Hello from Shelbyville

Dear Everyone!

This week has been incredible, minus the fact that today I lost my nametag. The nametag I have worn since January 15, 2014, every single day! It's kinda depressing me and my new companion definitely doesn't understand. So, I'll just move on to keep from crying in the public library computer lab. :)

We had quite a few miracles this week, which I can't even begin to describe! But there are a few people we met and are teaching that I just love so much, I'll try to explain them to you.

So first: Diamond. Yep, that's her name. She's 19, and the daughter of one of the nicest people ever, Quincy. he teaches primary at church! We met her, and she was cracking us up the whole time. She really reminds me of Monica Ukah a little bit. Her hair and all. Anyway, we got talking about God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost, you know as we normally do, and we were explaining how we believe they are three separate beings, but united in purpose. We explained that we call them the Godhead, and Diamond freaked out. She told us she had been reading the Bible yesterday, and that she came across that word, and she reread and reread it, trying to figure out what it meant. She was like, 'yall, im serious here, i was like stuck on it for like....days.' oh diamond :) anyway, so that really opened her up to it all. She was just super engaged, and told us to tell her everything. "i need information, just go for it, im super interested." it was amazing! but of course, it's never actually that easy right? her mom was there, but here mom was offended by some missionaries a while ago, so she was trying to shut the whole thing down, without coming off that way. it was awkward, but we aren't worried at all. Diamond knows what she was thinking and feeling about everything we shared. And I am pretty sure her mom knows too, that's why she was trying to get rid of us, cause she knows its true! In fact, she told us she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. she just never had the rest of the dots connected for her! But yea, we are super excited to teach Diamond!!

Robyn is still progressing, and coming to church. She is very excited about her baptism, and wanted to make sure everyone knew.... :) Ok! It should be the end of this month, but we will see how it all works out. it's tricky with the fourth of July being on a saturday too. But we will figure it out!

We met another sweet lady named Virginia this week, and she is looking for a church! She is familiar with ours, she's attended before, and she really wants to learn. She said to take it slow, but that's no problem with us. She is really sweet and seems very sincere, so we are excited to see where she goes with it! But she works all the time, so we hope thats not a problem.

Along with the good comes the not so good, right? Opposition in all things. So, we had some good ol awkward moments this week too! Like, pulling up to someone's house, and seeing them inside, and then them ignoring us knocking on the door? Or, setting an appointment for the next day, and them not being there for the second time! Or being told the wrong address for our dinner appointment, so we knocked on their next door neighbors' door! And THEN the members came outside and motioned us over. (thankfully, their neighbors weren't even home, so that was all ok, still embarrassing though! :).

Probably the moment that takes the Awkward cake of the week is this: we were tracting, trying to find a specific person without their address (long, complicated story. we do crazy things sometimes as missionaries, i know). So, it's getting dark and we decide to knock on one more door! We knock, and no one comes, but then we hear the window to the left slide open, and we see a head pop out. The guy asks 'can i help you?', to which I tell him we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ! Then he says, ' yea, i'm on the toilet right now...can yall come back tomorrow?' and a few other things. we tried to tell him we couldn't go back tomorrow, but between the window, the laughs, and the awkwardness, he just couldn't seem to get the message. maybe one day this week we will go knock on his door again. but we just walked away laughing and laughing....WHO DOES THAT?! oh, Tennessee with your strange folk. I love it!

It was all worth it though, because we met some really good people on that street. One man who had a lot of questions about what happens to us after we die. it was really neat to get to share some of the Plan of Salvation with him, and help him understand God has a plan.

We also painted a ceiling this week for one of our members. it was....interesting. Why? Well, the ceiling was paneled, so we had to cut all the corners of every single 6 inch square so it was basically like we hand painted the whole thing, and my companion is 4' 11" and terrified of heights i.e. stepping on a ladder. So.... it was interesting :) But Heavenly Father helps us through those moments too! And the days afterwards of neck pain.... I really did enjoy doing it, I just felt so bad for my companion the whole time! :)

One of our awesome newer members finally opened up to us about smoking this week, and how she wants to quit! We are really happy because we have known for a while that she smokes, but we had to wait for her to talk to us about so that we could help her with it! We will be hopefully helping her quit this week! She is so sweet, and really wants to go to the temple, but smoking is keeping her back! Addictions can really get ya.... its tough to see a lot of it here.

