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