August 7, 2012

Hey Family!

Happy anniversary mom and dad! Hope it was a great one! You guys are getting old... just kidding. I hope everything is going well at home. When do the kids start school? Thanks for the Olympic updates. Are they over now? Can you send me a letter with the medal totals? That would be awesome. Also the guys in my room want to know who won soccer and basketball.

This last week just flew by and was so fun until yesterday. I don’t know what it was, maybe because I have been sick, but yesterday was a rough day and it just seemed to drag on. I got back from teaching a really tough "investigator" (we just started teaching him his name is Miguel, we will teach him the rest of the time we are here) and I had 4 letters sitting on my desk for me! It totally made my day and the rest of the night flew by after that.

Mom I have seen everyone I thought I would see from school and home and more up here, with the exception of Kendall Wilkey. He must have left just before I got in. I keep getting stopped by random people who know who I am and after a second I can usually figure out who they are. I guess there is a kid who I used to play with when I was little or you did day care for him or something, does Taylor Bradshaw ring a bell? He looked familiar; we have talked a couple times. Anyway it’s been fun to see people like that. Dad, Elder Cluff is going to Monterey West, which is a pretty scary part of Mexico. It’s the place where they found all of those bodies cut up on the road a couple of months back, but the Lord will protect him.  3 people from are district are going to Monterey West, and 3 are going to Leon. So be grateful I got Leon! The other two elders in my room are going to Leon which I exciting! Maybe at some point I will be able to be companions with them, they are both awesome! Elder Cluff and I are still getting along well. It’s weird to have the same person with you 24/7 but we communicate well so we don’t have any problems.

You also asked my favorite part of the MTC. There are 3 things I really enjoy. (1) Temple on P-days, (2) Sunday and Tuesday devotionals, the speakers are always great and so is the music. No one from the 12 has come yet but we have lots of time so I hope they do. (3) And of course gym time, it’s really nice to have gym after sitting in class all day every day and be able to go play basketball or soccer and get out all that extra energy.

Well everyone asked about my Spanish and my week. The Spanish is coming along very well. Still not anywhere close to where it needs to be, but so much better then when I started. The classes are not only in Spanish anymore. When they are teaching Spanish they are in Spanish, with the exception of grammar because we just wouldn’t get it if they tried to explain it in Spanish. The teaching concepts are also in English. We got our new permanent teacher this week! He is awesome! His name is Hermano Jarmin. He teaches grammar really well and how to teach investigators really well. It seems like we just laugh the whole time but somehow we learn more with him than anyone else. It’s always great to have someone who can just make learning easy and fun.

This week just flew by! The biggest thing that happened this week was we started teaching Miguel our new "investigator" aka Hermano Jarmin. Miguel is a real person from his mission. He has been taking lessons from the missionaries for 3 years! His family members are all members of the church. His wife was baptized without his permission while he was working out of the country. He believes everything about the church. His problem is he does not like the Book of Mormon. He refuses to read it! He is super funny and fun to teach. I think he just can’t read and tries to hide it by making fun of our Spanish and our lessons. I guess we will see…

What else? I got a haircut earlier today! It looks good, not to short. I have picture but not too many. When do you want me to send those home?

We also have a district from our zone leaving today at 4. I am kind of sad because they are awesome! But I am excited for them. They gave us hand downs, which are just items that get passed down from district to district as older ones leave. I got a Lego star wars ship from Elder Cockrin! I was pretty excited. So this is the 2nd district from our zone we have seen leave. We will get a new district tomorrow. The crazy part is we will be the second oldest district in our zone after today. The one ahead of us have the current zone leaders and they leave in a week and a half. We are all kind of nervous because the new zone leaders will likely come from our district. And we only have 3 companionships to choose from because 2 companionships leave next Wednesday! One companionship has their visas already and travel plans. The other ones Elder Nash and Hartvigsen don’t have visas yet, and I am praying they don’t get them till the end of the 9 weeks! I know that’s kind of wrong but they are some of my best friends here.

I know this gospel is true and the Lord answers prayers! I am so thankful to be able to serve in his church. I love you guys! Read Alma chapters 33-37 if you need something to read. I have been studying that and its great stuff. Look for a letter in the mail, I am going to try and write everyone a short individual letter and send them this week!

Love,

Elder Utley