Hecktic & Powerful

missionary working hands...
Powerful
(from June 6th)

Hi everyone, Our stake had an amazing miracle take place yesterday! We are in a record setting drought right now and many people here are worried. I have been told over and over that they don't know the last time this place has ever gone this many days without water fall of any kind worth measuring. So, as a stake they fasted for rain yesterday and during testimony meeting many members got up and bore testimony that they knew it would rain very soon. That same night, last night, we had an incredible storm come through with a beautiful lightning show and pouring rain fall that caused the streets to flood! It is amazing to see what happends when the Lord's people ask for a miracle in faith. They did all they could do and then stood still to watch the power of God. We had a great week with our work as well. I had several experiences that strengthened my faith and made me feel so happy knowing that I am able to hear the Spirit's promptings t

o me: - We got home a little late earlier in the week and were in a hurry to do our nightly planning and fall asleep. As we walked up the stairs we said hello to our neighbor and went inside. Our neighbor is a really nice guy, but we have never invited him to meet with us because we assumed all of the missionaries before us had already done so. As we were praying to begin our planning I felt a strong impression to go talk to him and invite h

im to meet with us. It was past 9:30 and he had gone inside so I wasn't real sure about knocking on his door right after we said goodnight, and then out of no where ask him to take the lessons. When the prayer ended I knew we needed to talk to him so all three of us walked out and knocked on his door. He answered looking a little confused at first but then invited us in excitingly and agreed to start meeting with us. - Saturday morning I got one of the more odd promptings I have received on my mission. It was to go through our area book and start texting all the former investigators to invite them to a baptism that was happening later that day. I thought I would end up texting ten or so of the more recent ones but I ended up sending out well over 100 texts to people I have never met, and until today my thumbs were still sore. None of them were able to make it to the baptism. But something amazing came from it anyway because from those texts we have 7-10 more people who are willing to start meeting with us again and some appointments are already set up. There were also numbers that now belong to someone else and after talking to them they agreed to meet with the missionaries and we sent those referrals to other missionaries in our zone. That hour and a half of prompted texting helped us find more people then a transfers worth of tracting! - I will share one more and then I need to hurry and email President Miller my weekly email. This happened yesterday after all of our church meetings as we were going to change out of our suits. I was really wanting to find someone else to start teaching that day, but we had almost no time to go finding because of all our meetings. As we were abou

t to walk into our apartment I noticed another one of our neighbors pull up who I had previously had a short conversation with. He had told me that he would invite us over some time but he worked a lot and has not had the opportunity. I yelled out hi to him and then continued walking away. I felt that I should turn around and yell out that we were still waiting for him to invite us over. My companions looked a little worried because they have still not got used to my random approaches to people. To their surprise, and frankly my own, he said we could come over right then and we went and taught him before our next appointment. It still amaz

es me how

many people the Lord has prepared all around us! Love, Elder Inman

(this weeks)

Hectic

Hey everyone,

I was really excited to write this week because so much has happened. I was busy finishing up my third paragraph when suddenly something weird happened and I lost everything I had written!! So now my time is running really short and I still need write President about the week...

Here is a quick overview of what I wrote:

- Elder Norquist is back from the Washington mission so now him and Elder Webb have taken over Rio Grande. He is really excited to be back in this mission and seems like an amazing missionary.

- Because Elder Webb and Elder Norquist will be on bikes and our apartment is right by there area we gave it to them and had to move into a new apartment. A good amount of the past few days, Sunday Excluded, has been spent scrounging up furniture and other necessities, and getting it ready to live in. We are almost done.

- We were blessed with incredible success last week with our finding and teaching. It almost seems like God is sending people to us asking to take the lessons, which is great feeling to have. Last week we actually had someone ask if they could cook us dinner if we would teach her. After I inquired about her cooking skills I gladly accepted the invitation :-)

- The wards I serve in are amazing!!!

Well that's it for this week. Sorry it is so short, but I had no choice this time. Thank you for your prayers and faith, because my mission is amazing!!

