Sister Inman Letter - October 24, 2016

I'm an Aunt!!!! :')

Wow, what an incredible week. So much joy, and gratitude, and happiness, and tears of all of the above. I am so grateful to have received the beautiful news that sweet Rory was born. i can't imagine the joy you all felt being in her presence, but thank you SO much for sending me pictures and allowing me to see her and feel the sweet spirit all the way over here. I have to admit that I cry just about every time I look at her. She's beautiful. And yes, Mom, I will indeed spoil that baby. :) (Not for blog: Does this make Jesse "Uncle Nana"? Or "Uncle Buddy"? hahaha)

I'm sending a little something your way for her, it's not perfect, but I tried to be creative haha. A lot of love went into it though!

This week was pretty good! There were definitely some obstacles, and heartbreaking, but you know, God is good. And Rory came just in time. :)

A couple of experiences:

This week, two of our investigators dropped us. Marion, who was a new, and we were vey sad about that, because it was a miracle that we found her, and then... Rod. :/ It was like a mutual drop though. We read D&C 20:37 with him, (the requirements for baptism) with him, and asked what he thought he had accomplished so far out of those. He then opened up to us and told us that he didn't want to deceive us, and that it really just came down to the fact that he didn't want to give up his lifestyle and habits. He knows it's true and that God wants him to be baptized, but it is just so hard, and he has been the way he is for this long, and doesn't want to be held accountable for the things he is doing, that he would be if he were baptized. We were very upset about that one, and did not expect it at all. We really felt like he was going to do it. But the weird thing is... He still came to church... and for the first time at the new building... I have to say that was a little awkward. But anyway.

So along with these hard experiences, God showed us tender mercies.

We have been praying for new investigators this week, as our teaching pool has become a little slim. And once Jayda will be baptized, we will be even slimmer! Jayda is still being baptized this Saturday evening, and we FINALLY found a church building! So many blessings there. But anyway, so after Marion dropped us, we went to go talk to a woman in our ward about our investigator Diane (who is doing wonderfully by the way, and she came to church again and loved the Primary Program), and on the way, we saw her next door neighbor. He has one of those huge blow-up decorations that you put outside for Halloween or Christmas, and it had fallen down. It refused to stand back up. He just came home from work and went to tie the posts down again, and we were like, let's go help him or talk to him. So we did. And we asked if he could help, or if "he was pulling weeds" and he said no, he was just trying to put the thing back up. We offered to come back another time to help him pull weeds. Then we asked if he was religious at all. He said that he wasn't really, but his wife was, and he asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We said, no, and told him we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And asked if we could come back and talk to his wife, if she would be interested. His name was Matt, and he told us we could come back, and what times work best. :) Wow. Awesome!

Then we tried some less-actives who were not home. So we tried a house that missionaries had knocked in the past. We went to follow up with a lady named Lauren who accepted a Book of Mormon. Her husband, a young army man, had also just come home from work and answered the door. He was very nice to us, and said she wasn't home, but that they had actually been thinking about going back to church. He told us to come back when his wife was home, because she might be interested in meeting with us. What? So amazing. God prepares people. We will be praying that these people are prepared and ready to receive the Gospel! :)

Also, a less active who we've been meeting with who has not been to church in forever finally came out of the blue, and has been the past two weeks. We've also been praying for a reactivation this month, as part of the #FTF Challenge, which we have about two more weeks left. (1 baptism and 1 reactivation this transfer/first week of next transfer). And the one we thought it would be ended up not being reactivated, and here comes another woman who we didn't even think would anytime soon. The power of prayer is real!

One more week of the transfer. Can you believe it? I feel like I just got here. Wow... We get transfer calls on Saturday. I'm not sure if Sister McCombie will stay, or what will happen. She's only been here one more transfer than I have. We will see!

Anyway, I love each of you so much, and keep you in my prayers always. Once again I am so grateful to have our newest addition to our family, she gets cuter and cuter with ever picture I see.

I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Inman

Sorry, my pictures aren't as cute as Rory's are hahaha. That baby fits right in. I love her already :)

 

Found this little guy on our front porch!

