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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Elder Inman Letter May 26, 2014

Happy Memorial Day!

It has yet again been a record breaking week! 33 lessons taught, and we had TWO baptisms this week for Powell 3rd Ward! It was seriously the most spiritually rewarding week of my entire mission. But I'll talk more about that later :)

So let's see... Monday I bought a toy steer from the 80's that comes with two ropes to practice roping hahahahaha. I got it from Ken Wyckoff (our less-active who owns a cowboy shop), and got it for 5 bucks! So for P-day we practiced our rodeo skills on our small steer. Also went bowling in the evening at the bowling alley we helped stain wood at a few months ago. Super Ghetto but cheap and fun :D

Tuesday we went to Lovell's District Meeting and on the way home stopped in a small town called Deaver (less than 150 people). We found a food truck there called, "Jen's Little China" which was pretty good! Not quite Panda Express, but good stuff.

Wednesday was awesome haha. In the morning from about 7:30AM to noon, we helped out at the George farm. The George's have a long established dairy farm and is actually in the top 5 producing dairy farms in the Nation! I would love to work for him before college. Brother George had us man his forklift and move pallets of expensive corn around (each bag was like $300). Then we went into his planting tractor and he showed us how it's all done. It has an expensive GPS system that literally drives the tractor by itself via Satellites, so corrugate in a straight line. It goes specifically 4.5 MPH for optimum seed spacing. So we planted Corn which is sweet. Afterwards we helped his brother Arley irrigate. We basically opened flood gates and lay water. We helped move some pipe too.

Thursday Steve had his bap interview and was excited he passed haha! I also mowed a law in full white shirt and tie for the Pederson's. I was extremely dirty it was awesome.

I'm skipping Friday because I was so excited about Saturday :) We were at the church from about 7AM to probably 5:30 PM for baptisms. There were only 3, but at 11, 2, and 4, so we had to continually drain and refill the font for warm water! It was the highlight of my mission probably. Steve's baptism was at 11. There was more non-member and less-active family there than there was active members! It was SO cool to see Steve get baptized. Their beautiful family can now become sealed in a year :) Tracey's baptism really got me...bad. We've been working with her ever since I got here. I gave talks at both of these baptisms on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. When I testified to Tracey that all of her past mistakes and burdens were completely gone, I could not control my tears. Knowing how much she has bee through, and her husband who hasn't been active since he was a teacher, got to baptize her and their 8 year old son. It was powerful.

Yesterday was both Steve and Tracey's confirmations. I had to opportunity of standing in both circles :D WE also got transfer news.... I'M STAYING IN POWELL WITH ELDER RASMUSSON ANOTHER 6 WEEKS! This will make 6 months as companions Doesn't happen often, so we were both extremely stoked about that. We love it here.

As for why this email is so late, we actually were planning on emailing tomorrow since all the libraries are closed. But our appointments fell through, and we ended up doing service all day anyway for Brother George's Dairy Farm! Today we hauled irrigation 12' pipe over about 85 acres...my forearms are torn. I have never been so fatigued haha. I loved it though! Hope you all have a great week and here's a few pictures!

Steve is the one with just a white shirt on and a beard right next to me. The Young's are the one's with bad lighting.





Monday, May 19, 2014

Elder Inman Letter May 19, 2014

This week was SO long

Hello Everyone. How are you...FANTASTIC (Old Spice). Well this week was a challenging one for sure. We have a lot of missionaries that choose to hate us for instructing them how to improve their area...consecration. You would think that after all we ask others to do to change their lives (give up bad habits, be baptized, come back to church), it would be easy to stop eating lunch together every day (which is what we asked them to do). But you know...what ever haha.

We taught 29 lessons this week which is pretty good. Second highest (to 30). One of them was with Braden, a Less-Active. Him and his girlfriend are having financial trouble and we promised them in the name of the Lord that if they prayed every single day without fail, AND read the Pamphlet we gave them, they would find financial stability. Braden prayed out loud for probably the first time in 20 years. So sweet!

Tuesday night we found Beau Brown at the Library. He told us he had actually paid his tithing and received an almost immediate blessing from it! It is always so cool to hear those stories. We also found a new part-member less-active family. The wife (the member) was actually a "DO NOT CONTACT" but we didn't know that...she was pretty antagonistic towards us at first but the Spirit provided and she accepted the read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! Her reasoning at first was that, "I just never bought it! Joseph Smith had to be on something..." Upon inquiry of if she has EVER read the BOM and prayed about it she said no. We told her that she has absolutely no basis on deciding if he was a Prophet or not if she has not read it. It's amazing to me the excuses people come up with. :)

Funny story time! Wednesday night at like 11:30 PM, I woke up to see Elder Rasmusson laying on the floor. His pillow was my boot, and for whatever reason he was resting his feet on some packages I received a while ago...I asked him about it the next morning and he had no memory of it at all haha. The NEXT night he was up at like 4AM and started shaking out his sheets to make his bed. He then was kneeling on the floor doing stretches and praying. He stood up and started to walk towards the study room when he saw the clock...and went back to bed. Lightened my mood a bit! 

