Elder Inman Letter March 17, 2014

Road Trips Rock

Hello family. How are you, FANTASTIC. Look at your weather. Now look at mine. Now back to your weather, now BACK to mine. Sadly...it's not like mine (Old Spice). Haha things have been pretty crazy up here in the Big Horn Basin. Monday we travelled to Billings for Mission Leadership Council. We got there pretty late and didn't get to bed till about 1:30AM, only to get up to leave at 3:30AM. It was so fun though because Elder Organ (who I came out with) and ELDER SCHRAMM were there at the mission home! We all travelled together to Helena. There was a huge snow storm that caused a detour. Pretty awesome.

 

We got to MLC late because of the storm, so they started without us. It was a super spiritual meeting though. I heard probably the best live version of "Abide with me, Tis Eventide" I've ever heard. It was a sister who was called out on the spot to sing it by President Mecham. He said he felt prompted to ask her too. Although she was hesitant, she did and I really needed that. So cool. Some fun things as a result of that meeting, every area has texting now which is sweet! Originally it was just Zone Leaders, Assistants, and Sister Training Leaders that had it because we are the only mission in the world that uses Verizon. So everyone has texting (huge blessing). But what I am most excited about is President said he wants to make the Temple more available as missionaries. From now on, if we have  a Recent Convert doing baptisms, Reactivated Member attending, or Endowment of those we have baptized, we are permitted to attend!!!!! I was SO stoked! If we can get a ride with members, we are allowed to attend just not frequently.

 

After the meeting in Helena, it was back to Billings. We got home at about 8:30PM (long day) and the Wyoming South Zone Leaders wanted to go to "Steak-n'-Shake." It's similar to an In-N-Out but with a waiter. Had a crazy cool experience. A worker (not our waiter) came by our table and started asking us about Melchizidek and the 12 tribes. We were really skeptical at first thinking this was either going to be a bash, or an RM messing with us because he was beyond golden lol. He was extremely genuine. We were about to leave, and being the only ones in there, he ran up to us and asked if we could DEDICATE the Restaurant... He said because we have "Priestcraft" although he meant the Priesthood haha. We all looked at each other and wondered if that was even allowed! We told him to ask the manager. So he did and said, "Yeah, he's actually pretty happy about it!" WHAT?!?! This guy was probably only 30. We stepped outside the building (to leave the loud music), stood in a circle, and he asked ME to dedicate it because I was the INMAN. Haha. I literally dedicated Steak-n'-Shake, the Restaurant. That building will forever be in business! Haha. Pretty strange but cool experience...his name was "Al America." I'm convinced he's a nephite pahahaha

 

President gave us permission to attend the Temple Wednesday morning :) We saw the even newer Endowment Presentation!!! My mind was blown and I had all kinds of Revelation. We drove back to Powell afterwards and picked up Elder Nessen again.

 

Thursday we literally planned all day. It is tough to balance zone things as well as our own area. However, we had a very uplifting experience with one of our Less-Active families, the Davis'! This family has been inactive for decades, and both of them have very little Gospel Knowledge. So we taught the Restoration. Both were in tears. Brother Davis bore his testimony to us. He knows three things: God Lives. Jesus Christ is His Son. And Joseph Smith is a Prophet. I just wanted to hug this man. If those three things are true, the rest is true. His wife asked us to share the discussions with them weekly. AND they came to Sacrament meeting!!!!!!! After probably 30 years.

 

Friday we taught LOTS of lessons. We visited Brother Wyckoff who is a widower. We taught him the Plan of Salvation (again) and committed him to come to church after years of inactivity. We then found Mike Lindsey who has been gone for weeks. He was building clocks in his garage, and we just had some small talk. Next was the Pederson family (with the 1 year old). The whole family was there! Turns out they are active baptists but have visited with the missionaries for years. For whatever reason, the missionaries could never answer the mother's question concerning the 3 degrees of Glory...are you kidding me?! That's so essential and fundamental! So we are going to start teaching them :) We then stopped by the See's. this is the family with the twin Niece and Nephew. We taught the Restoration, and it was probably one of the funniest lessons I've ever taught xD Armann (I called him Herman in past letters) just got his tonsils out and has an extremely high scratchy voice. We were talking about Prophets and he raises his hand. We called on him and he says, "Abraham Lincoln was the first assassinated Prophet." Haha! We were crying. Abraham was a Prophet, and was almost assassinated, so he was close! Such a cute kid. We afterwards gave him a blessing of health. He hasn't been recovering well from his tonsils.

