Springville 7th Ward Relief Society

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!?!? Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> Hello my friends and family how are you!?!? I am so sorry that I haven't sent an email in over 5 weeks so it's a big Happy New Year to all of you! It has been crazy busy out here and I put off writing an email for too long! For some of you this is my only way of keeping in contact with you and I promise I will do better.  So buckle up and here we go🤠 We had transfers in the beginning of January and I am officially out of training. We're already over half way through this transfer and I cannot believe how fast time flies. I bet you all can feel that too. I am still in Lubbock in the Quaker Heights North area and Elder Allphin and I are still the coolest duo in the Wild West. This past few weeks have been full of little miracles and I can’t wait to tell y’all all about it. First we’re going to start with the fun though. I seriously have the best district and zone a missionary could ever ask for. We almost d...

Hello family and friends, It’s been another great week in the mission field. Jerry and I spoke in church yesterday, and as I looked out upon the congregation, I realized that in only one week, half of the people are already friends! And the other half we are quickly getting to know. It is a wonderful ward with a fantastic spirit of love and service. Last week I mentioned that the Elders invited us to go with them to visit a family that had a young lady being baptized. We didn’t know anything about the young lady or the family last week, but we have already become great friends with the Hayes family. Their fourteen-year-old daughter was baptized last Saturday. Their older children had been baptized in their youth, but this daughter was never baptized because the family fell away from the church for a time. The baptism was so special. Her older brother got release time from the Marines to be here with her and her grandparents traveled from Washington state. She was baptized and confirmed...

  Week 63: I love to see the temple Scout Benson hey yall! this week was like.... long. but that happens sometimes. doesnt mean it wasnt good!! heres some awesome miracles :)) monday night we went to do our weekly visit with megan and zalina- the little girl who got baptized a couple weeks ago. our challenge for them was to text us what they were grateful for every night. so every night we've gotten a text from them saying what they were each grateful for, and we would do it in response. and it was SO good for each of us. we loved it. so our challenge to YOU is to write down one thing youre grateful for every day. gratitude changes your attitude!!  wednesday we had zone conference in tallahassee! it was super fun. i got to see sister morley, and our zone is awesome. one of the members of our mission presidency- president wainwright- gave a training on how we need to be respectful and say maam and sir. which i feel like i do pretty good at, but i need to be better. but it was f...

  Seeing Miracles Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was filled with miracles. I love these weeks where I can have fun and that I can see the hand of God in my work. So many great experiences that I am so grateful for.  The week actually started off pretty slow. We had to do some work for Facebook which is always a little bit slower. I was able to make a video and it was actually pretty good. I'm impressed with myself. Then the next day we worked in the morning then we got to help with an activity in the branch. Then the next day was Thursday we had lunch with a member family and they have young men and one of them really likes basketball so I just talked to him about basketball the whole time and it was super fun to talk about that in a different language. Then we had our weekly planning. We had realized that we hadn't really been seeing much progress with our friends and we hadn't been finding new people to teach much...

  IM SORRY I PROMISE IM NOT DED ALSO IM A MOM Kelsey Sumsion <kelsey.sumsion@missionary.org> Mon, Jan 23, 4:02 PM (2 days ago) hi friends!!!! I know I am super bad at writing emails but SO MUCH has happened and I couldn't be more grateful for my mission so far. I officially hit 5 months yesterday! I am almost a third of the way through my mission and that hurts my brain way too much.  Apparently my mission president decided that I have had enough time flying past the radar and decided to put me as a STL trainer plus training a new STL. It has been so much fun and I have realized that the Lord truly does call the weak to do the work because it has truly been a humbling past couple of months.  We had a crazy week with transfers and getting everything switched around and starting training for my adorable new comp sister Allred. She is from Frederick CO and the family ward and ysa ward absolutely adore her already. I can tell that we are going to do a great work togethe...

  Hello family and friends, The last time I wrote we had just finished one week at the MTC. Since then, we had another equally enriching week at the MTC and then took off on our trek across Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. We took a short detour to Florida to visit with my sister, Sally, in Orlando, and my brother, Bob, and his wife, Jennifer, in Ft. Meyers, each for a day. They were both short but wonderful visits! And then it was off to Georgia! We arrived this past Saturday just in time to empty the car’s contents into the apartment and get a few groceries. We were greeted the minute we pulled into the driveway by a lovely, sweet southern lady who lives next door. She and her husband, who are our landlords, purchased the home next to theirs to provide a place for the missionaries who serve in their town to live. The house was built in 1923 and is divided into two apartments. The Elders live in the other half. We are getting settled and creating a com...

