Nate's week

Hola,




The reason for the title is because Nate was baptised this week, and it was one of my favorite parts of my mission so far! Before I get to that though, and wanted to let you know I was freaking out about my girl Clover... Please take care of her, because I am very much expecting her to be waiting for me when I get back :-)



So, now back to Nate. I am not sure how much I have written about his family so I will go ahead and give a quick over view and talk a little about his progress along with his families. We found them because they looked like they might be a part member family according to our ward list, and this mission has a big focus on teaching part member families so that they can because eternal units together. It turns out that Nate's mom had recently decided to start attending church again so she was very welcoming and excited when we asked if we could start giving Nate the lessons. She told us she didn't think he would be ready for baptism any time soon, but it would still help him if he started going to church anyway.



Teaching them was always interesting because her kids are wild. Nate is the oldest, 10, then his siblings are 7, 5, and 3. We had to work really hard to keep their attention for even 5 minutes at a time, but somehow each time we came back and did a review they knew every answer to our questions. As time progressed we got more creative with our teaching methods with them, and in return they began attending church every Sunday as a family, holding FHE weekly, reading the scriptures, and praying daily. After a couple months we asked them to pray about a date for Nate to get baptised, and the next week we came they had the date and said their grandpa is buying a ticket to come down and do the baptism. His grandpa never got the ticket, but he and Nate's uncle actually left at 3am Friday morning so they could make it to the baptism on time :-) We found out that his grandpa had been working on getting Nate baptised since he turned 8, and may be one of the few people that was excited as me about the baptism.



It was finaly Friday night, and everything was working out perfect. We showed up early and got everything set up, Nate's grandpa was present and excited, and all of Nate's family was ready to see him enter the waters of baptism. The only sad part was that with 5 minutes to go that was all the people who were there. I have a great ward here, but Nate's family tends to be quiet and his mom had mentioned to us that she wasn't expecting anyone else to come. Then one of those wonderful daily miracles happened that I wasn't expecting. Just as were were ready to start ward members and their family began flooding in with smiles on their faces, but no one had a bigger smile then Nate's mom. As I was giving my talk on Baptism I looked out and counted more then 40 people stuffed into the little baptismal room, and I saw tears welling up in the moms eyes, the only time I have ever seen her cry. It was such a beautiful baptism, and I knew right then that even if I get transferred out this incredible family will be embraced and taken care of by my ward in Ventana Ranch.



Someone is waiting for the comp so I better wrap this up, even though there is so much more I want to say! Here is some more though:



- We have another baptism coming up on the 4th :-)



- The Chavez family is quickly becoming one the strongest families I know in the gospel. Bro. Chavez is begging to become a home teacher, they attend every baptism, and they volunteer to everything they can. Just last Sunday I made an announcement that a family is moving and we need some boxes for them. They didn't have any, but a couple days later they called and said they went around the neighborhood collecting boxes and have a bunch we can pick up. Isn't it amazing? Just 3 months ago they 'knew' the church was false, now they love it and let it take place in every part of their lives.



- We are having a pancake breakfast for Memorial day



- Today we are going over the stop smoking program with a dad and mom that we are teaching



- My companion is amazing!! I get so blessed with the elders I get to work with



- I'm so proud of my siblings as I hear about all they are doing right now, and half way wish I could just take off and go on the camp out this weekend :-)



Love,



Elder Inman

Week 13

Hola again,

I loved seeing all those pictures. It feels so good to see everyone and to know that you all are doing so well. I can't print them here though, so be sure to send me a couple some time if you can :-) Enjoy camping! I loved those trips so much and still treasure those memories so much. Just make sure you take care of Clover, because Im expecting her to be jumping up and down when I get back!

So, it has been a great couple weeks. I had a change of heart a couple days ago that had helped me so much as a missionary. With Elder Davis going home, and talking about it quite a bit, I was starting to get a little trunky. I was missing family and friends and even though I still loved it out here I was feeling pretty home sick. Then just a couple days before he actually went home it hit me that I dont want to go home any time soon. I realized that if I went home now I would have failed as a missionary and would not enjoy being home because of that. It was simple and I should have thought of it earlier, but as soon as I did all remnants of trunkiness left and was replaced with excitement because I still get two years out here in New Mexico. I am not sure it anyone can even relate to that, but it had a huge impact on me and is helping me enjoy every moment of my mission.

