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

Vallejo Zone

Hey Family how are you all doing? I am doing really good. I had another great week here in Vallejo. Elder Ratuwara and I are getting down to business and working really hard. We are having more success cause we are praying hard for success and we are doing our part and working hard. We found a few more people to teach this week which is really good. we are really working hard and doing everything that we are supposed to to. Vallejo is so ready for the gospel so that makes the work a lot more fun and a lot more rewarding.I would say easy but its not easy at all. Mission work is so tough but I love it. The days are really long but the weeks are just going by super fast! ha ha Elder Ratuwara and I were guided by the spirit to 5 more people preparing them selves to enter the waters of baptism. we are having a service on Saturday and 5 people are getting baptized! I am so excited for them! one of the guys asked me to baptize him because I am from Utah. I think that's pretty funny. we will see how it turns out though. this week was pretty eventful. it has been really crazy because we were on bike. we got honked at a lot and yelled at a lot. its kinda tough because most of the time the words that are being said are not nice words... some people just don't like the Mormons for some reason. ha ha but its OK I guess, I work hard and I love the lord and just in gore all the other stuff that happens and I just keep doing what the lord wants me to do :) but being on bike does have some positives, my leg muscles are huge now cause of how many steep hills are here ha ha and also I got to talk to some really cool people that I would have just passed by if i was in a car. so that's always a good thing. we picked up some new investigators from being out on bike. It was really nice. I loved it. Ratuwara and I decided that we are going to bike a lot more now cause we need to work out our legs and also so we can contact a lot of people. ha ha. our goal is to baptize 8 people this month, we have 5 with a date so we just gotta find 3 more people and I know that we will cause the lord will help us a ton. We are having zone conference this week. I have heard a lot of good things about zone conference here in the mission. President Bunker is super awesome and really throws it down. I am super stoked for it. I will let you know how it goes next week. I hate it when I had to so much to write than I start typing and my mind goes blank... ah this is not good. well I guess that I will just have to start writing stuff down that I want to say to you guys. I will take more pictures and put them on the computer every once in a while so you are not having to wait till I send a memory card ha ha. but anyway I don't know what else to say right now other than I love you very much and I can't wait to talk to you guys on Sunday. have a good week. pray always and read your scriptures. Its good for you :) love you all very much!

Elder Cody Penman

Elder T. Williams and Elder Mahrt - Vallejo Zone Leaders

Well as you know, this week was transfers, well I got the big news on Saturday and I am staying here in Vallejo. I am training though... just kidding I am still with Ratuwara. He is the district leader which is way cool! I am excited for him. This month we went over on miles so this week till the end of the month, we are biking... ha ha sucks to be me right now. But it will be good for my legs to gain some muscle :) We baptized a girl named Lecka on Saturday! It went really well! It was awesome! We have a goal to baptize every Saturday this transfer which can happen with some hard work and help from the Lord! I have faith that we can do it! Elder Ratuwara is a mission legend and the top baptizer in the mission so we can do it. The reason we don't have very many is because we got white washed so we had to start fresh. Which is okay by me.

Did you all have a good Easter? I hope you did. I know I did. I learned a lot about the importance of Easter a lot more about the Savior of the world. So yea it was good. how have you been this past week? I hope that you all had a good week. Can you believe that I have been gone for 2 months? Time sure flies by when you are having fun and I am having a blast here in Vallejo! I know that this is where the Lord wants me right now. I know that this mission is the one meant for me. as you all know, I was ticked I was going to Cali. for my mission but now I am so grateful that I am here :) I don't want to be anywhere else. I am sending some pictures home this week so you should have some pictures of me soon. I forgot my cord to upload pictures online so that's why I haven't put any pics up... but I will figure something out sometime soon for you all. Thanks for the mail and things that I have been getting! that's super awesome of all of you! I am doing really good and super healthy. My reading and prayers are becoming a lot more sincere and that means the lord is blessing me more so I am loving life :) I love you all very much and I am praying for you every night by name so I hope you are all being blessed! I love you so much! Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you :) If there isn't, have a good week!

