G'day! Less than 1 month until Christmas! Hey if you havn't watched the new Christmas video stop what you are doing and go and watch it right now! It is so good! #asaviorisborn
We are back in our flat! And guess what? we have mice or rats (we don't know which ones) living in our cubbards now! They must have moved in while we were out for 2 weeks! Yay I love rodents! This time we have to stay in our flat though and just clean it out and leave mouse traps.... We were asked to sing 2x this week at a funeral for an old man in our ward (It was a really odd funeral) and for combined Relief Society, Preisthood, Young women/young mens! Hahahahaa! I almost had to do a solo, but thank heavens they let Sister Young sing with me, you know I cannot sing! Haha! A lot has happened this week, Rau and Phern are working towards getting baptized this weekend, but poor Rau another trial strikes (seriously Satan must not want her to get baptized!) Rau does scaffolding for work, and this past week while she was at work one of her really close friends who is a member fell off of a 10 metre chimney and passed away. He was supposed to speak at her baptisim! It is so sad, he was pretty young and has 3 small children and was 1st counsellor in the Young Mens in Baldavis ward which is just one ward over from us! It just goes to show how fragile life is! Rau is so awesome though, she is helping out the family heaps with all of the funeral stuff, but also told us that she is okay because she knows the Plan of Salvation is true and Ben (her friend) is in a better place now, she knows death is not the end! I love Rau she is such a strong person, and such a great example! It was really cool that night because Rau stayed to make sure everyone else got home from work safe and so she couldn't make our lesson. so it was just us and Phern. We decided to teach the Plan of Salvation, even though Phern didn't know about the accident, During the lesson Phern got really emotional and started to cry, she said that she felt like her nana, who she has never met and passed away a long time ago was there, it was really cool to see Phern feeling the spirit so strong, and then recognizing it! Parle (Rau's other daughter) is starting to soften up as well! She got into some pretty big trouble a few weeks ago and her mom has been making her go to church every week, She still isn't interested in learning about the gospel, but she likes us now, they hosted the FHE on Monday night and I talked to her for probably an hour about school and rugby (I am so glad I played rugby this past year, it has given me such an in with the islanders and Maori people here!). I'm so grateful for the amazing opportunity I've had to meet all of these amazing people in Mandurah! I love you all, I hope you have a wonderful week this week! I Love and MIss you! LOve, Sister Penrod xx
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA DAVIS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY/PAPA!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH AND HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAYS ARE WONDERFUL!!!
Today is my 2 month mark! Yay! I feel like I've been here for ages already, I can't believe it's only been 2 months! Happy Thanksgiving! I have decided that Australia is pretty cool because well, Australians eat pancakes covered in Ice cream and sugar and milo and call it breakfast, I quite enjoy this. I think I will bring it back to America with me! Haha! Our district is pretty much the exact same after transfers, except Elder Ioane, our district leader and my mission dad went back home to Samoa, we all miss him heaps! He was an awesome missionary! So now Elder Edwards is DL, he has been in Mandurah ward his entire mission over 9 months! We didn't believe anyone when they told us he was staying! And the "new" missionary is Elder Tafilipepe, he is from Melbourne and served in Mandurah ward last Christmas time, so he already knows everyone, so he's not really new. We already got invited to all spend Christmas at Bishops house! Yay! We love the Semu's! Missionary party ;) We've been running every day! Now that we live with the members in Wannanup it's like 20 ks away from our old flat so we can't really go to Rau's house in the morning to excersize! So we started running! We run on this trail next to this ocean channel with heaps of boats! I saw a dolphin the other day outside our window, well the Morris's window! I didn't get a picture but Yay Dolphin! haha! Rau is doing so awesome, she is such an inspiration and so kind to us, she had to push back her baptisimal date to work through some things but she is so strong! Hopefully she will be getting baptised soon! She feeds us all of the time! Even more than members! 