March 15th E-mail

Whats happenin?!?! That's too bad that Sis. Palmer's dad passed away. That's neat that you got to meet her though. She is such a nice lady. I hope that she is doing ok. She knew that her parents both weren't in very good health. But its never fun to see a loved one pass. Well mom i hope you have fun in the Big Easy. Don't do anything that i wouldn't do, without me.. :D lol. Well this week was pretty good i guess. It was so busy that it doesn't even really seem like it was 7 days.. lol.. We had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday from 9-2 and then went on exchanges after that until Wednesday at like 4 and then Wednesday night we exchanged with the elders in colfax until Thursday night and then Friday we had interviews but now that I'm a Zone Leader hrrrrrp ;) we do all the trainings for interviews so we started at 8 in the morning and ended at 6 and gave the same training 4 times :D so that was fun. And president Palmer had me drive his car while he made phone calls. So i got to drive the Pres' car! woot! Its nice too. Its a Camry. And its pretty fast.. I told him before hand (well after i already was on the road) that i was from Salt Lake and that it was very apparent in my driving :D and then when we were leaving one of the stake centers i pulled up and this stop sign and then had to give it a little juice to get in front of this car and he said "That was a little aggressive elder.." and i said "Well I'm just trying to get you home president." And he said well try to get me home in one piece! lol! I thought wow that sounds like something my dad would say! I thought that was pretty funny. But it was nice to get to ride with him and talk to him about the mission and the direction that its going! Its pretty awesome what is happening right now! I mean just the first 2 months of the year Jan and Feb we had 88 and 83 baptisms when last year during those months combined we had 75 so that's 171 baptisms compared to 75 in the first two months of the year.. That's quite an increase. Its just awesome because president has taken this mission that was so prepared by Pres. Clark and done some wonderful things. Granted none of it would happen if the missionaries weren't obedient and weren't willing to change. But It used to be that 20 % of the missionaries did all the baptizing.. ZL's and DL's... But now everyone baptizes.. Its nice to see. But then again as the mission lifts to a higher plane of work and spirituality Satan steps up his game too and we have seen some crappy things going on in the lives of some of our missionaries.. But the work goes on. Its spring break here in Pullman. So pretty much none of the students are here.. lol.. We were keeping track yesterday and we knocked 36 doors and only 6 people answered.. lol.. so it makes finding new people a little harder.. But no worries we will make it happen. Well i hope you guys are doing well. That's crazy to think that Cam is such an old man.. wow.. 35.. He is pretty much half way to the grave.. ;) Well i love you guys. Thanks for everything. Keep on keepin on! take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

March 8th E-mail

Whats happenin?!?! wow a DVR huh? I'm not going to know what to do with a DVR and a queen size bed! lol... This week was awesome.. So on Saturday we had a baptism for Travis Lopes. He is 23 years old and he has such a strong testimony. Its amazing to see him grow in the gospel. It was really nice too because his parents are seventh day Adventist and they came and his brother and his wife came and they are of the same faith and in fact he is even working on becoming a pastor. So it was nice to have them there because the spirit was so strong. And then his parents even came to the confirmation and we had a testimony meeting and really i was pretty hesitant well because we all know how testimony meetings can be... hrrrrrp. But it was awesome. Its nice to have a ward that is full of freshly returned RM's lol... In fact i was looking for it and no one even testified of Joseph Smith... The whole meeting was about Jesus Christ (as it should be) it was awesome! Oh and at the baptism We were at the church and Travis' sister in-law asked me to see a picture of Joseph Smith cause she had never seen one.. Well i seriously took her around the whole church and could not find one.. I just looked at her and was like i don't know what the deal is they are all of Jesus Christ... lol.. I have been waiting to say that to someone forever.. It was nice lol. But i think it really had an impact on his parents and i dunno i think something good could come of it.. But we will see. So we are having a really awesome time up here.. Time is just flying by which is crazy but Elder Mclean and i teach so well together.. Its nice. We play like good cop bad cop :D I chastise them and he makes them feel loved :D lol.. no I'm kidding but really this has been some of the funnest time on the mission right now.. Its crazy though because we have so much more that we have to do as far as reporting numbers to well it seems like freaking everyone. And also we have more meetings that we go to. Like tomorrow we are headed to Spokane to go to ZLC (Zone Leader Counsel) and its pretty much like another zone conference.. ZC goes from 9-3 and ZLC goes from 9-2 lol.. So it will be pretty long and then we are going on exchanges with the assistants to the pres.. So that will be fun. One of them is Elder Killpack who was my ZL while i was in post falls. and he also came out with me.. He is pretty good at golf.. so he might come with us one of these days.. I seriously cant believe that its march already.. So we had Zone Conference this week and it was pretty cool. Last year i guess we baptized like 675 people as a mission and in SC president told us that he feels that this year we can reach 1000! and seriously i believe that we can! The mission has never done some of the things that it is doing now! When i got in the mission it was about 20% of the missionaries that had 80% of the baptisms.. And now seriously everyone is baptizing.. Its so awesome to see! This mission has grown so much! Its interesting to see how well president Clark prepared this mission so that when President Palmer came in he could take it and lift it up a big notch! and he has! In fact he said in the last ZLC (i wasn't there but elder Mclean told me) that he has to be careful what he asks us to do because he knows that we will do it! And so he has to make sure that it is what the Lord wants! And you know what that is a huge change from when i first got in the mission and there were elders that hung out all day and went out to proselyte after their dinner... So its just a really fun time to see the mission grow tremendously.. But hey things are going very well right now.. Thanks for all of your prayers.. I love you guys! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

