Week 78

Well people... I don't really have words to describe how amazing this week was. Not just in our area but really across the whole zone. Miracles are happening everywhere and all of the time. It is so cool to watch the hand of the Lord bless the lives of these people. Especially those people who desperately need it. I love missionary work. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. And I feel so incredibly blessed to be here. Anyway let me tell  you all about what has happened this week! So the biggest news is we had a baptism this week! And we had a total of 4 in the zone! Our baptism was Zenia. She is a really special daughter of God. She has gone through some really rough things in life but has truly embraced the joy that the gospel brings to us. She has felt the peace that comes through the Atonement. She loves the gospel and we have been blessed to be able to teach her and help her all along the way. It was super cool because the missionary who first started teaching her got to come to the baptism! That was special for Zenia. The spirit was super strong too and it confirmed to me the importance of the work we do. This is God's work, not ours. I had a sweet experience this week with a couple Sister Missionaries. They came to us one night pretty distraught about something that happened. They were freaking out pretty bad. We listened to them and offered them blessings. I had the chance to lay my hands on the head of one of them and give her a blessing from our Father in Heaven. It was peaceful and calm. The next day at a service project she came up to me and told me that the things that were said in the blessing could only have come from Heavenly Father. That the words were exactly what she needed. It proved to me and strengthened my testimony that the Priesthood is real. I am blessed to be able to use it to bless God's children. It was a powerful example of God's love for His children. We went on exchanges this week. I got to stay in my area. I have only been here for 3 weeks so I was honestly a little nervous even though I have been a missionary for so long. We had a miracle filled day though. We taught 6 lessons total! That is good for one day. We got a phone call from some sisters a zone over and they told us about a guy named Michael. He approached the sisters on the street and told them he felt prompted to ask about their message. Turns out that he lives in our area! And he has 4 kids, 2,4,10,13. We were able to teach him twice this week and he is open to baptism! He told us that he feels that this is a good thing and a good path. He listens to the Book of Mormon while he is at work and is 14 chapters in and remembers it! Talked to us all about the Brass Plates of Laban. It was a cool miracle from the Lord!! People are starting to come up to the missionaries! Maybe it will happen to us this week! Pray for it! So I finally got to meet one of our investigators this week. Her name is Jackie and she is the 16 year old sister to our 17 year old recent convert Katelynn. She has been thinking about getting baptized for a while now and is preparing for the 19th. 16 yeard old girls seem to be the theme of my mission. She came to church yesterday and even fasted with us. Katelynn bore a powerful testimony in sacrament that her sister got to hear. It was amazing. Ok so this email is super long already I feel like. So if you made it this far I am impressed and I love you. I just want you all to know that I feel richly blessed by my Father in Heaven. I have never felt the joy that I feel every single day as a missionary. I go out and represent the Savior to the world. This work is led by the hand of God. This work is true. I love my Savior with my whole heart. And I know that He loves me too. I know that this church is true, that Jesus Christ is at the head and that the Book of Mormon contains the word of God. How blessed we all are to live in this time when the gospel can be found in its fullness on the earth. Our Heavenly Father loves us all. I have seen that every day on my mission. And is the strongest part of my simple testimony. Heavenly Father loves His children. In the sacred name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Elder Carruth