Love,

Elder Inman

Good Morning

This is a part member family on the road to being eternal! It took quite a few missionaries working with her but the baptism turned out beautiful. The shirt was an inside joke :-)

Good morning! (written May 31st) This past week has been so wearing, but I had a great time with it. I look forward to the day that I can sleep in every couple months, lol! We had a lot of opportunities for service last week, and since there is now 3 of us in our companionship we were able to get even more accomplished while working. Things like showers, making breakfast, and personal space have suffered, but it was great to have more help while cutting wood and digging ditches. With summer in full swing it seems like there is constantly someone who needs some help outside with something, and those lead to great teaching opportunities. This morning we went to mow a ladies yard and our lawn mower didn't work, so then we got to borrow the neighbors and talk to them about what we do as well. People are so much more likely to listen to our message when they see us pulling weeds then knocking on doors. Sundays are even more crazy now too. We start the day with going to ward council at 8:30, then church at 10, 11, and noon, usually finishing up at about 4 and only being able to make a fraction of our church meetings. And to add to the hectic schedule each of the wards we work in meets in a different building, all on very different sides of town. It is a lot of fun though. This past Sunday we got to attend Dona Ana, the new ward we are serving, and the people there are great. Our bishop even texts us regularly to make sure the work is going smoothly. Since it was the 5th Sunday our last meeting was combined and the lesson was on working with the handicapped. There is a very large percentage of handicapped members in this ward, physical and mental, so there were some really great insights and lessons that I was able to learn. We have another full week of service, finding, teaching, and then training other missionaries so I better close this one up and get going. Please continue your prayers because I know they are helping those I am serving as well as myself and the other missionaries. I feel there are many times that the only reason I am able to continue this work with energy is because of the many prayers going out to us. Love, Elder Inman

Transfers! (Written May 26th)

Hey y'all, We received transfer news Saturday night and I got the best of both worlds, which in this case I didn't think was going to be possible. Last transfer I was working in Rio Grande and the University ward. I love working in both of them, and the work is progressing at an amazing rate so I felt that Rio Grande was ready for its own set of missionaries. With how much is happening we have not had enough time to focus on them as they need, which meant that the area would be split and I would lose Rio Grande if they got their own set. On the other hand, there are several people who I am working with really closely in that ward that I don't feel I am ready to leave by being transferred out. So this is how it ended up working perfect, further proof to me that God is in charge of transfers: Rio Grande recieved their own set up missionaries, but one of the missionaries is getting over some health issues and has been serving in the Washington mission to help him get better faster, and he won't be returning to this mission until mid June most likely. So this means that his companion, Elder Webb, is going to work with us in a tri-companionship until the other missionary is able to come down and we will cover Rio Grande, University, and Dona Ana. It is going to be a lot of work but I am so excited for this coming transfer! Most of this week was a lot of fun. With that guy advertising the end of the world all over the place we have been able to comfort a lot of people concerning last weekend (the day the world was supposed to end). It is amazing to me that so many people will hear some guy on TV or see him on a billboard and then put so much trust in his opinion of when the apocalypse is going to be, yet we have a prophet who speaks to us on a constant basis and most will ignore his council. They will rush to the store to by candles and food in preparation for the upcoming date some guy concocted from studying the bible with math, but most still will not prepare a food storage as commanded by a man speaking the word of God, or invite their neighbors to meet with missionaries like they have been told over and over in Conference (I had to put a missionary call out). I have wondered so many times why people are still clawing after 'a form of godliness but denying the power thereof' when it is so easy to find the peace that comes from being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I hope and pray that people will learn from this fraud who claimed revelation of when the world will end rather then decided that since he was wrong then it will just be better to turn towards the growing trend of atheism because their is no reliance on divine guidance. Well time is short again so I better sign out... Love, Elder Inman

short

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry this email is going to be so short. This week is transfer planning for President Miller, so my report to him this week was longer then usual. This was an amazing week though! Because of how close my time is to expiring I will just jump right in by telling a great experience, and then as many more as I can fit in the next couple minutes...

