August 10th E-mail

What is happening?!?! Well it sounds like everything is going pretty well for you guys. I'm glad that girls camp was fun. It tends to have a pretty big impact on the girls.. hrrrrrrrrrrp... lol I'm j/k! :D But that is way cool. I'm glad you didn't get the job actually mom because ya know a little more money isn't that important anyways.. and it would just give you a reason to spend a little more money anyways.. :D I can tell you one thing though.. I know without a doubt why the leaders of our church have been telling us to get out of debt. Something crazy is going to happen real soon I can tell you that much. And a lot of people are going to be screwed.. Well around here a lot of people already are screwed... but anyways.. I wont get into the negative that is going on in the world. ;) But this week we were able to find 2 new investigators! Woot! Their names are Jenny Young who is a single mother of 3. And Ted Rohrenbach and he is pretty cool. He is a catholic and how we broke the ice with him was he told us that his son had passed away and we asked if he was baptized.. and he said no and well you know what catholics believe about that.. and so we told him about the spirit world and about temples and how he could be baptized for his son.. and that was way cool! But things are just picking up right now.. We had our interviews this week and they went very well. President Palmer told me that he thought i did a really good job conducting my district meeting and then later the ZLs told me that he told them the same thing.. So that was pretty neat. Its nice to have so quickly earned the trust of President Palmer. He is such a great guy.. So did you guys go talk with Sis. Palmer's parents? probably not since it was girls camp.. But you should go see them. That would be cool. So i need you guys to chew out my siblings for me! Those hosers.. And especially James.. :) No but tell them i love em that's for sure. I love you guys too. It is crazy to think that i only have 9 months left.. lol.. Wow that is just simply crazy. Lol so kind of a funny story. Last night we were over at some members house for dinner. (the Coughanours) and their little boy was saying the prayer over the food and I started rubbing Elder Allred's leg under the table and he started laughing during the prayer! lol! It was so funny. He is pretty dang cool. He is definitely my best greenie so far. We give each other a lot of crap.. and he is very teachable.. He told me last night "I don't want you to go zone leader.. I would rather be your comp for 2 transfers..." And i was like who says I'm going Zone leader? hrrrrrrrp. But we will see.. We still got 4 weeks in the transfer.. But i love you guys so much! take care of yourselves! And keep reading your scrips! and good job on re-committing yourself! Woot! Love ya!

