devotional. :)

The other pictures were earlier up in Bolinao at the Branch President's house close to the beach. That matorcycle is the motor he races with, he has won a few times with that. Then that was our snack, eating sea shells (the animal inside). We cracked them open with a hammer and then put vinegar on it. mmm...delicious. :)

Well that is pretty much it for this week. Can't wait to call home next week!!!!! Elder Pennock

This is in Bolinao. The previous branch president has a house right by the ocean, it reminded me of our house in Mexico. Except i think it is more beautiful in the Philippines. :)

Nov 22 - Dec 5, 2010

Hello again. I have to update on two weeks now. The work is doin pretty good, we have one progressing investigator that has a baptism date for Dec. 10. So we are excited for her, the rest of the work we are just trying to work with the investigators we have and find new investigators, lately we have been goin to new places and finding new people. So hopefully things will start happening.
Last week we had Zone Conference, which was cool. The sister missionaries in our zone who usually get a ride with the couple missionaries, the Ashcrafts, had to ride the bus with us cuz there is not yet any replacement senior missionaries. So that was a little bit different ride for them but is was fun.
At Zone Conference we focused on teaching the Restoration, cuz it answers so many questions and if investigators just would listen and understand the principles of the Restoration, everything would be better. :)
Oh the investigator that we were excited to teach, Agnus, turned out to be a little conspicuous, we think she was a member before, she knows like all the lyrics to the hymns, but she is like in hiding, by moving all over the place.
This past week, there was an inactive member who passed away. So we had a service for her at the church, then because there is very little priesthood in our branch here, I dedicated the grave. My first time dedicating a grave, and probably my last.
What was funny was she was a chain smoker, so they placed a pack of cigarettes and matches on her casket. So I don't know that was just funny, especially since i dedicated the grave.
Also another crazy thing that happened, was we were teaching the Restoration to a few investigators, and right after we finished Sister received a text that her husband, who is working abroad, just passed away because of high blood. She then started crying. She was in such sorrow and pain. Me and my companion were just thinking how grateful we are to know there is life after death and that our families are together forever. And for my companion, his dad died when he was still new in the mission, but he continued his mission and had peace because he knew he will see his dad again. And i thought to myself if that would happen to me, it wouldn't be so painful nothing like what this one sister was feeling. Then i realized the blessing of eternal families, that no one else knows about except members of the true church of Jesus Christ. That experience also was a reality check for me as a missionary, cuz she has been an investigator for along time, and if she only knew or understood our message, or we taught better so she would understand and do her commitments, that pain, sorrow and anguish would never have happened. Her husband was an awesome and nice guy. I even had the privilege to meet him before he went abroad (that shows you how long I have been here in Bani, I'm 10 months now). Her husband said we were the only missionaries that he would listen to and not hide from, cuz we are not like others who say "our church is true, you need to repent and join our church or you will not be saved".
So those are a few big things that have happened, also the town fiesta is goin on, kind of like a town fair, there is rides, and dances and bands, I will send pictures next week. Elder Pennock

This was a funeral. There we are teaching the Plan of Salvation to the family members of the deceased. And there i am at the cemetery, I didn't know they were takin a picture, but you can see how the cemeteries are here. The caskets are in those white cement boxes.

The nativity




Eating "balut"

Helping to build an addition with bamboo.
This was a service project at a members house. We made walls to make a shed to store rice. The pic with me and Tatay, he is a part member family, he is the only one that is not a member.

