Week 33

Hello everyone!! Guess what!! We have snow! I know it is absolutely terrible and I hate every second of it. It is in the cycle of melting and freezing and snowing again and then it repeats. I almost fell today in the parking lot at our apartment. Not about this life haha. But things are going well and before I forget MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!! Hope you all have a joyous holiday and took a minute to remember the Savior and His infinite sacrifice for us. We had a cool experience last Tuesday. One of the High Councilors came out with us and it was 8 oclock and we had nothing to do. He told us to pray and listen to the spirit. During the prayer I got the distinct impression to visit a less active family. I voiced my prompting and we went. That was one of the most spiritual meetings with that family that I have ever had. It was amazing and I know that the Lord sent us to be there with them that night. It was so cool to watch the spirit work on them and testify to them of the importance of coming to church. It was a special experience for me. Wednesday was a great day for us. We helped at the food pantry again and I am starting to remember the regular people that come and am making friends. Right after that a couple sisters from the ABQW Zone came up with one of their members and we all went caroling for the members dentist. It was pretty fun and a great way to spread some Christmas cheer. We had two lessons that day too. We taught the Restoration to Anna. She is an older lady who lost her husband in July. We found her tracting. When we went through the first vision she told us she felt peaceful. And when we taught the Plan of Salvation later in the week she told us it all makes sense and that she feels good about it. The Lord truly has prepared her for the gospel. She is of the Elect of God. I feel so blessed to be able to teach her and help her along the path back to her loving Heavenly Father. We also taught Amber that day and she accepted a baptism date of 1/23. She needs to get married though and she is also due to give birth in March so it might not happen when we planned it to. We are also going to get her Fiance involved later tonight and hopefully get them both to progress. She has seen the blessings of the gospel already and has felt the spirit touch her heart. I love teaching her. Eventually Christmas morning came!! What a beautiful day!! The snow didn't hit till Saturday so it wasn't a white Christmas. We had Zone Training to start the morning and it ended up being a testimony meeting for the zone. I really enjoyed hearing the stories of all of the other missionaries, especially the ones in my district. I took the time to bear my testimony and to tell my district how much I care about them and love them. They are all fantastic Sisters and I love working with them everyday. There was a special spirit in the room that day and I loved it. Our Ward Mission Leader gave us stocking after that!! Full of candy and socks! There was also some cash that he said the members of the ward pitched in for. It was really sweet of the ward to do that and I love them even more for it. We got to Skype home!! What a fantastic 30 minutes! Everyone in my family is still alive so that was nice. It was great to be able to see their pretty faces and hear their voices. It really motivated me to work hard and continue to push forward. I loved it. We spent most of the rest of Christmas visiting members and eating all the food we could. And there was a lot. Sunday was probably the worst day of my entire mission. No joke. It had snowed the day before and church got cancelled and President told us to stay inside and study. Nothing is worse for a missionary than staying inside ALL DAY. It was awful. But I got a lot of reading done so it wasn't all bad!! We had Zone Conference yesterday and it went well. President had some investigators come to do a Q & A and one of them happened to be one that I taught while I was in Belen. It was great to see Jacob and hear about his upcoming baptism. He will do amazing things in life and as a missionary for the Lord. I got the chance to talk to president a little and that was nice. I am going to miss him when he goes home in July. That was our whole week!! Hope you all are doing fantastic!! Love you all!!!!

Quotes of the Week:

"Just because God is smiling on someone else doesn't mean he is frowning on you."

"Don't be afraid to ask people what God has already asked them and promise them what God has already promised them."

"God does everything for a maybe."

"You get what you look for."

"We are not here to experience fear."

"No one can deny what you know to be true."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

Sunday night the Sisters got really scary promptings. They were all freaking out and at about 10:20 PM I found myself in the Zone Leader apartment with 4 sisters, one of which asking for a blessing. She chose me to give the blessing and it was a sweet experience. I said things in the blessing that she later told me were exactly what she needed, that I followed the spirit perfectly. She felt much better after that and I felt really good. The spirit is an amazing gift and blesses the lives of God's children. 

Picture: So We tracted in the snow for an hour and my hair literally had ice in it. Frozen solid. 

Love you all!!

Elder Carruth