December 28th E-mail

Whats goin on?!? It was so nice to be able to talk to you guys! Especially with all the crazy stuff that has gone on at home.. It was nice to hear that you guys are all alive and doing well :D Well mom don't get too excited to have a day off work with dad at work.. You will be taking care of him for eternity... ;) So today after we get done with the dentist we are going to be moving.. I didn't give anyone the new address yet and so here it is: (914 N. High Desert Dr. Deer Park, WA 99006) We will be living with some old guy in the ward. His name is Bro. Larson. And he is a widower of about 8 years. But he has things up that remind him of his wife all throughout his wife and pretty much if we touch them we are dead... That about the run through that we got :D... But the good news is that he has a treadmill and so i will maybe be able to get into shape a little bit before May... :D that way i wont look too flabby on the beach in CANCUN!! woot! lol. So the Bassetts came to church again this week. And then last night we got the coolest phone call! Bro. Palmer called us and said that the Bassetts called him and asked him how they could get their own quads! woot! so i decided that its time for them to join the church :D So Bro. Palmer took them over a distribution catalog and he even said that it sounded like they were going to get them for their kids as well.. It would be so neat to see that family come into the church! That would just be amazing! They are so cool. In fact Bruce Bassett is going to help us move today :D how cool is that! They are just wonderful people. My goodness it seems like i don't have much to say due to the fact that i talked to you on Friday lol... so forgive me for that... Well its actually nice to hear about Vauna.. She is so much happier now. In fact that's not a sad thing at all. That should be a reason to rejoice! Every time someone dies i always think of the 138 section of the Doctrine and Covenants.. read it! its a good one! But i love you guys! Like i said it was great to talk to you! Take care of yourselves! love ya! Elder Penman

December 21st E-mail

Whats going on?!?! Well whats new? We had a pretty good week last week. The Bassetts are doing great in fact all 4 of them came to church and this week church was really good! so we are excited for them. I was on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders this week who actually came out with me (So he should know better) but we went to the Bassetts and had a lesson and this Elder was very argumentative and just being a complete idiot.. I kept having to cut him off and turn things around and oh my goodness you would have thought he was a greenie.. But then 2 days later i called and told them we were in the neighborhood and asked if we could swing by.. well they asked who i was with and i told them elder Prosence and they say sure you can come over.. Well when we got their they told us that the reason they asked is cause if i was with that other elder they would have told us they were busy... LOL!! they said they both didn't like him and in fact Bruce lost sleep over it.. :D so i don't think i will be taking him back there.. But just so that the elder would know i called him and told him what they said :D I hope he feels like an idiot.. But they are doing fine still they just don't like him.. :D Bruce said that he reminded him of the catholic nuns.. :D Ok so on to the important stuff.. We have a family that invited us over for breakfast but we don't know what time.. So i would guess that we would be calling home somewhere around 9-12 here which i believe is 10-1 there.. so anyways I am very excited and I cant wait to talk to ya! it seems like its been forever! :D But i guess i don't have much to say since i get to talk to you Friday! woot! but i do love ya! And i will talk to you soon! Take care! oh and mom under the tree will work great! :D oh and thanks for the address and I'm glad that you like the hats :D love ya! talk to you soon!

Elder Penman

I believe I can fly

For your viewing pleasure. A few dunks.

December 14th E-mail

Whats happenin?!?! Well i am glad to hear that little Eva is doing a lot better. Shannon sent me some pics from Maddox and the one with little Eva is so freaking cute! Well dad I'm sorry that you have to lay on your face. If i was there i would massage you back for ya :D I remember when you got your shoulder done and how much we worked on that thing to get it back into shape.. Every day i would come home from school and massage the knots out of your shoulder and you would scream like a little girl :D But we worked on that for a long time.. And this kinda reminded me of that.. But i know that you are absolutely sick of dealing with this. And trust me i have had that feeling out here. But i have also learned something about trials and about adversity that i hope sticks with me and that i don't lose it. But a word of advice that i would give you is when you finally reach that point that you feel that you cant go on anymore (or even before that point but most of us are too hard headed) But when we get to that point we need to get down on our knees (or lay on our face :D ) and give a prayer of thanks.. And tell the Lord and remind ourselves of all the many things that He has given us.. If you remember when i was with Elder Allred the first down in Clarkston i was just about ready to kill him.. Well a Zone leader of mine challenged me to pray only prayers of thanks for like 4 days.. and i thought well it can hurt anything.. And so i did it.. And i can tell you that it really opened my eyes and it eased my burdens.. Just knowing that when trials come up they are opportunities to grow and to learn and to develop Christ like attributes so that we can become more like Him and that is something that we should be thankful for! opportunities to become more like our Savior! And well dad patience and long suffering our Christlike attributes... :D but i will be praying for you! I love ya! Get Shannon to come walk on your back.. lol.. She used to walk on my back :D and my head.. lol. So you will never guess what i did this week... We were helping these members roll these huge hay bails.. they are the round bails that weigh like 700 lbs.. But we rolled them into the pen with the sheep and then into the pen with the cows.. and last time we were there, doing the same thing, We were throwing snowballs at the cows.. but this time i got a bucket of grain and went up to the steer and was leading him on to come closer to me and he came over and stuck his head in the bucket to start eating the grain and as soon as he did that i jumped on him!!! lol!!! i landed on his back and he freaked out! he bucked twice and the second time i flew off and he went running away LOL!!!! it was so freaking funny! Its too bad i didn't have my camera with me! I would have got it on video :D But if you could imagine! It was so funny.. I was laughing pretty hard.. We had a ward Christmas party this week and we went over the the Bassett's house like 2 hours before the party and we were going to have a lesson but before the lesson i asked them if they were planning on coming to the party and they said they had too much to do... so we asked them what they had to do and they said they had to finish decorating so they could get all the stuff back up in the attic and finish folding all their laundry and then make dinner and what not.. so we said well lets get started.. so we helped them decorate their tree and their home and then we helped them fold all their laundry and i taught them a new way of folding shirts.. that i will have to teach you guys when i get home :D and then we peeled a bunch of potatoes and helped them make dinner then we ate with em and left and made it to the party like right on time :D It was a wonderful party and they had a very well done program on the birth of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas... I think it was really beneficial.. But they are doing well. We did put this girl, Daija Plaisted (9 yrs old) and her sister Jada Redwine (8 yrs old) , On-date for January 9th.. Their mother is a member so only the 9 year old is considered an investigator and will be a convert not that that matters but i don't know if you knew that.. anyways they are very excited and they are learning a lot. Its fun to teach them! We are just doing what we can to keep the work moving forward. So i got a package from the ward that was really cool! That was way nice of them! lol. The young women made pillowcases for us missionaries i guess and Keila Jorgensen signed her name on mine and wrote AKA future wife.. lol... does she even have a drivers licence yet? lol! anyways it was pretty funny.. I also got a letter from the Pecks and from the Hansens.. and anyways its been nice.. I didn't expect that on my second Christmas :D Well life is pretty good! I hope everything is going well for you guys! Thanks for being such a good support to me! I love you guys so much! I am excited for next years Christmas party :D Well take care of yourselves! But jsut remember that Christmas should be great no matter what is going on in our lives because without our Savior we couldn't ever make it back to our Father in Heaven... So little things don't mean much here when we know we can get back to heaven again :D so make the best of Christmas and remember how much our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ love us! (and the Holy Ghost!) thank goodness for Him too! :D But i love you guys! Thanks for everything! Happy holidays! Talk to ya soon :D

