February 16th E-mail

how are my favorite parents in the whole wide world?!?! well that's fabulous! I'm doing pretty good myself! my comp is "sick" but hrrrrp he will do fine! this week i went on an exchange with the DL (the one i knocked out...:D ) and well we had a long chat about what we could do for our companions. anyways we came up with some good game plans and so we will see how they work out! today we went boxing again and oh man its such a dang good workout! and yes dad i do have an itch for boxing now! lol doesn't mean i will become one but i will knock you out! OHHH!!! lol not that i couldn't before i left... but now even more so lol! but its nice to work off some anger and some back fat... :D we are teaching that 16 year old kid Seth and he is doing much better! his grades are up and his mom is happy so now we just have to teach him and keep him on the straight and narrow! and he can be baptized anytime now! so that's cool! we are also teaching a guy named Praveen! he is Hindu! but not for long! he has come to church like 5 or 6 times and he likes the "karma" there... and so we have been taking baby steps with him! teaching him about the nature of God and the godhead and their roles and so forth! but its cool! its a lot of fun! but other than that things have been going just fine... thanks so much for the cookie! wow! it lasted like 5 minutes lol! i seriously thought about eating my comps real fast and then eating mine so that he didn't even know you sent him one lol! but i didn't! i gave it to him! oh tell bro McDougal hello and that Clarkston is in the Lewiston Stake and there is only 1 stake here in the valley but tell him we are working on it :D! Moscow and Pullman and everything used to be in the Lewy stake but now they have their own stake... so that's cool.. well i love you guys! oh and mom about motherhood and so forth.. well one day when i am a mother i might have some advice for you but until then i think you know that subject a little better than i do :D! and plus you make a pretty dang good one! :D happy valentines day a little late! and i love you guys a ton! take care! talk to ya soon!
Elder Penman
p.s. If you didn't already get me something for my b-day i need some new basketball shoes.. i want them black with say a little bit of red on em! and make em spiffy! lol! thanks! love ya!

February 9th E-mail

Whats happenin?!?! wow this week was fun! But I'm afraid my letter wont be too long cause i am starting to get a head ache :D for an awesome reason though! this morning!!!! we went boxing! ok i will tell you a little bit about this family their last name is grow and the dad was a boxer and the son that just got back from a mission was a boxer as well...(like 2nd in the nation at one point) and bro. grow's dad was a world class boxer (Jim Grow) he fought in the garden a few times.. and bro. Grows brother (Mike Grow) was a pro and 2nd in the world at one point... and when i told them i lived across the street from Gene Fulmer they about crapped themselves and then when i told them that i didn't even know who he was at first they couldn't even believe it lol.... but ok they have access to a private gym and the son took us over there and had us do a little work out..(by little i mean i am freaking exhausted!) but anyways afterwards he let us spar for a couple 2 min rounds... and I will send you a picture but me and my district leader went at it twice (he is like 5' 10" 165 and he was a QB) but anyways i just got done with a round with a heavyweight Elder Lamb and i kicked his trash cause he is super slow and then elder Jarman (District Leader) and his comp went at it and i knocked his comp down in the first punch and so they had me step in with him and i was super tired but we were pretty even and he caught me with some good ones... and then he fought Lamb and kicked his trash and then the final round was me and Jarman and i will send you a picture of what happened but i caught him with the sweetest right hand and he landed flat on his back! it was sweet! then he jumped up and had no clue where he was for a min lol!!! it was so dang fun tho! and such a good workout! but no worries no one got hurt we had head gear and 16oz gloves and mouth pieces and all that jazz! but we hardly get a workout like that so it was fun! but with lack of water and not used to getting hit in the head i have a slight headache but it is so stinking worth it! it was fun but i will send some pictures! and well of course you guessed it Elder Milktoast didn't step into the ring all he did is take pictures! but that's ok! well the work is going good too! but its nice to get a few frustrations out as well lol! but we got 3 more new gators this week and one is a Hindu guy who has come to church 4 times before we had a lesson with him! how sad is that on our part! durrrrr... anyways! lol i love you guys and i hope you have fun in St. George. mom tell vaughna that i love her and that if she needs anything she better be on the phone and calling one of you! give her a hug for me too! tell her the "her tall friend hasn't forgotten her!" but hey i love you guys! take care! i look forward to getting the package you sent me! mom i seriously have no clue what i want for my b-day! whatever you get me just don't spend a lot of money! in fact you could take whatever you were going to spend and put in in the bank to gain interest for when i get back! lol! i dunno i just don't need much while i am out here ya know... and ya some jerseys would be sweet when i got back but i don't need to pack them around while i am here... i dunno that's the best part about a mish is i don't have to worry about myself :D so sorry i am no help at all! BUT! i do love ya! :D so take care! have fun! and mom don't forget your scriptures! don't forget to have family prayer! and go to church dang it!!!! lol!! i love you guys! Elder Penman

