Springville 7th Ward Relief Society

  I got kicked out of Big Lake!!😝 Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> Hello everyone!! I'm a week late again but I'll get better at writing every week! Happy late Thanksgiving and the best season is coming up, CHRISTMAS⛄️🎄✨️ so merry early Christmas! It's seriously the best time of the year.  To start out the week we went on exchanges with our zone leaders and I went up to Midland with Elder Griggs. He is such a funny and awesome guy and he taught me a lot about how to  teach by the Spirit. We had a lot of opportunities to do it because we had 5 lessons in one night! It was awesome meeting so many people and being able to grow my teaching abilities. Our other zone leader, Elder Farnworth, is trying to convert one of the pastors in Big Lake while he was down there. He's actually making some good progress so that's been a huge highlight.  We had Thanksgiving 🦃 with some members in Rankin which is a small town west of Big Lake. They are seriously the co...

  A Thanksgiving Serenade Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> Buenos días a todos!! This week was amazing!!! We got transfer news, but I'll save it for the very end :) First off thanksgiving! We started off the day having MLC (mission leader conference) and it was SO amazing. We talked about what it looks like to be a leader and also how we can be more team Jesus. We set some goals for this next month of December and came back to our areas with lots of insights about how we can be better missionaries. These meetings are always a testament to me of how much the Lord is leading his work. Everything we talked about was exactly what I needed to hear, God is so good. President and Sister Haymond also made us all waffles, it was so kind of them!! Then we made our way to Thanksgiving lunch (yes I ate so much food the entire day) which we were having with a formerly taught friend of ours Doris who absolutely loves the missionaries, but has no interest in the gospel. She in...

  Week 54: Home sick but loving it Scout Benson This week was a WHOLE rollercoaster of emotion. One that does backflips and skydives and loops.  Leaving Gainesville was the worst ever. I will miss my six month home full of love and adventures. Im so grateful for all that i was able to learn there, all the people i was able to meet, all the love i was able to feel. Gainesville will always have a special place in my heart :) I hated saying goodbye to people, especially the young women. Saying goodbye to each of them was really hard because ive grown to love and care for them so much. Those girls amaze me. Saying goodbye to my district was a wreck as well. Those studs. All yall are gonna miss seeing our crazy pictures. But saying goodbye to my trio was just THE WORST. I hate crying in front of people and.... well i cried in front of EVERYONE. Thanks a lot. But Sister Ballard and Sister Palmer are gonna KILL it. im grateful to be leaving my home in such good hands.  The drive...

Changes Bring Growth Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was definitely different than any other week I have had. As I said last week, this week was a transfer. This was the first time in the mission that I have switched companions and areas and it has been so much fun. I love my new area. I am in Caaguazú right now and it is very different from the city but it is awesome. It is a much smaller city/town in the middle of Paraguay. It is a lot more calm than Asuncíon. Also the language that I talked about in my last email every single person here speaks Guaraní. It has been a fun challenge. Everyone always tells me that I need to start learning Guaraní. What people do not realize is that I am still learning Spanish! It will be good though because it pushes my Spanish to be better and I can start learning some phrases in Guaraní and hopefully by the time I leave this area I can have Spanish down and start learning Guaraní.  I also ...

  LITERALLY WHAT IS LIFE From: Kelsey Sumsion <kelsey.sumsion@missionary.org> Hi family! This week has been crazy as always so let's do the whole run down Monday: we hang out as a zone every p day and we usually go to our stake center. There was a youth dance over the weekend and all the sound equipment was still there and elder Hancock's parents are dj's so we had an epic dance party. We also played murderer in the dark and it was super fun. We went to some members fhe that they hold with inactive members and we were able to unblock ourselves from our friend chers phone! This is a big deal because she is on date for January and we have been blocked since I started teaching her in September. And now she texts us all the time it's so epic. We had dinner with some member that are remodeling their house and their living room was GORGEUOUS and then we ate dinner in their construction site of a dining room. It felt a little too real to me haha can't wait for the ho...

