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

Awesomeness

Hey everyone,

Awesomeness is the perfect word to describe this past week! The work is going amazing right now and I feel so blessed to be a part of the miracles that are happening here. Before coming to Rivers Edge I had spent three months collecting key indicators from the zone and seeing this area consistently perform at the lowest level. The missionaries serving here had grown depressed over the lack of success and had, for the most part, given up hope of ever seeing it flourish. That is why I was so surprised that when I got the call to transfer into Rivers Edge I felt excitement and hope. Over the past 20 months of my mission I had been prepared to come here with a good attitude as I had the opportunity to see so many other wards pick up and become very success areas in the mission. However, the success we are enjoying is beyond what I had expected this early into the work, which is of course due to the Lord and this amazing ward. Our first week here we taught a total of three lessons (an improvement from zero the week before we came), and then the week after we taught nine. We were very excited about teaching nine lessons because our initial goal was to have an average of ten lessons per week in the first month, which was a high goal considering an average that high has not happened in any of the records we have of this area over the past couple of years. We were sure we could still accomplish our goal since we were starting only one under, and our ward leaders were enthusiastic about the progress. This last week we taught a total of fifteen lessons and had five new investigators, which is good for just about any area in the mission!!! With the Lord our stretching goal has become a small stepping stone in what He has planned for Rivers Edge.

The ward is recognizing our hard work and helping us in anyway they can. Last week we had members out working with us on four different occasions, sometimes for many hours at a time. One of my main focuses when it comes to working with the ward is in taking the priest age young men out to work with us. When Elder Cook came to our mission he taught that one of our responsibilities as full time missionaries is to help the upcoming missionaries prepare, which I had not been aware of prior to his visit. In this ward the young men come out working with us every week helping in about every aspect of the work. They teach, go tracting, give and visit referrals, eat at members homes, and attend baptisms with us so that they get a good feel for what their own missions will be like. In 2 weeks we will be attending Young Men's and putting on a MTC for a night to help further their readiness by showing how to use Preach My Gospel, answering questions, and role playing with them as investigators. I am so thankful for the time I was able to spend with missionaries in my own ward before coming on my mission so I hope to do the same for these great young men.

Yesterday after church, which gets out at 4pm, we took a young man out to spend the rest of the night working with us. Our first appointment fell through so we ended up showing up to dinner 20 minutes early. Since we had extra time we decided to start at the end of their block and knock our way to their door, something we do often when we are early to appointments. We went from being 20 minutes early to showing up 10 minutes late because of a great man that we met knocking. He was wearing a Vietnam hat and his cars had Marine stickers on it so right away I thought of Roy in Belen, who has become one of the most important people I know outside my family. This man walked out of his door and very kindly told us that he had lost his belief in God many years ago and had no use of what we were teaching. I asked him what had caused him to lose his faith and his reply was a very difficult one to listen to without tears rolling down my cheeks. He told me that if there was a God then what took place at Vietnam would never have happened. He told us of the memories that will never stop haunting him, and that have caused him to go through therapy for the past 40 years with little progress. Dreams that make him wake up and keep him from lying in bed for fear of what might enter into his mind so instead he leaves his wife in bed and wanders around his home in an effort to distract from his own thoughts. He has had to watch young children die in war, some of them from bullets fired from his own gun. There were times he would need to, by order, take an infant found on board a ship, wrap him in a blanket, and drop him overboard to limit the risk of catching the infants illness. And now he feels the guilt of having a family and home while so many of his fellow soldiers died horrible deaths in battle all around him, even though he knows he should not feel guilt for that. He attended his son's wedding and was overwhelmed as he thought of his friends years ago, while his son's age, that left their pregnant wives to go fight and never return home. We can not say that God is responsible for all the good in the world and not give him the same credit for the horrible things that happen as well, because that would mean that an omnipotent being watches it happen and does nothing about it. Therefore, God can not be real, and if He is why would someone worship such a being!