Elder Penman

August 4th E-mail

What is going on??!?! That's exciting that football is starting pretty soon! today has been so tiring! We played 3 hours of basketball and then went and played 2 hours of volleyball! It was nuts and now i can barely walk.. But would i do it again...? Probably.. :D The reason that p-day was today (Tuesday) was because we has Elder Hafen of the Quorum of the Seventy come and tour the mission and he instructed us from 9-4:30 they fed us lunch but oh man was that a long meeting! :D It was great though! He taught us a lot about the Atonement! And doctrinally how the beliefs of the atonement from the restoration are fundamentally different from mainstream Christianity... So it was pretty dang cool! He is the man! Well although it has been great to train once again, and believe me this boy is going to be a good one, The thing that trips me up still is that his name is Elder Allred! ya! crazy huh! I got another Elder Allred! What are the chances? but i tell you that this one in a polar opposite of the other one! And the best part is he is a baller.. So today during basketball we dominated :D He is from Ogden Utah and he graduated in 08 from Fremont. He is way cool and best of all he is very teachable! so we get along great! Its definitely fun to see! and the greenie fire rocks! His first day! I took him to Bishop Rouse's house for a "greenie" dinner (where everything is green). And we were getting ready to share a message with them and right as we all sat down in the living room. (wait gotta back this up first off Bishop was sick and asleep downstairs and all of his boys were gone so it was me my comp and bishops wife and her mother,who is from south Jordan, and bishops 3 daughters..) ok so we here this knock at the door and its this guy selling magazines.. and sister Rouse invited him in to hear a message.. Well he came in and we taught him the first lesson.. Long story short he was going through a pretty rough time in his life and truly wanted to change but before any of that came out i shared the first vision and he got really defensive and said like "Well how many wives did he have at that time?" and i just laughed and he came back with more and more and more and we just let him get it all out of his system.. And then it dawned on Elder Allred that Blaine was there for a reason.. And so Elder Allred told him that and Blaine started crying pretty hard.. and then Elder Allred started to cry and then all the women started crying and i was just sitting there waiting for it to end :D! But he is 27 and he is from Nevada and he was in the army and such and got into drugs and drinks and the whole bit... but we told him to get out of the bit he is doing right now cause those people just aren't a good influence on him.. and so he said that he would... but we will see! WE gave him a BoM and we swapped phone numbers! It was way cool and then he gave us all hugs when he left lol! But for a first night it was pretty dang cool! I was just blown away especially afterwards that someone tracted into us... ya i know that never happens.. lol! But it did and it was awesome! But he found 2 new gators the next morning.. it has just been a great week! Oh and mom i was talking to Sister Palmer who is our mission Pres' wife and we got to talking and she is from Taylorsville and so i was asking her where she lived and all that and then she asked me and what not but i told her i live in west Jordan now and i told her our basic address.. and she said really that's right by my parents and i said really who are they and she said oh you wouldn't know them they are old.. and i said you would be surprised cause i live in a old folks community.. and she said Jordan villas? and i said ya! and her parents live in the villas! They are on the south side of the clubhouse she said and their names are James and Audry Wood and they live in 2106! so you guys should go visit them and tell them that i am in their daughters mission! :D that would be cool! She said they don't get out much.. but she said that they would probably really enjoy that :D She is a way nice lady! But the cool thing is that i have a way now to stay in touch with the Palmer's after the mission :D! woot! I knew that the old folks home would be of use someday! :D But anyways i love you guys a ton! Take care! And good luck with everything!

Love ya!

Elder Penman

July 27 E-mail

Well what is going on!?! How is the fam?! I am doing just fabulous up here! We did get our transfer calls and well.... *drumroll* I am TRAINING again!!! woot! lol I guess i didnt screw up the first 2 after all.. lol! But i am way excited! Elder Steinbeigle is headed to Spokane to the area that we refer to as "The Jungle" or "Felony Flatts" :D so he is pretty excited and he is stepping up to be senior comp as well so that will be a good thing for him.. This week kicked my butt. Physically... We helped a member of the ward dig out 2 window wells so that he could put in these bigger ones that were made of fiber glass and they look like stone... they are actually really neat! but on Friday we went and dug the holes and pulled the old ones out and it took us like 4 hours.. and then at the bottom of each one of them was a huge concrete slab that they cut the windows out of the foundation from.. they just dropped them in the bottom of the holes.. and they were a good 8 1/2 inches thick.. and so when the member got home from work friday night he rented a jack hammer and he jack hammered all of the slabs out because we had to go deeper than they would allow.. and so then saturday morning at 7 we went back to his house and first threw all the concrete onto his trailer and then we set the window wells in and lag bolted them into the foundation and then backfilled everything and went to the dump and dumped all the concrete.. and that took another 4 hours.. and so between all the digging and the hauling stuff back and forth i was pretty beat.. infact i am still pretty beat :D but we are going to go play basketball in a few minutes so that will hopefully loosen me up.. But it was really fun! I miss doing work like that.. I was so dirty i was literally covered from head to toe.. I was showering and trying to wash the clumps of dirt out of my hair and it just wasnt working... it took me a while but i got it out no worries :D mom i am very glad that you had a good birthday! Sorry i wasnt there to celebrate with you but i guess that what you have significant others for.. I mean Shannon just stepped right in and filled in for my absence.. :D Ya gotta love her.. :D But mom i love you very very much! And im glad that you made it to 64! I am proud of you! Happy birthday! Keep hanging in there ok! Take it easy on your back sheesh! But i am glad to hear that it is your back that hurts and not your knee.. Well wish me luck! and keep me in your prayers.. Im hoping that 3rd time is a charm and i can teach this one so that he wont end up so wierd.. If this one goes sour well then i will know that its just me.. lol! I love you guys so much! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

