Aug 22-28, 2011

Magandang araw po! This week was great! It started off on monday night(monday night football, aw i miss that.haha), eventhough it wasn't football it was way fun. We had a joint Family Home Evening at the Sevilla household (sorry, theres no pics), there was a lot of people, 8 of us missionaries, and a lot of members and a lot of food. :) The picture i did send is one family home evening a couple weeks ago, where every time you lost you got marked on the face with uling(i dont know the english of uling). On tuesday we had an awesome Zone Conference with Elder Nielson, a quorum of the Seventy. It was such an awesome spiritual conference. they talked about the importance of the spirit and companionship unity and that missionary work is hard, but they said as members of this church we do hard things, which is totally true. =) So dont worry lets just do our part and fulfill our callings. :) Then after the conference Elder Nielson interviewed a couple people, and i was one of them. It was great, he just asked me how i was doin and we talked a little. They are both so cool, He and his wife Sis. Nielson. It was also cool this week cuz we found some new investigators and families that are really awesome, they are all really excited to listen and learn. And some of them even already have a background of the church. We are also continuing to work with the few investigators that our progressing and working toward their baptism. A couple members keep on workin with us which makes it fun. We also are making a litle more time to visit and get to know the members. Sunday night we had another family home evening with a member family, and had a lot of fun playing games and stuff. We visited them cuz Bro. is a soldier and he leaves soon to go back to the force. Oh! also that picture of me helping that guy out, is actually next door. They are workin/doing construction on our bathroom and the people next to us. I decided to go out, give it a try and help them out a little. :) Also when i was doin that, some american from Guam saw me when he was driving by and he came to talk to me. He was with some of his filipino friends and they were amazed that i could speak tagalog and that i was still single! =) They turned out to be jehova's witnesses and they wanted to invite me to their church. :) We talked for a little and i don't think my english was very good, but it was an awesome experience! The other pics are the 6 of us when we planted manggo trees, and me in front of the 100 Islands and some boats. Thats all for this week. Love you all. -Elder Pennock

Aug 15-21, 2011

Hello everybody! It was a great week this week. We are still making alot of changes in the work. We have a few great progressing investigators that we are still continuing to help get to baptism. We also have two new investigators, both of which are part-member families. so we are really excited for them. We also stopped teaching a ton of investigators that aren't progressing at all, and focused a little more time on visiting members, which will be great if we can get some referrals and get to know the members better. So eventhough the work is challenging right now, me and and my companion are ready. I am also enjoying my role as a district leader by interviewing and meeting baptismal candidates of other missionaries. We are also enjoying the work cuz we have a few members who are continuing to work with us. Also this week there was the service of the one returned missionary who became inactive, his burial took place this last saturday. It was great because he is a member of the local government so a ton of people attended and were able to enter the church and hear some of our beliefs. Thank you guys for everything, love you all. I decided to send the 2 last pics on my camera, it was set on timmer and I was the only one aware. haha.

Aug 8-14, 2011

So it was an interesting and exciting week this week. Alot of changes in the work,there's alot of investigators that we have stopped teaching because they are not progressing at all, and a few new potential part-member investigators that have already been goin to church for awhile. so we are excited for them. Also there's this one in-active returned missionary who we have been visiting every once in a while, he served in Hawaii and is one of the pioneers here, but he got offended and started smoking and drinking and doesn't want to go to church. Well cuz of his high blood and a heart attack, he was hospitalized and passed away this last week. Before he passed away, we visited him and blessed him in the hospital, and he said he wanted to and was ready to come back. Its real too bad he had to be hospitalized to make him realize. So this week will be the service. On saturday,we had a joint service project with all the members in the Alaminos District. We went to the mountains of Sual and hiked up them to plant manggo trees. It was absolutely crazy. So far, hot and exhausting.We had to stop and rest a ton of times along the way, it took over half the day, we got back home at like 4 o'clock. And what we did is actually what those people do for a job! Crazy!!! But eventhough it was tough and we all got sunburned(but i was the only one who turned red, cuz im the only white american :) it was pretty fun. Also this morning, monday, we had another service project in Bolinao, at the house of Pres. Balad. After we did yardwork at his house we went to the zoo at Rock Garden. It was pretty cool, eventhough it was my second time there. But it was cool with the new people here. :) We are just continuing in the work. Well i think thats pretty much it for this week. hope you guys are doin awesome. i miss you and love you all. - Elder Pennock

Aug 1-7, 2011

The first week of August! We are still as busy as ever and enjoying the work. It rained a ton this week, and i finally decided to buy a new and bigger umbrella to replace the one i have been using for over a year now, when i was still in Bani. Its way awesome by the way, its way bigger, but can still fold up and fit in my bag. So that makes the work a little more enjoyable, also we had one sister work with us two days this week, which was way fun as well. Thats the girl in the red, and there we are in farm area where there are a lot of trees, mud and floods. Its crazy, some areas get way flooded and muddy, especially when its been raining as hard as it has lately. We also have a ton of investigators, some progressing more than others, but that's missionary work, and what makes it fun and challenging. And my new companion and I are excited and enjoying it. We found 2 great new families who are awesome and were actually taught by missionaries way back, so we are excited for them. Our new zone is also doin great, we got some zone jerseys which are totally cool. Just lovin the work. Love you all. -Elder Pennock

Zone Jerseys

I sent some cool pics. of the new 6 elders in our house. and thats our new zone uniform. totally sweet! the language of tonga is on the front which means Zone Unity, because that big guy, Elder Masima (eventhough his nickname is on his jersey) is tongan. but the jerseys are awesome. just dont notice my farmer's tan. :)

July 25-31, 2011

The first week of a new transfer, and a new companion. My new companion is Elder Cagayanan. He was with me and E. Muliaina, and Elder Schwiekert in Cupang. We also got 3 more elders in our house, Elder Masima and Elder Parco. They are great guys as well. But before these guys came, and before the other guys left we ate lunch at Maxine by the Sea. Thats what the pictures are, where you can see the 100 Islands. Way cool! The missonary work is doin great! We have alot of new investigators that are interested in our message and want to learn all about it. We also had a baptism, another priesthood holder, Esagani Misola, who is the cousin of the returned missionary who always works with us. He is the one with the blue necktie. That last picture is a family home evening, where the father wearing blue, is an RM as well. The food was awesome! Well I got to go. sorry for the short report. Love you. - Elder Pennock