Springville 7th Ward Relief Society

  7/27/23 These past two weeks have been a whirlwind and I have learned SO much about our Savior Jesus Christ.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but as a mission we are studying the Book of Mormon looking for Christ's attributes and it has really changed my perspective! (Mind-blown when I read thinking of Nephi as a type of Christ especially in 2 nephi 1). One of the major Christlike attributes that Lehi and His family have been blessed with is HOPE. Lehi always talked about how they had "obtained a promise" from the Lord and they were continually lead by Him through their journeys. They had the assurance that the blessings would come and it gave them the strength to continue in their afflictions. No matter what they were going through, they could feel joy because the Messiah was their hope. I want to share a scripture that helped me come to know Christ a little more. In Hebrews 12:2 we learn that Christ "who for the joy that was set before him end...

  ALMOST KILLED MY GREENIE *not click bait*   Let's just say that four years of lifeguarding came in handy when after three and a half hours of being outside in 100 degree heat plus standing around and talking to people almost wiped sister Riches out. We had just helped Habitat for Humanity provide parking for a local Peach Festival and wanted to use some time afterwards to look around and, of course, buy peaches. We had barely made it 50 feet into the market when a guy with a Jesus sign stopped us and started asking what generation of Mormon we were. He was very nice but I could tell he was on the brink of bashing us when Sister Riches looked at me and said "we gotta go". Literally the dude did not hear her at all and I was like aight lets wrap this up when sister Riches said "I'm about to pass out".  I grabbed her arm and smiled at the dude and said we would love to talk more but bye! and sat her bum down on the curb and shoved a $2 waterbottle  in her han...

  Happy Pioneer Day, everyone! Today, July 24, is a Utah State holiday that is celebrated to commemorate the arrival of the first group of pioneers, led by the prophet Brigham Young, into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. We honor their valiant faith and their tremendous sacrifice to carry on through great trials so that they could enjoy religious freedom and so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could carry forth. I didn't walk the 1,300 miles from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City pushing a handcart through blizzards, but I have forged my own way in the same pioneer spirit to become a believer and to bring the gospel to my own family. I remain eternally grateful that I have made the choice to live by the principles taught by Jesus Christ so that I can enjoy the blessings of the spirit and the eternal blessings offered to the faithful. Today I am blessed to be serving as a missionary in Georgia with my husband, bringing the joy of the gospel to the lives of others. So, Happy Pioneer Day...

  ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was a crazy one here in Paraguay. First thing is first. I hit one year here on the mission! I can not believe how much time has passed and how much I have grown! It has been the best and hardest experience of my life and I can not wait to see what one more year has in store for me. Also this week Paraguay decided to switch back to being hot so this whole week was like 80 to 90 degrees. We are in the dead of Winter here. This week I had the opportunity to do exchanges with one of my zone leaders, Elder Garff. We have the same time here on the mission and we were in the same district in the CCM. We did exchanges on the day of our birthday for the mission so that was fun. I honestly learned so much from him and what I can improve as a missionary and as a leader here on the mission. The next couple days I got sick. Which is the worst here on the mission but we move on and keep going. I had another opportunity to do exchanges with Elder Decim...

  OH BABY   wowza what a week I honestly can't remember most of it because of the absolute chaos that has been the last 72 hours. Last Wednesday we got transfer news and Thursday was fill with saying goodbye and packing up. One of my members, Leigh, was literally sobbing when we told her and that was definitely a hard goodbye but I know I did what I could to help the members and friends there. When I arrived we had a teaching pool of 1. When I left we had built up a solid teaching pool and even put someone on date on Friday. Even if my impact isn't forever I know it was meaningful when I was there.  NOW WE IN YUBA I can't describe it but ever since I found out that the CA Roseville Mission was getting a temple I knew I would be able to take part in helping with it's opening and now I live just a couple blocks away and there are so many wonderful opportunites coming up for us sisters to be there and especially right now to hand out invitations to the open house. I know w...

