Sister Inman Letter - April 10, 2017

"A little over 18 months"

Hello Family and Friends! Top of the Mormon to ya! 

So it has been another fabulous week as a missionary, and boy do I have the experiences to share with you! They keep on coming! I have truly seen the miracles coming faster and more frequently lately, and I think it has a lot to do with our attitudes, faith, diligence, and obedience. We have been trying to really focus on the work and helping others come unto Christ. When you read that, it sounds like a given, but really, it doesn't just come without significant effort on your part. But all in all, I have seen the blessings of doing our very best, and striving to work as a team with the Spirit on our side!

Saint David is a blessed place. I have truly come to love it and the wonderful people here. has been so good to me, and I am well taken care of.

I have a testimony that God works through us, and that His timing is perfect. I know that He knows His sheep, and what they need. He sends aid to us and answers our prayers. If we follow the promptings of the Spirit, we will be the workers and witnesses of miracles.

To begin. Earlier this week, on Tuesday evening, we had planned to finish some weekly planning that we hadn't had the chance to finish the previous week. (I know, I'm slacking...) but we had planned to do that after we had made a few visits. So we finished the set lessons and visits we had, and were going to go home from there. So we went home to continue planning. But then we both felt like we needed to stop by one more person. We looked through our Area Book to see who we should see. Nobody seemed to stick out. Then a woman named Alice popped into my head. She was a less active woman, but she was the only other thought in my head. So we said okay, let's do it! 

When we got to the address, we drove past this shed, and onto this nicer house. We knocked and knocked. Nope. No answer. So we began to leave, trying to understand why we had been led there, and talked about where we should go next. Then suddenly the porch light of the house flicked on. A woman came out, named Kaylee. She was just about to get into the shower, but stopped to answer the door. After briefly talking with her, we realized that Alice didn't even live there. So we asked if we could come back, and then left to go back to the truck. Once again, when we were about to leave, guess who comes and pulls right in front of the shed. Who else but the very woman we were looking for? Alice! The shed was remodeled inside and it is very beautiful! That's where she lives. We talked to her for a little while, and it was a good experience! She invited us to come back! :) We needed the slight delay, so we could catch Alice right as she was getting home. 

Next stop. We tried an older lady named Naomi. It was about 7:30 or so. She was kind, but we caught her right as she was going to bed. So she invited us to come back the next night.  So we left. As we were driving back, I went a little too far to safely turn left onto the street I would have turned onto, but instead kept going straight. We drove past a house with the lights on in the main room. I noticed 2 people inside. My first thought was, "They need the gospel.' I said, "There are two people in that house..." We talked about whether or not we should go try them, as they were in the other Sisters' area, and I wasn't feeling super urgent about it, but as we talked and prayed about it, and felt that we really needed to go talk to them, and about families and temples. We got to the house, and there was a sign on the door that said "Please no visitors. Roland is resting". We literally stood there for a solid couple minutes just staring at the sign, not sure what to do. Do we ignore the sign to follow a prompting? Do we leave and respect the sign?

Just as we were unsure what to do, a big truck comes to pull up into the driveway and a lady rolled down her window to talk to us. Roland was her Uncle, she said. He was on hospice and about to pass away any time so now probably wouldn't be good for a visit.  We thanked her, and left.

The following night, we were driving to a lesson that was scheduled at 7. We got the impression we should go and visit those people even though it would mean missing our lesson with a potential investigator. When we arrived once again, the sign was down and there were many people. "Come in, ladies!" Someone called, and we went in through the gate. It turned out that the family were members in the Patton ward (bordering area). Roland had passed away just shortly after we had stopped by the first time. All the people there were there to support and comfort them- we even saw some members from the wards we cover. We talked to Roland'a wife, and listened to her feelings as she unloaded everything. We told her how we had ended up coming to her house at this specific time, and expressed to her how much God loves her and is aware of her. She said that many other people had had the same impression without knowing that Roland had passed. She said that her niece felt bad for turning us away, because it was obviously a prompting! But she said that she had felt so much love from her Heavenly Father through other people. He passed away a few days earlier than expected, and yet her Heavenly Father was very much aware of her and her needs.

We didn't know she was a member. We didn't know he was dying. We didn't even know why we should teach about temples and families. But Heavenly Father knew. And it was such a testimony builder to me to see that He truly loves His children.

