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.