P-day

P-day

Sunday, December 22, 2013

December 9 & 16, 2013

December 9, 2013
Hey family!

Well I was shocked to open my inbox and find a bunch of pictures of a snow covered St. George! That looks really fun. I can’t believe they cancelled church, that is crazy. And I also got the picture of the backpacking trip, I was a little jealous, where did you guys go? Was it Zions? I can’t believe you guys are finishing your semester of school; it seems like just yesterday that you were starting again. 

This week was kind of interesting. I had an ingrown toenail, which I have never had before. And I didn’t realize until it was already infected and hurting a lot. And I didn’t want to go to the doctor so I tried to take it out myself, but was unsuccessful. It was beneath the skin and I couldn’t get to it. But I tolerated it for a day. And then I could hardly even walk to we finally went to the doctor. They put anesthesia in my toe and cut it open and took everything out. They did a really good job. But they cut it to the point that they told me not to walk for a day and then try not to walk much. And it was easy to follow their instructions cause it was kind of painful. So we were in the house all of Thursday, it was super boring. But I am going to finish Doctrine and Convents soon and that was kind of exciting.

So we had doctors’ appointments Wednesday and Friday and rested Thursday. We didn’t get a whole lot done. We did see Jorge and put his baptismal date again, but he didn’t go to church so we are going to have to see what happens there. We did get one of the husbands of a member of our ward to go, and we are teaching their son as well. They seem pretty excited to I hope we can get them going more. The problem is that they have a lot of fear to be baptized. 

We also had transfers this week. And it was a testimony that prayers are answered. I wasn’t going to be able to stand my comp for 6 more weeks. I know it might be wrong that I was praying for that, but I am really relieved. He is a good kid and a hard worker but I couldn’t get along with him very well. 

The big news is that I have my first American comp! His name is Elder Craig, he is from San Diego California, and he has 4 months in the mission. He seems like a really cool kid, he runs track and loves baseball. And apart from that is just really excited to be on the mission and work hard. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good transfer! 

This week we have a special zone conference and Elder Johnson (of the 70) is coming to the mission to teach us. He is the area president of México. So that is going to be really cool. I don’t know if we will have a conference for Christmas or not, but I imagine that we will. We still haven’t received any information about the Skype calls for Christmas and I’m not sure how it’s going to be with our new president, but I will let you guys know when I know something. 

Well that’s about it for this week. I want to leave you my testimony that the church is true, that Jesus is the Christ and He lives and loves us. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we will grow closer to him by applying the principles that are found in it more than any other book. That we have a living prophet and apostles on the earth. And that God knows and loves us.

I look forward to talking to you all in a couple weeks, I love and miss you all
Elder Utley

December 16, 2013
Hey family!

How is everyone? Sounds like you all had a good week. Is coop still playing soccer? I haven’t heard anything about that. Oh and you guys told me that Real Salt Lake made it to the finals but you never told me who won. By the way I heard that Léon won the championship here in México, that is kind of cool. I can’t believe Christmas is coming so fast, and that this year is going to end. Is it still super cold there, is there still snow? I am assuming so because of the pictures you sent. Here December is like perfect weather.

That also means the Skype call is coming up, we still haven’t heard anything about it from the mission, so I could change but my companion and I are planning on doing it Christmas Day sometime between 5 and 7. Would that be okay?

Well this was a really good week. We worked really hard and saw a lot of results. We still didn’t get many people to church but we are getting there. We had a couple of really good references and we are going to contact them this week. We are getting the ward involved, and we have a lot of help from the stake president’s family who lives on our ward. We also got a new ward mission leader called which is going to help a lot. He is really excited and one of my favorite members.

The conference with Elder Johnson was really good, Elder Ortiz who is also a 70 actually came as well, and he is going to come just to the Irapuato Stake this week! That should be really good. We learned a lot about how to work with the members and how got get their help and support in the ward. And just as importantly how to get references, which is actually working. In 2 days after the conference we got 3 references which is pretty much unheard-of.

I really like my comp Elder Craig, the computer I’m on isn’t working right but I will send a picture of us next week. We do speak a lot of English but it’s been good I need help with my English. And I help him a lot with his Spanish. President said we should speak English because if we don’t we will forget it and then when we get home we will forget Spanish. But if we can practice switching off from one to the other we will have good retention.