Nov 15 - 21, 2010

This week was cool. It was the end and the start of transfers. We found out monday who was gonna be transferred and then tuesday was transfer day. Elder Larson was being transferred so Monday night we went up to Bolinao, his area, for Family Home Evening. There was quite a bit of people, a couple families. I was assigned to do the spiritual thought which was alright, better than doin the lesson. Then it was time for games and we, the elders, were called on to do the games. I was the only one who thought of a game we could do so i led the game. The game i did was simple but can be really fun. I got it from my first area in San Marcelino. Its where half of the people thinks of and writes down a question, any kind of question, and then the other half thinks of and writes an answer, any kind of answer. Then we go through doing question and answer. And sometimes its really funny, because it is totally random. I forgot alot of the funny ones but one was, "Where do you live?" then the answer was, "it depends if you love me or not". Another one was "who was your first kiss?" then the answer was "a dog". haha
This first week of transfers we opened up a new area, pretty close to the church so there is no excuses for not goin to church. :) We tracting there and finding new investigators. We found a few good ones that are really interested. One of them is Sis. Agnus, age 51. We almost passed by her little bamboo house, but i felt prompted to go there and say hi. She has moved a lot and has met alot of mormon missionaries. She even has a Book of Mormon. So that was way cool to find her. She has a lot of questions that are perfect for us as missionaries to answer. She is wondering why there is a book of mormon and who is mormon? She has even read a little bit and asked what the liahona is? So we are excited to go back and teach her.
It feel good to start finding and teaching new people cuz a lot of our previous ones are busy with harvesting rice, so we aren't able to teach them and they are not progressing.
On Saturday we had a service project at a member's house. We started making a wall for their porch cover, to turn it into a shed, so they can store their rice in it. We put up bamboo posts all around the outside so it will hold the wall. It was fun and way cool. Bamboo is awesome, and there is a ton of it here. It was only a few of us so we didn't get it all done, me and my comp, the young men pres, the church building representative, and two young men (priests).
On Sunday it was the Primary program. It was great. Eventhough it was only 4 kids. I guess all the other kids didn't want to do it cuz there are actually a lot of kids in Primary. There was 2 boys and 2 girls. They each recited a scripture verse and then bore testimony. Then the 4 of them would sing a song that related to the scripture. It was good and they were loud enough for us to hear surprisingly. Also one of the boys and one of the girls gave the invocation and benediction for sacrament. Really cool.
So that was this week. Mahal ko kayong lahat. Elder Pennock

Nov 8-14, 2010

Kamusta kamu tanan! This is the native language of my companion, Ilongo, for "how are all of you". Pretty cool!
This week was the last week of the transfer, but we found out today that I am not gonna be transfered. I thought for sure i was goin to be transfered, because I have been here for 7 1/2 months now. And now this is my companion's last transfer before he goes home. So i will most likely be here for another transfer after this one. So I am goin to have Christmas and New Years here. Also whats cool there is the Bani yearly festival the first week of December so that is gonna be cool.

This week was pretty cool, one thing really cool was that we harvested in the rice fields. As a service project we harvested some rice of the newly baptized converts, the Humilde Family. It wasn't too bad, but it was way hot and the warts on my hands were really hurting. I put gloves on, the doctor type ones, that helped a little.

Then on Sunday it was cool to be here when Manny Pacquio fought. He is so big here, like a legend. In the plaza/towncenter, they put up a white screen and they displayed the fight as it was goin on. They do this in every town. And it was so cool to here everyone cheering and stuff. The work was a little slow this week, but we are excited to start a new transfer period. Elder Pennock

Nov 1-7, 21010

So the first week of November. It was way cool, and a lot of new things happened. On Monday we went up to Bolinao and spent some time with the 2 elders up there. We went to the beach, and to a zoo called Rock Garden. It was awesome, all the animals, and we got in free, cuz there was no one at the entrance, the cost is really cheap anyways, 10 pesos. And the beach was so beautiful.

Then after that the 4 of us Elders went to my area, Bani, to have a FHE with our recent converts the Humilde Family. It was way fun. I had to do the lesson, but it was more like a spiritual thought. Then we just played games. On Tuesday and Wednesday we did missionary work, thats a surprise. Then on Thursday we had special training in Santa Cruz. It was good. More practicing teaching and listening to the mission President's workshops.

Then after the training, I went to Olongapo City. The Mission president and his wife took me down to the mission home. There I stayed with the Office Elders and the Assistants. Then the day on Friday I went to the doctor and he lasered all my warts. The main pro doctor did the big one on my left palm, then the younger less experienced doc did the rest. I watched the whole procedure, it was crazy. They killed and burned the warts and then just took it off. Sometimes it would really hurt cuz the anesthetic wore off so they had to inject more in. It took a long time 1 1/2 hrs, and the couple missionaries, the Moberlys, were waiting the whole time. But it was alright, my hands looked like a mummy at the end. Then after the surgery I worked with the assistants. It was cool to work with them. In a totaly new area and environment. Then we went back to the mission home. Which is really nice by the way. Complete with airconditioning. In fact it was really cold. I am not used to that.