We were at the family's home again that I told everyone about a couple weeks ago this Sunday for dinner and a lesson. They are the family that bore testimony of our powerful teaching and spirit during testimony meeting. I don't remember if I said anything about their neighbor though. She had been over for our Easter lesson with them and accepted the invitation to meet with us and read from the Book of Mormon. We are very close to her as well as the family, so meeting again was no big deal for them since they love having us over. This time we all sat around the table and began by reading through the introduction to the Book of Mormon, and taught bits and pieces of the restoration along the way. When we related the first vision we brought out the pamphlet with the picture of it and the spirit entered strongly.

She looked a bit confused after we finished with the vision and asked why it showed two personages standing above Joseph Smith if they are one, referring of course to the false concept of the Trinity. We explained that they are not one in body but in purpose, and I told her a little about my dad and his questioning of that concept growing up, and that he is now an active strong member of the church. At this point she looked like she was going to cry and she grabbed the pamphlet, held it tightly to her chest, and told us that this means more to her then she can explain. She told us she knows why we are meeting with her right now in her life, and that our teaching is answering all of her questions and bringing her greater joy. She excitingly looked back at the Book of Mormon and told us that we need to keep reading because she needs to find out what else it holds. I don't remember ever seeing anyone as excited as she was at that time! Sadly we were already late for cerfew and had to tell her that we needed to pray with her and then leave. She told us that would be fine because she was going to stay there and read it with the family since she was not ready to stop :-)

It is amazing to see how the Spirit prepares people for this message and then testifies so powerfully of its truthfulness. We were also able to teach a very humble man from Central Africa who by the end of the lesson bore testimony to us that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, and told us how thankful he is for the revelations he received for us. He does not live within our boundaries so we are transferring him to some other elders, but it was great seeing his excitement as well. And earlier in the week we had dinner with some members in the University ward who had a friend come over to meet us. We taught the first part of the restoration and he is wanting to meet with us again on Tuesday to learn more. The Lord has prepared the hearts of so many people, and it is so much fun meeting and teaching them!

Love,
Elder Inman

2 weeks in one...again

(written May 9th)

Hola Everyone,

This week I was able to Skype home and see my family gathered around our dining room table to talk to me for a few minutes, so I am basically on cloud 9 right now. It was amazing to see all of the changes that have taken place in such a short amount of time, with the girls hair growing out so much, Enoch talking (a little) and counting, Harrison looking more built then ever, and just how grown up everyone seems. I love my mission so much and would not want to be anywhere else, but also look forward to being with my family again. Activities like family movie night, FHE, Chuckie Cheeses with Danni girl, going to the YMCA with dad and mom, scripture study in the morning, jumping on the trampoline while its wet and soapy, celebrating birthdays, taking Tawny and Harrison out with friends, and apple smear are very treasured memories that make me so thankful to have an eternal family. Just imagine the mega group dates that can happen when I get back and Tawny, Harrison, Eve and Aurora are all able to date (plus Cody and Ashley, lol)!

So now that I am done talking about home I guess I can do a little updating on life in the mission :-) Elder Karren and I are absolutely loving working here in Las Cruces, and we both agree that it is one of the best places to be in the mission. We had Mother's day dinner at the Bluth's home and ended up outside cooking marshmallows over a fire and discussing with their mom and neighbor some of the beliefs of Latter Day Saints. Their neighbor accepted a Book of Mormon and promised to read a good amount of it before we come over this coming week to talk about it with her and the the Bluth's mom. They are one of the coolest families I have met on my mission and am so excited for them.