Well, I don't have much time left. Wow. I meant for emailing, but I guess for my mission too. This week I hit my 18 month mark. I love my mission. I cherish it, it is precious to me. And I am forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for calling me here.

Well, Here's to the greatest week of my mission. I love each of you. Please pray for me that I will stay focused this last week and a couple days, and I look forward to seeing you all again! 

Love,

Sister Torie Inman

For those of you able to attend, my homecoming talk will be on April 23rd, at the Chapel on Verde Vista in Surprise. I'm not sure what time it starts. But I would love to see as many of you there as I can! :)

Sister Inman Letter - April 3, 2017

Standing As a Witness of God

Hey there! (So how's it goin?)

What a Conference! Wow! I can't wait to get those on Gospel library! So many insights and doctrine taught that I needed to hear and understand!

I love when more than one speaker talks about the same topics, or even use the same scriptures! I was able to see over and over again that the prophet and other general leaders and authorities are inspired of God. I loved that we were given TWO challenges to read through and even memorize the Living Christ!

I loved the firm witnesses of Christ and the Gospel that were given this weekend.

Well, this weekend I had kind of an intense experience. A few of scriptures and thoughts came to my mind after this experience:

"He whom shall confess me before men, him shall I confess before the Father." And "Stand as a witness of God, at all times, and in all things, and in all places." and "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ..." and then "You can die for the gospel... but will you live for it?"

We went to go contact a former investigator, Elaine. She lives with a less active member, and we were talking to her for awhile about her history with missionaries, and also about her interests and background. When we began talking with her about prophets and how we can know for ourselves if they are true or not, we saw a man who was coming around in a golf cart, with various keys and such. He was the landlord. We said "Hello, sir!" and he said "Hey Sisters!" So I don't even remember what he said first. We asked Something about us not being Christians, and how the Mormon Jesus is different than the Christian Jesus. He said that we Mormons don't even believe in Jesus Christ. So I said, "Sir, do you know what the actual name of our Church is?" He paused and stared at me. And he said, "Fraud". Me: Actually, it's called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We do believe in Jesus Christ, in fact we wear His name on our name tags. He said, "What's in a name?"

It is His Church, called after His name. Christ is the Center of the Gospel. 

...

(a little while later), after arguing against another false claim we never made.

Have you ever read the Book of Mormon? 

"Yeah- but it's all a fraud. You think that we have to go through Joseph Smith to get to God. He said it himself. I read the discourses, and he said that. True Christians believe and know that it's through Christ that we get to God." 

We believe that too. We do NOT go through Joseph Smith to get to God. Joseph Smith never said that we have to go through him to get to Heaven. That goes against everything that we believe. It is ONLY through Jesus Christ that we can have access to the Father. 

"What do you think a disciple is?"

A disciple is someone who follows Christ and does what He has asked us to do. We strive to be like Him. 

"That's what true Christians are. We follow Jesus Christ."

Sir, we don't want to argue with you. We would love to talk to you about the truths that we believe, but you are obviously not in the right frame of mind to learn truth.

Sister Lund testified boldly, but calmly, that she knew and fully believed in Jesus Christ, and that He  is our advocate with the Father, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and this is His Church. It shut him up for a few seconds, and I said, "I am sorry that you have had a bad experience." He said it wasn't, but he "found out the truth." 

He continued to try and prove us wrong on everything that we never said. He literally pulled up to us and immediately started bashing us and persecuting us. He shut down every claim that no one has ever made in this Church, especially not us. He accused us of fraud, and kept telling us about these false claims and strange things that He said that Brigham Young had said, of which I have never even heard of before, and I know for a fact that it was not told in its 100% original form, either. 

Me: Brigham Young happens to be my fourth great grandfather. I also know that He was a prophet of God. And I have never heard anything about these things that you claim he said. 

"Read your history, Sister. You don't know your history. It's all there." He kept referring back to Church History, rather than focusing on any of the truths we teach in the Church. We continued to ask him if he had read the Book of Mormon, but he never gave us a specific, straight, or completely honest answer. 

Me: I actually do know a lot about it, and I know that the things that you have told me are false. And if you think that searching the internet and believing everything that you find on there is how you will find truth, then think again. You are searching for truth in all of the wrong places. Why are you trusting sources and information from people who are not even part of the Church or who are against it?

