1-4-16

Hey guys! 

Happy new year! I hope that everything is going well for you all.

This week has been a week of Miracles!!!  We have been working on a training for the ward mission leaders and bishoprics in the stake to implement the handbook in our ward counsels. We have really been recieving revelation (Me and my companion), but we were afraid that the leaders weren´t going to get anything out of the training- I´ve given a few trainings in my mission, and they haven´t really done too much.    SO, we started to see this week little signs that the Lord is preparing the minds of certain people here in the stake. We ate with the first counselor of our ward, and he started to express his concern about the ward and how we don´t have success in the missionary work, and that he wan´t to change things. The Lord has really planted a desire in him, and we started to get so exctied. On Sunday, 2 or 3 of the members bore testimonies about how this year they want to participate in missionary work. Even the Sunday school teacher explained the promptings that she has had to participate more in the missionary work.   So, on Sunday night, we gave the training, and EVERYONE came!  First of all, that´s a miracle in and of itself! (That doesn´t usually happen here!) And there was such an excitement when they listened. They realized that in order to hasten the work here, they are going to have to improve the ward counsel, find incomplete families for us to teach, and return and report every week.     We have the support of the wards now in the stake, and we are SO excited to see the miracles that are about to happen! 

We also found a family to teach, who lived in Washington DC for like 5 years. they are so awesome, and so prepared! The Berrueta´s. 

I know that this church is true. There is a feeling of urgency that keeps getting stronger and stronger the more that I serve. The Second coming is Close, we are in the middle of the Last days, and the ONLY way that the Lord will come, is if His stakes of Zion of strong and self sufficient. They are the Refuges from the world, and they must continue to grow, or else they will not support the storms of the world that are about to come, and are already coming.   The Lord has an order, and that order must be executed. That order starts with ward counsels- they find the lost sheep who are out in the desert, the missionaries feed those sheep and helps them to come to Christ, and when they are done,  the saints of the stakes continue to nuture them.   This is real, God lives and WE are His hands.     This is going to be an awesome year!

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Carroll