Mmmmm, mmmm, lovin' it!

Hey everyone,


The title this week makes a lot more sense if you say it out loud to the tune of the Campbell's soup commercial, lol. I think it is a great way to describe my week though, because I am feeling amazing! Both wards I am serving in are already more excited for missionary work, the zone is going forward strong, and my companion is awesome. Plus, for some reason my bed is a queen size so I sleep comfortably as well.

Something I am realizing more and more is the importance of working with members, and also how many missionaries have no idea how to do that. My trainer was great at member work so I have never known anything different but I am coming to the understanding that most missionaries still think the best way to find people to teach is tracting. Elder Yardley and I are working hard to work with our ward, as well as help other missionaries do the same. We have already seen some incredible results in our area's as well as missionaries around us who are changing how they do missionary work. On Sunday I gave a talk in one ward and prayed in the other in an effort to meet more ward members, and we were surprised by how many came up and asked if we were both new to the ward since they hadn't seen us before. As a result several members have asked for a Book of Mormon for their friends and have promised to invite them to meet with us soon.

We also had a couple great teaching experiences last week. We were invited to a member's home to teach a girl who has attended a couple meetings at the University ward already. The lesson went well and she was already familiar with most of the doctrines because her boyfriend and several other friends are members. She told us that growing up she never felt comfortable reading from the bible because she knows many times it has gone through translation and feels a lot is missing or changed. When she found out about the Book of Mormon she began reading it right away and is already working her way to the end of 1st Nephi, and she shared with us that as she reads it she feels good. At the end of the lesson we asked her feelings on the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she said that she knows it is all true and feels she is ready to be baptized! She is one of the most prepared people I have met on my mission so far and am so excited for her.

We also had the opportunity to briefly teach a man in his mid 30's who left a note on the institute building that he wanted to meet with us. The note was left weeks ago and we assumed it was a joke because we haven't been able to get a hold of him, but we tried again last week anyway and ended up setting up a meeting. He said that he lost his job a couple years ago and decided to take what he had in the bank and travel, on bicycle! He has biked 14,000 miles so far and plans to continue for years to come. He ended up just wanting a copy of the Old Testament but we began teaching him and by the end of our second lesson he said he knew the church was true and he came to church yesterday. Sadly he is leaving with his group of bikers tomorrow so we do not get to continue the lessons with him, but it was great teaching him and I feel he will fully accept it some day.

All of these experiences are helping my testimony grow in that this is really the Lord's work and not my own. I have never met anyone through tracting that I have helped progress to baptism, but I have been very blessed with the Lord providing other ways for them to be found, taught, baptized and are now being prepared for the temple. It is so humbling to see so many miracles and know that there is no way I could have done it on my own. I love my calling!
Love,
Elder Inman

Change of Scenery

Hola,


The weather is great and I am so excited for my new area(s). News came Saturday morning that I would be transferred to Las Cruces, so much of my weekend was spent saying goodbye to everyone in Belen, which was way harder then I had expected. Part of why it was so difficult was that our truck was in the shop all week so travel was much slower on foot, but also I had grown so close to the people here. I knew that saying goodbye was not going to be easy but I hadn't expected it to be quite as hard as it was. I fell in love with Belen! So many miracles, memories, and friends were made in the past 4 1/2 months that I am sure to never forget, and am already excited to travel back through after my mission has ended. It was amazing to see another area known for slow missionary work to become the golden standard for everyone else to strive for, including myself now.

Even though Belen will be missed I know they will continue strong with great missionaries and a solid ward, and now I have a great new journey to start down south (pretty close to the border). We are working in the Rio Grand family ward as well as the Aggies University ward (Yep, back on campus, lol). My new companion is Elder Yardley and we talked a lot yesterday about what we want this transfer and have already begun working towards our goals. In just one evening we have already seen some great changes! The missionaries here had not been invited to any ward councils, were not involved in many ward activities, and no missionary correlation has taken place. The efforts of the missionaries have apparently been focused on tracting which, as usual, has yielded very little success and built nominal member trust.

We decided to start off on the right foot and right away set up meetings with the bishops and Ward Mission Leaders from each of the wards. Last night we met with most of them and have already been 'shocked' with progress. We are now invited to ward council, asked to speak on Sunday, asked to attend ward activities, and we are in the process of setting up missionary correlation. I am not sure if the success will be as rapid as in past areas but I have a really good feeling about the work here and am really impressed with how fast the bishops accepted us. I am seeing more and more how the Lord is preparing me for each new area I am sent to and am excited for what I will learn here as well as how many people we will be able to bring closer to Christ through the restored Gospel. I am definitely learning fast, not always easy, that this really is the Lords work and all we have to do is follow his prompting on how to do it.