Things were shaky this week with the Young's. We went over to invite them to Stake Conference and they 100% decided they would not go...and they were a bit confrontational about it which upset me. But, she was still interviewed for Baptism and she, a long with Steve Rakness are getting baptized this Saturday :) We're excited about that!

Friday we found a lady that just moved from Singapore who has never heard of the Book of Mormon and possibly does not know who Christ is either. So we hope to start teaching her a bit. Saturday I was physically exhausted. We got a call from Mariana (a non-member) saying that she had a friend that found out she needed to be out of her house THAT day and had no one to help her. So for FOUR hours, we helped this lady move. It wasn't until about 3 hours in that we realized we were helping this lady move into her boyfriend's house -__-. Wasn't happy about that lol.

The Cody Stake had Stake Conference this weekend. It was SO good! Saturday Adult Session was all about missionary work (which is awesome), and Sunday Morning session had some of the best talks I've ever heard. Afterwards we had a BBQ at a member's home with a few younger couples and their kids. We later saw a less-active family named the Kary's. Brother Kary does a lot of woodwork, and he actually built a COFFIN with Elk antlers as handles...for his friend (who is still alive and in like his 40's) haha. Today we plan on hanging out with Brother George, our Ward mission Leader, on his tractor. Should be fun!

I got Torie's graduation announcement! I can't believe how fast time has flown by! And your CLASS MOTTO is a quote by President Monson?! Haha that is awesome! I am proud of you Torie and sounds like you were pretty decorated with Chords and all kinds of stuff! You are so smart and you have a very bright future ahead of you. Just always remember that what you have comes from the Lord and that he has big plans for you!

Well that's about it. I've been running a mile every morning (weird right?) and I am so out of shape haha. Hope you all have a great week!




Monday, May 12, 2014

Elder Inman Letter May 12, 2014

Cinco De May to Mother's Day

It was so good so see all of you yesterday! Even if it was just for a short amount of time. I haven't cried like that in a while and it felt good. Well in stead of Cinco de Mayo, we had a Zone Preparation day in cody. All of us played Frisbee, dodgeball, and soccer. Elder Rasmusson split up for the week, so he stayed in Cody till Friday night. I had Elder Eddington as my companion the first two days. We taught the kiers who have been reading Gospel Principles together! That was exciting. Steve Rakness is doing awesome, we taught him tithing this week and he said he was already planning on paying it! He's on fire.
 
We lunch with Marianna Stevenson Tuesday (the non-member missionary mom who we helped do yard work). It wasn't very productive, and we were freezing because we had to eat outside. We later that day moved a heavy wood stove for a less-active family (whom we have dinner with tonight). That stove had to have been upwards of 700 pounds. Made of iron and stone haha. That night we had to go to the college library for something and actually found Beau Brown there! Remember him? He's a less-active we worked quite bit with a few months ago. Well he works at the library and we went into one of the rooms and had a full fledged discussion on prayer and the Holy Ghost. it was awesome! I found out he actually went to church this week all three hours :D
 
Zone Training went well on Wednesday. Beau Brown actually came and helped Elder Eddington's role play! Beau just had to act less-active or as an investigator...which was just too fun for him haha. It really helped though.
 
April showers brings May...snow. In Wyoming anyway haha. It snowed twice this week! I love it though. I do not like the heat one bit. I would much rather be cold. By Wednesday I was with Elder Jackson on exchanges and we had a few good visits. I interviewed someone for baptism and then we went and visited the Youngs. Sister Young asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost because, "you're the reason I'm getting baptized!" is what she said. I hope I'm not the only reason she's getting baptized but it feels so good to definitely play a part! That was a good feeling. Something also cool about that appointment...Brother Young was ordained a priest last Sunday...and HE WENT HOME TEACHING! He isn't even assigned yet but he chose to tag a long with his fellowshipper and for doing so, he even got offered a job by a less-active. Talk about immediate blessings!
 
It was so good having Elder Rasmusson back Saturday. We both were happy to be back haha. We were both just drained and exhausted from exchanges. They are great missionaries with a lot of potential but just don't have the right desires sometimes. Saturday morning we cleaned up a gun range. All we had to do was replace backstops for the targets, and do a little clean-up. We also then did some service at, "Loaves and Fishes" which is at the city annex. Dated and moved lots of cans for poor families. That night, we had a REALLY good dinner with Bill Winters who is not a member. His wife is less-active. He cooked us steaks...mine was 22 ounces! Some of the best steak I have ever had! The both of them just got back from their trip to Nauvoo. Both really enjoyed it and showed us 2 hours worth of pictures haha. But we shared a mother's day message and the spirit was very strong.
 
