It's been an exciting week. For district meeting we got to go up to Ruidoso. It brought back a lot of memories even though I wasn't even on the Res. That day we brought both of the Mescalero elders (Elders Meza, who's the DL, and Jewett) back to Roswell for exchanges. They recently changed exchange policy in the TLM so the whole companionship comes to the leader's area instead of switching the companions. The reason being that the leader's area is supposed to be an example of how to do missionary work effectively, so we bring them both here so they can learn. I'm really bummed they didn't change that after exchanges with Mescalero. It would have been great to go back to Mescalero, but at least I got to hear all about it.
We've also been able to do quite a bit of service this week, which is always fun. We go help at Salvation Army a lot and this week got to go on a "run" to pick up some things people were donating. So we got to help move some things and put together a foosball table. On Thursday we got to help out at Harvest Ministries, where they hand out food to people who need it. We got to push the carts out and help people load the food up. It's so neat being able to serve others and I'm glad we were the ones going out and meeting these people.
We got a couple new investigators this week! S is a young father who's wife has recently gone to prison and he lives with his father in probably one of the sketchier parts of Roswell. He loves talking with us even though his dad is super anti-Mormon. He still wants to learn, but it might be harder teaching him because he's distracted very easily and there's plenty of people/things to distract him. D is an older gentleman who has had a hard life and isn't sure if there's a God. It's such a blessing in life to have faith in God and be able to recognize His hand in our lives. Without faith, life is so dismal; even if you are a good person despite not having faith.
None of our investigators came to church this week, but the A's and D's were there again as well as Sis. B (another less active member). I actually got to go up to Fort Sumner for church and speak, though. There's a little branch there with about 10 or so active members. I went up with the high councilor for the branch, Bro. J. There used to be missionaries there, which was great for the branch, but the number of missionaries in our mission has dropped quite a bit since I came out and so now we cover it. Hopefully we'll get to start going out there more often, but it's hard to figure out rides for that (we don't have enough miles to drive ourselves out there). There's such a different feel between cities like Roswell and little towns like Fort Sumner. It's going to be weird trying to work both.
One more thing that I learned from one of the sisters in Fort Sumner. She gave a great cowboy analogy. If you watch a fly land on a horse, you can see it twitch because it can feel the little fly. But if the horse has been out working and sweating all day in the sun, is it as likely to be able to feel a tiny fly land on it? It's not as sensitive to it's touch. In our lives, promptings of the Spirit come in a very similar way, quiet and still. If we're still and listening for it, we can hear His voice, but if we're too distracted or too busy, we'll be too preoccupied and He won't yell over the ruckus of our lives. I love yall and hope you will take time to listen for the subtle promptings of the Holy Ghost this week.
Love,
Elder Carlson
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