Week 4

Elder Carruth's maternal grandmother's cousin

Elder Carruth with Buddy the dog & wearing a Vietnam War Era Helmet

This week went flying by! I felt like I just sent home an email yesterday. Right now we have a baptism on the 4th, Brent, and 2 on the 11th, Chuck and Christy. They are all progressing really well and I am excited for them. We spent a lot of time working with less active members this week. Making sure that they know they are missed and cared about. Last week when we went tracting for a little bit we found a house that had a moving van. We went to see if we could help. The owner of the house didn't really seem interested to what we had to say but her sister was in the garage so I decided to talk to her. While I was talking to her I managed to convince her to come to church while my companion convinced the owner to let us come back to talk to them about the book of Mormon. By the time we left they gave us pizza and sprite haha it was awesome. I went on exchanges last week with Elder Bennett in the Tome spanish area. I had no idea what was going on but I did say a closing prayer in spanish before the end of the day. We also spent time cleaning out Valencia's apartment. One of the Elders there got sick and had to go home. So we went over and helped the mission president clean up and lock up the place. I got to go to a baptism on Saturday. The family that the Los Lunas sisters were teaching got baptized. I helped teach that family a couple times and apparently the youngest boy asked if my companion and I were gonna come to the baptism. They are great people and will make great members. At that baptism I got to meet a relative that I didn't know was here. My dad's cousin lives in the Los Lunas ward and I got to meet her at the baptism. She was pretty excited to see me. Church was really good and I bore my testimony along with my companion. I talked about prayer and how important it is to us. Having said that I am officially inviting everyone who goes to an LDS church to bear your testimony next fast Sunday. You can do it. That is pretty much my whole week! Onward and upward from here! 

Quotes of the Week:

"To find yourself you must lose yourself."

"Love is what qualifies you for missionary work."

"You cannot convert someone beyond your own conversion."

"The gospel fills the hole in your heart you didn't know was there."

"Be the one that loves someone enough to share the gospel with them."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

On Sunday we took a member to go meet with a guy named Melvin. Melvin likes to talk about how him joining the church wouldn't solve any of the worlds problems. As we were talking to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the member we brought with us shared his conversion story about the Book of Mormon. By the end of the lesson Melvin committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to figure it out for himself. It was amazing to watch the spirit soften Melvin's heart and I am excited to see how he does. My testimony on member missionaries grew that day.

Hope everyone has a great week!!

With love,

Elder Carruth