Each Life That Touches Ours for Good.

I'm REALLY excited to be back in Utah. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved-cherished-adored my time in Buenos Aires, but I have heard so many wonderful things about Utah summers and I've never been here for one. To go from winter in Provo to winter in South America just seemed kind of cruel. When I stepped out of the airport I just could feel the magic in the air. When we got to Provo there were people on bikes, a mini boardwalk party going on, and AND I had my first burger in a month (talk about magical!!!).

I was sitting in sacrament meeting today and as a closing song we sang hymn 293 (the namesake of this post). As we were singing the third verse, "when such a friend from us departs, we hold forever in our hearts..." my thoughts were instantly turned to my friend Isa who recently passed away from Lupus. In that moment I just felt so grateful to have known her, so grateful to have been in youth with her. Even though we weren't the best at keeping in contact, I would always read her blog posts and drop a note here and there. We are all so connected; we all have such stronger influences on others than we could possibly know. 

I got really lucky and got to be home for the wedding of a member from my mission. Talk about nostalgia! It was so good to catch up with the Perez family and others and think about our times together in Houston.

Hna Perez and Ashley. Ashley's eyes got big and wide when she saw me! It was the cutest thing. :) Also, somehow we were matching? NBD I just became part of the wedding line.

With Saul. Last time I saw him we had a chance encounter at a random Mexican market in west valley. I sometimes just really love how small the world really is.

After the wedding, I met up with my roommate and a friend and watched a firework show. Nothing says summer quite like a firework show! 

Being back home also means I can actually fulfill my calling obligations. I'm not going to lie, being a newly called Relief Society President and then leaving out of the country for a month can be just a tad bit stressful. I really tried to do as much as I could while I was away like figure out callings on the plane ride or have presidency meetings over Skype or try and workout visiting teaching on a google doc. When I got home this Monday I was bombarded by it all: a meeting with bishop, a meeting with the stake RS president, answering emails, trying to get visiting teaching started. It was a bit of a whirlwind this week; I couldn't get my days straight for the life of me—I just really needed a good weekend.

I mean, but look at them (we had a lot of girls out of town today #summer) are they not just beautiful??! I'm looking forward to serving, learning from, and loving these beautiful sisters.

While I was brainstorming goals for my Relief Society (RS), I thought a lot about service and how we are happier when we serve those around us/learning to love Heavenly Father's children. I thought about the power of the Book of Mormon and how when we read from its pages we are blessed with inspiration. During this period of reflection I thought the best way to combine the two goals would be to do what we did on my mission—read the Book of Mormon together! So, I found printable BOM reading chart bookmarks via Pinterest and then took some time today to have the girls write down their "service goals" on a hot pink post-it note and then challenged them to to have those goals or questions near them as they read the Book of Mormon and then see how the Lord inspired them. 

My thought is to take five minutes at the start of RS every week to just give time to the sisters to share what they learned in their Book of Mormon reading for the week. Great idea, brought to you by President Crawford and MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). 

We ALL have opportunities to bless the lives of others, it's just a matter of learning to listen to the promptings of the spirit and then acting on them!