 

Torie's Birthday sounds like fun! I forgot all about Jump Street! I still cannot comprehend her being a legal adult (I don't mean that rudely haha). It just hasn't hit me yet. I hope you got my gift in the mail Torie! Sorry I didn't have a letter with it, I have had no time at all this week to write one! But I do love you and think you are awesome! I was painting on Torie's Birthday (Saturday), and actually broke a lamp. It happens I guess. Chris wasn't mad (this is the guy who's hearing aid place flooded).

 

Yesterday was really weird haha. But the Young's came to church!! Seeing some real progress with them; they are supposed to be baptized in two weeks so we will see! Please be praying for them. We later had a lesson with Shirley Dillon who is struggling with some Word of Wisdom issues. Afterwards we visited a half-drunk guy who said to come back Tuesday. We are hoping he forgets because we have District Meeting Tuesday haha.

 

I was going to save this for next week but I'm too excited about it. I'm emailing so late because Brother Yates (who we live with), took us to North Fork today which is about 2 miles from the entrance to Yellowstone!!!!!!! It is so beautiful up there. We saw Big Horn Sheep, Buffalo, Elk, and lots of deer. It was snowing pretty good. There is too much snow in the actual park (and it is outside our boundaries anyways). Here's some pictures! The weird structure is actually a house.. Love ya!

 

that weird structure is a house.

 

 

 

Gate to Yellowstone Park

 

Elder Inman Letter March 10, 2014

It's Hot!!!!!


It's like 45 degrees out and I feel the need for shorts! It will be terrible coming back to Arizona weather hahaha. Well it was quite a week as always. We had spontaneous teaching opportunities and let's just say the adversary hated it lol. Means we are doing something right!

On Monday we went to the Library to email as usual. But in the middle of emailing, the Ward mission leader for the sisters came up to us and introduced him to one of his non-member friends. Right there in the middle of the public college library we taught the first discussion. Pretty sure that's illegal but we were on official church business! Later that evening we taught a FHE lesson with a part-member family. The kids aren't members and the mom was baptized in January. So we brought lots of ice cream to make the kids listen :D We talked about how to develop faith in Christ. Something interesting happened...Sister Chionnard turned off the TV when we arrived. While testifying of Christ it turned on and disrupted the Spirit. That didn't surprise me until the following visits. We went to visit the Youngs. Again, in the middle of our discussion, the laptop on the table that no one was near, starts blasting a youtube video...Elder Rasmusson and I just stared at each other in amazement and almost laughing.

The next day was even better. We went to contact a referral. The lady we were looking for was not home but her less-active husband was. He had paused his movie and had his back turned to the tv as he was talking to us. We were facing the TV behind him. The TV literally turned off, back on, the menu pops up, turns off, turns on, menu pops up again and the channels started navigating through the menu!!!! A channel was chosen and it happened to be a highly inappropriate movie. We were just looking at each other wide-eyed. Satan had legitimately navigated the TV menu to display a horrible movie in the middle of our lesson. No one was near the remote at all. It gets better...

It was about 8:15PM. I had remembered we were out of milk and planned to go get some. On our way there, I felt prompted that I needed to stay out and proselyte till 9 and then I could get my milk. This will sound strange, but I can tell you that Satan would have loved for me to get milk and not proselyte haha. BECAUSE we found another referral we were looking for. This "man" we contacted was about 40% through the transvestite process. Pretty disgusting. Either way, he is still a child of God and we were asked to go see him. He let us in, we sat down, and immediately the cell phone starts ringing and plays a horrible song for a ringtone. He sits down. Probably 10 seconds later, the phone IN THE OTHER ROOM goes off. Elder Rassmusson looks at me and says, "We need to pray. Now." So we did with this man and had no further interruptions. It actually was a very spiritual lesson. We testified that through Christ, there is nothing we can do that can make our  Heavenly Father stop loving us. It is never too late. As a blessing, we went to the store to buy milk. Lo and behold, someone paid for our milk. Now that's a miracle.

