some recent pictures.

Dear Family,

I hope things are going good for all of you. Things here in the mission are going good. Elder Miller and I are just doing so good. We are working hard and doing what is expected of us. Elder Miller is the most obedient missionary I have met. ha ha. We are doing really good! Transfers are coming up here next week. transfers again. can you believe how fast time is going? Its not good. a quarter of my mission has already gone by, that is not what I want! I love the mission way to much. I was able to go to the temple this past week. it was really amazing! temples are the best building on the earth. Even better than cabelas ;) ha ha. I was able to go to the Sacramento temple. It was cool going there because its the temple that we would have gone to if we still lived in CA! so it was really cool. I was able to think of the reason I was called back to CA, of course I don't know why yet, I just know that it was for a reason. I love being here though. its great stuff. I love being able to laugh about things with my companion. He is super serious but he has a laughing side too. I am able to bring that out a lot which is good. missions are serious but by thinking of our investigators all the time and thinking of things like that just cause a lot of stress so its good to be able to laugh a lot and do things that are fun. besides just on p day. :) so maybe that's why I was called to serve with Elder Miller, He taught me how to follow rules better and how to be a leader and really be a missionary and I taught him how to have fun with the smallest things? who knows? ha ha.

Things are going really good, even better than what I expected! missionary life is the best life. I have so much fun but I am working harder than I have ever worked. All day long out in the sun and doing nothing else but work, really builds character. its good for me. I am really starting to grow up and be a man :) i still cant believe that i am a missionary. ha ha. its crazy that I have been waiting my whole life for this, and now that its here, its crazy! Putting on my tag is just awesome. I love being able to see my family name and also His name! it really makes me think of how important this work is. Ah its amazing. But I could go off all day on how much I love the mission. but I don't want you all to be green with jealous rage so I guess I will stop. ha ha. love you all. hope your doing good. love ya

Elder Cody Penman

FAMILY!!

Hey family I hope things are going good for you! Things here in Winters CA are going great!! Elder Miller and I are doing what we can and we are finding people to teach. We should be having a baptism on the 27th for this woman named Jennifer. She is really progressing and excited to get baptized. :) I am very happy about that :) The ward is really amazing too, they are all fellow shipping beasts and do what they can to have people join the Church. its really sweet! and they feed us pretty good. Not as good as the Vallejo saints but we still get some really good food which rocks cause I am trying to gain some weight. I have gained some weight too. I am not at 155 :) ha ha I am still super skinny but I left only weighing 130 so that's sweet that I am getting bigger. :) ha ha.

so iIhave been out for almost 6 months now and it I finally realized what I don't like about being a missionary. and that's early morning meetings ha ha. well I don't go to those very often so its not a big deal but on Sunday, we had to go to a meeting at 5 in the morning. I know its not that bad but when we are already limited on sleep, it kinda sucks. ha ha. but oh well. today during shopping, as soon as we walked in the doors of Wal-mart and around the corner, some random guy saw what church we were from and was like, "you really believe in that? You really believe in Joseph Smith?" I gave him a look and was like, "no I don't, I KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet." ha ha he shut right up. It was really cool :) having a testimony sure is neat! That is actually the hardest part of being a missionary, all the yells we get when we walk the street. but of course, I don't care. I know its true and I know that I am doing the right thing. ha ha.

one of the coolest things about Winters, is how much of a farm town it is. ha ha. there are a ton of fields and orchards and all sorts of things. Yesterday we looked in the sky on the way to church and there were 10 hot air balloons just chill in up there. it was way cool to see those. well that many at a time. I tried to get a picture but i was in the car and it was really bumpy so my pictures are really blurry! but it was way cool. there are always some cool things here! its cool!

School started up today for these poor kids. its way early to be starting school! I feel bad for them. but it should help with the missionary work. people will be home from camping and vacation so we will actually be able to teach people about the message of the restoration. Its going to be good!! Well, love you all. its time for me to get back to work. hope you have a good week. love ya

Elder Penman

Hey family

I hope you all had a good time on the camping trip or whatever you did. This past week has been good for Elder Miller and I. We were able to do some fun things with the ward here. Well just able to get to know the ward a little better is the right word to say I guess. We did a lot of spits, that's where we go with two people from the ward to visit more people. That was pretty good. Last night (Sunday) we had a bishops fireside but we were in charge, it was pretty cool cause there was a lot of youth there and they got excited to do missionary work or to just do missionary things. It was pretty cool. Winters is such an amazing place. Its not near as busy as Vallejo is nor will it ever be but the people here are really nice and are will ing to do almost anything for the missionaries. its really good. I hope that we can still pick up the work cause the more people we teach the better! The church we meet at is the size of a branch building but we heard that its going to be expanded into a normal size church. ha ha that's about the biggest news i have so far. ha ha.