We  had one of the best lessons this week with a family who is returning to the church after a few months of inactivity. They asked us to teach them about how to study their scriptures! It was so cool for me, because it totally made me realize how much I have learned and grown from that on my mission. I had no idea before how to study the scriptures, with the expectation and faith that I would actually learn something from them. but now, it really is something I need to do every single day!! The scriptures have real power to them, and when you study with a question, the answer always comes!

Man, there was so much more I could write about, but I know this is probably already too long! I am so grateful to be a missionary, and I am grateful for the incredible people we have met here this week. It's been very clear to me how involved Heavenly Father is in my life, and in everyone single one of our lives. I love these people, and this place, but most especially, I love getting to share the gospel with all of them. There is absolutely nothing that brings more peace and happiness in this life than the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is so very real, and this week I had many experiences which helped me remember that. I am so grateful for my Savior. Whenever I can keep him as the center of my thoughts, nothing else matters. Even losing my nametag, or being ignored, or whatever happens. All that matters in this life is to understand and grow close to our Savior and Heavenly Father. The challenge is just to always remember and recognize how close they are to us!

Love,

Sister Penrod

Tender Mercies

Dear Everybody,

Another week, come and gone in Shelbyville, Tn: The Walking Horse capitol of the World, or something like that. Also, pencils and sharpies :) There are a lot of factories here. Your Tyson Chicken might come from this city, too! No one was sick, and we didn't get drenched, so this week has been relatively calm in comparison to previous ones! But of course, still wonderful adventures.

We saw quite a few tender mercies from Heavenly Father, and an awesome miracle or two as well! We are fed almost every night here, which is something new to me, but we love it! So, we have been talking with the families who feed us and asking them if there is anyone they know that might be interested in learning more about the gospel, since that's what we do! So one family told us to go knock on their sons door, since he used to come to church with them, and is a member. They tried explaining where he lived, but the best we got was his street (people here really fail at explaining directions, it's hilarious. They try three or four different ways, which confuses us more.)

Anyway, so a few days later, we had some time to go knock on doors, so we were going to try to find theirs! So, we find a place to park (remember, no sidewalks here, only ditches- so parking is rough.) We knock on the house right in front of us, and who do you think we meet? The son? NO, a less active member of the church! They let us
right in, and told us their whole story, and how they joined the church, but they haven't been back in a few months, etc. We share a message about the commandments, and obedience, and how we are so blessed when we follow God's laws, and how one of those is to keep the sabbath day holy. We ask them if they will come to church, and they say, 'well, yeah! of course we are!'. it was so funny, and amazing. the spirit was totally there, and we were so grateful we found them. Best news is that they actually did come! It was just the biggest tender mercy.

So then, we leave and try to go find the other members' son! We skip a door or two, and knock on one other house, and guess who we meet? The son! And he is super nice. It was awkward, because we didn't know it was him, but then he told us he grew up in our church, etc etc. Anyway, it was a great night, and we felt so led by the Spirit. We
were so grateful!

I don't remember if I mentioned Amber, but she is a 19 year old artist who is such a cool girl, and we are working to help her build her relationship with God again. She joined the church when she was younger, but she has since stopped coming. Well, a few days ago she sprained both of her ankles, and could hardly walk! We explained that a priesthood blessing could help, and she wanted to receive one to help her gain her strength again. So, we set up a time, and then didn't hear from her for a few days. We were really stressing that she wouldn't be there or something, since she was normally really good at responding to us but wasn't! the problem was that the priesthood holders who were coming to help lived almost an hour away, so we were worried that they would come all the way out, and she wouldn't be home! But we prayed really really hard, and everything worked out! It was such a tender mercy, for all of us involved!

We also got a new couch this week! The one we had was full of bugs, so we finally got a new one to replace it. The Assistants had to bring it up from Nashville for us, which was so nice of them! But as we were moving the old one out, our neighbor asked if he could find someone to take it. We told him there were bugs in it, but he didn't mind. So, all week we have had two couches, but hopefully by tonight, we should have just one, which we can actually sit on and not squirm! Blessings!

I went on my first exchange in a month this week too! It's been weird, not going on exchanges lately. I counted it up, I haven't gone this long without an exchange in a little over 9 months! So I was really grateful for the exchange this week. It was really fun for me, since I got to go to Buena Vista, with Hermana Torres! My spanish has definitely declined since living with Hermanas, but that's ok, it was still a good day. I learned a lot from Hermana Torres. But it was kinda weird to be on the other side again.

