Springville 7th Ward Relief Society

  Week 28: respect the drip... of sweat. respect the drip of sweat. its really hot here :)  This week has been so good!! We have had MIRACLES. We finally got a hold of our good friend Zachery. Often we ask people what they believe they have to do to be saved and they say "uh... believe in Jesus." its that easy!! And we're like well yeah but... doctrine of Christ..... (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end)  So we asked Zachery what he thought we had to do to be saved. And he goes well.. you have to believe in Jesus. And we're like osihgoaiwheoighaoiwehg BUT THEN. He was like and... you have to be constantly changing to be better. And you need to be baptized. And follow what God says... for the rest of your life. And we were sitting there with our jaws on there floor even though we are NOT a codfish. Because WOAH. Lets just baptize this guy and let God translate him already. Just kiddingggg!!! But for real it was such a miracle lesson!! ...

  One secret to happiness A teacher gave a balloon to every student, each student had to inflate it, write their name on it, and throw it into the hallway. The teacher then mixed all the balloons. The students were then given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no one found their balloon. At that point, the teacher told the students to take the first balloon that they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon. The teacher said to the students: "These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people's happiness, we'll find ours too." This is what it’s about!

  Thanks to those who signed up for garden time at the temple-- Reminder: It's this Thursday! and PS, it would be great to see a pic or two on our FB group if you think to share : )  Welcome Graduates! These girls bless our world. We're so happy to have them joining Relief Society. What exciting things they have ahead... Ruby Benson Ruby will be attending UVU this fall. She’s declared her major to be Art and Design-drawing and painting (emphasis) but reserves the right to alter that course as she gets a better idea of her direction as an artist. She’s excited to take any and all art classes that the university has to offer. Her favorite media thus far include watercolor, oil paint, colored pencil, digital art, pottery and stained glass. Besides her love for “doing” art, she loves and truly appreciates music and film. She is well versed in music from many decades and also pays great attention to film scores. She keeps track of all film directors and appreciates the scenery, li...

  Well, it's been a couple of months since my last emails haha. During my time here a lot has happened so I'll just stick to the highlights. Washington is nothing like Nevada, Utah, California or anyplace I have been. The weather is even more unpredictable from rain to snow to sun shine within an hour. It's fun to watch from inside the car but out walking around it can get old quick 😂 The first area I served in was the pleasant Valley Ward in Centralia stake. I covered such lovely towns as Napavine, Adna and Pe Ell. I served there for 4 and a half months. My 3rd week there I went through a flood and for the next 6 weeks I might as well have been a service missionary 😂 I helped remodel my apartment and repair all the flood damage throughout the area. Oh, I also saved two horses on a Kayak. Id share the story but I'm trying to keep this email short 😂 email me if you want the full story 😁One of the many miracles I saw was that out of the entire ward and area my compani...

  Hey yall :) this week was not awesome so this emails gonna be short.  I lost a good friend this week. The Masao I knew was kind and caring. (Editor: Masao was in Sister Benson's grade at high school.  He was the boy involved in the shooting last week.)  I've been praying hard for both the Kaanga and Conroy families all week. Through this experience, I have learned that God truly does bring peace. He is there and he knows how you feel. I have felt that this week. I will continue to pray for those families, and I will continue to remember the Masao I knew personally. Because he helped me through a lot of dark times.  This week we honestly... well it feels like we did nothing. Sister Swain and I would appreciate prayers for the work in Waycross. Cause it is slow at best!  And yes, this week I hit six months as a missionary. You know what that means? I haven't hugged my mom in six months. That is the WORST. But also being a missionary is great so ill hug you ...

  Hey y'all !! Man this week was just so good! I'm pretty sure I've given myself permanent dimples from how often I laugh throughout the day. Laughing is my key to success and pure joy. Life is just soooo perfect:)) I thought I would kick this email off with a spiritual thought. We are focusing on our 'why' as missionaries. What's our drive? What's our motive? What's our passion? And what keeps us going on the hard days? I was recently asked what my 'why' was from a member in my ward after we had a conversation centered on missionary work. I paused, smiled, looked at her in the eyes and said, "Because I was Jesus Christs 'why', I now want to be His." Think about how profound that is. Throughout His life but most importantly in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ knew His why. He knew His purpose. The salvation of mankind was on His shoulders and He loved us too much to ever let us not have the opportunity to return back to ou...

  WEAKly:)) but actually not because Jesus is Strong Hiiii iaorana  So this week I listened to a lot of Christmas music. Not quite sure why, but I guess I'm trying to process going home in a month....  As you all know, I'm terrible at writing so I figured I should take the time to write an email now, cause I'm not quite sure how much I'll write before I'm just Emily again. This week's email is gonna be a little different:)  I wanna explain why being just Emily again is something that makes me so sad, scared, happy, excited, etc. This Emily is gonna be different! JESUS CHRIST HAS CHANGED ME. if you offer your imperfections to Christ and ask him to help you change them, he will do just that. He will help you become someone capable of helping orchestrate miracles! I wasn't so proud of who I was before. I was ashamed of the person I let others and the world mold me into, and I wanted to change. At the beginning of my mission, I started to take inventory of what ...

  life in Jacksonville(: heres da scoop Alaycia Neel <alaycia.neel@missionary.org> (It was a busy day for Alaycia.  Here is her email.  Thank you for your love and support!-Jeni) Hello to my favs 🤟🏽🤍 Lemme just say first off that a lot changes in a week and more so than you would think. I'm honestly so happy here and falling in love with the area. Everyday I hit my pillow and just smile in so much gratitude and humility. I'm a missionary. Nothing feels better than this  Jacksonville is literally. so fun. It's a mini jungle and I'm not even kidding when I say that. The humidity is ten times worse since we are so close to the beach, it's like thick fog. ANNNDDD we got alligators. Yup. I heard yall gasping;)) me too. They hang out in the swampy areas or ponds and they are seen EVERYWHERE. We have a pond right outside of our apartment complex and we named one of the gators Gale. So whenever we drive past we always roll down our window & throw our orange or ...