Elder Penman

December 7th E-mail

Well whats happenin?!?! What in the world is going on with everyone? I like dread emailing now cause i know that every time i get on it there is going to be some other problem with my family :D That is just absolutely crazy with little Eva! Poor thing. I am glad that she is doing ok! My goodness.. Well dad i hope that all goes well with your eye surgery on Thursday... I will be praying for ya! And for Eva as well. I still cant believe it. That is just nuts. Well i got a new companion. His name is Elder Prosence. HE is from north Salt Lake and He really does only have 1 leg. He has a prosthetic leg. (I'm not sure if that's how you spell that) but he gets around pretty good. He is a trooper. He has pretty much done everything. In fact he had colleges looking at him for golf and wrestling and he actually golfed at Weber for a year before he came on the mish.. He is pretty cool. He falls down quite a bit on the ice :D He is pretty small though. He only weighs about 120 lbs. He has a very strong upper body though.. We were at some investigators house and he just out of the blue says i bet you i can go down those stairs on a hand stand.. And i was like lets see it.. And so he did it.. And has now done it 3 other times since :D lol.. Its pretty fun to watch.. I have it on video. Well the weather has been rather cold this week. And yesterday it was pretty freaking windy as well. In fact the Bassetts didn't come to church because they have a bunch of temp. storage deals out on their farm and well they were blowing around all over the place.. But they went and bought their kids church clothes and so i think they are settling in! Which is sweet! Now we need to just get them baptized! So lol kinda of a funny story.. We were over at this less-active's house, the McLeods, and they have come to church 2 out of the last 3 weeks. And so we were just visiting to actually set up another appointment with them and there was a knock on the door and i could see that it was people that were caroling.. And so me and Elder Prosence sat on the ground behind the couch so they couldn't see us and Sis. McLeod joined us and Bro. McLeod ran into the back room and their 7 year old went and answered the door LOL! and they sang 2 songs to her and gave her a Christmas present.. and well turns out they were from the ward! and it was the youth! And one of the youth leaders, Sis. Collins, pokes her head in the house and yells "AMBER are you in here?!?" and then Sis. McLeod stand up from behind the couch!!!! LOL!!! and we were laughing so hard and then one of the young men leaders came in as well and started talking to Bro. McLeod and he told him oh sorry we though you were the Baptist Carollers!!! LOL!!!! like that makes it better! And then he tells him to come up the stairs so he can show him something and well he comes up and there we are behind the couch and he was like Elders? LOL!!! We were freaking hiding from our own ward! oh man it was so funny! It still makes me laugh so hard! LOL! well i thought you would get a kick out of that... Well I got the boots that you sent me! They are awesome. I love em. They are just right too. So no worries mom i love em. Thank you so much! A great Christmas present! I'm pretty much all set for winter now.. And boy is it here :D just not much snow yet.. but it will come :D I have no doubts.. Oh and i got the chocolates too! That's what I'm talking about! woot! They are amazing as ever! I absolutely love them! Thanks. Tell everyone thanks for all the hard work and long hours! I will help next year! :D If I'm around :D Well Thanks for everything! I love ya tons! I hope you guys are doing ok now.. Please take a break from the Chaos! ok! :D Love ya! Thanks for everything! Take care of yourselves! Elder Penman