Ok, another tender mercy: so last week, Sister Linsangan was talking to me about how she knows ASL, and she really wanted to use it to help someone. I told her all she had to do was pray for some opportunity, and something would come up! I have seen it happen all the time for me on my mission! And, I told her that every now and then, we would get an email from President  asking around for missionaries who could sign. Well, guess what happened this week? We got an email from President about it! So, she was going to teach someone yesterday, but the appointment fell through :( So soon, she will get to skype, and sign a woman named Jackelynne! It's exciting, even though it didn't work out yesterday. It's been fun trying to learn some new words with her, like apostasy....who knows how to sign that? I at least know the alphabet!

Ok, last tender mercy, even though I haven't even gotten to tell you about like half of the incredible things going here: we were out to lunch today at a really good Mexican restaurant, and we ran into a member of the church from a different area! He said hi to us, and we got to know him a little. He was out to lunch with his wife. But, as we were walking out, he ended up paying for our meal! It was such a kind thing he did, and we were so grateful!

There are just so many things that help me remember and see how aware Heavenly Father is of us, and personally of me. I know they might seem like little things, like finding the right door, or a meal being payed for, but to me they are huge manifestations of love from God about things that are hard or scary or frustrating to me! And I know that sometimes we just have to have the right eyes to see all the Heavenly Father is trying to show us. It's hardly ever easy, but I know it's always possible. And I know He gives us tender mercies in the moments that are hardest for us.

I wish I could write more, but it's impossible to explain it all. Thanks for the prayers, keep them coming!!

Love,

Sister Penrod

this was our dinner last night, her name is Abby! She spent probably twenty minutes trying to put my hair (which is super thick and long) into a ponytail. When she was through, I think I had four or five bows all over my head!! So fun :) Made me think of Tori! exchanges with hma torres!
me wearing sister l's glasses :)

Alligator Turtles Are A Real Thing

Dear Everyone!

Always an adventure out here in Tennessee, right? It's been a good week, full of rainstorms, stake conference, random investigators showing up, alligator turtles, teaching an ordained woman minister, and cat poop on my companions shoe! How exciting right? Oh trust me, it was. Let me tell you the deets (details).

So in Tennessee, it rains all the time. But totally sporadically! So you just can't really plan ahead. So, last Monday, we were driving and all of a sudden, it was intensely raining! We pulled over because I couldn't see! And we were trying to be on time to an appt., and I couldn't find the number on the trailer (they are never convenient), but we eventually found it, and we get all ready, run and knock, no answer, and run back in the car. But we are totally DRENCHED, from head to toe. It was hilarious, and cold for the rest of the night :)

Oh yeah, I also tried fried catfish on Monday. It tasted like fried fish. Yuck.

So the majority of our week was trying to meet new people, like every week! We met a lot of great, nice people who have faith in God and in Christ, but aren't necessarily ready or open to learn more. But we also met a lot who are! So we will see where it goes! Robyn is still doing good, she decided this week that she will be baptized! In July, that's what she feels is the right time for her, so we are really excited!!!

One interesting lady we met this week was an ordained minister. Many churches around here have women preachers! She listened to the whole restoration, but wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon. It was so interesting, because she agreed with everything that we talked to her about, even Joseph Smith's experience, which tends to stop a lot of people. She believes people can see and speak with God today, but that we only learn from the Bible. So funny how the adversary can convince people to close their minds, even when the logic is right in front of them! If God always worked with prophets, who recorded what God taught them, why could there not be another record of God's dealings with his people? We know there were other people in the world than those in the middle east, and we know God is no respecter of persons! It just confuses me how people refuse to see sometimes. But that's ok, we all have agency. Mom and Dad, I bet you have thought the same thing towards me before, 'How does she not understand or see why or why not?' oh well....

If you haven't ever heard of an alligator turtle, google it!! I didn't actually see it, but someone was showing us a video of the one they almost ran over in the road! They are scary looking things, and they can really snap at you! Apparently they are endangered or something, but i just thought it was cool that 1 something like that exists, and 2 it lives in Tennessee!