We picked up our new companion Wednesday. His name is Elder Nessen. This is his 10th area and he's been out a year. He is actually a visa waiter for Brazil, so he has been waiting a long time. But he got his visa and will leave here in about 2 weeks.

Thursday we helped brother Green move, followed by Pizza Hut Buffet. We then got a call from one of our less-actives who told us his entire hearing aid clinic had flooded and needed help. The snow melted to fast that it caused a ton of problems. We tore out his carpet, floor boards, and bottom foot of his sheetrock. We will be re-doing it this week. He came to church because we came to help him though!

Steve Rackness is back! After three weeks in North Dakota working on the oil rigs, we found him at home with his family, hanging a chandelier. His wife has been on the ball, getting him a sweet CTR ring, a Greg Olsen painting for their house, and a plaque with a carved scripture in it :) Spent the rest of the day contacting referrals. One of them was in the sisters area and we had previously set up an appointment with them a few days previous. The sisters can't teach him because he is a registered sex offender. After knocking on his door for 10 minutes (because we could see him in front of the door), he opened it and said he wasn't interested...interesting. 

Saturday I had the worst headache of my life. First ever Migraine. Friday night I was up till 130AM because of the pain. In fact, it hurt so bad that I woke Elder Rassmusson up for a blessing. Not even a healing blessing, but of comfort, and the pain was cut in half. Took some medicine and slept the whole night haha. Built my faith in the Priesthood quite a bit. While doing splits with a ward missionary, his car got stuck because of how fast the snow melted and made mud lakes. I had to get out in my suit and push his car. My shoes were so caked in mud that we went to his house and I scrubbed my shoes off with a brush and a bucket of water haha. I love this place! 

Wow this is a long email. Last thing. Yesterday while out finding people with Brother George, we found a less-active man whose cows had broken down the gate and were scattered everywhere. So, in a shirt and tie, we chased this whole herd of cows back to the corral. Keep in mind it's a marsh full of water mud and poop, so my shoes looked quite brown again haha. I'm becoming a cowboy! We had dinner with a temple sealer and then were given 120 oranges from a members.

Glad to hear Jesse loved his volunteer work! He needs stuff like that. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TORIE!! It blows me away that you are 18 because I was at BYU at that age! That will be so fun for you and Lacey to room together! You are an amazing sister and I miss you a ton. Keep up the great work and have a great birthday! What do you plan on doing? Love you all!

Elder Inman Letter March 3, 2014

Coldest I've Ever Been in my Life

Greetings from the ice bowl. We've had a blizzard for the past few days. The people who have lived here for millennia say it's the most snow and coldest it's been in decades. God does have a sense of humor, "let's send the Arizona kid to the coldest mission we have..." haha.

 

 

It was a great week though! Monday we played dodgeball with the zone. The only difference was they were yoga balls hahahaha. That night we did something probably pretty stupid... We washed the car. It was 5 degrees out. And it was a "do-it-yourself" car wash. I had the opportunity of using the power hose. Naturally my hand was frozen in a gripping position and the car glazed over with ice so we couldn't even open the doors haha they were iced shut! It was awesome.

 

 

The good thing about all this snow is tons of service opportunities! We've been going to less-active and investigator homes to shovel their driveways and sidewalks. Which I guess is a law here. One of them we did for a widow at 8:00 PM. She had 8" of built up snow. Oh and a side note, it was -2 out and there was wind, so our faces were a little crusty! Shoveling is quite a good work out though.

