Relief Society Sisters and Young Women Join Together for a Special Evening

    The Relief Society had the enjoyment of having the young women join us for our March birthday party. Brielle Farlee (upper right)  introduced the theme for the evening with a talk on cairns, piles of rocks that are placed to guide us along difficult segments of a hiking trail.  

    After a delicious dinner, rocks were available so that each of us could make our own personal cairn to take home. We also adorned our tables with important guide words.

New Sister Missionary

   The sister missionaries are always changing.  Sister Gasser (on the right in both pictures) is the latest.  She joins Sister Fish who has only been with us a short time.  Sister Gasser is from Spanish Fork, Utah. She has spent the last 8 months in the Rancho Cordova area.  She wanted to come on a mission because she loves the Savior and wanted to do something to help pay him back for all he has done for her. 

     An interesting thing happened on her mission: she received her patriarchal blessing.  She wanted to get it before she left, but circumstances didn't allow it to happen, so she got her blessing from one of the patriarchs here in California and was delighted to have it.  She loves our ward and says it's so much fun. The pictures above were taken at the recent Relief Society/Young Women dinner and they enjoyed it so much. 

We Welcome Three Returned Missionaries

   The first two missionaries to return were Wade and Ann Broughton.  They served as senior missionaries in the North Carolina  Mission, after waiting 17 months because of COVID.  They served in the mission office and had lots of interesting experiences.  Brother Broughton said every day was "groundhog day" when new missionaries came in.

    In his homecoming talk Brother Broughton emphasized the value of  "Inspired Choices."  This is making the decision to choose by divine revelation. We need help from God in all our choices. He ended his excellent talk by saying, "May we always choose to make inspired choices."

     Wade was a bishop before going on their mission. He and Ann have chosen to live in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Their ward there will be fortunate to have them. We wish them well.

    Elder Tyler Daley returned from the Missouri-St. Louis Mission. His family welcomed him at the Sacramento Airport.  It was a hard mission, but he had the desire to serve and did his best, one day at a time.  He said he did a lot of learning and growing.  He discovered the importance of doing the little things in life. "You can't expect to see angels and God.  It doesn't work like that."  He said that if you do the small things your testimony grows. Through prayer we can come to know God. This was huge in his mission. He loved God and listened.

    Elder Daley testified the importance of scripture study every day. "Take the sacrament." he said, "and get the remission or your sins. The spirit of God will be with you."  One of the most important things he learned in his mission was the power of Christ's atonement. Elder Daley plans to continue his education at BYU Provo.