Bautismo de Cecilia, 1/14/13

Hey Family!

How is everybody? Sounds like you had an interesting week. And busy too, that’s always good. I hope dad and Coop start feeling better. And it sounds like dad is getting everything figured out; let me know how it goes.

I haven’t heard much of the kids in a while; you should have them send me an email.

So this week was good and bad. The good news is that Cecilia was baptized on Saturday night by her boyfriend who is a returned missionary in our ward, and she was confirmed the next day. We were also able to get Angel to church again, and he has started walking with crutches, actually is more like a walker for old people. I think we are going to try and get his baptismal date moved up this Saturday, because next Saturday and Sunday is Stake Conference and it would be a nightmare to do it then. Other good news is we changed houses, but it’s also the bad news. We wanted to get out of the other house as soon as possible, so we moved into this one while they still didn't have water in the house. The next day the power went out. So we have been sleeping in the house of some other elders for the past 4 days. It sucks but I think it is going to be so much better when it’s all over. We also got permission to buy some things that we didn't have in the other house, so we now have all the stuff for the kitchen and bathrooms (most importantly stove, but we even bought a new blender and dishes). We are in a really good area with like 6 member families within 5 minutes and they all love us, so if we ever need anything they are right there. The other bad news is that we didn't get to go to the temple but I will take the baptism instead! (Hopefully I can come back in one year and go to the temple with Ceci & Josue, and Angel & Francisca to see them both get sealed in the temple!)

So mom asked a little bit about the ward and branch. Almost every single companionship is assigned to one single ward or branch. We are assigned to the Jacarandas Ward, but they have an extension in Abasolo until it becomes a branch... we kind of draw the short straw and have to go there too, until it becomes a branch, then it will get its own missionaries. The ward honestly doesn't support anybody, the leaders don’t do anything and most people don’t even have callings. That’s how it is in almost every ward here, and I think that’s why there are so many inactive members. For example our bishop did not attend the baptism on Saturday, and didn't have a good reason he just found something else to do. In fact no one from the bishopric showed up until the last 15 minutes. Another one is the 2 counselors in the Relief Society are inactive... it kind of sucks but we are working on it and hopefully one day the ward will be a little stronger.

Dad asked a little about the language and companion. The language is better, finally, but still not good. It’s hard, I struggle with it every day, but I don’t feel like it is impeding me as a missionary like it did in the past. My comp is going good, he has like a month left so he is getting a little trunky, or as they say here he is dying. But we have had 3 baptisms in this transfer and will have at least one more so I can’t complain too much. Our next transfers are on the 26th, just two more weeks. I am excited to see what happens, I really have no idea what will happen. Part of me thinks that Elder Valdes will get transferred and I will stay, but I can’t really see them changing his area for 4 weeks, so maybe I will go. Maybe we will both stay one more transfer, maybe we will both leave. I don’t know. I think I am good with whatever, there are some families here I really love so I wouldn't mind staying, but I have a lot of time here so I wouldn't mind going either.

So this week in my studies I have been thinking a lot about a part of the Book of Mormon I read that really called my attention. It’s in Helaman chapter 7, and it talks about how the Nephites are more culpable for the sins they commit because they have a greater knowledge, and the Lord will have mercy on the Lamanites because they don’t know. And another thing that my companion has been talking a lot about is the sin of omission. The two really go together. A sin of omission is when we know we should do something and we don’t do it. A sin is not just doing something bad but we are also sinning when we don’t do the things we know are right. So when I get a feeling to contact someone and I don’t do it, I am sinning and I need to repent. Or if someone knows they should say prays morning and night and they only do it in the night, they also need to repent. I have thought about how lucky we are to have the gospel and all of its blessing, and we just need to live it and we will be happy.

I love you all and miss you all
Elder Utley

Hey family!

How is everybody? Sounds like Christmas was just fantastic! I am pretty excited to play some ping pong in just over a year and a half! Thanks for your voice recording! That is so fun to hear, although I couldn’t hear it to well this time. It sounds like Brooke got a scooter and she is super, super excited about it. I didn’t catch what Mary and Coop got? And how about mom and dad?

Does mom have to work today or tomorrow? That’s a bummer she is on call but my guess is next year she won’t have to be. When does she start her new promotion?

