Sounds like you guys have had a buys week and a busy summer. That’s really exciting that Mary got her license, it seems like I just barely got mine. And Coop started acceleration, tell him to work hard, that really helped me. He also told me they might drain sand hollow? What’s that all about? Anyway, good luck at girl’s camp this week. Hope you guys get some good fishing in too.
Well I don’t have a whole lot to tell you guys this week. Surgery went well, it was kind of freaky to have it done here, not to mention it’s the first surgery I have ever had. But everything turned out okay.
The president came on Friday but it wasn’t really to visit me, we had a special zone conference to get to know our new president. And he definitely knows who I am ha ha. He was super nice, and his family too, they were all very concerned. He seems like a really good mission president, and a good guy. I was very impressed. I learned a lot at the conference and the spirit was really strong.
Anyway we got back from the hospital on Wednesday and just slept and rested. Then we slept most of Thursday morning. Then we went in a taxi to an appointment and again in taxi to the food with the members. And we actually had another appointment that night, and as we stopped a taxi a member offered us a ride. So that was nice. And on Friday we got up normal and studied and went to a few appointments, I got brave and started taking buses cause taxis are expensive, and in the afternoon we had our zone conference and I got to rest during that. And starting Saturday we started working like normal again. It’s been rather amazing how fast I have recovered. But I guess we get some special blessing as missionaries to be able to do what we do.
Luz and her daughter didn’t go to church and we couldn’t see them this week. We are super bummed because her husband prohibited her from going and listening this week. But her friend that gave us the reference is going to talk to her and her husband and see what they can do, because she and her daughter really want to listen and change.
On Sunday we had kind of a cool experience. One of the young men in our ward got his appendix taken out. And I was able to share a little of my experience with him and some of the thoughts I had. And I think it really helped him and his family.
I talked to them about a scripture in 2nd Nephi that talks about how it’s necessary that there is opposition in all things, and that we have to experience pain and trials to know good health and happiness. And a quote from Elder Eyring that talks about when everything is going good in his life he prays to the Lord and says give me mountains. All trials happen so that we can learn something, and are the best way to learn in this life. That’s why the Lord allows them.
I have been grateful for this experience, it has allowed me to exercise my faith and realize the testimony I have of the gospel and of this work. It would have been really easy to just go home, take time to recover, it would have been comfortable and I would have had my family to help me. I could have gotten back into swimming to lose the weight I need to so that this doesn’t happen again, and gone back to normal life. But I realized my work here isn’t done yet, and I don’t even have the desire to go home. I want to share what I know, and I still have a lot to learn in my mission. And I have actually been more excited to work and share the gospel since all that happened. It helped me realize my purpose here and testimony and I am grateful for it.
But we should not wait for a trail to come to be humbled like that. Like Alma taught in Alma 32, the people were blessed because they were humble. But they were poor and cast out and that’s why they were humble. He said even more blessed are those that done have to be compelled to be humble.
Well I love and miss you guys, have fun with all the activities these next few weeks
Elder Utley
Well I am sorry you didn’t get my messages for a while last week. The place where we usually write was closed and we had to go to another but it wasn’t very nice and me and my companion both had problems with messages not sending. But the good thing is it got there. Sounds like you guys have had a buys couple of weeks. But, lots of fun. Before you know it the summer will be over and everyone will be back to normal schedules!
So mom told me she got into nurse practitioner school! Congratulations!!! When do you start? What are the hours like? Where is it?
Well my week was good. I have been feeling good. I got my stiches out this Thursday, I was going to do it Saturday but the skin started healing over the stitches and it was really hurting. And its healing really nicely, it doesn’t look too bad even though the scars are big. The bummer is that there is a ton of scar tissue underneath and it all hard and feels kind of funny. But the doctor told me that will mostly go away with time.
As far as the work goes, we had a decent week. I still took it kind of easy but we worked like normal. We had problems with all of our appointments falling through this week, at least with investigators, but we visited a ton of less actives and new converts. We had a goal for 40 total lessons this week, but we ended up having some activities of service and district activities, which took up a lot of time. But we still had 30, and I am content with that because the mission standard of excellence is 25. My comp has been awesome. He had the same surgery so he can really relate and that experience really helped us become friends really fast. We have been working really hard. Bummer is that he will probably get transferred in the next transfer the first week of August...
Anyway we got to teach a few new investigators, and we taught one lesson to Luz and Lucy and it went really well, we put a new baptismal date with them, and they were really excited but they didn’t show up to church, so we will have to go see what happened there. We were kind of bummed this week, we had 10 investigators commit to go to church and not one of them went... but they have their agency we can only invite. Apart from that we invited like 5 or 6 less actives who committed to come as well, and only one showed up. So in the sacrament meeting I was kind of bummed and thinking of what we can do better to get people to church, and how I could be better as a missionary. And I was just supper bummed that those people didn’t come. But about halfway in a family of 3 walked into the church and just sat down. I looked at my companion and he said they weren’t members. They ended up being a family that one of the members had invited about a month or two ago and today they just showed up. That is huge! And they are going to go again next week. We have an appointment Wednesday with them. It was cool to see that if we work hard the lord is willing to bless us even if the people we teach use their agency and don’t act according to what they know.
Well that’s about it for this week. I hope everything goes well with coops soccer camp and Mary’s EFY, and all the activities. The youth in our ward went to EFY last week and came back completely changed people it was cool to hear all of their experiences. (They do EFY for stakes and they have all the stakes in the mission go to one EFY together)
I love and miss you all
Elder Utley
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