  Growing Pains Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! Well transfers are this week. I am leaving San Isidro! I was not expecting to be leaving but I am super excited for this opportunity. I am going to Caaguazú! It is right in the middle of Paraguay. A little in the middle of nowhere. Super campo is what we call it. Just means not much city, and also there is a lot of the other language called Guaraní. Lots of weird names that all of you are probably pronouncing wrong. My new companion is Elder Richards and we have the same time in the mission. We both just finished our training. We are both going to learn a lot. We both have three months experience with Spanish. Alright now to what happened this week. This Tuesday we met a guy watering his plants and he called us over. He asked us where we are from and I told him I was from Springville Utah. Then he started asking me all these questions in English about how Utah is and about football. Turn...

  Week 53: bedrest, baptism, and bawling my eyes out it has been another week! and WHAT a week it has been. So here goes my email, a trilogy.  BEDREST. On Tuesday morning.... Sister Palmer and I woke up with fevers. And before anyone even comes AT me about being sick again.... i already know. but like everyone we know is sick and as missionaries you just are around all the people and my immune system is shot and.... yeah. SO. We were told to go to the doctor again. Sister Palmer came out with a cold, an ear infection, and a sinus infection. I came out with BRONCHITIS. For real this time. last time it was inflamed bronchi, now i have bronchitis. The odds are not in my favor. So.... we told the doctor why we kept getting sick. (i.e. around people, no rest for the weary, etc.) and so... she quarantined us. Which was rude. So a lot of this week we were quarantined. But! A big miracle was that we were able to actually rest up, and that it didnt interfere with the BIG thing that hap...

  I AM ALIVE I PROMISE From: Kelsey Sumsion <kelsey.sumsion@missionary.org> So sorry I cannot write these emails like I want to. I always have too much to say and never enough time to write what I want.  I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM. it was so awesome and epic and the spirit was so so so strong. Literally everything was going wrong until the moment it started and then everything was perfectly fine. I couldn't have asked for a better first baptism and daniel is the coolest person and I just can't wait for his wife to say she wants to be baptized Cool things!: I had philipino food it was hecka yummy and the romeros told me I look like an actress from the Phillipines. Don't know how to respond to that one Ysa has my heart you can never tell me they are lame because ysa is the promised land and I have found my premortal friends there.  I went to the yuba city sikh festival! We ran a family history booth and helped people sign up for family search it was so baller and I ate so...

 This week I hit 5 months into the mission!! It was a week of reflection and it helped me realize how far I've come and also how I can re-evaluate and align my will more with God's. I've been learning a lot about humility and being 100% responsible for how you use your agency so that you can access Christ's grace and appreciate his mercy just as fully.  Some highlights: ☆ got to go to the temple this pday!!!! It was amazing as always ☆ a member from one of the English wards invited his neighbor to have us bless his house and we ended up sharing a message as well and giving him a book of Mormon! He loved it and is so excited to read! ☆ it was the primary program this Sunday! The spanish and English ward primaries are combined so it was a bilingual program and the kids were so cute and the spirit so strong! ☆ God provided us with so much free food this weekend haha, it was amazing and I was stuffed! ☆ met with our friend isabel and her son and he played his trumpet for us...

  The Cops Were Out in Big Lake Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> What is up my friends and family!? It has been a crazy fun past two weeks which is why I wasn't able to write last week! I've got a lot to let you guys know about so I'm going to get right to it.  Zone Conference was this week!! For any who don't know what this is, our mission President, his wife, and the AP's come down to our zone (which is a larger group of missionaries in an area) and they come and train us. It was super fun to see Elder Ryan and Elder McDougal again. We also combined with the Odessa zone and I was able to see Elder Grow who is one of my greatest friends ever. You won't meet a more kind and fun person to be around. He is the man the myth the legend. We did a ton of role plays and learned more about the authority of our calling. One of my favorite things we learned from President Child is that we don't have to ask for permission to share the Gospel! We have be...

