February 8th E-mail

Whats happening?!?! This has been the most exciting time of my mission! The Lord is blessing us so much! And not just Elder Brady and I. He is blessing this whole district. As a district (4 companionships) we have 14 people on-date for baptism. And 8 baptisms coming up this Saturday! Its really just amazing to see all the miracles that take place every day! That Bassetts are so excited to get baptized on Saturday! The whole ward is practically going to be there! We went over to their house on Saturday to have a lesson and some dinner. We did both and then Bruce had to go because he had plans with some of his old friends.. Anyways we stayed and talked with Laura. Laura never had any background when we began teaching her as far as religion and God are concerned.. She recognized that the principles that are taught withing the church are true and that they would benefit her and her family by living them.. But i just never got the feeling that she had a testimony yet.. Well she kind of opened up to us on Saturday and we talked about all sorts of stuff. We talked about repentance and forgiveness and the commandments and the progression of evil and i mean you name it and we talked about it.. We weren't bs-ing by any means we were having a great discussion. But she was crying a little bit. And we started talking about the term in the scriptures "To have a clear conscience before God" and what that meant and well why we even have a conscience and what it truly is (the light of Christ) and it finally clicked with her... A light bulb came on. And not only that she felt the spirit! She felt it. All she said was that is the best argument that i have had so far concerning whether or not there is a God.. And i smiled and said that i felt it too! and she just smiled back. It only took us 4 hours to get to that point in our discussion on Saturday with her.. But we got there. And she felt the spirit. And she has the beginnings of a testimony! She believes! She has already given a BoM to her friend at work. Bruce tried to give one to his best friend but got turned down... lol. But they are just on fire! I told them that they have to come to Utah this year! They said they will bring rockband so we can all play it! lol.. That would be so awesome! So hopefully they will come! Keep praying for them. This week is going to be the interesting one.. We are preparing for the worst.. We are preparing to have just about everything go wrong right before the baptism.. so please pray for otherwise :D We are just having a blast right now! Its wonderful to see these people who are truly Honest in heart! come into the gospel! Its pretty neat. Things are so good right now that we have this lady named Cindy who is watching these kids in our ward whose parents are on vacation and Cindy isn't a member. But this morning she gave us haircuts cooked us breakfast and she is also doing our laundry for us! woot! its really going to be a good week! lol. We just need to find her a husband and she would join the church :D and Thursday she is having us over for lasagna! lol... She is 37 years old.. never been married.. very devout christian woman.. By the book let me tell ya. She is practically Mormon just need a little bit of water.. But things are just really good right now and its fun. This is joy.. This is the best! Mom thanks for the cookies! You rock! I cant wait until they get here.. Thanks for everything! I was hoping to hear how dad was doing.. Please let me know. Hopefully he isn't having to lay on his face anymore.. Well i love you guys! Take care!