Elder Penman

Now Vallejo isn't exactly a "Heavenly place" but I can't help but think this is what it is going to be like to return back to our Heavenly home, except that it will be a much greater scale of joy and happiness. I can only imagine the joy that is going to fill my soul when I get back to my Father in Heaven and my Heavenly Home, a place I love. I have heard it said that when you return to God you will be shocked at how familiar he is too you. This is because before this life we knew him and lived with him. He sent us here to earth to learn and grow and his goal is that we will eventually return back to him. This should be the focus of our life here on earth. As it says in the Book of Mormon "This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God." (Alma 34:32) We all need to take a look at our life and say, "Am I prepared to meet God?" I know that as we make this our goal we will realize things we can do to prepare for that day when we will see him again.



I am so glad that my Father Heaven gives me small glimpses, like that experience I had today, to help me remember what I am striving for. As the prophet Enos said " And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen." (Enos 1:27) I can't wait for this day!

Well its Monday again and that means e mail time. I hope that all of you had a good week! I know that I did. I loved this week a lot! I do have two words of bad news though.... the first thing is the baptism, It didn't work out. :( but we postponed it until this coming Saturday the 23 so i hope it will work. the 23 is also my mission birthday so that will be cool! ha ha. the second thing is I got sick on Friday night :( I think I got food poisoning... I was sick Friday after dinner and than Saturday until like 4:00 so about 20 hours of being sick! It was not good at all! But we worked through it. I got a blessing and than everything was good. I have such strong faith in the priesthood now. I just love it so much! All is good with me and my companion. We are still working hard and finding more people to teach. I know that the people will come with hard work. I went on exchanges with the A.P.'s this last week and they taught me a lot. I learned how to be more bold when I contact people and I learned to not take no for an answer. so now we are finding more people cause we are being more bold in talking to people. The area is still really nice, I am getting to know the area a lot better now so that's always good! I am just having a blast out here! Its almost time to transfer though, well its almost been 6 weeks, I am hoping that i stay here. some people in my district think I will stay here but I will train someone. That would be nuts! but i think that Elder Ratuwara will be the district leader and I will still be a normal missionary :) I guess we will all find out on Saturday. This transfer has been full of cool and exciting things. I love it very much! Vallejo is amazing! the other day a member took us to Olive Garden and out our way out some people stopped and talked to us and told us that they are members from Utah. they live in Alta but they have a son coming home in like 10 days from Sweden or something like that. they are all pretty stoked! ha ha it was cool to see someone from Utah and talk to some normal members. ha ha. I gave them all pass along cards and challenged them to pass them along. I hope they do it! ha ha. Pass along cards work sometimes and it also builds charity as we pass them along. so if you want some, talk to the missionaries in your area or i will send you one or two. ha ha. the weather has been really nice. its super warm here! not hot or not cold.its warm. like a perfect temp! its amazing! I am still trying to pick up Fijian. its not easy to learn. ha ha. but than again i only try learning it at night. ha ha. I am glad that Bishop Wayment gave me that advice. I am totally using it! I have grown a lot and my mission is totally changing me. for the better that is! :) I am learning so much from the zone leaders and the district leader and i learned a lot from the assistants on Thursday! The president is really amazing! Such a cool great guy! I bet he will be an authority after the mission! ha ha. well thanks for all you do for me and all the prayers. i have the best family ever! thanks so much! I will write when i can! :) love you all and have a good safe week. Let the spirit guide you to do the right things in your lives. read Alma 17. its a good chapter. love you again!

Elder Cody Penman

The Airport

Calling Home

Taxi out






I'm in the window


Time to board




Scott and I having breakfast in the terminal




Just received my boarding pass

MTC Photos

Me and Elder Davis (friend from H.S.)


