Penrod, Isaac

Hi Elder Penrod, I realize I get to talk to you a lot this week and last so I was going back and forth on sending you an email. Last night's phone call made me really want to write to you so here you go I am so proud of you for speaking up. That was a hard situation and sometimes we as members confuse meekness with putting up with things, even abuse. But the Savior was meek, not that he didn't speak out but that he did it in a way that showed that he cared and loved those he spoke to. You speaking up allows the Mission President to see a need and also get Elder Larson the help he needs to grow. One more thought before I let you go. Our sacrament meeting for Christmas was great. We had musical numbers and testimonies from different ward members. Dad did awesome on his singing with me, I am so grateful that he was willing to do that. What stood out to me the most though was Sis. Robinson's testimony. She shared the thought she heard recently from a devotional that we always w...

It's been a hard week i'll be honest. The holidays have been rough for me and I won't go into it to much in this email, but I think we've got it all figured out with the mission president. This week was not the best for me and even this transfer has been rough. The members completely took over taking care of that friend of ours that was having financial issues. A bunch of members dropped off meals and gifts for her and her family. Each of them invited her to the christmas program at church.It was a miracle and took a lot of stress off of us that we didn't need. We felt responsible for her christmas, but that wasn't the case becasue everyone can be responsible for that; if they choose to be. Christmas Eve was fun though, we visited a member family and played some games and they told us they had a drum set and guitar. They let me and my companion play them and we just rocked out for a moment. I like playing the acoustic guitar and all, but I love the distortion an...

Hello everybody!!! It has been the first week of my 2nd transfer but also most transfers are actually 6 week, so it's technically been the end of my first transer depending on how you look at it, but enough of the confusion. This week has been different. We said so long to Elder Long and our trio became a duo. I've got to admit the life of a missionary never hit me until one third of the companionship left so that was hard. When your the third trainee you kind of get left on the back burner, that's not to say my companions neglected me, but I just didn't do much of the heavy lifting. Now I'm driving because my trainer got his driving privileges taken away this transfer. And I'm responsible for taking us to all the places. I went from back seat to drivers figuratively and literally. So it has been a little stressful but I'm managing and I was blessed with a companion who understands being stressed. Your probably wondering what's with the funny title, well...

Hi Elder Penrod, I hope you are doing well. How was your week? Did you get to do anything fun? How did transfers go? Yesterday we had a talk given where they mentioned a common question around this time of year. We get a lot of people that ask the question of "Are you ready for Christmas?" How does that meaning change when we ask "Are you ready for Christ?" That hit me a little more this year. We do try to keep Christ in Christmas but in the hustle and bustle of making sure we have all the presents, the decorations, the traditions, and the dinners, do we keep room in our hearts for Christ? Do we try to find ways to quietly contemplate His life and the gift it was for us? Thank you for your Facebook post. I came across it right after this talk and it was perfect for me to sit and think about it. I get a lot of people that stop me at work and at church to tell me how special your emails are to them. It means a lot to them to read your emails. I really love hearing fro...

As you can see with the title this is not just another email replied to the other emails. This is cool! It is it's own individual email. I am so proud. This email marks the end of my first transfer. And it's been an experience most definitely. Good or bad, it's what I choose to take out of it. My trainer let us do a lesson role-play last night and Elder Long and I almost made him cry. I think he finally realized that he has taught us both so much when this entire transfer he thought we were teaching him. I did learn a lot from Elder Larsen this transfer and I'll learn more the next transfer. I won't learn more from Elder long though because he's going away now sadly. This whole week was kind of lame because I got sick and our Zone Leader was also sick so I just hung out with him the whole week. And we listened to conference talks and stuff. I'm excited for this next transfer though. Next week I will have more stories hopefully.

My ward had a Christmas party and it was apparently pretty good, but I wouldn't really be able to tell you because we didn't do much of the party we did do a bunch of helping. Despite the fact this was just some party that the ward put together there was actually a tender mercy I experienced in it. When the Christmas party was happening we were asked to play a part in their nativity and also man a booth for bread. We planned on talking to a lot of people and trying to make new friends, but we spent most of our time prepping, working at the booth, nativity play. We didn't get time to talk to people or even have any dinner ,which was inconvenient because last Sunday was the next day, but the next day the members went up to bare their testimonies. The first person to go up was sister Stevens, the person who planned the party. She said she was so grateful that the members and the missionaries and the church in general would be so helpful for something they don't get paid fo...

Hi Elder Penrod, How was your week? Did you get to deliver a lesson this week? How is the ward? Things have definitely picked up over the last week. Curtis is now deep into the wrestling season. He has had duals and tournaments the last two weeks. He won his match for the dual. which was cool. And he almost won his first match but ended up going 1 win and 3 losses (he also had a bad ref for the last match and his coach said he should have had that match as well). I have started the singing performances for Relief Society Activities and nearby Care Centers. It was a little bit of a surprise to nave our 1st care center visit and start singing and one of the residents had tears streaming down. her cheeks and they continued through all the singing. We later started having conversations with the residents after the singing and came to find out she was alone here in Utah. She is from Ohio and has some relatives there but there is no one here with her in Utah. I came to appreciate the reasons...