Elder Penman

February 1st E-mail

Well how the heck are ya?!?! I'm so glad to hear that the surgery went well! I hope that is the last of them! geez. Thanks for the address mom. That is exactly what i needed. :D So mom feel free to send cookies.. You can just put "Love Baby" on my comps... trust me it will fit perfect :D Its an inside joke between me and him but it will be freaking funny.. and then the guy that we live with his name is Dan or Bro. Larson.. you pick.. I forgot all about those cookies.. I'm excited for them now! :D lol... Well things are going very well right now! The baptism went awesome! It was actually probably my least stressful baptism ever.. It was nice.. This ward is just awesome. They pull together and get stuff done.. Its nice.. We didn't have to worry about hardly anything and most of the time we are running back and forth to tie up lose ends and its just nuts.. But this one was really nice.. Elder Brady was way excited too with it being his first baptism! So the Bassetts are doing absolutely wonderful! I wish we could find 100 more of those families before i leave :D They are just amazing! We were having a combined Relief society/priesthood 5th Sunday meeting and it was all about this challenge that the bishopric issued to everyone to read the BoM in the months of Jan and Feb... Well anyways they opened it up to whoever would like to bare their testimony about how this challenge has effected them.. Well a few people got up and it was really good and then Bruce Bassett stood up! And went up front and talked about how 45 years ago he lived in Utah and back then you couldn't turn a corner without seeing the BoM and he said he was very good at never opening it :D he said that we had come by and gave him another BoM and that it sat on his night stand just like the others had in the past.. He said it wasn't until the Bishopric issued the challenge that he actually picked it up and decided to read it.. He then bore very strong testimony about the truthfulness of the book and how his investigative period is over.. He is getting baptized! IT WAS AWESOME! I could not believe it! He said he has been looking for this for a long time! And he should have read the book 50 years ago! It was awesome! Afterwards i kid you not when church got over everyone went up to them and invited them to dinner! It was great! lol... They had to turn a few people down because someone already invited them over that night lol! It was absolutely amazing! We had an old lady call us this morning at about 9 just to tell us how awesome she thought Bruce's testimony was lol! What a week! Right now in our district wonderful things are happening! We have 4 companionships in the district and right now we have a total of 12 people on-date for baptism! It is just amazing! The Lord is truly blessing us! Thank you so much for your prayers! Thanks for all the love and support that you show me! I love you guys so much! Thanks again for everything that you do! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

January 25 E-mail

Whats happening?!?! My goodness another eye surgery eh? i do like the massage table purchase though.. That might come in handy! That sucks though.. Hang in there dad. After much tribulation comes the blessings! :D Isn't it nice to have the priesthood available though? It is a wonderful thing! Mom i would love for you to buy me a plane ticket so i can go spend a week with my fam and my future wife in Cancun! lol... That seems like a pretty good birthday present to me :D So we had some really awesome things happen this week! So Saturday night we were on the phone with Laura Bassett to see if we could come over and have a lesson.. And we were chatting a little bit and in the background we heard Bruce out of nowhere say "Hey ask them when we can get baptized so we can get this over with" LOL.. so she took him as serious cause she figured that isn't a subject that you don't take seriously.. And so she said Bruce wants to know.. and then asked us.. well we said how about tomorrow! lol... But then we said well what about the 13th of February? and she said well that sounds pretty good but we will have to think about it and get back to you on that.. Elder Brady's eyes were huge it was awesome lol.. So then we told them we would come over Sunday instead cause they were having movie night.. cause the kids were at their dads.. So after church we find out that Bruce announced in High Priest group that his family was getting baptized on the 13th! So come to find out Laura was ll freaked out and Bruce is way excited.. so we went over to their house and made them lunch :D We made french toast.. And then on of Bruce's friend came over and they went out into the field to shoot their pistols.. And so we sat down with Laura and read over alma 32 and talked her through her concerns and now she is way excited to get baptized too! And its freaking awesome! A whole family! I cant tell you what though! They are going to need our prayers more now than they ever did! We haven't had a chance to talk to the kids yet but I'm sure they will be way excited.. We also are having a baptism this week for the 2 little girls.. they are very excited and their mom, due to the fact that she is a little bit of a drama queen, was wanting to postpone the baptism for even longer.. she postponed it last year and then she postponed it for the 9th of this month.. and she wanted to postpone it again for dumb reasons.. And we were able to go over to their house last night and talk to her and we just told her that really these girls are so excited to get baptized that they would be so devastated if they had to wait even longer.. plus i don't want to have to be the one to tell them why when there is no reason why.. So she came around and said ok then lets just do it on Saturday! sweet! so its on like donkey kong! And we are excited.. These girls have been wanting to get baptized forever! So things are just going very well right now! So mom i got what we call my "trunky papers" just all the stuff i need to plan for basically.. Well i need to know the name and address of my stake pres.. because it has changed obviously but that is pretty much all i need to know so that i can turn in the paper that i need to.. so if you could get me that info for next Monday i would appreciate it! so mom other websites you can try for the books would be half.com samweller.com abebooks.com .... i don't know what they will have but at least you can check it out.. Well rents.. I love ya! take care of yourselves! Good luck with surgery! I will be praying for ya dad! I love you guys! take care!
Elder Penman