November 30th E-mail

What is happening?!?! LOL! I'm glad that you got my pics! That's awesome. Lol "you shouldn't make a fat kid dance on a stripper pole!!!" :D He actually wasn't my companion. He was a kid in the ward. His name is Johnny Grow. He is freaking hilarious. I love that kid! But i forgot all about that video! LOL! So those are some pretty sweet dunks eh? I like em. I probably couldn't do them now... Tis the season (too much food)... So we had a pretty good week this week. Thanksgiving was awesome! We went to 2 families homes and really enjoyed ourselves! And well we really stuffed ourselves.. Well its good to know that my pics made it ok.. :D I would have been really sad if something happened to them.. Well we got our transfer calls last night and Elder Tueller is leaving me.. He is headed to Hayden and i am getting Elder Prosence.. I don't know much about him. He hasn't been out too long.. I think maybe only 2 transfers and the word on him that i have heard so far is that he only has 1 leg.. I know it sounds crazy but we will see.. But i am excited. This area is so freaking huge though that I'm going to miss Elder Tueller's GPS and i don't want to get one cause i think people become way too dependent on those things.. although they are nice if you took elder Tueller's away from him after him being here almost 5 months he couldn't find his way anywhere.. So i don't want to get one. But maybe my comp will have one who knows.. And if he is a rich kid ill just tell him he can get me one for Christmas :D lol. But i think i know my way around pretty good. But it will be interesting to see what happens these next 4 transfers.. Ive been trying to predict it but i dunno. My guess is that i will be with Elder Prosence for 2 transfers and then i will train again before my mortal frame is given up to its mother earth :D lol. We had 4 investigators at church this week! woot! Bruce and Laura Bassett came and this 16 year old girl named Tasyia came and then this 9 year old girl named Daija came and we are teaching her 8 year old sister named Jeda and on Wednesday we will be teaching another girl named Jeda.. so altogether we are teaching Tasyia, Daija, Jeda, and Jeda... crazy eh? So the whole district here is being changed. Every companionship is getting mixed up. So its going to be crazy. And well i don't know any of the elders coming in very well. But I'm sure it will be really cool. And at the first of the year we will be moving into an old guys house.. He is lonely.. and he has a huge house with no one in it.. :D So that will be nice. I should take pics of the place we are staying now.. You would laugh :D I cant believe chocolates took that long! I am going to have to speed up the process again.. Shannon will help next year.. no worries.. She might even be part of the family by then :D But i will help next year too. we will knock those chocolates out in no time :D And i can tell you all the crazy stories from my mission :D lol. So how is everyones BoM reading coming along?!?! are you going to finish it twice before may? :D So i look forward to getting the boots! That will be very nice. It was actually dry this week which was nice. But I'm sure it will hit us in no time.. So whats the weather been like in Utah? Anyways i will let you know when i get the boots. Well I'm glad that thanksgiving went well for you. Thanks for everything. I cant wait to get my chocolates! woot! I'm afraid I'm going to put on some weight this holiday season :D Oh and by the way thanks for the BYU update! That is awesome! I am so happy that they won! Utah fans are kinda retarded.. But i might marry one some day you never know :D But anyways i love ya! I look forward to talking to ya in a few weeks! Thanks for all that you do! I will definitely be praying for you! Thanks you for all of your prayers for me and my investigators! Don't forget that we are all called to spread the gospel.. not just the missionaries! woot! Its true! Love ya! Elder Penman

November 23rd E-mail

Well whats happening?!?! My poor crippled parents.. Mom I don't know if Jen thinks your too old to have blue streaks in your hair but if she doesn't... I do.. LOL! 64 is just a little much for blue streaks :D What is with all the crazy stuff that is happening around there? You guys are laying around all day broken and then Uncle Dave decided to join the party and have his heart stop or what? geez. I hope everything will settle down a little bit.. I pray for all of you! But I heard an old saying once that pain keeps you humble and close to the veil.. so i guess my family is just pretty darn spiritual! :D lol. But please keep me updated on how everyone is doing ok? Thanks. Well I cant believe its thanksgiving already! That means that in a month i get to call home :D hehe. That will be pretty cool. This thanksgiving is going to be miserable.. We have 2 dinners planned so far and i just know myself and food.. I'm not going to be able to walk.. Its going to suck :D But I'm sure i will survive.. Well all these close losses for the niners are a good thing.. that means maybe next year they will be good. and be able to pull it out on the close games.. who know? Wishful thinking? Well missionary work is going pretty well right now! The Bassett family came to church again for the 3rd time! I really think that they enjoy it and that they are starting to settle in.. Now if we could just get them to stop being to busy so that we could go have lessons with them then i think that they would join the church! Which would just be absolutely wonderful! This family is just awesome! We also had at church another investigator and a less-active family (of 5) that hasn't been forever and a single mother that hasn't been forever (like 4 years) came for the 3rd time in a row.. So we are doing some less-active work as well that is going nicely! I love seeing people come back into the church! Its fun! We met an interesting kid yesterday though.. He and his family joined the church 4 years ago.. A year later he went on a mission to Argentina and served an honorable full-time mission and then when he came home he started researching some of the crazy anti that one of his companions was telling him about.. (that he had hear throughout the course of his mission) and shortly after that he formally left the church (had his name removed) and now he is a messianic Jew... Yep Jews that accept Jesus Christ as their savior.. So that was an interesting conversation.. Because see in order to be a true Jew it has to come through your mother.. But he was saying it came through his father and that there were signs of it being in his mother line as well.. But hrrrrrrrp. They are pretty much mainstream Christians that believe in the trinity but claim they are all Jews.. so its kinda interesting but anyways.. We had a really good week this week. So its already dropped about 6 inches of snow here.. So i am definitely going to need some boots.. They just need to be black and polishable and waterproof and well even though it sounds weird (cause i wear a 15) not freaking huge.. If you know what i mean.. A conservative boot.. Not one that shows that i am wearing these huge boots.. now of course they are going to know that anyways.. so it doesn't really matter.. so whatever will really work.. but.. lol.. I dunno. But i don't have anywhere to buy them here unless i go to Spokane and well that isn't going to happen at least this week. So if you found some that would work that would be great just go ahead and ship em.. I will check my email next Monday before i go buy anything... to see if you sent some or if i get some in the mail this week then i will know i got some :D oh and i don't want them too high either.. i think like mid-high would be perfect.. i think its 6 inch... something like that.. but anyways i hope you will be able to find something.. But thank you for doing that! I love you guys! Happy thanksgiving! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

Photos!

Brian Abbott's baptism!

My Posterity!

Yoga! Woot!

LOL!

There's grandma!

The Robison's!

The Last of Post Falls

Me and the deer getting a little friendly :)

Washington Spokane Mission! With Elder Bednar!