Its warm (almost hot), both wards seem great already, my companion is amazing, and I know I am where I need to be! I love this :-)

Love,

Elder Inman

Crazy Dreams & High Life

An amazing Christmas in Belen! Sitting on Santa's lap and then at Creta's house with Roy playing charades :-)

More hiking shots

- Elder Krahenbuhl and I in the Holiday Inn

- Roy and Creta's baptism

- Out hiking and this stone supposedly has the ten commandments written on it from about 300ad.

Crazy Dreams (written 1/10/11)

Hola!

Transfers is coming up and we find out transfer news this Saturday. For some reason when ever I get anxious I start having really weird dreams and I have had them every night lately. I love serving in Belen but I am pretty sure I will be getting transferred out so I have been working hard to get everything in order for whoever takes my place. The ward here is amazing though so I know whoever comes in will do well, especially considering elder Krahenbuhl will most likely be staying. But I still have a chance of staying for another transfer so my companion and I are holding out slight hope :-)

This week has had several amazing miracles that I will never forget, and we have been blessed to be a part of bringing more people closer to Christ, but unfortunately I don't have time to write anything else. With transfers coming up I had to write a more extensive letter to President and I also picked today to upload pictures, so I am about out of time.

I love you all!

Elder Inman

PS, make a profile on Mormon.org! Amazing work is happening from that website.

 

The High Life (written 1/4/11)

Hey everyone,


I am late emailing again because our regular emailing location is still not open I don't think, but I should be back on schedule next week. This past week has been a great one though so I have a lot to write about, but my time is short so I don't know how much I will actually get on here. I wish I could just send a quick Skype message every week!

Elder Krahenbuhl and I lived the high life Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at the Holiday Inn. Jealous? Our heater stopped working Friday and both of us have pretty thin blankets so our sleep was less then great. We called our land lord Saturday morning and told him what was happening and since no one could get out to fix it until Monday he reserved us a room at the Holiday Inn. It was so nice! We had two queen beds and we didn't even have to make them ourselves, lol. But we are back home now and trying to get accustomed to cleaning up after ourselves again.

Sunday was a great day for more then just sleeping in a nice hotel though. Of course it was fast Sunday so Elder Krahenbuhl and I got up and bore our testimonies and we were able to hear some other great testimonies borne, including the Stake Presidents who told an incredible story:

He said that over Christmas break there was a man and his son driving through Albuquerque to get to family in another state. They were in separate vehicles and the father was looking in his rear view mirror at his son when all of a sudden his son's car turned sharply and rolled over several times off the highway. The father was in shock and found the closest turn around and then rushed over to the scene of the crash. He ran to the car yelling 'my son, my son' as he saw a nurse, who had been driving behind them, administering CPR. The nurse finally stopped and looked up to the father to tell him that she did all she could do but his son was dead. Grief settled in as he realized he would have to bury his own son. 'What a Christmas this will be" he though to himself. Then the prompting came to give his son a priesthood blessing, but it didn't make sense since his son was already dead. He followed the prompting anyway and as soon as he sealed the blessing his son began breathing. The nurse watched the whole thing in disbelief. The Stake President met this man at the temple a few days ago because his son is in the hospital with a broken back, but nothing else is wrong. The man has no family here and all he could think of doing was go to the temple and thank the Lord for his Christmas miracle.

After testimony meeting was over we found an investigator who we had thought dropped us last week. She came up and asked if we could continue the meetings because she wants to be a part of the church. She also said that she almost got up to bear her own testimony, and wants us to help her get ready to do that next month. Then someone else caught us after church to ask us if we could begin teaching his family as well since all of them are members except for him. The Lord is preparing so many people to accept the glad message of the restoration and I love being a part of them hearing it. It is so great to see so many people feel the greater joy that is possible through the gospel!

I love life as a missionary!!

Love,

Elder Inman

late

Hola,


Sorry I wasn't able to write yesterday. We went to our usual place to email and it was closed for the Holidays so we had to find another place to email. It was a fun preparation day though. The whole district got together and we played volleyball at the church and then we watched a home-made movie by Elder Krahenbuhl's family, which was hilarious! I have been so blessed to be in a district where all of the missionaries get along and we can do things like that together. The preparation day before that Brother Boliver, our Ward Mission Leader, took us out to hike a hill with a bunch of ancient writing on it, probably from just after Christ's Death. Guess who was on this continent about that time :-)

We are looking forward to another great week of missionary work. It was so great to call home, or Skype, and talk to our families and now we are even more motivated to be incredible missionaries. This may end up being a trying week as well though. It feels like because we have been blessed with so much success Satan is trying hard to slow us down and we are having some very unexpected let downs. But just like Joseph Smith said, the most tribulation will come when we are accomplishing the most good, and there is a lot of good happening in Belen right now. So I suppose I should take those trials to mean that we are doing what we are supposed to, and we should feel it a type of compliment.

