May 12, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

     Man. What do I even say? Last night Jessica (my sister) told me on Skype she was probably going to have the baby sometime soon. Then I get on my email and Jessica had written me a message that said she was in labor and now my mom sent me a picture of their new baby boy!! I feel like i just went through a whirlwind! haha I'm so excited for her. He's adorable and giant by the way :) He'll be exactly a year old when I meet him next year! It was so good to see all my family yesterday for Mother's Day. I'm so blessed. I love them so much. 

     This week was really good. It definitely was not a normal week. It felt like we had hardly anytime to really visit people! Monday was P-day (in which I played soccer, basketball, and volleyball. It was the best thing ever, but I paid for it the rest of the week...) then on Tuesday we volunteered at Farmstead for half the day, Wednesday I had my mission leadership council meeting in Independence at the mission home, then Thursday we had weekly planning, Friday we had Zone Training and Interviews with the mission president, Saturday we got go to work, and then Sunday was church and talking to our families. It flew by like it was nothing. And now its already almost half way through the month! This time of the year is the best. The weather is nice and people are outside! President said that if we work hard and find people at this time, he said he promised us, it will carry us through the summer. I'm ready to get to work!

     I just wanted to mention a few things this week. We have been teaching The Ehpell's, a party member family, The mom and older brother are members, but not Riann 9 and Simrick 8. So that has been really great to teach them. I haven't been able to teach kids a lot on my mission so far so I'm really enjoying it. They are such a sweet family. We are teaching them again tonight! As well, one day this week we were out trying to find people from the ward list. We were walking through some apartments and and couple of teenage girls were on the grass next to their bikes. As we were about to get in the car, they yelled, "I love you outfits!" It was so cute! We talked to them for a few seconds, but then we proceeded to get in the car and drive away. After a minute I was like, WHY THE HECK DIDN'T I INTRODUCE AND GIVE THEM A BOOK OF MORMON. I was so mad at myself. I don't know why that didn't come to my mind. But then Sister Beard and I got the impression to go back to the apartment really quick and write a small and sweet testimony and highlight a few scriptures and then drive back and give it to them and talk about it. I thought it was kind of a silly impression to get, but we went with it. After we did so, we were walking out of the apartment towards our car when we hear someone say, "hey!" We turned around (FYI no one ever calls after us so this was crazy) and he went on to ask us if we went to church (after he saw our nametags he seemed to back off a little) But we ended up talking to him for about 10 minutes about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and how they complement each other. But the coolest thing happened. Just as I thought that the things that we were teaching him weren't going anyway, Sister Beard starts bearing such a powerful sweet testimony about the message we share. I could not deny the Spirit I felt. I went quiet for a few moments, and decided that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and asked if we could get it in Romanian (he's from Romania). We said we could and a few days later we went to drop off the Book of Mormon at his apartment and his cousin answered and told him Chris had said he wanted us to give him this book. We talked for a minute and then he said that he speaks Romanian and that he can read it too... Halelujah! We're following up tonight. Can't wait.

     Mission leadership council was on testimonies this week and it was such an amazing experience to train on some of the trainings that were given. My testimony was strengthened for sure. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it, but only because I really rely on the Lord to help me haha. I have been so blessed to be in here in Kansas. I really do love it already. Thank you for all the support and love. Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Penman