Week 85

Hey so this is probably going to be a really short email. And I don't know how much time I will have to email for the rest of my mission. Here is why. On Monday morning I got a call from President Guffey. I didn't really know why he was calling but it didn't take long to figure it out. President called me to be an AP (Assistant to the President). It was honestly super unexpected and overwhelming. But I am excited for the chance I have to serve all of the missionaries now. I had about 6 hours to pack and leave El Paso. I didn't get to say goodbye to any of my missionaries before I left which was super hard but I will see them again as I travel to Zone Conferences. I am grateful for this new chance to serve and help the mission. I am humbled by the call. My last 3 transfers are going to go by super fast now. If you want to send me anything in the mail just send it to the mission office:

4400 Presidential Dr. NE. Ste. E

Albuquerque, NM 87109

I will be in the office pretty often so it will be easiest to get it that way. 

The last week I had in El Paso was really good. The Lord blessed us a ton and it was awesome to see. Elder Faris and I worked hard and saw a lot of fruit from it. Christmas was great. I got to talk to my family which was super cool. I am excited to be back up in ABQ!! It will be  big adventure for sure!! Pray for me!!

Elder Carruth 

Week 84

Well another week has come and gone! I feel like I have less and less time to email every time I come to the library. Maybe that is because I have more and more emails! That is good I guess. Yay for being loved. So this week had a ton going on. Super busy with meetings and stuff. We had 3 exchanges this week. The all were pretty slow. We got to have Elder Larkin with us for the day on our AP exchange! It was awesome to get to catch up with him and talk about our companionship together. Made me happy. He is a great child of God. We had interviews this week with President Guffey. My whole interview was talking about the zone and the mission and how we can improve and what things we are doing here in El Paso. It was super cool I felt like I was counseling with President about the needs of the mission. Hopefully I didn't say anything dumb... We also had zone conference this week. I know we just had one last week but we had one this week too! A normal one without any general authorities. Elder Faris and I got to train the missionaries. We gave a 15 minute training 4 times, once to each zone. The spirit was super powerful though. It helped us train to the needs of the missionaries and helped us learn from what we were training on as well. It was super cool! So we had a couple lesson with James this week. He is the one who our member brought to church a couple times. I don't remember what I told you all about him. But we taught him twice and he accepted a baptismal date of the 14th!!! Of next month. He is going out of town for the holidays and getting married in the process! That is so exciting! He loves the gospel and it is a miracle for us to get to work with him. We wont see him for the next 2 weeks so pray for him!! We will be!! We had a baptism this week! Carlos got baptized! He is an awesome kid. Super smart and knows the gospel is true! His family is doing well. They are returning to activity. His mom is super sweet and there is a special place in my heart for them. The work is going well! Now we need to find people to teach so it can continue to go well!! Pray for us!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Remember the reason for the season! Christ was born so her could fulfill his mission, to die and rise again for us. Because he arose, we will all rise as well. I love you all!!!! 

mormon.org has a great video for this time of year. Check it out!!

Elder Carruth 

Week 83

Well what a week. So much has happened over the last 7 days. Like a ton. Let me tell you about it all. Imagine all of this in one breath... it would be funnier that way. Soooooo on Tuesday we had a mission tour with Elder Pearson of the 70. What a powerful disciple of Jesus Christ. He gave us so much to think about and new ideas to apply and to help our mission progress. He also gave us a wonderful feeling of the love our Father in Heaven has for us. It was such a spiritually motivating day for all of us. We all received revelation on what we can do better. During the conference Elder Pearson asked 3 missionaries to get up at the pulpit and give a 5 minute talk that we were all asked to prepare in advance. It is the scariest time of zone conference honestly cause you never know who will get picked. Usually Zone Leaders don't get called because we are asked to give other training during the conference. Well, my luck seems to have run its course. The last of the 3 names that Elder Pearson read was "Elder Carruth." I got nervous for the first few seconds as me and the two sisters he chose walked up to the stand. But I also was filled with confidence and assurance because I knew that I had prepared something that the spirit would help me with. I knew that my preparation was adequate and I have faith that the Lord will help me. As my turn came I was filled with love and I spoke boldly and by the spirit. I honestly can't remember much of what I said, but I do know that I got a ton of compliments on my public speaking skills and the spirit that my talk brought to the meeting. It was a really big testimony boost to me. I know that the Lord helped me a ton in preparing and giving that talk in front of a General Authority of the church. I am grateful. The whole mission tour was awesome. I know that the spirit was there because when the meeting ended I just wanted to tell all the missionaries how much I love them and that God loves them. One of my spiritual gifts is telling people that I love them. Something about compassion. But the rest of the week was super good too! We saw a ton of miracles! We have this investigator named Jackie. Well she has been close to baptism a couple times. This week we were finally able to meet with her again and she set her own date! She is living all of the commandments too! She is getting baptized on the 7th. Also!!!! She invited a friend to one of our lessons last week and he also wants to be baptized! They both came to church yesterday too. It was a huge miracle straight from heaven. We also got to teach James this week. He is a referral from a member. The member actually brought him to church the last 3 weeks we just haven't been able to teach him at all yet. Well we talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it! He wants and eternal marriage and is getting married soon. He loves the gospel and wants to be baptized! The Lord is seriously pouring out blessings from heaven for us. This last few months of my mission seems to be the time where all the promised blessings of the last 18 months come to pass. I have prayed with all of who I am that we would see miracles. And we are. God truly does and will answer our prayers. This next week is going to be crazy busy! We have 3 exchanges to do and another Zone Conference to go to. It will be exciting and stressful! I love you all so much! And so does Heavenly Father. 

