Sister Spotlight: Rachel Howells

Rachel Howells and her cute family moved into our ward in May. Her journey to our neck of the woods is full of lots of awesome stops along the way and here are a few:

She’s the fourth of nine children and was raised in upstate New York. She earned money for her mission as an au pair (nanny) in Germany and, a year later, was called to serve the people of Argentina. After her mission, Rachel attended Brigham Young University in Provo and that’s where she met her husband, Dan, who was a student at the University of Utah. His cousins were friends of Rachel’s and he would often hang out with them. Soon after they were married, they moved to Oregon where Dan attended optometry school and Rachel became a mommy. They lived in Idaho while Dan interned at an Indian Reservation and Rachel finished her bachelor’s degree and had another baby. When Dan became an optometrist for a pediatric neuro ophthalmologist in New York, the family moved to a 100 acre farm where they mastered the art of growing all sorts of vegetables and herbs. They had six children, five boys and one girl, by the time they moved to Utah. 

Dr. Dan is our local optometrist and owns Cornerstone Vision (by Kneaders) and Rachel homeschools her darling children. The family loves to hike, bike, camp, rock climb, and anything else that involves the outdoors. The kids also participate in theater and were just in the Riverton Arts Council’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Rachel helped build the awesome sets. She also enjoys reading and the occasional well-deserved nap. We love having the Howells in our ward and are excited to get to know them even better!

Sister Spotlight: Tiffany Tracy

The Welcoming Committee would like to introduce another sister that has moved into our ward in April: Sister Tiffany Tracy.

Tiffany was born and grew up in Kaysville, Utah, being the youngest in the family of three girls and two boys. She met her husband, Stephen, while going to college at UVU in Orem. They have two children: a daughter named Riley who is 2 ½ years old and a son, Beckham, who is 5 months old.

An interesting story is that her husband, Stephen, served a mission in Seattle and became acquainted with his mission president and his family. After he returned home and dated Tiffany, Stephen discovered that his mission president was Tiffany’s uncle. So many of her family members already knew Stephen before she did.

Since marriage, they have moved eleven times with six of those years living in North Salt Lake accepting promotions with Target Stores. They moved to Riverton five months ago as the manager of the West Jordan Target store.

Some of Tiffany’s favorite things to do are going shopping and doing crafts, and she is now learning to sew. She also enjoys sports and has a mom who is a personal trainer who would love to teach a class in our Relief Society! Her mom works at Gold’s Gym.

Her favorite restaurants are Mexican restaurants; however, she says that she could eat breakfast cereal three times a day. Like with most of us, one of her guilty pleasures is chocolate.

Let us all welcome Tiffany as we see her in the hallway and in our meetings at church. We are fortunate to have this sweet family in our ward!

Sister Spotlight: Holli Waters

The River Rose Welcoming Committee would like to introduce you to Holli Waters and her family. Since they have been in our ward a few months, many of you may have already met Holli.

She was born and raised in Sandy, Utah, and is the daughter of Bryan and Debi Polsen and a sister to Julee Ann Hamilton and Burgandy Keddington who all live in our River Rose ward. She is number five of six children in their family and is the youngest daughter.

After becoming a nurse at UVSC, she met her husband Brayden in 2004. They lived in Herriman for a few years and then moved to Riverton. Her husband works as a Maintenance Manager for South Jordan City. They have three children: Braxton who is 7 years old, Hunter who is 4 years old, and Annalea who is their little one year old.

Holli works from home on call as a Triaje nurse for Hospice receiving calls from Georgia all the way to Hawaii. She is also the director of a Beehive Home in Riverton. As most of us know, Holli grew up in a singing family and loves to sing. She enjoys arts and crafts and is learning sign language.

Her favorite food is roasted veggies with baked chicken, and when asked about her favorite calling, she said it “has to be working in the Young Women’s program.” A few of her guilty pleasures are watching “Real Housewives” and “Fox News,” which helps pass the time away while waiting for calls coming in for work.

It was an enjoyable time visiting with Holli. As we all know and love the Poulsen family, let us all get to know Holli and her family as well. We are so happy to welcome you, Holli, and your family into the River Rose ward. 

Sister Spotlight: Katie DeMonja

Katie DeMonja grew up in Brigham City, UT. She has 2 brothers and 1 sister and is the second oldest in the family. She attended Utah State University and got her degree in technical writing. Katie and her husband, Nathan, knew each other in Brigham City while growing up, but started dating in college. After dating for two years, they got married in the Logan Temple. Nathan is a teacher at Oquirrh Hills Middle School and teaches English and history, and Katie is a stay at home mom. The couple have two beautiful children: Lucy who is 1 year old and Ben who is 3 years old. Katie's hobbies are painting, sports, and playing the piano. Her favorite callings have been in the Young Women and Primary.  Katie's goals for the future are to buy a minivan and a house, paint more often, and study the scriptures. Her guilty pleasures are reading and eating treats. She started running with the 'Stake Fun Run' last spring and is trying to keep it up.