So it was Stake Conference this weekend, which was sorta weird for me since I went to Stake Conference three week ago, but in a different stake! So I got a double dose. it was really good, and great to see some other sisters too. But the best news was probably that I found out that one of the people I worked with a lot at the beginning of my mission, just had her husband baptized this past weekend! When I was working with her, she and her husband were pretty certain they were going to get a divorce. But a year later, he is baptized, and they are so happy!!! It was such a surprise to me, and it just made me so happy to hear! That's the picture of them, him in his baptism jumpsuit, haha! She is so happy!

The Sunday session of stake conference was broadcast from our building, so we went to church like normal, and one of the women that the missionaries used to teach just randomly walked into the building! it was awesome to meet her and talk to her. she seems like she is in a better place in her life, so we are hoping to teach her and help her get back on track. We know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing she needs!

Ok, funniest story from the week: So I don't remember if i told y'all but a week or two ago, i stepped in dog poop, and it was all over my shoe! well, this week, Sister Linsangan stepped in cat poop, and it was all over her shoe! It was hilarious, as soon as we got back in the car, i smelt it, and we drove straight to Walmart so we could go to the bathroom and wash it off! i did feel bad we walked all through Walmart with it on her shoe, but at the same it, it was pretty well indented in the shoe, so i don't think much of it came off, haha! She was not happy about it but I was just laughing and laughing.... i am so mean! but i thought it was hilarious....

Anyway, that was the week! Good and bad, ups and downs. Meeting and talking to so many people, with so many interesting stories. I have pondered a lot this week about how I have really seen in every single area I have that I was meant to be there for someone very specific. I keep hoping to meet that person here, so that I can enjoy all the time I have to be with them. I think though some of the sad truth of life is that we don't appreciate those people until we aren't with them anymore...

Remember to be grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord this week!


Love,
Sister Penrod

Dear Everyone!

Beautiful Tennessee!!
the few times I was outside this week I made sure to take pictures!



Dear Everyone!

Don't ever get sick. That's my advice this week! Sister Linsangan was sick the entire week, and we had a meeting one day in Franklin, so we hardly worked at all unfortunately! It's really rare that missionaries ever stay inside, but Sister Linsnagan was struggling to get out of bed, so I made the executive decision that she rest and try to get better. Not even Nyquil or Sudafed helped her much at all! We talked to the nurse after the second day of her fever, aches, cold, sore throat, headache, etc. And what did she say to do? Nyquil and Sudafed. We told her it wasn't doing much, and she said to rest for another day. So on Day 3, we knew she was going to need to go to the doctor the next day. Well what day was that? Saturday! And you know what the problem with Saturday is? The missionary medical department is closed, so Sister Linsangan's copay would have been $95! So we decided to just make her rest one more day. Finally, the mission doctor decided to prescribe her some antibiotics, and that actually helped. The next morning she woke up to her alarm for the first time that week! There's a lot more to it, but basically, getting sick as a missionary is usually the worst thing ever. For both you, and your companion!

So I had a lot of time to study, read, pray, watch videos (all church ones), draw, eat, call people, and do all of that a thousand times over. It's really boring to be stuck inside when you feel totally healthy, but you can't do anything because your companion is sick! It's a strange thing. I couldn't take naps, because i knew then i wouldn't sleep that night, and i was thinking each day that 'tomorrow we will go out and work' but it just didn't happen.

But in between all of that, there were some awesome tender mercies of the Lord. I am so grateful that he is aware, even when we are stuck inside for four days straight!

One day, we got a random phone call. It was a California number, which was really weird. So we answer it, and who is it? Sister Hulme and Hargadon! They somehow got my number, and were telling me they were coming to visit that day! It was SUCH a blessing, because we were able to talk for just a few minutes, but I love them so much it didn't matter. It was so good to see their faces, especially because they both fail at writing me!! But that's ok. It was soo needed, and they gave me some really good advice on how to finish a mission strong!

Another day, we were trying to get a priesthood blessing for Sister Linsangan. (A priesthood blessing is explained here. https://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood-blessing?lang=eng&query=priesthood+blessings) So we were calling the sister who had told us her husband would be willing to give her one, but we couldn't get a hold of her. It was an issue of timing, so we were going to call another brother. I had the number pulled up, and i was about to push call, when something told me to stop. i looked at the clock and decided i would wait five minutes. and in less than thirty seconds, the sister called us back and told us they were coming over soon! It was such a small thing, but such an example to me of how aware Heavenly Father is of me. It would have been no big deal if we had called the second person, and then had to say never mind, but it just saved us a lot of trouble, and it was a clear sign to me of how much Heavenly Father cares, even when we have been stuck inside and unable to fulfill our calling that day! i was really grateful for it, and for the Spirit which really spoke to me in a still small voice.