Then on Saturday morning the Assistants took me back to Santa Cruz. On the way there it was way cool to see my first area, San Marcelino. I miss that area, it was so cool to see it again. Then at Santa Cruz I took a bus to Alaminos all by myself. Then at Alaminos, the other couple missionaries, the Ashcrafts took me to Bani. So it was a way crazy, long trip. But way fun.

Then back to missionary work on saturday and sunday. On sunday Rolly and Reden got confirmed, and that was so cool. Then after church we had a ton of youth work with us. We had so many we had to split up. So that was really fun.

Oh! and on saturday, I rode a Kalibaw/water buffalo. So that was my fun crazy week. Love you all. Elder Pennock

Oct 25-31

The last week of October. On Monday, we went to Alaminos City and Hundred Islands. We shopped with all the other elders in the mall and at the souvenir shops in Hundred Islands. I bought some nice shoes for meetings and a pair of white flip flops for baptisms. On Thursday we had special training in Santa Cruz again. It was fun to be with all of the other missionaries and to learn, but took up a whole day of work.
One crazy thing happened this week. I met a Filipino from California. He didn't know how to speak tagalog so I had to speak english to him. I couldn't do it for my life. I just tried to get to know him and share about the restoration. But is was so hard to do it in english. He was filipino and seemed like he should know how to speak tagalog.
Also on sunday we had a surprise visit by the mission president. He stopped by our house before church, and then attended our sacrament meeting. Us and the branch were so shocked and nervous. He spoke in church and then interviewed me and my companion. Then after church we had a baptism!!! A father and a son got baptized. I had the privilege of baptising them, and now they are a complete member family. So that was the highlight of the week.
Also just a little thing that happened this week was my birthday, on saturday. We went to a member's house, and she made a cake. There was only a few of us. We had a family home evening and then dinner and ate cake. On sunday all the members were mad at me because I didn't tell them it was my birthday. :)
That's pretty much it for this week. I love you all. Happy halloween. There is no Halloween here. This week families clean the grave of their family members that passed away and they visit them and sleep over on November 1. Interesting I know. I miss the costumes and the candy. =)
Yes nandito ako!! The mission president and his wife came by our house. Sister said one of my warts is too big to ignore any longer. After special training on Thursday I am goin to Olongapo to get it removed, like operation in a hospital. Its on my palm under my thumb. It's probably the mother. So when that dies the rest will.

Oct.18 - 24

Well the first thing that happened this week, on Monday, while I was waiting to get some stuff laminated like my ministerial certificate, we were looking at some clothes next door, like a small thrift store. I noticed a pink Brigham Young University t-shirt. It was a nice one too. I just thought that came from a DI or something, from a nice member of the church. And now it was all the way in the Philippines in my area. So thanks to everyone who is donating clothes and things, they really go places. :)
The biggest thing that happened this week was a Baguio came by and we went to Alaminos with the other Elders. There was 8 of us in their apartment. It was a lot of fun. But we didn't get to work. We stayed their from monday night till wednesday morning. There was no electricity the whole time. But it was still fun. Then on wednesday we had Special training. There was workshops, and a testimony meeting and we practiced teaching and stuff.
What was really cool this week was two of our investigators a father and his son passed their baptism interview on Sunday. So they will get baptised next sunday. Also a lot more members and 4 investigators went to church this week. I was suprised that one inactive family went to church. They have been inactive for so long.
It was also fun this week that a lot of members worked with us. Thats pretty much it for this week. The word baguio means storm. A strong wind and rain storm came by. We all stayed in Alaminos, and there was no power, but good thing the weather was pretty cold. A few houses lost their roofs, and some huts got destroyed, and a lot of rice fields got destroyed too. Some places got flooded. But everything is alright here.
Havin alot of fun. Time is goin by fast. I am gonna be 20 after this week. I love you all. My english is getting worse, I tried to say a prayer in english because my companion wants to learn english, it was really hard, I didn't know how to say anything, my grammer was terrible.
Love Elder Pennock