Me: The only way that you will ever know that the things that we are telling you are true is if you sincerely read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. The only way to know of truth is to go to the very source, which is God Himself. Not other people, and not the internet. 

Me: This Book was written by prophets, who speak the words of God. This is how you will gain a testimony that these things are true. In fact, the very last chapter in the Book of Mormon it gives us an invitation. To read it with a sincere heart and real intent. And if you have a sincere heart, and pray to know that it is true, then you will know. Our purpose is to help others to come to understand and strengthen their relationship with God and Jesus Christ, and that is all that we are trying to do. We want you to find out for yourself.

Him: I already know that it is all false, and there is no way that you can say you know it's true, because it's all a lie.

Me: Sir, I want you to know that I know that these things are true. I KNOW, one HUNDRED percent. I KNOW that this Gospel that we are preaching is true. I have prayed about it, and I know without a doubt that it is right. I would die for it. 

I don't remember everything that I said, but I do remember the intense feeling that I experienced as I testified as a witness of God and defended His Gospel. My heart was filled with courage and faith, and I could feel the power of the Spirit testify through me. I began to tear up.

And after a pause, he said, "That's very unfortunate. Because your salvation is at stake." How rude, man. He said some dumb thing about him trying to help us, but everything was VERY contentious coming from him. There was more to the conversation, but he continued to tear us down, and despite us saying things like, "We don't want to argue with you," and "Have a good day, sir", he persisted in attacking us. 

Finally, Elaine, our former investigator said, "I don't think that a loving God would punish us for not knowing the truth. And I also don't think that a true Christian would attack another person who is trying to build their faith in Christ."

We finally ended the conversation, but man, I was so upset. It took me an hour to calm down and feel okay again. We went to the church and sat in the chapel. It felt like walking into the temple. I just sat in there and cried and prayed. I looked around and stared at the pulpit. Suddenly I got this overwhelming prompting in my head, in my own voice, "It is true. It has to be." In prayer, I declared to God that I knew that this church was true, and I believed it with all my heart. I told Him that I would defend His name and church, and that I would try my best. I felt the confirmation that He was proud of me, and that He loved me.

After awhile, I went up to the piano and played some primary songs that gave me such peace, such as, "I feel my Savior's love", and "He Sent His Son". I sang the lyrics in my head and felt this warmth. It brought HAPPY tears to my eyes. And received confirmation that I would be okay.

My dear family and friends, this gospel and church is true. No matter how hard Satan blows to try and shake your faith and uproot your testimony, if you are firmly and deeply rooted with faith in the Savior, "ye shall not fall." I experienced this this week. I know even more surely now that this is all true. The Book of Mormon is true. The prophets are true. We have a living prophet today. God's priesthood resides on earth and is possessed by permission by President Thomas S. Monson. I love him. I love my Savior. I know my family will be forever, because He has told me so and I believe Him.

Strengthen your faith, and never let it shake! I love you, have a great week!

Sister Inman

Also, CONGRATS ON GETTING YOUR EAGLE SCOUT, JESSE!!!!!! I got your invitation and I am SO STINKING PROUD OF YOU! You deserve it, buddy, you've worked hard your whole life for this moment. I love you!

Also, look at this email that I got from my investigator in Oro Valley!!!!! This is the best thing to receive on a mission! :') Yayyy!!!!!!

"Dear Sister Inman,

I am overjoyed to tell you that I will be baptized on Saturday, April 15th at the Coronado Ward. It would mean so much to me if you could attend and perform my opening prayer. Your lessons with Sister Hunt at my apartment in Oro Valley helped guide me along my spiritual journey. 

Sincerely,

Your-soon-to-be-Sister Kristina H."

Wahooooo! Kristina is one of those incredible miracles. And is evident that even the most scientific of people can be faithful saints. I think, if I remember right, she had a Master's Degree in something like stem cell research or microbiology or endocrinology or something. Needless to say, she is a genius. And was part of a huge corporation that was doing cancer research, and was super busy... But she STILL made time to pray, read from the scriptures, attend church, and learn about and live the gospel. WE CAN TOO! 

Sister Inman Letter - March 27, 2017

Are you SO STOKED for Conference?!?!

Hello hello hello!

Another wonderful week in the life of Sister Inman!

This week we had some wonderful lessons, I went on an exchange in the Pomerene and Patton wards, we got a couple new investigators, and I gave two talks in church on Sunday! So this week has been good, God has still been so good to us.