  

Painting pumpkins for the trunk or treat fall festival! :)

 Found this dress at Goodwill today. $5.00. Yep, I bought it. I figured it said "Sister Missionary" all over it. 

 

 :) xD

 

Ignore my face fat. The chain mail pushed it all out..

Sister Inman Leter - October 17, 2016

Mamma Mia!

Ay ho dee ho! (See Kid History)

So I read through my email last week and was mortified by how many autocorrect fails there were! Sorry about that, I'm usually alright with grammar and spelling. Pero, not this last time I guess. Congratulations to those of you who could actually understand what I was trying to say! Haha.

Well, this week was another week in paradise! (Vail?) 

To give you a lo-down on what sort of people live in Vail, One of the wards pretty much all live in areas similar to what you would see around Grandma and Grandpa's house, except the roads should barely be called roads, and it's a little less organized haha. But there are still some incredible people that live there! The best word to describe the majority of the people in that ward  is "redneck". That was actually given by the bishop, who named all of his children after guns. He's also hilarious, so it makes sense. He dubbed our ward mascot as a deer. But I'd say it's more like a goat.

Well I once again forgot my journal at home. :/ So sorry about that. 

On Tuesday I had a Dr.'s appointment in Tucson, which is actually in my last area! So that was fun to be there. We also got to drive by the temple! And stop in the mission office and see the sweet senior couples, who then took us out to lunch at Kneaders (Which is super good, by the way), which was perfect, because the next day was my year mark :) We got Elder Anderson to take a selfie x)

On our way home, I went too far northeast, and so we went to a Circle K for a pit stop and so I could reroute my way home. While we were there, Sister mcCombie contacted the worker there, who was a cute girl named Breanna. She was extremely nice and talked to us about what was going on in her life, and how God has been her one source of strength. It was amazing, because we invited her to meet with us, or whoever the missionaries are in that area, and gave her our number. How cool!

On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Sister Adams! She is amazing. (Not my trainer, but the other one). She also speaks Spanish. So we got to speak some together, and said all of our prayers in Spanish, too. :) And you know what's miraculous? That Circle K happened to be in those sisters' area. They have been searching hard for people to teach. And whataya know? My mistake of missing a turn, and Sister McCombie's ability to talk to anybody about the Gospel allowed us to meet someone who was prepared to hear the Gospel. We were on our way to try someone else, and I mentioned Bre. So she asked if I wanted to try Bre first, or the other family. I got the feeling to try to see Breanna at Circle K again. So we walked in, and she was there. She had JUST gotten to work, and remembered me from the previous day, and talked to me as though we had been friends before then! I introduced her to Sister Adams, and she gave us her number, and said Monday evenings work best. Hopefully they will meet with her tonight. :) Miracles happen! And God works with our weaknesses. "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". The Lord is hastening His work!

On Friday, we helped out with a Cub-O-Ree for the Cub Scouts. We helped teach a class about helping the boys understand and teach the Plan of Salvation. It was so fun to participate. We also got to see a couple of the other activities, like Static Electricity, Articles of Faith, and Etiquette. I learned how to create an electric charge and use it to move things without even touching it! (Almost like the force! Maybe that's how they did it!) And also I learned how to use static electricity to light up a light bulb. Pretty cool, huh?

We also had a lesson with Marion, a new investigator that the Sisters found on exchanges! Her story is miraculous too. Exchanges are inspired! And another lesson with Diane. Please pray for her, she is progressing so well, but Satan is trying so hard on her!