  A Perfect Message Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> Mark Acor;Whitney Gubler;Calianne Skinner;Addy Pace;Ashley Edwards;Patti Mutchie ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! First things first shout out to my mom for winning the school board election this week! She is so amazing. This week was super eventful so let us just get right into it. This Wednesday was the Censo here in Paraguay. This is basically just a day where everyone stays inside and does nothing all day because they are counting how many people live here in Paraguay. It was super boring because we just stayed in our apartment all day and did nothing. We had someone come to our apartment and ask us questions and then after that nothing. The next day though is where something amazing happened. Elder Renlund came to Paraguay to meet and talk with all the missionaries! It was so amazing and I got to shake his hand so that was super cool. That was my first time ever I was able to meet an apostle. We got to listen t...

  Week 52: a trip around the big ol sun Scout Benson Let's take a second to remember that I havent even missed ONE week emailing, so you've been on a journey of 52 emails with me. 52 weeks of thousands of pictures :))  ANYWAYS! that's gross and we're not gonna think about it ever again. So! This week has been all over the place in all thr best ways. From hurricanes to birthdays it's been a good one. SO! Let's jump in.  Nothing exciting happened this week until Thursday. When hurricane Nicole rolled in and we were stuck inside our apartment for a day. We planned and.... blinked for long amounts of time. :) but we were ready to get out again by the next day. We are praying, and ask for your prayers, for the people who got more than rain and a little wind. Our friend michael had a MASSIVE tree fall in his backyard and it was just a little wind. So I can't imagine what happened further south. God hears prayers ❤️  Post hurricane weather though is the MOST magic....

  Elder cordon!!! Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> Hola hola todos!!! First off, elder cordon gave us a training on how to teach to Latinos better and it was AMAZING!!!! It helped me see better promised blessings and ways that we can teach them so that was awesome Second, mario and Connie came to church YAY!!!!! they loved it so much and they are progressing so much!  Third, ernesto came to one of the other sister's baptisms and LOVED it!!! He brought a friend too, and we are trying to meet with him again to reschedule his baptism date! Fourth, we have some sisters going home in the zone 😔😔 so Sister Bennett and I will be double covering the spanish branch and an English ward. Kind of crazy!  Fifth, I love this gospel! I love being a missionary, there is no greater joy than gathering Israel! I love my Savior and its so amazing to see him change me and all those we are teaching!!! Love you all, thanks for the support, sorry for the short email, but kn...

  Facing Opposition with Optimism Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was difficult but also so good. I would say that this week we had some of our most success. We have been able to find a lot of new people to teach. Lots of families who seem to be interested and not only that but we have two people on date for baptism! The most promising person is Ana. Just so all of you know we had divisions twice this week. During our first divisions Elder Palomino with one of our zone leaders met with her. It was only her second lesson but they invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We met with her again and taught her more about the gospel. Then yesterday we went to her house to walk with her to church. She was ready and she came to church! It was fast and testimony meeting so I gave my testimony which was cool because it was in Spanish and I truly gave my testimony directed at Ana to let her know that this is the true church. She sa...

  Week 51: the spirit of knocking Scout Benson Hello loves!! This week was long and short and just everything. Our day today is crazy so this is gonna be a short one, but here's some cool stuff from this week!!  - we felt prompted to go to a certain apartment complex. Background, this place makes me uneasy. I don't like a lot of people that live there. But we felt prompted. So we went. We walked around a little bit, felt prompted to knock a door, got scared, left, came back, knocked the door, and met tierrel. He was so kind and talked to us for a while. He seemed mildly interested, but told us about his daughter Tajana, who would be SUPER interested. It was a cool miracle!!!  - we had zone conference this week which was wonderful. Full of revelation and spirit filled teaching.  - we got to do a super fun game with the mansfields, which reviewed the baptismal interview questions! We're so close!!!  - rhonda opened up to us about some things that are holding her b...