January 19th E-mail

Whats happenin?!?! lol.. I knew that the books would not be cheap.. I will talk to some people and see if i can get you some better deals.. I dunno though.. This birthday is already eaten up and for a wedding present i want a California king bed! after this mission dang it i am going to sleep comfortable the rest of my life! lol.. so apparently i got some competition huh? lol.. hrrrrrrp.. I'm not too worried about it... So my new comp is freaking cool. His name is Elder Brady and he is from Pleasant Grove... he is a football player.. In fact he has a scholarship to snow college for when he gets back to play corner.. But he is cool. He turned 19 yesterday.. So he has been on his mission, Including the MTC, for a month before he turned 19.. But he is a hard worker and very teachable.. This transfer will be nice.. lol mom you are so funny.. You would have my room all ready to go lol.. I think that's awesome.. Its crazy to think that its not that far away... but hrrrp. I try not to think about it too much.. So we went to teach the Bassetts and we had dinner with them and Laura left after dinner to go to some relief society activity (sweet!) and so we talked to Bruce for a while and we were talking about the previous Sunday and the talks in sacrament meeting and there was a guy that spoke and told his conversion story and it took him 10 years of investigation to become converted to the gospel and so he was commenting on that guys talk and he said see I'm one up on that guy it took him ten years and it hasn't taken me near that long.. I said whoa whoa whoa are you telling me that you are converted? and he said well ya I'm pretty much ready to get baptized.. !!! i was like what the heck.. and then he said how he wants Laura to be able to truly believe these things and what not and it was awesome.. All along i thought that Laura was farther ahead than Bruce and that could still be the case but sooner or later they are going to be on-date :D pretty exciting for them! So keep them in your prayers still! They are such a wonderful family! In fact i told Bruce that he should come down to Utah with his fam in early June before he has to start hay season.. and he said ya i wouldn't miss that wedding for nothing! lol... I said well that's a little quick... and he said no way better sooner than later! lol So i thought that was funny. But they are so awesome! But things are really great for me.. So again mom just hold off on the books for now.. We will figure something out.. Plus Shannon will come around to wanting the books :D She doesn't know what she is missing! But no worries ill talk to her about it :D lol.. Well i love you guys! Thanks for everything! i am definitely set for now.. don't need anything and i definitely don't need more crap to bring home :D I love ya! take care of yourselves!
Elder Penman

January 11th E-mail

Woot! Its transfer time! and guess what? I'm getting another greenie! lol... My comp is headed out after just 6 weeks.. Which really is ok with me.. I am ready for a change :D But yep Tuesday i go down to Spokane to pick him up.. i have no idea who he is.. but i will let you know all about him next week.. So mom the Journal of Discourses is quite a big series of books.. I'm not sure how much they are going to cost but you might have to spread it out a little.. who knows.. I haven't looked at the price.. But i would rather you just get them and keep them at home.. I'm not really allowed to read them out here.. But if they are expensive just tell everyone who was planning on getting me something to just give you some cash.. :D But that would be awesome to get those books.. And heck you could even read them before i get home :D So the Bassetts are doing great.. We had a pretty good lesson with them and we talked to them a lot about baptism. They have taken the challenge that our bishopric has extended to everyone in the ward to read the BoM in the months on Jan and Feb. So they are right on track with that. Its actually really nice to have investigators reading 9 pages of the BoM a day... They basically said that they would like to get through the BoM but that baptism was the route that they were leaning towards.. So it was nice. I feel that as we continue to teach them that they will come even closer. Its fun to watch them grow in the gospel! But i think that i will die off here so its ok if i have to wait until march to baptize them.. :D They are a wonderful family though! So i dont know if i have told you but this ward is plagued! Saturday we went to a funeral for a 4 month old in the ward.. This family has experienced so much! They have a 4 year old daughter that fought with cancer for the first few years of her life.. and they didn't think she was going to make it and then this little one struggled with just about everything! It was crazy but that is the 3rd funeral in this ward since i have been here and i have only been here 3 months!!! Is that crazy or what! And I hate to say it but we have a few on-deck.. 2 of them and they both have cancer that cant be treated and the one was given 1-30 days to live 3 weeks ago and the other was given 3-6months to live 3 months ago.. so... I don't know what it is but i think its the water.. ;) But its such a strong ward.. They are great! I would not mind staying here until the end.. Well things are pretty good! I am way excited to train again! good ole #4... I hope this is how many kids i will have of my own :D Well mom that's way cool that you got a raise! After all that hard work of mastering solitaire i think you deserved it! That's a tough game! ;) lol. I'm glad to hear that you guys are doing ok! Keep on keepin on! I love ya! Take care of yourselves! Elder Penman