We have had a lot of experiences about following the spirit this week. I have learned that we should not question if a prompting is of the spirit or if it’s just one of our thoughts. We should just do it. And we did do it this week and we saw a difference. The other thing is if it’s something we shouldn’t do we just feel empty; we don’t feel anything in our heart. And we had an experience like that this week as well. I know the Lord is guiding and protecting us. The 12th was day of the virgin here in México and it is evidently really dangerous, and we are both Americans, which doesn’t help. We had an appointment in a rather dangerous area and the appointment fell though. When walking back to the house we turned down a street that would have made our route a lot faster and we take it almost every night, but we got ten steps into it and I felt empty. I knew we couldn’t walk down that street. I realized I will probably never know what would have happened if we walked it that night, but I don’t need to. Learning to recognize and follow the spirit is one of the hardest things for me to understand. And I am sure I still lack a lot, but I was thankful this week to know that god was guiding me and my companion. I undoubtedly felt his love. I know I am his son, and we are all his sons and daughters. He loves us. And he has trusted us with his spirit and we must do his will.

I miss and love you guys

Elder Utley

December 9, 2013

Hey family!

Well I was shocked to open my inbox and find a bunch of pictures of a snow covered St. George! That looks really fun. I can’t believe they cancelled church, that is crazy. And I also got the picture of the backpacking trip, I was a little jealous, where did you guys go? Was it Zions? I can’t believe you guys are finishing your semester of school; it seems like just yesterday that you were starting again. 

This week was kind of interesting. I had an ingrown toenail, which I have never had before. And I didn’t realize until it was already infected and hurting a lot. And I didn’t want to go to the doctor so I tried to take it out myself, but was unsuccessful. It was beneath the skin and I couldn’t get to it. But I tolerated it for a day. And then I could hardly even walk to we finally went to the doctor. They put anesthesia in my toe and cut it open and took everything out. They did a really good job. But they cut it to the point that they told me not to walk for a day and then try not to walk much. And it was easy to follow their instructions cause it was kind of painful. So we were in the house all of Thursday, it was super boring. But I am going to finish Doctrine and Convents soon and that was kind of exciting.

So we had doctors’ appointments Wednesday and Friday and rested Thursday. We didn’t get a whole lot done. We did see Jorge and put his baptismal date again, but he didn’t go to church so we are going to have to see what happens there. We did get one of the husbands of a member of our ward to go, and we are teaching their son as well. They seem pretty excited to I hope we can get them going more. The problem is that they have a lot of fear to be baptized. 

The big news is that I have my first American comp! His name is Elder Craig, he is from San Diego California, and he has 4 months in the mission. He seems like a really cool kid, he runs track and loves baseball. And apart from that is just really excited to be on the mission and work hard. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good transfer! 

This week we have a special zone conference and Elder Johnson (of the 70) is coming to the mission to teach us. He is the area president of México. So that is going to be really cool. I don’t know if we will have a conference for Christmas or not, but I imagine that we will. We still haven’t received any information about the Skype calls for Christmas and I’m not sure how it’s going to be with our new president, but I will let you guys know when I know something. 

Well that’s about it for this week. I want to leave you my testimony that the church is true, that Jesus is the Christ and He lives and loves us. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we will grow closer to him by applying the principles that are found in it more than any other book. That we have a living prophet and apostles on the earth. And that God knows and loves us.

I look forward to talking to you all in a couple weeks, I love and miss you all

Elder Utley

December 2, 2013 Happy Birthday to Cooper!

Hey family!

First of all I want to with Happy Birthday to Cooper!!!! I can’t believe he is going to be 13. Everyone is going to be so much bigger when I get home. Tell coop I love and miss him and to have a fantastic birthday. So when does everyone get off of school? What are the plans for Christmas? I am excited to talk to you guys.