  Week 26: roach in my mouth Scout Benson Nasty right? Well I wish it was a joke. But NO. We made a new friend this week in the middle of the road. He was walking to work, we were practicing being brave. His name is Sean :) He told us we were much nicer than "mormons" he'd met in Michigan. (Sorry all my Michigan buddies but yall just dont have the *southern grace* instead you apparently have #northern aggression# according to Sean ://) Well while we were talking to Sean he gave the recovering music addict a wonderful gift: a Weezer song AND a 311 song. Unfortunately it was very distracting as I tried to juggle testifying of Jesus and singing along to Beverly Hills. Guess the prophet is right. The world and missionary work arent meant to be multi-tasked. Well Sean took a Book of Mormon and gave us his number! It was a wonderful encounter. Except one thing. Sean had a mustache. He also had.... no dental care I dont think. But while we were talking a flying roach.... landed ...

  Form up, ladies. Zion is waiting for us...       from comefollowmedaily -  “In the wild, when a mama elephant is giving birth, all the other female elephants in the herd back around her in formation. They close ranks so that the delivering mama can not be seen in the middle. [...] They send a clear signal to predators that if they want to attack their friend while she is vulnerable, they’ll have to get through 40 tons of female aggression. When the baby elephant is delivered, the sister elephants do two things: they kick dirt or sand over the newborn to protect its fragile skin from the sun, and then they all start trumpeting, a female celebration of new life and sisterhood. [...] This is what we do, girls. When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new ministries, when they are under attack, when they need their people to surround them so they can create, deliver, heal, recover...we get into formation. We close r...

  a little bit of the Avrey fam "the raw emotions of Sis Neel" Hey ya'll  It's. Been. A. Whirlwind. As you can tell by the title of my weekly...I left Washington late Saturday night and have been assigned to the Jacksonville area. There was a Sister missionary that went home due to medical issues so they shuffled a lot of missionaries around and felt strongly that I needed to fill in a spot here in Jacksonville. It's a super interesting area. We share a ward with another set of sister missionaries and elders, and the zone leaders cover YSA and another family ward. All in all this is the promised land when it comes to teaching and finding. Hence the reason for so many missionaries. We're even closer to the ocean now and our zone covers many of the islands and coastal areas of North Carolina. We also have the military base, Camp Leguene in our area so military is HUGE down here. There's marines and war machinery everywhere ya'll.  All in all it's bee...

  Week 25: Say it... out loud Helloooo my fine fellows. (seriously im running out of ways to start these things and im not even close to done) This week in lovely Georgia has been beautiful as always.... and really really hot. Its fine we're having so much fun. Even if we're dripping sweat. :)  This week honestly was kinda long. We're fixing to run out of people to teach seeing as how... baptist preachers are very common in this area. So our homies are kind of dropping like flies. Our friend Bradley- the one who watched all of conference and had a baptismal date for May 14th- has dropped off the face of the planet. When we first started teaching him he told us he was more comfortable doing lessons over zoom or in public. Well we never could get him to commit to a in person lesson... and now hes completely stopped answering our calls/texts/everything. And so we finally stopped by the apartment complex address he gave us. He didnt give us the apartment number so we went to th...

  A little garden therapy... Our ward has been invited to have 10 volunteers work in the gardens at the Provo City Center Temple on May 26 from 8-11AM. Neither green thumb nor garden tools are required. If you are interested in spending a little quality time in the sunshine and flowers, please visit the sign-up sheet here . Come and be a part of our Family History Work in the Springville 7th Ward! Stop by during the second hour of church in the Family History Room (southwest corner). Help will be available to Create a login if needed for the church website (same login is used for Family Search) Find a deceased relative in your family tree who needs temple ordinances performed Print or create a QR code for taking your family name to the temple Schedule a temple appointment Find stories and events to help you become closer to your ancestors. What we’re talking about Seana Beckes will lead this Sunday's RS discussion of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's address "Fear Not: Believe O...

  TEMPLE TRIP & Dr Pepper miracle Goooood morning !! Your girl hits 15 months as a missionary this week and I'm honestly trying to figure out how in the world I ever got to this point in my mission. I'm one of the older missionaries in my mission and to make things even scarier, sister Hill and I (my stl comp) are the oldest stls in the mission. Ugh it's so sad haha! My mission is my home and I'm so completely happy here. Feels like I could do this forever. I love love love being a missionary you guys. It's literally my pride and joy But enough of the sappy, here's some highlights in my week (there's a lot so buckle up):  ☆ WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!! Wow, it was so special!! As missionaries we got to participate in an endowment AND sealing session. My experience this time was profound and life changing. I went in with the intent to learn and boy did I come out with new knowledge. Just the thought of sitting in the Lord's house and remembering wh...