Elder Carruth     

P.S. - funny story I forgot to tell. We had to go to ABQ for MLC with Elder Pearson this week. So we stopped in Las Cruces for some Chick-Fil-A. We were almost done when these 2 high school aged girls pulled up chairs to our table and began asking us questions about the gospel. We had 4 missionaries there. They were not question designed to learn but more designed to prove us wrong. It was fun having 4 missionary minds full of scriptures and quotes to help these 2 girls know how to have a better relationship with Christ and what the Atonement is really about. It was a fun experience because I don't think they got the answers they were expecting. Good times in missionary life

Week 82

Well another week has come to a quick end. Sometimes I feel like I get to email everyday. That is what it feels like out here. We just sit and email all day everyday. But I guess we do some real work too. This week was really good! We had a ton of meeting to go to and tons of stuff to prepare, so we spent a lot of time doing that. But we did see a lot of miracles in the work! So transfer day happened, my new comp is Elder Faris. He is from Idaho. Like all of my comps are it seems like. But he is a really good Elder! Knows what is up and is excited about the work! That day right before transfers I had a really confusing experience. We walked up to this lady in her garage and said "Hey how's it going?" and it response she said "no hablo espanol." I didn't know how to respond or what to say to that. Like you just spoke in Spanish to tell me you can't speak spanish? When we said hi in English? Hmmm.... anyway something really cool happened later that day. We went to see a less active and as soon as we walked in they told Elder Faris that they knew him and his parents. As it turns out, the parents of this less active member are the ones who introduced Elder Faris's parents to each other and introduce his mom to the gospel! Crazy small world! But super cool. We had a baptism this week!!!! Amanda got baptized! She got married too! Our Stake President married them and then right after that she got baptized! I was super touched when she asked me to perform the baptism. It was a special experience for me. The spirit was strong and peaceful. She is amazing and will be an amazing member of the church! The miracles that came this week were in direct answer to our prayers. Elder Faris and I have been really praying that we would find new investigators and that we would be able to keep teaching a lot even though we have baptized a lot recently. Well the Lord answered our prayers. We have 5 lessons set up for this week with just new people that we met last week. It seems like the very little time we have spent knocking doors is being magnified by the Lord. It seems every person we see wants us to come back. Every one we talk to is a miracle from heaven. Not only that, but a member of our ward that brought a friend to church last week brought that same friend this week AND another friend who happens to be a family of 4. We also got a referral from a member in sacrament meeting that we have already made contact with and have an appointment to go teach. The Lord is truly blessing us a ton. We are diligent and faithful in the work. But more importantly we are obedient to the commandments of God. That is when miracles happen. We are so blessed to be here on this mission. This is the best mission in the world with the best missionaries. Especially my zone. I have so many incredible missionaries here and I love them all so much. I love all of you as well!! Keep it up!!

Elder Carruth 

Week 81

Today is the first day of my 14th transfer! Woo! I am getting old. People are starting to tell me that I am almost done with my mission. I quickly correct them though and tell them that President Monson told me I can stay for 4 years, so I am not even halfway. This week was extremely special to me. We saw a lot of success. I spent the week with Elder Dial since Elder Prigmore went home. Elder Dial has been out for 3 months now. I actually got to finish his training with him. That was fun. We worked super hard this week and saw a lot of miracles. The Lord is blessing El Paso a ton! I am blessed to be here. So we had Thanksgiving this week! We were taken care of. The Jester family fed us. They are one of my favorites. We actually got to teach the gospel on Thanksgiving which was a miracle in itself! I love holidays as a missionary. Weird to think that was my last Thanksgiving. This week we focused a lot on finding new people to teach. We have a few people who are doing really well and will get baptized in December, so we need to start preparing people for January. We were blessed to be sent to areas with people who invited us back! The Lord truly directed us. It was so cool. One of the reasons this week was so special is because we had a baptism. Erinne got baptized. She is 9 years old and is a special daughter of God. Her family is working on being sealed in the temple! That is so cool. They asked me to baptize her and it made me really happy. The spirit at the baptism was incredible. Seriously one of the strongest moments of my entire mission. It brings tears to my eyes. I know that God loves us. I felt it. And I continue to feel it as I go about doing His work. It was an incredible moment in my life and something I will always remember. I am grateful to be here. So I am not being transferred. My new comp will be Elder Faris. I will get him tomorrow. We will be leading a zone that will have 2 new companionships, making 10 total. We will have 7 missionaries in our zone that have been out for less than 3 months, 4 of those just got off the plane today. 2 of our 3 District Leaders are new as well. Lots of change is happening but with it miracles are coming. Elder Dial and I have prayed all week that we would be able to find someone new to teach. On Sunday, 4 people sat in the row in front of us that I didn't know. 2 were members and 2 weren't. As soon as the meeting ended the members turned around and introduced us to their friends, who want to learn more about the gospel. When members bring friends to church, it is a huge miracle in the life of a missionary. It was direct answers from heaven. God is in control. I love Him. He loves you. I testify of that. I have felt his love for those that I have helped come unto Christ. This gospel is true. It is restored. Christ is at the head. I love you all!