We met with Rod again. Rod has been struggling with the Word of Wisdom. He has been drinking coffee for about 50 years now. He knows he needs to be baptized, but is struggling with gaining a desire to give up coffee and be baptized. This last week, we went to go check up on him, but decided to make it a mini lesson. We sit outside with him. And we just listened with love, and he opened up to us. We asked him again, a couple weeks later, how he felt about giving up coffee and having less of it. In contrast to his last response, that it felt awful and he hated it, he said that he knew it would make him feel better, and he was feeling a little happier and content about it. He said he knew that God would be happy with him, and that he would feel better, and that he wouldn't have that guilty feeling anymore. We read a few scriptures with him about how the Holy Ghost changes our hearts, so that we no longer have a disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. We then asked him how much of his decaffeinated coffee he had left. (He had made the transition from caffeinated to decaffeinated, which is a big step in the process!) He said about 6 cups left. He had previously mentioned that he used to drink Ovaltine, and that it reminded him of his childhood. We asked him if he were to replace coffee with something, once he gave it up, what it would be. And he told us that he would switch to Ovaltine! So we challenged him, that at the end of or before the end of this can of coffee, to completely switch over to Ovaltine, which we would provide the first can. :) He said "Yes." And we were SO excited. He said, "That should be easy!" What? Yayyyy!!!!!

We had two investigators come to church yesterday. Jayda, and Alize, who has not come forever because her mom has "banned her from ever going again" due to one bad day. We brought a member to our lesson with them, and she boldly but lovingly invited her to church, and offered her a ride. Alize was beaming the whole time. :) And our whole day was brightened when we saw her at church.

I need your help! Would you mind praying for these people? Prayers are so powerful for people investigating the church! Thank you!!!

1. Rod- strength and faith to progress towards baptism

2. Diane- answers to her prayers, desire to be baptized

3. Jayda- That we will be able to find an open building and font that we can use for her baptism--Side note: There are approx. 6 baptisms happening for different sets of missionaries on the SAME DAY. And get this: It's the same night as everybody's trunk or treat. Our building does not have a font, her family is all nonmembers and have taken off work to be there at that time, and so many more fun things. It has been the most hectic and stressful baptism planning...

4. Marion- desire to learn about the restored Gospel

Thank you all so much!

I love you and pray for you daily! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Inman

Rod is the old guy. Hahahahahaha

xD

The Show family :) I love them so much. Trey is 6 and he is hilarious.

I didn't take a year-mark picture, but here's a recent one!

Kneaders!

Driving by the temple

Sister Inman Letter - October 10, 2016

Wow oh wow! Has it been a year? Happy Birthdayyyy!!!!!

Hello family!!!!

Wow, thank you sooooooo much for all of your emails this week! I truly felt the love coming my way. And it was perfect timing because I am about to hit my year mark this week! It is so crazy, and time has gone by so fast since I have come on my mission. Yesterday, I was pondering a lot about who I have become since I've come on my mission. I contemplated about the lessons I've learned, and the experiences I've had, and the perspective that I have gained. I didn't truly realize before just how much I have changed. And I am so grateful to have had these past 12 months to grow and stretch and learn and progress in many ways.

Get ready to read! So I discovered that when I speak into the voice recognition thing, that it makes emailing a lot faster because I don't actually have to type it out. I unfortunately can't do that at the library considering as it would be embarrassing for me haha. But today is your lucky day! But please forgive me if there's any grammar issues in here, it's not my fault aha.

So anyways,

I feel like my perspective on life has changed, in that I have been able to focus on more important things, rather than those things that really don't matter in the eternal scheme of things. I feel like I had become closer to the Savior. And I have come to realize just how important it is to understand the restored gospel, and how crucial it is to follow it in order to gain "peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come". I have come to realize how vital daily scripture study and prayer is to our spiritual well-being and survival. I've come to learn things about myself that I would not have otherwise learned had I not come on a mission. I have learned what it means to work hard and to keep trying and have faith in the Lord's timing. I have learned how to pray sincerely and fervently for not only other people but for myself. I have felt just a taste of what the Savior feels when we refused to except his gospel and keep his commandments.

I have learned that nothing is worth the spiritual damage that comes from Satan, and that by submitting our will to his, we receive the promise of much greater blessings and we could ever imagine. I have learned obedience is not a burden, but it is rather a blessing and an opportunity to exercise my agency righteously. Through my turning my will to God, I have witnessed miracles that have happened that would not have otherwise happened had I not listen to the promptings of the Spirit. I have learned how crucial it is to not do anything that would disrupt or hinder the spirits guidance and influence in my life. I have learned that obedience to the simple things could to foundation
that allows us to make the greater decisions later in life.