 

 

Wednesday I got all 4 cavities filled! Not once in my life has a dentist been able to get my face numb...for the first time ever, Dr. Hull was able to numb exactly half my face! I was speaking pretty funny in the following lessons. We were on exchanges (Elder Rasmusson was with a companionship in Cody for a few days), so we drove to Cody and I switched spots with him. The purpose of exchanges is to assist other missionaries in the zone with their missionary work. So I was with Elder Chelson (my MTC companion!) and Elder Jackson who is one of my favorite Elders in this mission (from Kalispell zone).

 

We had a sweet lesson with Beau Brown Friday. He had a question prepared about Revelation. He shared a personal experience that had just taken place recently wit his family, causing him to wonder whether it was revelation or if it just the result of a dedicated will. I thought it was an excellent question. While it is true that you can see the result of something you are putting all your effort into, some things (many things) are independent of your trying. There are so many things that you can point to and say you know it happened by someone or something other than yourself. Beau (being both hilarious and extremely sarcastic) gave our companionship individual nicknames. He stands up to shake our hands after the lesson and says to me, "My abuser, (the to Elder Ashcroft) silent man, (then to Elder Rasmusson) and the Front Man. Haha I thought that was pretty funny. He calls me the abuser because I'm pretty blunt with him and he loves it lol. Later Friday night we had agreat discussion with one of our relatively recent converts, Sister Ackley. She grew up Pentecostal and knows her Bible extremely well. She has full faith that the LDS church is the correct church, but she has developed some deeper questions that she didn't ask in the originally discussions. I LOVE gospel conversations, especially with someone who is very knowledgeable in the Bible. She even had a question, not even deep doctrinal, actually pretty fundamental, that stumped us regarding the Priesthood and healing. We searched the scriptures for hours and couldn't find it. We actually ended up asking a member of the Mission Presidency but he did not have a direct answer either. It isn't a question that would sway your faith, but it was interesting.

 

Saturday. I never thought I would be going to a 1 year old's birthday party at a Baptist church on my mission lol. Quite the experience. A few weeks ago, we gavea blessing to a young mom and her baby who was sick. They are not members. The Mom (Alexis) invited us to Joshua's (baby) 1st birthday party which was held at the Baptist church. We got him a 3 foot long mickey mouse puzzle (only 42 really big pieces). We even played games...one of them involving fast CRAWLING on a hard floor in our suits as part of a relay race (they were baby oriented games). Still not sure that was the greatest idea.

 

 

It got to -31 this week with a wind chill. For the first time in my life my eye actually froze shut! Water got onto my eyelashes and it literally froze my eye shut! It was AWESOME. This was while shoveling more snow. Service gets you all kinds of free stuff. We are not allowed to accept money, so people justify giving us food. We got fresh banana chocolate-chip bread, a meal, and I forget what else. Dinner was with Brother George (ward mission leader) yesterday. His family has 2000 acres of farmland. Their big thing is dairy cows. I got to have straight cow milk. Raw, with no purification, just filtered. It was SO good. And I didn't even get sick!

 

Well that was our week. We did mainly service all week but we taught 19 lessons still which is still good for our area. Transfer calls came! Elder Rasmusson and I are remaining the Zone Leaders in Powell (so excited!), and Elder Ashcroft is going to Stevensville, MT to be a ZL there. We are inheriting another third companion, Elder Nessen who has been out longer than I have and is still waiting for his visa to Brazil...so we'll see how this goes!

 

I am so jealous you got to go to the Temple dedication and the Prophet was there. Thanks for all the sweet info on the Hosanna shout dad! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 

oh! Check out the Simpson's snow men! They want a return appointment with us :) doh!

 

 

Elder Inman Letter February 24, 2014

This wind is going to tear my face off.

Hello family and friends! It's a blistering cold day in Powell, Wyoming! And I'm loving it! The wind is mainly the worst part. The snow literally hurts when it hits your face...partly because it's ice.

