Elder Inman is home now.

I noticed that there were still people looking at the blog, so I thought that I would mention that he is home now and that there will not be any more posts to this blog. Thank you for enjoying Jake's mission with us.

Elder Inman Letter January 26, 2015 (His last email of the mission)

This is my testimony last of all ...

Family and Friends,

What an incredible two years. I have seen a transformation in myself that I hope I will never lose. Thank you to all receiving this email in helping me be an effective emissary and agent of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater feeling than to bear his name on my chest. I would not trade my experiences for anything.

As my time as a full-time missionary grows shorter I want to testify of the message I have been called and set apart to give. God the Father loves all his children and knows them perfectly. He knows our desires and needs better than we do. He loved us enough to send his Son to die for each one of us that we might return to live with him again. We are placed here on the earth in families to, I believe, understand that relationship we have with our Heavenly FATHER and because the family is the most powerful unit here on the earth. We start as families and God's plan is designed to finish as families.

Prophets have lead and guided God's children from the time of Adam. The hold the Priesthood, or authority to speak, act, and perform in the name of Jesus Christ. That Priesthood governs the church and is the only authority that binds what we do here on earth (like baptism) with heaven. Christ organized his church with that authority by ordaining twelve apostles. 

That church was gone for a long time in a time period we call the Great Apostasy. It resulted in the formation of many churches. The true church of Jesus Christ was restored in the year 1830, only 10 years after a boy named Joseph Smith knelt down to simply ask God which church to join. Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet on the earth today holding all the Priesthood keys necessary for Christ's church to function. That original church Christ organized is the SAME church here and now on the earth once again.

The Book of Mormon is scripture translated by the Power of God. It testifies that Jesus is the Christ and goes hand in hand with the Bible. Read it. Pray about it.

Most importantly. I testify that Jesus Christ lives. He suffered and died for each and every one of you. My purpose the past two years has been to be his witness and to invite others to come closer to him. Repentance is made possible because of the Savior. Repentance is what has changed my entire being.

I will now turn to something that happened this week :) Friday I had my departing interview with President Mecham. I have really been praying the past week for a confirmation that the Lord had accepted my service. In my interview President committed me to do at least 8 things when I get home. They entail attending a singles ward haha and he told me that one day he will come to my house, meet my wife and children and would specifically be looking to see if I was the one leading my family in scripture study, prayer, family home evening, and to make sure i am treating my wife like a queen. And he said if not...he would pull me aside and we will have a little talk. Haha! And he will too! But then he looked me in the eye and asked, "Elder Inman, are you a successful missionary." I reflected on the people I have ministered to over the course of my mission. Overwhelmingly the spirit confirmed to me that I was a successful missionary. The Lord has accepted my service.

The Gospel is true! I bear witness of it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Inman Letter January 19, 2015

Give me TWO MORE WEEKS of miracles!

I don't think I've ever had so many different emotions run through me at one time. This week I realized that after next Sunday I'll be attending my home ward...what? And next Monday is my last preparation day...way? And then I'll be without the mantle of a missionary, stripped of my authority as a full-time representative of Christ, and leave the mission behind...WHAT?!?!? Yesterday I lost it and told Elder Mathis how lucky he was to be serving a mission. Until this week he has been super homesick and not happy. We worked through it and the Lord blessed us with so many miracles this week. Powerful enough that Elder Mathis told me he is so happy, relieved, and comforted. So exciting!

And for good reason. We found 5 new people to teach (that means taught at least 1 lesson and have a return appointment), had 10 non-members at church, AND we have someone on baptismal date!!! WOOOOO!!! It's been a long time coming but man it's been worth it. I think I've felt more consecrated this transfer than I have most of my mission. So many doors knocked to find the elect. We've doubled the teaching pool, doubled the amount of lessons taught in a week, and the members have all expressed that we are the missionaries Dillon has needed for a long time.

