Week 61

Soooooooo its has been another week. Crazy to think. I say that every week I feel like. Wanna know why? Cause it is crazy... Like wow.... Anyway this week was good! Slightly slower than last week but still wonderful! Any week as a missionary is wonderful. The gospel is great. God is perfect. The Savior loves us. I could probably just end right there but let me tell you about my week. If you have made it this far into my email I am impressed. Send me a smiley face and I will be double impressed. Wanna see who actually reads these things... Anyway we are still doing awesome. Elder Larkin is like dead set on getting transferred in two weeks. I think he is going too. But the Lord likes to play jokes sometimes so you never know!! We will know sometime I guess. Transfers are on the 26th this month. Tuesday. Which means Monday Pday that week. Not a huge fan. We taught a few people this week but unfortunately none of them are really progressing very well. We are on the hunt for new people that we can teach and testify to. So pray for us. Our companionship is doing really well! We get along really well and work hard together. It has been a lot of fun over the last month. Crazy to think I have been here for a month already. So one thing that did happen this week is we had MLC. All of the leaders in the mission get together and council on what the mission needs. A 7 hour meeting in the end but full of spiritual insight and revelation from President. We then get to train the missionaries in our zone the next day for a couple hours. We had a great meeting with the zone. The spirit was there and was inspiring. Nothing else that was super exciting happened last week but we are still going forward! The work of the Lord never stops!! I love it!!

Elder Carruth

Week 60

What a long and busy week! So much happened! So much to talk about! So little time... We will try to fit it all in! So last week we finally got to meet our new mission President. President and Sister Guffey are awesome people. I received my own witness that President Guffey is called of God to be here and to lead this mission. I know it without a doubt. I am excited to move forward with him and to do the work of the Lord. Right after that we went on exchanges! I got to head out to Laguna/To'hajiilee reservations. Got to spend the day out in the middle of no where! It was awesome! I loved it even though it was a super long and exhausting day. We found a scorpion while we were out and about and we caught it. Good times. Waking up on July 1st was a weird feeling. The year is already half over but it does not feel like that at all. Crazy to me to think about it. But still good! The work continues! So last Friday we got to go to Pete and Mandy's wedding! It was so amazing. We were there for a long time but the spirit was so strong. The place they had it at was so GREEN! I miss green. It was like a little corner of Washington! It even rained a little for me! Beautiful. What a wonderful day for them and for all of us that got to be a part of it. One of the pictures us a selfie of us and Pete literally 2 minutes before the wedding started. The following day we got to participate in Pete's baptism. We had a huge support show up from the ward and from Mandy's family who are mostly active members. I love her family. They made me feel right at home and I truly enjoyed it. The spirit was powerful and Pete bore his testimony of how his life led him to where he is today. He inspires me. So before I forget there was a crazy cool miracle at the baptism. We thought that Mandy's dad would bring baptismal clothing for himself since he has been a temple worker before. We assumed wrongly. We didn't have anything for him to wear. We tried to get into the closet with the clothes before he came just to see and we didn't have a key for it. We decided to go back and try the closet again and it opened! There were 2 suits in there and one of them fit him perfectly! And if that isn't enough we went back after the baptism to try again and NONE OF OUR KEYS WORKED! We couldn't get back into the closet! The hand of God opened the closet for us. No other way. True miracle. It was a great week! Besides all of that happening Elder Larkin and I saw a ton of success! We found 6 new investigators! The ones that I am most excited about are Victoria and Erica. We knocked into Victoria, a 16 year old girl, and she told us to come back. When we did she brought her 15 year old sister Erica along. Victoria didn't seem too interested but Erica is. She wants to learn more and if this is the truth. It was such a cool miracle! The reason I am really excited about them is because my whole mission I have taught and baptized 16 year old girls. Kendall in Belen and Angie in Rio Rancho. I call it the Carruth Curse but it isn't a curse. It is a blessing. There are only two reasons why I can think of that the Lord continues to have me teach 16 year old girls:

1) My maturity is that of a 16 year old girl and I connect well with them.