2 nights ago she fed us a hungi! So Good! It' s like all of these veggies and meat roasted under the ground in a pit it's maori and so yum! This week we have been studying a lot about the atonement with Rau, It is so amazing, I am learning so much! The atonement is so real, If you haven't seen/ heard the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, you need to watch it! It is amazing, we watched it with Rau a few nights ago and afterwards she said it just makes sense. Our Heavenly Father wants to help us through everything! He does! I know that he loves each of us individually, he knows our trials and our weaknesses and wants to give us EVERYTHING! I love you all, and miss you heaps! Love, Sister Penrod HELLOOOOOOOO! Everyone one transfer down! I made it! Haha! Barely this week has been crazy! We had exchanges at the beginning of this week with the Sister Training Leaders, I stayed here in Halls Head with Sister Kadarmia and Sister Young went to Kwinana with Sister Forte, Sister Kadarmia is from New Zealand, she is cool, we had fun together, exchanges are weird Sis. Young and I were talking about it after because it's only one day, but it feels soooo long and we missed each other! Haha! Anyways it was good we were following up on former investigators and found a new one! His name is Rawhiti, he is from New Zealand, he is 18, loves rugby, and golden! We are really excited! Next baptisimal date ;) Other than that this week has been pretty slow teaching wise, we had heaps of appointments cancel, and haven't been able to find any new people really.
We did have something pretty crazy happen though. You remember how I told you about how are apartment had rats and the sisters had to move about before I got there? Well our flat is straight-up THE WORST! So we went to Pinjarra on Friday (that is our far away area) we usually spend the whole day there but for some reason we decided to come back early and get our bikes and bike around Halls Head, well we walked into the door of our flat and both of us literally dropped everything we were holding because it was no joke RAINING INSIDE OUR FLAT! There were these 2 giant cracks in the ceiling of the kitchen area and water just pouring out! There was about 5 inches of water on the floor as well! We were so shocked! We immediately called the Senior couple who is in charge of flats and our neighbour helped us turn off the power so we didn't blow it up as well, but yeah.... seriously..... I started laughing so hard I couldn't even breath because it was just too ridiculous, the plumber was there in about an hour and he managed to stop the water apparently one of our pipes has a crack in it and had been leaking for a while, but as he was going through our huge gate on the side of the flat the entire thing fell off of the wall. He came around and was like yup your flat is cursed! Hahaha! It was sooooo funny! The senior couple told us that we will at least be out of our flat for a month and they are going to try and find us a new flat because this one is 40 years old! So we are going to have to completely move everything soon! Where are we now? We are living with the Morris' they are members in our area and have the most amazing house EVER! It's like right on the water and so pretty, they don't have any kids at home, and are soooooo nice to us! We love them so much! I'll send you pictures but their house is like a hotel for real! Brother Morris is from WA and Sister Morris is from Cali they have been living here for like 15 years or something but they are awesome! We had a ward party on Saturday and it was really fun our ward is seriously so cool! We played a game where you had to be in families so the Morris' let us join, it makes me miss you all to see everyone else having fun with their families! It was also right next to the beach and soooooo hot! Everyone was swimming but we aren't allowed on the sand so we just had to watch! It is sooooooo hot here like soooooooooo hot, and summer hasn't even started yet, the other day are car said 45 C, that is really hot! the average this week has been in the high 30s! haha! Everyone says WA is miserable in the summer..... we will see;) Anyways with transfers and such we are staying here in Halls Head! Yay! Our district is almost going to be exactly the same except of course our District Leader, Elder Ioane is going home to Samoa tomorrow! I'm going to miss him heaps he is such a cool guy! But everyone else is staying! Anyways, the church is true, I know it and I love it! I love being able to serve every day! I love you all and miss you so much! Hola Amigos! Just kidding there is nothing Spanish here.