February 2nd E-mail

hey its good to hear from you guys!! well things are going pretty well here! they are getting a lot better! that's for sure! We had a pretty good week and most of all the best part during the week was that Elder Allred wasn't all that bad.. I had to tell him to shut his pie hole a few times but hey things are getting better! I think after Elder Allred talked to president and after his bishop called him and he got whatever was holding him back off his shoulders he is ready to move on and now we just have to deal with a little stubbornness and he is still in 8th grade... but that's ok... I am learning to be patient that's for sure.. but i love the work! I absolutely do! i hear that the Superbowl was pretty dang good that's cool! its too bad that the cardinals didn't pull it out though.. that would have been awesome i think for them to win! but oh well the steelers are a good team... I am however upset that i didn't get to see any of the game lol! but oh well we went and taught a guy and put him on-date for the 28th so that was better than the Superbowl anyways! lol! well I love you guys a ton! its good to hear that you are both doing ok! keep hanging in there! keep reading your scriptures! anywho i love you and i will talk to you next week! take care!

Elder Penman

January 26th E-mail

Hey whats happenin?!?! well we had an ok week! yesterday was pretty exciting but the rest of the week was meh.. So yesterday I spoke in sacrament in first ward.. and it was pimpin! i took like 20 mins and it was a piece of cake :D didn't even prep that much lol! I love it! anyways then Pres Baker (a counselor in the mission presidency) came down for a fireside for second ward.. and so all the members are now pumped for missionary work! and! in first ward a kid brought his friend to church and his friend (who is a sophomore) wants to be baptized! so we are going to start teaching him this week! we put him on date and then after church we contacted this guy name Dan Madden who lives in second ward! and he is so dang golden! We were telling him about the BoM and said Christ came here to teach these people and he said do you think that that was what he was talking about when he said there were other people somewhere else....? and i said you mean other sheep that i have which are not of this fold?(John 10:16) and he was like ya! and i said turn to 3 Nephi 15:21 and he did and was like wow! and to start off the lesson he was like you know i have been to many different Christian denominations and i think they all have bits of the truth but i don't think they have the whole thing... and we were like wuhhhh.... I said well Dan I believe you are going to like what we have to say.. and he said well I'm all ears.. lol! it was so sweet! so we are going to teach him again on Saturday and put him on date as well! AWESOME! work is going well! thanks for getting me Jace Hymus' number! i called him and he is going to work the other side for me! I think his Father In-law got Antied... but we will see.. anyways today we butchered chickens!!!!!!! It was so freaking fun! first you go in and catch the little buggers then you bring them out and chop their heads off and drain the blood out by holding them upside down and then you pull them apart and its so easy! its way fun too!! I have pictures :D and i will send them to shanni soon! she probably wont like them very much lol but i do! it was fun! plus the guy gave us some eggs and when he is done prepping the meat we get some of that too! and they are 2 year old chickens that were corn fed with no hormones or anything! i cant wait to eat it!!!!!!!!!!! wow! but it was so fun! and OF COURSE freaking milk toast wouldn't come out of the house even... so he sat in and wrote letters while everyone else in the district participated in the decapitating of chickens :D !!! woohoo!!! it was awesome! but hey i love you guys so much! take care! mom don't over do it! and hang in there! alright well i love you guys! take care!