 Subject: HYPE THEM TO BAPTISM   Wowowowowow how is it already another week and another email and the END OF THE TRANSFER. I get to stay in Gridley/Live Oak woot woot. That is literally the best ever because I never want to leave my awesome house. It is referred to as the live oak mansion because it is 3 bed 2 bath and a sun room and a massive living room (and a couch don't tell president) I am also getting a new trainer! Sister stow is going up to willows and I get to be comps with sister ramesh!! She is very very cool and I have met her a couple times so I am very excited to do the work here in gridley with her. Even though I'm leading the area as a baby please pray for me.  This weekend is my first baptism! Daniel is getting baptized and even though he tells us every other day that he doesn't want to do this we know he does and that he is working on growing his faith. It has been a lot of back and forth but everything is finally coming together. It is super special tha...

  A Halloween Miracle Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> This week was filled with SO many miracles!! My testimony that God is our loving Heavenly Father and is intimately involved in each and every one of our lives has grown so much.  Some miracles:  - our social media page sent out 44 referrals to missionaries this week!!! Our goal was 42, and the highest we've ever done was 39, so with much prayer and diligence we were able to see miracles!! Each and every one of these people is searching for the gospel in their lives and we get the opportunity to help then find it and come to Christ. It's pretty amazing - our new friend angel!! This week we had exchanges with Woodburn and I was leading out the Spanish area! Sister Gooch, the one that came to my area knew enough Spanish to bear her testimony, but that was it, so I had to do all of the lessons and Spanish basically by myself! It was amazing to see how God gives us the words we need exactly when we need...

  The Good in the Bad Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! A lot of things happened this week so let me get started. First off, just so everyone knows all my friends and family in America, you guys are lucky because it is getting colder for all of you. It is getting hot here. Not only that but it is raining a lot more here too and that means humidity. This week starting on Tuesday I started to feel a little sick. Wednesday was rough. I had to stay in bed for a bit because I was feeling super awful but then at around 12 I was feeling better. We went out and started our day in, for the first time while I have been here, 100 degree weather. Then we started giving this lesson to this lady who is actually fairly interested so I am excited about that. While we were talking though the sky turned black. I have never seen the sky get so dark in my life during the day. Then it started pouring. Guess who forgot their umbrellas...we did. We walked to ...

  Welcome to Small Dirt! Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> Hola todos!! It feels so long since I've emailed you all but that's because I'm officially in Texas!! We flew out on a p day so that's why there wasn't one last week. I said goodbye to my district who are some of the most amazing people and best friends I've had. I miss them but I know they're doing amazing in all of their missions.  I can't tell you how good it feels to be in the field. All my training has led up to this moment and it's really going to be the next best two years of my life. When we arrived in the airport we were greeted by our mission President, his wife, and the AP's (assistants to the president). Elder Ryan and Elder McDougall gave us giant hugs and gave us the best surprise ever. We were literally 5 minutes from being off the plane and they told us to grab our luggage and then we were off to Texas Tech campus to share the Gospel with the students walkin...

  Week 50: cough my eyes out Scout Benson Hello loves!!!  This week was just.... long and miserable honestly haha. On Tuesday morning sister Palmer woke up with a cold. She was fine by Wednesday, but Wednesday night I started feeling sick. And yall KNOW my immune system is just garbage. :) so if you have any suggestions please share. So I just kept getting worse and worse every day. Finally the mission nurse suggested I go to the doctor. So I diiiid. And.... I have a pretty major sinus infection, the beginnings of bronchitis and fluid just everywhere its not supposed to be. So it was very validating to know I was actually sick and not just being a baby!! So he prescribed me 3 medications and things have been getting better. But we didn't do too much this week due to all that! BUT We had stake conference this week. Saturday night our friend michael came! And on Sunday all the mansfields came!! It was such an exciting weekend. :))) we also had a great lesson with anthony and jul...