My District


My Companions



Me and my Companions

Zone Leaders and Assistants

Elder Hancock and Elder Bevan - Assistants to the President

Elder Bankhead and Elder Wright - Assistants to the President

Hey family, how are things going for you all? So it sounds like you have had a good week! That's awesome! The week has been good for me too. We are having a baptism next week so that will be cool. I will send you some pics of that. I went to the temple on Saturday! It was so amazing! The temple is freaking amazing! I love it! We went to the Oakland temple so it was really cool to go there and be in the same place that our family got sealed for ever and ever. It was a different feeling in there because of that fact! The Celestial room is so beautiful! I love it! I wanted to sit in there for a LONG time but we had to go... it was so heavenly. ha ha. So not much has really changed yet. Still doing the same thing teaching and tracking. The ward here is really cool. We had fast Sunday yesterday and there were so many people to bear their testimony! It I just love the mission! its the best! I went on exchanges with the zone leader this week, that was good because I learned a lot from him! I have been learning so much its so awesome! This week I am going with the AP's so that kinda made me nervous but its OK. I haven't even gone with my district leader yet so its kinda weird. My district thinks I am going to be a trainer next transfer so that's not good. Its cool that they all think I am being a good missionary to do that but I don't feel ready to train. We will see what the Lord wants me to do. Thanks for the cookies and the CD! It was good having something new to listen to. So thanks a lot! Elder Ratuwara is teaching me Fijian at night. I know how to say how are you in Fijian. ha ha cool huh? I hope I am with him for a while so I can learn more. That's cool that Andrew won his game.. to bad he didn't play. the time will come where he will get his time to shine. everything just takes time. Just have him work hard and he will get more playing time. The scriptures are amazing huh? every verse you can relate to yourself and the situation you are in. I have really feel in love with Alma 17. every time I am having a bad day, IIread that chapter and another verse pops out to me that makes more sense. I love it. That's cool that Ryan is doing good. have you heard about anyone else? I know Kason is only a few weeks behind me. I hope he is doing good in Russia! I love how all my best friends decided to serve missions! I love them and the example that they have on me. its amazing! Where are Matt and Jamie moving too? I hope that they are not moving to far. They are some good people. but its probably for the better. I know that the lord will bless them in whatever they do as long as they go with His will. That's what we all need to do in our lives is really learn of the will of the Father and do His will so we can receive blessings for that. I know that the Lord is blessing his missionaries, I can feel the protection from the Lord. Its amazing! this past week I had to chance to use my priesthood, it was cool. a whole family was sick so Elder Ratuwara and I got to bless them. they were all in church yesterday feeling great so that was amazing. I have a testimony that the priesthood works! I am praying for you every night. I love you all so much! Have a good week! I will write you next week. Love you :)

Elder Cody Penman

Elder Williams and Elder Collett - Vallejo Zone

Hey Mom and the rest of the Family! I decided I would just write one big long letter to the whole family that goes on the blog so I have more time to write stuff. so if I e mail anyone besides you mom or dad, that does not need to go on the blog because it will probably be more personal and yea... if that's not okay with you, just let me know. haha.

So this week was really good! I loved it so much! Especially general conference. it was really good. I am glad I am on my mission though because it sounds like they talked a lot about the importance of marriage. I am much to young for that! haha. all my friends e mails are the same as mine, first name dot last name @ my ldsmail.net so mine is cody.penman@myldsmail.net. but not many people can e mail so just find their parents of Facebook and get their address that way. that's what I would suggest anyway. I did get a bike the first day I got there. Its a sharp blue one. The guy didn't give a discount so it was more than I expected but that's ok, everything worked out! I have only gone like 6 miles on the bike cause I am in a driving area. but we are going to use the bike more cause we don't wanna go over on miles. haha. Yea the teaching is going really good! we found a new lady this past week who seems really interested! I hope everything works out. I got to watch conference at the church in a close town. it was amazing. the spirit was so strong! I loved it! I had so many questions answered. it was just me and the other missionaries in my zone in the chapel since most people have BYU tv. haha. but that's o.k by me! I took a lot of notes on conference too. like 22 pages of them. nuts huh? my favorite one was about desires and also the one by Elder Bednar about the holy ghost. that was super amazing. the songs were good too! oh if you can throw some good church tunes in the package too that would be good. we have listened to the same CD for a LONG time. we want some new music to listen to. haha. The MTC is super crazy huh? so many buildings there. its really easy to get mixed up on the buildings. what did they say about the MTC and who was the one that did the article? I didn't have that much cereal actually. only like two bowls a meal. haha. I have been eating the normal food. nothing to crazy. haha last night a family was trying to get me and elder Elison to eat some pigs feet. but they said we didn't have to so we chose not to eat them. haha. we have 4 elders in the ward so we always eat dinner together. Elder Elison and Elder Tokalolo are the other elders. they are super cool. Elder Tokalolo is from an island as well. so him and my companion, elder Ratuwara get along really well. haha. that's too bad that the weather has not been good for you... it was rainy the first week and a half but now its straight sunshine. haha. it feels nice outside. but I am very thankful that I am in a car and not on a bike. haha. I got 3 letters on the same day from Kim and I get letters like twice a week from Rashelle and her girls. Its super cool to get a lot of mail. I just feel bad cause I don't have a lot of time to write people back through the week but i am trying my hardest i promise. I will write everyone back that writes me. I am really glad that i am in Cali. its so nice here and the people are really cool! I did run into some people that lived in Chico. they talked a lot about Bidwell Park. that was pretty neat to talk about what i remember about Chico. haha. anyway, thanks so much for all that you are doing. it is so amazing! I can feel all the prayers and all the support. I feel so safe out here and i feel Gods love for me and for my companion. we are working super hard out here and we are doing all that we need to do. Well I still gotta write my mission president so I will talk to you all next week. I love you very much!! :) have a good week. talk to you next week! :)