We had zone training this week. My last one. What made it more weird? It was held in Butte..which is where I had my FIRST ever Zone Training nearly two years ago. I was asked to give departing testimony which was super hard. Then Elder Mathis and I went to Taco Bell. I realized when we walked in that I had gone to Taco Bell after my first zone training with Elder Villejo! So weird but cool. Nearly fell asleep on the drive home and went to Institute (we cover the college here). Saw Heather Breakall and lots of other kids from Sheridan too!

Wednesday we volunteered at the Beaverhead County Museum from about 9-Noon. We cleaned out an artillery shell fired in 1898 over the Philippines. It made it to this museum because it was founded by someone from Dillon, MT while over there. It weighs probably about 100 pounds and over the course of 100 years (before anyone took it), people had stuffed it with all kinds of things.A few cool things included French Grand Prix tickets dated 1891 (which doesn't really add up) and a newspaper add for a silent film from 1915. It was like a time capsule! They rest was pretty much garbage and dirt.

I'll skip to Saturday. Mentioned in earlier emails, the Elders Quorum President gives us $60 to Dairy Queen every week to be seen and to try to talk to people there. We have seen some fruit come out of it! There is an employee there named Maria Kendrick. President Southam (EQP) invited her to take the discussions at his house. We taught the Restoration and she accepted a baptismal date of March 7th! Super exciting.Be praying for her! We later tracted into the lady who works for the Beaverhead County Museum, Since we helped her, she welcomed us in (service works!), and we taught the Restoration to both her and her mom. All was well until her brother came in the house and wanted to bash. He is devout Catholic. I wanted so bad to silence this guy with scriptures but there was nothing but contention flying out of this man's mouth. He was not honestly seeking answers. I asked him if he believed God was the source of all truth. Of course he said yes. I asked him why he would not read the Book of Mormon and pray about it then if he had the faith that God answers prayers. He did not have an answer.

i believe we were blessed for not condescending to this guy's level because we went out to dinner and someone anonymously paid for our dinner :) Things are going well here in Dillon. I am happy to say that I am leaving it in much better condition than how I found it. We still are trying to find new people every day but that it missionary work! Congratulations to (Bishop) Matt Smith! That will be an adjustment calling him one thing at work and another at church! He will do great. I am VERY grateful for the righteous example Bishop Haul was to me. He helped me through those teenage years and I knew that I could turn to him for help when I needed it. Exciting stuff!

I hope you all have a great week! Today is going to be great. I am going to Sheridan to say goodbye to several of the members I got close with there! Excited! Love you!

Elder Inman Letter January 12, 2015

Hmmmmm...

It was kind of an out of the ordinary week this week. Which I guess isn't always a bad thing. Starting Monday, I was on exchange with Elder Upshaw who is in his second transfer. Elder Mathis went with Elder Yeske (who is the District Leader and who I trained nearly 18 Months ago!) in Whitehall. While at Dairy Queen for dinner (as always), I asked Elder Upshaw to think of a Western State besides Arizona, and Texas. He replied, "Washington" which was the same state that came to my mind! So that was the street we decided to tract haha! And we found out why. After only about 7 doors we knocked on an elderly lady's door. her name is Marcy Busch. She let us in her home and we taught her the Restoration. Turns out this lady is an ELDER in the Presbyterian church! Not sure what all that entails but needless to say she has position in that sect. By the end of the lesson she accepted baptism and agreed to read the Book of Mormon! She said she believed the first vision and it made sense that God would bring forth another testament. So sweet! We weren't able to lay down a return appointment, so please be praying for her!