November 16th E-mail

Well hello there fam! Well dad i hope you have had your fix for eye surgeries for a while.. that would be nice! I wish there was something i could do for ya.. I will continue praying for ya! So mom i guess you just felt a little left out with dad having all these surgeries that you decided to go get stuff done to your back eh? Its like trying to keep up with the Jones' in our family now isn't it... :D Its a good thing I'm not home or else i would have to think up something to mess up real bad so that i could have the worst problems in the house.. you know how competitive i can get :D lol no but i really am praying for both of you! no more old people symptoms until your at least 50... ok?! oh and by the way mom i am fine from the car accident.. i promise. but yes it really is a miracle! pretty crazy pictures huh? So how has the weather been in Utah? we got some snow here.. and boy i tell you what this place is so beautiful! I absolutely love it! Like even at the library where i am at right now out the window is just woods.. its awesome! and there is deer all over the place.. I haven't seen any elk but the deer are everywhere.. We see them everyday. In fact the other night we were driving and one of them hit the side of our car! it was just like what happened to me when i was in Shelly's little red car down by snow college! but no worries i think the deer lived... :D So this week we went and raked leaves for our ward mission leader at his house.. well he lives up at deer lake and he owns this resort up there and it is just absolutely beautiful! I couldn't believe it. He has all the docks too that go out into the lake and i wanted to go fish off them so bad! lol.. but we had to rake leaves otherwise he probably would have let me.. He is like 80 years old and he is the nicest guy in the world! But it was pretty fun. maybe when the lake freezes over he will let us go ice fishing off of his dock.. that would be perfect. Plus they have lots of cool fish in the lake he said.. So this week overall was pretty good. It feels as if we have a lot of work that is just kinda sitting on the fence and so we have been trying our best to shake the fence and just hoping and praying that they will fall on the right side :D But we will see what happens. The Bassett family is still doing pretty good. They didn't make it to church this week. And Bruce (the dad) well he is a history guy and he just loves history but because of that he went on google and typed in "Joseph Smith" and "Brigham Young" and so on and so forth and just read everything that he could find.... so he is a little upset because of it.. But the cool thing is that it makes no difference whatsoever what happened in the lives of those men regarding the restoration of the gospel when it comes to knowing whether or not Christ's church is back on the earth.. Satan just tries to make it about the prophets or (the men) when really it is about our savior Jesus Christ and what he has done for us right here right now! along with what he did for us 2000 years ago.. but that is the comforting part.. and we kind of explained that to him.. but we will see.. so please remember the Bassett Family (Bruce, Laura, Nick, and Elizabeth) in your prayers if you will! They are such a wonderful family and they know darn near everyone in the ward and didn't even know that they went to the church.. So that is a good thing so we are just going to try to get the ward more involved with them and see if we can help them progress in gaining testimonies! But we are excited for what work the Lord has given us right now! In the district we had 2 baptisms this week.. and so that is cool.. We are just plugging along.. Oh and mom about boots we are going to try to make it down to Spokane sometime soon and see what we can do about buying some boots.. so i will let you know about that.. But if you find some polishable WARM black boots just send the pic or link to me and i will check them out and tell you what i think.. :D I know we kind of did that last year but then i didn't really need them so now that i need them well i will put a little more into it :D Well interviews are tomorrow... and so I am looking forward to that! I love President Palmer! He is a wonderful man! Such a spiritual leader... its awesome! But I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a heads up about what is going to happen this transfer even though we still have 2 weeks to go.. But my guess is for me that i will be here the rest of my mission... But we will see what happens.. I cannot believe that Saturday was my 18 month mark.. WOW! that went by fast.. But anyways I love you guys so much! Thanks for all that you do for me! Get better both of you! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

The First Snow and Car Wreck!

November 9, 2009 E-mail

Whats happenin?!?!?! So highland got stomped eh? that's no good. Oh well there is always next year... At least you made it to the playoffs.. So dad what is the deal with your eye? this is absolutely crazy! Let me know how it goes! You will definitely be in my prayers and thoughts! Which eye even is it? hopefully its not your shooting eye... cause we are going killing, not hunting, killing when i get home :D It just pure torture to serve in an area where everyone goes hunting and has a love for hunting and yet i cant go.. lol. but its ok. there will be plenty of elk slaughtering for me to do when i get home! Well we had an awesome week this week. I went on an exchange to Mead. And i was with Elder Johnson and his comp came up here to be with Elder Tueller for the day.. I go on about 1 exchange a week usually. But anyways i was on exchanges and a year ago when i was in River Ridge the Mead elders were in our district and so i had gone on exchanges there plenty of times before. Well we went and talked to this native American lady named penny and turns out i had taught her a year ago when i was a greenie. And here we are teaching her again and so she shows us a picture of her husbands side of the family (her husband is white) and there is a family that is in my ward right now here in Clayton.. so i was like oh hey i know them! and anyways it was pretty fun cause we taught her about how the BoM is her history and i committed her to find out where she came from.. like where Indians came from.. and so we will see what happens.. but she was telling us how her tribe doesn't have like written records of anything.. all their history gets passed down from their elders. and i was like well your history is written down right here.. and held up the BoM. lol... so i was just trying to get her out of the grove from learning about religion and about what other people believe to actually taking a personal liking to the BoM. but its just interesting how the Lord works ya know? Everything definitely happens for a reason. Elder Johnson's companion Elder Stewart is seriously just like Hammy the Squirrel off of the movie Over the Hedge.. seriously its like he is on speed all the time! he definitely wants to work hard and that's a good thing.. he is just a super spaz. Like Elder Tueller told me that they were tracting and Elder Stewart walked up to this lady and said hey how are ya? and the lady said good and he said have to ever heard of the golden plates? and she goes ya i have... does the church still have those? and he said Nope we don't know what happened to them! LOL! so he just gets so excited that he says really stupid things.. but oh well. He has only been out 2 months.. what do ya expect. At least he is talking to people.. So we had a really good turnout at church this week. A family of 4 came! Bruce and Laura and her kids Nick and Elizabeth and they are 12 and 10 years old. And the kids had friends at church that they didn't know went there and this is the parents second week in a row coming to church! I think that they are really liking it! I am hoping so anyways! But its funny cause their first to looks at the Mormon church are testimony meeting and then this week they had the primary program! so i was like hrrrrrp! I told them 3rd time would be a charm for them.. lol! But i got to teach the gospel principles class this week and it was on the Atonement! man i love teaching that class! I hope that's the calling they give me when i come home! Its a fun one to teach! Plus i wouldn't go crazy and teach a bunch of deep doctrine to peoples investigators.. anyways.. It was just fun. So i bought me another 4GB SD card for my camera this morning and so i will probably send my other one home soon.. Which will be cool cause there are a lot of videos on there that you could see. :D especially of my throwing down! woot! dunks like mad! :D Well i hope everything goes well with you guys! Take care of yourselves! I love you guys so much! Its almost thanksgiving can you believe it?!?! crazy! time is flying! but i love ya and i look forward to hearing back from ya! take care!

