Weekly Update - Mar 22nd, 2006

Late. Again, I know. I'm sorry. But here it is.

Thank you all for your patience.
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Mar 22^nd, 2006

Last week was a good week. There were lots of meetings and a lot of the extra time was spent with a new investigator. Her name is Barbara Fagan. She's so sweet. She moved here (Derby, KS) from Richmond, Virgina (what is the abbreviated version? "VA"?) right before I got here. I got to Derby on a Wednesday and she got here the Sunday before me. Here's how we met her. You tell me this isn't cool. So elder Bascom and I are playing pool and she walks in and asks me: "What is God to you?" I had never been approached like that on my mission (and, now that I think about it, EVER) so I was a little surprised but, answered her question. "God is the loving Father of our spirits... He knows each of us by name and knows our struggles and weaknesses... He loves us so much and He's ALWAYS there, listening whenever we pray and helping us whenever we ask..."

I said a lot more to her. I shared with her a good deal of what we teach as missionaries in about 2 minutes or so. And then, Elder Bascom hopped in and shared his testimony that God is our loving Father in Heaven and a few other things. We’ve since visited with her a few more times and I really like her. She’s so nice.

Today was a fun day! Why? Because we went paintballing!!! It was so much fun! Elder Bascom and I were on a team and we went with a bunch of the young men from our ward. Our team won all but 3 games! We played about 10 and we trashed them! It was so much fun! Elder Bascom and I went and played the whole day wearing some Goodwill suits. I wore a brown one and he wore a silver one. We actually looked really slick and it was probably a strange sight (not to mention, slightly demoralizing) to get shot by someone wearing a 70’s style suit. It was really neat. We had a few pictures. I’ll have to see about getting those.

I had the chance to finally meet some of the ward members. I like them. I still have no idea who most of them are, but I really liked the people who I met. There are a few families that really stuck out to me and I’m looking forward to getting to know more about them. I also got to meet one of the investigators we’ve been teaching. His name’s Robert. He’s been trying to give up smoking for a while now. He just won’t take the pen! (Have I told you about the “pen analogy”? If not, someone let me know and I’ll be sure to tell all of you. It’s really good!) But he’s a nice guy. We’re going to help him clean out his place tomorrow. It helps him a lot to have us come over and get rid of stuff that shouldn’t be there. e.g. (cigs, coffee, etc.) So we do our best to help him.

I’ve been doing a lot of consolidating lately of just about everything. Notes, entries, clothes, everything! I’m not liking how much stuff I have and how disorganized it all is. My poor companion has to see a super-messy desk every day and it’s because I’m trying to get everything all sorted. I’m used to doing that task with a computer and it’s been really interesting having limited use to one. But it’s coming along. The thing I’m most excited about is the journal I’m keeping. I like how its come together.

Well, I have to go. I love you all. Take care. Know that you’re in my prayers. Thank you all for the many prayers on my behalf and the support you’ve given me.

Your brother, son and friend;

~Elder Penrod