  God is good my friends Spencer Neel <spencer.neel@missionary.org> Hello my family and friends how are you!? I definitely lost track of the time and realized I haven’t sent out an email in awhile. I’ll try to fit as many updates as I can without making it too long and hopefully I don’t repeat anything you’ve already heard. But fasten your seatbelts because it’s been a wild ride here in Roswell🤠 First major update and miracle I want to share with y’all is our friend Consuelo got baptized!! So on our way back from a district p-day in Ruidoso we got a call from our friend Efrain. He is a member and him and Consuelo have been living together for quite some time. They didn’t have any relationship because it was only for monetary reasons. Well come to find out he calls and says Consuelo wants to be baptized and that we are going to do it on July 5th. At first we were like okay but there’s still some things we’ve got to work through and he said they were getting married! It comple...

  ¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos! This week was a long one but a good one! Just putting our nose to the grind and putting in the work and seeing the little miracles here in Posta Leiva! Honestly I can not remember the full day to day of what I did this week. It has all kind of blended into one. What I do remember though is that it was pretty hot on Tuesday and then it chilled down a lot and I absolutely loved it. The majority of the week was just full of visiting people to get to know them better. Whether it be members or friends, literally anyone that had talked to missionaries before we got to know them. It helped because we had lunches with members everyday so that was nice to get to know them and really become their friends and grow that friendship. We got to find a bunch of different friends who have family that are members so we are working with them a lot. This week I also had my greenie lead a lot so that was honestly so much fun because hey he made mistakes but that's how...

  Monday, July 17, 2023 It’s a beautiful day in Thomaston, Georgia! For our P-day (preparation day) today, we packed up a picnic and our portable grill, went to a nearby, beautiful state park, and had grilled chicken sandwiches, pasta salad, and watermelon with the Elders. We had our picnic lunch sitting next to the river. It was so nice to spend a little time in the outdoors. We went for a short walk on a hiking trail and saw dozens of little baby frogs like I used to catch in the woods behind our house as a child. We even saw an incredibly beautiful, tiny little lizard that had a bright blue tail (photo included). Another day this past week while we were driving the country roads to visit people, we went to see one of the many covered bridges that still exist in Georgia. Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge was built in 1840 by a freed slave and noted bridge builder, Horace King, who constructed many covered bridges throughout western Georgia. This is the only one of this design still st...

  Aloha Dear Family & Friends, We kind of lost track of what week it is on our mission because of how fast the time is going! First, a story of faith, a young man in our ward from a small island next to Fiji, who is a student at BYU-H. A few weeks ago, he received a call from his mom informing him of his father's sudden passing. This young man whose name is Greg asked his Mom what he should do because if he went home, he would lose his visa. His mom told him to stay and work on his education, and that everything would work out. She told him that he could do his father's endowment in the Laie temple. Although Greg's father was a member, their family had not had the finances to travel to the nearest temple in Fiji, to receive their endowment's. Now Greg's father would have this opportunity and his son who couldn't attend his own father's funeral could be a proxy for his father and do his endowment. This brought so much hope, joy, and peace to Greg and his ...

  Learning! ¡Hello, Hola, Haupei! This week was definitely just a little crazy! We had so many different conferences and meetings and just so much happening so hopefully I can pass by everything that happened and not forget something. Tuesday all the leaders in the mission were invited to go to a conference! It was a super fun conference and I learned so much from our mission president, President Faúndez. We literally had meetings for over seven hours but it was super good to learn and just know what I can improve as a leader here in the mission. It was super fun too because I got to see a ton of other missionaries that I have not seen for awhile. Wednesday I got to do exchanges with Elder Hansen and it was so fun. He is from Idaho and he is honestly such an awesome missionary. We were able to find a reference that we received and teach him so that was awesome. Thursday we had our zone conference and that was super fun. Got to see a lot of friends and then also see president again ...

