Week 39

Hello everyone!!! Hope all is well wherever you are when you read and/or delete this! Things here in Panorama are FANTASTIC. Like really good though I am excited to be here and work with my new companion. Elder Summers and I laugh a ton and get along really well. This area is going to explode and I am excited to watch it all happen. This last week was pretty good but a little slow too. Elder Summers has been battling a sore throat and headache so we have spent some time resting. We are hopeful that things are improving though. We did manage to get some work done though and that is always good. I had to learn how to be a Zone Leader really fast since last week was the first week of the month. We got to go to MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). It was awesome. All of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders get together and receive training from President. It was a spiritual feast and I loved every second of it. We learned a lot and it motivated me to work harder. The Friday following we held a Zone Training. A lot like district meeting just an hour longer. We trained on what we learned at MLC and it was awesome as well. This zone is really inspired and full of consecrated missionaries. We are both really excited to be serving together here in Rio Rancho. The Stake has been putting a lot of emphasis on Part Member families and perspective elders. President Miller has also started stressing these list of people. We have seen a ton of success already from applying these. We had a really cool experience where we went to a Part Member family and talked to the father. He is not a member and his wife and daughter are. He told us that he felt it was time to be baptized and we are hoping to teach them this week. It was a miracle and a testimony to the direction that we are headed. So we are having a baptism on the 19th! David is progressing to that day and is excited. He did not come to church this week so we skipped 3rd hour to go visit him. We set up a plan to get him to church next week and he should make his date. They are also getting married this Friday! We are super excited for them. Megan and David have been a huge blessing to us and I truly feel that David is the reason I was sent to Rio Rancho. He is the person I have felt like I have helped the most here. Super Bowl Sunday was interesting. Due to the game we were told to stay at our apartment from 4-8. We had our weekly planning during that time. It was weird being inside so much but President knows what he is doing. Yesterday was a day full of little miracles. We found some time to go tracting and we ended up talking to this man named Dan for about 45 minutes. He has a Christian background but very hesitant on the Book of Mormon. He told us that we can come back as long as we listen to him and his questions too. Since that is what we are here to do we agreed. We are interested to see how it goes. Later that night we were waiting outside a retirement facility waiting for a member to let us in when a little old lady walked out. It was dark and we were dressed in black but as soon as she saw us she immediately introduced us to her dog Sam. She told us how she is Catholic but has a "Mormon Bible" and has been to church. She also has a nephew on a mission in Rome. She asked us to come back and give her a blessing to help her overcome her cancer. It was really awesome and miracles were everywhere. That is about all I have!! Love you all!!

Quotes of the Week:

"Don't be afraid of silence."

"No person should journey alone."

"Prayer is a commandment."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

MLC was really cool. I didn't really know what to expect but it was the best minds in the mission all in a room with President. The spirit was full of inspiration and motivation. We learned a lot and were able to share that with the zone.

Miracle of the Week:

So we have really been struggling with getting referrals from members. We have started a new campaign to help with that and we saw success this week. We visited a Less Active member and asked him who he knew that could benefit from the message of Jesus Christ. He immediately started talking about his neighbor and we now have an appointment to go meet them. It was a miracle and a blessing from the work we are putting forward.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

While reading in Alma I noticed that Alma tells us that bearing testimony is the way we save our brothers and sisters. Testimonies can be very powerful and invite the spirit to testify of what we say. It is when we bear heartfelt testimonies that the spirit of the Lord touches the hearts of those around us and allows them to feel the love of the Savior.

Pic: Elder Summers on the left and Elder Summers on the Right! My new comp is on the right haha

Love you all!!

Elder Carruth