  Perseverar Hasta al Fin Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> Michelle.gardner@gmail.com Good morning everyone. Yay! It was a great week. Is absolutely insane but super amazing. We will start with the Miracles. We found so many new friends and we're finally able to get in contact with Michael and Melissa's entire family all at once. It's so amazing what happens when you follow the spirit. Second, our friend Victor. Wow. We have been meeting with him this week and he is so ready to be baptized. We told him about the Commandments and he said he was going to stop drinking coffee even though he loves it. He is such an amazing example to me of being humble and willing to follow God's will. He went to Banluger's baptism and felt so much peace there. Some other crazy things that happened this week was Sister Frasier getting sick. It was hard to stay inside all day but I'm glad she's feeling better. She's such a trooper. God loves her. Overall t...

  Week 62: New Boot Goof'n Scout Benson Hey yall! what a week it has BEEN. we've had fun, we've had miracles, we've been exhausted as always. Sister Johnson and i have been PICKING UP the work here. Lynn Haven has been kinda dead for us, so we made a goal to focus on finding. We prayed, and we worked, and here are some of the miracles. 1. Judy. Part 1. Tuesday we were like AHHHHH WE'RE GONNA FIND!!! so we started to knock doors but were reaaaaally nervous cause of recent bad experiences. but we started doing it anyways! no one answered the first two doors, but the third one a lady opened. We introduced ourselves and asked if shed like to hear a message about Christ. She said yes! That never happens!! So we shared a scripture from Luke. We ended up talking with her for a long time and teaching part of the plan of salvation! We asked if we could come back and teach the rest and she said YES! THAT NEVER HAPPENS EITHER!! what a wild ride.  2. Dave is out of the hospital...

  Four Borachos Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! Hope everyone had a good week like always! I know that I had a very solid week. Lots of fun experiences and also lots of miracles like always. I hit six months in the mission on Wednesday which was awesome. Time is going by so fast. This week we started off my planning for a baptism! It wasn't a baptism of one of our friends but of an eight year old in the branch. Still huge miracles because she can start her path on the covenant path as soon as possible. It is super good because she was about to turn nine this week. The thing that took a long time was filling up the font. It took us five hours to clean and just make sure everything was good. It was horrible. That wasn't just to fill it when it was filling up we left and worked. Then we had her baptism on Wednesday and it was super good and practically the whole branch showed up! Thursday we had a zone conference here in Caaguazú wit...

 Stake Conference with Elder Slaughter Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> Hola hola!!! What a great and crazy week!! We had transfers and sister Frazier and I are both staying, yay!!! I'm so excited to stay here in Tualatin in the Branch and help our friends keep progressing on the covenant path.  The highlight this week was probably saturday and Sunday. We met a friend named Victor and he wants to be baptized! He is such an amazing person and was so involved in the scriptures right from the get go.  We had stake conference and a general authority was able to speak to us. He spoke to us about the sacrament and I would love to share some of what he said with you all because it really changed my view. First off - When we are partaking of the sacrament it is a memorial service. We are there in memory of our Savior and his atoning sacrifice. We remember the blood he spilt and the body that was bruised, beaten, and broken.  Second - When we go to the sac...

  Week 61: l a d i c i o u s Scout Benson Welcome to my new world. Where I am surrounded by sister johnson saying "mmm that taste ladicious!" "no t o t a l l y" "you KILL me" "bro noooOOOOOO" and assorted shrieking sounds/giggles. Honestly couldnt be happier its so much fun, we are having the time of our lives.  this week was like literally all over the place. we had some days that everyone was answering their doors and texting us back and everything. Like one lady literally texted the wrong number but we were nice to her so she gave us her name and we're friends now. And another day we went to visit our friend dave in his recovery center (which he gets out of soon!) and in the waiting room we met 2 separate people and gave them each our number, and then ended up talking to a nurse and giving her our number PLUS a couple of our cards for her to give out!! So fun. But then there were days that we got yelled at and stuff this week. There was a ...