This has been a lllooonnggg week! Nothing too exciting has happened. I got swooped for the first time the magpies here attack people and I got swooped by one the other day, it is scary they are big, I swung my bag at it and took off running, we were walking to the stake building from the bus with the rest of our district and they just laughed at me, but I can say it has happened to me now! haha! We've been to Rau's house a lot this week she feeds us heaps and lets us train in her gym in the mornings she has us do hardcore stuff, after our first day we couldn't walk it was so funny! On Saturday we had a lesson with her and her daughter and her inactive friend/cousins house it was awesome! It was S. Young and I, Rau and her friend, and then Phern (Rau's 9 year old daughter) and 5 other little girls age 9 and younger, It was a lot of fun to teach, we talked to them about the Sabbath day and reading your scriptures and praying. They asked a lot of questions! It was super fun! After the lesson Rau's friend invited us back to do another lesson in her house! Rau told us the next day that it was a trial run and her friends wanted to see what we where like! We Passed! Yay! We went to a less active, basically inactive families house on Friday night and gave a short lesson and just talked to them for a while it was really neat because they just opened up and told us all of their concerns and why they weren't coming to church, we told them we would talk to the bishop about their concerns and make sure they got invited to more things and the whole mood changed. They love us now and even came to church on Sunday and gave us big hugs! We are so excited for them! Friday afternoon we ended up going on a road trip we were following up on a potential elders list the elders quorum gave us and ended up going to Boddington, which is like an hour and a half from our flat in the middle of the bush! It was so hard to get there it is seriously the middle of nowhere! But it was fun to drive too turns out WA isn't completely flat there are some hills and we got to drive through the forest! Other than that it's been a pretty rough week, Australians can be really MEAN. We got a lot of doors slammed in our face and rotten things said to us just checking up on less-active members even! It's pretty disheartening but it makes the people you can teach mean that much more! Yesterday President Fife came down and spoke at a fireside here in Mandurah and asked us if we are "truly baptised" Have we submitted ourselves completely to God and his will for us? It is such a hard thing to do and something we all should be constantly working on! I'm so grateful for this gospel and the happiness and peace it has brought into my life! I love you all and miss you HEAPS! Love, Sister Penrod -- Sister Rhea Audrey Penrod Australia Perth Mission PO Box 185 Tuart Hill Western Australia 6939 G'day everyone Ive been wanting to tell you all about the weird things in Australia so this is going to be a really dumb just Australia email are you ready throughout the week Im like I want to tell them this but then I forget! So here goes: 1. There are flies everywhere I mean everywhere! 2. Food is SOOOO expensive It is crazy!! 3. McDonalds or Maccas as they call it here is really fancy, like they bring your burger out on a fancy wood plate and stuff and the resturaunt is super posh it is expensive! 4. There are parrots everywhere flying around kind of cool. 5. Kookaburras are super weird they sound like crazy monkeys. 6. Australians aren't super friendly and they don't like americans like everyone says they do. They are always like no offense bash bash bash americans no offense but americans blahblahblah are so stupid blahblah blah are so obese blahblah. haha its actually kind of funny. 7. Australians are also super blunt they tell you like it is, at first it was sort of shocking but I've gotten used to it. Kiwi's especially Maori people are a lot more friendly and easier to get to know! 8. American Peanut butter is far superior to Australian Peanut Butter. 9. It isn't humid here at all, It is super dry it feels a lot like Utah which is suprising because we live on the beach! 10.Magpies here are evil, we are going into summer which is beside from being apparently unbearably hot as I've been told is also "swooping season" These birds are pretty good size and will swoop you and claw/beak your head. I haven't been swooped yet but a lot of members have already been swooped this summer. Its sort of scary. 11. There are spiders everywhere not all poisonous, I saw my first poisonous spider a few days ago it was in a manhole I had earlier stuck my arm in to fill up the baptisimal font. the ward mission leader told me afterwards that I could have died.. yeah whatever I guess it was a redback I have no idea what that is. but yeah anyways you have to dust outside because these spiders make cobwebs on everything and if you don't do it everycouple of days your house will turn into a giant cobweb. cool eh? 12. My new favourite (they auto correct to this weird spelling) Aussie phrase is "Good on ya" Sister Young says it all the time! haha! I means good job I think. 13. One of my new favourite food is Chop Suey Its islander and sooooooooooooooooo good! 14. Some swear words in America aren't swear words here so it is really funny because my companion says them all of the time and members say them over the pulpit it is funny! G'day Family and Friends!