March 1st E-mail

Whats happening?!?! Its great to hear from you guys. lol Mom you crack me up.. I can hardly tell that you are excited to see me in May... :D So Bishop wants me to speak right after i get home huh? That's pretty cool. He probably figures he better get me in before i lose the spirit... lol. I absolutely love it here in Pullman. You wouldn't even believe how crazy it is though... The perks are that i am teaching people my own age who i can actually relate to and who might even value my opinion... Rather than people who are way older than me and i cant really relate to them at all.. So that's really nice. One of the other nice things is that you never run out of people to talk to... I mean this school is huge! and so there are always people on campus and what not.. So we teach most of our lessons at the institute building which is pretty much on campus and so if an appointment falls through we just walk outside and start talking to people.. The institute is actually right on what they call "Greek Row" and it is completely surrounded be sororities. I kid you not. Its crazy. So there are always trashy girls walking around the institute... Lol. Its kind of crazy. In fact like Saturdays are our worst days by far.. Because everyone is drunk or baked... (baked=smoked way too much pot). Its definitely a change from Deer Park. Or anywhere else that i have served for that matter. Speaking of which you will never guess who is getting baptized this Saturday!!!! Sharon McKinley!!!! Remember her? I hope so. When her husband got baptized in Utah you all went to it.... And he is going to the temple soon and i talked to him and he is thinking about making it towards the end of May cause he is going to go down to Utah and that way i could be a part of it! So that would be awesome! I got to visit them and the Cormacks and hopefully next time i go down to Lewiston for a district meeting I will be able to visit some more people! Its kind of nice to be able to visit old areas! :D I like it. So we have a kid that is on-date for this Saturday. His name is Travis Lopes and he is awesome! He is probably the most solid kid that i have seen get baptized. His dad came down and gave him all this anti stuff and was really just trying to get him to not go through with this.. Well His dad told him "You know i just want you to know that there are 2 forces at work here and Satan is trying to drag you down." And Travis said "Well dad that's exactly what i feel like you are doing to me right now!" Lol! "Not that I'm calling you Satan but i feel like you are trying to stop me from doing something right..." So it was just amazing to see how he held up to all of it! He is absolutely a stud! He is going to take off in the gospel! In fact he already has.. :D So we are excited for his baptism this week. We have a kid on-date for the 27th and then we also put a girl on-date this week for the 3rd of April.. So things are going really well right now. I am absolutely loving it here. I got your package that you sent to me! And i love those cookies! It was a really good choice! So thank you for that! My comp had an exchange planned for tomorrow before i even got into the area... And So i will be spending my birthday down in Kamiah.... hrrrrrp And guess what this kid that is our ward mission leader in one of our wards his name is Lance Udy and he is way cool. But his birthday is on the 2nd and he is turning 22 as well! and he brought a girl to church Sunday from his work and her birthday is the 2nd and she is turning 21! So its pretty crazy! So we were all going to get together and do something cool that night but nope im going to be hrrrrrrrp down in Kamiah... with all the crazys... It really is crazy there... But Elder Foerster is down there and Elder Allred the first is in my district so i got 2 of my boys in the zone with me! its really cool. In fact Its amazing to see how Elder Allred the first has changed.. I mean he is still a little wiener but he has grown up a lot! Its cool to see. I haven't seen foerster but hearing stories about him he still thinks that he is the greatest thing to hit the mission.... Hrrrpp. Guess i will have to stuff him a few more times to humble him a little more.. lol. Well I love you guys. I cant believe its my birthday already! Its crazy how fast time is going.. So mom no worries i will be there in no time ;) just take a few deep breaths.. :D But i am loving it here and working my butt off.. So thanks for keeping me in your prayers! I love you guys! Hope all is well. Take care of yourselves! Love ya!