The other tender mercy of Heavenly Father this week was that Robyn came to church! She was very hesitant, and the morning of she even called us and told us she wasn't so sure, but she made it anyway! It was great, and everything that was said was so meant for her. She even said she could feel the Spirit the whole time! it was great, such a good day. she really is beginning to understand the things we are teaching her, it's so amazing to see the Spirit teaching and helping her.

Well, that was about it for the week. I still was able to talk to a lot of people over the phone, but I am sure looking forward to going outside this week! Even if it's hot and humid :)

Love,

Sister Penrod

The day my companion got attacked by dogs....

Dear Everyone!

Happy belated Mother's Day, Happy 2 months out to my new companion! I am now in Shelbyville (in true Southern form, it is pronounced Shovel), TN with Sister Linsangan, from Roseville, CA. She is 4'11", and really awesome! Also, she is partially deaf. It's really hard to wake her up in the morning, because she takes her hearing aid out! She has quite the sense of humor, so that's kept things exciting :) I only moved less than an hour away from Manchester, so that's good and bad! I miss it, but I know there is a lot of work to be done here too!

This week we met a lot of fun people, but I wanted to write about one of my favorites, Quincy! He joined the church a year and half ago, but since Sister L (it takes too much time to write or even say her name sometimes, but she doesn't mind Sister L) didn't know who he was, we decided to go meet him! We had no idea if he would even want us there, but we decided to go knock on his door anyway. so we pull up to his house, pray, and start walking up to it. I get about halfway way there, dodging the dogs, when I realize that short little Sister L is being jumped on by the two huge dogs I just walked past. And when they jump up on their legs, they are taller than her!! She was definitely SCARED. And I just thought to myself, we are already halfway there, we might as well just go. But Sister L was thinking, we aren't even halfway there, and there is another HUGE dog up by the doorstep! So she tells me 'let's just go!', and I tell her, 'no! we can do it!'. So, by some miracle, we make it to the door, and knock, and Quincy answers! Now, remember what we are both thinking here; we practically just risked our lives to make it to this door, and we are still panting from our racing hearts, and the three dogs are still all over us. And when Quincy answered the door, I wasn't sure it was going to get much better. Quincy is this 6'2 or 6'3 really big big black guy (mom, I don't know what is politically correct, sorry...?)! And he is bald, with a huge burly beard. So he comes out, with a scowl, and yells at the dogs to get off of us. So now we are just scared even more! But then, we start talking, and he is just the nicest guy. It was super cool too actually, because he told us how he joined the church, and he said that he first listened to the missionaries because the two sisters made it all the way up to his door, dodging the dogs, just like we had! It was really cool to see him think abut it, and to thank us for coming all the way up to his door again. :) It was crazy but also so cool! And he gave us a few of his friends that he wanted us to go and teach! We were really glad we made it past the dogs.  The only bummer was this: we got in the car and drove down the street, and I realized.... something didn't smell right. I had stepped in dog poop!!! Serves me right for pushing my companion up against some huge dogs! But it's ok, we were able to get the poop off my shoe, and everything is all good. It was just really funny, I was laughing the whole day!

We have some awesome members here, who are super supportive of the missionaries. We get fed dinner almost every night! It's kinda new to me, haha :) But this week, I had something really cool happen. We had dinner with Sister Kelley, who is in charge of girls camp for the ward, and she was talking to us about how busy everything is, and how it's been kinda rough for her lately. I had a specific talk come to my mind, which is all about how the adversary works on us really hard before and/or after great spiritual moments. We talked a little bit about it with her, but between her three kids and everything going where we were, it was impossible to talk more about it. Later that week, I was going through some of the clutter in our apartment, trying to organize it all. I was sorting through some papers, mostly trash, and what did I find? The very talk i was telling her about! It was super random, and literally the only thing I pulled out of that pile that I didn't throw away! It was too clearly something God wanted us to give to her, so we handed her the copy on Sunday. It was so awesome, just to see how involved Heavenly Father is in the little things.  She almost started crying when we gave it to her too!