Oct. 11 -17

This week was pretty cool and pretty crasy. It was the first full week of the new transfer and companionship. We are working on changing the schedule so our appointments aren't so far away from each other. So we dropped a couple investigators and are talking to a lot of new people. But the work is doin good, we still have a lot of members working with us and a few good progressing investigators.
Nanay Onia has been an investigator forever now, since before I got to Bani, but we taught her about prayer and we finally committed her to give the closing prayer. While she was praying, she started to cry.
Also it was the same situation with Bro. Paumba, he has yet to pray for us, but we got his wife, who is a member to help him, and Bro. would repeat what Sis. said. So that was at least a step.
We also have a few who are interested and reading the Book of Mormon.
Depressingly we had no investigators attend church and only 60 total. Maybe they got like a hangover from general conference last week, because there was no church. Hopefully next week it will be better.
Last Monday at Family Home Evening, I learned a lot from a story that a member shared to us. It was about this guy, he was a member and it seemed like he did all he had to do in life to enter the Celestial Kingdom. He served a full time mission, he fulfilled his calling, he has a great family that are married in the temple, he didn't smoke, drink, wasn't prideful or get angry. But come to judgement he couldn't enter into the Celestial Kingdom even though he thought he was worthy to enter. The reason was he wasn't completely honest. Just little things like not returning the cashier money if they paid him too much kept him from being completely honest and entering God's kingdom. So I just really learned a lot from that lesson, and that really really don't know if we are worthy enough, we can always improve something and we can always repent.
Also I learned from the Special Training we had in Santa Cruz about the importance of teaching with the spirit, how it helps us as missionaries and the investigators.
On Tuesday after district meeting, we go to this one area that is farmland, rice fields. And we were there late teaching the family of a recent convert, Emma Jimenez. So we had to walk through the fields in the dark. We did have flashlights but it rained a lot that day so the path was muddy. We (me, my comp, and a branch missionary, Joshua) also had our nice, good shoes on too, especially my comp his shoes were really nice. So there we were trudgin along, we also got a little lost too, cuz the rice grew a ton since the last time I was there. Joshua and I both slipped once. So that was a lot of fun. Well that is it for this week. Elder Pennock

Oct 4 - 10

Wow! What a new and great week this week. First it's October which means I'm goin to turn 20 this month. Crazy! I'm gettin old. The mission is goin by way fast.
Well on Tuesday it was transfer day. 2 Elders and 2 sisters from our zone got transferred. My companion, E. Westwood and the other Elder in my district E. Berueta. So for that day me and Elder Larson were companions, the 2 San Diego elders. It was cool. We hung out around the city and ate breakfast with the couple missionaries and the 2 sisters whose companions got transferred. Then me and Larson went shopping. I finally bought a new camera and some things we need for the apartment. Then we went to my apartment in Bani and we cleaned it up a little before my new comp would arrive. After that we returned to Alaminos and got our new comps.
My new comp is Elder Niar (bachwards is Rain) =) He is from Negros, Bacolod Philippines. He is way cool, pretty quiet like me actually, but a great missionary, he only has 3 months left in the mission (2 transfers). But he is great we have a lot of fun.
The work in Bani is goin great! We have some progressing and golden investigators. Sister Rose Cave went to church the first time last Sunday, I might have already told you about that actually, but she now has a baptism goal date.
Brother Joel Baleros is really searching and wanting to know all about the church, he went to church and attended the Sunday morning session of conference. He really likes the fruits and welfare system of the church and how modern and technologically advanced our church is. He actually said the reason he is not so sure about joining our church is because he doesn't think he can help out. So that was huge. He wants to know more about Joseph Smith and the Holy Ghost.
The Huellas family are really close to baptism as well. I so hope they choose to get baptized, they are such a great family.
Also The Humilde family, a part member family, we are teaching the father and the 10 year old son. They have a baptism date now for the end of October. When they get baptized it will be a whole great family preparing to get sealed in the temple.
The one thing that is great here is the members, that Elder Niar really enjoys. On Friday we went to a birthday party at one of the members' house. It was a lot of fun. Before I even got my food to eat, some of the youth slabbed cake frosting all over my face. They said I looked like Santa Clause. (I will send the pics next week to build the suspense).
To end the week was General Conference. It was awesome. From that I learned to be so grateful for my parents, the gospel, the savior, the church, the prophet and apostles and this opportunity to share these blessings in the Philippines.
Also for the Temples, the new temple in the Philippines is way close to my area in Bani Pangasinan. The new temple is goin to be in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. The next mission over but the same province. It is goin to be so great and a blessing for the members here. It will be way easier for them to attend the temple than to go way down to Manila.
Well I think that is pretty much it for this week. Love you all. Elder Pennock

