Week 28

At least I think it is week 28. Correct me if I am wrong. Hello from a cold and windy Rio Rancho! What a great place to be and to work. This week has been a pretty long one but also one full of lessons and learning for my companion and I. Last Pday was pretty awesome. We had sports as a zone and we played floor hockey. It was really fun and quite the exhausting workout. Today we are having the turkey bowl in honor of thanksgiving. Football is also pretty fun to play with a zone. I love that our zone is so small. It allows us to get to know everyone personally and I am so grateful for that. Wednesday was a pretty great day. We knocked on doors all day long pretty much. We picked a whole street to knock and we did! We ended up talking to 25 people and got a couple people to invite us back. One of them was named S. He didn't seem too interested when we first contacted him but after I bore my testimony he invited us back. We taught him for the first time yesterday and it was a pretty good lesson. His heart softened as the lesson progressed and that was cool to see. We had interviews with President and Sister Miller last week and I absolutely love them both. As soon as I sat down with President he told me how many great and wonderful things he hears about me everyday. How my Zone Leaders love me and think so highly of me. I told him not to believe everything he hears and he told me he only listens to half of it and it is still great. It made me feel really good though and like I was capable of being a missionary. Made me feel successful. Later that night we dropped by MJ to see if we could set something up. When she saw us she was excited and immediately invited us in. It was so cool to see her happy to see us! We are so excited to teach her. It will have to wait till after the holiday though. She will get baptized. I had my first district meeting last Friday. I was a little nervous because this is a new district but I was also excited because I had an awesome plan. The spirit was awesome and I got a lot of participation. Afterwards I talked to each companionship about it and the sisters told me that they couldn't stop talking about it and it was really powerful. That made me happy and I hope it helped my district. I love being able to present trainings to the district to help us all improve as missionaries and servants of the Lord. So Saturday was the day we planned to have be the most successful day of the mission. We had 6 lessons planned and 4 new investigators set up. We fasted. We were exactly obedient. And absolutely NOTHING worked out. We taught 1 lesson that day. I really felt discouraged. But I learned a lot that day. I received revelation. Here is what I learned. 1) Some people are not ready for the gospel. 2) We cannot control the agency of others. 3) Being obedient for one day does not qualify us for an outpouring of blessings. 4) Heavenly Father answers prayers. So the big news of the week happened on Sunday. We didn't have 3rd hour because there was a tri-ward meeting instead. As we gathered together the Stake President informed us that they were splitting a ward and realigning the boundaries of the other wards. The Western Hills Ward was formed from the Cabezon ward as well as a little part of the star heights ward. It is so cool to see the growth of the church! The cabezon elders now cover two wards. We lost a small chunk of our area to the cabezon ward to make it all work. Our area is even smaller now. The exciting thing is in two weeks the is a tri-stake meeting. New stake is going to be formed. That is going to be so exciting and cool and I hope it doesnt mess with anything in this area. That is pretty much my whole week! Hope all is well at home and wherever you are when you read this! Love you all so much!!!!!!!! 

Quotes of the Week:

"Let faith fortify your footsteps."

"Forever is composed of nows."

"We are living eternity."

"happiness is the object and design of our existence and will be the end there of if we pursue the path that leads to it."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

I think District meeting was the best event this week. The spirit was so strong and it motivated me to work hard and be diligent. I love the spirit. It is so peaceful and uplifting and encouraging. 

Miracle of the Week:

Saturday, being the terrible day that it was, also had a miracle. After dinner I said a quick prayer that we would be able to find 1 person who would invite us back. Over the next 30 minutes we talked to 14 people, which is a lot. The very last person we talked to invited us back. Not sure how interested he is, but he invited us back and that was a huge miracle to me and an answer to a prayer.

Pic: HOT AIR BALLOONS ARE EVERYWHERE!

Love you all!!!

Elder Carruth