Elder Penman

January 19th E-mail

Well hello! how are you doing?!?! mom I'm not the one that you have to tell "I better marry Shannon" you better tell her that lol! well hang in there with the knee! that's funny what your doctor said but i can imagine that it is true! what he doesn't know is that that "punch in the face" would really turn into a "golden toe dropkick in the stones" :D but hang in there it will all work out! its good to hear that people are taking care of you! dad sorry you aren't feeling well.. geez you are both down... imagine that lol... sorry both of ya! but hey just hang in there! everything will work out smooth! well i have some good news! We had a baptism last night!!! it was amazing! Al Cormack got baptized! it was one of the coolest! His wonderful wife Sue Cormack got up and bore her testimony and she said that when they got married she accepted that as a blessing from heavenly father that she would have a good companion for the rest of this life.. and now that he has made this decision it opens up a whole new world of opportunity for them! there was an amazing sense of Joy in that room last night and the spirit was so strong! but that puts the count of couples i will get to see sealed in the temple while i am here at 2! woohoo!!! I am so excited! this is just wonderful! I love my mission! I wouldn't trade it for anything! well things are getting super busy... so much that (its a good thing) i don't think about anything else... I am just
constantly on the go and my brain has never been filled with so much information at once... (ya dad it is a good thing i came on m y mission with a "brand new" brain :D ) but ya things are
getting crazy busy! and time just flies! wow.. but hey next time you send me something send me
some more little tapes so i can start "keeping my journal" lol cause now my excuse isn't i am too lazy it is that i don't have enough time... which is true.. but hey i hope all is well! let me know how grandma Penman is doing! tell everyone hi for me! speaking of grandma Penman I called Pres
Clark to see how she was doing and i said hey President how are ya i was just calling cause my grandma had surgery and i wanted to know how she is doing... and he said you are spooky you know that? and i was like huh? and he said i was listening to the voicemail from your dad and as soon as it got over you called on the other line... then he told me how things went and what not.. but i thought it was pretty funny... But anyways! i love you guys! take care of yourselves! keep up the reading! I love you!
Elder Penman

January 16th Letter

Hey there! How are you? Well things are going pretty good here I do want you to know that I was dreaming of you on New Years Eve cause I went to bed at like 10:00 Lol. Yep it is a small world ...Elder Mulvayne(I don't have a clue how to spell his name either :))went to the singles ward in my first area and he was dating Wendy...remember Wendy? Anyway he is pretty cool.

Well things around here have been just crazy! Training is very tiring! I have no idea how it all gets done but it does somehow! Its like I am doing the same work but there is a lot more and I am twice as tired. It is wierd but I love it! It makes time just fly by. In fact I didn't hardly realize that a week had gone by and that I hadn't written you yet :) Don't worry I didn't forget you!! But our schedule has been nuts. Yesterday (Tuesday) we were in Spokane from 9:00-2:00 for a newbie pow-wow or in other words a new missionary training. That involved 5 hours of driving-two and a half each way. So we got back and ran to our members who were feeing us and ate then ran to a lesson(we didn't really run, we actually drove) and then went straight to another lesson and so things have just been nuts. Its great I have no complaints.:)

So we were in the meeting and Pres was talking about how when we talk to people we do what he calls "ask the inspired question." Anyway he share this one story about these 2 missionaries who were tracting and this lady comes to the door and she is holding a baby. The one elder talks to her about the restoration and she says she wasn't interested. Well before she shuts the door the other elder asks ma'am do you know where your baby came from? That got her thinking and they set up an appt. and went back and taught them. Well I was sitting there and I am like wait a second...that was ME! Lol that was me and Elder Everett talking to Tessa! Pres. said he didn't know how it all turned out but the elder that is in my old area said to him that that was me and he was shocked that he forgot who told him that! :) So I finished the rest of the story for him...it was pretty cool to have one of your spiritual experiences used for a training by president! But anywho we also had interviews last week and I absolutely love pres. He is so cool I am going to be sad when he goes home in July.

I am very sorry for no pictures! I will send some soon! I wanted to take some before we went to Walmart and my batteries were dead and we weren't home so I couldn't charge some. Sorry! I still love you very much if that helps any! Good luck with school! I hope all is well for you! Hang in there! Can you believe its been 1/3 of my mission today? Wow that is crazy. Well I love you and can't wait to hear from you! Take care!