It was great getting to talk to the family last night, but way too short! It's crazy how fast time is going. It really is only a few more seconds and I'll be back home. That's how I feel at least! But I am trying to make it go as slow as possible. I love it here! Even with all the humidity, and the bugs, and the bug bites. (it's started already.... )

I hope you all had a good mother's day, and I hope you all can see God in your lives today! (that's what Sister L likes to say :)

Love,

Sister Pedro

aka

Sister Pinhead

aka

Sister Penrose

aka

 

you all actually know my name. No one here does yet! :)

Transfers! well foot...

beautiful stormy sky! its like that everywhere here!
i liked this license plate :)
sonic corn dog and shake=drowning our woes in food
amera and najaah! the sweetest girls who we made pinky promise us that
in the future, if they ever see sister misisonaries, they will go up
to them and talk to them! (elders cant teach two young girls...)
sister pinkstons brother picture, with all the sisters in our zone!

thats the cobian ponce girls! (ipad pics are the worst, no one
understands where the camera is...)
sis halbeisen and me- our final goodbye! ( shes not getting transferred)
MEGAN, my twinner from livingston. shes such a babe!!
ohhh awkward photos for days.... thats esteban! we cant put our arms
around men, so i dont know what to do in situations like that!!!!!
ahh.


Dear Everyone,

This week was the best and the worst! We actually had an entire week together, in our own area, and it was great! We had some amazing lessons, and met some great people. It was all going great, until Friday, when we found out that BOTH Sister Pinkston and I will be leaving, and they will be putting Elders in our place!

It was the most unexpected news, and really it's been freaking us out a lot. So, it's been a whirlwind, trying to see everyone, and reschedule things, and pack our stuff, and pack our house so we could move into a new apartment next week, and make tons of notes for the new elders of what is going on! It's really a crazy thing, for both of us to leave, and totally unexpected.

It's what we call a 'whitewash'. Technically, it's a 'blue wash', since there will be elders coming in. When sisters take over an area, its a pink wash. Anyway, usually, that only happens when there has been something crazy happen, or the missionaries aren't working very hard, or a whole number of bad things. But that's not the case here, I promise. President has asked both Sister Pinkston and I to accept a very specific assignment. Sister Pinkston is going to Cookville, to be a Sister Training Leader with the same sister we worked with this transfer in our trio. The area is really struggling because its a really tough area, and President knows that Sister Pinkston will be able to really help strengthen it.

As for me, he asked me to go and follow-up train a missionary in the Murfreesboro zone, and to help the zone catch the fire. A follow up trainer is someone who takes a new missionary on their second transfer, because their trainer is being transferred. (it's what happened to sis Halbeisen. I trained her for her first transfer, and then when I became an STL, she had to go and be follow up trained by someone else. Training takes two transfers.) We are thankful he told us those details because we would really not be ok with leaving at ALL, but knowing that he really feels like we are needed elsewhere makes it a little better.

We are also really blessed, because they have been doing a new thing with transfers where no one finds out where they are going until the day of transfers, they just get told that they are leaving or staying. But because President talked to us, he told us some details and why this was all happening. It's a pretty unique situation all around. We are both so sad, and our ward is not happy at all. and neither are our investigators, especially because so many of them are single women, and it makes it really tough to teach them when there are elders. Ahh. we just keep praying about it, over and over. Praying that those elders are good, hard working elders!!

So other than that, our week was great :) We had some really great lessons, with amazing people! I'll try to give you a good run down, since I totally failed last week.