 

We had a decent week. Monday we found a new Less-active member. She actually asked to have her name taken off the records years ago but it never was...so that's how we found her! She smokes hardcore, is probably about 60 but looks 80, and doesn't come to church because she got offended years ago. Funny story about this visit...so she has this dog that was standing upright and then just went limp, fell sideways, hit its head on the glass table, and started having a seizure. We thought it was going to die and were freaking out and she just says, "Oh, No he does that. That's the third time today within the last three hours."....WHAT?!?!?! Poor dog. She said she would take it to the vet. I sure hope so.

 

Tuesday was long and exhausting. We went to Lovell's District Meeting which started at 9. President Mecham was interviewing our whole zone,. So most of the District Meeting, me and Elder Rasmusson were doing pre-interviews with missionaries. Then we went to the Cody District and did the same thing. I interviewed the Elders in Lovell, and then the Sisters in Cody. We didn't finish interviews till 5:20PM. 8 hours of interviewing...but it was good to meet with President!

 

I was privileged to give one of the Sisters in our zone a blessing prior to surgery. She has been sick for several weeks and is a brand new missionary. The surgery went very well and she has a renewed testimony of the power of the Priesthood which is awesome :) She understood that we can provide the Priesthood power, but the healing comes from her faith. That had a profound effect on her. Later that evening we met with the Young's and taught Lucus (the son) the Restoration. Our highlight of that evening was probably at about 8:30PM. We stopped by an inactive members home. He was recently married to a non-member. We told him at the door we don't have a lot of time but asked if it would be okay to share a quick video with him and his wife and he said, "If it's quick." So we showed a Mormon Message called, "Moments that Matter Most" by President Uchtdorf (mom you should watch it). We brought it back to eternal families and the wife loved it!

 

Thursday we found a potential investigator with the name of Braden. We were actually looking for his inactive grandma, but he answered the door and said she was asleep. So Elder Rasmusson asked, "Well, can we talk to you?!" and he said sure haha. This kid is 17 but I could have sworn he was about to graduate college. Full beard and thick black hair to his shoulders. We taught the full restoration outside on his doorstep at 8:30 at night. It went pretty well!

 

Friday Elder Rasmusson went to Byron on exchanges. So it was just me and Elder Ashcroft here in Powell. We had a really good discussion with Beau Brown about receiving a witness to his prayers to know if the church is true. He is a less-active. We mainly focused on finding less-actives and had some success. However the majority of them don't have legitimate excuses for not attending church. For example, one of them said they didn't have church clothes to wear (hasn't been coming for decades). We explained that it is ok for him to come to church in whatever he has and we can help him get the clothes he needs. Later Saturday night we met up with Elder Rasmusson at the Baptism the Lovell sisters were having. Pretty good turn out, but the Young's didn't come because the roads were really icy. However, they came to church and stayed ALL THREE HOURS! It was awesome because the topics discussed in Gospel Principles was exactly what they needed. They are doing awesome :)

 

Sunday we did splits. I stayed with Elder Rasmusson and Elder Ashcroft went with one of our ward missionaries. Something interesting...we found a relatively new recent convert who has been hiding at his girlfriends house. So Elder Ashcroft stopped by with the ward missionary and shared a message with him. The girlfriend called us that night with a nasty voicemail telling us that we are never allowed to come back and that we were ruining their family by talking with the boyfriend about church...meanwhile her ex-husband is incarcerated and she was in trouble wit with the police for other things. She apparently is Jewish and is angry because her boyfriend (who is a recent convert) won't marry a non-member. It's quite the situation.

 

Aside from that we had a great week! Our mission has had 103 baptisms and 131 reactivations since the year started, so things are rolling forward. Transfers are next week so that will be interesting. Happy birthday Mom! I sent a letter out Saturday, I hope it gets to you on time. I am jealous you got to go to the shooting range and I'm surprised that 1894 Winchester 30-30 even works still! Who would have thought that mom loves shooting guns? Haha have a great week!

 

Pictures are of Powell, WY :) Nearly every morning.

 

 

Elder Inman Letter February 17, 2014

I don't even remember this week.

