Week 4

Hi :-)

I realized there were some questions that I left unanswered last week. So no, I have not gotten a bike yet, and yes I am eating pretty healthy and exercising in the morning. I think that I am getting in better shape lately, prob because I'm not at Sallie Mae anymore. Oh, and I had dinner with a guy that said he knows you guys! His name is Clint Thielemier and when I said I was from Rye he asked if I knew a Bill Inman, lol. He went on to explain that he knew him as the artist that always has on Birkenstocks and worked with the young men, and that his wife was really good at taking pictures :-) Crazy how small the world is

Well on with my week then...

It has been an intense, and difficult week. Ill start out with a depressing part of it and then move on to some of the miracles that I have been able to witness and be a part of.
We went back for our second appointment with Adolf. I didn't feel real good in the beginning because I was trying to teach to much from my own learning and it was just the two of us going back and forth with facts and scripture. I said a small prayer to myself when I realized what I was doing and then began teaching by the spirit again. I had spent a lot of time preparing to teach him, and when the spirit began leading me the teaching became very powerful and I know that each of us felt it. I began teaching things that I hadn't thought of prior and I could tell that Adolf was beginning to have his eyes opened to the truth of the restored gospel. But then at the end he said that he was happy with his religion and that we didn't need to come back. I was shocked and a little hurt so I tried to find out what happened, but he insisted that it was fun, he learned a lot, but that he just wasn't interested in learning more. So we left him with our number and left. I just hope that a seed has been planted, and that I did all that I could so that I can do as Paul did when he was rejected by entire cities, and know that my garments are clean.

We had a couple incredible experiences to though. We began teaching a less active family a couple weeks ago, more especially a boy names Nate who said he didn't want to be baptised. The first time we were there we couldn't tell if they heard a single sentence with how crazy it was there, but the entire family followed through with the commitment and went to church the following Sunday. They have been to church every Sunday since that first week, and this last time we arrived to teach them they were waiting at the window for us, excitedly invited us in and told us about how well their FHE went, that each of them have been reading the scriptures, and praying every day, and when we did a review of our other lessons they remembered most of it. I wanted to scream in joy when I left that home because they are so happy now, and improving so quickly. I think we will ask the boy, Nate, to be baptised some time soon.

On Friday I was able to see God's hand in our work indisputably. We are low on miles with our car, meaning we have used up most of our allotted miles already for this transfer, so we decided to just leave the car in a park and walk around the neighborhood and to our appointments. We didn't see to much success during our couple hours of walking, but as we were about to get back into our car we heard someone call us from a car a couple yards over. We walked over and met a women named Sonia, who was in tears asking for our help. She was Hispanic with very broken English, but we finally learned from her that her husband just ran away from them. He has had depression issues since he got back from Iraq and she doesn't think she has shown him that she loves him enough, that she works to much, so he just got up and left her to take care of their two young kids. She said missionaries like us had met with him a couple months ago and it made him happy then, and wanted our help to find him. We prayed with her, and promised that we would call him, and stop by her home to teach her and her children how to have strong families. She felt so much happier after we talked and prayed and I am so excited to see that family again this week.

It is so amazing to see how God works in each of our lives, and that he truly does love each of his children. I love being in His service, and being blessed enough to be used as some of His children's 'angel' in their lives. Thank you for all your prayers and support in this work! Heavenly Father loved each of us enough to give his only begotten son so that we can return to Him if we but follow his commandments, so why would we not do all we can do to share this wonderful knowledge with others? So few know that His Gospel has been restored in these latter days, that we have a prophet leading us today, and that there is a way for families to be eternal available to each of us. I meet people everyday who feel guilt in their lives every day and don't know why, who are trying to be forgiven but don't know how, and who are struggling through this life with so much less joy then is available to them. This is such a wonderful work!

My love,
Elder Inman