What was I supposed to say to this man? I have never felt a portion of his pain or seen a glimpse of the horrific things that took place all around him and still follow him through his dreams and memories. I know that Christ has felt all that he has and more, but this man had given up on Christ long ago. I felt like giving up, thanking him for his time, and walking away because it seemed impossible for me to help him, but I felt so much love for him that walking away was an even more impossible task. I bore my testimony that I knew those children were brought to a loving God. He said that he had to believe they were taken somewhere wonderful or he could not live with himself. Then I shared with him my experience with Roy a year prior and what transformation had taken place within him as he accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I asked him if I could leave a scripture for him to read and he said that he would read it. I opened the scriptures to Alma 14 and explained what had been taking place as well as the question that Amulek asked as he watched the woman and children burn in the fire, and I promised him that as he read he would feel the Spirit's promptings. I left our number and told him to call us to talk about the feelings he has while reading, and to talk about anything else that he feels would help him. All of us felt the Spirit and he said that he thinks he will call us because he feels something we have to share with him will help. I promised him that he was right and told him I was excited to here back from him. I do not know for sure if I will hear from him, but I do know that he is one of the people I was sent here to serve and I am so thankful to have found him.

Christ loves His children!

Elder Inman

New Pics

Hola,

First, an explanation of the pictures-

Yep, my good suite is no longer... I have taken great care of it, hung it up about every night and avoided rain in it, but it just was not made to handle a Mormon mission, lol. The seat was beginning to wear through to the point where I could almost see through it, but I thought I was in good shape because I had just dry cleaned the black one dad gave me. I took out the black one and as I was getting dressed I discovered the dry cleaners had ruined the zipper, which of course they are not responsible for. So instead I found a great member in the ward who offered replace the zipper for me. While repairing them said she has never seen such well made suite pants and is not surprised by how long they have lasted. She thinks they will last another mission(Harrison). I wore my blue suite the day she was working on my pants and on the way out the door after lunch Elder Evans stopped me and said I needed to change because there was a hole in my pants. I looked in the mirror and saw the pants had worn through all the way and had no hope of repair :-( I wore one of Elder Evans suites for the day instead. I was blessed to be in a ward with such an excellent seamstress, and my black suite is in great shape! It's amazing how much wear and tear a mission will give clothes. She also had to sew up a white shirt that was falling apart, my proselyting shoes are beginning to deteriorate, I am onto my second belt, and many of my ties have fallen apart. I know exactly what Harrison needs for his mission now though!

And the story behind the snake... We were knocking doors and as we approached this one I noticed something weird and stepped back to see a huge snake waiting to pounce. I pulled my companion back and we moved to the side of the house for a better view. We were horrified to knock on the door because that meant we had to walk right under it, which we thought meant a very painful death at the least. So of course the first thing I did was take a picture, and then we strategized what to do to get to the door. Our strategy was weak though... It came down to me running to the door, knocking, and then running back out so fast that the snake wouldn't know I had even been there, lol. After closer examination we have decided the snake is most likely fake, but it made for a good adrenaline rush and story!

Hope you like the pics!

This was also our first week being able to attend church in our new ward, since conference was last week. We loved it! The ward here is absolutely amazing and far surpasses my expectations for them. We stopped into priests quorum to see who was available to go out and work with us through the week and every one of them gave us their number and said they would love to go out tracting, teaching, and anything else we may need them for. We also met with our ward mission leader and ward missionaries and each of them are ready to go out working with us as well. I am very impressed with the ward here and am confident the work in this area will pick up very rapidly with their help. After just one week we are already being blessed with more lessons taught then they have in many months here and there are several people we have found that have expressed interest in learning more about the church. The excitement is quickly growing in the ward and Elder Evans and I love being here.

Love,
Elder Inman

PS. I do not need a new suite, shoes, ties, or anything else. I just wanted to show you because its good mission humor. I am doing just dandy and the Lord is taking care of me :-)

David wanted this posted: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/mormon-media-campaign-expands-across-us-australia

Reflecions

Balloon Festival

Our Ward Mission Leader and us at the temple

Home Folks,

I officially only have 4 months left until I return home... It is such an exciting, scary, and sad thing to have pointed out to me by all the missionaries I am around, and those that feel it necessary to call across the mission to remind me how close I am. Thankfully, so far, all the reminders of how close my return date is has only made me realize how precious the time remaining is and how much I still have left to do. I never thought I could love being a missionary so much, even when our teaching pool is currently extinct.

This week was a weird combination of joy and boredom rolled up in one. I love my new area and the ward seems absolutely solid, and Elder Evans, my new companion, is a great missionary and fun guy to be around. The difficult part is that there are no records at all for the last month, and very little records kept for the last year or so. As far as we can gather from meeting with ward leadership the missionaries do not have anyone they were actively teaching, which meant we have the opportunity of starting completely anew in the area. We spent many hours going through our area book and doing the best we could at organizing the names we have into geographic areas to begin visiting. The rest of our time was spent tracting, teaching active members, organizing our area, and cleaning our living quarters (which looks great now btw). My areas for the last while have become so well functioning that tracting was very rarely an option because of time restraints, but now we have all the time in the world to go out knocking doors. This last week we had some mediocre success knocking, which we are thankful for, but are earnestly searching for other more productive ways of finding the elect in this area. Over all Elder Evans and I are enjoying the work and having a lot of fun despite the lack of immediate success, and we are completely sure success is barely around the corner.

