Wednesday, Decamber 14, 2016

Hey everyone,

It's another one of those transfer weeks again which means a lot of crazy changes going on! I'm actually going to be staying in Bentonville for the Christmas season which I'm super pumped about! Elder Czirr is going to be staying as well and we are excited that we get to spend Christmas and another transfer together here so it should be good!

Some pretty crazy news though: Elder Robert C. Gay of the Seventy came on Monday and had a huge conference with everyone and taught us a whole lot. He gave us a lot of advice and got us all excited to go out and improve our areas. He also told us that the first Presidency just approved a change of our mission boundaries. We are losing the 3 zones that we have in Tulsa to the Oklahoma city mission. This is super sad! I'm glad I got to serve there while I could but that means we are going to have to move a whole bunch of missionaries out of those zones into other areas in the mission. That whole shuffle is happening in 3 weeks so it's pretty much going to be a super short transfer.

We met up with George again this past week and taught him some more on tithing and I seriously love this guy! He agreed with everything we talked about and after we asked him what he thought about everything and he said,"It sounds all good to me and I'm going to go home and pray about it just to make sure it's right." Well, he prayed about it and it was right! He is still on track to get baptized at the end of the month so we are hoping to end the year on a solid note!

I'm so happy that I get to stay here in Bentonville. It's starting to get cold again and I saw it actually snow the other day which was super cool! Everyone here is really involved in the Christmas initiative and I hope you are as well! It's been amazing to be able to reflect the life of the Savior this time of year and to be miracle workers in small ways in the lives of others. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

I was asked to be a shepherd in a parade

The whole posterity was together! My dad, brother, and 3 sons!

White elephant exchange at Presidents house. It you look closely you can see Elder Chapman scored a black and white of me modeling my new suit. HA!

Ugly sweaters!

Monday, December 5, 2016

To those that still read this,

Hope all is well wherever you are! Things have been really going strong here in this area the past week so let me tell ya about it! On Wednesday our mission president called us to talk to us about something random and before he got off the phone we asked if we could do anything for him and he said,"Well, some more baptismal dates would be nice." He said it as a joke but we took it to heart. We were able to set 5 more baptismal dates since he said that and it has been amazing!

George: Super cool lesson with him... We met up with him this past week in our WML's home and he had some questions about prophets. We talked about all of it and he said it all made sense. Bro Wise (our ward mission leader) started to talk about baptism with him and he asked the best question ever,"How do I know when I'm ready to be baptized?" We testified to him that he was ready and he can know by looking back on all the experiences that he's had then he asked,"So what should I do now?" We set a date for December 31st and he is super excited about it. He came to church again yesterday and read the lesson before hand so he had some insights. I love this guy!

We also set a date with James one of our other super prepared investigators for December 24th and that's going to be great! He has been talking about how much his life has changed for the better ever since he's started reading the Book of Mormon and keeping the commitments. He's excited to take that next step in his life.

I have grown to have such an appreciation for the scriptures. When you think about it, they really are such an amazing tool that has been given for our benefit. They have been constructed perfectly by our loving Heavenly Father to help us learn what we need to learn when we need to learn it! I know that they are true. I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas initiative from the church. It is truly inspired and will bring true joy to your holiday season. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

#lighttheworld

Monday, November 28, 2016

Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!

We had a really amazing day. It started off with some serious Turkey bowl games going on. We played one with our ward first off in the morning and then later we got together with all the missionaries in our zone and the missionaries in the zone next to ours and had a zone vs zone football game. It was a ton of fun. We had dinner with the Welch family and they were really good to us so it made the day so much better.

Some quick highlights for the week!

We taught George this past week again! He texted us in the middle of the week and said,"I have a couple questions about baptism. Could we meet up?" So we met and answered all his questions and had a super good talk with him! We invited him to be baptized and he told us that he can't say yes yet but when he knows that it's true, then he definitely will. We are still working with him and we are excited about it.

Yesterday in church, President and Sister Loveland spoke and all the missionaries did a musical number for it and it actually wasn't too bad! We saw some wet eyes in the congregation so we know it was a success. We had a couple of investigators there too and it was a good meeting to have them at.

All is well in Bentonville. The church just came out with the new Christmas initiative so everyone's homework is to go on and look at it. It's the season for service and I know that if we reflect on the life of the Savior this Christmas season, we will witness miracles. #lighttheworld Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We went on an awesome hike

Turkey Bowl with our crazy tights

Monday, November 21, 2016

Happy Monday!

We went on exchanges with the Assistants this past Wednesday which is always a good time. I got to go out with Elder King and we had a lot of fun teaching together. We talked with everyone we came across so we had some really positive responses and some awkward moments as well haha. It's all part of the job.

We also had interviews with President and I always love getting a little bit of time with President and Sister Loveland. We talked a lot about the zone and they said that there is a lot of potential that is coming out and that's always something you want to hear.