We don’t really have any plans for Christmas yet. But a few people have invited us to have dinner with them. That is the big thing here, the 24th they have a huge dinner and then they sleep really late the 25th. And they just spend it with their family. One thing I am really excited for is they have little festivals in each neighborhood here and they have their friends over for dinner. Which we usually get invited to so we will eat really well this month! The dinner is always pazole or tamales with ponche. Pazole is a corn based chile type dish I don’t really know how to explain it but it is corn based and it have meat from pigs or chicken. And they put lots of spices and salsas in it and once it is served each person puts lettuce, onion and some other spices in and makes it how they like it, and you eat it with tostadas which are basically tortilla chips but it’s the whole tortilla it’s not in chip form. Tamales I think you guys know what they are, but they are a little different here, I particularly like the sweet ones, they make them in flavors of strawberry, pineapple, etc. And ponche is like apple cider but they put a ton of different fruits in and they fruit comes as part of the drink. So you drink it and they eat the boiled fruit, it’s a little odd but super good. 

Thanksgiving wasn’t anything special. I actually completely spaced that it was thanksgiving until about 630 when we got to one house and one of the sisters asked me about it. And I had to think a little and then said oh your right that is today. But it was really cool because she bought us little Caesar’s pizza and ice cream, so that was our Thanksgiving dinner ha ha I enjoyed it. She also invited a friend to the lesson and we started teaching her. So that was the best part, and the friend seems really excited. She didn’t go this week because the sister traveled and didn’t go either but I am really hoping they both go next week. 

Jorge didn’t go to church, I don’t really know what happened but he called us in the middle of it and he felt kind of bad and put an appointment in the afternoon, but then he wasn’t there for the appointment... His baptismal date fell. But I think he will get back on track and we will just move the date back a week.

We have transfers coming up this weekend, it will be interesting. I don’t think I will be moved, but maybe they will move my comp. Time went by really fast this transfer.

Well that’s about it for me. I just want to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I have been studying about the Book of Mormon a lot this week. I have understood why Joseph Smith said "it is the keystone to our religion" and "without it we have no religion". It is nearly impossible to become converted to Christ and have a testimony that this is the true church without reading and having a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I testify of the words of Joseph Smith when he said "a man will come closer to god by reading it and living by its principals than any other book over the face of the earth". It truly is a guide for our lives. It helps and comforts us in the most difficult times and inspires us in the best of times. 

I love and miss you all,
Elder Utley 


November 25, 2013

Hey family!

How is everyone? Sounds like a little busy but that’s good. I can’t believe its thanksgiving this week. It doesn’t seem as weird to me as it did last year. I won’t be celebrating it but it’s the last one I will miss. It doesn’t actually feel like thanksgiving to me either. And I am seeing tons of Christmas stuff but it hasn’t quite hit me yet that is almost Christmastime. I think part of me doesn’t want to admit that the year is going to end; it’s my only full year in the mission. And in the next one I have to come home.

I got to go on splits this week to my old ward here in Irapuato. I was a little bummed because only one of my converts was there, but he told me his family is doing well and I saw the family of one of the other ones and she is doing good too. But I did get to see a lot of the people that we worked with while I was in the area. It was super fun to see them again. The funny part was when I arrived at their houses one of the first things they asked was how much time I had left to go home. I told them I still had a lot left but the more I thought about it the time is really flying. And it kind of scares me, the thought of going home. I think it’s going to be more or less the same as leaving. Exciting, but really scary, and I won’t really know what to expect. But the good part is that I don’t have to worry about that as long as I am here. And it’s helped me stay motivated to finish out strong the more that people tell me that “voy de salida”, or I’m "on the downhill".

Today we went to OfficeMax and we saw some people from the States. It was really funny because I was actually kind of nervous that they would talk to me because I know my English is suffering and they spoke it normally. My comp was definitely making fun of me.

Anyway this week went pretty well. We still didn’t get the people we thought were going to church to go. But we have one investigator that just showed up by himself last week and went this week too, whose name is Jorge. He is really awesome, he has gone through some super rough stuff in his life and he is trying to put it back in order again. I think he has like 45 years. He has a baptismal date for the 21 of December. It was kind of cool to see that even in the people we really wanted to go didn’t that the Lord was blessing us. But I am not content because I’m sick of just having 1 or 2 people that are preparing for baptism. I want to have more, and families preparing. And the frustrating part is that we are teaching 3 really good families, we just haven’t got them to church yet. So we are looking at things we can change so that our circumstances change. But meanwhile I think we are learning a good deal of patience.