Tuesday we actually attended a funeral for a lady in the ward that developed Alzheimers. Her husband is not a member and probably 75% of the people there were not members either! During the luncheon, Harvey and Boots showed up and sat with Elder Upshaw and I. Valerie (their daughter) was also there and I guess she put in only a few names into Family Search and chased their history back to the 1500's! That got Harvey excited and we're probably going to go over today to help him set up an account. Tuesday afternoon we had an appointment with Kyle Haunz (the college student we tracted into last week). He is struggling to understand the Book of Mormon, so we read the introduction with him and read Alma 40 about life after death (which he has interests about). He said he would come  to church Sunday at 11:00 if the Packers weren't playing...the Packers played at exactly 11 -__- 

I fasted this week for Harvey and Boots. We showed a video called "Your Potential, Your Privileges" about a man who saved up all his money to go on this cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. To help save money he ate only beans and crackers. He finds out at the end of the cruise that all the food, activities, and parties were all included in the prince of the ticket. President Uchtdorf then relates that to how we often live beneath our privileges as children of our Heavenly Father. With Harvey we wanted to relate that to family history. Family History is sweet but there is so much more too it like Temple work! Unfortunately, we weren't able to help him see that connection so we're working on something else. Keep praying for them!

Most of our week consisted of knocking on doors and trying to find people. We have taught several first lessons to people but no one seems to be willing to set up a return appointment. It's always, "yeah you can stop by if she can catch me at home." I know for a fact you have an opening in your schedules people! Kind of frustrating. We've met some great potentials though all from tracting. One lady we taught the whole restoration to on her doorstep and invited her to be baptized right there! Another lady was a geologist and did not believe in God. We discussed what the Holy Ghost felt like and why those assurances are what keep us grounded in faith and hope. Our last appointment was with a referral we received from the Bishop. The Hanson family was in New Zealand where they were actually met by Jeanne Breakall from Sheridan Ward on her mission! They live in Dillon and we went over to do a lot of Q & A. There were many concerns about temples, Grace vs. Works, ect. but by the end we came to one conclusion...the temples, the Word of Wisdom, the entire Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and anything else we as LDS people believe is absolutely false if Joseph Smith was not a Prophet of God. The real questions and concerns we have about the doctrine hinges on whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. So the Hansons decided they need to simply read the Book of Mormon and pray about Joseph Smith! The Gospel is so simple and true! Please pray for them, they are such awesome people!

Yesterday we traveled up to Twin Bridges to see that family who's baby I had the opportunity to bless. We discussed how miracles happen (Moroni 7) and WHY they happen. That baby was running around happy as ever and healthy! She is blind but you would never know. This family was so touched by the spirit that they are going to church Sunday, and are going to begin taking the discussions! So exciting. We also explained that nothing I did was special. The Priesthood, the faith of those present and God's will were the factors in saving the baby and we testified the baby was saved to help their family be an eternal one. So cool!

I can't believe Alex is home. Stoked to hear he applied to Summer semester though! And yes, if he could find out about the Potato farm, that would be awesome. It doesn't sound particularly fun, but I need a good paying job! Elder Organ (whom I came out with) is also going to do some research on it for me. 

Pictures:

Hope everyone has a great week! I am starting to freak out that I have less than three weeks left but I'm going to make it as busy as possible! I love you all!

I thought this was a genius way to prevent water from getting on the floor when using a cooler!

And this is an ice sculpture in Dillon...made from broken pipes :)

 

 

Elder Inman Letter January 5, 2015

Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year!

I am so blessed to be your son! If I have learned one thing on my mission, it is the importance of centering the home on the teachings of Jesus Christ. I remember clear as day when I was SO tired and would try to sneak up to my room to go to bed and Dad would catch me for scripture study and family prayer. Looking back, I could not be more grateful for the righteous and diligent efforts you made to make sure we did what the Prophets and even Christ (3 Nephi 18:21) has asked us to do. I am convinced that it was because of that, I am able to bare strong testimony of those principles and that it helped me to prepare for a mission. I love you both so much and happy 25 years of marriage! :)

We had a great week. It was freezing, but the Lord blessed us for proselyting anyway. Last week we only taught 7 lessons and this week we jumped to 15 (which still is not a lot but it's great progress)! Elder Mathis and I are getting along well and I feel like he is growing every single day. It is a hard transition coming to the mission field. We had some really good (long) discussions about what things the Lord is willing to bless us with if we keep our eye single to His glory.