Elder Penman

February 21st E-mail

Whats happening?!?!? Well you are never going to guess what is happening here.... So we got our transfer calls last night and they start out by telling me that Elder Stapley who is in the district is getting so and so and he is also going to be the District Leader.. And so I'm thinking sweet! and then they tell me that Elder Brady is getting so and so and I'm like what? I'm leaving? and then they say and you are going to be Jr Companion (and before they said anything else i was like SWEET! Jr. Comp! no cares in the world just sit back and teach!) to Elder Mclain as a Zone Leader.... WHAT?!?! ya and I'm in Pullman! WSU! college town! woot! one of the biggest party schools in the nation! WOOT! lol... it was crazy because when i talked to Pres. in interviews we talked about the 13 elders that are in leadership in the group i came out with and how he was going to start weeding them out of leadership so that the mission doesn't change big time all at once.. and how he didn't particularly want elders dying as zone leaders and what not.. Well then he turns around and freaking calls me to be a zone leader! lol... but i am way excited. My comp is a freaking stud. He was my Zone Leader when i first got to Clayton ward.. We get along great. And they have 3 baptism scheduled for march so far and so the work is going really well there...! its awesome! But what a curve ball! wow! I guess that just lets you know who really runs the mission.. Not Pres. Palmer :D (The Lord... for those of you who might not catch on...) ;) but ya so Clarkston is in that zone too.. So i will be able to go back to my old area and see a few people that might be going to the temple soon!!!!! i am so excited! Seriously its going to be awesome! so here is my new address : 1560 Northeast Merman Dr. Apt #228 Pullman WA 99163 So if you could pass that on asap to the beautiful young lady i would appreciate it! :D Oh and so i will be coming home on the 17th of May... I have no idea what time.. I would imagine sometime in the morning.. But it will be that Monday.. So we can probably go grab some lunch :D or what not.. But when i get all the paper work of my flight i will definitely let you know.. I cant believe that its almost march.. what the freak! Its going by crazy fast. And the weather is great here too.. It has been sunny and mid 40's all week long. Its so nice! Not a sign of snow anywhere :D I probably just ruined that for us but that's ok! So hopefully so of the students in the singles wards that i cover will be headed to Utah for spring break and can take a whole lot of my crap home for me! That would be so nice! But we will see what happens! Well its good to hear that you guys are doing great! Next thing you know i will be there with ya! lol... I am just excited now to have a new assignment where i can just go and give it everything that i have before i come home! Its going to be awesome! Thanks for everything! Oh and by the way we put Will on-date last night for the 27th of March! So he is going to get baptized! I just wont be here to see it :D But hey i love you guys so much! Thanks for everything! mom just surprise me with the cookie.. :D Love ya! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Penman

February 16th E-mail

Well Hello! how have you guys been?!?! I am absolutely loving life! This last week was probably one of the most memorable weeks of my mission. The entire Bassett family was baptized! Bruce and Laura were baptized by a member of the ward (Bro. Palmer Sr.) and the Nick was baptized by Bro. Palmer Jr. and then Elizabeth asked me if I would baptize her! So there were 7 people that got wet that day! It was awesome! She is the only person that i have personally baptized.. I kind of has a goal not to baptize anyone personally on my mission just because I think its better for the person getting baptized to make that connection with someone who will be there after we leave as missionaries but the ward is fellow shipping them so well its awesome to see. I don't feel like they will be left behind by any means. But it was nice to be a part of the baptism and also be able to confirm Elizabeth as well. After their confirmations in sacrament Bruce got the Priesthood and was ordained to the office of a priest and then he turned around and ordained his son! Nick! To the office of a deacon! This family is just taking off in the gospel! It is so fun to watch. They weren't nervous at all or at least they didn't show it because both days at their baptism and at their confirmation they were smiling the entire time! The Lord has truly blessed us! And He continues to bless us! I have seen a complete change in this whole family and I know with all my heart that it came from our loving Heavenly Father and because of our Savior Jesus Christ! The turning point that i saw with this family was when they opened the BoM and began reading it... Until then they were very dormant in their progression.. But afterwards they just took off and they continue to do so! It has been amazing and I'm very grateful that i am able to be a part of this process with the Bassett family. We definitely have to have them come visit us when they are down that way in June... (early June). I want you guys to meet them. They are awesome! I am glad to hear that dad's eye is doing better. And that they are making progress with it! Hopefully it will be all cleared up by the time i get home! at least by that time... So the blessings continue to roll on. The bishop talked to us Sunday and he has had a kid that is 15 named Will who has been living with his family for a while and Will told him that he wanted to learn about the church and so Sunday night we went and taught Will. He seems sincere and willing to learn and pray.. So hopefully he will gain a testimony and we can get him baptized here shortly! That would be pretty dang cool.. So pray for Will. And i will keep you updated on that as well. But hey I love you guys very much! I hope all is well with you! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! Take care of yourselves! Love ya!

Elder Penman

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