Anyway we are working hard and I am happy to be working with Jorge. He is really humble and willing to change and be a better and different person. It inspires me when people are willing to make that change in their life, and motivates me to find more people like that. 

Well I have been thinking a lot this week about our role as missionaries, as I read the articles about hastening the work and watch the videos they have given to us as missionaries. The more I read the more I realize the work has so much less to do with us (the full time missionaries) than the members, and even we, think. We are only a tool given to the ward to teach the people they find and prepare. But so many times it works the other way around. The members think that they are a tool the missionaries use to help the investigators. I know it’s not like that. The part the members play is the most important and sometimes the hardest. But the church will not progress only by the pure incentive on the missionaries’ part, the members have to take incentive. 

So I want to invite each one of you who reads my letter this week to find someone or a family and prepare them, and invite them to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of the time we complicate our job. But in Doctrine and Covenants 100 verse 5 it says "Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;" All we have to do is open our mouth, and we have the promise that we will not be confounded. It’s so much easier than we make it, we just have to trust in the lord and speak the thoughts he will put in to our mind in the precise moment.

So I challenge you to open your mouth and speak. To share the gospel with at least one person before this year ends.

I love and miss you all

Elder Utley

November 18, 2013

Hey Family

Sounds like you all had a great week. Mary seems to be going on lots of dates these days. And Coop has a tournament this weekend? Tell Brooklyn hi for me and thanks for sending her emails with moms. Mom told me that she had midterms already; I can’t believe that this month has passed so fast. We are almost in December! Dad I still haven’t gotten a picture of the beard!

Well this week was interesting. It was really busy but we didn’t accomplish a whole lot in the area... On Tuesday we had a 4 hour zone conference... super long, but it was good I think I learned a lot that I can start applying in my area. On Wednesday we had interviews with the mission president, which went well, but they took up the whole morning. And Thursday my comp hit his head on a piece of metal that was sticking out of the wall in the street, and he cut his head open pretty bad. So we were in the hospital the whole day. And the next day (Friday) we had the interview of Manuel and had to go to the hospital again to fill out all the paper work. It was a mess. And one of the streets in one of the neighborhoods in our area has a fair amount of blood! They put one giant stitch in him that is like an inch and a half long. I think they should have put 3, but it worked. It wasn’t long but the cut was deep and that was the problem. It was interesting. But he is doing good now, except for the fact that they cut his hair down to almost nothing and his is really self-conscious about it.

Anyway we had Manuel’s baptism on Saturday and it was a mess getting it all set up (as normal.) No one in the ward wanted to help us with anything (again normal...).  But, we finally got everything figured out and the baptism went really good. The bishop baptized him and I will send a picture.

My favorite part of the baptism is that we assigned Manuel to give his testimony after the ordinance. He talked about how he couldn’t share it all in a few minutes, but that his whole life he had been looking for the truth going from church to church and reading the bible. But nothing ever filled the emptiness in his heart or answered the questions that he had. And he said that the emptiness was filled and the questions answered as he found the church. And that the Book of Mormon helps him understand all of the questions he had. It was a really powerful testimony. And he says he is going to go on a mission in a year!

So that was the highlight of the week. We also put 5 baptismal dates but the people didn’t go to church so they all fell through. I am getting a little frustrated with people telling us that they will go and then they don’t come through on the commitment. But I guess that’s our work as missionaries. I hope for this week we will be able to help them get there. 

I have been reflecting a little on the Book of Mormon and the simple truths of the gospel. It is true that the Book of Mormon answers all the questions of the soul. And we have it right in front of us but sometimes we don’t take the time to read it. I have learned a lot from Manuel, more than any other investigator I think. He has amazed me how he takes those simple truths and applies them so quickly and without doubt. He knows God will complete his promises. And then he opens his mouth and isn’t afraid to share what he knows. Even before he was baptized he came with us on visits and shared his testimony.