And of course, yesterday was Mother's day! We stayed busy ALL DAY LONG. We had a lesson with Sharon, who is from Independence, Missouri. She belongs to the "Restoration" church which is a break off of the RLDS church, which is a break off from the LDS church! Is that crazy or what? From what it sounds like, she doesn't even really know what she believes but is willing to find out. It was an extremely tough lesson though, because the views of doctrine are SO similar, yet their church lacks the Priesthood and Prophets. After 3 tries...we got her to set a baptismal date. Thank you Heavenly Father!
 

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Elder Inman Letter May 5, 2014

BAPTISMAL DATE

STEVE RAKNESS IS BACK ON DATE! We had the most lessons this week than I have my entire mission. We managed to teach 30 lessons, 17 of which were with investigators and the others were a mix of Less-Actives and Active members. We had so many miracles happen this week. "I lauve it" (Nacho).

Monday was an abnormal p-day. We helped someone move their wood stove and Steve actually came to help us do that. A short reminder, Steve Rakness is the husband of a recently active member, has two kids, works on the oil fields, and is super nice. He's awesome. Anyway, Sister Rakness got her patriarchal blessing last Sunday and it sounded profound. Sister Rakness said that the Patriarch right before the blessing, went into a room to pray, and came out, looked at Steve and said, "Steve I feel prompted to tell you that you can recieve a preisthood blessing." So that is what we did with our follow-up appointment this last Thursday :) I was privledged to give the blessing and that was the first blessing in a long time where I have actually choked up because of the Spirit and power in it. Stev is destined for great thigns and he accepted baptism for May 24, the same day as Tracy Young :) SO STOKED!


Also on Monday, we visited the Kier's, which is a part-member family. Brother Kier is less-active and was baptized in 2010. Sister Kier is Wicken, and they have a 7 year old son. At first, the wife seemed somewhat antagonistic towards what we were teaching. SHe had lots of fun questions like, " What's with the white underclothing? My inlaws (who are LDS) say they have numbers on them to help God remember his children...I'm pretty sure God is all-knowing and he knows me by name!" Yeah...she accepted by the end of the lesson that everything her inlaws ever told her was completely false haha. She is now actually taking some interest in Eternal Marriage and is taking the lessons over again with her husband! She also wanted doctrine on Dinosaurs...there is absolutely no doctrine on dinosaurs...except they are Terrestial beings. How sweet is that?!

President Mecham came down to interview half our zone Tuesday. Just like last time, he had us pre-interview missionaries. It's amazing the things you find out in those interviews haha. President also interviewed us as zone leaders. He told us we are doing awesome and does not plan on transfering either of us for a while because of the great work we are doing here. And then he told us things we need to fix within the zone.We have non-compliant missionaries haha.

Wednesday we did a lot of service. We first helmped a Native American Indian from Arizona who is Navajo. He needed a lot of lumber moved, most of which was flooring. We also helped clean a families home to help them get their depostit back before they moved. That house was horrifying. In the real meaning of the word. The basement had one working light bulb, a spin-dial telephone (which was dead), cracked walls, no carpet, squeeky faucets, parts of the ceiling missing, and a freezer that said, "Coolerator" on it...Not a good feeling there haha.

Other than seeing Stve on Thursday, we also finished interviews with the other half of the missionaries. The Davis family is doing awesome, they have been on fire as of late! They really want to go back the temple. We later moved a piano, and gave a blessing to a man with shingles.

Friday we planned for HOURS. The highlight of the day was actually going to see Braden Acton who lives with his girlfriend Dakota. She is not a member. Elder Rasmusson and I have been practicing testyifying to every single person we come into contact with. So at Braden's door we started testifying. Before the door was about to close, Dakota asked for a Priesthood blessing to help with depression. The real only cure for depression and spiritual healing is the scriptures, the Priesthood, faith, and prayer!

Dana Young was officially ordained to the office of a Priest so that he can baptize his family in the coming weeks :) What a powerful and great feeling to help someone come unto Christ and be worthy to help their family come unto Christ also! The Young's are such an inspiration to me. This Gospel can change anyone. ANYONE! No matter where they are currently at. It all rests on whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. I think everyone gets so scared when they see us because they think we are going to brainwash them into believing what we do. But the Lord does not work that way! We only know truth by Revelation. Personal Revelation. It is as simple as reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it.

Torie looks beautiful as usual! That is so exciting that she got to go to two proms! It's so weird to see Lacey home, in regular clothes, without a tag, and watching movies haha. But I'm excited to see all of you next week! It will be in the later evening probably. Love you!

Pictures:


A desert called "7 Sins Brownies." A less-active gave them to us and thought it would be funny. Good thing there's repentance!

Wyoming Transportation

A tree made of bowling balls...

Steve Rakness' daughter drew us :)