So the last few days have been awesome basically because of a lot of things -I took my "driving test" with the senior missionaries so I now can drive and have been driving in Australia. It's scary. - We had follow up training so I got to see all of my friends from the MTC! - One of the girls that Sis. Young and her last Comp set on date got baptized on Saturday it was really cool! I said a prayer (just like you Olivia ;) - Congratulations to Caroline for getting baptized, I'm so proud of you! - Oh and we had the best miracle ever: RAU IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Young and I are still going crazy about it! We are sooooo Excited!!!! Here is what happened: so we have been teaching her for about a month, Sister Young and I started teaching her together so we've both been able to see her start her journey:) So we went to her house on Thursday and we always love going to her house because she is just the coolest lady ever. She is so fun to talk to and be around and willing to do whatever. So we taught the lesson about the word of wisdom and invited her to live it and she was like oh no big deal I stopped smoking and drinking and swearing a month ago cold turkey. so we are like awesome! and we talked to her for a while just about random stuff and suddenly Sister Young had a prompting to say: "So Rau I think that you want to be baptized." and Rau goes "yeah... Yeah, yous know what I was thinking about it today and yeah, I decided I want to be baptized so can we like set a day?" (internal screaming and dancing for joy) "yes of course Rau, how about the 21st of November." "Yeah, okay that's cool oh and can Phern [her 9 year old daughter] get done too?" "DEFINETLY!" We were so stinking excited! We left her house on cloud 9 it was the greatest experience of my life! I felt such peace and happiness, that I have never felt before and It wasn't even for me it was for Rau! I am so excited for Rau she is such a GOLDEN and I mean GOLDEN investigator, we taught her tithing and fasting on Sat. and she was just like "yeah cool I'll do it. It makes sense." all of the commandments she is like "okay, done. I'll do it." She is so solid! she is the coolest person EVER! After our lesson on Saturday she was going to the trunk or treat at the church and we helped her decorate her boot (trunk) and then gave us a ride with her and her daughter, Phern to the activity and it was super fun! Phern had a blast and Rau fit right in with everyone and afterwards she even took us out and bought us Hungry Jacks (Burger King, which is awesomer here because it is cheap and Mcdonalds is so expensive.), Yah but she is so cool, she said we could come workout in the mornings in her gym in her garage and would give us workouts and stuff! Yay! She is the coolest though she has been through a lot in her life, but is so strong and willing and just SO COOL! On Saturday in our lesson she told us that she was talking to one of her old friends (who is a super less active member) about how she is taking the lessons and is going to baptized and her friend was like ah you are making me feel guilty I need to come back to church and I want my daughter who is 9 to get baptized too! And Rau in good old Maori fashion said " Just have her get done when I get done! I'll talk to the sisters and she can come to the lessons at my house!" So she is basically already a missionary and we are soooooooo excited!!! But yeah, this week has been pretty cool! We have had so many blessings the other day one of the members in the ward, who just got home to Tahiti from serving his mission here and then moved back here like a few months ago, texted us and was like do you need food? and so jokingly we wrote up a really long list to be funny. But he went and bought us everything on the list plus more we couldn't even fit it all in our fridge! He is awesome! , I finally got all of your letters! yay! We have been so blessed this week! I am so grateful for such a wonderful and loving Father in Heaven! He is blessing us so much! I am so grateful for this gospel it is amazing! I love you all so much and miss you even more! I can't wait to here from you more! Love you all, Sister Penrod The picture is of Cody's baptism on Saturday! -- Sister Rhea Audrey Penrod Australia Perth Mission PO Box 185 Tuart Hill Western Australia 6939 |
Sister PenrodHas been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Perth, Australia. She reports to the Provo, Utah MTC September 23! Archives
April 2017
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