We should never be afraid to share the simple truths that we know. And we should trust in the promise that the Lord has given us that we will be blessed for opening our mouths and sharing what we know, and that we will not be confounded before men. I love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 58:31 that says:  “Who am I, saith the Lord, to have promised and not fulfilled".  I know He cannot make a promise and not complete it. When we feel like the Lord is not completing a promise we should first look at ourselves and see if we are not doing our part. And second have patience because the Lord’s time is not our time.

Have a fantastic week! I love and miss you all

Elder Utley

11/11/2013

Hey family!

How is everyone? Sounds like Brooke had quite the fall. That picture looks pretty nasty. But I guess that means she was having fun, and sounds like everyone else is really busy. I like the Movember idea, sounds pretty cool, dad you will have to send a picture with your beard! 

Well this week was pretty good. We worked really, really hard. We had a ton of lessons; we put a couple of baptismal dates and had 10 new investigators. We are trying to work better with the ward, we got the bishop to visit a family with us, and the stake president is going to visit with us tonight. It’s kind of cool that the stake president is in our ward, and willing to help us.

Manuel is going to get baptized this week so that is exciting. He is super ready. He says he wants to go on a mission in a year and he was participating in all the classes and stuff on Sunday. He is definitely one of the most prepared investigators that I have had my whole mission.

The only disappointment is that we committed 15 people to go to church this Sunday and only 4 went... I was super bummed. We had 3 families that said for sure they we going but none of them went. The good thing is that we have a lot of work and we are definitely going to see lots of progress in this area.

I don’t really know what else to tell you guys. I have been thinking about the story of Enos in the last few days. About when was the last time our souls hungered? And about sincere prayer. Many times we fall in the habit of prayer, that it’s just something we do in the morning and night. But when we can really have a sincere prayer, with real intent, and "cry" unto the Lord like Enos instead of praying or talking to him, that’s when we will see real changes in our lives. 

I love you all, have a great week

Elder Utley 

Nov 4, 2013 Halloween y Dio De Los Muertos

Hey family!

Sounds like you all had a great week! Brooklyn looks so big in the pictures! And it looks like everyone had a great time dressing up. I got a kick out of coops costume! Well it sounds like you guys are really busy with everything. That’s good, we are too!

Well Halloween and the day of the dead here have basically been pushed into one single holiday. It lasts 3 days. Kids go around asking for candy for 3 days straight. The bummer is that not many people actually participate in that tradition, and they think it is dangerous and of the devil because they have seen some of the American horror movies about Halloween, ha ha. Anyway they don’t do many traditional things from Mexico anymore on day of the dead. They do have a special kind of bread/cake that they eat a lot, and some people make alters for their dead ancestors. But it was overall interesting to see how it was celebrated in a different country.

I feel really good being in Irapuato again. I really love this city. We had a stake conference this weekend, and although my old ward had it transmitted to their building I did get to see a few people that I taught in the Saturday session. Unfortunately not any of my converts, but one family that was less active when I got there, and now they were going to extra sessions of conference! Also my old ward mission leader. A young man that was a recent convert when I got there last year, and supported us a lot.  And the parents of the boyfriend of one of my converts. (I called you from their house in Christmas time last year). They said they are still dating and both are still active and it sounds like they are waiting to get married in the temple in January! How cool is that, if they do I will most likely be here! I also heard that a family that we baptized is SUPER active and doing really well from the missionaries that are in that ward right now. (They happen to be my district leaders so I will for sure have splits with them and they already said I can go to their area!) So that was really exciting, and really cool about being here again. That family will also get sealed in January or February!!!

In my own ward, we had a really good week. We started working with the ward members a lot. We had the highest number of lessons with members that I have ever had in my mission. And we found 5 new investigators which is always really good. A few of them seem like they could progress really well. We changed the baptism date of Manuel back a week, so until next Saturday. Because there is a rule that the investigators have to go to church 5 times to be baptized and he was going to fall short of that requirement. I am not entirely sure why my comp put the date this week, but the good news is that he will get baptized next week. He is super excited, has a really strong testimony, and he wants to serve a mission.