January 4th E-mail

Whats going on?!?! how have you guys been? Can you believe that its 2010?!!! I think its just crazy... Times really does just fly by.. My New Years was pretty fun.. We didn't stay up until midnight.. There was no way in heck that i was going to stay up.. Due to the fact that it doesn't matter how late you stay up you still get up at 6:30.. But we did get to watch a movie and so we watched "Up". I thought it was a cute little movie.. So the guy that we moved in with has a treadmill.. And so i have been on what i call the "Cancun" diet.. which consists of running 2 miles a day.. :D I decided that its time to get rid of my "Dormant muscle" :D Bu i love it. It makes it so much easier to get up in the mornings and i just feel better throughout the day.. I think i am going to switch to running for 3 or 4 miles every other day.. and that way i will have times to do pushups and what not on the off days.. But anyways its been a good move so far.. He is a 75 year old man that is very particular about everything even the glasses that we use to drink from... :D But what else do you expect right? lol.. He is way cool though and he has lots of books that interest me... such as Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith... And teachings of all the other prophets.. I know that i never did like to read but there is something about learning the gospel that really sparks my attention.. So i will be making a list of books that i want as gifts for the next 15 years... :D there is just one thing that i don't understand about a lot of members of the church.. And that is the fact that when they go to buy church books they buy the ones that are sooooo good by author "who the heck knows(with no authority or apostleship whatsoever)" and they read books that talk about certain subjects but don't really give you the run down on them and well they end up wasting a lot of time reading pointless material rather than learning the gospel... Make sense? and so my collection of books isn't going to be pointless :D that's what I'm getting at.. There are too many doctrines and even very simple principles that i have learned out here that if someone was to come and teach over the pulpit back home it would throw everyone for a loop :D. I think we don't spend enough time learning the gospel from our Prophets and Apostles! so that will conclude my preaching for the day :D lol... But its true if all the members of the church took time to learn the gospel back and front as far as what has been given to us at this time then we would be a whole lot stronger! Cause guess what? The "deep" doctrine that everyone refers to... really isn't that deep... Its simple.. They just don't want to take the time to understand what it means... But anyways the first volume of books that i want are the complete set of "The Journal of Discourses"!!! so for my birthday in march.. and for any other reason you feel you should buy me something.. That's what i want :D Starting with volume 1... :D Who would have thought that one day Goob would want books? ya i know.. Better capitalize on the opportunity! :D lol... Well I don't know why i went off on the tangent.. But This week was pretty good... I think the Bassetts are really ready to join the church.. They are going to buy quads now for the whole family... ya you don't just go out and buy 4 quads if your not going to join the church.. So we are planning on putting them on-date this week! Ill let you know how it goes! Pray for them! I know you are already! And i appreciate it! woot! Well anyways happy new year! I love you guys! I'm planning on the year being a really good year! a very good year! So lets all come together and make it happen! Lets have one year without Chaos in the Penman family! woot! lol.. I know its not going to happen but it doesn't hurt to try! lol. I love you guys! Take care!

Elder Penman

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