July 20th E-mail

Well hello whats happening?!?! how are you guys doing?!? I completely forgot that you guys said you were going 4-wheelin but the Thurgoods are awesome and i am glad that you were able to get that box of stuff.. It is just stuff basically.. Stuff that i was sick of packing around.. One of the cool things that is in there is the knife that i made in Clarkston.. Its handle is elk antler and its got like a 6" blade on it! It is really sweet. But other than that i cant even remember what i put in there :D Just stuff i know i didn't need.. so you can open it if you want.. I don't mind but ya just keep it all in there for me when i get home.. and i will go through it. Well this week was pretty slow.. It was ok though because we worked our butts off. One of the members in the ward here always takes the missionaries to CDA at the resort to get gooeys and these gooey Sundays are freaking amazing.. They are huge though and i will send some pics home.. but they have 1/3 of a gallon of ice cream and tons of hot fudge and caramel and nuts and whip cream and mine was chuck full of Reese's peanut butter cups oh and a cherry on top :D.. I mean this thing is huge.. its a 9 dollar dessert.. Well Brother Clark took us to Red Robin first and we all got huge burgers and then we went and got this ice cream.. and I mean about half way through its really good but then the second half is just miserable and you don't even know why you are still eating it.. Other than he tells you that if you don't finish it that you have to buy it.. And so we are putting this thing away man i tell you what i was just downing this thing and me and bro. Clark finished ours and we were waiting for Elder Steinbeigle to finish his.. Well he was about 3/4 the way through and the last part is almost pure hot fudge and caramel and so its just nasty.. his was also Snickers.. But anyways he got up and went to the bathroom to try to make more room.. (poo) but then he came back and still had the rest of his to finish.. so we are like just eat it already and all he had was like 3 bites and then a whole candy bar that he took off the top to begin with.. well he finally starts eating it and he takes 2 swallows and then gets his spoon and scraped the last bit of the ice cream and we are like good job now eat the snickers bar and we are out of here.. well he sits there for like 10 seconds and then grabs his cup and barfs right in the cup! LOL! fills it back up! and we were laughing so hard! It was crazy though cause it didn't even make a noise.. it was like the most quiet puke i have ever heard and all it was was the ice cream none of his dinner came up luckily.. but then he sets the cup down and goes "DANGIT!" and we were laughing so hard! but to top it off this old lady sitting at the table next to us goes "Did he just puke at the table?" lol! to her friend.. and then we got up to leave and bro. Clark told Elder Steinbeigle to take it to the bathroom and dump it.. and he was like no I'm not touching that.. and so he left it there and the old lady goes "Is he just going to leave it there?!" LOL!!! It was so funny i laughed so hard that i was worried that i was going to puke myself :D I was great! But that was definitely one of the highlights to the week! We also got to do my favorite thing and butcher chickens!!! woot! I love it.. I am definitely wanting chickens when i get my own place! having eggs and meat all the time is awesome! woot! but i took videos of that :D I love it! anyways I love you guys a ton! I'm glad you are enjoying your summer! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

Oh and by the way i got your package! woot! Thanks mom i love ya!

