Week 27

Hello from snowy and freezing Rio Rancho New Mexico! That is right I am now serving in the Panorama Heights Ward in Rio Rancho. This place is great. I am going to miss Belen like crazy. I had my goodbye tour after emailing last week and it was pretty tough for me. It was hard for me to say goodbye to so many amazing members of the church and such a great ward. And it was really hard for me to say goodbye to the people I helped come unto Christ. C and K and C are examples to me of what can happen when you follow Jesus Christ. I love them so much and will miss them. But for now I must move forward and serve the people here. This week has been a super long one for me. It was full of blessings and tender mercies though! And I know that the Lord is watching out for us. My new companion is named Elder Mosher and we are working well together! He has been out for about 3 months and has had some rough companions. Our first day together we knocked doors for a couple hours and talked to a lot of people. It was awesome. This area is a bike only area. Our map is tiny. 15 minute bike ride will take you to any edge of our area. Hopefully I can lose some weight here! That is a minor goal of mine haha. I truly am so excited to work in this area and to be in the ward. My district here is 3 companionships. Spanish Sisters and 2 sets of English Elders. Our whole zone is only one companionship bigger than my last district. We will all get to know each other really well haha. My first morning in Panorama was pretty tough. Not used to being here. But I solved that with 4 hours of tracting! It was great and we talked to a lot of awesome people! One of which is named MJo. We knocked on her door one day and she told us we could come back the next day. So we did with our Ward Mission Leader. Honestly I wasn't expecting her to even be home but she answered the door and invited us in! The spirit was super strong in the lesson and she is obviously ready for the gospel. She has 3 boys and the oldest is excited for primary. It was an amazing lesson and a tender mercy from the Lord. We have an investigator named M. He has been meeting with missionaries for a couple years now and knows he needs to get baptized. He has a couple fears though so we promised him that if he came to church he would get answers. And for the first time in a few months he came to church! It was awesome and I am excited to meet with him tonight. So last Friday was my 6 month mark of being on my mission. It is really crazy and kind of scary to think that I have spent 1/4 of my time out here already. I know it will only go faster from this point on and I know I need to work as hard as I can while I still can. It was a great day though! We had Zone Training and then Zone lunch together. It was awesome to sit down with the whole zone and just hang out for an hour. Later that day we were riding our bikes when we saw 3 guys pushing a car up a hill. We immediately dropped our bikes and ran across 5 lanes of moving traffic to help them. It was awesome and they were really grateful! On Saturday we met with a woman named Amber. She has 1 boy and one on the way. She is in her late teens or early 20s and invited us in to learn about the gospel. She has been searching for  a church for a while now and the spirit in the lesson was strong. She is another person who is ready for the gospel. The Lord truly has blessed us with being able to find people who are ready to hear the gospel and to get this area headed in the right direction. Hopefully we can get her husband involved as well. I was really excited to go to church on Sunday so I could meet the ward. This ward is pretty awesome and gives Belen a run for their money. I am gonna say they tie though so I can keep my friends in both places haha. We are going to be getting our ward boundaries changed next Sunday. I think our ward will be getting bigger so we can stabilize our primary. Yesterday was a day where the Lord puts you to the test. From sun up to sun down it snowed all day long. And a lot of snow too. We got on our bikes, zipped up our coats, and headed for the streets. It was cold and exhausting work but we were diligent. The Lord blessed us with an unexpected lesson and a little time out of the cold. He also blessed us with a random member of a different ward giving us a ride to dinner when we were walking. Little things like that can go unnoticed if you don't pay attention. The Lord is always there to look out for us. Even when all we see is ice and snow. Anyway I think this is the longest email I have ever written. I love you all! Keep being awesome and your support does not go unnoticed by me. 

Quotes of the Week:

"Men and angels are coworkers in this great work."

"We are here to offer eternal salvation."

"The future is as bright as you faith."

"True disciples of Christ will always have trials."

"Look to the next life, not this one."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

Yesterday I had the opportunity to give a blessing to a less active member of our ward. She has been pretty stressed out lately and has a lot to deal with. After the blessing she looked up at me with tear filled eyes and said "That was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much." It was a really cool experience for me and one in which the spirit helped me.

Miracle of the Week:

The miracle this week was us being able to find two people who have truly been prepared to receive the gospel. It is amazing to listen to their stories and see how God put people in their path that made them interested in the gospel. I am so excited to teach them.

Pic: The work never stops! EVER! 

Elder Carruth