Why Utah

The easy answer when we get asked “why Utah” is that a flight from Ontario to Salt Lake City is shorter than Ray's commute to his daily job. For over a year Ray has been dealing with a two hour, one way, commute. He works hard and does a great job providing for us but his days are incredibly long because of the awful commute. California has become so crowded and traffic is so awful that we are looking forward to a little more room to breathe, less crowds, less traffic and more land. We think Utah will be a really good fit for us. 

The deeper answer to "why Utah?" is Fresh Life Church. 

I don’t remember the date I first heard Pastor Levi Lusko preach the Bible but I will never forget feeling like he was looking directly at me, preaching exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.  I felt the same way the second time and I am guessing it was around the third time that the crazy idea popped into my head that maybe we should become a part of his church.  Each time I heard him preach he was guest speaking at my home church, Harvest Christian Fellowship; his church, Fresh Life Church, was in Montana.  I laughed at myself and wrote it off as soon as I thought it because there was no way I could ever move to Montana.  It snows there! But then he came back and I had the thought again.  I again laughed it off but the thought never went away.  I thought to myself the idea was absolutely crazy, and then I listened to a podcast by Pastor Levi where he literally said “if you feel crazy you are probably doing something right.”  (Insert shocked emoji here.)  I finally told Ray about it and expected him to laugh it off like I had done in the past but instead he said we should look into it.  We loosely looked into it but I always saw it as something that maybe we would do when the kids were off in college or when we retired.

I started watching archived messages from Fresh Life Church during the week through the internet. I began to understand the Bible like never before and I was able to apply it to my life.  I saw a little of what the church does for the community and the focus they have for the youth and wanted to be a part of it.  Ray and I talked a little bit more about Montana and were going to plan a trip there just to see what it was like.  Then we saw Fresh Life was going to open up a location in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ray and I loved Utah from a few previous trips we had taken there so in July 2016 we loaded the family up and took a road trip to check things out.  We met amazing people who welcomed us and told us the vision for the church. We loved being there and started exploring a move to Utah. 

Ray started the process of joining law enforcement in Utah and he basically walked right into West Valley City PD. Not to say that it wasn't without challenges (like the flu on the day of the physical agility test) but he was offered the job of police officer and accepted it happily. 

I was terrified at the thought of leaving the only place I have ever lived and known for completely new surroundings. It snows there! I also didn't know how I could leave my friends in family in California. But every time I thought about it and prayed about it, it felt right. Some things are just incredibly meant to be.

So the Wilhelm family is moving to Utah. Our moving date is our 10 year wedding anniversary and Ray and I cannot think of a more fitting way to begin the next decade of our lives together. I know that it is going to be hard and I know there will be challenges along the way but I also know this is right for us.  The hardest part, of course is what we leave behind. There are not enough words to describe the love I have for our friends and family here and leaving them behind hurts no matter how right this move is. I hope that some will come visit us to play in the snow and I hope some will take us in when we come back to visit to escape the snow!

Now on to packing...