We are meeting with a guy from college who has not attended church in 3 years, and is now in the hospital not knowing what is causing him immense pain. We have given him a blessing and will be going back today or tomorrow to see how he is doing. We are also working with our down stairs neighbor (who loves to throw some pretty noisy parties), a girl at a nutrition shop close to us, a guy who is dating someone in our ward, a couple who just had a baby (2 nights ago), a guy who is preparing for re-baptism after he left the church 12 years ago, some guys who we met at a member dinner a week ago, a girl who has a brother in Utah that is a member and referred her to us, a guy on the cheerleader team at NMSU, an amazing part-member family who we have grown very close to, two guys working their way back to activity, a members neighbor, and a few other people. The work is going so well and I wish I could sit here for hours and tell you all about each one of them and how incredible they all are! But of course, my time is already out and I have to get going.

Have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Inman

(Written on May 2nd)

Howdy ya'll,

This has been such a wearing and fun week as a missionary! We had the opportunity to do something a little unusual with a recent convert and an investigator this last Saturday. Elder Karren and I went to the college regional finals rodeo :-) It was so much fun, and the recent convert we went to support took 1st in the region for bareback bronc riding, and his brother did the best for the night in bull riding (this is more for mom- a girl rode a 16.07 in barrels to win it). Plus, it gave us a lot of time to talk to his father in law, who we are teaching right now on a consistent basis. We were also able to take time today, preparation day, to go golfing with them. Missionary work is fun in so many ways!

We had an incredible experience this last Sunday as well when a sister bore her testimony. She is a convert to the church, married with 2 kids, and her mom lives with them and is not a member. We go over periodically to have dinner with the family and share a message, and we have been able to build up a really good relationship with the entire family, including her mother. We were at their home for Easter and had an amazing lesson with them, their neighbor, and a good family friend, in which we testified many times of the Book of Mormonand the reality of the Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit bore strong witness and everyone in the room felt the power of our message.

When she stood up to bare her testimony in sacrament meeting she told everyone that she was going to wait until relief society to do it but realized two people really needed to hear it, and then said those two people were the missionaries. She told everyone about us teaching in their home and testified of how powerful our teaching is, as well as how much they feel our love. She then told everyone that if they have not had us in their homes to teach then they need to change that right away! She also said in her testimony that since our Easter lesson with them her mom has brought us up in all of their conversations, as well as all of her phone calls to other friends and family, and that she keeps asking when we are coming back over. After she finished her testimony three other people bore testimony and talked about how great of missionaries we are, which led to someone coming up to us after the meeting to tell us that she is ready for us to teach her non member sister (who we didn't know before).

Then in the University ward a sister came up to us and said that her boyfriend, who we have shared a couple messages with recently, said that he thinks he wants to become a Mormon and asked to take the lessons.

We had Zone Training this last week and we felt prompted to train on the joy of missionary work, with or without success measured by baptisms. The training went amazing, and I have seen even more how much joy really is part of this great work. The field is white and already to harvest, and we are being blessed so much for thrusting in our sickles!!

Love,
Elder Inman

(For the next couple of posts I'll include Elder Inman's address in case someone wants to send him a birthday wish ((July 13th - he'll be 21!)) he says he doesn't need anything, but he'd a Happy Birthday sentiment!)

Elder David K. Inman
New Mexico Albuquerque Mission
4400 Presidential Dr. NE Ste. E
Albuquerque, NM. 87109

Email: david.inman@myldsmail.net

Quenton L. Cook!

Hola,

This was an incredible week, and one that will never be forgotten. Our entire mission had the blessing of coming together to hear the words of an Apostle, 2 members of the Seventy, and a member of the Presiding Bishopric. I might spell their names wrong but we spent an hour with Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder Costa, Elder Keele, and Bishop McMullin. There are several things that stood out to me that I would like to share:

- Elder Cook made an amazing promise to us. He started by saying that he was making the unique promise as a Special Witness of Christ. He said that there were some of us who have siblings struggling with activity, parents getting ready to lose a home to foreclosure, and other trials occuring at home, and that we may wonder why we are serving a mission instead of going home to help those we love. He then gave us a blessing that our family will receive greater blessings for our service as a missionary and there is no where else we could help them more. He continued the blessing by adding that not only our family, but everyone we love will begin receiving greater blessings because of our missionary service. And then he finished it by powerfully saying that for the rest of our lives everyone we come in contact with will be blessed as well.