2) My wonderful mother converted at the age of 16 and now I have the opportunity to pay it forward.

I lean towards the latter, but am undecided. I am grateful for the opportunity to teach God's children about our Savior Jesus Christ. What a glorious gift and privilege that is to me. I love the Lord. And I love His children.

Love you all!!

Elder Carruth

Week 59

Hello from the desert! It is a solid 99 degrees right now and has broke triple digits a ton over the last week or so. It is crazy hot but at the same time I am pretty used to it. I can feel the difference between 99 and 103. About the time it becomes normal I will head home and have to start the adjustment over again. So the biggest change that happened this week was we got a new mission president. His name is President Guffey. He is from Ohio. We get to meet him tomorrow so that will be super cool! I am excited to meet him and work with him. I will also miss President and Sister Miller a ton. They have done so much for me. I have felt so much love from them and they are beyond inspired. They will be missed but I am sure that I will love President Guffey the same and be just as sad to leave when my turn comes around. Lots of changes are sure to be coming these next few weeks. So we have a baptism this week! Pete is going to get married on Friday, we get to go, and then baptized the following day!! We are super excited! I wish I could have been here for the actual teaching of Pete and not just his baptism. But I am excited for this weekend. It will be an amazing couple of days for them and their families. He is the only person who is really progressing right now. We found a new investigator this week though! It was a cool miracle. We took Bishop's son out with us since he is leaving for his mission in August. We tried by this person who told us to come back and he let us inside! His name is Robert. He loves Jesus Christ and has a ton of faith. He knows a lot about the bible as well. It is really cool. We are excited to continue to teach him. We also taught Rosalie yesterday. She is a Jewish lady that I don't know if I have talked about yet. We committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon everyday for a week. We will see how it goes! I had a couple really awesome spiritual experiences this week. One of them was when I gave my talk on Sunday. I was asked just to speak for 5 minutes and introduce myself and talk on service. Normally I would write down a couple bullet points and scriptures to share. But my companion has been reading a book that says we should study the topic and scriptures and pray with all our heart to be guided by the spirit, but not to write down you talk. So I tried it out. It was scary walking up in front of a new ward with only my scriptures and no notes. But it went fairly well. The spirit prompted me to use a couple scriptures and I did and I don't really remember what I said. Must not have been from me. The other experience was giving a blessing to a sister. We were prompted to ask her is she needed on and she declined. The next day however she called and accepted the offer. When we got there she asked if I would do it and I felt the peace and approval of the Savior. I said things that I don't really remember but they were a lot different than a normal blessing. So I know that the Lord was there. It was great. Overall the week went really well. Elder Larkin is a wonderful companion and we get along great. We council together and work together well. I have learned a lot from him already and it has only been 2 weeks. Hopefully we will be able to find more people to teach!

On a side note I was able to finish the Book or Mormon for the 4th time as well as the Doctrine and Covenants this week. I knelt in prayer and asked if they were true, as I do every time, and I received another spiritual witness that these things are true. The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and is here to help us learn more about our Savior. I love it. I love the gospel. I love my Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love you all!!