This whole week was interesting and chaotic. But not a bad week I suppose. Congrats to Shane on his mission call to Chile! He better hang around Uncle Jimmy to learn some Spanish! Hahaha. That is great!

 

Monday after emailing, we played dodge ball with another set of Elders and the Sisters here in Powell. Pretty fun and tiring. Later that EVENING, we found out that our Zone Leader Training AND New Missionary Training were moved to the NEXT day at 9AM in Worland (2 hour drive), and that we were mixing it with the Wyoming South Zone...WHAT?! So we literally took maybe 10 minutes that evening to plan, cancelled a lot of things, and had our meeting Tuesday. It's always wonderful to be told an hour before going to bed that you have a 9 hour meeting the next morning that YOU are in charge of haha.

 

So Tuesday came, we drove out to Worland. Left about 6:30AM and didn't get home till 8:00PM. I was so exhausted. Although it actually went pretty well. Thank goodness for the Spirit! Elder Rasmusson gave a talk on Priesthood Authority and Leadership, and I gave a half hour discussion on Happiness. It is quite a difficult (broad) but interesting topic to study!

 

Wednesday we did some service for a new move-in to the Powell 2nd Ward. The Sisters cover that area, but we were moving several dressers, mattresses, and frames. That night we picked up a new Investigator named Mike Lindsey. He lives at home alone and has struggled believing in God due to the loss of his wife. To keep him busy, he builds 18-19th century guns. He also builds clocks for a hobby. Originally he had absolutely no interest in what we had to teach. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and gave him the pamphlet which he took interest in.

 

We shoveled an 89 year old's driveway. Her name is Ethel and she is not a member but has a best friend who is. She is devout Catholic, and is part native from the Crow Indian Reservation. Her memory is beginning to fade (she told the same joke twice), but we hope to teach her time to time. Incredibly nice. All of our other plans fell through, so we found an innactive member who lives alone and talked to us about aviation for 2 hours....I almost fell asleep. But we shared something from President Uchtdorf...because he's a pilot :)

 

Valentines Day was probably the most uneventful day of the week. Absolutely no one answered their door (or were not happy when they answered). So we spent the day looking for service opportunities. The only thing we found was picking up Dog poop at the Animal Shelter. Great day eh? Our shoes looked awesome afterward...

 

Saturday we spent about an hour tracting. No one seemed to be home then either. But we did end up getting to see some less-active families. One of them is an old couple who hasn't been to church in decades because they feel like there are some that go to church and are hypocrites. He claims that he is still living the Gospel, and the Lord will justify him for not going to church. That is a terrible argument haha. If a hypocrite is someone who does not live perfectly up to everything he/she believes, we are ALL hypocrites (in the words of President Uchtdorf). We got the wife to cry. We feel like she wants to come back but does not want disunity. Stubborn men!

 

Yesterday was pretty cool. We only had 3 investigators at Sacrament meeting. The Young's were sick, and we didn't get to see them all week so we went by in the evening and got there just as they were pulling in (the Lord's timing is legit!). Tracy (the mom) is retaining what she is learning in the Book of Mormon! Please pray for her and Dana Young (the Father). We also found a family that has lived in Powell for 13 years, and have managed to hide from the church. Leave it to the missionaries to find you! We talked with them for a long time. A nice old couple, kids married in the temple, and they said they have just been lazy. So we talked some sense into them and hope to see them soon :) Other than that, the weather has been beautiful (high of about 48), and we are all happy and healthy!

 

Congratulations to Torie on her band performances! I miss going to festivals and what not seeing both sisters perform. I actually really enjoyed those! I love and miss all of you! Thank you for all the sacrifices you have made in my behalf, and the prayers. They are definitely keeping me going. Have a great week!

Elder Inman Letter February 10, 2014

Most Successful Week Yet!

