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  

Week 54

 

I have to title the pics when I save them so I titled this "Sun"

"Sky"

"Moon"

 

 

Well hello friends and family! Great to see all of you bright and smiling emails! Thank you to all who respond with words of encouragement and strength. They truly do help. This last week was full of ups and downs and all arounds. But at the end we talk about the ups because those are what are of true importance here. We were able to spend a lot of time knocking on doors and talking to people! That is always a lot of fun and something I have grown to appreciate over the last year of my life. Slightly by force at first, but then by choice. It is a great joy to talk to God's children about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was pretty much what our whole week was about. Knocking doors and talking to as many people as we could find. We had a wonderful miracle though. We were at sonic with some members of our ward when our phone rang. It was a couple of sisters from the ABQ West Zone. They called us and gave us a referral of a family they had been teaching that moved to Rio Rancho. As it turns out they moved to our apartment complex. Small world. But they had taken the lessons for a while and are already prepared for baptism! It was such a huge miracle for us. After all of the hard work we have been putting in over the last few weeks it was so great to see blessings from heaven. We needed it. We went and met them last night and talked to them. They have been married for two years and are expecting their first child in early July (The 5th maybe?!?!). The husband, Drew, is a less active member of the church and his wife, Renee, was raised Catholic. They decided to create a spiritual foundation in preparation for their new baby. Renee decided that she wants to get baptized! It was so sweet to hear her testimony and to see the joy that they have. The Lord is truly blessing them. That was the miracle of the transfer so far for us. It was amazing. The other awesome thing of the week was Zone Conference. It was President and Sister Miller's last one before they go home in July. It was yesterday which is why P-Day is today. The spirit was strong and I loved it. Elder Burton and I had the chance to provide training to all of the Zones. It was a great experience. At the end of the day President and Sister gave their final testimonies to us. After singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" we were all in tears. President included. It was so hard to say goodbye to such and inspired man. Someone who loves this work so much and loves each of his missionaries. What an inspiration to us all. I truly love President Miller and Sister Miller with all my heart. They have done so much for me and my life. They will always have a huge part in the person I am today. President Guffey will be here in July and I am excited to meet him and his wife and love them as well. It will be great. I love you all!! Thank you for all that you do!! 

Elder Carruth 





Week 53

Well another week has gone by! At least I think it did. I don't really think I ever left the library. Just one continuous email from last week... I hope all is well for all of you and that life is being nice to you. This week was full of miracles! And a little stress... but we will focus on the miracles because that is what we live for out here. So we have been really trying to start the work in High Range Ward. We took it over a month ago and had nothing and still have nothing really. We spent a few minutes knocking doors out there and while we were there the Hermanas called us with two referrals! It was awesome! And a huge miracle. We will take everything we can get right now to start the work and establish a teaching pool. Last week we were knocking one of the apartment complexes that we have been working on for weeks. We found this lady named Susan. she immediately invited us in and told us about her mom, who is on Hospice and doesn't have much time left. She told us that she was interested in learning about our religion and to compare it to her Methodist faith. It was a really cool miracle and we are excited to help her understand the Plan of Salvation. It will be really good and something that will help motivate Elder Burton and I. Right after we talked to her a man approached us and told us that we were not allowed to be there. That no solicitors could be in the complex. We tried to tell him that we weren't solicitors but he didn't want to listen. This is a funny story. He asked if we wanted to go to the office with him. After immediately agreeing with his invitation, he got really surprised and said, "Wait, do you really want to go?" After saying yes again we walked him to the office, we went in first and found who we were supposed to talk to by ourselves. He didn't seem very comfortable. He never told us his name. And never stood up for himself. The manager lady gave us the number of the owner and told us to call her. We then said we would be back anyway to visit those people who invited us to come back. It was so funny to me to watch how this man handled this situation. He was full of contention, but when we didn't argue back had nothing to say or do. This was a moment that I found out that I have changed a lot out here. I would have handled that situation a lot differently before the mission. I have changed so much it is crazy. Anyway just an interesting realization for me. Friday was my official one year mark! I survived this long it is awesome! And kinda scary to think how fast it has gone. The Hermanas gave me a camel. It goes around the mission to those who hit the hump day. I now get to pass it on to some lucky person. Later that day we knocked on the door of a lady named Pam. She also invited us in to talk and told us that she had been looking for a church. She told us that she totally can see Joseph Smith being a prophet and that she wants to hear our message. She also told us she will get her husband on board too. It was an awesome miracle. We are excited to teach her and her husband as well. She works nights and she told us the only time she could really go to church would be in the morning. Well good thing church starts at 8:30! God knows His children. Perfectly. I had the chance to give a couple blessings this week to sisters. I love those moments. I feel like I can help the Lord more specifically. They were really cool experiences where I was able to receive revelation and hopefully help the sisters to feel the love of their Heavenly Father. Even when the work seems to slow down, the Lord always has His hand in it. The work of the Lord will go forth! The church is true. I testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The comfort that it gives in the crazy world we live in. In it's pages are testimonies of truth and light, all centered on the Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all! Keep up the fight.

Elder Carruth