And even though I am sure you already know this I just wanted to remind everyone how amazing General Conference was this past weekend! I can not imagine a better one to have as my last in the mission field, more especially including the priesthood session. In between one of the sessions my mind began to drift to Conferences of the past that have had an impact on me. Memories of talks from just six months ago all the way back to pre-teen, when I heard President Gordon B. Hinkley relate the story of two young boys who put silver dollars into a poverty stricken man's boots, began filtering through my mind and I became even more thankful for the blessing of having a prophet on the earth. As these thoughts ran through my mind I began reflecting on my testimony and how it has changed, spurred by a district meeting a couple weeks back where we bore our testimonies about our conversion process. As I bore my testimony of my personal conversion at that meeting I related how I have always known the church is true. I continued explaining that I have grown up in a home with goodly parents who helped me gain a testimony early in life with consistent scripture study, prayer, and seeing my family live the gospel principles we professed to believe. There was not a time in my life that I can remember ever seriously questioning the validity of the Book of Mormon or the restored gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

That testimony I bore began to echo through my mind as I mentally tracked my spiritual progress over the past few years. I began to wonder what changed in my testimony since entering my mission because I knew for sure I was a different person now and my testimony had gone through a large transformation. The only thing I could come up with was that I just knew more now then I did before, but then while listening to more talks later in Conference I received the answer to my question. I realized that the difference in my conversion is that while I have always known The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church I have not completely understood what that can and should mean for someones life. I never comprehended what miraculous changes it can cause within any one of us, including myself, nor did I understand what applying the atonement really meant or how to do it. I know I still do not completely understand but being a missionary has changed my testimony from a strong belief to a passionate way of life that has had a great affect on many of my goals and priorities. This transition has taken place over the past 20 months and it felt great to realize it while listening to the words of a modern day prophet. It is no longer duty that pushes me to the next door after being ridiculed and yelled at, it comes now as a result of further conversion and love. I think this is the reason I have gone from enjoying my mission to loving it and holding it sacred. I cannot imagine what life would be like without this time as a missionary, and I am thrilled at what it means for the future.

Love,

Elder Inman

Out of Nowhere

Greetings,

So it turns out I am getting transferred, which was not at all expected by us. Transfer news gets faxed to us around 10pm Saturday night, so during the day it was not on our minds to much considering we thought we knew what was happening with us anyways. This made it all the more shocking when our phone showed a missed call from President Miller after we left a great lesson. When I called him back he told me that I was going to be double transferred into the Rivers Edge ward, I did not know who with yet, and explained the situation to me. I felt crushed and I realized just how much I had fallen in love with Panorama Heights, though I did know it was revelation and I had no question regarding turning the assignment down. The work is going amazing right now! We are regularly teaching 15 lessons a week, many people are preparing for baptism and will likely be entering the water within the next few weeks, I know the ward members well, and I really enjoy serving with Elder Willden. Panorama Heights has become another golden standard ward in the mission. Rivers Edge on the other hand is teaching on average 2-3 lessons per week and we will be the 5th or 6th double transfer within the past year or so. It should be understandable why I felt down when I got the call to be transferred.

I was blessed to have a very strong last Saturday, so full of teaching that we had no time to stop by our house for anymore then 3 minutes to pick up our suite jackets. We worked from 10am to 9:30pm with not time to think about the call I had received mid day. After we received the fax and distributed transfer news I laid in bed and pondered my coming transfer with the realization that Rivers Edge will likely be my last area on my mission. I said another prayer and then laid back down to listen for the answer. After a short amount of time I felt immensely calm and thoughts began to flood my mind making me realize what an amazing opportunity I had in front of me which made me suddenly really excited for the coming transfer. In stake meetings I have heard great things about the ward leadership as well as many of the members, and since it is almost bordering Panorama Heights I will be able to attend the baptisms of those I have been working with. I started to think back on when I doubled intoBelen, and 9 months before in Ventana Ranch, and I saw how much power can come from going into a new area with a new companion and leaving behind the past perceptions of what is possible there. Rivers Edge is going to be a place of many miracles!