I officially hit my year mark this week! Thank you family for the letter, it came on the exact day (February 6)! Still can't believe it has been that long. When I first got to the mission home I wrote a letter to myself and opened it...It had $80 in it and told me to start working out hahahahaha. I pretty much rebuked myself :)

 

So let's see...We coordinated exchanges this week. There was a companionship that needed a break from each other. So Elder Rasmusson went to Cowley, and Elder Wilson came down to Powell to stay with us for a few days. We started the exchange Monday night and then had District Meeting Monday morning. We had to leave early because I had a DENTIST appointment! Yeah. There is a member here who offered to give us free check-ups and cleanings. Turned out I needed it (it's been over a year). I have 4 cavities haha and they are from not flossing. He actually had me set up a return appointment and is going to fill all of them for free. That it a huge blessing.

 

Later on Tuesday we visited our eternal investigator. She has been investigating for 61 years and is still not baptized. Children are married in the temple. She told us that she needs more time...if 60 years isn't enough, I don't know what is! We were pretty bold with her and told her that she has been fortunate to have the Gospel for 3/4 of her life, yet has missed out on all the blessings of the Holy Ghost. She wouldn't set a baptismal date. I'm actually pretty worried for her that she is going to run out of time. The rest of the day was spent contacting referrals. We got into one house. I won't go into details about the family other than there are a twin brother and sister who have had the worst childhood I have ever heard of. They are 9 years old, but the sweetest kids I've met. We are going to be teaching them weekly :)

 

Wednesday was the BEST. Of the 6 investigators that came to church, we put THREE of them on baptismal date in one day!! The first was Steve Rackness. He is the husband of a very active wife and kids. We are taking it slow with him, but committed him to read 5 pages a day from the Book of Mormon with his wife, and to be baptized March 22! That was so exciting. Our last lesson of the night was with the Young's. After going through the discussions three times in the past, she has decided she wants to be baptized! We set a goal for March 26, but she said she would be baptized earlier than that if she feels ready. The hope is that Brother Young (her husband) could actually baptize her. So we are helping him get active again. Their son Lucas will also be baptized, but we found out he is 8, so he wouldn't count as a convert baptism. But that is ok :)

 

Service this week was pretty legit. There is a member here that is remodeling an old bowling ally. So the sisters and us helped stain wood for a few hours! I have never done it before but it is actually pretty cool. And will stain your skin like no other. I used paint thinner on my face to get it out of my skin haha. We then had a unique opportunity to bless a mother and her baby who aren't members. The baby needs open heart surgery but is too sick to operate on. I had the opportunity to bless the 1 year old son. Wow. What an experience. This baby just stared up at me the whole time in silence as I had my hands on his head.

 

I'm learning what it's like to drive in snow (with a small car). When turning right (slower than usual even), the car decided it wanted to go diagonal. So we almost played bumper cars with the car at the stop light. I pulled the emergency brake and we fortunately had a nice drift that straightened us out. Pretty fun! Later, we helped 2 cars get unstuck. Actually we helped GET one stuck first. We stopped in the road to ask this teenage girl if she needed help. By stopping, the car behind us couldn't get going again. So we helped them out too :) Three times this week it has gotten below -20. The coldest I've seen is -31 degrees! Your nose hair literally freezes. It's quite the feeling! Something kind of fun this week was we were looking for a less-active family. When we knocked on the door they thought we were carolers! They let us in and we sang to them haha. They came to church the next day!

 

I am so jealous you got to go to the Gilbert Temple open house. It looks beautiful! Congratulations to Torie on all of her successes! Tell Jesse to expect a letter from Elder Wilson. :) I don't know when it will come. Hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

 

The pictures were another service project we did. We helped a lady take down her Christmas decorations and put them into a secret underground storage. Pretty cool :)

 

 

Elder Inman Letter February 3, 2014

Hump DAYYYY!

Wow. I hit my official year mark on the 6th, but I will be home in less than a year. That's really weird to think about! But kind of exciting as well. I am not trunky, it's way to early for that but it is a good feeling to count down rather than up if that makes sense?

 

Monday's P-day was pretty sweet. Originally we wanted to watch Ephraims Rescue as a zone  but decided we didnt want to establish a tradition of Elder/Sister movie parties...so we didn't haha. Instead we played games like "Signs" and other interactive games. Elder Rasmusson and I were fortunate to come across a 5 gallon bucket of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. We cut it into 9 sections and had an ice cream carving contest between the 9 companionships there haha it was awesome!