Have an amazing New Years celebration, and remember all the hard working missionaries when you are thinking of your resolutions. We could always use the extra help finding those who are prepared to meet with us :-)

Love,

Elder Inman

Merry...

...Christmas!!


Christmas in Belen New Mexico is going to be great as a missionary :-) There are probably very few times that are better for sharing the gospel, we get lots of great food (which will not help with how out of shape I am), and I get to Skype with my parents and siblings. It will be fun for Elder Krahenbuhl and I to spend our first Christmas away from home in such great circumstances. Thank you to everyone that has sent me Christmas cards as well!

Roy and Creta were baptized on Saturday and then were confirmed yesterday! I wish you all could have been there, but it was great as it was. We showed up early with the ward mission leader, Brother Boliver, to fill the font and get the chairs set up and were surprised to find a musical production going on in the room. Turns out there was a scheduling conflict and they would finish right as the baptism was supposed to start. We were really stressed out but decided to just move the baptism talks into another room and then get up and move rooms for the actual ordinance. We were really blessed and everything came together perfectly for a beautiful baptism. Both Creta and Roy were happy and excited and despite their many physical problems they comfortably were submerged into the water without any problems. I wish pictures could convey how happy all of us were. And what added to it was that just a couple days before the baptism we had given Roy a priesthood blessing and healed him of his dreams caused by PTSD. Now we get to spend Christmas Eve with them :-)

One more fun thing to share before I sign off for today. It is a big focus in our mission, and I am pretty sure in every mission, to become better teachers. They have pointed out that most of us know the doctrine well but are not able to share it effectively. As they traveled the missions world wide they said that most missionaries rank a 2 (on a scale of 1-6) when it comes to teaching ability. They produced some amazing videos and study materials to train us and help us improve as a result. The videos are supposed to be used in each district meeting, but not to much outside of that. President Miller has felt inspired and received guidence to see what would happen if missionaries were exposed to the videos more often, and my district has been selected to be the first to test it out. We now each have a TV/DVD player in our apartment with the videos running every minute that we are home, and in 2-3 weeks he will see how much we have improved as teachers. From the sounds of it we are expected to become the best teachers in the mission. I will let you all know how it goes and what I learn. I am confident that his promise is inspired and feel very blessed to have such an amazing opportunity!

I love you all and am enjoying my mission completely,

Elder Inman

um...some catching up!

So between David's sparse letters and my inability to get them on his blog we are making up for a few weeks now...sorry!

The most recent is at the end...

From November 22

 

My old district, and burning the flag for our dying district leader ( He was going home)

 

From November 29th

These are just some fun pics :-)

My district and I went hiking on the Mesa last Preparation day. One of the missionaries, Elder Ehlen, was sick and when we got to the top said he couldn't walk anymore. I ended up having to carry him on my back for the mile hike down, and by the end I could barely walk myself, which is why I look so worn out in the pic by the truck. No one else could carry him. Great work out though :-)

Hey everyone,


Sorry I missed last week, I just didn't have the time I needed. This past week has been so eventful, and I still don't have the time to tell you everything that has been going on, but I will try to hit on a couple big ones.

K and A got baptized on Saturday( I don't want to put children's names on here...). If I remember I will try to put the pictures on here so you can see who they are. We have been working with K for a couple weeks now and he was completely ready for making that covenant. He said that he spent 2 hours shining his shoes the night before, even though they were brand new and had never been worn. His uncle came down and was able to baptize him, and a lot of family were able to attend. A is a 9 year old girl from Los Lunas who was also being baptized at the same time, so we combined the baptisms. I was actually the person who baptized her, which is why I am in white in the pictures. Something you may have noticed by now is that I have never baptized anyone on my mission. That is because my trainer taught me that it is far better for either family or someone from the ward to do that so they have that connection with someone who won't be transferred out, thus helping them remain active. It is selfish for a missionary to baptize their converts. Each time someone has asked me to perform the baptism I explain this to them and ask them to pray about someone in the ward to do it instead, and they have always done so and received an answer. With A I was the one who interviewed her for baptism, and afterwards she asked her grandparents and the missionaries in her area if I could perform her baptism. When I was asked I explained it to her as well and asked her to pray about someone else to do it, and then she came back and said she still felt that she wanted me to do it. I am not sure why I was supposed to perform it, but it was a wonderful experience and I will be sure to visit her when I travel back through the mission later on.