Elder Penman

November 2nd E-mail

Whats going on?!! things are absolutely crazy here! I wasn't going to but i will go ahead and tell you. lol. So this week was an absolute miracle I was on exchanges with the Deerpark missionaries... I was with Elder Holtom who is a great missionary. We were in his area and he was driving. We were headed to a members home to tell them some good news about a place that we found for this family they knew to live in and their driveway (along with everyone else's driveway in deerpark and the surrounding areas) was like a mile long. It was a dirt road so we were driving at a pretty fast speed.. (way too fast) and we took a few corners...well we had one corner that turned to the right and not only that but it was a blind corner. It was wet and there were leaves everywhere... well we took the corner and our back tires slid and when the back left tire slid over the bank the car bottomed out and FLIPPED! Next thing i know we are hanging upside down in our seat belts! I know for a fact that we are and were watched over! We are both fine now! That car is totalled but we literally walked away. Elder Holtom had some scratches on his wrist from crawling out of the car with all the broken glass everywhere and i had a bump on my head from where the roof caved in and drilled me :D but that is it! Our backs were both a little stiff the next 2 days but seriously we are fine... its a miracle! We are seriously so thankful to be alive right now. But trust me when i say we are ok.. mom don't freak out and call the mission pres... and don't worry... :D But talk about crazy! I will send some pics... so you will see what happened but it was absolutely nuts! We are so grateful! So lesson learned! Don't drive fast on dirt roads and definitely don't take the corners! Other good news is that we had 3 investigators at church! Two of them are a new couple and it was their first time at church! and it was perfect because the wife (their names are Bruce and Laura) and Laura had her dad pass away and she didn't deal with it too well.. well one of the guys at church who just lost his wife this week got up and bore his testimony about eternal families and he was smiling and he did a very good job it was amazing! as Bro. Barns was bearing his testimony the spirit was so strong! I couldn't believe it! How could a man get up the week of his wife's death that he had been married to for 56 years and be so at ease? That is the peace that only the gospel can bring into a persons life! That is a true testimony of this gospel! Well I am running out of time! i got 1 minute left! So i will just say that i love you guys so much! I am fine! Please don't worry about me! But that was a pretty darn cool story! I will forever be known as part of the coolest car crash in the mission! woot! lol! I love you guys! take care!

Elder Penman

October 26th E-mail

Whats happening?!?! So dad i guess after all these years planned surgery just gets boring? so you have decided to spice things up and just go in for unexpected surgery every now and then? geez. You gotta take it easy on yourself! But i am glad to hear that you are ok though. I will be praying for ya! So i am way excited for this area! We actually live in Deer Park but we just cover the Clayton ward. Clayton is a town just north of Deer Park. We also go up to like Loon lake and Deer Lake if you want to look it up on a map or something. Its pretty dang cool though to be out in the sticks! I would say there are more dirt roads than asphalt in our area and for sure in the neighboring Deer park area.. Its way fun. There isn't even a stop light in Deer Park. I guess they tried to put one in a few years back but everyone just kept running it so they took it out and put stop signs back in :D People are way cool up here though. Everyone loves to hunt and they are just some down to earth red necks.. I love it! So the craziest thing yesterday. Church was cancelled due to no power at the building.. I guess its something underground and they are going to have to tear up some of the parking lot to fix it.. and we were supposed to have Zone Conference there on Wednesday but i guess not... But since church was cancelled we went to the baptist church that is across the street from our house :D By the way we have a very sweet apartment! We dont live with members.. Members own our apartment and its underneath their house but its a separate apartment still.. But its nice to have our own washer and dryer and dishwasher.. Ya we are spoiled! woot! and a car! full time! lol! what a great place to die! oh but ya the baptist church was pretty dang funny! Somehow his sermon took a turn and out of no where some of the things were directed at us... lol! like for instance right before they did the sacrament He prefaced it with "If you are here and you believe the way that we do in the fact that we believe that Jesus is God and part of the Tri-une God and that His word is the bible which is the ONLY word of God and so on and so forth for like 10 minutes and then he said if you believe this then we invite you to partake of this bread and wine with us.. LOL! tell me what pastor would begin the sacrament on a regular basis like that? NOPE! it was just funny.. but we just smiled and didn't take the sacrament... oh and right before he said we do invite all to stay but if any would like to leave they may.. LOL! his sermon was on the requirements of a deacon because they were going to appoint some deacons or something but somehow took a twist to the requirements of an Elder.. and he even said we have 4 elders here from another church and in fact today we are going to take about the requirements of an Elder.. which was pointless because they don't even have elders in their church.... lol.. so it was just funny the way he directed some things towards us... but we enjoyed it.. The people were really nice and old.. there were 4 kids there.. the rest were old.. and some guy came up to us and said are you guys looking for a church body or are you just visiting? I wanted to tell him you know we were just visiting but today has helped me realize that my year and a half ministry for the LDS church has been bogus and i want to be a pastor for your church! lol.. maybe its just me but i think i could make a really good baptist preacher! like southern baptist preacher! AMEN! lol! but no it was pretty good. We are teaching a family of 4 named the Basset family. and they are awesome! We are looking forward to working with them. We have a bunch of people we are working with but i haven't had a chance to meet them all yet. My comps name is Elder Tueller. He is pretty dang cool! He is 21 like me. he has only been out a few months.. this is his 3rd transfer. But his trainer was a lazy piece of crap and yet he never slept in or anything.. even though his trainer was a horrible example he hung in there and tried to do his best.. But he told me when i got here that he wanted to learn how to plan and be effective because his TRAINER never taught him! How lame is that.. that pisses me off! as a trainer myself i think it is lame that other trainers don't try to give these missionaries the best start that they can.. but what do ya do.. But elder tueller is from San Diego Cali! but don't worry he isn't a liberal. he broke his neck in a mountain biking accident a while ago and he is lucky to be in the position he is in right now.. but he cant ride a bike anymore so we drive everywhere or walk! ITS SWEET! its the way to go I'm telling ya! :D but i am very impressed with how good of a missionary he is with the trainer that he had.. Well i love you guys! Thanks for everything that you do! Thanks for your prayers! take care of yourself!