Tuesday we helped clean a non-members 108 year old house. She apparently has bad vertigo and the house is not level (with it being so old) so it was making her really sick. While cleaning we discovered weed (marijuana) and she offered us used, poop-stained underwear to use as rags. We declined and used dish rags haha. She claimed the weed was medical but you could tell she was super nervous about it...vertigo huh? After cleaning for an hour we asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. She wouldn't give us the time of day. Few things make me more upset than when someone takes advantage of your kindness and aren't even willing to talk about God with you.

Wednesday was New Years Eve! We celebrated by volunteering at the food bank. It was odd because I had volunteered at this food bank nearly 2 years ago on exchanges! We dated canned food, sorted, and bagged meals for people. The rest of our day mainly consisted of sharing a video about Resolutions and setting at least one spiritual goal. The stake here is doing a missionary initiative which actually started when Elder Rasmusson was the Zone Leader here and proposed it! 

Elder Ballard when he was a member of the Seventy gave a conference talk called, "Write Down a Date." Basically, as a family you write down JUST A DATE to have someone prepared to take the missionary discussions by. He promises that by writing down a date, without even a family in mind, the Lord will provide you with the name and family that is ready to hear the discussions by that date. Cool promise or what?! We just need to pray every day for that name and act on the prompting. Will you do that? The full talk can be watched or read here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1984/10/write-down-a-date?lang=eng

We were permitted to stay out till 10;30PM...wooo partyyy!! The ward help a new years activity till midnight at the church where Brother Williams (who we lived with) DJ'd and they had board games to play. Fun stuff! New Years day we tracted into a college student named Kyle who we taught the following day. He accepted baptism and wants to clean up his lifestyle. Please pray for him! We later visited a less-active couple with twin, non-member boys. The dad went off on this rant about how imperfect the members of the church is and how bitter he was about some of the leadership and even started to speak ill of Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve! I reminded him that he shouldn't let others affect his own salvation. I wanted to say many other things...

Friday we did some service at the Bargain Basement. It is basically a charity thrift store owned by the Catholic church. They let us volunteer there which is pretty cool. We taught several lessons Friday. We are really trying to work on a couple by the name of Harvey and Boots. They are the family we had Christmas Dinner with. Till now, they really have not allowed the missionaries to come over. Harvey is not a member and Boots has been less-active for a long time. Neither are interested in church at the moment. But we had two really good visits with them this week about Family History. Harvey is extremely interested in Family History and we are trying to slip in hints about eternal families and the temple. If there was anyone we would ask you to pray for, it would be Harvey and Boots Lake! They paid for our dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town and love us coming over.

Saturday we helped the Sister missionaries move from one host family to another since we have a truck :) Sunday I realized was my last Fast and Testimony meeting. I decided to bare testimony of the message I have been called to teach: The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a pretty odd realization but it felt good to testify over the pulpit and basically teach the entire Restoration in less than 3 minutes.

That is so great that Grandpa and Grandma got smart phones! Grandpa's selfie was hilarious haha. And I would absolutely LOVE to do a session with everyone in the Phoenix Temple! Somehow I want to see if I can volunteer there weekly as an ordinance worker. Thank you for the spiritual thoughts dad! It goes to show how blessed we really are to be the "few" in the Lord's Vineyard (Jacob 5). And thank you mom for the Family History updates! It has become so much more exciting to me as I learn about the valiant ancestors we have.

I was very humbled yesterday when I received news about the baby I blessed in Missoula. If you recall, I was called by Valerie Marhshall (in Sheridan Ward) to give a blessing to a baby in ICU. The baby's parents were less-active. When I gave the blessing, I did not know the baby was in Acoma and the chances of the baby living were slim. In the blessing I felt prompted to promise the baby that it still had a life to live. Yesterday I found out that 20 minutes after that blessing, the baby woke up. I offered the parents blessings and they kindly declined. They took it to Washington to see a brain specialist. The baby will permanently be blind but will live. Valerie called me again yesterday to tell me that these parents were so grateful for the blessing given and heard that I was serving in Dillon (30 miles away from Twin Bridges/Sheridan). They asked if I could come see them, give them a blessing, and maybe even teach the discussions. There is power in the Priesthood. The Lord knows where he needs his servants and President Mecham holds the keys and revelation to know where the Lord would have us be as well!