I get so confused about who I have told you about, but I hope I have mentioned Roy enough for you to know who I am talking about now. Roy had given up smoking to be baptized and lost all urges to smoke, just as we had promised. It was a miracle, and he and his mom (60 and 80 years old) were both nearing baptism. But even though all of the urges had left he started smoking again because his PTSD dreams got so bad when not smoking that he couldn't sleep. He went through some very horrible things in Vietnam and has never been able to heal from it. We have been fasting and praying for him and finally received the answer for what we needed to do with him, but it was such an amazing answer that it took further prayer to assure us it was really inspired. Yesterday after church we finally sat down with him and after a very powerful lesson we told him what he needed to do. We have asked him to stop smoking right away and to meet with us on a daily basis for the next two weeks. Each day for these two weeks we will be teaching him and giving him a priesthood blessing. We warned him that as he does this his dreams will grow dramatically worse and it will be a very trying period for him, one that he will not enjoy. We then promised him that at the end of the two weeks we will anoint him with oil and heal him of those dreams through the priesthood power. This is even more incredible when you realize that these have been plaguing him for the past 40 years. His mother, who was present, told him that she knows whatever we promise will happen and that the church is true (she has only had the first lesson and has already given up coffee and is very excited for baptism). Through tears he told us that he considers us his sons and trusts us with his life, and that he will do anything we ask of him. He then broke his cigarettes and handed them to us knowing it will be the last one he will ever hold. Please pray for him! I know the promise is real, but this will still be very difficult on him and I hate seeing him depressed after horrible violent dreams that chase any chance of sleep away. He is also threatened with a blood clot breaking loose and killing him very soon, so stress and fear are attacking him around every corner. I care about him so much, and am growing more and more thankful for the blessing of holding the authority of God and being able to command in His name, as well as the atonement that makes all of this possible.

I wish I could tell more, but I am already over on time and have to get going.

I love you,

Elder Inman
PS, we find out transfers this Saturday, and we are a little nervous about it. We both want to stay so badly!

This last week...

Hey everyone,

Transfer news came in and my companion and I are staying together in Belen! Most of my district is staying together too, which is great because we are doing really well together. This next transfer is going to be amazing, and I'm hoping it will even beat last transfer :-)

Roy is still not smoking and we are growing close to the time when he will be healed. He and his mom are both very excited for baptism and both love coming to church. Roy even went out and bought a new suit, shirts, and ties and beamed as he walked into church yesterday wearing them. I love seeing them so happy. We are going out to eat with them tonight and them we are going to go to Creta's house and watch the new Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration DVD. We just got it last week, and we watched it with another investigator and the spirit was almost over whelming. I am not a big fan of crying in front of people but its impossible for me to keep tears from falling during this movie.

Well I am going to go ahead and close this one for the day. Ill be back next week to update on the miracles of my mission!

Love,

Elder Inman

My Week

Hey everyone,


This has been an absolutely blessed week, once again. I have to keep it super short though so I will go ahead and do the boring bullit points again. Sorry... I meant to upload some pictures to make up for it but I forgot my camera, so I will try to do that next week.

- Barbara and her great grandson were both baptised and it was one of the greatest experiences of my mission so far! A couple weeks ago I told everyone a little about the dream that she had that basicaly sealed her commitment to be baptised, but I am going to elaborate on it a little more now. We had asked her to be baptised the end of October, which she had agreed to work towards, but then she had a dream that pushed that back. She said that in her dream she was baptised in November by a man in white, but also that there were two people looking down on her and one more man in white at her head, also in the font. Most of the dream made sense so of course we pushed it back to November 6th. As we talked to her about her dream we told her that the man baptising her will be in white, as she will be, and that the two people looking down on her will be the witnessed, my companion and I. But we couldnt figure out who the other person in the font was so we just pushed it aside thinking maybe it was supposed to represent her husband who passed away years ago. The Friday before her baptism we went over with the Ward Mission Leader to discuss the finer details as well as practice what was going to happen in the font. Since she is terrified of water we all decided to have her great grandson go first, and then he would be able to watch from the side of the font. At the baptism it all went as planned until Barbara tried to go under the water and came back up before she was fully submerged and choked on water for a couple minutes. We tried again, and once more she came up short choking on water and looking a little discouraged. I said a short prayer and comforted her and her great grandson moved back into the font, at her head, to tell her she can do it. This time she went under all the way and then left the font with a huge smile on her face. Wow, that answers who the other man in the font was going to be in an amazing way!

They are both now baptised by water and fire and are very happy to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She is already preparing to enter the temple and is also getting ready for her cancer treatment with a new sense of optimism and stregth. The ward has come together to take care of both of them through the treatments and I cant imagine a greater success story. The Gospel really has changed their lives and I have never seen her so happy, even with the approaching surgery and treatments! Miracles like them are why I am out here :-)

I wish I could say so much more, but that took longer to write out them I had anticipated so I better wrap this up now. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and encouragemnt though, because I know those are helping the work progress here. I am growing a greater understanding for what is meant when we are told of the joy that comes from bringing souls unto Christ, and that is making me want to work harder and harder to find more who are prepared. The Lord is working true miracles in this area of his vinyard, and I get to witness them, and even be a part of some of them!!!

I love you all,

Elder David K Inman