Hey family!
I am glad you all had a good week; we had a rather good one
too. Mary looked really good in her pictures, I’m glad she had fun. I still can’t
believe she is old enough to be dating and going to dances! Well coop sounds a lot
like another kid you guys dealt with... but it’s okay he will learn a lot from
that. Oh and Brooke’s dance looks like it went well and she had lots of fun.
Dad you’re going to have to let me know how your hearings go, that’s crazy 10
in one week. Good luck! Mom I hope your back starts feeling better, I’m glad you’re
able to do normal things now. How is school going?
Well we continue to see success in our area slowly but
surely. We have the members getting excited about the missionary work and that
is the key. I know once we get all of their confidence the area will take off.
We received 4 references this week, and had various members came with us to
visit, including the bishop! The only bummer is we still haven’t seen the reflection
of our work in getting people to church, but it is improving. And it’s going to
take off any week now. I am excited to be where I am with the comp that I’m with.
Today we traveled to Queretaro; my comp had an interview
with President. I am really glad that we went. I got to see a little part of
the city, and it’s really cool. But more than anything, after my comps
interview President pulled us, the assistants, 2 of the secretaries and some
zone leaders that happened to be there into his office and we just kind of
talked about the mission for a couple hours; where it’s going, and some of the
issues we see in it. It was a really good experience, he talked a little about
the numbers and how we compare to other missions here in Mexico. We do a lot
better than everyone thought. Then he talked about the goals he has put for the
mission. Which in fact are really high, if we got them we would have to times
all our numbers by like 3-5 times. But then we showed us how much we are
progressing, and some examples of missionaries in the mission who have accomplished
many of them. The message that hit me the hardest is one I already knew but
needed to be reminded. We set our own limits. And a lot of times we lack the
faith to accomplish the things we want to accomplish. But if we want something
and we put everything we possibly can into it we can do it, and what we lack
the Lord will make up for us. Many times even as missionaries we lack the
courage to just open our mouth and talk to strangers about the gospel. We make
things more complicated than they need to be.
One thing that my comp and I wanted to do the last transfer
was when we got on the bus to make an announcement that we are missionaries and
we teach about being baptized the same way Christ was. And ask if anyone was
interested. But we kind of chickened out. Well today coming back from our trip
to Queretaro I finally did it. And honestly nothing really turned out of it. No
one raised their hand or gave us an appointment, but we gave out about 20
invitations to go to church this Sunday. We saw no immediate results but we
sure felt good, we completed with what the Lord expects of us as missionaries,
to open our mouth and share the gospel. We put the goal to do that on every bus
we get on for the rest of the transfer. We may or may not find anyone through
it but I know the Lord will bless us for our faith and doing what he has
commanded us.
Well I love and miss you all, have a great week,
Elder Utley