Elder Penman

Oh and a shout out to Bro. & Sis. Erickson if they are blogging me! keep it pimpin in post falls! :D

October 19th E-mail

Whats going on?!?! Arent the Frantz' just great?! I love em. So im sure she told you about the baptism but it went fantastic! Infact Brian's mom and dad (arent members) were there and also his grandmother and grandfather (arent members either) were there as well.. When his parents first got there he goes oh and mom and dad this is the missionaries.. Introduced us and then he goes oh and by the way they are great elders and so if you want to take discussions from them well these would be the ones to do it with cause they are the best! LOL! His parents just kind of smiled and let it roll off..(I dont blame them it was funny so i was kinda laughing..) And so for halftime (while they are getting dressed after the baptism) We taught the restoration.. And they loved it! We had his parents full attention as we shared that. So hopefully we planted a seed that can continue to be nourished.. So then on Saturday we got together with the whole mission in Spokane! To meet with Elder Bednar! We took a mission picture with him aswell! it was fun! I got a posterity picture with all my boys! :D Elder Bednar was great! He didnt prepare a talk or anything he came and told us that tonight might be a little different than you expected. Elder Rasband (Presidency of the seventy) and I havent prepared some long talks for you or anything but tonight will be a revelatory experience. An opportunity for you to recieve revelation and be taught by the Holy Ghost. And i must tell you that it was! It was so awesome! He is such a wonderful man! That meeting was not about him at all! He was so HUMBLE! I could not believe it! I was absolutely floored! I learned so much! I dont have time to write everything down that he said. But one thing that stuck out to me was that he said "the purpose of the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" It is so true. He said some on you will be taught by the Holy Ghost on things for the people you are working with and so on. but he said that some of you are going to be shown a few things that you could improve on which is part of the Holy Ghosts job. To let us know what we are doing wrong so that we can change it. Hence afflicting the comfortable :D But it was awesome! Another part the stuck out to me is when he talked about obedience. He said that we not only have to learn how to do the things the Lord has asked us to do (which is just what most people think about even myself) But he said that we must learn to love to do the thing that the Lord asks us to do! He said then we will be with people that love to obey as well. But if we hate to obey then we will be with people that hate to obey... (that's the shortened version anyways..) But it made me do a lot of reflecting! And I absolutely love Elder Bednar! :D And then to top the meeting off our ward mission leader Bro Robison came with us to that meeting and from that meeting we went directly to a teaching appointment where we were teaching Debbie Haynes the Jehovah Witness. I wont tell you everything that happened during the lesson due to time but during the lesson she broke down in tears and with a smile on her face lifted her head and said "does anyone else feel that?" as she was holding her chest. And we said yes and she said "I studied with the witnesses for YEARS and never have i felt anything like that!" The spirit pretty much took her breath away! IT was one of the neatest lessons that i have been in! We are teaching her again tonight! and she is awesome! So what a way to top off that spiritual meeting! I LOVE THE LORD! I absolutely love Him! He guides everything we do! And I love it! So now for the moment that you have all been waiting for.... I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!! I will be serving in Clayton. It is just outside of Deerpark in Washington. And its in the same Zone that i was in as a greenie! I am going to "mom" someone.. An Elder that came out with Elder Allred and his name is Elder Tueller. Elder Tueller's trainer who came out with me, Elder Yancey, Is coming to "mom" Elder Allred so we are doing a swap :D So that will be pretty dang fun! I have a car full time! So i can put on some weight during the winter! LOL! But i am excited! This could possibly be my last area!!! crazy huh! weird but here is the mailing address: # 10-A N. Reiper St. Deerpark WA 99006 so please give that to Shannon :D and tell her to send me a tape and some pictures! :D she is worried that she cant fill up a whole tape so tell her that you guys will blab on it for a while.. :D lol! but anyways i am excited! Clayton sounds like a killer place! its definitely boonies though! I'm going from having 800 miles a month here to having 1250 miles a month there.. so that lets ya know kinda what it will be like :D But hey i love you guys very much! I'm glad the surgery went well on dads eye.. i figured something would be getting loose in there with how many times i beat him up.... :D i am glad everything is ok now! lol mom i tell all my companions that i go to stake conference with that its supposed to be our day off! lol! But isn't stake conference so good?!?! I love it! Thanks for all you do! I love you guys! It gets super cold in Clayton so I might try to push it through the winter without boots but i might need some... so there is an idea for Christmas.. But we will kinda play it by ear.. I love you guys! Thanks for everything you do! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

October 12th E-mail

Whats happening?!?! Well Wednesday night is the night! Brian Abbott is getting dunked! woot! I am so excited! Oh and by the way transfers are coming up next week so i will find out Saturday where,if anywhere, i am going. So i am just glad that no matter what happens I was able to get a baptism with my greenie! Which is always nice to start off with a baptism with your trainer! But Brian is solid. He is a way cool guy. And he is going to teach me how to wake board after the mish... We also started teaching the lady, Debbie Haynes, who is a less-active Jehovah Witness. And she is really searching for something! We had a very powerful lesson with her as we were able to answer a lot of her questions by reading from different passages out of the BoM. There spirit was so strong! The way we found her was through her son who joined the church about 2 and a half years ago. But she told us at the end of the lesson that she was going to cancel on us today but that she decided to go ahead and meet with us. Then she said that she is not only glad that she didn't cancel but that she is way excited to meet with us again! So that was pretty comforting! A few interesting beliefs that they have though. They believe that Jehovah is God the Father. Hence their name.. and so that has led to some very interesting studies for me! And i have found many scriptures that link the old testament(Jehovah) with the new testament(Jesus Christ) like Isaiah 43: 3,11 and Luke 2:11, Deuteronomy 32: 2-4 and 1 Corinthians 10: 1-4, Exodus 3:14 and John 8:54-58, and even John 5:22 and (BoM)Moroni 10:34. (by the way that was all off the top of my head so if they are a little off just run with it :D) (although i think those are right) but something that is my favorite is that in John 8:58 when he references "I Am" it could still be up in there air about well how do you know that he was referring to the same thing as in exodus. Well the way we know that he used the name of Jehovah by saying what is in our English versions as "I Am" is that in verse 59 of John 8 we read that they were going to stone him after he said that well the reason that they were going to stone him is found in Leviticus 24:26 where it is given in Jewish law never to utter the name of the Lord for it is deemed Blasphemies and if one is caught doing so he should be stoned to death. So therefore we know that the reference in verse 58 is refering to Jehovah otherwise they wouldn't have tried to stone him to death! In fact the Name of the Lord was only uttered once a year by the high priest as he entered into the holy of holies! Pretty dang cool eh? yep believe it or not i am learning something :D In fact i have had some absolutely amazing studies this week! Its just been awesome! I love the scriptures! They definitely are the words of God! There is so much for us to learn in there! So in a very manly sense we all just got done doing some YOGA! before we came to email! LOL! there is a lady in the ward who is a yoga instructor and well she offered us some free lessons! and we took her up on it and its freaking awesome! oh and by the way i got some videos of me doing some way sweet dunks! So I will have to put the on a C.D. and send em home for proof! lol :D ! Oh and by the way I ate a Habenero last night! woot! Those babies are pretty warm! lol! But everything is going pretty well! So i love you guys! Thanks for everything! Take care! Love ya!

