fun stuff

1st- Saturday I caught a little bug at training and was not able to make it to our dinner appointment because I didn't want to get their kids sick. We called to let the family know and assured them we were fine, but they still insisted on bringing us some food anyway. They ended up bringing us a gourmet meal in a box :-) Such a cool family! 2nd and 3rd- Elder Davenport, my new companion, and me. He is 6' 4" so I look extra short in these pictures!

Hey Everyone,

This was another amazing week! I do not have much time to write today though because our zone is getting together for a missionary Turkey Bowl game, which of course is not something I can miss. Early this week we had leadership training, which lasts for two days, so my companion stayed in our area and worked with another brand new missionary whose companion also had to be at training. It was a hard learning experience, made harder by a mistake I made the second day. Halfway through training I reached into my pocket and realized I had forgotten to leave them the keys to their car, and I had no way to fix it. They ended up borrowing bikes and helmets from a member(my companion's helmet was a girl's) and spending the majority of both their days tracting and having little success. They tracted 6 hours their second day and did not find a single promising investigator! I will be the first to admit tracting is not a very effective way of finding, but I have never knocked doors for that long and not found someone and taught a lesson. Its a great experience for a new missionary though :-)

Sunday was our stake conference and I realized a little bit more how much I love being out here and being a missionary. I have served in two wards in this stake and have been on exchanges in many of the other wards, which has given me the opportunity of meeting a lot of members here. I know so many more people, many of which I have grown close to, then I have ever known in any of the stakes I have lived in throughout my life. I look forward to being a normal member at home much less then I had anticipated... In the conference our mission president talked about the 'purple cows' of the church, meaning the parts of our church that stand out and draw attention, and are then spread through regular conversation. Things like temples, FHE, the Book of Mormon, and missionaries. I have grown to love being a 'purple cow' so much that I am not sure what I will do when people don't turn and stare as we walk into stores anymore. The things many missionaries detest like strange stares from people, random yells from people's car windows, crazy questions in Walmart, and knocking on strangers doors to share a message are what I have fallen in love with.

Well, Gotta get going...

Love,
Elder Inman

Transfers

Greetings :-)

Tomorrow is transfers and this time they are doing things a little different then usual. Usually when we get transfer news on Saturday night they tell us where we are going, who our new companion is, and really anything else we want to know. This time all they told us is who is staying and who is leaving, and we will find out all the rest when we get to the transfer site. So right now all we know is that Elder Evans is leaving, which the ward and myself are pretty sad about, and that I am training a new missionary for my last two transfers in Rivers Edge. I am sad that Elder Evans has to leave after only one transfer here, especially considering how much this ward has turned around, but am also excited to train for my last couple months in the mission. I have had some funny scenes from the Best Two Years go through my head since I have found out about transfers, lol.

Well, I need to take my computer time today to transfer pictures with Elder Evens before he is gone so I will share an experience and then call it quits for today.

- This past week we took one of our ward missionaries out to work with us, who happens to be one of the coolest people out here. His name is Oneman and he is half Japanese, half Indian, and he joined the church just over two years ago. We had planned to knock some doors with him and visit some potentials and then we were going to separate so that we could go visit a referral from a member in the ward. For some reason we changed our plans as we were about to separate and instead brought him to visit the referral with us. We spent 20 minutes on her doorstep talking about the church and family but she told us that even if we do represent the one true church she does not want to sit down with us, or read the Book of Mormon, because if she found out that it was true it would pull her away from her family, who are all staunch Catholics. Elder Evans and I testified to her that when she found out this is Christ's church she could then lead her family to it as well and they would become stronger together. We taught about eternal families and promised greater happiness in this life and the next. Again she told us that she was not interested and was done talking. We had done all we could, I thought, so I began to thank her for her time and offer any service if she needed it. All of a sudden Oneman cut me off and began teaching her about the Book of Mormon. As he taught the spirit overcame all of us and I could see him discerning all of her thoughts and feelings. He told her that both of them were Lamanites, as she was also a native, and that they are a stiff necked and stubborn people. He told her that the Book of Mormon was written by their ancestors and that as Lamanites they need to stop dragging their feet and start becoming who they are meant to be. For the next 20 minutes he testified to her in such a powerful way that both of them, and myself, were in tears and she asked us if she could read the book. We prayed with her and walked away feeling like we were floating, and then went to tell the member about our experience. As we related the visit to the member who referred her to us she told us that as we went to visit her friend she called her kids in to pray for us. In her prayer she asked that Oneman would be given the words to speak! This church has to be true!! I love being a missionary and working with such faithful and powerful people :-)

Love,
Elder Inman

Last Week of the Transfer

Hola,

Can you believe we are already at the end of the transfer, and that next time I write home I will know transfer news? I feel like I was just transferred into this ward so its a strange feeling to realize it has already been more then a month. Elder Evans and I have been so incredibly blessed as we have worked here, and this has been a transfer that I will always be thankful for. The members in this ward are absolutely amazing! Our MTC night with the young men was a lot of fun and it got me excited to work with Harrison, Tawny, and Cody for their upcoming missions. This coming Sunday, Fast and Testimony Sunday, the entire ward will be doing a special fast for missionary work and then for the following 39 days a different family will be fasting for missionary work every day. I am probably the most excited out of anyone because when this happened in Belen the work rocketed, and it has not significantly slowed down since. I will be pretty happy if this ends up being where I spent the final months of my mission. But I guess in all reality I will be happy anywhere I spend the last part of my mission because I just love being out here no matter where I am at.

Early this week we were knocking on doors and at one of the doors I noticed a little plant growing in a pot with tiny red, orange, and yellow chilies(knows as peppers outside of New Mexico). I was not sure what they were but instantly wanted to try one, which made me want them to answer the door even more so I could ask them. They didn't answer. But I didn't let this deter me, although looking back I think I probably should have. I grabbed a ripe looking one from the soil and took a bite out of it as we went to our next door(right as I begin to think that I have become more mature and smart, lol). It lit my mouth up after just a few seconds and it took a lot of effort on my part not to let tears flow as we talked to the next couple people with the burning causing my tongue to throb and my eyes to water. We went back to that home a few days later and this time they answered and the first thing I asked was what type of chili he was growing, which made him smile and begin talking right away. Turns out it is a Tia chili and is not usually eaten by itself because of its heat. He gave us a bag of them to cook with :-) Then we were able to talk to him about what we were there for and he gave us "permission to work on his soul while he works on our wallets". Turns out he knows a good amount about our church because one of his close friends is a member, and he knows a lot about missionaries and how we live while serving. He said that he would love for us to teach him and in return he will teach us ho to be successful in the business world when we finish our time as missionaries. He is going to be a really fun guy to teach.

Well, I know this is a short one but we have a pretty packed day so I need to take off. Love you guys!!

Elder Inman