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