Hermana Inman Letter November 25, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So I just typed up a whole entire email and it deleted it as I was about to send it. I don't have time to type it up again :/ sorry.

 

I'm well, exchanges went well, our meeting with Elder Packer went well, and elder Richards of the 70 will be here this week to tell us more about the pilot program we will be doing.

 

Our investigators don't really feel like much of investigators right now, they're not meeting with us or coming to church... it's been really frustrating and hard, but I just promised to do the work and there was no promise that I'd see the results right away, so we just keep on working.

 

The Rivers will be coming down to AZ this week and said they'd be happy to take some things home for me.  They're driving down Wednesday and will be leaving on Saturday.  I'll give them your phone numbers and our address so they can get in contact with you.

 

A few nice families in our ward will be having us over for Thanksgiving this week, we're "party hopping" haha :).

 

Thank you for putting together things for my college applications dad!!!! I'll work with president and we'll do our best to have it done in time. Good luck on the 5K! You guys are awesome! I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!  Tell the family that I say hello!

 

The stories about Jesse cracked me up! I couldn't stop laughing haha and I'm pretty sure everybody in the library was looking at me because of it.  I'm glad Torie is having fun with her friends! That's crazy that she is already applying to college! Wow!  Did she apply to BYU as well? I hope everything is okay with Callie!! Maybe she just needs to exercise her hip more by going on more walks or something.

 

I love you all and am so thankful to be a part of this family.  I am thankful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel and for the opportunity that I have to share it. I am thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered all so that we can return to live with Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families again someday.  I am thankful for all of the faithful prophets who kept and preserved records so that we can have the scriptures today.  I am thankful for our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson and for all of his counselors and apostles who serve us and guide us. I am thankful for each one of you that give your love and support.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe as you travel and participate in all the fun festivities!

 

Love,

Hermana Inman

Hermana Inman Letter November 18, 2013

howdy

We got 3 new investigators! Woo! They're former investigators, which means they had been taught by the missionaries before.  Emma is about 50 years old and when we stopped by to teach her, her son William who is 26 sat in and listened.  We think he is more interested than his mom, so we're anxious to see what happens, although we probably will end up passing him off to the YSA sisters.  Mike is our other investigator; he is in his late forties and is open to learning about different religions.  His family is a strong Lutheran family, but he said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to God to ask if there really is just one true church, and to know if the Book of Mormon is really the word of God. Reading the Book of Mormon brings true conversion! Yeah! We didn't meet with Rufina this week... she's a stubborn Catholic although she didn't even know what the Bible was last week or who Jesus Christ is.... "but she's Catholic and she's never changing!"  we'll still work with her and hopefully she'll come around.  She lives with her mormon kids and grandkids so that helps, too. Claude and his wife came to church yesterday!!! Claude is so awesome and should just be baptized already.  Yesterday we tried setting up an appointment to come over but it was actually his wife (who is a member) that kept coming up with reasons why they're busy and can't have a lesson.  Then their home teacher asked Claude if he could come over this week and even though his wife said they had stuff to do to prepare for their rodeos Claude just said to her in his cowboy voice "Well I don't need the whole day tuh do it! You can come over on Tuesday." So we're stoked that their home teacher is finally going to be able to go over, and now we know that we need to set up appointments with Claude if we want to come over and not his wife... we'll see what we can do! That was a whole lot of information that probably doesn't matter for you guys though haha don't know why I just typed up that whole story.

 

I'm going to be on an exchange almost every day this week.  Holy cow. I'll still be pretty close to my area, and will actually be staying in my own ward for one of the nights with a different sister, but other than that I'll be in the Del Mar ward, La Costa ward, and the YSA ward.  Should be fun! I feel like I learn more from these sisters than they could ever learn from me. They're such good teachers and really have a desire to work and help people.