Elder Carruth

Week 58

Well another week has come and gone here in the great city of Albuquerque. The weather has been nice and consistent. Anywhere from 95-102. Not complaining! Just informing you all that live or work where there is AC all day. This week was awesome. We didn't teach a ton but we found a lot of people to teach which means this coming up week is going to be even better! Keep us in your prayers please as we continue to find those who are prepared for the gospel. Anyway on to the week. So most of the week has been us knocking doors and me meeting members of the ward. It is a great ward and I am pumped to get to know them all and work with them. Last week we got to meet the Maile family. Brother Maile is our Ward Mission Leader and they are from Tonga. They are amazing people. As soon as I said I was from Washington Sister Maile started laughing and throwing down on Washington. It was hilarious. Then Brother Maile looked at me and told me I better not miss any meals in this area. They are funny people and we get along really well for some reason haha. I love them already. So we got a new investigator last week! Her name is Rosalee and I know I probably spelled it wrong. She is Jewish and wants to learn more about the Book or Mormon. She loves meeting with us and the first lesson went pretty well. We went back yesterday and she was waiting for us! In a good way of course. Her gate was open chairs were ready and she dressed up even. She was prepared to talk to us and had been reading the Book of Mormon. It was super cool to see and as we taught the Plan of Salvation she agreed with it! She said that it made more sense to her than what she had been taught growing up. We have a weekly appointment with her and now it is just getting her to come to church! We had an awesome miracle this week. Like super cool. We were knocking on doors in the heat of the afternoon. The first 8 houses didn't answer. I looked at my companion and told him is we made it to the next side street without talking to anyone we would leave and find somewhere else to go. The last house before the side street answered the door and quickly told us he wasn't interested and closed the door. It was a sign though that we needed to continue the street. So we did. More of the same happened until the very last door on the whole street. We knocked it and talked for about 10 minutes to a really awesome woman named Rebecca. She told us she was interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and how it could help her. She told us to come back this week and to talk to her more. It was a super cool miracle because the Lord kept us on that street and though obedience and persistence we were able to find His daughter who needed the gospel. It was a good day. We had Stake Conference this weekend. That was good because we got to see President Miller one more time before he leaves next Monday. Can you believe that? New mission President in less than a week. It is going to be crazy for sure. We shall see though. Should be good. Elder Karl Tilleman from the Area 70 was there and he is an awesome guy! He talked to us after the adult session for a while and gave us a ton of advice about making the new president feel welcomed. The only bad part about conference is I didn't get to go to my ward and meet everyone. So I will have to wait a week for that. The only other thing that we did was teach Pete. He is getting married on the 1st and baptized on the 2nd. He is an incredible example to me of conversion and is doing great. We get to go to his wedding too which is even better! I am excited for that!!!! Anyway things are going great here. I love the work to death and can't wait to have more experiences that will grow my testimony and faith. I love the Lord and all He does for me and I know he loves you too no matter the challenges you face. Keep up the faith. Keep being awesome and know that I love you!

Elder Carruth

Week 57

Hello from Albuquerque! I got transferred to the zone that touches Rio Rancho. So I moved a solid 10 miles away haha but it is very different down here for sure. I am excited to be here though! My last week in Rio Rancho was really good and I am going to miss that place a ton. I spent over 7 months there and learned a lot. I changed a lot. I am going to miss those that I was able to help into the gospel and those who helped me deepen my conversion. We were going to have a baptism last Saturday but Renee ended up in the hospital. Shes ok though so don't worry. Baptism is rescheduled for this coming Saturday and I am sad that I will miss it. I will also miss Angie's baptism on the 25th. She is the 16 year old that we have been teaching. She went to girls camp and had a blast with it. She is going to make a wonderful member of the church and future leader. It was hard to say goodbye but I am excited to be where I am. Elder Larking is my new companion and we get along really well so far. We have a lot in common and are excited to work together. It should be a good 6 weeks here in Albuquerque and probably longer than that. Funny story of the week happened at Zone lunch on Friday. We went to Taco Cabana. Hermana Peyson and I were talking in line and we challenged each other to get a Lengua Taco. So we did. It was actually really good once you got over the fact it was lengua. Anyway thats about all for this week!! Not much to report on sorry!! Love you all!!

