Hermana Inmann Letter October 28, 2013

this girl is on fire!

 

Hello my favorite people!

 

So, Sina moved over into another ward. We're pretty bummed about it, but our zone leaders are the ones who will teach him now and they clicked pretty well, so we know he's in good hands. We got to teach Claude again this week, but we ended up doing it at a members home after having dinner with them.  They themed their dinner as "brazil" because they all wanted to reminisce on their memories of missions and business in Brazil..  It was neat because we ate foods only from that country, so I got to try some new things.  He is our ONLY investigator right now, but we know the work will pick up very soon and we'll have lots of people to teach!  Our ward is doing the 40 day fast for missionary work and we're already seeing the results. We stopped by a members house the other night and when she answered the door she said that she was getting kids ready for bed and they were all sick and she didn't have time to talk, then all the sudden her expression changed and she said "wait!" and then walked outside to talk to us.  She started telling us about a few of her neighbors that she keeps running into and thinking about, and she started crying saying "this must be why you are here.  you need to go visit them and help them." It was a neat experience to see her countenance change and the Spirit work inside her to guide us where we needed to go. We'll hopefully be in contact with those people this week. 

 

Some members have invited us over tomorrow night to carve pumpkins with their neighbors, and our trunk-or-treat is on Wednesday, and I'm pretty sure almost every family in our ward is bringing a nonmember friend/family with them.  It's going to be HUGE!  We get to judge the costume contest with the elders haha. So there's so much potential in this upcoming week to find new people to teach and share the gospel with!  Our zone is having a costume contest today and one of our members (the ones who bought our groceries) has an entire walk in closet full of legit Disney costumes and she is letting Sister MacKay and I wear some for the contest today.  We are going as Donald Duck and Goofy!  I'm Donald Duck.  These are the life-size, disneyland version. I'll send pictures next week.  We are going to dominate this contest.  Send me pictures of all of your costumes and festivities!  We have to be inside at 6pm Halloween night to avoid all the creepers. Besides, nobody is going to want to take time out of trick or treating to listen to a lesson anyways. Can't imagine why haha.

My blow dryer sparked and caught fire while I was blow drying my hair yesterday.  That was fun. Luckily I still have all my hair haha. I didn't get burned either!  I threw the blow dryer across the room at just the right time...

Congratulations on your 5k!! Good for you!  Walk or run, it doesn't matter; what matters is that you do it.  I'm sure Dom will be so grateful that you are all thinking of him and supporting him.  Sister Smith, as well, I'm sure.  Muche sent me a picture of her new baby!! He's so cute! That's crazy that Torie is going to Senior Night this week.. it feels like we just went to Jake's senior night.  Time really does fly. I'm glad Jesse is doing well and is enjoying reading. I've been praying for Jake and hope that he loves his new area as much as this last one he's been in.  Transfers are hard but you learn to love each area that you are in for different reasons.  There are good people and there is good work wherever we go. It's just different. I'm proud of him for becoming a district leader! I'm so jealous of his iPad mini THAT HE GETS TO KEEP! WHAT?!

 

I'm doing well!  I'm healthy and happy.  No complaints, really.  Sister MacKay and I have a good time together and work hard.  It rained today, which is nice.  The weather has been perfect. 

 

Happy Halloween!  Have fun and be safe! Love you all.

 

Love,

Hermana Inman

Hermana Inman Letter October 21, 2013

La Buena Vida

We had a successful week this week and were able to meet a lot of our goals!  We've been trying to bring more members with us to lessons, and as we've done that, our investigators tend to progress more and we see blessings in all aspects of the work.  Have you ever gone to a lesson with the missionaries? Ask them if you can join them.  They'd love and appreciate that. Members play such a powerful role in the progression of investigators because they listen to you, as real people, and your testimonies, and have a new friend to invite them to activities and answer their questions when the missionaries aren't around.  Missionaries leave after a few months, and so it's vital that the investigators and new members develop strong relationships with the ward.  That way, they don't fall away from the church when the missionaries leave.