We knocked a lot of doors this week and were out in the streets quite a bit trying to talk to everyone!  Most of the people were surprisingly really nice!  One lady answered her door and rudely rejected the message, and then as we were walking away, just opened her door back up and said, "are you girls hungry? you must be starving from working so hard.  Wait here."  Then she came back with apples for both Sister MacKay and I.  It was weird to see her do a complete 360 from being rude to feeding us, but it was neat to see her change of heart- it showed in her eyes and on her face. The Spirit must have pricked her heart :).  We had another neat experience this week- we had been trying to get ahold of a less-active lady in our ward Tracy, and we could never catch her at home or at the right time.  She usually tells us to come over in the mornings, but when we were planning the night before, we felt like we should go see her in the evening instead.  So we did, and she was so grateful that we came and she told us to come over the very next day, this time in the afternoon.  What we didn't know, was that that day, our relief society president had gone to the temple and put her name on the prayer list so that we could get in touch with her and help her.  After she had returned home from the temple we texted her and asked her to come with us to a lesson with Tracy.  There's a cool testimony builder of temples and prayer and planning by the Spirit!

 

Elder Packer from the Seventy is here in our mission for the week and will be doing zone conferences and telling us what we will be doing with this Family History project we've been working on.  I'll let you know what the news is!  I kind of wish we were getting iPads like Jake, but I guess Family History is cool too.  Elder Packer requested to have a private meeting with the Mission Leadership Council (MLC) tonight which includes the Assistants, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders, which means I get to go! I'm stoked!

 

We got to help the Jones family put up some of their Christmas decorations this week!  They have a mansion and set up about 12 trees each year, so we didn't finish... but it was fun and homey.  We had hot chocolate afterwards and cookies, just like Christmas time.  They are so awesome and generous and love the missionaries, and we love them :).

 

I'm glad the family is doing so well, I love to hear the stories about what's going on at home.  Congratulations on such a successful year in band, Torie, you're awesome. Congratulations Jesse on getting 100% on all of your tests! You're so smart! Smarty pants.

 

 I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Inman

Hermana Inman Letter November 12, 2013

Greetings from abuelita (grandma) Inman

Mom, you're going to be so proud of me.  I finally pulled out those grandma shoes you made me get before I started my mission.  I have to tell you, I've only worn them like twice on my mission, in areas where they wouldn't be noticed, but now I just don't care haha.  The other night I could barely walk because my knees and feet and back were all just so achy from walking as much as we have been, and so I put aside my pride and put on the ugly grandma shoes, and wore them for the rest of the day. Outside. In public. Somebody told me they look like water shoes. But I don't even care, my knees and feet and back had never felt so good. So, thanks for insisting that I get them and take them with me.  They have proven to be so helpful haha :).

Speaking of grandma's, I'M SO HAPPY THAT GRANDMA GOT A KIDNEY!!! WHAT A MIRACLE!!!  What a huge answer to all the prayers and fasting.  I'm glad to hear that the surgery went so well and that she is recovering so quickly :)  that makes me so happy, and I'm sure the entire Inman family (and others) feel the same way! Ahh, what a relief.  What a blessing.

I was asked what a Sister Training Leader (STL) does, and if I will be getting to do Spanish exchanges.  A STL is basically the girl version of a zone leader.  There is one almost every zone now, and we go on exchanges with each sister in our zone each transfer. Unfortunately I won't be going on any Spanish exchanges, there aren't any Spanish sisters in the Del Mar zone. I'm over 7 sisters, including my companion, so I will be going on 6 exchanges within the next 2 weeks!  It's stressful and tiring, but it's fun :)  you get to see different areas and get to know other missionaries.  STL's also do trainings with the zone leaders at zone training meetings (which I get to do tomorrow).  I got to go to Mission Leadership Council on Friday, which is where the President and the Assistants train us and show us what we need to teach in our zones.  It was really neat and spiritual.  I really have no idea why I was given this assignment, except maybe for a little bit of humbling haha I feel like there are so many other sisters who are more qualified to teach and help than I am, but I am excited and grateful for the opportunity.