  Members are the Key Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> Mark Acor;Whitney Gubler;Calianne Skinner;Addy Pace;Ashley Edwards;Patti Mutchie ¡Mas Fotos! 20230113_194713.jpg20230113_201613.jpgIMG-20230114-WA0021.jpeg20230115_070846.jpg20230115_153228.jpg20230116_121329.jpg 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! I hope everyone has had a fun week! I know I sure have! This week has been really good, lots of success and just working as hard as we can and trying to improve each day.  On Wednesday we had a pretty fun experience. So a little bit of back story. We have a friend of ours who has come to church three times now and we have never actually taught him he just keeps coming to church. There are two problems. He can only speak Guaraní and he lives in the middle of nowhere. So our job Wednesday was to at least find him. We thought this would be super...

  Las hermanas chicas Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> Our member friend who goes to English class called us that when he gave us a referral (someone who would be interested in hearing the message of the gospel) for some sisters in Hillsboro. Members are the best!! I'm going to have to keep this one short, but this week has been good!! We had some temple tours with our friends that went really well. They all have such a strong desire to be baptized and enter into a covenant to serve God. It's so beautiful and I'm so proud of the changes they have been making in their lives to get there.  We got transfer news yesterday and (drum roll please) Sister Frazier and I are still staying here in Tualatin together!! We are so excited to start this new transfer fresh and to stay together.  One thing that I've been learning in my studies is what it means to be a faithful disciple of Christ. I have been reading in 1 Nephi and I love what Nephi says in chaper 17 v...

MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2023 Hello, family and friends! We have just completed our first week in the Missionary Training Center. There have been so many incredible learning opportunities and edifying experiences that it is extremely difficult to pick which ones to share with you. I have chosen to share the ones that stand out poignantly enough to retell them without going to my notesѮѯѰѱ. For my friends who are reading this email who are not of my faith, please look to the bottom of the email for definitions of the terms I will use that you are probably not familiar with. I remember when I was learning about the gospel, how foreign the words were for me. When we entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) last Monday, we were in a group of 180 senior missionaries beginning their missionary training. That’s the largest group of senior missionaries since before Covid. Combined with the Elders and the Sisters that make up the junior missionaries, there are a total of 3700 missionaries here! T...

  WEEK 60: RIP MY HEART OUT Scout Benson This week was a wild one for sure. With Sister Morley leaving, and everyone absolutely loving her, there was a lot to do. So we ran around and said goodbye to people and taught lessons and all good things..... ....except Denise. :( We went to visit Denise and she ended up telling us she didnt want to do lessons anymore because 1. she had had a traumatic brain injury just a short time ago, which made it so she got confused easy, and she didnt want to be confused about God. and 2. there were some things we'd taught her that didnt sit right. She was so kind about it, and we were so grateful that she just told us straight up instead of leading us on, but it was SO SAD. We testified a ton, but she just needed more time. She said shed keep the Book of Mormon and read it more as she got more memory and brain power back. She also told us we could visit whenever we wanted. So, Denise will get there eventually. Prayers.  Lots of goodbyes and then...

  Progressing Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! I hope that everyone had such a great week! For all my family and friends in Utah it sure looks amazing with all the snow I miss it a lot! Like I said last week we had transfers. It has been so fun. Here on the mission transfers are huge because everyday is very much the same but when we have transfers the whole world changes. Elder Lugarani is amazing. He is such a good missionary and I have already learned so much from him. He is super funny and I can actually communicate with him so well and it is all in Spanish! This week with the missionary work has been pretty good. We have contacted and found so many people to teach. In our lessons people are progressing a lot when we are teaching them and there is a lot of interest. The only thing different when Sunday roles around is when we can see who really wants to make changes. This last week was disappointing because we had a lot of plans an...

  "I am the natural man" Amanda Gardner <amanda.gardner@missionary.org> The subject of this email is what I said to Sister Frazier today as we sat in our beds and I went to get leftover chocolate from the holidays haha - happy new years!! This week was absolutely craziness. Our friend Darinel was all set to get baptized this Sunday, but last minute he texted us the day before and said that he wants to wait a little longer... there were definitely a lot of emotions going on in my head, but overall I am grateful that we can trust in God's plan for Him. Sister Frazier and I are just happy to keep helping him move forward on the covenant path! He came to church the next day along with some of our other friends and helped them all out with their hymn books. It was really sweet.  The other friend I want to mention today is Erik!! He is so amazing! We met him Christmas day and taught him how to pray over the phone. He was a referral from a YouTube ad and is searching for t...