this past week we had president interviews, he told me that i was going to be in some big leadership positions here soon which is pretty scary, i mean i haven't even been out six months!! ha ha. He told me that's why he put me with Elder Miller. Elder Miller has been a district leader plenty of times and has been a zone leader a few times so he is a great missionary and is now training me how to be a good leader. I am excited to be with Elder Miller but I am also scared to be in leadership right now.. I guess we will see what happens down the road.

Church yesterday was amazing. I love fast Sundays now. some people have amazing testimonies and really just bring the spirit and its just so amazing!! I love it so much! I love being a member of this Church!! its so true! everything in the church is true. the priesthood, prophets, the way its run. oh gosh its amazing.

Elder Bitten, (another missionary in my apartment) has this video called reflections of Christ, well we watched it, its basically how they got the pictures and stuff, but it brought the spirit so much and just made my testimony of the Savior grow. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Song of God. Because of Christ, i can live with our Heavenly Father again in the Celestial Kingdom. I know that its true. I love him so much. He is my savior, my brother and my best friend. I heard a song this past week that talked about The Savior and the after life, that just made me trunk(a phrase meaning ready to go home) to die! ha ha. but of course i still have plenty to do on earth and will do the best i can down here so i can see Jesus again and have Heavenly Father not judge me harshly. ha ha.

we had a lesson on the Atonement yesterday and somebody said, when you truly understand the Atonement, you will take advantage of it, you will take the sacrament, and you wont be scared to talk to a priesthood leader when we make mistakes. that made me think a little, its true, not all of us will humble ourselves and talk to a priesthood leader when we do something wrong, but that cause we don't understand the Atonement. I hope that you all (myself included) get to learn more about the Atonement and get to learn more about our Savior.

I know that the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. there is no doubt at all. I know the book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith was called of God to translate the Book Of Mormon and to restore the true church. I know that all to be true. there is nothing wrong with the church. its true no matter where you live, Utah, Idaho, California, Russia, Brazil, anywhere in the world, the church is true. don't forget it. we go to church because we love God, not because of the people. :)

Love you all very much, i hope you have a good week. Talk to you next week.

Love Elder Penman

Hey family!

I hope everything is going really good back in Zion. ( sorry Rashelle) ha ha. well life is great here in CA. things are going really good. I am still here in Vallejo. I am either going to be here for another. Well things are going really good for Elder Phipps and myself. we are working hard and doing our best to find new people that want the gospel. ha ha. The sun is shining and people are out walking so we contact like crazy! which is super good! Can you believe that I have been out for 4 1/2 months? so crazy how fast time goes. It really feels like I just started. I was reading some of my old journal entries a couple days ago, I was such a dork when i first started. ha ha. well i still am but its funny how much I have changed in the last 4 months. we had a zone conference this past week which was fun. but President Bunker told us its not the mission that changed us, its Christ that changes us, The mission just sets us up to be changed. That was really cool and it also make me notice the Lords hand more in my work. Its great.

we are getting really close to baptizing some more people. we should have some more baptisms here in the next couple weeks. I hope anyway. Some of our investigators are really making some good progress. i am so glad that they are! I love seeing the Gospel change the lives of people. its the best!

well I don't really know what all to say. nothing big is happening here in Vallejo right now. Except the fireworks last week, LAME!!! they were seriously the worst fireworks I have seen in my life. ha ha. Besides that, not much has changed. well, I love you all tons. keep being awesome and safe and keep doing what the Lord wants us to do. 2 Nephi 1 tells us blessings if we do what is right :) read that this morning. well,

