Week 41

Hello wonderful people! How are you today? I am good. It was 70 degrees yesterday and it snowed today. Feels a little like home. Never know what you are going to get. This week was the best week I have had in Rio Rancho. We taught a lot and found a lot of new people to teach. It was just all together a really successful week. So let me tell you all about it! So last Tuesday we got to teach someone we have really wanted to. His name is T and his wife K is a member of the church. They have a couple kids and one of them is baptized and the other is not. When we finally sat down with T to teach him we had a really cool experience. The spirit was really strong and he told us that he already knows that it is true. He has seen the blessings in his life from it already and he wants to be sealed to his family in the temple. He readily accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of March. It was an amazing lesson. The Lord truly prepared him to hear the message of the Restoration. We went on exchanges last week. I stayed in Panorama and Elder Thomas joined me. It was a really solid day and we did a lot of work. I felt really good after that day. We taught A that day and she is not really progressing anymore. She told us she got a No for an answer when praying about baptism. We committed her to pray about the Book of Mormon since a testimony of that precedes all conversion. We will see how it goes this week. Thursday was the really hard day of the week. There has to be at least one right? Or else you don't learn anything. We had 5 lessons planned and a couple new people to go teach and all but one lesson fell through. It was a test for sure but we managed to make it through it and the week was still a great success. Friday was the highlight of the week by far. We had a great District Meeting. The training we received was inspired and full of love from Elder Thomas. I learned a lot about my personal missionary work and how I can improve. After that we dropped by a potential investigator and he let us in! His name is P and we were able to teach him twice this week. He has some interesting ideas about things but he talked openly with us and it was a good experience. We are hopeful that he will keep the commitments we extend. The best part of Friday was D getting baptized!!! YES! It was such a wonderful night and the spirit was testifying all night. D told us afterward that he felt happy. It was so great to see him and his family bright and smiling. I truly believe that D is the reason I came to Rio Rancho. And I am so happy that he chose to make covenants with his Heavenly Father. After the baptism Brother Laws, the person who actually baptized D, pulled me aside and told me that while D and Brother Laws were in the bathroom right before the baptism D said that if it wasn't for me he wouldn't be doing this. He never wanted to get baptized until I came to Rio Rancho and everything changed. It made me feel really good and adequate. I know without a doubt that the Lord sent me to New Mexico for a very specific purpose. There are people here who I have helped that I feel like I have known my whole life. It is really special to me. Missionary work is wonderful. Sunday we were able to confirm D and it was a great day. After the baptism on Friday I was in the hall when I saw a couple familiar faces. There was a multi-stake dance in the gym. The Waldram family, one of my favorite families from down in Belen, was there! I loved seeing them and it reminded me of all the wonderful experiences I had over the first 6 months of my mission. It was so great to see them. Yesterday was a really great day too. It was a great way to start off this next week. We taught a couple lessons and got a new investigator named M. He is open and interested. We also taught P again and the lesson went really well. We are excited for the work in this area to continue to grow. Elder Summers and I are loving mission life. We are happy and unified. It is wonderful and fantastic! Love you all!!!

Quote of the Week:

"God's creativity gave us our individuality."

Spiritual Experience of the Week:

D's baptism was really special. We had a lot of people from the ward there and the spirit was powerful. Everyone there can testify of the choice he made. It was a testimony building experience for me for sure.

Miracle of the Week:

So on exchanges with Elder Thomas we decided to drop by a part member family we had never met. We ended up talking to the husband, the non member, about his background and family. He invited us to come back to talk to him, his wife, and his two daughters. Yesterday Elder Summers and I went over and talked to the wife and one of the daughters. We set up a time to teach the whole family. It was really cool and we are both really excited about it!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

Alma 7:11 -  The Savior suffered for all of our pains and weaknesses and sorrows. Not only our sins. When we struggle we can assuredly rely on our loving Savior. He has felt our pain and knows our challenges. If we rely on Him, He will comfort us.

Love you all!!

Elder Carruth