Power

I was on an exchange in Panorama with Elder Willden and we stopped by a family that we were teaching before I left. We stopped in and had a great lesson and then he asked if we had time to take a spin in his toy... Of course!!! It was so much fun, and I have never sat in a more powerful feeling car. There was a lot of rubber left on the road after we were done, and I want one so badly now :-)

1st- Ericks Baptism!! It was beautiful :-)

2nd- Solo pic looking over my stewardship

3rd- Comp Unity

Hey,

This past week I was blessed to meet and receive training from one of the most powerful people I have ever met in my life. Elder Per G. Malm of the seventy came and spent the day with us! There were two missionaries called up during our conference to give talks on becoming a disciple of Christ, an assignment not given ahead of time but instead on the spot. Can you imagine giving a talk in front of more than half the mission, our mission president and his wife, three stake presidents, and a General Authority with his spouse? Well, now I can. I was the second of two called up and there are few times in my life I can remember my heart beating at a more rapid pace, and I am surprised the sound of my heart didn't travel over the microphone. I am so thankful that I was able to speak though! That is now a memory that I will be able to cherish all my life. Here are a select few things I learned from the training:

- Within this church each member is on common ground with regards to receiving salvation. None of the prophets, past or present, have more opportunity to get into heaven then anyone else.

- Power and purity come from our body yielding to the spirit, and corruption is a result of our spirit yielding to our body. As a side note he taught us that if we over eat we are less able to receive spiritual food, so he asked us to not eat to much at lunch since we had more training afterwards. This is one of the reasons fasting is such a powerful tool.

- Our missions will effect many more people then we can imagine.

- A story was told of a missionary being set apart to go on his mission with his family present. Afterwards the stake president turned to the missionary's younger brother, just a couple years away from serving his own mission, and asked what he thought about what just took place. The younger brother lifted his arm and pointing at his brother simply said "I want to be like him". This hit me in a very powerful way as I wondered if I have been the type of missionary Harrison and Tawny, both not far from serving their own missions, can point at and say they want to be like me. Tears came to my eyes as I realized how much I love my siblings and want to be an example for them.

- As missionaries we are really serving a mission within a mission if we are serving valiantly. The mission I am serving in New Mexico is making it possible for me to serve an equally important mission at home, presently and in the future.

- "And again, I say unto you that the enemy in the secret chambers seeketh your lives."- D&C 38:28... Our enemy is seeking to destroy our lives in the secret chambers of our homes, apartments, and anywhere else we feel no one is watching us. If there are things we do not feel comfortable with those we love seeing us do then we should not do them 'in secret' either. We need to search our hearts and find what we need to do, or not do, to unsure our enemy can not destroy us.

- As soon as we find someone who is willing to listen to us we are at war with Satan.

- Being a missionary is partly to help others change and come closer to Christ, but also to help me change.

- When we do something we know is wrong we are saying "Thank thee God for telling me what is wrong, but I will disregard you and openly rebel and sin". When the Holy Ghost prompts us to make a change he will also give us the strength we need to make that change.

- We need to be and look happy! We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ so why would any of us look like 'pickle suckers'???

I wish I could go on for a few more pages of what I learned but I just don't have enough time to do that right now. Out of all I learned at training what may be the most impactful is HOW he trained and taught. He is so close to the spirit that it seemed he knew all of our thoughts and feelings, and he paid attention to that while teaching us. There were so many times he would stop and say that there was someone who needed to stand and bare their testimony on what he had just taught, and then when that missionary bore their testimony it was powerful every time. There were times a missionary would raise their hand to go up front and bear their testimony after Elder Malm said someone needed to and he would say "no, you are not the one I am referring to", and then the right missionary would walk to the front. He called a sister to the front of everyone and said "I sense you are a shy person" to which she agreed (Remember, this is in front of all of us). Then he told her, "you are called on a mission to talk to people, so please bear your testimony of why that is important". She bore a wonderful testimony and then he told her that she must now become a talkative missionary and then let her sit back down. He did the same to a missionary who tends to be a little unhappy and helped him to commit to becoming the most positive missionary in the mission. I need to be that powerful at discerning and serving others!

Well, this has become a very long letter and I have not even been able to tell you anything else that happened this past week. There was so much more, but Ill have to end here...

I love you!

Elder David Inman