This was especially good timing because my new companion, Elder Sumpter, is going home at the end of this transfer as well. There is a joke in my district that President Anderson is trying to make me trunky :-) He is a great missionary though and I am really excited for this transfer. Our first day together I tried to warn him about my snoring and that he may want to wear earplugs but he assured me he was fine since his last comp had the reputation for being the worst snorer in the mission. Well by the end of the next day he was about to fall over because he was so low on energy due to lack of sleep. It turns out that I am officially the worst snorer in the mission ( Are you sure you want to wait Brenna, lol). I gave him the earplugs that mom and dad sent me while in the MTC, and he has been sleeping much better the past couple nights.

Well I don't have to much time so I guess I have to wrap this up, so Ill bullet point a couple main things I wanted to say:

- This sounds weird, but if anyone wants to write my companion Im sure he would love it... I know Tawny and Mat are a thing now, but since he is going on a mission soon she can write two missionaries, lol :-) I don't think he gets much mail, meaning like maybe a letter every other month, which is weird because he is known as the most ripped missionary in the mission. He said he wasn't worried about girls to much before the mission, but kinda wishes he had been just so that he would get letters out here. I only check mail once a week now because I don't want to rub it in the people write me...

- We have a baptism this Friday which I am so excited about! His name is Nate Allen-Arve, and I have talked about him before. He is an incredible kid and this is going to be so amazing. His grandpa is flying down to do the baptism :-) It feels so great to find someone, work with them, and see them make the decision for baptism. And we have another baptism coming up on the 4th of next month. The work has picked up so much in this area and I love it. I have such a great ward, and I just found out that a group of them are praying that I will have another transfer here, lol.

- We were tracting this week and found an amazing family and the husband only does sign language, so I brushed up on the alphabet and am going to try to communicate with him a little. He is such a nice guy, and his wife translates for us, but it would be great to talk strait to him. Thanks mom!

- I am now an expert on how to stop smoking. Turns out missionaries have an incredible program that helps close to 90% of people lose the urge to smoke in 7 days, and my comp and I spent hours studying it because we have 3 people who need it. We are starting the program with them this week so I will let you know how it goes!

- I got an awesome package from the 'Williams Clan". I loved it, so thank you so much!

- I love you all!!
Love,

Elder Inman

Week 11

We are sharing the computers today so I don't have much time to write. But I do want to tell you all about the Chavez family again because they continue to amaze me. We had the baptism this week on Saturday and it was such an uplifting experience. It was not announced in church the week before because it was such a quick baptism, but we still had over 40 people show up and support Marley Chavez in her decision. Her siblings did the talks and each of them did an amazing job, which really wasn't expected since they knew so little about the gospel just a few short weeks ago. Then on Sunday they got up and bore their testimonies about the strength the gospel gives and the joy that has entered into their home as a result. This morning we got a call from sister Chavez that started out a little scary but ended as another testimony builder. She said that they have been praying lately about whether attending church and reading the scriptures are what they should really be doing right now. She said that this morning her youngest son, just 4, came to her and said that he had a dream last night that Christ took him to church and read the Book of Mormon with him and that he knew they were doing the right thing, and that she has not smoked since we asked her to stop and this is the first time since she was 18. What greater miracle could I expect then seeing a whole family come to Christ, and us being able to be a part of it.

Well I'm sorry its so short, but I have to get off now. Real fast a couple other things that happened this week:

Nate Allen-Arve wants to get baptised the 21st of this month, which I will tell you more about later because its amazing.

We were able to attend the temple yesterday and the Temple President said something great, that "Salvation is a personal matter, but exaltation is a family matter!".

My companion is starting to walk again.

Love you all!

Elder Inman

These are some pictures Elder Inman sent us this week, I'll caption them with what he wrote on the back...

The random ring I found

My comps foot:/

A couple pics we took messing around night. That's my city:-)

My very first district.