July 13th E-mail

Well that's really lame I just wrote you this nice long email and then hit some key on accident (which i cant even figure out which one..) and the whole thing just disappeared.. weird.. Well anyways I will go for round 2.. :D Well It sounds like you guys have been having a really good time! A very busy time in fact.. But that is really good.. I do here though that when you get OLD you always think you will have more time but really you have less?.. i dunno maybe you could tell me if that's true :D Well I am glad that you guys got to go to youth conference.. that's awesome! Well good job on getting in with the Danielsons! That is so cool! Did you get on their doorstep and say "DANIELSON! ROOK EYE!" lol! I'm just kidding but i am excited for that! Some advice that i would give you is to Pray for them! And pray for their specific needs! Especially when you are in their home and you are about to have a prayer ask them if it is ok if you say the prayer.. and then when they say ya sure then say what are some things that i could pray for for you guys? and then when they tell you some things pray for them! and pray for them sincerely and then do everything in your power to help make it happen whatever it is! And i promise you that you will see a huge change in everything! Once you hear someone prayer for your specific needs you know that that person loves you! Try it out! I promise you it will work! Its great to hear that the ward back home is doing missionary work! You should get in on that! :D Have the missionaries over and tell them you want to teach someone in our house! And hopefully they will take you up on that! :D Well this week was a big turn around for us i believe We met the new missions President (which by the way he is awesome!) and then we were able to find 2 new investigators and start a less-active guy on the stop smoking workshop with goals to take his wife to the temple! Woot! So we are excited for that! Tonight we are meeting with a new fam of 3 and tomorrow we are meeting with a new fam of 8 so i hope all goes well! Things are really looking up! President Palmer is so cool though he is just a very spiritual guy and a very humble guy! I am looking forward to working with him that's for sure! Oh dad i was going to tell you.. Everyone up here loves the movie "Forever Strong" And whenever it gets mentioned i tell them that that's where you coach football and they are like REALLY?!?! :D its pretty cool! I told them i saw the movie being filmed... But anyhow.. Things are going good here and i hope things are going great at home! There are a lot of people in our ward that are being hit with loss of job and such.. last week we nearly talked to a new family in the ward everyday who was scraping at the bottom of the barrel and in desperate need of some help.. Its a crazy time that we live in! The only thing that we can do is live the gospel 100 percent! not 99 or 98 but 100 percent! That is what will keep our heads above water! I love you guys so much! Thank you for all of your prayers! Take care!

Elder Penman

July 6th E-mail

Well what is going on?!?! I can believe you went scuba diving that's awesome! It seems like its been so stinking long for me that i wouldn't even know how to do it anymore :D I know for a fact that i couldn't put together my dive tables anymore :D I think that's what they are lol! I dunno.. you know where you figure out how long you can dive and what not.. anyways that's way cool.. so i hope you guys had a wonderful 4th! Mine was meh ok.. The new pres came in with some greenie fire and said that it was to be a full proselyting day! Woot! and we tracted for like 3 hours and talked to seriously 3 people.. it was nuts! everyone was gone.. you would almost think it was a major holiday or something.. weird i know.. :D lol but no it was still good! Well the work is still pretty slow for us.. We are just trying to find those people that the Lord is preparing for us.. We know they are out there.. We just have to seek them out is all :D Its like a big game of hide and seek.. So its nose bleed season for me again! I have no freaking idea what the deal is but last night i woke up and well i was simply losing a lot of blood we will say :D and the morning before that.. Which made us late to p.e.c. (our Sunday meeting) and then again this morning... i have no idea what the deal is but i guess i just produce too much blood in the summer time and i got to let a little out.. :D So we went and got our hair cut today by the bishops wife and she used this thing called the flowbee and well it was like a vacuum and a clipper deal all in one but it was horrible.. and then she busted out the regular clippers to do the sides and well she didn't hold back from saying OOPS or hmmm... or ummm or laughing or anything... lol so pretty much you can put the pieces together :D she claims she has never cut hair before... well she wasn't lying.. oh well it grows back :D And to tell you the truth all the screw ups are in the back and i cant see them anyways so it don't matter :D but ya it was pretty crazy! So on Wednesday we have zone conference and we get to meet President Palmer woot! I hear he has a very unique Kiwi Drawl.. cause he is from Texas but originally from New Zealand.. :D Well everything is good for me.. I hope everything is good for you guys! Take care of yourselves! I love ya!

Elder Penman

Livin' La Vida Loca!

He's so happy! And, E. Steinbeigle's muscle.

Elder Penman and Elder Steinbeigle

My rents and Elder Ryan J.

He's a tough one!

Aw. Cute Companions.

Don't worry guys, I was not behind this camera taking pictures! I was a good 15 miles away at the time. :)