Have a great week everyone!

Pictures:

Curloms? (Book of Mormon referenced animal) And a one-eyed Sheep.

Elder Inman Letter December 29, 2014

Happy New Year!

It was SO great to see all of you! I'm happy that Lacey and Eric made it as well as Grandpa and Grandma. We have such a legit family! I enjoyed all the pictures from Little Christmas and from Christmas at home. We have a nice tree as well but not a lot of decorations. Jesse has gotten HUGE! How tall is he now? Is he taller than me? He seriously got so big I feel like I won't even recognize him coming off the airplane. Holy Moly.

Last Monday after emailing we actually did a white elephant gift exchang. I brought this super ugly stuffed troll we found in the apartment haha. Wish I took a picture with it before giving it away. We spent the entire evening tracting trying to show the "He is the Gift" video and we had some pretty good success that night.

Tuesday was sweet as I was able to drive to Sheridan where I was trained. I love that town! Like I told you on Skype, one of the members who was previously Less-Active took us all out to lunch at the Wagon Wheel, which is now owned by the Bishop in Sheridan Ward! So i got to see a lot of familiar faces there.

Christmas Eve we weekly planned...all of our appointments fell through. We kind of expected that though. A little later we practiced teaching the Restoration to the Fairbanks (the family that sent you the picture and let us skype on Christmas). The evening consisted of caroling to about 5 people in the nursing home...I still don't sing!

Christmas was so sweet this year. We had regular studies and then the Williams (who we live with) made some breakfast casserole for us that was so good. From the Williams we went to the Fairbanks home and skyped! I'm glad we got it kind of figured out with Lacey's phone. Better than not at all! After we skyped we played a few games with the Fairbanks. One of them was called "Pandemic." I actually loved the game. Basically it's everyone versus the game. You prevent the human race from dying from disease. We lost.

Around 4PM we went to the dinner with Sister Marshall's parents (the lady who took us out to eat and called about the Baby blessing). It was really cool to meet all of her innactive or non-member family and we really hope to be able to teach them soon. I ate way too much food.

The rest of the evening we played games with the Williams (Monopoly Deal). The day after Christmas was not good though. Elder Mathis got way sick. He was throwing up like crazy. We think he may have caught the norovirus and we had to stay in all day. he slept literally till 4PM and I just read, wrote letters, and slept some myself. Staying inside is tough! I was getting super anxious because I felt useless but we definitely needed to stay in.

Saturday Elder Mathis was still somewhat sick but we went out anyway. Good thing too! We actually gave 4 priesthood blessings. The first two was to a baby in the hospital. Once for healing, and the second one was to give it a name and blessing. The family we did it for is less-active and even part-member. The Great-Grandfather did the actual blessing, we just assisted and anointed. Then we gave the Sisters blessings of healing as they also were really sick.

Yesterday was my birthday! Thank you for the classy tie and tie bar! I got many compliments on them at church! The subway gift card will be super handy because we live far out of town so it saves us a trip home. And thank you Lacey and Eric for the beanie! This week I lost Torie's Beanie that she made for me :( I'm really praying that I find it because I loved it and have worn it my entire mission! So the new beanie came at a great time since today it got down to 0 degrees!

Everyone have a great week! Be safe in the wintry storms of Surprise, AZ! Haha. I love you all!

Elder Inman Letter December 22, 2014

Good Week? I guess? 

Hello everyone and Merry CHRISTmas!!!!!! It has been quite the week. Much to say, but nearly no time to report on. So I'll just give the highlights :) Maybe it will be long anyway.