We got a new investigator!! Rufina is a cute little old Filipino lady.  She's a strong Catholic and has never wanted to do anything with the church, although her son and their family are LDS (in our ward).  She came to church for the very first time last Sunday and said we could come over to teach her.  The first lesson was rough... We thought a brother in our ward who served his mission in the Philippines spoke her same dialect, and so we brought him with us to translate.  The entire lesson she was quiet and gave us blank stares and couldn't really answer any questions.  So finally, she told us that she can only speak a little bit of the dialect bro. stanworth was saying, and she speaks a different dialect. That would have been good to know!  Luckily, we figured out a time when her son can be there at the same time to translate in the right language.  We don't have any Tagolog speaking missionaries here, or branches, so we're fortunate to even have somebody who can translate for us. We're teaching her on Saturday so I'll let you know how it goes.  Their family was in the city where the typhoon hit, and they haven't heard from them yet; they're very worried.

 

We finally got into Claude's house the other day!  We randomly stopped by, and although he wasn't home, his wife was and she let us in. We're going to help them put up Christmas Decorations this week :).
 

Julie didn't come to the baptism :( she flaked last minute.  We're still searching for investigators. Thanks for the prayers :).  Remember Sina?  He moved to the other ward a few weeks ago, but he still keeps coming to our sacrament meeting.  At least he still has the desire, right?
 

That's cool news Dad!  I think you and mom would really love to serve a mission together someday.  I see the couple missionaries in our mission and I know you would be so happy serving together.  When there's a will (especially the Father's will), there's a way!
 

Mom I'm glad to hear your trip went well!  How fortunate we are to know about the plan of salvation.  It brings me so much comfort to know that we can be with our families forever, even after death.  I'm grateful for our family and look forward to spending eternity with you guys.  
 

Thank you to both mom and dad for sending me some family history!! I love the stories :)  it's kind of addicting to do genealogy! That's fun that you get to go to the family history center and to the classes each week.
 

I got your letters and the SD card, thanks mom :).  I also got a letter from Jake! I miss that kid.  Good luck at super state Torie!! You are going to rock it! I'm so proud of you!  Congratulations Jesse on your hunting trip! You'll have to tell me if the meat is any good.  How's the electric slide coming? I'm sure you look great- all the girls will want to dance with you.
 

I loved Jake's email this week, about his experience with the rude man, and how they had the courage to turn around and go back to his house to bear testimony of our Savior. What a special experience. I had an experience kind of similar, but not quite as profound as Jake's the other night.  We were walking around contacting (talking to people outside) and this guy popped out of nowhere.  We started talking to him and he told us he'd listen to what we have to say if we would listen to him first.  We said ok.  He started telling us that we're wasting our time and we're being stupid, told us there were some bad people around, and that he could be a serial killer for all we know and he could kill us right now.  He told us to be careful and go home.  Then continued to counsel us to go out and get drunk and do something stupid, to live life.  He was using such profane language.  I started bearing my testimony of the truths we know, and especially about or Savior, and the plan of salvation.  You could feel the Spirit come join us as we testified of gospel truths.  He was dumbfounded a few times and had nothing else to say.  It was neat to see the power of the Spirit when we bear testimony of simple gospel truths.  Moral of the story, your testimony and faith in the Savior are one of your most powerful tools! Don't be afraid to use them!
 

Anyway, sorry this is such a long email.  I'm glad to hear the family is doing well :).  I love you all and miss you!  Have a great week and be happy!
 

Love,
Hermana Inman

Hermana Inman Letter November 4, 2013

Happy November!

Sounds like Halloween was fun for everyone! Our ward hosted an awesome trunk or treat, and there were at least 30 non-members there. It was sweet!  It was hard to judge the costume and "best trunk" contests! I totally won the best costume contest at our zone activity last week. It was hilarious, we walked in, and about half of our zone was dressed up in legit disney costumes, and none of us knew anybody else was planning to do that.  We had a couple goofys, chip and dale, mickey mouse, donald duck, and I can't remember what else. It was a good time.

 

We had to go inside early on Halloween; it was nice to have a couple hours to just relax- that never happens.  We carved pumpkins with a family in our ward- it was intense.  They used a screw driver with a detachable "pumpkin-gutter" and knife/carver.  You just plug in the screw driver and power carve out the top, then you attach the pumpkin gutter and detach all the slimy pumpkin guts from inside in about 3 minutes. Then you attach the carver again and carve a perfect picture on the pumpkin. This is the 21st Century, I suppose.