  Happy Monday again??? I know I always say this, but it’s already the middle of July. Time is just flying by right now. I guess that’s what happens when you’re immersed in the work of the Lord. We started our week off with a wonderful July 4th celebration. The mission changed P-day from Monday to Tuesday for this week so the Elders could have the day off to enjoy the holiday. Elder Hintze and I started off the day with patriotic strawberry and blueberry pancakes. We spent the rest of the morning hours in our regular P-day activity, a round of cards with the Elders. We all look forward to this friendly, yet competitive play. Elder Hintze finally beat Elder Buffham! He even sent a picture of the scorecard to Elder Dunn, who used to beat him constantly. We were going to take the Elders to a restaurant called the Oink Joint, but unfortunately, they were closed for the holiday. So, we recreated the lunch we’d had there; a baked potato topped with pulled pork. Although we don’t have a s...

 Monday, July 3, 2023 Happy July, everyone! As of yesterday, we are officially halfway through our mission. Some days it feels that way, and other days it feels like it went by in a flash. All I know is when the time comes to leave, there are people that it will be very hard to say goodbye to. The friendships we’ve made here will always be held dear to us. This past week was a great missionary week. We had another temple preparation lesson with Megan. The transformation she has made in her life is amazing. She went from being on drugs to living with the light of God and the guidance of the spirit in her life. She is a great mom to her three-year-old daughter and has begun taking classes at the local college with the aspiration of becoming a nurse. She is such a joy to teach. She answers questions insightfully and is understanding and progressing. We are so excited to accompany Megan to the temple to receive the blessings of the endowment that await her there. An activity day with t...

  Goodbye's! Today I'm going to start by sharing the miracle who is our friend Lety. Last week we decided to stop by an inactive member who had NOTHING in our records. As we were trying to find their house, we saw a women talking to an older man and walked up to them and starting asking how they were. Lety responded and said they weren't doing very good. She told us how her brother had passed away a year ago and she still hadn't found any peace in his passing. We were able to share with her our testimonies of how families are forever because of Jesus Christ and His gospel. We left her with a Book of Mormon planning to come back. When we came back she told us that she was here for vacation visiting her sister and leaving for Mexico in 15 days! We learned her son was the inactive member we were looking for! He had come to live in the US with her sister and she told him to find a church to worship at. The missionaries started talking to him and he was baptized. She said th...

  Love, Share and Invite 7/3/23 ¡Hola, hola, hola! My first real week here in Posta Leiva has come and gone! It went by super fast but it was such a great week and we saw so many miracles. We got to start off this week by doing our first district council together as this new district. Honestly everyone is super awesome and I am very excited for the rest of this transfer. Everyone is so great. After that it was a lot of walking around and trying to find people that the other Elders were teaching. Also we were trying to find members. That's one of the great things about a white wash is that you don't know anything so you kinda just go ahead and wait and see what will happen. We found lots of great members and lots of people we can continue to pass by and teach. The next day was a pretty wild day. We were able to find some awesome people. The main miracle that happened though is when we passed by an inactive member's house. We showed up and a teenage boy about sixteen years ol...

  DO YOU PLAY TENNIS? 6/26/23  Literally the only question I hear everytime I go to play pickleball with some elderly people in redding. They are all so sweet but really want me to stop swinging so much. They tell me I would be so much better if my arm didn't go back so far and I say we'll I've already been wired to do this so yuh.  THIS WEEK WAS CRAY CRAY FOR REAL and now we are close to the end of the transfer and president basha the new mission president is HERE. I meet him next Tuesday on the 4th :) Monday:  Had dinner with a cute family. Their little girl dished up a bunch of strawberries on her plate at the end of dinner and then left the table. When her mom asked what she was doing she said "leaving a snack for when they *gestures to us* talk about JeSuS"  We did talk about Jesus and it was epic.  Tuesday: Exchange with hermana price in the Spanish area. I have been serving with her since December because we moved from Citrus to red bluff together an...