The work might be a little slow for a few weeks because of the rule that investigators have to attend 5 times to church, but I know we are going to get it going. The sad news is its going to take a little time to get it going because the missionaries in this ward haven’t been the hardest workers for about the last year. So there isn’t a lot of work that I inherited, but I know that means the Lord has prepared a lot of people in that time and it’s our turn to ¨harvest¨. 

I feel like I have a good comp and we work well together. We had a cool experience this week. We went to a family’s house yesterday that I had actually met before in splits with another Elder. We went to teach them and found the sister of the member that lives there. And I had met her before too. We contacted her about 1 year ago when we had those splits. She simply said she was not interested. But we decided to contact her again and started talking about her life, then a little about the gospel. She started asking questions. We were able to bear testimony and teach a little. We gave her a pamphlet and asked if we could visit her in her house in this week. She said yes she would love to, and she said it was because she was interested to learn about the message that two young men like ourselves we so thoroughly convinced about. She said it shocked her that we would be doing what we are doing and the way be talked about what we know got to her. She didn’t realize it, but I did, she had felt the spirit through a simple testimony and it softened her heart and it motivated her to do what she had rejected one year ago. Accept the missionaries. 

For me it was a tiny miracle to see that change, and I know the Lord has prepared more people like her for us to teach. And I am excited to find and teach them.

I love and miss you guys, have a great week

Elder Utley

October 28, 2013

Hey family!

Sounds like you guys had a really good week. Everyone sounds really busy. I still can’t believe that Mary is going on dates and things like that. Tell coop good job for working so hard in his soccer games. When does Brooklyn perform for her singing group?

Well I had a pretty good week. We found a couple more investigators this week and they seem like that will do really well. I got to help do the baptisms of a couple of the investigators of the sisters, which was really cool. A whole family got baptized minus the dad. There were 5 in total that got baptized.  I baptized the two younger kids. And I would send a picture but the computer I am using won’t let me. 

Well I am writing you today from Irapuato. Yes the same Irapuato where I started my mission. It was really interesting to get those transfers yesterday. I am in the area of Espanita. It is really close to my other area I had here. And I actually am living in the same house that I lived in when I got here. Crazy! So I kind of know my area already from the splits we had with the other missionaries, and I know the city really, really well. I am super bummed that I got moved out of my other area, I really liked it. But I am excited to be in Irapuato again. My companion is Elder Maroquin, he is from Guatemala and has 11 months in the mission. He seems like a good guy.

I am really hoping that I get to see the people that I taught nearly 1 year ago. I heard today from the elder that is there that the family we baptized is super awesome and active in the church. And the others are doing good too.

I am excited to work hard in this area and see what we can do for this ward. My comp says we have a baptismal date for the 8th of November, so that’s really exciting. I feel like we are going to have a lot of success here.

I love and miss you all

Elder Utley

October 21, 2013

Hey Family!

Well it sounds like a very interesting week! Very busy. I am rather jealous that coop and dad are going to get to go backpacking! And they went fishing this week. I am a little jealous. Coop told me he has a tournament coming up but didn’t tell me when, you guys will have to let me know how it goes. 

I am going to send a picture of an activity we did today it was really fun, we went to a really big park they have here and did a carne asada (kind of like barbeque) and played soccer and American football a little. 

Well this week was good and bad. We struggled with having lessons with investigators, but we were mostly focused on finding new ones. The ones we have aren’t really progressing. We didn’t find one new investigator the whole week, until yesterday we found 2 and they have potential. One of them speaks really good English so that’s kind of cool. I haven’t used English in a long time. 

In spite of not teaching lots of lessons to investigators we taught a lot of less actives. Which is one of our ideas to find new people. But it was really cool because a lot of them went to church. And we had a church attendance of 195, which was the highest I have ever seen it in any ward in the mission. The normal in our ward is 180. So it was cool to see that our work had some payoff. We have a goal to reach 200 people at church this week. 

We will get the transfers this Saturday, so that is kind of exciting. I don’t really know if I want to be changed or not. I really like my ward and my area. And I really like my comp, we get along really well and that makes life a lot easier. But if they don’t change me this time I will get changed like 2 weeks before Christmas and that would kind of suck. But whatever happens it will be good. I will let you guys know how it goes. 