Elder Cody Penman.

"It is necessary to prepare and to plan so that we don't fritter away our lives. Without a goal, there can be no real success. One of the best definitions of success I have ever heard goes something like this success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Someone has said the trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never cross the goal line." Thomas S. Monson

Cody's first area is Vallejo, Calif.
His address is:
Elder Cody Penman
1975 Sereno Dr. # 30
Vallejo, Calif. 94589
Everyone write him!

dad!

well i have been out here for a week today! my trainer is really cool. he is from Figi so his english is a little tough but he is super cool. we got white washed into the area which means we are both new to the area and don't know anyone really.. that's kinda tough but that's what the area book is good for. we actually found a couple of potential investigators that we have future appointments with. that is cool i thought. I heard BYU is doing good with the march madness thing? But back to the mission stuff, my "dad" is Elder Ratuwara. like i said, he is from Figi but we are working super hard to find people. there is no time to relax. AT ALL! My Mission President is so cool! He is such a nice but strict guy. I am glad that he is so awesome. he is a funny one too! I am in the town of Vallejo. that's where 6 flags is. i actually live like 1/2 a mile from the place. my address is 1975 sereno Dr #30 Vallejo CA 94589. so now you can write me. ha. thanks for the packages by the way! i got all my stuff. :) The flight was good! there was some turbulence but that just made it more fun. haha. it was good to talk to you last week on the phone. I miss talking to you and mom in the kitchen after mom gets home. but it will be awesome when i get home cause we will both have mission stories! haha. That's cool that your working so much! That's such a good thing! the Lord blesses our family so much. i didn't realize just how blessed we are until i saw other families here in Cali. Yea have those boys start working on that jeep so i will have a car to drive when i get home. ha just kidding. speaking of cars, the area i am in is a driving area, guess who the driver is? you guessed it, Elder Penman! :) its a nice car too, 2011 ford fusion. it has almost 2000 miles on it. its pretty nice! I will have to look for the march ensign somewhere. probably church. speaking of church, its different here, some people don't even dress up, some girls are so immodest i feel like i am at the wrong building or something. its so different but i love it so much! there are a lot of black people here which is way different than Utah haha. the other night i was at dinner at a members house, guess what we had... bollut. if you don't know what that is i will tell you, its baby duck. the duck was still in the egg. haha it was SO NASTY but i had to eat it because its the "welcome to Vallejo" thing. haha. so much for not eating weird food haha. but The rules are pretty easy so far. we will see how i do as time goes on! but i just want to let you know that i love you so much! i know without a doubt in my mind this is the one and only true church of Christ. I love it so much! I just wish more people would accept the message we have for them. but i gotta go, so until next time,

Elder Cody Penman

Oh tell brendan good job on the basketball! Keep working hard. everyday if possible.

tell the young men to study preach my gospel hard. teach out of it as much as possible and tell the priests to go out with the elders often. it helps. trust me.

Look back and thank God
Look forward and trust God
Look around and serve God
Look within and find God
God closes doors no man can
open and God opens doors
no man can close.
-Pres. Monson -

Arriving Eight!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Arriving Eight!

This morning we picked up eight new, wonderful, excited missionaries! It is a treat every six weeks to infuse the mission with the fire of brand new missionaries in the field. As we drove to Santa Rosa they were ready to get to the work they have been prepared to do. As they went out contacting this afternoon they each had some really great experiences. I could feel of their righteous desires to serve and love and teach the people here in Northern California. We look forward to serving with these wonderful Elders and Sister over the next years! Here they are...

