Week 1 in the field

I got a little note from President and Sister Anderson along with this picture today! I also finally heard from David:
I havent recieved any letters in the mail since I left the MTC, so I have no idea what problem you are talking about, but I loved the package! EVERYONE asks about the scripture case and loves looking through all the pictures. And the treats were a hit too!
I didnt get the drivers record stuff though, and the office said they have not recieved that yet either so I was wondering if you could get that send off pretty soon. Oh, and only send packages United States Priority or Express Mail, otherwise I can only get it every 6 weeks. Send all mail to the mission office with my name and they send it to me.
Well Im sure you want to know about my new companion, my trainer. Remember the trainer on Best Two Years? Think of him as I explain and I bet youl get a little laugh out of it. His name is Elder Davis and he is from Bountiful Utah. His parents let him know that they got a divorse 5 months ago, and then 3 months ago his girlfriend who was waiting for him said that she got engaged to another RM. Now his whole family has fallen into inactivety, his girlfriend dumped him, and on top of that he goes home in two transfers, both of which I will most likely be with him for. Its the perfect combination for an absolute bum of a missionary, especualy with his dad writing him about thier new boat.
But it turns out that Elder Davis is an incredible missionary. He has spent the last 6 months of his mission as an Assistant to the President and was moved to trainer/district leader upon his own request. He said that he was wanting to do some 'real' mission work for the last part and wanted to get out of the office. He even tried, and is still trying, to get an extention to his mission. He said he had a little bit of depression time, but is out here to serve a mission, so he will deal with everything else when he gets home. Yep, I got the #1 trainer out of the bunch of them.
So then our first day we opened our appartment door to see a mess of a place left by the other elders. We got double transfered into this area, Vantana Ranch, if that means anything to you. If it doesnt then it means both missionaries who had been here left, so we are basicaly starting from scratch, and the last missionaries were bums so the area was a mess. My comp asked me if I would rather unpack today or just go out and start working, so we put our bags down and walked back out to go see as many people as we could before the day ended. Much of the first week has been spend meeting old investigators and getting to know the ward, which I will have to tell you about.
The apt still isnt real clean, and im actually still not unpacked, but I spend any extra time I have trying to get that done. Missionary work has been incredible, and really really hard. We have knocked on doors for a couple hours each day, and its fun to see the different responses we get. My companion has a studder, which usualy doesnt get in the way, but when we are tracting it can get a little annoying to him so I do alot of the talking at the door when discussions actualy start. We have found one new investigator and taught a couple outside lessons which will hopefuly lead to them being investigators, but no huge inpour of people wanting to be taught yet.We spent hours and hours organizing the area book, but we were still able to meet and teach a couple amazing families.
This ward is incredible! Its got about 80% activation, and the primary is 288 kids! It seems like everyone is under 40 here, and almost all the kids are under 17, which makes for a very loud sacrament meeting, but also for realy fun dinner appointments with the members. The ward is so excited to do mission work, unlike anything I have ever seen. Eveyone asks about the people we are teaching and offers to help whenever we can use it. The ward mission leader talks to us everyday, goes to appointments, and even sets up some appointments, plus he goes by himself to make friends with as many of the inactives or investigators he can.This area has some incredible potential and I am very excited for the work ahead of us! Even with all the boring work we had to do with organization we still taught more lessons this week then the last set of missionaries ever did, so I have a good feeling the work will explode with two missionaries excited about the work.
Just a quick mini story and then I have to go. The other day we were teaching a man named John. His wife joined a couple months ago and she has been trying to get a divorse with him for the past year. Im not completely sure the reason, but she will not bend on it. So we finaly convinced him to start taking the lessons, but alot of people were worried he was just doing it to try to find out how to talk his wife out of it, and not because he is really interested in the message. Right in the middle of the first lesson I felt prompted to ask him two questions, "Why does he want these lessons" and "What does he plan to do WHEN he finds out that what we are teaching is true". It seemed to bold to ask so I put it off but then the prompting came again so I stopped where I was and asked the first question. He looked almost hurt at first and just sat there thinking and finaly said that he guesses he would like to know if this is true. So then I asked the second question and he just stared at me for a good 30 seconds, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. He finaly broke down a little and said that he wants this all to be true, and that WHEN he finds out that it is he would be a fool not to join, be baptised. YAY!! So then I thanked him, told him that if he follows through with the committments that I promised he would find out that it is true, and continued with the lesson. It was realy powerful, and the spirit filled the room from that point forward. I think he needed to hear himself say it even more then we did.
I miss you all, and still havent completely shaken the random times of homesickness but I am learning so much and feel so good about this work! I pray for all of you everymorning and night, and hope that you feel the joy of the spirit in your home everyday day!
Love your missionary,Elder Inman