 

We went to a baptism with Sina on Saturday and it was a neat experience.  He sat there with a smile on his face and as the service went on he began to giggle... So I'd look at him and ask "what's so funny?" and he'd just say "nothing." But he kept doing it and I could not figure out what was so funny so finally I just said "Sina!  Tell me what's so funny!" He said (in a Persian accent), "nothing, it just feels good." Haha the Spirit is expressed in many ways!  It was neat though because Sina had never felt that way before and didn't know how to express it, and so it just came out as a giggle.  It happened again in fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, after a spiritual testimony he giggled a little bit and I knew it wasn't because the sister had said anything weird or funny.  Spiritual giggles. Ha! We found out some doubts and concerns he has right now about the church, so we might have to change his baptismal date and push it back a week or two, but we're not too worried about it.  We all have them and then we all overcome them. It's an ongoing process in all of us.

 

We had a good time with Claude and Jill this last week and will be meeting with them again on Thursday.  They both watched conference and loved it, and we had a nice conversation about the message we each got out of it this year.  Claude is a really good cook and fed us dinner! and... THEY BOTH CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!  It was great! :) That was a neat story mom about our great grandfather Claude :) I might share it with him!  That's really cool!  Sister MacKay will really appreciate the story too, because she's a softball player and is really good and has played for years, even in college. She's doing good, by the way. She's a hard worker and learns fast and I rarely have to tell her to do anything.  She's on the ball and a great missionary.

 

That's so great that you all are getting into family history!  Fun story about that:  the other day we came to the library to print off a conference talk and we went to our assigned computer, and the man next to us was doing genealogy on ancestry.com (or is it .org?), and we got super excited because we just learned about family history and how to use it in finding investigators. So we slid him a piece of paper telling him about familysearch.org.  He took out off his headphones and looked at us for a good few seconds, then said, "are you the mormon missionaries?" We said yes. He paused and then told us about how he's been doing genealogy for 14 years because he feels such a strong connection to his mom who died 14 years ago.  He told us he uses familysearch.org sometimes and has even been to the family history center in Vista, and he has a dream to go up to Salt Lake City and use the genealogy library up there.  He continued to tell us some of his really cool family history stories and we could see how happy it made him and the pride he had in his ancestors :).  We told him that we would love to meet with him sometime to talk more about eternal families and even help him with some of his genealogy.  We gave him our information and we hope to hear from him soon! It was just a cool experience that showed me that 1. we were not coincidentally placed next to that man, and 2. that the spirit of Elijah is a real thing! haha 

 

 

I'm proud of you Torie for doing so much family history work and for sacrificing to go to the temple.  You are such a wonderful example to so many.  Congrats on making it to state!  Thanks for all of the journal entries dad :) I love them and can relate to them, and I like learning about your history.

 

 

I'm so excited that the temples are almost done down in Arizona!! That is so exciting!  Aunt Muche always sends me updates and pictures on the Gilbert temple and I love it. 

 

Thank you so much for the package! It was perfect.  The blanket is so warm and the food is so yummy! AND, that's the best kind of lotion, so I'm very grateful :)  thank you for thinking of me.  Please send my thanks to Brother Moss for picking up my paintings and my box of things!! That was so kind of him.  

We were invited to a dinner appointment with the elders this past week, and the members said they were just going to do a little barbeque.  They're Filipino, by the way.  We show up and there's baby shower decorations everywhere.  We're like, this is weird. Eventually almost the entire ward shows up, and then Bro. Ballesteros brings out a full-size, cooked pig.  I always heard about those things, but this was a first. They cooked authentic Filipino food (some was good some was weird) and then were going to have a baby shower! We left before all of those fun festivities... The elders said that was the first baby shower they'd been too haha. We also got chased by a big dog this week.  That's always fun and exhilarating, especially in the dark.  

I've had a few chances to use my Spanish in some contacts this week :) pretty sweet!

We're carving pumpkins and playing wiffle ball for district activity today, should be fun!

What's everyone going to be for halloween? What are the fun plans? Jesse gets to go hunting?!  He'll love that. You guys are the best and I love you so much!  Have a fun, safe week!

Love,

Hermana Inman

 

 

Hermana Inman Letter October 15, 2013

It's go time.

