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

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