Before I finish this weeks update I wanted to share a great experience we had, and a lesson I learned about perseverance. Elder Willden and I went into the week with great excitement because of the Spirit we felt while attending the temple on Monday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were incredible days of work. We taught more and had greater success then any other 3 days prior in this area and were blown away by the miracles that were pouring down onto us and our area. We went out on Thursday ready for more miracles but were disappointed as things began crumbling all around us. Appointments started falling through left and right and horrible things were happening to those were were teaching. Two people had their appendix rupture and almost lost their lives, a young man in a family I have grown very close to broke his leg that morning, and without fail every other investigator we visited were not able to meet because of illness. Our day was spent fighting the urge to give up and try again later because of all that had happened. As night approached we decided to try one more person, a referral we had received that morning, before we called it a night and went in for planning and sleep. We knocked on his door and he came out saying it was a mistake to come to his home. With a look of obvious confusement I asked him if he was the man who gave some sister missionaries his information earlier that day, and he said he was and that he gave it to them because they were attractive and not out of interest in our message. Then for the next 30 minutes he lectured us about the false church we represent and how we are made slaves by it, the stench of alcohol only being matched by his foul language. Finally the Spirit told me to end it. I stopped him and told him that we had been respectful to him and that I expected the same respect in return. I felt the Spirit surge into me as I stared him into the eyes and I felt myself looking into his heart and knowing his thoughts. Stunned he stopped talking and stood there looking pathetic. I told him that I feel peace and happiness because of my strong beliefs and bore testimony of the restored gospel. Prompted by the Spirit I then told him that when I look at him all I see is a man enslaved by anger, addiction, and regret and that I felt sorry for what a miserable man he had made himself into by losing faith in Christ because of trials. With that we turned and left, a strange sense of peace resting with me.

The next day yielded similar results of little finding or teaching. Elder Willden and I began to feel very tired and wanted to quit and go home to finish up paperwork. The day had been miserable and we felt our time would be better spent preparing for upcoming meetings instead of knocking on empty homes and talking to people who didn't want us on their doorstep. We were very close to driving back home when we both felt we needed to keep working instead. We spent the rest of the day working and still had no success. There have been so many times when I worked when I didn't want to and was blessed with miracles, but this was not one of those days. We went to bed that night downtrodden but happy that we followed the promptings we received regardless of the outcome. Saturday morning we had a couple hours set apart for planning since we had several large stake meetings the next day, but we felt we needed to go out and visit people anyway. This ended up being the miracle day when we were packed with miracle teachings appointments from morning to evening. We ended up having to prepare the the stake meetings late into the night, and early in the morning, but the results of that days work will stretch far into the future. It was amazing to see once more the blessings of following when the Lord whispers.

Love,

Elder Inman

Feeling Great!

Hola,

This was such a great week that I am having a little bit of a hard time deciding where to start. About a month ago we were meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, who happens to be one of the best I have ever seen, and we felt prompted to hold a fireside for the youth in our ward(which they call a cottage meeting here). We eventually decided we wanted the theme to be temples and started spreading the word a little over a week before it happened, hoping for 15-20 youth to attend. So now here are the really amazing parts of this story... About a week before it took place we thought it would be really cool to get a member of the Temple Presidency to come and talk to the youth. It turns out that in order to get one of them at an event the request needs to be submitted a month in advance, not a week, because they cover a huge amount of area and are constantly traveling to give talks and work with stakes and wards. We were blessed and despite the very short notice they said they would be able to make it. The Sunday before the fireside Elder Willden and I stopped in on all the youth Sunday school classes and got them excited to come and bring friends, but later that night we realized we told everyone it was Saturday night when it was really the following Sunday. After some prayer and pondering we decided the best thing to do was attend each seminary class throughout the week to correct our announcement and invite the rest of the youth in the stake to attend as well. I loved going to seminary again, but getting up at 5:30 feels a lot earlier then it used to. One of our ward missionaries, who is leaving on his mission tomorrow, even made a Facebook group invite more people.

When the night finally came we were a little nervous but really excited about what we had planned. Two youth, a brother and sister, were asked to share their testimonies of temples because they were baptized only a few months ago and just attended the temple for their first time. Their testimonies powerfully invited the Spirit which continued to testify to us as we listened to the member of the Temple Presidency and his wife speak about the purpose and blessings of temples. In all there were around 50 people in attendance, much more then originally anticipated! During the closing hymn I looked around and felt so blessed to be part of organizing such a powerful and successful fireside, and I said a silent prayer and thanks and asked for a blessing on the amazing youth that filled the room. It was such a powerful experience that the next day, which was missionary temple day, it was spoken of as the Temple Presidency shared a message with us in the chapel before our session. Yesterday was my last mission temple trip and I can not imagine a better way to prepare for it!