Elder Penman

October 5th E-mail

What is going on! That is what I'm talking about! the trio winning out this week! (especially the niners! woot!) Its fun to see (hear of) them playing good again! Its been a while! Things went pretty well this week. Elder Allred was down and out for a day but we still managed to get some work done. I hope we can stop the back a forth sickness thing.. Its no fun. But we got a new family to conference and we are so excited for them! Their names are Joe and Elaine Hartley and they are awesome! They live within their means. Elaine is able to stay home with the kids because Joe definitely believes in providing and having a good mother raise the kids. They are so ready for the gospel! We put Brian Abbott on-date for baptism. He will be baptized on the 14th of Oct. Its a Wednesday night at 7:00. We are so excited for him. We watched conference with him and afterwards he went tracting with us! I've never taken a non-member tracting with us before but it was awesome! This lady answered the door and we tried talking to her and she said that she wasn't that interested at the time and Brian just opened up to her and told her how he had been meeting with us and how good it was and how it could have a positive effect on her and her family! The spirit was so strong and he was testifying to this lady! It was a very neat experience! He is ready to go! So things are going pretty well. So at Zone Conference our assistants gave us a training on using the BoM with people as we first talk to them. So we knock on someones door and we try to, as we talk to them, see what their needs are and then turn to a scripture in the BoM that can help them with whatever it is that they might need. It has been going pretty well! Its kinda fun because you not only have to know the BoM pretty well but you have to be listening for the still small voice. It helps me to not get worked up but to be calm. Otherwise you cant hear the still small voice. So it has been really fun to do. For example this guy said that he doesn't believe that we need prophets today and so we read with him 2 Nephi 29:9 (6-9) and it was cool to just feel the spirit come in and testify to all that would allow of those truths! People really do open up a little more and the spirit truly comes when we read the BoM with others! I am excited about it and it has also allowed me to increase my knowledge and testimony of the BoM. Just some examples of questions/concerns would be Why do i need to be baptized again? Why the BoM? I'm not comfortable talking about my religion. Why Plural marriage? Why do you believe in the BoM? We are all prophets. Why do Mormons think that they are saved by works? So just some things like that. There are plenty more.. But look at those and see what scripture in the BoM you would turn to to help them overcome their concern or to answer their question... Its kinda fun :D tell me how it goes :D Conference was absolutely amazing! Elder Holland is my hero! I love that man! :D So transfers aren't for a couple weeks. We get our transfer calls on the 17th. Man i loved priesthood too! It kinda took me back though talking about father/son relationships! It made me have a trunky moment :D But a spiritual/good trunky moment lol! I was just thinking man i cant wait to go to priesthood with my dad and my brother and then go out to dinner! Its going to rock! But hey guess what! Only 1 more conference before ill be home :D wow! time is short! Its kinda wierd to think about.. Especially when all the missionaries in my district are reminding me how old i am and how short of a time i have left.. And i still have 7 months... So I'm not that old yet! lol! Ok so some members (the Searcy's) took us to a place called Wolf Lodge! I had a 24oz. Porterhouse steak! It cost $30! and it was the best freaking steak i have ever eaten in my life! It cost Bro. Searcy like $140!!! it was freaking sweet!!! You will have to look it up. Its in CDA and oh my goodness! and it comes with a huge baked potato and a salad! And of course i downed it all! :D I'm just telling ya now.. If you thought i could eat before the mish... that's nothing :D lol! but i would love to take the fam there when we come back up! anyways! Thanks for everything! Tell Grandma P. That i love her and i hope she gets better! I love you guys! Take care of yourselves! Elder Penman