Monday night we had a really good lesson with a part member family (this is still in Missoula). The wife is not a member and she struggles with joining the church because she feels like her parents would disown her and reject her. She had a few other concerns about the temple that I think we got resolved but wow it was a powerful lesson. The spirit filled the entire room and her husband (the member) bore powerful testimony and said he hasn't felt the spirit that strong in a very long time. We committed them to read the Book of Mormon as a couple and then to pray to know if it is true. I felt so uplifted after that lesson! Tawnya is a great example of showing her faith and following the Spirit even if everyone doesn't agree with her decision. Love you Tawnya, I'm praying for you!

Tuesday morning we hiked the "M" of the University of Montana. It is shorter than hiking the "Y" at BYU but it was definitely colder. We started the hike around 6AM with Elders Braden, Snell, Burnham, myself, and Sisters Randell and Hoggan. I am SO out of shape! But it was fun and I wanted to make sure I got to do it before leaving Missoula. It was below freezing. :) We packed for a majority of the day and then Elder Burnham and myself went with Elder Braden to dedicate a home of a less-active member. She wasn't living the commandments and was practicing things she should not have been and ran into some pretty bad trouble in her home. After the dedication we told her to start reading the Book of Mormon again and to do things that specifically invite the Holy Ghost into the home.

Wednesday was transfer day in Helena. We drove down in the morning. I actually got depressed a bit realizing that half the people I saw in Helena I would never see again :( It just just kind of hit me, so I said a few goodbyes. Some of the ones I said bye to were Elder Rasmusson, Elder Braden, Elder Burnham, and a few others. Fortunately I can see them in Utah not long from now though! We drove to Butte with the ZL's and I was companions with Elder Perez (a new District Leader) until we both waited for our companions coming the following day.

Thursday was stupid haha. In the midst of the transfer, I had Aunt Peggy's Christmas package with me in the car. Our area was getting a new truck but since the Zone Leaders needed to use it to move luggage the next day, I left my package in there so I didn't have to take it with me to Deer Lodge with Elder Perez. I got a call Thursday Morning from Elder Hill (ZL) that someone had broken the back window of the truck and stole my package sometime overnight in the Stake Center Parking Lot...WHAT THE HECK?!?! Welcome to Butte! The police needed to know how much the package was worth and what was in it so I got permission to call home. It was sweet to hear everyone's voices! It's just too bad it was a sad occasion haha. Jesse's voice sounds so deep! I love how I told Jesse that my package got stolen and the first thing he said was, "That's lame. Someone is getting coal in their stocking." Hahahahaha

Other than that though, I got my new companion, Elder Mathis! He is from St. George, UT and just got out of High School. It's a weird transition going from a Zone Leader the past year and then training but in a way it is kind of refreshing. Elder Mathis is a bit homesick but that is normal. Keep him in your prayers! We found 2 new investigators within the first 2 doors we knocked so thank you for praying for us!

The Elders Quorum President here owns the Dairy Queen. He gives us SIXTY BUCKS A WEEK to eat there. But it's sweet because it helps out financially but also allows us to be seen and talk to people in the store. Hoping to see some fruits and not just fats.

Saturday we had a small miracle. A member gave us $20 for dinner because they could not feed us. We went to "China Garden" thinking it was a buffet all day. We quickly found out it was only a buffet at lunch time. We told the waitress we only had $20 and we could not afford to eat there (it was expensive). She said to order whatever we want and $20 would be enough. :) Blessings!

Yesterday was the Ward's Christmas program and it was so good! Sounds like the one at home was really good too! The talks given were specifically about the birth of the Savior from Mary's perspective, and then from Joseph's perspective. It was SO interesting. I loved it! We sang in the ward choir too haha. We sang, "I saw a New Star Shining," "Guard Him Joseph" and various renditions of Christmas hymns.

I am excited to see you all Thursday! We have permission to arrange skype times before then. What time works best for you? We can do probably anytime between 10 and like 2. We'll check the email around 3 or 330 tomorrow. You can be on if we need to communicate back and forth.

The Temple lights are so sweet! I'll get to see them next year :D I love you and I'll see you Thursday!