- Elder Costa taught me something that I did not know. He testified that the United Sates is the BEST and MOST fruitful part of the Lords vineyard, and then added that missionary work here is easy. He said that this is where he would have wanted to be called on a mission.

- Bishop McMullin taught us missionaries that we are out here to share a unique message with the world, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. If we do not testify of the first prophet of this restoration we are not fulfilling our call.

- Elder Cook taught us that while testifying of the prophet Joseph Smith to investigators is crucial, it is even more important when teaching less actives.

- Elder Cook mentioned that a missionary is responsible for lifting the spirituality of the entire ward they serve in, and that we should be such good examples that more young men want to serve missions.

Love!

Elder Inman

Tough one

Hello again,

Well, the Lord saw fit to try us this week, which I am confident means there are some amazing blessings just around the corner. I do not want to go into detail about the trials because some of them probably should not be posted on the internet, but it was one of the more spiritually trying weeks of my mission thus far. Sunday afternoon I felt very worn and wanted to find a place alone, which is impossible as a missionary, and just cry for a little while because of things that happened with investigators that I really care about. I started being very critical of myself and tried to criticize every thing I did to find out why certain things had happened but I kept running into a wall because it seemed out of my control. I have worked hard and been dedicated, but I could not help trying to root the the sad events to something I had done. Finally that feeling faded and I knew that everything that had happened was in the Lords hands. I felt peace wash over me as I sat and listened to our Stake's Easter Music production, and reflected on the events of Christ's life.

There were some really great things that happened this week as well though. I got my new companion and he seems like a great missionary. It is taking our ward's a little while to get used to seeing me with another missionary, but so far it seems they are warming up to him quickly. We had some amazing experiences that are helping both of us grow and become better missionaries. He just hit his 18 month mark so this is a great time in his mission to have trying experiences to test what type of missionary he is, as well as who he wants to be going home in 6 months. I look forward to this coming transfer with him as we learn from each other and bless the lives of many people in Las Cruces!

Love,

Elder Inman

(from April 11th)
Bitter Sweet

Hola everyone,

We got transfer news this morning and my companion Elder Yardley is leaving to Abq again :-( We were doing so well together, and in the area, so I am not real sure why he is being transferred away after just 3 transfers in this area. The University ward is doing so well right now that we have almost no time to work in the other ward because of all the teaching appointments we have each day, along with the training we are doing with missionaries in our zone. Our investigator pool has grown by at least 5 fold in the last transfer compared to many transfers before. But I am confident the transfer is inspired so I look forward to whatever is in the future. My new companion, who I will be picking up on Wednesday, is Elder Karren(who I know nothing about). I will be training him how to be a new Zone Leader, and Im sure he is very excited about where he is coming considering his very first half day here is packed with appointments during every hour of the day, and the zone is doing great.

This was another week of miracles and a lot of fun being a full time servant of the Lord. For the first time in this stake, and mission for all I know, we are holding a stake training for all ward mission leaders and missionaries combined, so we spent some time this week preparing for that with the high counselor over missionary work. We also hit a new high for new investigators in this zone and stories of miracle findings are spreading to create even greater excitement. The weather is great, we are teaching lots of amazing people, members are coming back to activity, miracles are happening about every day, and there is no where I would rather be. This is such a great feeling!

Love,

Elder Inman

GC Weekend!!!

Hello from the Windy City :-)

I am finding out that spring in Las Cruces is extremely windy, but I still wouldn't trade our 80 degree, windy, days for the icy rain I hear many others are getting right now. Plus, General Conference marked the end of suit season, so now I get to enjoy the weather without a suit jacket. Its amazing how much spending some time in the sun can help lighten moods and put smiles on peoples faces, which makes meeting people on the street much more enjoyable.