So that perfect family I wrote you about? Still perfect! Their name is the Hobbs. This week, they had us over for dinner, and it was so fun. Their kids are 12, 13, and 14, so it's crazy! But we finally got to teach them the Restoration of the Gospel, and it was really incredible because they all understood it, like right away. Even with four or five different denominations in the room, as we taught it to them it made total sense! We explained that God has always worked with prophets, that's what the whole Bible is, right? The writings and teachings and revelations from God to the prophets, for us to have and learn from! And we explained that the prophets all had the authority or the priesthood, which makes sense that a prophet today would have to hold it as well. We shared scriptures about Christ giving the authority to his apostles, and how eventually the authority was lost as all the apostles were rejected, just as the prophets in the past were. And they totally understood that that's one of the reasons there are so many different denominations today! Because everyone is trying to get back to the truth, so people break off from a church and change a few things and make their own. (out here in the South, it happens all the time). But the most incredible part of the lesson was when we taught them about Joseph Smith. We shared the First Vision with them, and explained that he was just a young boy, who truly desired to know the truth, and was confused by all the different religions that taught different doctrine from the same Bible. As we talked, the Spirit was there, in a way I have not often experienced it. It was very still in their home (even with two dogs and three teenagers), and we were able to testify of what we knew truly happened. We went around the room and asked each of them what they thought and felt about Joseph Smith's account of God and Christ appearing to him, and answering his sincere question. And each of them said something different, but they all agreed with each other. Most especially, the father (who we were most worried about understanding and being willing to listen) explained that it made complete sense to him that God would choose a humble boy who wanted to learn, rather than a really wise or intellectual man who has studied it all. After all, that's who God has chosen in the past, the meek and humble, right? In my eyes, it truly was a miracle, that he so openly accepted it all. He still had a lot of questions, but he finally started listening. Only the Spirit of God could have made that happen! So we explained that eventually, the priesthood authority was given to Joseph Smith and he was called to be a prophet, and because of that, he was led to and able to translate the Book of Mormon in to English, as evidence that the authority had been once again restored to the earth, and that the Book of Mormon was the only way they could know if everything we taught them was true. We taught them about how to pray, and how to recognize the answers we receive. It was just such an amazing moment of my mission, to really be able to help an entire family understand and learn about the gospel, and see how it really matters, and how it can help their family. I was so grateful that they were open, and willing. I definitely believe that nothing will happen until we open our hearts to change, and they definitely did. It was incredible!

Anyway, that's just one of the amazing experiences we had this week, and one of the many reasons why leaving this place will be sooo hard!!! I'll send home pictures of the Hobbs, and everyone else we had to say goodbye too :(

Other big news this week was that Esteban received the Melchizedek Priesthood, and was sustained in Stake Conference! It was really a great moment. The coolest part was probably that a general authority who spoke in General Conference came and spoke to us, they have that a lot here. It was Elder Pino! From the first Quorum of the Seventy. He used a translator so he could speak in English, it was really interesting. But afterwards, Esteban went up to meet him, it was so exciting for him to speak to Elder Pino in Spanish! It was really cool. Esteban also told us that in his interview with the Stake President, he told Esteban that he is meant to  be a leader in the church, and that one day, the Spanish Branch in the next city over will need him. Which is totally what we all predicted would happen. We know Esteban will be Branch President!! But, we want to keep him in our ward as long as possible! It was all such a good experience for him though. And, he is so sad 'his sistas' are leaving. He really loves the missionaries for finding and teaching him about the gospel. He made me a bracelet too! :) see the picture, it's really cool! we are going to miss his family soo much!

Ok, the other really cool things that happened this week:

Our ward mission leader is the coolest guy ever, and totally appreciates music(like the Huddlestons, he plays a bunch of instruments). So what did he do? He bought two violins! He got them from a pawn shop, so they were in total disrepair, but I fixed them both up, and they work great! He told me that one of them is mine to keep, and the other he will keep for future missionaries. I tried explaining to him how I can't keep the violin, it's part of the rules, but he just won't have it. and now he is slowly convincing me! so we are going to find a way to send the violin with someone who will be in Murfreesboro and get it to me, so I can use it for the rest of my mission at least! He is just the kindest guy. Who does that?!  It's been the biggest comfort too, since this was the worst news we have ever heard. So i have just been crying my woes through playing the saddest, most minor key'd song I can make up on the violin. It's bee great, especially for sister Pinkston, haha!

Speaking of Sis Pinkston....her brother got called to serve a mission in South Africa this week! It's so exciting, and she was really happy for him :) So, we took this picture, so she could send it to him, and let him know how proud she is of him! It was really fun!

Ok, and the last best thing of the week:

Since it was stake conference, I got to see all the members of the Livingston Branch!! The Huddlestons, Sister Cooper, Boots, Mickey, the Cobian Ponce, Bro. Aiken, Sis Cochran and Mitchell, Megan Brown, etc. It was just the best day ever! It made me so happy to be able to catch up with all of them, even just for a few minutes. It was like seeing my family :) I didn't have enough time to hear it all, but it was enough to remind me how much I love them!!!

Alright, hopefully this forever long letter is ok because last week was so lame! I am so grateful to be serving, even though it comes with the best and the worst. Just like life, i guess! I can't wait for the next huge change ahead of me, but I can wait to pack! I hope everyone has a good week, hope to hear from y'all soon!

Love,

Sister Penrod