I have learned that family is everything. I have seen destroyed homes, destroyed marriages and relationships, and ruined lives, and depressed souls. These are those of the gospel can heal our hearts and give peace to our minds and souls.

I have learned the true happiness comes in the Gospel, and that there is no equal replacement. One of Satan's greatest tricks is to present us with a cheap alternative and impersonation and imitation. But what he offers us will never ever be anything compared to the glory and grandeur and await us from following the council of our Savior Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are the key to happiness. The book of Mormon is the word of God, Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and through him Jesus Christ restored the very same church that he created when he came down personally upon the earth.

God speaks to his prophets today. God hears our prayers. He is merciful, he is loving, but his judgments are just. He will never take away our agency, only we can do that. Satan will try to convince us that Preston dating the day of our repentance is the way to go, but it is not. I have found joy through repentance, and life is so much easier when you don't have that burden of sin on your shoulders.

Since I have come on my mission, I have come to realize my own individual worth in the sight of God. I have begun to see this as I have seen others who don't understand this truth. I have been able to help people realize their divine nature and individual worth it in the sight of God, you're sharing the doctrine of God being our loving heavenly father. That is the first The doctor and we teach as missionaries, and it is for reason. Nothing else matters unless that is true. If God did not love us, we would not be here and this life would not happen, nor would we ever have the chance to become like him. We would not have agency, Nor would we have joy. Families would not be together forever. There would be no Savior, for if God did not love us he would not have sent his Son. But he does love us. And because he loves loves us, he has reached out to his children in love over and over again since the time that mankind began. He gives us modern day prophets who revealed to us God's will for us in order to receive joy and strength and peace.

Because he loves us, he inspired many men to write down their spiritual experiences, their history, there are prophecies, and other things that are they esteemed of great worth, not for themselves, for they had already experienced it; but as Moroni tells us, these things are written for our benefit that we might come to know the Savior, and know that we are not cast off forever, but that through the Savior, we might have eternal life.

Because God loves us, he has given us his organized church through which we can receive eternally binding ordinances and make covenants with God that last forever. We have temples in which we receive peace, and power, and protection, and guidance. And because he loves us he allows all of these promises to me made to the living and the dead. How great the love of our heavenly father!

Sorry, the actual report will be a little short haha.

This week we had a couple of tender mercies happen. Our investigator Diane came to church! Also, we are able to serve at the Bishop storehouse in the cannery, and Rod came!!! We bagged beans and collectively with those other volunteers who came we bagged 2100 pounds of beans. It was a lot of fun, and we had been looking for ways that we could give service. Our investigator Jayda is still going strong and progressing towards her baptism at the end of this month. She is amazing.

Sister McCombie and I gave a training at zone meeting this week about diligence, and it actually went pretty well! This song is pretty spread out, so we don't usually see each other very often. But today we are doing P day at the park, which only happens like once a transfer. It should be fun :)

Here are a couple of quotes/thoughts that I have a learned or heard recently:

"When God speaks and man obeys, man will always be right." -Thomas S. Monson

"The healing of our heart begins when we submit to and worship God. In order to have a healed and faithful heart, we must first allow it to break before the Lord." -Sister Neill F. Marriott

I have recently been studying about the spiritual gift to have faith to be healed. If you would like to study this with me, a couple of talks that I was going to study are: the master healer, the souls sincere desire, repentance: a joyful choice, the great plan of redemption, and yielding our hearts to God. Forgive the capitalization issues.

Also, I wanted to invite you to listen to a song. It is called I Love the Lord by Daniel Beck. It has become one of my favorite songs, and it is beautiful. Very powerful. It is to the tune of Be Still, My Soul, and it is based upon Nephi's psalm in 2 Nephi 4. Let me know what you think!

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful week, and I love you!!!

You are always in my prayers.

