Hey there, hi there, hoo there!
Howdy doodie, ya'lls?!
Kay, I'm done.
But this week was great! I'm happy, I'm healthy, and I am so grateful to be a missionary! I feel like I have had a change of pace, a new outlook on my life and service as a missionary, and I feel more confident that I am doing the Lord's work, and He is pleased with the efforts I make, even if I am not perfect. When I keep trying my best, the blessings come!
To explain the Subject Line, I feel like Satan has been trying every little thing he can to get me down, and especially to get those we work with down. Luckily, I have managed to bounce back pretty well, but not so much with those who haven't strengthened their faith as much. Por ejemplo, this week, I was looking for a temple name to take. He kept shutting down the page when I'd start to find something. Srsly...
Our apartment seems to be falling apart lately. Our sink didn't work for like a month and no one came by to fix it till recently. Our A/C Broke and smoke started coming out of the vent... turns out it's the original motor which has been there for about 40 years or so? when the apartments were first built. Our microwave stopped working, and the plug-ins didn't work. Our kitchen chair broke. All sorts of fun stuff! (Sounds like something similar is happening back home? It must be because you have a missionary out haha. Sorry.)
And then, the NIGHT before I went to the temple, I get a package from some random person I don't know, addressed to me, which had 5 CDs in it. Here's what it looked like:
Yeah, uh huh. "These CDs can help you become a master teacher of the gospel." "Your brother in Christ". "Mr. Mormon"? And each of the CDs were titled with controversial topics. Yeah that's not going to help me with ANYthing. Nice try, bub. Ugh. But needless to say, but I guess not, you can rest assured that I broke one of them and will figure out how to dispose of the rest. Satan's a real jerk, that's for sure, trying to kick me when I'm down.
Lisa and Megan have been struggling a lot. Megan had a death in the family, and got a new job which has been exhausting and taking up a lot of her time. Then Donna has a neighbor that is a creep that wants to butt into her business, and called her former missionaries to tell us that she's not interested and got offended and doesn't want to meet with us again. So frustrating. But we met with her and found out that it was all a lie, and she is progressing nicely. :) Lisa has been having some family give her trouble about her meeting with us and going to church, and her work has been stressing her out beyond belief. I've never heard of work doing this much to a person. BUT, SHE CAME TO CHURCH ALL ON HER OWN!!!! MIRACLE!!!!!!! We were so so happy to see her! :)
Satan cannot win. He's a gimpy loser.
On Thursday, we got to go to the Gila Valley Temple. :) Back to my last area! It felt wonderful to be in the House of the Lord, and Sister Hunt and I did two family names that Grandpa gave us! I learned some new things. And I didn't let anything get me down the whole day, which was wonderful!
The other Sister Hunt and I rode in the transfer van with a whole bunch of Elders. Needless to say it was an adventure!
Sorry, I didn't get a serious picture. Those are to come.
From back to front, L to R: Elders: Taylor, Duncan, Dustin (behind E.Carr's head), Stephenson, Witzel, Carr, and Hansen. Elder Jackson was driving, and Elder Ludlow was in the passenger's seat.
On our way home, we went to "The Thing". It's a museum, but it's mostly bogus. It's a dollar fee, and mainly for kicks and giggles.
Here's "The Thing", a totally made up mummy haha.
OooooOOOooooOOooOooohh!
Anyway, so enough nonsense. We had some awesome things happen this week!
Today, in the parking lot of Walmart, we saw an older man that was obviously homeless. And so I said hello, and he asked if he knew us. We said no, and he asked if we were the Jehovah's Witnesses. We said no, we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And we legitimately talked to him for about half an hour in the parking lot. He seems to not be all there. His name is Gene. But it was just so sad to talk to him, because he doesn't know why he is even here, why he has to live with the body he has, and he just wants to give up. He didn't understand why people were so mean to him and didn't want to help him, but rather just called him crazy and treated him unkindly. He shared an experience where he felt like he was going to be beat up (he was a little guy) and he cried out to God, saying "Jesus, help me!" and the person left him alone. We testified that God was watching out for him. We testified of God's purpose and plan for him, and that God loved him so much. We shared with him a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation, and tried to give him a Book of Mormon, but he said that he couldn't read. So we invited him to pray for help, to pray to god, and to look at the pictures in the pamphlet, and to think about how he feels. Along with other things. I realized over again the reality of the Plan of Salvation, and how blessed we are to have this knowledge of God's purpose and Plan for us to be happy and receive Eternal Life with our families.