We have been trying very hard to continue to fulfill our purpose every day, act faithfully and immediately on promptings, as well as find and teach by the Spirit. So far, our performance and successes in those goals have been wonderful! Miraculous! Almost too good to be true, you know?

This week we met with Elizabeth, the girl that just got married to a member. She is doing so well. She has so much real intent, and is striving to discover the truth by "study and also by faith". We went to do a Book of Mormon read with her, and asked her how her prayers had been going, and how her trip to Utah was. She said that they had gone to the SLC Temple Visitor's Center, and learned more about that, as well as the Conference Center, and she really loved that. One ofher nonmember friends head that she was marrying a member, and out of concern for her, she gave her  a CD with a preacher's sermon on it, comparing the beliefs of Mormons to Catholics? I think? Either way, it was his take on what we believe. The tape is about  45 minutes long, and they listened to it during the 12 hour drive home... and didn't even finish it, haha. She said they would stop it every once in a while to talk about what the facts were and to do more research, comparing that to what it says on LDS.org (the official church's website), and with each claim that they weren't sure about, they discovered what the truth actually was. She said she learned a lot and came to realize the difference in how she felt when she read from the Book of Mormon, versus when she listened to the tape. She told us that she felt kind of angry when she listened to it, and when she read from the Book of Mormon, she felt a sense of peace and calm.

As we continued to speak with her about searching for truth, we felt prompted to open up to Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. This chapter talks about faith, and how we can come to know the truth of all things through planting the seed or principle, and then nourishing it and watching for it to grow. If it brings forth good fruit, then it is a good seed. If it begins to grow and enlighten your mind, bring you joy, and gives you a warm feeling in your heart, you can know it is a good thing; it is from God.

When we shared with her this chapter, she felt the Spirit bring to her remembrance some experiences in her life that were very symbolic. It was through reading these scriptures that she began to make sense of and learn from these past experiences. She understands how she can apply this principle of faith into her marriage and family, and allow it to grow and flourish. She was so excited that she learned so much from the Spirit. Her mind was blown. :)

God has been blessing us to be more effective in bringing in the Spirit into our lessons, and helping our investigators to feel and recognize that. This is so TRUE!!!

We had TWO incredible lessons with our investigator Nikki this week! She is a sophomore in High School living with a member family. Think of Dom, except she actually lives with them. The first lesson this week was on the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing. At the end, we asked her how she felt about it. She said, good... I don't know.... so we asked her, "Do you hope it's true? Or are you mainly just curious?" She paused, and said "I hope it's true..." We testified that she can come to know that it is true. And out of the blue she just said softly, "I feel like it's true..." yes! Yes yes yes!!! We said, "what does that feel like?" She said "I don't know, I just know that I'm
starting to tear up and I don't know why!!! It just feels, like, warm... stop smiling at me!" Haha :) We testified that the feelings she was having were from God, and that it's okay to cry, sometimes the Spirit makes us cry when we feel that something is true.

The other lesson was last night, and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, or in other words, the steps that Christ has asked us to take to return to live with Him and Heavenly Father. She felt the Spirit again as we testified of Christ, and she started crying again. It's amazing to see the effect that the spirit has on people. She seems to be really feeling that it is true, and she has grown in her faith so much!  :)

Wasn't women's conference so great?!?! It was amazing! I loved it! The music was beautiful, and I truly felt my Savior's love. I loved the firmness in Linda K. Burton's testimony, and I loved President Eyring's talk. They were all just what I needed, and they addressed just what my questions and concerns were. God is so loving and aware
of our hearts. I love Him :)

A couple other cool things, on Saturday, we helped prepare a plot for planting a garden, so we put manure on the dirt, turned it, and mixed it in, and I used the techniques I learned at the farm and it worked out really well! It felt good to work hard :)

Also, a kind lady made us dinner. Of the things I ate, it was actually really good! Although... she made us fish filet, and tofu for Sister Lund. I ate as much of the little filet I put on my plate, but I could barely handle it... and I tried tofu for the experience. It was quite possibly the nastiest thing I have ever tasted. Woohoo, Mission experiences! :)

Well, I don't have anymore time, but I hope you enjoy GENERAL CONFERENCE and prepare for it well!!! I love you all!!! Have a fantastic week! :)

Love,
Sister Inman