Love,

Sister Inman

Sister Inman Letter - October 3, 2016

What a Fantastic Conference!

Hello family!

Well, I've been sick most of this week. I was doing fine until I randomly became congested and all that nastiness. Ugh it's miserable. And, I also left my journal at home. But luckily I wrote a few notes on my iPad, so here's what I got!

We have been working with this amazing family, the Show's. They are active, but the kids just need some uplifting and spiritual boosts. They are so wonderful, and I have come to love them so much already. They are on Fall Break. Over here they do year-round school, so their breaks are longer. But we have been going over there every morning and reading from the Book of Mormon with the kids. They are so cute. The youngest boy is 6. And he's such a cute kid. :)
​
Tuesday we had our daily visit, and they made us muffins.
Wednesday we set a baptismal date with Jayda!!!!!! October 29th :) Her mom said she was so excited for her! :) We are so happy for her, she is amazing. She is living with some members in our ward, the Weitz. 
On Thursday, Rod, our investigator committed to give up coffee for one day!
Sister Leach helped us and gave him the idea to put a picture of Jesus on his coffee pot. :) it made me so proud when he got up and did it. That takes humility. We almost cried.




Friday
Lunch at Freddy's with Billy!!! :) we got lost.... ;( Billy is a super old man who loves the missionaries. He's been baptized for a couple years now, I think, and he just loves all of the missionaries in the world. So he is at every transfer day, and keeps in contact with all of the Sister Missionaries in the mission, and wishes us "Happy Sabbath"s, and will drive all over the place to take each of us out to lunch or for ice cream. He is the sweetest, and I finally got to meet him in person!




Saturday
Morning Session at Stake Center, then afternoon session of conference with Diane!!! Awesome!!! (Future baptismal date? She's so ready!) Also, please pray for her. She has gone through a lot.

Wasn't Conference amazing? I loved it so much.

And then...ROD GAVE US HIS COFFEEEEE!!!! He had gone two whole days without it, and then we asked him to get rid of his remaining coffee, and he gave it to us!!!! We are keeping it as a reminder that God is Good! :)


​

Sunday
General Conference with Leach's! Their daughter is on a mission, and she comes out with us to a lot of lessons. She is amazing!


Some thoughts:SHARE THE GOSPEL! Do not be hesitant to testify of the Restoration or of Joseph Smith.
Read, "Make the exercise of faith your first priority" footnote 6. Incredible promises about the Book of Mormon and Prayer and FHE and Temple Attendance!

REACH OUT to less active's/NONMEMBERS who are meeting with missionaries, especially when they come to church! 

-pray for missionaries in the ward, then pray for guidance to know how YOU can help them, and then be WILLING to act! Invite them to take discussions in your home. 

-fellowship new members and love them to death! Constant support! 

I have definitely seen how the power of prayer has helped me as a missionary and in this area. I noticed that much of conference was focused on the simple doctrines and principles of the Gospel, namely: the Gospel of Jesus Christ: (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End....) As well as service, prayer, the Restoration  and Joseph Smith.(I especially loved those ones) :). And I very much came to understand and deepen my conversion and testimony and desire to share these truths with EVERYBODY. I have to say that the music in this particular conference was very inspiring and I noticed more this time how well the talks were aligned with the music performed. I noticed this association when President Uchtdorf said the hymn would be "Come, Ye Thankful People Come" and then President Eyring's talk was on Gratitude. (I totally guessed it too haha.) 

But Saturday Afternoon's Session was particularly meaningful, especially because it was very much missionary-minded, and missionaries sang, and I cried a lot. Especially because it was, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go". I really needed the talk that was given about being Ambitious for Christ. And I really pondered upon when he told the story about the poor, sweet missionary in Japan, (Korea?) and he had to be sent home for medical reasons. I just about cried when He said, "Why am I here?" "Why was I called to Japan?" That just struck me to the very center. I had to ask myself that selfsame question. "Why am I here? Why was I called to the Arizona Tucson Mission?" And I really had to think. There has to be a reason why I was kept so close, and why I needed to be here. I am still figuring that out. I still get questions about it all of the time. I still get asked how I felt about being called here. 

