Sooo Happy!

Greetings!!! This has been an amazing week and I have so much to tell you, so I will do my best to type the speed of light so I still have time to email President Miller. To start of with I got food poisoning, I think, for the first time in my life. I was on an exchange, so I had an elder come to my area for training, and I felt great that night. I woke up around 2am feeling horrible and freezing so I turned down the a/c and tried to go back to sleep. A while later I was still freezing and shivering badly so I turned over to turn the a/c down again but this time I noticed the other elder was not even sleeping in his covers so it couldn't be that cold. I got out of bed and realized it was warm in our apartment and then almost fell over because my stomach and my head hurt so much. I rushed to the restroom and spent the next hour throwing up and then got a blessing from my exchange companion, since he was already up from the disturbing noises coming from me. The blessing said that I would be able to heal as I worked so I wasn't worried about having to stay in bed. I went back to bed and when I woke up I felt just as bad, and throughout the day I was so weak and nauseous that I had difficulty staying on my feet for to long. The amazing thing is that in our teaching appointments, which we had a lot of, I felt amazing! As soon as we sat down to teach my mind was clear and my body was strong and the lessons went amazing, and then within a minutes of leaving I was sick again. I felt fine the next day, but it was a great experience to see the power of priesthood blessings. We are being incredibly blessed with our efforts in our own area and in the zone. Elder Karren and I are amazed by how many people are basically asking us to teach them lately and neither of us has ever had such a large teaching pool. It seems like everywhere we go the Lord is placing someone in our path who is ready to receive the restored gospel into their life. I hear about how difficult others missions are and how many people yell and throw things at missionaries, and that they will tract for hours without meeting anyone who is willing to listen, but I have experienced very little of them. There are so few people that have said no to us lately, and almost everyone we talk to loves and and wants to be around us. We have people who offer to buy us sushi just so that can be near us and and leave feeling amazing, and others have told us they see halo's over us and want to know why. Everywhere we go it seems people notice us and wave happily in our direction. To end I wanted to share an experience I had in church this last Sunday. It was mentioned at the pulpit how we need to forgive our parents for their mistakes and give them a break because they are not perfect. He continued by saying that most of us grow up thinking our parents are super heroes and then when we realize differently, which he says happens at about 19 or 20, we are let down. Just because we realize our parents are not super human does not mean that we have to love them any less is what he said. I pondered that for a while and realized he was wrong, at least for my parents. When I was in high school I thought my parents were confused about certain things and I thought I knew so many ways I could do better, but since going on my mission I have learned how super human they really are. I have never met parents that are more valiant or consecrated as my own, and I dream of being able to raise my own children as they have. Tears came to my eyes as it hit me that right now is the only time in my life that I feel I carry the spirit as powerfully as my dad. I suddenly felt scared for the time that I get released and my mantle is taken away because my light will not be as bright, and my dad will not get to fully see who I have become as a missionary. I love my mission and feel it is going by to quickly. I look forward to when I get to spend time with my family and friends again, and of course have big dreams for my future, but this is the best I have ever felt and I don't want to leave it. I never could have guessed how much I would love these people who I am called to serve, or who I would grow into as I served them. Love, Elder Inman