Love, Elder Ryan John Penman

January 12th E-mail

well hello! mom i am glad to hear that you are doing well with recovery! Pres Clark was so nice he called me to tell me that dad had called and that everything went really well.. dad please call and let me (pres Clark) know how grandma does... i told him about the surgery and what not.. I will be praying for her and you as well mother! :D i am glad to hear that you have been reading your scriptures everyday! i will be out 8 months this week and so you only have 4 months left (in a sense) to be done with the BoM once... remember 2 times before i get back lol! but if you have been reading everyday then you should be pretty far along.. :D I know it has helped you as well mom! it helps me! if i didn't start my day off with 5 or so prayers before i walk out the door and a good 2 hours of study then i would have killed Elder Milk toast by now.. that's for sure.. but the Lord blesses me with patience and sharpness... (sharpness for the humbling of my companion on occasion...) so we had interviews this week and they went really well Pres asked me how Elder Allred was doing and then he said and give me details... so i did i told him that i had to "humble" him a few times and he laughed and said well how did you humble him and i told him how i did and it was very loving and straight to the point with no argument (pretty much my way or go back to Cali) :D and pres said he was proud of me and the way i handle things and that he feels in our stake we have very strong "senior" companions :D and that we will get the job done.. and he feels that my group i came out with is the backbone of the mission for the new president (coming in in like July) so that was cool to hear that he trusts me a lot and that he feels i am doing a good job... but this week my comp was acting about 5 years old and just being a real pain and so ( by the way he is terrible at arguing... i could argue with I'm about something i have no idea about and shut him doing hard core) I decided to play his little game and show him what its like to be around an idiot all day long... so everything he said i would dispute and he was getting really annoyed cause he couldn't do anything and i kept telling him he needed to grow up and that we could play this game all day... anyways (and this will give you an idea of just how he really is) i said well elder on a serious note i want to ask you a question... and he says no i don't answer questions on a serious note from Satan.. LOL!!! and i said so you are saying that i am Satan? and he looks at me and i said that wouldn't make any sense cause Satan cant tempt little kids... and he got pissed and wouldn't talk to me and i said see elder that isn't going to work with me i will win every time.... anyways (i know that doesn't sound very good but it was needed i couldn't hold back any longer...) but then that night i had to break him down and he kept interrupting me and i finally got up to him and said don't say a word and then he just sat there and listened...but trust me no matter how mean i sound.. he needed it and I'm going to go ahead and say that pres Clark approved it.. cause when i started telling him what was going on the only thing he said back to me was yep 19 of them came out and its interesting to see the variety of that big of a bunch. But anyways we didn't have a baptism it has been getting moving around 50 different times... but beside the point Al Cormack is doing great and we had an awesome lesson with him last night to where at first he didn't want to commit very strongly to the WoW but then we promised him specific blessings and offered a priesthood blessing to start things off... (he is a retired doctor who drinks coffee to help him get moving in the morning cause he has fibromyalga) that was probably horrible spelling but you get the idea.. but it was neat he is done with coffee. now we just have to teach him tithing and he is on his way... and this week the Mckinleys came to church for the first time.. its pretty cool deal they are an older couple (late 60's) and they have a daughter that is a member and their son-in-law is the girls basketball coach at Taylorsville.. i cant remember his name right now but i know him.. anyways its a small world... but hopefully they will be on-date this week.. they were planning on staying for the first 2 hours and then they enjoyed themselves and so they stayed for the third hour as well... i am excited about them he read the whole BoM in like 2 months... its pretty cool... he still says that "its hard to put down" talking about the BoM he cant stop reading it :D but anyways things are going very well right now! we had a very full week.. the best week that i have had since i have been here and so i thank you for all of your prayers! oh and by the way i didn't have to turn the shower on for Elder Allred all week! he is getting stronger!!! lol! well hang in there guys! don't let anything get you down! Heavenly Father loves you! and he wants the best for ya! thanks for all that you do for me! and i look forward to hearing from ya soon! love ya!
Elder Penman