We set a baptismal date with Sina, our investigator from Iran!! November 16th :).  He came to church again and stayed for all three hours. We got him a Book of Mormon in Persian and his eyes lit up and he was so excited to read it in his own language! The ward has welcomed him with open arms and are so eager and excited for his baptism!  They haven't had any baptisms since the beginning of the year and then 2 weeks ago Kris got baptized, then Sina will get baptized, and the elders in our ward have an investigator getting baptized the following week! Exciting things are happening over here in the Olivenhain ward. We've been trying to work with this part member family in our ward since we got here, but they've been so busy that we've only been able to meet with them once.  The stake president talked to them on Sunday and then told us that they're all ready to go and would like to start taking the lessons again! :) His name is Claud and his wife Jill is a member. Claud actually went to general conference in Utah last weekend- he might as well be a member already.  We're excited to start teaching him!

I got the chance to learn a little bit more about family history this past week as we were preparing to teach a recent convert about it.  As I was looking through our family history on my account I was so excited to see so many pictures and names of our ancestors! It sounds so nerdy but family history is so cool!  I was looking at a couple different names and their information and it was fun to see "last updated by toriecamilleinman" next to their name :).  Way to go Torie! You are so awesome!  I'm sure you've got a huge fan club waiting for you on the other side.  I'm so proud of you for taking family names to the temple that you found and prepared yourself! That is so neat! You'll have to tell me how your talk in stake conference goes! I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job.  Good job in your band festivals, too!

The primary program was yesterday; this ward has 180 primary kids. Can you believe that?! They blew me away. These youth are so strong and have truly been saved for these last days.  They were so strong and powerful as they sang their primary songs and recited all 13 articles of faith (little sunbeams, even!). I don't think I've ever cried in a primary program before, but I came pretty close this time!  I'd like to think it's because of the strong spirit, and not because sister missionaries tend to grow extra tear ducts on their missions. 

The weather here has been SO NICE.  We decided to do a car fast this past Wednesday and walk everywhere we could so we could talk to more people and save miles.  The one day we decide to do that it pours down rain the entire day. It POURED. But we knocked doors and walked around anyway! It was actually pretty fun. 

 

I'm so happy for Jake and his baptism and for all the wonderful things that are happening in his ward! He is such an awesome missionary!  I'm also happy to hear that our other missionaries Dom and Alex are doing well :). I'm totally jealous but not even surprised that Jake's mission gets the iPads and that Jake gets to train on it. Lucky.  That's so great that Garrett Brown is going on his mission!! Good for him! He'll do a good job.  Yay for Richard Alldredge who just finished!  He emailed me a few weeks ago and said "you're on a mission? since when?" haha I told him to give you that huge hug mom so I'm glad he did. 

 

Happy Birthday Grandpa! 

 

It sounds like that butterfly atrium was awesome!  I'm glad Jesse is enjoying school and seminary.  And thank you for looking into schools for me. That'd be cool to be Torie's roommate :) we'd have fun! 

 

I'm doing well and I am happy to be here.  White people are cool too.  I'm still very well taken care of and the members are so generous.  The other week someone bought us like 2 1/2 weeks worth of groceries.  Then last night we got presents at a dinner appointment- that was new and totally fine with me :).

 

I love you all and miss you!  Keep being so awesome.

 

Love,

Hermana Inman

Hermana Inman Letter October 7, 2013

Good, Busy Week.

Hey!

 

This week was a lot better.  I even got a chance to work in my old area in Spanish for 24 hours on exchanges!  Then we had conference, which will brighten up any week.  We're starting to be familiar with our area and the members, so that makes the work move forward at a faster pace as well. And we got to go to the temple on Tuesday!  Kris is still as awesome as ever.  We taught him on Friday night and he let us try on his marine gear which weighs just under a million pounds. Then we had a really neat lesson about the Priesthood, which he should be getting on Sunday :).  What a champ.

 

We've been teaching this man named Sina from Iran.  He asks really deep questions and there's a little bit of a language barrier, but we're doing the best we can!  He came to church last week and watched all the sessions of conference!! We're teaching him again today and are hoping something touched his heart as he listened to the words of the Prophet and his apostles. Speaking of General Conference, wasn't that the most inspired and spiritual conference EVER?! It was SO GOOD! I loved the emphasis they put on member missionary work, how we need to all come together and be equally yolked.  It's true, we can't do it by ourselves anymore!  We need your help! Some of my favorite quotes from conference were:

 

     "when we partake of the sacrament we renew not only our baptismal covenants, but all covenants we have ever made with God." -Carole M. Stephens (RS Presidency)

 

     "the past is to be learned from, not to be lived in" -Elder Dube quoting Elder Holland

 

     "first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"- Deiter F. Uchtdorf

 

I have a lot of other favorite quotes but I don't have time to write them.