My Christmas was good, simple and relaxed. Christmas Eve we went and ate tamales at the house of our investigator’s (Francisca who baptized this weekend) mom. That was fun; we played with her son Alejandro on foosball tables for a little bit, they had a big party outside. Everybody here just partied until the morning (Santa doesn’t come to many houses here, it’s the 3 Reyes on January 6, I don’t know why) Christmas morning we had our district meeting, on the way there we saw a man sleeping on the sidewalk, and snoring really loud. It was super funny. We both took a picture with the drunk sleeping man. Who also was shoeless, we think someone stole his shoes... We had lunch with a family that day and visited another, but we didn’t really do anything to special. Oh we did get to go to breakfast Christmas Eve morning and the whole district came, minus one companionship! It was really fun.

I started feeling a lot better on Christmas eve and got permission from the doctor to start eating normal again, so that was good. Mom I forgot write down what the medicines were called but I did finish my shots, I ended up only needing 4 of them, and I finished my antibiotics yesterday or Saturday I don’t remember. I guess it was some sort of bacteria growing in my stomach? I don’t know that’s what I understood from it. But it’s all good now so don’t worry.

So this week we did have 2 baptisms: Francisca and Alejandro. It was really cool, and a really good experience but nothing and I mean nothing went as planned. The day before we just went around to members houses reminding and inviting them to the baptisms. None of them showed up, not one out of like 7 families that promised us to go. Then the bishop was super late, and our ward mission leader didn’t show up. Francisca was also a little late and we realized she didn’t have the right clothing and neither did her son. So we found one for her but not Alejandro. I took the most athletic priest there and we started to run to Wal-Mart. We ran about 1.5 miles there and 1.5 miles back. I bought him white sweats and a white t shirt. When I got back he was already dressed and they had found him a jumpsuit, they were taking pictures and waiting on me. So I quickly changed and calmed myself down because I was a little angry my companion sent me running without asking if they had an extra one for Alejandro. I changed we took a picture and started. The water was freezing and they weren’t too happy about that. When I went to baptize Francisca I said a word wrong and had to start over. The second time her feet came up and the third time as well. She is super pregnant; she will have her baby in 2 weeks, so it was hard to keep her completely under. But finally the fourth time and the third time immersing her, we did it right. Alejandro was then baptized too. After all that the important part was the end result. We had a lot of things thrown our way but I was so happy we were finally able to help Francisca and Alejandro be baptized. I told you of the Christmas gifts I bought, but this one, the one money can’t buy, was definitely the greatest one.

Yesterday they were confirmed members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And we are hoping that the dad will take the same step when he is able. Right now he still can’t even straighten his leg. We also put another date, which is all but set in stone; I know it will happen, for the 15 of January. Her name is Cecilia and she is the girlfriend of a returned missionary in the ward. She is awesome.

The Lord is blessing us, we have worked hard for a long time with little results, I don’t want to speak to fast but we are finally starting to see them. At times this is how life is, we are tested and tried so that we can grow, sometimes blessings are withheld for a time for our own benefit, but we will always receive them if we do what’s right.

I challenge you all to start reading or continue reading the Liahona or Ensign from November. We received it just a couple weeks ago and it is truly amazing. I especially challenge everyone that reads this letter to read the talk Regrets and Resolutions by Dieter F Uchtdorf. That talk hit me like few others ever have.

I love you all, I miss you, and happy new year!

Elder Utley

Merry Christmas!!!

Hey Family!

How is everybody? Looks like from the picture your enjoying some Christmas traditions and family time! Perfect Christmas Eve! I super jealous of the Christmas dinner tonight with the Lamberts and Greens, that’s one of my favorite parts of Christmas. You will all have to write a little letter telling me how it went and how Christmas goes tomorrow morning!

So it was really good to talk to you all last night, but I don’t have a whole lot to say today. I want to thank mom for sharing her experiences with me; that was really cool. Here in our ward we have been working on the young men and women a lot. I have thought a lot about them and about my own experiences in Young Men’s. One thing that really had stuck with me is something my bishop said in our singles ward when I was at school. We were talking how it’s kind of hard for kids that grow up in the church to get and maintain a really strong testimony because the church is all they know and they don’t have a lot to compare with. But in one of our bishopric meeting he said something like “we already know that, but all we can do is invite and create opportunities for these kids to feel the spirit”. I think that is super important, maybe it’s not going to mean anything in the moment or the kids that you work with won’t be changed right away. But as a leader of young people I think that the key is just to provide them with experiences to feel the spirit, and when it really counts they will remember all the have learned, what they know, and most importantly what they felt. I know that how it was for me and a lot of other kids my age. But when it came time to make decisions I always had that foundation from all of the experiences I had in the past.

So that’s my little two bits on the young men and women, which you all probably already know haha, but there it is. Merry Christmas to you all, remember it’s all about Christ. This week I had the opportunity to finish Jesus the Christ (I am pretty excited I finally finished!).  His life, His example, His qualities, and His love are truly amazing, something you cannot describe with words.