We met with Bob again, and had a good visit. We talked about the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, and he seems to be having a hard time distinguishing the difference between our spirits and the Holy Ghost. But he's still a witty old man, pushing 90. And he came to church on Sunday again! :)
We met with the Bothwell's, the father and grandmother of Spryte and Gaven (remember them?) and talked about enduring to the end, and what their vision for themselves is. We had a VERY spiritually powerful lesson with them, and testified of the Doctrine of Christ.
We met with Mirjana, and gave her the Family Proclamation. She was very interested and excited to read it!!
Other than that, we did mostly finding and contacting people that the bishop and ward council have asked us to see.
We might be getting a new investigator!!! She has met with missionaries in the past, but she contacted Bishop and said she is in desperate need of Spiritual help, and asked if the missionaries could come by and meet with her. We will meet her tomorrow morning. She sounded very distressed and distraught on the phone, and so we pray that we will be inspired to know what the Lord wants her to know, especially of His love for her. Her name is Alicia.
I am sorry, I don't have a ton more to report this week! I've been terrible about writing in my journal :( But not to worry, I really am doing quite well. I can feel the Lord working through me every day. Sister Hunt and I have been working well together. We feel the Spirit in our teaching and planning. I love this work and this Gospel! :)
As missionaries, we learn and teach the Gospel of Christ, the very basis and core of ALL of our practices and beliefs in the Church, which is that Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of the world. When He came down, He taught us the Gospel, and asked us to have Faith in Him, believing that through Him, all of us could be washed clean of our iniquities, and that we can make it back into God's presence again, to stand blameless before Him. With this faith comes a desire to change, to Repent and turn again to those righteous desires to follow Christ. When we truly desire to follow Christ, we covenant with the Father through the ordinance of Baptism, through the Priesthood power and authority of God. He covenants with us that we will have the third member of the Godhead to be with us to sanctify and cleanse us from our sins, and every other gift that comes from the Holy Ghost. Once we have entered into this strait and narrow path, the cycle continues. We increase our faith, we continually repent and renew our covenants. We do all we can to remain worthy of the Spirit, and we continue to make more covenants that draw us closer to our Heavenly Father. This is known as Enduring to the End.
This Gospel is so amazing. To think that our Loving Heavenly Father sent us down here not to fail, but to succeed and grow and progress, ultimately to become like Him, eternally happy.
Happy early birthday Lacey! You're halfway to middle-aged! ;) So... does that make you... quarter aged? After all, you're a quarter of a century old! Ha HA! Love you! :)
Today we get to meet with Lisa after dinner. Then the rest of this week we have Megan, Bob, Alicia, Mirjana, and Enrique and Grisel! So excited! Our stake is changing... and two new wards will be created. We are praying that we will not lose those investigators we have developed a good rapport and relationship with. We don't know what will happen. But there will be new missionaries coming in. I want to keep both of our wards.
Also, TRANSFER CALLS are this Saturday night... We have no idea what is happening. Sister Hunt has one transfer left and goes home Nov. 2nd. We both came in at the same time. President isn't opposed to "one and done's", but either of us could leave. Dunno...
Well, that's all i got for ya. I love you tons, and keep you in my prayers!
Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Inman
P.S. Oh and also, we got to be in a hurricane, so that was cool. It passed right over Tucson. And it's also pouring super hard right now.
Here's Temple Pictures!
NORTH. WEST. ZONE. *snap*
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