September 28th E-mail

Whats going on?!?! Its good to hear from you guys! I'm glad highland kicked some trash! and BYU as well. That is a tough loss for my 9ers though... Oh well at least they are playing well. How to you let an old bag of dirt beat you though... anyways.. Mom I'm very proud of you for keeping up on your reading! You are awesome! And dad way to go on conducting eh? that a boy! :D Getting into book clubs and prepping for the trek and so on and so forth my goodness when i get home i will never see you guys... :D lol! that's ok though I will probably be spending a fair amount of time with Shannon :D So we had a way cool experience this week. There is this recent convert family of about 9 months or so and apparently when they joined they were absolutely on fire. He got called to be the young men's secretary and she got a pretty cool calling as well. Well they got a little overwhelmed and stopped coming and for a while they even said that people could come by just don't bring up the gospel. Well I had met them a few times and just kind of tried to break the ice again. Well we were trying to meet with him all last week and this week but we have just had the worst timing when we go over. So Saturday we go over and sure enough they are running out the door but he says to us you know what lets set up an appointment for tomorrow at 2:00 and I have some questions for you guys... And so we set the appointment and we went and had just an awesome lesson! They had went to the bookstore and bought a book from the LDS section and it is titled "Why would anyone join the LDS church?" and it is a fabulous book. I cant remember who wrote it but its written by a guy who joined the church himself and he goes into a lot of detail about certain questions a things that people have that are sincerely investigating the church and he answers them in a way that is in great detail but is simple and easy to understand. So they just randomly picked that book and it happens to be one of the best books that they could have bought at that time. But as they read it they just had a few questions so they asked away and with the Spirit of the Lord we were able to address all of their concerns in a way that they were able to understand! In fact the wife asked us about "don't add to or take away out of revelations" and her husband said oh honey they answered that a long time ago and started to share the answer to it and she goes ya i know but i just like hearing how they explain things! :D so it was just a very positive experience and one that the ward has been waiting for for a long time. We are meeting with them again on Tuesday and they are excited to watch conference with us this weekend! and also tonight we are going to be putting Brian Abbott on-date for baptism! woot! We also had zone conference this week and found out that in October ELDER BEDNAR is coming to speak to us as a mission!!!!! INSANE! I am so freaking excited! and President Palmer said that he likes to do a Q and A. So what in the heck would you ask an Apostle of the Lord if you had the opportunity? Yep i don't have a clue either! But i am excited to sit at his feet and feel the spirit! I seriously cant wait! Its going to be a once in a lifetime deal for me! :D and conference is coming up! Man its going to be a very spiritual October this year! One i will probably never forget! (until i get Alzheimer's) But hey mom no worries I don't need anything.. I am on the down stretch and everything that i have is just going to have to make it work :D No use having more stuff to pack around.. :D But i appreciate you always asking. I mean if you feel like you just absolutely need to get me something then just take 20 bucks and go put it in the marriage fund at the bank :D (aka my bank account) But only if it will make you feel better :D lol! I love you guys! Thank you for all that you do! You are awesome! I love you guys so much! Take care!

Elder Penman

September 21st E-mail

Whats happening?!?! Well this week was ok. We found an awesome new investigator. His name is Gary and he had met with missionaries in the past and at one time he even had a date to be baptized.. But then he ended up falling and breaking his ribs and messing up his shoulder and well everything got off track from there... But he has no longer slipped through the cracks! we found him and he is wanting to get his life back on track! So we will see how that goes. Other than that this week was ok. We had a really good district meeting. Elder Allred I (<-- that means the 1st) gave a really good training that was nice to see. I'm very glad that he has grown up a little bit... not much but a little bit... You know i really haven't got sick that much on my mission... I have been blessed. But yesterday I woke up at like 4 in the morning and it was on! I puked my guts out all morning until about noon and i was white as a sheet and i just layed there the rest of the day. My back was killing me and i couldn't get comfy and finally last night i took a super hot bath with some epsom salts and oh boy did it feel good! The Ashtons have a pretty big bathtub but it is upstairs.. So i got up the stairs.. I barely had enough energy to get that far.. And then after the bath it drained all the rest of the energy that i had and so when i stepped out of the bath tub i just about fell flat on my face lol! and i had to sit on the toilet just to regain enough to put my clothes on... so i was pretty dang bad but i got back downstairs and well i crashed... and i slept great.. Elder Allred took numbers for me last night and everything.. So i am glad that is over! I still feel a little weak and no i wont be playing ball today... But I feel SO much better today than i did yesterday! I have no idea what it was! but i did get a blessing from my comp and Brother Ashton and so i will be fine :D! It was nuts though.. The second time i woke up to puke at like 4:30 Elder Allred woke up too and he came and opened the bathroom door and my face in burried in the toilet and he was just standing there watching me and he goes are you alright? :D It was kinda funny.. But I'm all better now. We are still working our little butts off. I'm glad that you got to spend some time with Shannon! That sucks that the power was out though... lol! I cant believe that BYU lost too... that sucks.. That's good that Highland won though! I hope they keep it up! Take care of yourselves! Thanks for all you do and for all your prayers! I love ya! Elder Penman

September 14th E-mail

What is happening?!?! Well its great to hear from both of you! I'm glad highland hung in there with the Idaho team.. They will do alright this year. So Shannon really is going with us huh?!? Is that awesome or what! I would absolutely love to room with Carl again! This time i will pack some air fresheners though :D Wow that is awesome! I'm seriously smiling pretty big right now! I hear though that those resorts are supposed to be pretty dang cool! Are they going to have golfing and what not? I am way excited to go scuba diving too! Really it just sounds nice to be able to get in the water! :D I got a pretty cool story from an exchange that we went on this week. I went to CDA to be with Elder Killpack (who i came out with) He is one of my Zone Leaders. But anyways we were driving to the church to make some copies of some paperwork to go over with his Ward mission leader and on the way i told him ya know we really ought to just hang out at the church today and let the people come to us... and we both laughed and then we pulled up at the church and there was a guy walking through the parking lot and so we drove around by him and parked and got out and started talking to him.. Well at first he told us he didn't really believe in anything and then we taught him about Jesus Christ and what he did for us and then we went right into the Plan of Salvation and what the purpose of this life is. Well anyways he told us that he would be at church on Sunday and that we could meet with him again on Monday.. So it was a very neat experience but afterwards we were walking inside and i told Elder killpack see what did i tell ya? lol... It was pretty funny. We ended up talking to 2 more people before we left the church but neither of them were interested.. :D This week went a little slow for us though.. Juanita and Kim (who were on-date) fell off the face of the earth... We cant get a hold of them to save our lives.. It was pretty funny though one night we went over to their house at like 8:30 at night so it was dark and their kitchen light was on and their basement light was on and so we knocked and they have a big window right by the door but is for the living room and their blinds were cracked a bit and i looked in there and i could tell that the t.v. was on and i kept looking in well someone came crawling out from in front of the couch to see who was at the door and then they noticed me staring at them and so they turned around and crawled back behind the couch lol! and then like 2 seconds later all the lights shut off! lol! so it was kind of funny even though it sucks that we cant get a hold of them... But what do ya do! The Lord has something awesome in store for us! And we are looking forward to whatever it might be! I love you guys! Thanks for all that you do for me! For your prayers and your support and love! Take care! And good luck in everything! Take it easy!

Elder Penman