 

If you read in Mosiah 2 you'll find lots of similarities between the old-school, Book of Mormon general conference, and modern-day general conference! It's neat!

 

Way to be an awesome missionary mom! 2 Book of Mormons in a week! That's awesome! Way to go! :) Keep me updated!

My Pday is on Tuesday next week because of the holiday, FYI.

 

I'm glad you got the email and pictures from the members here!  They seriously take such good care of us. I love you! 

 

I'm glad to hear you got the expedition back and working well! I'm also happy to hear that Jesse and Torie both enjoyed conference :).

 

So, it's been a year!  Officially!  How crazy. Not sure how I feel about it haha it feels good and I feel accomplished to have made it this far and yet it's a scary and sad feeling to know that I only have a few months left.  I'm grateful for this opportunity and plan to give it my all.

 

I love you all and am grateful for your prayers and thoughts and for all you do to give your support. Have a great week!

 

Love,

Hermana Inman

Me and my Verdecito

Missionary gone Marine

The force is strong here

Hermana Inman Letter September 30, 2013

a whole new world!

So here it goes.

 

They whitewashed me into a new area- and an english area. My companion is an english speaking missionary so I can't practice with her and because I am now called to serve in English I have to sacrifice language study time. It's a difficult change not working in Spanish work, opening up a new area, and training. I'm an emotional roller coaster. My companion is Sister MacKay (pronounced Mackey) from Kaysville, Utah. She says she doesn't know Rick and Tammie. I'm serving in the Olivenhain ward, in the Del Mar Stake.  Let me tell you about our stake. $$$$$$$$. and that about sums it up. You know those 5 million dollar homes you see on TV? Yeah, that's my new area, and I walk inside those homes each day. It's quite the contrast from what I've been used to this past year (year! next week is my year mark!). But, these members are truly wonderful and are treating us like celebrities. We're the very first sister missionaries they have ever had in their ward and they are thrilled to have us :). We share the ward with 1 set of Elders. We're fed well and everyone wants to help. And guess what? We just had a baptism on Saturday! We moved in on Tuesday night and they were like, oh, by the way, you have a baptism this saturday! Luckily, the members had already put together most of the program so we didn't have to stress too much about it. It was nice :) his name is Kris and he got baptized within 3 weeks of hearing the gospel. He went to his friend's mission farewell in our ward and asked how he could "be converted."  How awesome is that!

 

Elder Pendergast is my zone leader down here haha.

 

Thank you for the goodie package!!! That was a pleasant surprise :). Adolfo, (our convert from Escondido) sent me a package with a birthday card and an electronic english-spanish translator! haha he's the greatest.

 

The general relief society broadcast was wonderful! I loved President Monson's talk the most about prayer.  We take prayer for granted and I think we could all put more sincerity into our communication with our Heavenly Father.  Watching the sister MTC choir made me cry.. I wished I was in their shoes and had 18 more months left ahead of me.  Watching the broadcast also made me think of you mom, which also made me cry. To be honest I haven't had a hard time with homesickness while out on the mission but since we normally watch the relief society broadcast together I realized how much I miss you! But, I'm still trying to stay focused and am still happy to be here at this time.

 

Dad I'm glad you had a safe trip to San Diego even though there were some mix-ups with your flight and hotel and everything! That's such a long way to walk to conference! But hey, good work out, right? Speaking of workouts, my new area has nothing but hills, which makes running so easy and fun! But, it's doing great things to my body so I'll take it haha.  Running is actually kind of enjoyable now that I've done it for awhile and I never thought I'd say that! I'm glad you were able to make it through your flights, too. Which year did you graduate from Midwestern? My ward mission leader graduated from there and wants to know if you were in the same graduating class. His name is Brother Belnap.  I don't know if that sounds familiar?

 

 

I'm so happy for Torie and Jesse and all of their accomplishments! They are such hard workers and great examples.

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Don't worry about me, just keep me and my companion in your prayers, please, that we may have unity and the Spirit and stay focused. Thanks :)

 

Love,

Hermana Inman

Kris = Baptism

Hermana Inman & the Ocean

At the General Women's Conference Dinner