Sept 17 - Oct 3

It was a good week this week. The biggest news this week is what we just got this morning, my comp, Elder Westwood is getting transfered. So I am getting a new comp and gonna lead the area, after 6 months of being companions with Westwood. So things are goin to get a bit more different and crazy.
Here in the Philippines, even though it is barely October, Christmas is in the air. There is Christmas trees and lights poppin up more and more. I kinda like it. haha. Another cool thing I saw this week was some kids practicing boxing in the street. They were really young and they would take off their shirts and fold them and hold them up like a punching bag. It was cool and funny to see.
This week we actually had more priesthood work with us than young women, which is great. Three future missionaries worked one of them being the branch mission leader. They were good at teaching and they even taught in the local language of Ilocano, so the investigators could more fully understand. It was awesome. Also on Saturday night we cleaned the church. We had a ton of members come, they even started cleaning and had a lot done before we got there.
We had some more investigators come to church, new ones and ones that haven't been for a little while. The family we are really workin with, Family Huellas, are really close to baptism. They haven't committed to a date yet. But they are close the kids want to. We are just waiting on the parents. Another great investigator, Rolly Humilde, a part member, is really progressing. He reads the Book of Mormon almost every morning and really feels the spirit at church. We just extended a baptism date to him and he accepted!
After church we had a baptism, the young girl who was supposed to get baptized last week, but she got sick. So that was really cool. The branch president baptized her. So that is pretty much it for this week. Mahal ko kayong lahat. Elder Pennock

Sept. 20-26

This week was great. We had a lot of members work with us this week, almost every day. And as a result we had more lessons with a member present than other lessons. The youth and the young adults are the ones who always work with us, it is way fun. Sometimes the Relief Society or the Branch President does as well. And it makes it way better when there is a member there and not just us, so the investigator can have someone to relate to and have a friend.
Things are getting pretty tough now cuz a lot of our investigators are close to be done with the lessons but there are things missing for their conversion. Some of them are not goin to church, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, or drinking and smoking still. It's tough, we got to help them in this change, as well as help them help themselves.
Last Monday it was way fun, we had a Family Home Evening at our house. Quite a few members and investigators came and we cleaned our front and backyards. Then we had FHE, dinner, a lesson and games. For the games after 3 people lost you had to do the chicken dance, me and Westwood lost first and so that was fun for everyone to see us do the chicken dance. Some people liked it so much they made me lose again, to make me dance again. But it was a lot of fun.
This last Sunday was great. We had a record attendance, around 110 in sacrament and 15 investigators. Also we had a baptism after, a grandkid of a member and the mother of 3 members who work with us all the time. Her husband came to church for the first time.
After church and and the baptism we walked so far. We were finding a referral that one of the sister missionaries gave us. They said they live behind this resort. So we followed the signs to the resort forever. Then we got to that and it was a ways away, and we ended up fairly close to a member's house in the next barangay. So it was better and faster to go out a different way. It was a huge circle. But that was it this week. Everything is great. I love you all. Elder Pennock

Sept 13-19

This week was great. A lot of fun good stuff happened this week. I forgot t mention a couple things last week too. Friday morning last week, we had a youth activity at the church, it was actually quite fun. We cleaned the whole church with all the youth. :)
Also we had a service project last Monday, we did yard work at a members house in Alaminos. It was just all the missionaries.
One new investigator this week Jordan Acheta, is was the first lesson, he invited all his family, so there was a lot of people. The cool thing was after we taught him, he said he believes in our message. Also one other investigator, Victoria, who we have been teaching for a long time now, accepted a baptism date for next month along with her friend and her daughter. Also 3 of our investigators had their baptism interview this Sunday, so the 3 of them are getting baptized next Sunday!
On Thursday we had special training, learned a lot and practiced teaching a lot. We had to teach in English to the couple missionaries one time, that was pretty hard to teach in English instead of Tagalog.
On Saturday we had a service project at an elementary school in Alaminos. A ton of people were there, all the missionaries and the branches. We painted, and cleaned the classrooms.
A lot of stuff happened this week. The work is going good. Love you all Elder Pennock