Trailer loaded and ready to head to Santa Rosa!

Sister Emilee Cluff (Washington, D.C./Alexandria, VA)

Elder Cody Penman (Roy, UT)

Elder Brad Christensen (Monroe, UT)

Elder Waisea Vakadaubuka Rabalubalu Ramasima (Nausori, Fiji)

Elder Robert Hari Ram (Lautoka, Fiji)

Elder Mark McMullan (Germantown, MD)

Elder Matthew Weber (Laie, HI)

Elder Micah Richins (Salem, UT) Spanish speaking

Welcome to the California Santa Rosa Mission! It is going to be a great journey! We love you!

Well Cody left yesterday for the California Santa Rosa Mission he sounded so good on the phone, he's going to take them by storm. He is so fired up and excited to teach the gospel. Good luck Cody.

If you are interested, Sister Bunker maintains a mission blog that we encourage you to visit. At http://santarosacru.blogspot.com/ is a blog where she posts about things that are happening is the mission {zone conferences, arriving and departing missionaries, and President's letters to the missionaries}

Letters should be upbeat, encouraging and appropriate for missionary life. We as parents and family have been encourage to read Helping From Home it is a Ensign article you can find it at lds.org. the article is by Dallas and Marjorie Bradford

Thanks family and friends for listening to the mission Pres. to read this article.

Family and friends can make a crucial difference in the success of full-time missionaries.

No way can this food be better than yours! yours doesn't make me have to go to the bathroom a lot. haha. mom told me that the boys lost on Friday. That's too bad. everything happens for a reason. maybe you need to have practice everyday until next season so they are super good and never loose. that's what i would think would work. haha. are the boys destroying my room? I sure hope not! I heard about Weber state. not playing so well anymore?? BYU rocks even though they loose by 20 at home. :( one of my teachers tells me about them a lot which is way cool! I don't care to much about the jazz anymore. I am super mad that they keep loosing. :( Yesterday my comps and I had a TRC which is where we basically teach a real investigator in the MTC but we are recorded so our teachers can see what we need to improve on, we totally rocked the house. the spirit was so strong in there! It was so awesome! I invited them to be baptized and they accepted! Too bad i am going to CA on Monday. haha. it was good. I love it here, the spirit is so strong everywhere i go. its the best. I am sorry that everyone has been sick! that's not good. Andrew was just sick because he had to give a talk... sounds just like his father. ;) just kidding dad. I am so glad to hear everyone is good. i can probably write you when i get to CA with my new address. but as of right now, there is nothing really new with me. all i do is go to class and meals and that's about it. Its getting really boring but its all for the better i know. Thanks so much for the cookies! Packages are awesome. :) I don't know if i told you that i am leaving at 5 am from the MTC on Monday and my flight leaves at about 830 UT time and lands at 930 CA time. so not that bad of a flight. i really hope i can see Scott there. i should have plenty of time to call home so make sure mom is home or you around your phone probably around 7 or 8 so i can call you. But besides that i am doing just as good as i was last week. I love you so much! :) tell mom i am doing good and i will e mail her when i am in CA cause right now i am timed so I don't have a lot of E mail time in the MTC but once I get into the field it will be different. Love you tons!

your stud missionary,

Elder Cody Penman

Cody would be so excited that BYU bet New Mexico tonight Go BYU!

Cody will be leaving the MTC on Monday the address to the mission home is:
California Santa Rosa Mission
3510 UNOCAL PL STE 302
Santa Rosa, California
95403-0910
707 579-9412
we'll post his address whenever we get it