  Week 59: WHAT'N THE WORLD YOUR PARENTS NAME YA SCOUT FOR?!? Scout Benson Ouch right? Yeah the lady that said that was pretty brutal. Thats a direct quote too. Sometimes on a first encounter we introduce ourselves with our first names but this time.... it hurt. 😢 nah jk but for real who says that????  ANYWAYS. I have wild news for yall. Transfers are this week. Sister Morley is getting transfered to Tallahassee for her last transfer! We're sad We're getting separated, but she's stoked to have something exciting happening her last transfer. Plus! We'll see each other at zone conference. My new comp is sister Johnson, who was trained by my mtc comp sister matthews!! She's great so im excited. BUT THE REAL WILD STUFF. My trainer- sister ashby- started her mission in waycross and was there 6 months. This is her last transfer. She's getting transfered back to waycross. Isn't that. The craziest. But wait. There's more. Her new comp? Sister ballard. My ad...

  Feliz Año Nuevo y Cambios Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was a fun one for sure. We started off by traveling to Ciudad Del Este for our Christmas conference which was such a blast. We gotta travel on a bus for about three hours then stay the night with the other Elders in the area. We had our conference which was super fun. I was in the choir and we watched videos from our parents and a bunch of things. It was so much fun and we got to hang out with all the missionaries. We then traveled back to our area and then worked the next day which was Wednesday. We had our district counsel with our whole zone and did a fun activity where everyone wrote one word about each person and it was so much fun seeing all these nice things about everyone.  We worked a lot this week with people that are close to having a baptismal date. We have a lot of people progressing and are interested. The thing is that none of them came to church...

  ¡Merry (late) Christmas! Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org> ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! First things first Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a lot of fun yesterday and ate a ton and also opened a lot of presents! Christmas is very different here in Paraguay that is for certain. Especially when I am a missionary but we still found different ways to have fun. Let's rewind a bit to the beginning of the week. I started off the week by doing divisions with Elder Lopez and it was super fun! He is from Peru so it was fun to hear about his country and all the different things that he thinks. I went to his area which is called Campo 9 and there are a ton of Germans there actually. Lots of good work and fun fact Elder Lopez is the first Elder I have done divisions with that doesn't speak any English and it actually was not bad at all. We then finished divisions on Wednesday and we had our end of year dinner which was super good and fun. We had awesome spiri...

  Week 58: MERRY CHRYSLER Scout Benson Hello wonderful people! I hope you all have the most amazing beautiful Christmas. I hope it was filled with love and cheer and singing loud for all to hear and JESUS!!! the reason for the season :)))  This Christmas was probably my best ever. We got to spend time doing what Christmas is ABOUT. Service and love. We were able to be involved in the donation of HUNDREDS of dollars worth of presents for the Cole family. We were able to give presents to Ashley and Destiny. We were able to carol, read Luke 2 about a billion times, and share the same good tidings of great joy that the angels brought to those shepherds. Someone name a better way to spend Christmas!!! I can't.  I'm so grateful for this week, this month, this season. I pray each or you had an AMAZING Christmas!! I would love to hear from yall what you're favorite parts were/favorite traditions!!  Merry Christmas! Talk to you NEXT YEAR!!! (Hahahahhahahahahaha) 

  Feliz Navidad!!!🎄⛄️🤠 Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> Merry Christmas my friends and family!! I hope it’s been so, so good for you all. And now we’re close to the New Year! Can you believe it!? It’s been a crazy good year and I’m pumped to see how the next one goes. But what a week it has been!  We had our ward Christmas party last week and man, Spanish branches know how to throw parties. We had a DJ, lights, and a ton of food and games. We even had Santa. The highlight of the night was after everyone was done eating we all went to the middle of the gym and danced. Hermana Wright taught me how to really dance and let me tell you I looked good. It was a fun night and I was able to get a lot closer to the members in our branch. On p-day we went to Top Golf as a zone because it was super cheap! Some of the Elders and Sisters could absolutely smash the golf ball and I hit it just a little less further. Let’s just say I got past 30 ft. 😂  Later that night ...