Tuesday, March 22, 2011
"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
Monday, March 21, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
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! |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
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.
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
Sunday, March 6, 2011
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
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
Family 2/23/11
Hey everyone! How was your day? Today was really neat for me! As soon as I left the car, I was put right to work. It was really cool! I have 2 companions! pretty cool huh? Elder Brudener is from Mass. He is sorta crazy but I will learn to love him I'm sure! Elder McMullan is from Maryland.. He is way cool. He is going to Santa Rosa also! I still have so much to learn from them. We started learning how to teach already today and Elder Brudeber has such a strong testimony! it was so neat! Guess who i ran into today? ELDER HILL!! He was speaking Russian so good ! I also ran into some other people from school. Derek Myler , and Austin Seabolt. That was so cool ! so I guessed tight , I leave March 14. The time is still unknown. Well I was just supposed to let you I'm doing good and having fun . I can Email on Wednesdays because that's my p day is ! So if you have any questions for me before Wednesday use dearelder.com I love you all so much! Thanks for all you do ! Just in 1 day my testimony has grown so much ! I love the church so much! I'm so glad I'm sacrificing 2 years of my life for this!! I love you so much !! your studly missionary: Elder Cody Penman
Hey everyone! How was your day? Today was really neat for me! As soon as I left the car, I was put right to work. It was really cool! I have 2 companions! pretty cool huh? Elder Brudener is from Mass. He is sorta crazy but I will learn to love him I'm sure! Elder McMullan is from Maryland.. He is way cool. He is going to Santa Rosa also! I still have so much to learn from them. We started learning how to teach already today and Elder Brudeber has such a strong testimony! it was so neat! Guess who i ran into today? ELDER HILL!! He was speaking Russian so good ! I also ran into some other people from school. Derek Myler , and Austin Seabolt. That was so cool ! so I guessed tight , I leave March 14. The time is still unknown. Well I was just supposed to let you I'm doing good and having fun . I can Email on Wednesdays because that's my p day is ! So if you have any questions for me before Wednesday use dearelder.com I love you all so much! Thanks for all you do ! Just in 1 day my testimony has grown so much ! I love the church so much! I'm so glad I'm sacrificing 2 years of my life for this!! I love you so much !! your studly missionary: Elder Cody Penman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)