And we are teaching some of the coolest people in the world right now! I wish I was allowed to mention more names in these emails, but I will just have to be happy with vague descriptions instead. We are teaching a father and son, and the dad is getting baptized this coming Saturday. He is one of the most prepared people I have taught on my mission, and I am confident he will be a very strong priesthood leader within the next couple years. He was not previously active in any religion, but as soon as he heard the message of the Restoration he accepted the invitation to be baptized and has not deviated from that in any degree. When we taught the Word of Wisdom he stopped smoking and was willing to give up anything else that we asked him to. When we taught the Law of Tithing he didn't have any second thoughts and that he would live it. Last night he asked me to baptize him and when I told him that it might be better if someone in the ward did it, so that he can have that connection with someone closer, he immediately agreed to pray about it. His baptism is going to be an amazing experience, and I am very excited to see the blessings that enter his home as he becomes a priesthood holder.

I will have to tell you about more of these amazing people later because we need to go and get our car fixed. Love you!

Elder Inman

Resting

Hi everyone,

Saturday evening we got a call from a set of elders living near us letting us know that their toilet was clogged and overflowing, which was even worse news considering their duplex is two story and the toilet is upstairs. We rushed over after our ward activity was finished and saw dirty water dripping from their ceiling out of air ducts in their kitchen and living room. We agreed to help clean it up, turned the toilet water off, and then went to walmart to get much needed supplies- gloves, masks, and some drinks. Its took a few hours to get it adequately clean and I may be scarred for life because of the smell... We were blessed that we got to it before permanent damage was done. To make things even more interesting we had to prepare for a Rio Ranch stake training the next morning, which involved all members of ward councils throughout the entire stake, as well as a meeting we were holding with the Santa Fe stake presidency and our mission presidency later in the day. The Lord strengthened us and we were some how able to clean everything up, take part in a powerful training, and make great progress in our other Sunday meetings in Santa Fe and Rio Rancho, all off of five hours of sleep.

There have been several other emergencies and circumstances that have taken from our sleep this week and Elder Willden and myself have felt completely drained. We have been part of three large scale trainings, one exchange, three separate and crucial stake meetings, several emergencies with other missionaries, attending a wonderful baptism, and of course our regular load of finding and teaching within our own ward boundaries, while both of us were fighting off illness. With so many late nights and early mornings with exhausting days one after another we were getting sleep deprived to the point of not being able to think clearly or function normally, which is dangerous when a single lesson could effect a persons happiness so dramatically. So today we decided to skip our trip to Santa Fe for a day of sight seeing and replace it with hours of sleeping. I feel so much better and am ready for another amazing week!

Our exchange this week took me to the UNM singles branch to work for a day, and I loved being back on campus talking to people. The elder I was working with does not have much experience on campus yet so I was able to take him and show him how to talk with college students without looking like a weirdo. I had so much fun connecting with college students again and we spent hours contacting people in the main lobby on campus. Later in the day we were able to set up a time to meet with someone who I have not been able to see since serving in Belen. I had become friends with her through a family I grew close to while serving there and a few months after I left she had an incredible experience that helped her gain a testimony that this church is true. She got baptized just weeks before coming up here for college and she is on spiritual fire right now, very excited for what comes next in the gospel of Christ. My testimony continues to grow as I look back and see how the Lord had a plan for her all along, and though my part in it was small I am still able to see that He places people in our path for very special reasons and I feel blessed to see His hand in our work.

Love,

Elder Inman

PS, I have been having a lot of fun with those goofy "nerd" glasses you sent me in the package. I wore them to dinner the first night I got them and had a great laugh as the mom kept telling her kids how rude it is to make fun of my new glasses. I kept it up for at least 20 minutes until I couldn't hold back my laughs anymore and told her that her kids were right about them being fake. Then the next day, or maybe the same(its all a blur), we were in the car of one of my favorite investigators when I pulled the glasses out, put them on casually, and told him they were my driving glasses, even though he was driving. I could tell he did not want to embarrass me because after a quick double take he turned and stared strait ahead trying not to stare. I quickly told him I was kidding because I felt bad that he was being so nice about it. Thanks for the package!!