Elder Carruth

Week 56

Hello everyone from home and abroad! Hope this last week filled you with love, joy, peace, happiness, success, joy and success. And peace. Of course. This week for us was awesome! We taught a ton this week and had miracles to spare! It was super cool! Let me tell you all about it!!!!! So first of all as soon as June came the heat came with it. Mid to High 90s for the last few days and will be for the next week. So prayers of rain and ice storms would be lovely. Last week we were able to begin teaching someone new. Her name is Angie. She came to church with one of her friends last week and we were able to set up a meeting with her on Tuesday. She has a really close friend of hers pass away as well as her parents. It has been extremely tough. She is 16. We met with her 5 times this week and she has totally grasped the gospel. She is progressing incredibly well and loves to learn. The spirit is there as we teach her and she is preparing for baptism on the 25th. What an amazing miracle for us and a blessing to her. She is such a testimony builder that the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the Restoration of His gospel. It is amazing to see and to be a part of it as a missionary. She was the highlight of the week. We also have been working with Renee as she prepares for baptism this weekend. She came to Stake Conference this week and is preparing for her big day. She has had some complications with her pregnancy as the day gets closer so prayers for her would be great. She and her husband are doing awesome though and we love getting to know them. We had MLC this week. The last MLC of President Miller's mission before he leaves. He leaves at the end of this month and President Guffey will take over. That is crazy to me. I love President so much and will miss him a ton. During MLC President asked if I would Role Play a contacting situation in front of everyone. Everyone being all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders of the Mission. About 30 people. So I did and it went ok. When I was done he walked up to the front put his arm around me and said "Elder I hope you know how much I love you." and then proceed to tear my role play apart hahaha it was so humbling. It was great though I appreciated it. We had a crazy cool miracle the next day though. We had zone training and we trained on contacting people everywhere and talking to everyone that we see. After the meeting Elder Burton and I and the APs were in the kitchen when a 15 year old girl knocked on the door. She asked if she could get some water. Applying what we talked about just minutes before we began to talk to her about the gospel. She accepted and invitation to our lesson later that night with Angie and she came! It was so cool. The Lord brought her to us. Now she is being taught by the missionaries who cover her area and all is well. It was a week full of miracles and joy for us. We love being missionaries. I love the Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ and testify to you all that they live. They lead and guide this church and love us all. That we may all remember who we are and where we come from is my prayer. I love you all.

Elder Carruth  

Week 55

Hello family, friends and everyone else! Hope the end of May is treating you well and filling you will joy and happiness! And cookies... We all love cookies. This week was a lot of fun!! Wonderful miracles happened and everyone felt the love of our Savior. So we went on exchanges this week. Elder Thomas and I got to spend the day together. It is the second time I went on exchanges with him. He is a great missionary and I always learn a ton from him. We were out knocking doors and we found a less active member of the church who was moving out. We offered help and he accepted! We helped load the last few things into his truck and then he gave us his new address for us to give to other missionaries to help him. It was so cool to see the Lord put us in a place where we can help someone. Now we can send other missionaries to him and to teach his family the gospel. Another miracle we saw this week came from a member. We went to church and a member brought one of his friends. He told us that she was interested in  learning more about the church! We have been struggling to find new people to teach so it was a huge miracle! The Lord is preparing people for us to teach. I testify of that. the last miracle of the week happened yesterday. We got a call from the Sisters who told us that someone was at the hospital and needed a blessing. They were about to go into emergency surgery. We left right then and got there as soon as we could. We literally got there 2 minutes before she hit the OR. the nurses told us that she was unavailable but when she saw us she told them that she needed to talk to us. We gave her a powerful blessing. The spirit testified to all of us that she would be ok. That the surgery would go well and that there would be no long term complications. The timing was perfect. The Lord was in control to whole way. It was amazing. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and the spirit. What a wonderful gift. The only other update I have is on Drew and Renee. They are doing awesome! They came to church this Sunday and Renee loved it. She is planning on getting baptized on the 11th. I can't wait! It is what will make this whole transfer worth it. The Lord loves us all. I testify of that and promise that he blesses us as we follow our Savior. 

Elder Carruth