Sept 7 - 12th

This week was good. The work was a little slow cuz we had a lot of meetings and stuff. On Monday, ok this is a good funny story about my beloved companion Elder Westwood. On Monday we went to the doctor, for him to get a checkup and the doc told him he can't eat a few things. So that night he ate fish, the one thing he can have, and he ate a bone, which got stuck in his throat. So we went back to Alaminos after that, but the doc wasn't there. So he slept with it in his throat. Then we went to Alaminos Tuesday morning. But the bone had come up a little, so the people said swallow a banana. So we went to the market and he tried swallowing a banana. And he started chocking in front of everyone. haha. But then it finally worked and he used the banana to get rid of the fishbone.
Our district meetings have been changed to Tuesday afternoons now and it's in Alaminos. So it messes up our proselyting time. So we just stayed in Alaminos, and visited 3 of our recent converts who work in Alaminos. We were able to teach one. That was way cool.
On Wednesday, we had /got to go down to Santa Cruz for a leadership training, cus Westwood is district leader. But the meeting was way good. We a lot from teaching practices and the mission president and other leaders. They are changing how we do district meeting, its gonna be a half hour longer now. Aw well. And I being a comp to a district leader am like his assistant/secretary. But that's not hard, I just gotta work with he stats and stuff.
Thursday through Sunday we worked and focused on our progressing investigators. We have a few investigators with a baptism date. And I"m excited for that. This morning we had a service project in Alaminos. All the missionaries, except for the elders in Bolinao, came and cleaned/pulled weeds at a members house. It was fun there we 10 of us, 4 sisters and 6 elders. Everything is goin great! I love you all. Elder Pennock

Aug 30 - Sept 5, 2010

Kamusta na Kayo!? This week was great! Everything is going well. We have a few real good progressing investigators, a few difficult ones who are addicted to alcohol or cigarrettes and we found a few great new investigators.

On Wednesday we had a special training again in Santa Cruz. It was good we had to split up and just teach by ourselves. It was good to do that. I learned alot. Also I got to see my trainer, my first companion! He is now a zone leader so he was there. It was way cool to see him again. He told me a few things that has happened about our area, San Marcelino. One of our investigators had died because of drinking, which was terrible to hear, but one other has a baptism goal date again, she had one when we were there but then she had a baby. But the coolest thing that happened that he told me was that Ferdinand Lagoy, I am pretty sure I told you about him way in the end of March. Me and Elder Maccasudduc were the first ones to teach him. And he said he has been looking around at different churches and that he believes in our message, that God sent us to him and this is the way. That was so cool to here that, especially when I was still new but I could understand that. So the great news is he was baptised and is an active member in San Marcelino!! That was so awesome to hear! I so want to go back there and see how everyone is doin.

(this is what his companion said on his blog about the training on Wed) "For the duration of the training they seperated the companionships. Elder Pennock got put with 2 sisters, one that is still new in the mission, and one that doesn't know very much english. I think it was good for him! He seemed to learn a ton. And he had to talk a lot more cause I was not there to do it." (his blog is http://www.elderchasewestwood.blogspot.com/)

On Friday we and the branch president cleaned the church again. But we do not have to do it this week because the youth are goin to clean the church. Yay!! Also we cleaned the baptismal font cuz we had a baptism on Sunday after church! 4 of our investigators got baptized and i member. I baptised 2 and Elder Westwood baptised the other 2 and the member. It was so cool to get a baptism again. We have a few more with a goal on the 26th. It is great to finally have some success for all our labors.

We have started to teach a few part member families and the Brother (dad) of one of the families, where the mom is a member finally went to church on Sunday! Also the other part member family, the parents aren't members, the mom has been going to church now and the dad just said last night he wants to join the church. When he said that his 3 daughters were all excited, because a while ago he said that in a dream and his wife and kids heard it.

So the work is goin well. Walang problema. Mahal ko kayong lahat. Elder Pennock