 

 

 

Fun story about Monday:

On our way out of the house, Elder Rasmusson realized that he left the car keys inside. We locked the door on the way out and realized that the house keys are also on the car keys.. SO, we tried breaking in a number of ways but had no success. The members we lived with weren't home, so we had to be pretty creative. After praying about it, we decided to try the cat/doggy door. I was definately too big for it, so Elder Rasmusson tried it and got stuck! After getting him loose he tried head first. Didn't work. But then the thought came to go head first with one arm in, unlock the door from underneath, and open the door! He managed to do it and I pushed the door open while Elder Rasmusson was sweeping the floor with his torso haha. He was still in the door xD Pretty funny.

 

 

That evening, we actually travelled up to Billings with the Sister Training Leaders for Mission Leadership Council. This is my first offocial one, although I presented the phone reports to the mission leadership council previously when I was in Rimrock. We stayed the night in Billings and left for Helena at 4:30AM. The meeting mainly consisted of how we can improve as a mission while implementing things in our specific zones. I was actually in a frustrated mood, because I feel like many ZL's are way to prideful and abuse their leadership. We got back to Billings at about 9PM.

 

Wednesday Morning we drove back to Cody, WY to our District Meeting. I was SO tired! We took up probably an hour of the District Meeting implementing new iPad rules that were established at the Council. After District Meeting, a Sister asked me to give her a blessing. I had no idea what for but that was the coolest part. After the blessing, in tears, she said it was the best blessing she has ever recieved. I have a testimony of the power of the Priesthood. That God speaks to his children not only through prayer, but through other people. I don't remember one word I said in that blessing, but that is because it was not me. My mouth was opened and filled. So that was awesome. We also picked up a 3rd companion Wednesday. His name is Elder Ashcroft and has been out 19 months. He is with us for a special reason that I won't divulge, but be praying for him :) He has actually been awesome to have around and is pretty funny!

 

We double booked dinners by accident...I had "Hawg Heaven" which was a pound of pulled pork, and then forgot about the other dinner we had which was chilly and homemade cornbread. I couldn't move. Other fun things about Wednesday, we have begun volunteering at an animal shelter. All the dogs there are $45 WITH shots and neutered. I wanted to buy one! Anyways, they also had a cat room...a literal cat room of 32 cats. We filled their food and water dishes while Elder Rasmusson cleaned all the litter boxes. I HATE cats.

 

Thursday and Friday we helped a lady move and clean her home. Nothing too exciting. Friday we met with Beau ...I don't remember if I have talked about him or not. Beau is a member of the church but is very skeptical. He knows the answers to his own questions but lacks the motivation or the trust in God to follow them. We committed him to read and pray with his family for a week straight, no exceptions, and his desires would change. He accepted and we'll see.

 

Saturday I sheet-rocked! It's been a while since I've done that! We helped an inactive man sheetrock his home. He's really weird but I enjoy working. It is a break from the stresses of missionary work. The highlight of Saturday was visiting the Rackness Family. Sister Rackness is an active member but her husband is not a member. They had us over for dinner and we taught the first discussion. Brother Rackness is a super nice guy but might have a few hang-ups.

 

Seahawks huh? Super-bowl Sunday is a terrible day for proselyting haha. Either no one was home, or everyone was and we were not invited. However, we had SIX investigators at church and are planning on putting 2 of them on Bap Date this week! Pray for us!!!!!! I am doing well here, and Elder Rasmusson and I are a sweet companionship! He went to BYU, is majoring in Physics, and is from Reno, NV. We get along awesome.  

 

I am so jealous you get to go to the Gilbert Temple open house. Not fair! I miss the temple so much. Jensen and Shane are shipping out soon?! They were 16 and 17 when I left! Ahhhh! Tell those two to email me. They both haven't written or emailed me once! Love you!

Pictures of Mission Leadership Council