I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk about what faith Can do and Cannot do. That really helped me as well!

Anyway, Sorry that was kind of a lame email! All I really have is pictures! I hope you have a wonderful week! I love yo so much!

Love,

Sister Inman

HORNY TOAD!

Look what these little boys did to their sister's room when she is gone! They turned it into a fort with disco lights. No, Jesse, you do not have permission to turn my room into a fort. Rory already stole it. ;) Unless she wants to have a disco party for her birthday... :)

Sister Inman Letter - September 26, 2016

Hello from the middle of Nowhere!!!

Howdy hey! Sorry, I'm distracted today.

Well ladies and gentlemen, here we are. I've been transferred to the grand city of Vail, Arizona. Don't know where that is? That's okay. Essentially it is like a helicopter was flying in the desert in search of life forms, and then the pilot sneezed and dropped a couple neighborhoods and houses sporadically throughout. I like it, though, it reminds me of my first area, but more like Hereford and Palominas than Sierra Vista haha.

But this week has been really good!

I feel like I was sent to this area so that I could apply the tremendous successes I had in my last area to help this area to bloom and flourish! It's quite different from my last area. In many ways!

But I love my companion, Sister McCombie. She is from Chini, Washington, by Spokane, and came out with me when I came back from the MTC. We served right next to each other in the Gila Valley. This is the first time I have been Senior Companion. It's a different experience, that's for sure! And I'm also the Designated Driver!  (Never saw that one coming, huh? Hahaha.)  I'm driving a Nissan Frontier. We definitely need one out here in the Boonies.

Since I came to this area, I have had an increased determination to serve with ALL of my heart, might, mind, and strength. I have consistently followed the morning and night schedule near perfectly this whole week. And I feel that it has helped me feel more capable as a missionary, my studies have become more meaningful, and the Spirit is increasingly more present.

One thing I have been working on lately has been sincere prayer, and calling upon the powers of Heaven through prayer. Since I have been improving my prayers, I feel the Spirit working more through me, and I feel more confident that I can be successful in this area, with my companion, who also works extremely hard every day. I am learning so much from her.

We are praying and working and trying our hardest to find the people that the Lord has prepared. I feel like my Faith to Find has been strengthened already!

Tuesday was probably the most productive transfer day ever! We immediately got to work! We had a lesson with a man named Rod, who became our new investigator this week! He already reads from the Book of Mormon and Bible every day, and has a testimony of prayer. His prayers are so sincere! We invited him to be baptized on October 22nd. We will be working with him a bit. He knows God wants him to be baptized, but said he just has to want to do it. So we invited him to pray for the desire to do God's will and be baptized. Another lesson was with Amara, a freshman, who told us she was going to be baptized into another church on Sunday........ we have tried to help her understand Priesthood authority, but we might need to go over that again. We fasted for her. She wasn't baptized yesterday, and she postponed it for another month. We have time. :)

Well, I have felt and seen the Lord's hand in my life! God is so good to me. He has especially been blessing me to catch onto names and details and directions more quickly than ever. And it has been amazing. I am so grateful.

Women's conference was INCREDIBLE!!! My favorite was President Uchtdorf's talk. "Fourth Floor, Last Door". Missionary work to a T. My prayers and concerns were answered. :) Everyone go back and watch it!

On Sunday I seriously gave 6 prayers in church, including sacrament, because I am the new missionary. I also held a guinea pig last night that peed on my arm and skirt. Check that off the bucket list.

Anyway, I love you all and pray for you daily!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Inman

From last week and this week:

I had to snag your wonderful missionaries for a picture tonight, while I was waiting for my YW to be picked up.

This one family has a ton of dogs and most of them have handicaps. This one's name is Barbie because they spilled pink paint on it.

Found this little creepy critter, as big as my finger!

Selfie a day. Day 1

Day 3

Lovely sign on the door hahaha

Sister Inman

Me and the Brinkerhoff's

Transfer Day!!!