Don’t forget to read the nativity tonight! And you should read 3 Nephi 27:27 as well. It’s one that has been on my mind since I started my mission.

Love you all

Elder Utley

Another Transfer

Hey family!

Sounds like it’s been a crazy week with all your Christmas parties! And will continue to be until Christmas, but so much fun! We also had a couple of Christmas parties here, each of the different wards have a dinner and a program type thing, and we participated in the programs (we sang, and did a nativity scene) and also got to eat dinner. That was the best part, they don’t have a lot of Christmas traditions here and they aren’t really big on the presents either but they eat really, really well at Christmas time. One night they did like a traditional soup and a drink called ponche, it’s really good it’s like apple cider but with all the different fruits here. The other night they did tamales, enchiladas and hot chocolate (it’s not as sweet as at home and super thick, but still good)

So I hope this week leading up to Christmas will be good for you guys, I am super jealous of all the Christmas things you guys are doing. And I am stoked to talk to you guys over Skype, I think we have everything worked out.

I heard from Dani this week, she wrote me a letter almost completely in Spanish, it was super easy to read and understand but it was really hard to respond in Spanish. Fun to hear from her though!

So the big news this week is that we had our second transfers. And at least for me nothing changed. I still here in Irapuato and so is my companion. We both thought he would go for sure, it’s not common for companions to be together more than 2 transfers and even less when it’s your trainer. Plus this will be his 4th transfer here which also is almost unheard of except for zone leaders. Truth is he is kind of bummed, but kind of excited at the same time. He will get to see some of our investigators get baptized we thought that he wouldn’t. I too have mixed feelings, he is almost done with his mission and ready to go home, so sometimes that is annoying, and I feel like I could learn a lot with a new one. But I am excited to, he is a great missionary and I learn a lot from him, and the members of our ward really love us right now and we have gained their trust, so that is good we won’t lose anything there. All I know is the Lord has a plan and there is a reason we both still here, I’m excited to find out why!

So we really don’t have a whole lot of new investigators but we have a few really good ones. We are not allowed to knock doors or contact so it makes finding rough, we only can teach through referrals. But honestly we have a lot more than any other companionship here. The whole mission is kind of struggling with baptisms right now...

The apartment still sucks, we now have a hot water heater but it isn’t set up and we don’t have a tank of gas to make it work. The brother in our ward that we are renting from we have really grown to not like, he talks a lot and is kind of two faced.  But what do you do. Also to answer questions I haven’t been in a Wal-Mart or anything like that, but I will go next Monday, I also want to see what it’s like. And hopefully buy some Christmas candy. Also I don’t know what panettone is but I will keep my eye for it! Oh and I don’t really have any other photos to send but I will try and take some more this week, with Christmas stuff!

The family we are teaching is doing well, the dad finally got out of the hospital, he had 7 screws put in his femur. But is doing better. His wife and son will baptize the 29th and hopefully him too! And we have one other that will baptize soon! I am excited. I see the Lord’s hand in my life and in theirs!

Remember the Christmas spirit, spirit of Christ! Look for the Lords hand!

I love you all!!! Can’t wait till Sunday!!

Busque el bueno en tiempos dificiles

Hey family!

It was so great to hear from you guys this week! Sounds like you had a good one. Tell coop congrats on his ordination to the priesthood and that I am so proud of him! Tell Mary that I am still waiting a letter from her; it’s been a while since I got one from her. And tell Brooke congrats on her singing. It’s crazy how fast Christmas is coming! I hope you are all enjoying it and living with the true Christmas spirit.

So I have learned a little bit more about Christmas here. Here in the city of Irapuato they have a special Christmas celebration that is evidently exclusively here. It’s called Barrios; it literally means neighborhood or ward. But they basically have a huge party in every neighborhood of the city. They start the first of December and take turns in every neighborhood every day of December. I have yet to see it but I hear it’s pretty cool! They also do piñatas for Christmas, kind of weird but I think it’s kind of like their Christmas stockings. Oh and the tamales are awesome!

Thanks for the updates on the missionaries, that’s so cool to hear about all the people getting ready to go. I actually had written down to ask about Jon G. I guess he leaves this week? And Nefi? I didn't even know he had a call where is he going?

What else, oh I know exactly who Elder Atkins is, we arrived together from the MTC, I don’t know him that well cause he wasn't in my district in the MTC but he seems like a cool kid. It’s crazy how small the world is sometimes I know a kid here that is going to Logan after Christmas and his girlfriend goes to Utah State. And tons of people that know Utah.