 

The Jones bought me a new blow dryer haha (they are the ones who buy us groceries sometimes :))   They are so sweet, they bought our groceries again this week.  We love them!  Their friends came to the trunk or treat, and we hope to start teaching them soon.  We've been working with another lady in our ward (the one who gives us dinner presents haha this ward is ridiculously awesome), whose friend comes over every week and we've been able to teach her a few lessons.  She says she's not open to hearing the missionary lessons yet, but she has listened to our message for a couple weeks in a row now and enjoys our visits :)  she's coming to a baptism this Saturday which is HUGE progress.  The elders in our ward have an investigator getting baptized this Saturday and I'm singing a musical number with them. Should be fun and hopefully not too off pitch ha. We're still trying to get in contact with Claude.  We don't have any solid investigators. It's really hard because we just walk and knock on doors pretty much all day every day; we get "shooed" a lot.  It's just a really wealthy area and most people feel like they already have everything- that's one of the biggest things I miss about Spanish work- the humility.  But, I am grateful to be here, and I realize that missionary work is just that, work! We're just waiting to see the fruit of our labors, which I know will come in the Lord's time.

 

I just got called to be a Sister Trainer Leader!  It's exciting and yet makes me a little bit nervous at the same time. I'm excited because that means I get to go on exchanges almost every week, and there's a chance that they'll be in Spanish!  It's a lot of responsibility though, and I have to make sure I'm always doing things right because the sisters will be watching a little more closely now. But, the Lord doesn't call the qualified, but rather qualifies whom He calls, so I know I can do it.

 

Our mission is going to be visited by Elder Packer from them 70 in a couple weeks, and will be introducing to us a new pilot program that we'll be using on Family History.  In preparation for that, he has asked that we gather some information about our family.  I've been able to get most of the facts from familysearch.org, but was wondering if you could please send me the following:

 

• where I was born
• birth places of: Mom, Dad, Jake, Torie, Jesse, Grandma, Grandpa (both sides), All of my aunts and uncles (both sides), great grandparents
• short stories or memories about grandparents & great grandparents (I didn't know them!)
• full names of my aunts and uncles and their b-days (as well as the children of my great grandparents)

It's a ton of work, I know!  I'm not sure what we'll be doing with this program but I'm excited to find out.

P-day is on Tuesday next week due to Veteran's Day.

Jesse looked like he had a blast hunting! I know he's always wanted to do that, and I'm sure he was living the dream.  That was so nice of grandpa to give Jesse the meat and the head! No doubt he is one happy boy right now. Torie looks good on her Senior Night! Good for her!  Congratulations on going to Super State!  I wish I could be there to see it; I know you guys will do fantastic. I'm glad Torie could stay awake during her stake conference talk haha.  I'm also sad to hear about Ardie's husband and will be praying for her. Be safe on your trip mom!

 

You said one of the elders in your ward is from Idaho and he's super tall.  Is his name Elder Jones, by chance?  There's an elder in our mission here who told me his brother is serving in Surprise, AZ right now and it's his first area.  He's a Spanish elder, but maybe he's in English right now like I am? He's super tall and is from Idaho haha.

 

I'm happy to hear about all of your missionary efforts :) keep it up!  This is the greatest and most important work we can do!

 

I'm glad you got the pictures from Sandy.  We had dinner at their house last night- they have 2 missionaries out right now, too.  She's the daughter of Mr. Marriott from Marriott Hotels... and we have the previous CEO from Clorox in our ward. Just to give you an idea of the kind of people I'm working with here... :) Let's just say super sweet and gorgeous homes.  You know what's neat though? Even though these members are wealthy, they are still so humble and so generous with what they have.  They are so missionary-minded and are willing to give everything to serve the Lord. :)  and that's the way it should be.

 

I love you all!  Have a great week and be safe and happy!

 

Love,

Hermana Inman