At level 8, there isn't much you can do. You don't get consecrate until level 20, and you don't get a true ranged pull until much later (well, you will get one at level 16 when the next patch comes out, but it hasn't yet).
Your judgement has a 10-yard range, so if you don't want the mage to pull, use seal of righteousness, and get close enough to the mob (10 yards) to judge light (I don't think you have judgement of wisdom at level 8). This may still pull more than one mob, but it won't pull as many as body-pulling.
You really don't get much to work with as a Paladin until level 20, but even from level 1-20 your surviveabity (especially partnering with a mage) is great, and you can do decent damage, so unless you do something horribly wrong you shouldn't die.
I recommend that you take the time to read all of the stickies at the top of the Paladin forums page here... It will tell you a lot about Paladins in general and about the three specific talent trees for Paladin and might give you an idea of which spec to go with. The majority of Paladins go with Retribution talents for leveling and then a certain percentage go Holy or Protection later once they hit at least level 60 or so. This is not required, especially if you know you are always going to be teaming up with a mage. If holy or prot interest you even early on, you can try them since the mage is going to be dealing a ton of damage anyway.
I leveled my main with a Shadow Priest as my partner. Talk about awesome! We couldn't be killed and never ran out of mana either. Shouldn't be too much different with you and a mage, although if you over-extend yourselves you may need to drink to get your mana back on occasion. You are still gonna have to try pretty hard to die once you are familiar with your characters and know your limitations.