The language is better... it’s coming but slowly. I feel a lot better about it now and can at least see my progress. At the same time it is slow and really frustrating at times. But it doesn't seem like as much of a barrier anymore. I know the Lord is constantly helping me with it.

I don’t have a lot much more to say but I want to share an experience that I had this week. We have been teaching a family here, the mom and the oldest kid have been super stoked and ready to join the church, but the dad wasn't so ready. We had baptismal dates with them and everything, but the dad got in an accident about 2 and a half weeks ago and has been in the hospital. I felt really bad, and was also a little bummed because they haven’t been able to be baptized. But we have been helping where we could, we found blood donors for him (he broke his femur and needed surgery, and blood donors, I couldn't because I am taking vitamins, they have a lot of weird rules here, I really think it’s because I am white and the nurse was nervous that I had some disease or something). And we have been visiting, teaching lessons, and we gave him a blessing. Last week he started talking about taking his family to church when he got out, which shocked us because he was totally against it before. We went to visit yesterday and he started asking all these questions about the Book of Mormon we left him, but super specific. We answered them and found out he has read all the way to the middle of Mosiah! And he is praying to learn the truth! The change we have seen in him is amazing. I hope it continues when he leaves the hospital. But it all came out of a trial in his life and testifies to me that God always has a plan. We need to trust Him and look for the good in the hard times!

I know the Book of Mormon is true and the keystone to our religion. It changes lives and if we just read it, it can change our lives for the better too. The church is true!

I love you all!

Elder Utley

Ya esta deciembre. Que loco!

Hey family!

It was so good to hear from you all this week! Really, really good letters, and I even got one from Coop! Speaking of Coop tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope everything goes well this week and you can all celebrate a little bit. I am a little jealous that I can’t be there for his ordination, but hey, I should be there for the next one! I hope his feet start feeling better, that’s pretty rough not being able to play. Sounds like Mary has been super busy, and did really well in her swim meet! Tell her that I remember when she could only do a 50 in 1 minute 24 seconds but now she can do 100! That’s awesome. Tell Brooke great job in the concert!!

Mom I think you’re crazy how did you work 20 hours straight? I think I would die! Dad, I do remember the time we went fishing at the Barker’s just you and me, that is one of my favorite memories, and I think the best fishing trip I have ever been on. Less than 2 short years and we can go again!

It’s been fun hearing about all the mission calls the last couple weeks. I didn’t know Morgan Lewis too well but she was in my lifeguarding class and a friend to Bri, so I know who she is. Florida would be a sweet mission. Keep me updated on everyone’s calls, have Kendell or Becca gotten theirs yet?

So my car was broken into? Ha ha well they got away with like 5 dollars in change max. No there wasn’t anything of value in there I took it all out the day before I left. I just hope the sunglasses of mom’s weren’t too nice. All my climbing stuff is in a grey box that I used up at school. It’s in the house somewhere because it will get ruined in the garage. It might be in my room, upstairs washing room, or one of the empty rooms upstairs.

So our house... still no, we really don’t have a lot of stuff like appliances. But we made a deal with our renter today and we are going to use the rent money to get a hot water heater this month. And we are going to get it today!! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. We are still waiting on the washing machine and stove... although I think we have a stove type thing that will work if we buy the gas. I have figured out how to keep the shirts white more or less, an Hermana in our ward that we wash with a lot showed me how to do it’s, it takes a lot of scrubbing but they look as good or better than anyone else’s here. Still not great, but mom don’t worry about it. Also mom I have been asking around and I have only heard of one elder with a problem of a package getting here, and it had an iPod in it. So obviously not for Christmas or anything, we already have the worked out but in the future don’t be too scared to send a package.

So how did everyone like the Christmas devotional? I absolutely loved it in spite of only understanding about 80 or 85%. The words of the prophets are always so inspiring. And I particularly like Elder Uchtdorf’s talk. I want to go watch them in English now.

The area is really good, I have heard it’s not one of the nicer areas in the mission but the people here are really amazing. There are a lot of people in the ward that I feel really comfortable in their home, and I know if we need something we can go to them. So if you get the chance, make the missionaries feel comfortable in your home, because it really helps a lot. The leaders are ok... Our ward mission leader was just about as good as you could get for a while but he is getting married in 2 weeks so he is kind of slacking off right now. Our other leaders had some bad experiences with missionaries in the past and are slow to trust, but we are slowly gaining it. Right now we are doing really good with the bishop and that is the first step.

