Ya esta deciembre. Que loco!

Hey family!

It was so good to hear from you all this week! Really, really good letters, and I even got one from Coop! Speaking of Coop tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope everything goes well this week and you can all celebrate a little bit. I am a little jealous that I can’t be there for his ordination, but hey, I should be there for the next one! I hope his feet start feeling better, that’s pretty rough not being able to play. Sounds like Mary has been super busy, and did really well in her swim meet! Tell her that I remember when she could only do a 50 in 1 minute 24 seconds but now she can do 100! That’s awesome. Tell Brooke great job in the concert!!

Mom I think you’re crazy how did you work 20 hours straight? I think I would die! Dad, I do remember the time we went fishing at the Barker’s just you and me, that is one of my favorite memories, and I think the best fishing trip I have ever been on. Less than 2 short years and we can go again!

It’s been fun hearing about all the mission calls the last couple weeks. I didn’t know Morgan Lewis too well but she was in my lifeguarding class and a friend to Bri, so I know who she is. Florida would be a sweet mission. Keep me updated on everyone’s calls, have Kendell or Becca gotten theirs yet?

So my car was broken into? Ha ha well they got away with like 5 dollars in change max. No there wasn’t anything of value in there I took it all out the day before I left. I just hope the sunglasses of mom’s weren’t too nice. All my climbing stuff is in a grey box that I used up at school. It’s in the house somewhere because it will get ruined in the garage. It might be in my room, upstairs washing room, or one of the empty rooms upstairs.

So our house... still no, we really don’t have a lot of stuff like appliances. But we made a deal with our renter today and we are going to use the rent money to get a hot water heater this month. And we are going to get it today!! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. We are still waiting on the washing machine and stove... although I think we have a stove type thing that will work if we buy the gas. I have figured out how to keep the shirts white more or less, an Hermana in our ward that we wash with a lot showed me how to do it’s, it takes a lot of scrubbing but they look as good or better than anyone else’s here. Still not great, but mom don’t worry about it. Also mom I have been asking around and I have only heard of one elder with a problem of a package getting here, and it had an iPod in it. So obviously not for Christmas or anything, we already have the worked out but in the future don’t be too scared to send a package.

So how did everyone like the Christmas devotional? I absolutely loved it in spite of only understanding about 80 or 85%. The words of the prophets are always so inspiring. And I particularly like Elder Uchtdorf’s talk. I want to go watch them in English now.

The area is really good, I have heard it’s not one of the nicer areas in the mission but the people here are really amazing. There are a lot of people in the ward that I feel really comfortable in their home, and I know if we need something we can go to them. So if you get the chance, make the missionaries feel comfortable in your home, because it really helps a lot. The leaders are ok... Our ward mission leader was just about as good as you could get for a while but he is getting married in 2 weeks so he is kind of slacking off right now. Our other leaders had some bad experiences with missionaries in the past and are slow to trust, but we are slowly gaining it. Right now we are doing really good with the bishop and that is the first step.

So I hear mom has to give a talk on hope in Christ, and partly how it helped me in my decision to serve a mission. Well I want to say that hope in Christ was almost everything in my decision to serve a mission. The word hope has been something I have been studying a little bit here in the mission; hope is an attribute of Christ. For me it is a combination of two things: faith and trust. Faith was really, really important in my decision to serve a mission. I had to have the faith to know that this church was true first, a faith strong enough to lead to action, and eventually here. The second part, trust, I think is even more important. Once I had the faith, I had to trust in the Lord. I was giving up two years of my life; I didn’t know where I would go, or what language I would speak. I had to trust the Lord to send me where I needed to go, and help me in what I needed to do. I had to trust that this was the right thing to do in my life, and that I would be blessed for doing it. More than anything I had to trust and hope that the mission would change my life for the better. And the Lord would take care of me and give me the answers I needed. When I sent off my papers I was really having a hard time. My plans in life seemed like they were falling apart. I felt completely lost. Luckily I had the faith to turn to the Lord and I trusted in his answers. I know without a doubt I am supposed to be here. And while I still don’t have all the answers I have the faith and hope that I will get them. And I will be blessed during my time as a missionary and after. I know that the Lord will take care of me, if only I do the things that he asks. That, to me, is my hope in Christ; and I would not be here without it. Hope in Christ was everything when I made my decision and is everything now. Because of my hope in Christ I am happy and doing what I know is right.

I love you all and miss you all, I can’t believe it is December already and Christmas time. I can’t wait to talk to you guys this month

Elder Utley