Oct 24-30, 2011

Last week of October! My last Halloween with no trick or treat, candy, and costumes! But there are christmas lights and christmas trees!!! =) Well this week was awesome! We had some members work with us this week to fellowship our investigators and the less-active members that we're teaching. It was a ton of fun. And this sunday we had 4 investigators come to church, as well as a few less-actives and less-active families who we've been visiting. Which was totally sweet! We are also meeting a lot of new people everyday who are really interested, as well as 2 referrals given by a less-active member, so hopefully by the next couple weeks, her referrals and she will come to church, because right now she is a bit shy cuz she has noone to go with because her husband is not interested. The branch president also worked with us again to visit some less actives, and it was so cool to see them come to church. There is also this one awesome part-member investigator who is way cool and way fun.She was taught before, but she couldn't get baptized cuz she is not yet married.They were set up to get married with the church but it fell through, so we are just reviewing everything with her and hopefully we can get someone to marry them. :) Her kids are cool too and love to play, and the candy we buy for them. :) We also did another visit to some of our missionaries in our zone, this time with the mission president, it was sweet. Especially riding in a car again with airconditioning! Last tuesday we did a cool spiritual instruction. thats the picture with 8 of us elders, it was david and goliath. haha. Also Saturday afternoon we had a family day branch activity. Me and my comp were in charge of the games. we had about 6 or 7 games planned but only had time for 2. :( Cuz they had some workshops on emergency preparedness and 72 hr kit, which ate up the time. Lame. :) But it was fun anyways. We also had some investigators and less-actives there. So this week was great. Love you guys!!! Happy Halloween! -Elder Pennock

Oct. 17 -23, 2011

The end and beginning of another transfer. So this is now my 15th transfer(6th week period) in the Philippines!! And it was awesome! Transfers were on wednesday but before that we had a service project with the Orion Elders at one of our members house. We built that sweet bamboo hut so sister could cook even when its raining. Some of the members helped out as well as Elder Caunca and Elder Erickson from Orion. It was way fun and it turned out to be pretty sweet. Also those other pictures are us with some of our investigaotrs and partmember families. The work is doin good, we had some members work with us this week including the Elders Quorum President and the Branch President. Which was way cool. And eventhough it was transfers, we were able to return home by lunch from the bus station in Balanga and work in the afternoon. We got alot of new investigators and also 3 were able to come to church this sunday!! Which is way better than last week cuz noone came last week. haha, Because of transfers we got some new people in our zone, Elder Ciar(from San Pablo, where my comp is also from), and Elder Defilipis (spelling?) who is from Idaho, he is brand new from the MTC. Well i think thats pretty much it for this week. We are just excited for another transfer. Love you guys. -Elder Pennock

Oct. 10-16, 2011

Another great week, and we are so stinkin busy, with the zone, the branch, the leaders, the less active, the former investigators, the new investigators, the partmembers, activities, and now transfers! Geez! But its way fun. =) we have alot of new investigators right now and we are really excited for them, alot of them are also partmember families where if we get them back to church it will be a convert and reactivation! Which we really need in this small branch here. But this last week we had a great service project at a less-active family. We built a kubo/place to cook for Sister, so she can cook outside even when its raining. So it wont be all smokey in their house. It was cool, all out of bamboo. Also for preparation day last monday we got to go up to Mt. Samat!!! Where the big awesome cross is! Its like a tribute or a shrine after the war with th Japanese in WW2. It was pretty sweet. But we couldn't go into the cross and up to the top because there was no electricity, couldn't use the elevator! That was with the whole zone. Alot of our new investigators are way awesome, we just got to know them pretty well, and we are excited to go back to them and teach. Also there are some kids who are way fcool and funny, they say I look like and call me Prince William. What the flip. haha. We also made a surprise visit on some missionaries in our zone to see how there doin and if they are awake and studying as they should. And it turned out... they weren't. Thats one new responsibility that me and my comp have to do is help out the zone! By doin surprise visits and exchanges. We had an exchange with the Orion elders. I was with Elder Erickson in Limay and it was way sweet! He is the district leader here and he is almost done with his mission and goin to go home, prabobly tomorrow. He is way tall, mush taller than me, so it was funny to see everyone stare at us. haha. This is also the last week of the transfer so we will have alot of changes this week, but me and my comp are still here. I am now feeling more and more comfortable in tagalog than i am in english. Its nuts. Here's the tagalog alphabet(abacada) thought you guys might want to know it... A, B, K, D, E, G, H, I, L, M, N, NG, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y. Its a little different than the english one. haha. Also i found this cool poem and quote that explains a mission pretty well, "The Best Two Years Of My Life" by Susan Hiatt Biggs, and "The Man and The Rock" by Sharon Miller. Find those on the net, there really good. Well, i think that pretty mush it. Love you guys! - Elder Pennock

Member artist

some pics. one of the members here is an artist. way good at workin with junk and stuff. :)