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
No comments:
Post a Comment