This has been an amazing week since I lost wrote. Since there are so many stories I would like to share Ill just go ahead and start:

It has been recommended that we take any extra time we have during the evenings, when we have NOTHING else to do, to go night tracting. Two weeks ago we had one such evening so we went out knocking, which is not something we regularly do anymore. We drove out into the country side, picked a random street, and began. We knocked for a good amount of time with no success, meaning no one even opened the door or showed any signs of life, and then we saw a couple people walking down the street. We approached them and had a fun conversation, but they showed little real interest in our message. One of them said that he had taken the lessons long ago when his girlfriend was a member and she has since "married in the temple for eternity and then divorced". Before we left we asked if we could come by on Sunday to drop off a video we had talked about, and they accepted. That Sunday was unusually busy and we forgot about them, probably because they showed little promise in actually listening to the message. Yesterday after Conference we rememberd them and decided to at least drop off the video, and they surprised us by inviting us in and telling us they will watch the video this week and would like for us to come back next week to talk about it with them.

Another great first lesson happened this week with a young girl in college here. When we first knocked on her door she answered looking slightly unhappy that we were standing there. My companion started in with the usual intro about who we were when all of a sudden I felt strongly that we needed to do this approach differently. I cut in and began talking to her about her high school basketball team, college, and a couple other friendly topics. After a few minutes she had visibly relaxed and I told her that we have an amazing message to share and that we would love to stop by some time and talk to her about it. She accepted and set up a return appointment, and we taught her for the first time last Wednesday. She is friends with a member in our ward and he told us that she wanted to close the door on us from the get go but decided that would be mean and left it open out of courtesy, and that we were just " way to nice to say no to". In our lesson she confirmed that about the only reason she invited us back was because of how nice we seemed :-)

I wish I had more time to continue telling you about everything happening here and with my mission, but there are so many other things I need to do today so I better close this one out. I am praying for you, and am very thankful for your prayers on my behalf!

Love,

Elder Inman

Temple Trip!
Hi everyone,

I meant to upload some pictures today but I forgot my camera so I guess you will have to wait for that. A good friend I am teaching in the University ward looked me up on her phone to facebook friend me and showed me my profile picture so now I am in an even bigger hurry to get some new pictures sent off! Well as always, time is short so Ill go ahead and tell you about as much of my week as I can.

Yesterday we had another mission temple trip!! It was an incredible experience and now I am even more revved up to go forward in this great work. President Shumway, the temple president and past mission president and general authority, stood up and spoke to us about the wonderful blessings available to our family through our service. I thought over some of the miracles I have heard about from home and felt very thankful for my service so far, and that I still have another year to help my family receive even more :-)

There have been some very trying experiences I have gone through lately and stress seemed to be ebbing away at me so I prayed for help. I have still loved my mission, but stress was having some bad effects and I was hoping for direction on how to rid myself of it. I felt prompted to take the following week and simply thank God for all of my blessings in my prayers and not ask for anything more, so that's what I did (minus 4 or 5 exceptions for my investigators). At first it was really hard and I cheated a little. I would say "thank you for helping me tomorrow" instead of "please help me tomorrow". But as the week continued and I pondered on my prayers throughout the day, I realized more fully how much I am really thankful for and how blessed I am. Praying like that for a week brought me so much more joy and the things I had been stressing so much about seemed to fall into place. There is so much God is doing for me and those I love that I seem to look over in my day to day life.

We ended up spending 15-20 hours throughout the week serving that lady I talked about in my last letter. She had been falling really far behind and we were the answer to her prayer to get her pecan fields irrigated. She is a little, old Chinese lady who is attempting to attend school full time, take care of her grand-daughter, and grow 120 pecan trees by herself. Two days before we got the call to help her we found a Chinese Book of Mormon in our apartment and she was very happy to receive it. We are also going out to her farm with one of the top agriculture professors in the nation, who we are good friends with, to give her a little more guidance.

Time is short :-)

I love you all!

Elder David Inman