So I hear mom has to give a talk on hope in Christ, and partly how it helped me in my decision to serve a mission. Well I want to say that hope in Christ was almost everything in my decision to serve a mission. The word hope has been something I have been studying a little bit here in the mission; hope is an attribute of Christ. For me it is a combination of two things: faith and trust. Faith was really, really important in my decision to serve a mission. I had to have the faith to know that this church was true first, a faith strong enough to lead to action, and eventually here. The second part, trust, I think is even more important. Once I had the faith, I had to trust in the Lord. I was giving up two years of my life; I didn’t know where I would go, or what language I would speak. I had to trust the Lord to send me where I needed to go, and help me in what I needed to do. I had to trust that this was the right thing to do in my life, and that I would be blessed for doing it. More than anything I had to trust and hope that the mission would change my life for the better. And the Lord would take care of me and give me the answers I needed. When I sent off my papers I was really having a hard time. My plans in life seemed like they were falling apart. I felt completely lost. Luckily I had the faith to turn to the Lord and I trusted in his answers. I know without a doubt I am supposed to be here. And while I still don’t have all the answers I have the faith and hope that I will get them. And I will be blessed during my time as a missionary and after. I know that the Lord will take care of me, if only I do the things that he asks. That, to me, is my hope in Christ; and I would not be here without it. Hope in Christ was everything when I made my decision and is everything now. Because of my hope in Christ I am happy and doing what I know is right.

I love you all and miss you all, I can’t believe it is December already and Christmas time. I can’t wait to talk to you guys this month

Elder Utley

Dia De Gracias

Hey Family!

How is everybody? First of all that was so cool to get the voice recording in the email!!! I was super stoked to hear everybody’s voices. Sounds like you had an awesome time this weekend for Thanksgiving! I am glad you all got to go to Salt Lake, it’s always better with the whole family. I think I will tell you about my Thanksgiving a little bit later. So Coop’s team took 2nd in their tournament? Was it in Salt Lake or St. George? That’s so exciting tell him good job for me and that he should write me and tell me about it. I haven’t heard from him or Mary in a while.

So dad asked a little about Christmas. Truth is I haven’t heard a whole lot of it. One sister in our ward told me that in Mexico everybody is poor, but in December nobody is. Basically they eat really well in December. I have heard that it’s basically a party for the whole month of December, but I am not sure. The other thing they do here is they eat a lot of tamales, so I have been able to try a couple of them already. They are so good!!! The other thing about Christmas, yes we can use Skype, we have to find someone in the ward with a webcam but that should be okay. We only get 40 minutes but that is better than nothing. So I will set up an account soon. I still don’t know exactly when.

None of our baptisms went through this week. The one girl that is 29 started work and we couldn’t visit with here. The other kid who is 13 years old, his dad was in a car accident Friday night and we went to the hospital and gave a blessing and all but I am not sure when he will be baptized either, things are pretty crazy in his family. We don’t have any planned for this week either... But we found another family and they are actually interested.  Mostly the dad, which is perfect, because usually they are the ones that don’t want to hear us.

So my Thanksgiving Day was a little bit different. Okay a lot different. They don’t celebrate it here so nothing was really different. But we had Zone conference that day. The mission president told us Happy Thanksgiving and that was about it. But I was thinking about it a lot. I thought about you guys a lot, and really had my own little Thanksgiving that night. I thought about all of the things I am thankful for. And how little I appreciated everything before. I thought about how many times I just put aside the family time during Christmas or Thanksgiving, to go do something with my friends or whatever it was, I was tired, I don’t know. I realized how ungrateful I was. And what I would want to do this time was spend time with everyone, put up the lights the ornaments, whatever. So I was thinking about that, and how much I have changed on my mission. And how much more I will change. Then I thought about one thing that our mission president said in zone conference: When we leave this area, will we have changed anything? Anyone? How will the ward, the stake and the church have been strengthened? I thought about what I had done here. We have not had as much success with baptisms as I would like but we have had a lot of families that we have helped. I thought of at least 5 in particular, and 5 other individuals. I have been able to strengthen the church, stake and area here. Even if it hasn’t been through baptisms yet, but I am confident I will have a few more before I leave Irapuato.

The other thing that happened that day was we had a lesson with a family we have been re-activating. Elder Valdes said something that really caught my attention. We have been fasting every week for the last month to find a family of 4 we can teach the gospel too. This could be the family. The dad talked about how much his life had changed. The point is God answers our prayers; there are always ways to strengthen others if we look for them.

I don’t have a lot of time but I am thankful you all, and your time. I miss you all and look forward to spending time with you all when I get back! I really didn’t appreciate it before.

Love you,

Elder Utley