Well I don’t have much to say this week, but I will share a little bit of what I learned in my studies. I was reading in Jacob and I really liked how he talks to his people. He teaches direct and calls everyone to repentance. He gives two pieces of advice which I really like. The first is to be wise. Simply that, be wise. But he isn’t talking about the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God. And the second actually tells us how we can be wise. He says do not try to council God. God knows what we need, when, and how. He sees things that we simply do not see. It is wise to follow his commandments and the spirit. But sometimes we think we know more than him. But I have learned our view is limited, and that really helped me this week with all the new rules. I can’t council God, I know he inspires president, so I should just be wise and do it. Our Heavenly Father like our earthy parents has a bigger perspective and sees more than us and has more experience. He knows better and that’s we he gives us commandments. The only way we can be wise is follow them, fully and completely. If we can learn to have the blind trust and faith in him to follow even the commandments that we don’t understand our life will simply be better and easier. We will be protected and will not have to learn from "sad experiences" like it says in the Book of Mormon.

I love and miss you all

Elder Utley

October 14, 2013

Hey family!

How goes everything? Sounds like everyone is busy and it will only get busier. That’s really good that mom got to start school, sounds like lots of work but it will be well worth it. Hope the kids are doing good, I haven’t heard from them in a while. They write me once but they never respond. Tell them I would love to hear from them.

Well this was a rather long week for us. Although time is flying by, I am scared in 2 weeks with the transfers I will get moved, but I really have liked this area and don’t want to be moved. We had 2 zone conferences (in one of which I gave the training with one of the zone leaders). And some activities that took up a lot of time. But it was good. The only bummer is we didn’t teach nearly as many lessons as we wanted.

So the weekend of general conference a few missionaries here in Celaya got sent home, 2 zone leaders and a former zone leader. And a lot of people got transfers. So we became one solo zone. And we had our district meeting on Tuesday, but we did it as a zone meeting. The president was worried that a lot of people still had things they needed to confess, or to repent for. He assigned me and my former district leader that is now one of the zone leaders to do the zone training together. He assigned us to talk on 2 talks from the Sunday morning session that were really awesome. One was from President Monson the other from Richard G. Scott. I learned a ton, I invite you all to read or listen to them! But I was kind of nervous before the conference, mostly cause I had never done it before, and the president told the other zone leader that "Elder Utley and Elder Poma are going to give the training, they already know what they are going to do". But it went really good, and I was able to share a really good experience I had a few months ago. (I shared it with mom in the handwritten letter.) 

Then we had another zone conference on Friday. It was basically a conference of new rules. We are now going to be living in a prison as the mission. We will be reporting obedience every week; and many, many others but that one that was the biggest for me and most ridiculous. Oh and if I looks weird in pictures we are now required to have a part in our hair or do it all to the side. Anyway I won’t bore you with our new rules.

This week I learned how much a testimony can change a person. We had a few experiences including a really great sacrament meeting. The first is that we visited a less active family that wanted to change wards because of the people in ours. We couldn’t change their mind but we bore testimony about obedience to the rules of which one they should be in, and more than anything listened. Well they came to church and the sister bore her testimony and thanked us and our ward mission leader for visiting and expressed how grateful she was.

Another experience is we visited a family that has 6 years that they haven’t been to church. We asked them a few questions about why and taught a little lesson. At the end they thanked us and said that in 6 years we are the 2nd pair of missionaries that have visited them, and not one member. I thought about that a lot of the week. And I realized why they haven’t been to church in 6 years. Because they told me they know it’s true. And I believe them, but I ask myself why don’t they go if they know what it is? I realized it’s because it’s something they know but a testimony has to be something that we know and we feel. The simple knowledge isn’t enough; we have to feel that the church is true. That’s why the visits we do are so important; it affirms the knowledge that the church is true with feelings, feelings that motivate and convert.

I challenged all of the people in my ward to open their mouth and share their testimony and to help someone feel that the church is true, whether that person is a member or not. And I know that would change lives if we all just shared what we know with accordance to what the Spirit tells us to do. And this week I want to challenge all of you as well to open your mouth and testify to someone that this church is true. I know it will change lives, even if it’s not in this moment.

I love and miss you all
Elder Utley