Dearest young women,
Congratulations! You finished school! We know how hard you all worked and we know how challenging it was for you over the last few months. Hopefully that weight has been lifted and you can take a breath and enjoy the sunshine! I think many of us can say we have never been happier to see the summer season arrive.
Unfortunately, despite the sunshine we are still constantly reminded that there are challenges happening all over the world. We are living in strange times and experiencing life in a very unexpected and difficult way. It can be hard to stay positive when we are surrounded by so many negative influences. But no matter what happens, we can continue to find happiness and joy in our daily living because of a very important gospel principle: hope.
I was one of the lucky few to attend our first non-quarantined church meeting this last Sunday. I expected it to be different, that was a given. I knew it would be smaller too. But I was not expecting the feelings that actually came to me as we began the meeting. I glanced at the few people around me, and while I loved seeing their faces, it saddened me to see so many empty seats. I was sad that there were so many ward members missing and that we were not allowed to be together completely. Then I looked across the stand and saw the bishopric and the priesthood bearers sitting separated across the seats, and everyone wearing masks. It suddenly felt very surreal. I thought, “How has it really come to this? This is too weird. When will it be normal again?”
That was not how I wanted to feel as I sat through my first meeting back at church so I tried to quickly shift my focus and be a little more positive. But it wasn’t until we began the sacrament hymn “I Stand all Amazed” that a new and overwhelming thought came to me instead. The thought was: “This is why we need the Savior. We cannot do this without Him.”
Life can be so strange and confusing and scary and frustrating all rolled up into one. It can be so hard to stay positive and keep going. But no matter how bad things seem and no matter what life throws at us, it is possible to keep going, growing and believing, because through CHRIST we find HOPE. He is our way to cope when we are overwhelmed, our peace when we are confused, and our comfort when we are burdened. We cannot do this without Him.
That same meeting the bishop shared a similar message and quoted Helaman 5:12 ”And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”
Nowhere in that scripture does it say that if we rely on Christ, life will be easier. The storms will always rage and adversity will always find us because that is a part of life. We are meant to face adversity because it is through challenges that we grow. But we were never asked to face our challenges alone. Jesus Christ is our rock, and we can rely on him for strength. His love and concern for us is unwavering, no matter how small we feel. And He will always be there for us, no matter what challenges we face. We can keep going as we cling to HOPE, and HOPE is found through CHRIST. We cannot do this without Him.
We sincerely hope that you know how much your young women leaders love you and continue to pray for you. We hope that you know we are here for you when you need us. And we hope that we can meet together again soon. Keep going, we’ve got this.
Love,
Sister Embley
Annica Cuthill
As her mother I’ve always enjoyed spending time with her doing badges for Girl Scouts. It’s something we have always gotten to do together. Her father loves those times when he can take her shopping and shower her with jewelry and dresses and make her feel like a princess.
Thanks Sister Cuthill for sharing these great details about Annica with us! We are so happy Annica is with us in the ward Young Women organization.
Celeste Noelle Gomez
Celeste is fifteen and a half. She is the third in her family of four children: James (26 year old half brother who lives in CA), Gracie (17), Celeste, and Noah (11). Her favorite school subject has been psychology. During the quarantine she has enjoyed watching Netflix and playing basketball.
Celeste is that she was born on Christmas day and gets to pick whatever day she wants to celebrate her birthday.
When she was little Gracie would throw a blanket on her and Celeste would play like she was a little ghost friend.
Thank you Sister Gomez for these fun facts about Celeste! We love Celeste!
Madison Gifford
Her hobbies during quarantine have included:
1. tearing dresses apart and making them into new things
2. moving all the kitchen furniture out and dancing in the kitchen (we gave her the family-messenger-group nickname of “No Dancing In The Kitchen” for this reason lol, which we later changed to “No Dancing In The Kitchen With Knives” haha just for her own safety.
3. She’s also enjoyed writing letters to friends and coloring with her baby nephew.
My favorite memory of Madison was from our trip she and I took to Colorado to see the Tiny House Festival when she was 13, Madison was hilarious because she would squeeze herself into every little tiny closet or space under the stairs to explore the complete Tiny House experience. Then we encountered these massive lightning storms and had fun stopping at restaurants all the way home to get out of the weather. Maddy is a lot of fun to travel with because she is game for anything and she’s super awesome at being a co-pilot with the GPS and directions to places. I also loved watching her compete at her Drill Team Competitions.
Thank you Sister Gifford for sending us these fun details about Madison. We are going to miss you guys when you move to Payson!
June 9th: Ward/Neighborhood Ice Cream social. Everyone come outside while the primary presidency drives around and passes out ice cream!
August 22: Ward Swim Party at the Spanish Fork Pool. More details to come.
Simply as a reference and a reminder, below is a copy of the plan for sacrament meetings from Bishop Bennett E-mailed a couple weeks ago:
Attendance Plan
- To keep attendance numbers below the allowed 99 individuals, the ward is being divided temporarily into three groups alphabetically (by last name). Groups will rotate through weeks they are invited to participate in sacrament meeting at the chapel.
- Group A includes individuals and families whose last names begin with A through G. They will be invited to attend sacrament meeting at the chapel starting May 31 and every third week subsequent to that (June 21, July 12, etc…) until further indicated.
- Group B includes individuals and families whose last names begin with H through P. They will be invited to attend sacrament meeting at the chapel starting June 7 and every third week subsequent to that (June 28, July 19, etc…) until further indicated.
- Group C includes individuals and families whose last names begin with Q through Z. They will be invited to attend sacrament meeting at the chapel starting June 14 and every third week subsequent to that (July 5, July 26, etc…) until further indicated.
- We strongly encourage you to attend only weeks to which you are assigned. Any variations to this schedule need to be discussed and approved by the bishop.
Meeting Breakdown
- Sunday meetings at the church will begin with sacrament only.
- There will not be Sunday School, primary, young women, Aaronic Priesthood or Relief Society classes, until further notice.
- Sacrament meetings will be abbreviated to approximately 30-40 minutes.
- At the conclusion of sacrament meeting, members will be invited to leave the building without congregating in the foyer, enabling those assigned to begin sanitizing the building.
- Please limit social interactions to the area outside of the church building while maintaining healthy social distancing practices.
General Safety Precautions
- If you have symptoms of illness, please stay home.
- Those who choose to attend sacrament meeting at the chapel on their assigned day are encouraged to wear facemasks to protect other members of the ward.
- Priesthood holders administering the sacrament will be required to wear facemasks
- Those attending meetings at the church should part in the east parking lot and enter at the main east entrance (the side by the bishop’s office). Other exterior doors will be locked. Members should limit their use of the building, staying in the east side and using the restrooms, drinking fountain and mother’s room on the east side only.
- Doors will be propped open, alleviating the need to touch door handles.
- High-traffic touchpoints and hard surfaces will be sanitized before and after each sacrament meeting.
- Ushers will be assigned to assist families finding seats that maintain approved social distancing guidelines.
Sacrament Safety Precautions
- A member of the bishopric will oversee the sanitizing of sacrament trays before and after sacrament meeting.
- All priesthood holders preparing, blessing and passing the sacrament will wear masks and wash their hands before handling trays, bread and water.
- Those breaking the bread will also use hand sanitizer during the sacrament hymn.
- Those passing the sacrament will hold the trays from person to person, limiting the number of people touching the trays.
- Enough trays will be used to limit the pieces on each tray.
- Parents are encouraged to retrieve bread and water from trays for young children.
- Water cups will be discarded in a separate tray.