keep it real

Elder Cody Penman

Hey family!
How are things going for all of you? it was good to hear from some of you last week! Last week was a good week. Elder Ratuwara and I worked really hard and had some fun before he got transferred. We made some really good memories! I do have a new companion, his name is Elder Phipps, he is a red head from Denver CO. He seems way cool! I have only been with him for a few hours so I don't know him all that well but I will learn stuff really soon I am sure. So last week I did have something really amazing happen! I was able to go to the Temple on Saturday! It's such an amazing place! It was so great! The only bad part is... it was really rainy so I couldn't take any good pictures cause of the rain. But it was still way fun to be there! it was so spiritual :) I loved every second of it! I am so blessed to have a temple really close to the mission! I am still serving in Vallejo. probably one more transfer than I am gone! but I am going to love it while I am here. I am going to try to get more pictures now, I feel like I haven't taken very many because its California and I can come back anytime I want to but really, this is a once in a life time thing! So I am going to take more pictures of things! Today, I saw a car, it was covered in some kind of scrap metal. ha ha it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen! It was so darn nuts! OH yesterday, fast Sunday! it was so amazing! there was a LONG line to bear testimony! it was so powerful! the spirit was way strong! I loved it so much! than later last night, we were at one of the recent converts house, her name is Leka, she is moving back to Samoa today so we were saying our good byes, well we were one our way out and the spirit inspired Elder Elison to go back in and share a short scripture, well she cried cause it was exactly what she needed to hear, well than the spirit inspired me to share my testimony, by the time I was done, almost everyone in the room was crying... it was crazy how strong the spirit was in there! I loved it so much! last night was one of the best nights I have had in a LONG time on my mission! Yesterday in general was good! I love the mission so much! It was kinda hard saying bye to Elder Ratuwara today, he is such a stud missionary! He is now a zone leader in the Santa Rosa zone which is one of the biggest zones in the mission. ha ha. but I know that he is supposed to be there and Elder Phipps is supposed to be here with me! so I am really happy to be with him! Well, I love you all very much! Hope you are having a good week. I will post some pictures next week and will also give you a nice update on things! Have a good one! love you

Elder Cody Penman

Hey Family, How are things going with you all? I hope all is good! things here are really good. This week was tough with teaching lessons because everything fell through but I know its for the better. I know when things are hard for a while, the Lord will grant us blessings in the future. I am doing really good though. This past week we were teaching a guy who lives in a really rich area, his mom is a J-DUB and so he has some really different beliefs, well we were teaching him about the book of Mormon and things like that but he does not want to talk it at all. gosh dang. well he had questions about the fall... this is a grown man. Well maybe like 35 or so and he does not understand the fall... holy smokes I thought everybody knew about Adam and Eve and how they could not have kids... I guess not. ha ha. Well we ended up talking about that and also wars. he says, " that we cant be the true church because we have members in war". That got us into agency and how its a gift from god and if we don't use Gods gifts we will be punished. Well basically we almost got into a bible bash because he only wants info. from the bible. Everyday since than I have been studying out of the Bible. I feel bad because I have not read as much from the B.O.M. but I will. I did not realize how tough some people are going to be. I was on bike again this past week and we stopped to contact this guy, the first couple minutes we were talking about the church and he seemed like the golden investigator, after about 3 minutes we found out this guy was super ANTI! holy crap I was so ticked at this guy I wanted to punch him in the mouth. but I didn't, I kept my cool which was a blessing. I bore strong testimony to this guy. I didn't even realize how strong my testimony of the Book Of Mormon is until that guy. I think that's why the Lord put him in our path is so I could realize how much the Book Of Mormon means to me. It was really a cool experience after I realized what was going on. So the Lord works in very mysterious ways. ha ha.

We have been doing service at this lady's house this week, holy cow talk about a messy house, this lady keeps everything, she is a hoarder I think is what its called. Well she would get ticked if we threw anything away so we had to do it secertly. the house looks a lot better now, well not really but I feel better knowing that some of the stuff is thrown away. we are still going over there this week I think to just destroy everything. ha ha. the ward is helping out a lot with it too so its not just the missionaries. ha ha.

on Saturday of last week, We had an all mission conference, we had 4 members of the 70 there. Talk about spiritual. holy cow it was amazing how intense the spirit was there. a bunch of missionaries and members of the 70. I got to shake hands with all of them. It was awesome! Elder Anderson was supposed to come but he didn't make it, turns out him and President Packer showed up a few hours after we left. ha ha intense! Well that was basically all the cool points of the week. not too exciting. I do love you guys very much. thank you for all of your support. That's why I am doing good is cause of all the support that I have. I love you very much! Have a good week and keep praying and reading. If you want to study something this week, study faith and trust and how they go hand in hand. If you want to study something you can study Mark 6. That's what the 70's talked about. ha ha.

with love: Elder Cody Penman