FAMILY!!
I am doing so good ! actually better than good and great, I'm FANTASTIC ! Today was amazing and so far,everybody has been amazing! I know the MTC pretty good now . It is really amazing ! Its so cool now fast I learn stuff now . In high school I didn't pick stuff up as much . But I really wanna learn it but I really wanna know this stuff . Or maybe its cause now, my relationship with God is better ? Probably that one ! that's cool that there are going to be more Cali elders. Probably take my place in the MTC . There are so many elders in Cali. So many missions= so many elders and that equals bringing people to Christ! =) I'm glad Ryan Is doing good! Yeah I heard about BYU! Awesome !sucks about Davies. He messed up cause! He doesn't have a 24-7 comp!=) I"M sure they will be okay . I hope ! Gabe makes me laugh. Tell him there are more important thing than BYU. even though it is really important that they win. Especially Beat the UTES! ha ha I went to the temple which really neat! Looks just like Ogden. I play basketball cluing gym. Not for very long and not as intense as back home with Ben and those guys. I'm starting to fell a little better. But i still went to class ! ALL DAY I've learned so much its not even funny. my knowledge will still grow as I study out of Preach My Gospel and the scriptures. Good job for Roy 30th on winning! way to be!! the refs hate Skyler... ya. Good thing I don't ref anymore that's really bugs me. Just deal with it though. That's what Jesus did nobody really accepted him and he never complained about it. Just throwing that out there. On, I NEED your and dads Email. I guessed today on dads email so that might not have gotten to him. But I'm write when I can love you so much !=) Keep writing and praying
love Cody Penman

Hey dad i hope this is your E mail, If its not, someone else is going to read this. I just thought i would let you know that i love you very much. The MTC is really awesome. i am having such a good time. i am picking up the Gospel really well and working way hard with my comps to have good lessons. we had our first real lesson yesterday. we went over lesson one which is families and stuff like that. The restoration is involved in there too. my testimony on Joseph Smith has gone up so much! Ah its crazy. I have been here for a week already and i have learned so much but there is still so much more to learn. Its so awesome! :) I just want to let you know that i love you so much! Thanks so much for giving me the chance to go to on a mission. its the best. My companions are really cool! both of them are from back east and go crazy when they see the mountains. haha i laugh every time cause i am so used to them. but i guess that's part of life. I leave The MTC on march 14 which is coming up SO quick. I don't think i will know all the lessons on time but at least i don't have a language to learn. Right now all the new elders and sisters are coming in so i am no longer the "new kid" so that's awesome. The Dork Dot is LEGIT!!! haha i took it off as soon as i could though. which was that night. I saw Elder Hill on Sunday. we talked for a few minutes... he is going crazy learning the language. he is so good at it! But that's ok cause i know the Gospel really well right now. Just so you know, i can only e mail on Wednesdays and write Wednesdays also but i get mail everyday, mail is the best thing. so have everyone write me a lot. if you have questions anytime during the week, dearelder it. i don't care how long the letters are or whatever but mail is awesome. especially packages :)

My district is really cool. there are 8 of us in there. 3 sisters and 5 elders (counting me). 5 of us are going to the same mission. there are also some Figi Elders going to Santa Rosa but they are in a different class than us so we don't talk much. but i will see them in the field i am sure. My teacher, Brother Ried, served there too so he is telling us so many cool stories about the area. its really nice.

The food here is really good, it just kinda.... well.... makes me have to go the the bathroom a lot.... hahaha. but it does that to everyone. one of the elders called it "turbalance to the body" haha how funny is that? The hardest thing about the MTC well mission life in general, is getting used to someone with me all the time. it sucks but its all for the better. I have learned how to make my bed finally, well i always knew how to but now i actaully have to. haha. i am keeping things very clean and stuff. see i listened to you and mom. Speaking of mom. how is she? i bet she is going to cry once you tell her you have an E mail from me. haha but that just means she cares. How is the family? everyone still sick? I hope not! being sick SUCKS!! I have been sick since Friday... well i have just had a runny nose but i don't like it. I Hope everyone is doing good. How is Andrew doing in school? tell him to set some good study habits. it really helps in the mission. make sure he gets that eagle scout award. Also, tell him not to get addicted to the phone, its been weird without it and some elders cry themselves to sleep at night cause they don't have in. ok that's actually a lie. haha. How is Brendan? still working on basketball? I hope so! that's one thing that i miss the most! besides family of course. And of course Gabe, how is he doing? I hope he is really enjoying himself. I really hope he is not sick... tell him that i love him and he is really awesome. Tell everyone that i said hi and that i love them all and tell them to write a lot. haha. I love you and miss you but i can see the help of the lord in my life already. Its really great. well i am being timed and the timer is going down and its almost lunch time. I love you tons!!!!!!! write back soon :) i will send pictures as soon as i can!

love your studly missionary son, Elder Cody David Penman!

P.S. I heard about the Jazz... good thing i cant watch them for 2 years... But guess who is ranked 3rd in the country for basketball?? that's right BYU!!! :D my teachers fill me in all the time :D