Really cool experience! So we got a media referral this past week for a couple named Harley and Autumn and here is their story. Harley just got out a prison a couple weeks ago and while he was there, there was a member in that he became really close friends with. He realized that every single night before this guy would go to bed, he would pray and then read this book and he got super curious. When he asked him about it, the member started teaching him about the Book of Mormon and about the church. We got referred to him when he got out and we met him and have had 2 lessons with him already. He is awesome! He has committed to be baptized in December so we will see how things work out. He's all about change and his wife is semi interested but she'll come around sometime. I'm really excited to keep teaching him. Really great guy!

Also, George came to church again this past Sunday. He has been reading a lot and he had tons of questions. He had quite a few on the Word of Wisdom and we answered all of them and he was super satisfied with everything we taught. He told us that when he was 18 he was a body guard for Ludacris but quit. He said he was happy he quit cause if he didn't, he would have never found the church and met us. Super stoked about him. We are meeting up on Friday and that should be good!

A lot of blessings have been poured out on us this week. I know that as we recognize the blessings in our life, the happier we are. If you are not happy, give a prayer of pure thanks and then go on with your day. I promise it will change your outlook. I love y'all and hope all is well!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Shout out to mom for the new suit! 

You don't see that everyday

Bentonville square all lit up

Monday, November 14, 2016

Hey Fans!

It's been a great couple of days with the new comp Elder Czirr. He's been out one less transfer than me so together we should know what we are doing. We've been hitting it hard the past couple of days trying to get him around to all the investigators we have. I have some really high hopes for this upcoming transfer. We are getting along great so it makes the work that much better!

Yesterday was just a day of miracles for us so lets talk about that. 1st off, a less active that we invited back to church actually came and he was so happy!  He has been going through a lot of hard things in his life lately so he's been taking a step back from things. He came yesterday and he was so happy! His name is Steve and we are going to see him again this week.

In one of our wards, we had a primary program and that was amazing of course. So, a member named Brother Miller brought his friend George to church and George was soaking everything in like a sponge. He's been searching for the truth in his life for a long time and one day the spirit reminded him of Brother Miller. They knew each other in high school and George knew he was a mormon so after not speaking to each other for 5 years, he called him up. He loved everything about church and we are hoping to meet him this week! He said he has a crazy schedule but he will let brother Miller know when we can all have dinner together.

We have been looking for an Investigator named James for awhile now. He was the most solid investigator in this area and right before I got here he got evicted and no one could find him. Well, he showed up to church yesterday and said that he is ready to be retaught everything and be baptized! We are going to be seeing him a couple times this week now.

The Lord is truly blessing us and it's getting us both excited about the work. Only being devote to the will of God and being apart of His work can bring this kind of Joy into your life. I know this to be true. I hope y'all have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We did a service project at a ranch. Enjoying nature!

We went to a cool museum on pday. This is our album cover pic.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Hey y'all it's been awhile!

So its another one of those transfer weeks this week which is why I'm emailing on a Wednesday. We got the calls last night and it looks like I'm going to be staying another one in Bentonville! Sadly, Elder Maddox won't be staying another one. He is actually just a skip across the way to Rodgers so I'll probably still see him like every pday which is great cause we still need to play Spike ball. He is actually going to be serving with Elder Chapman for his last one. He will be killing off my trainer which is crazy! I'm going to be getting Elder Czirr (Zeer) this next one and I've seen him a couple times but don't know much about him so we will see what happens!

We had a pretty great week this week though! A highlight was that President Loveland came out with us last night to visit an investigator that we had an appointment with. We got there and he wasn't home but his mother-in-law answered the door so we taught her instead! She committed to read the Book of Mormon and it was pretty cool. As we were leaving, our investigator pulled up so we taught him there too and it was a super solid lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon. We are planning on going back and teaching both of them soon.

I'm looking forward to seeing what this next transfer has in store. I have developed such a strong testimony on the fact that God knows who he needs and where he needs them. You don't have to be a missionary to see that the Lord is directing you and leading you to places and people that He needs you to influence. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

My zone

Huge event we went to and talked to SO many people.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Hey guys! Another successful week in Bentonville.

This past week, we got to take a charter Bus up to Kansas City to go to the Temple there and it seriously was exactly what I needed. It was cool to see a lot of missionaries I haven't seen in a long time there too so there were some great reunions. The temple there is so beautiful and I received a lot of amazing revelation there.  Also, the Liberty Jail site is super close to the temple so we got to go on a tour over there too. We didn't get home until later so it was just a whole day of the temple and hanging out on the bus. It was a great trip!

In other news, this weekend there was a baptism in our district and we got to take one of our investigators there. His name is Micah, he's 15, and lives across the street from our apartment. The missionaries have been talking to him for awhile and he loves church and everything. We took him to the baptism and he was just asking the whole time when he could be baptized. We have a date with him for November 12th if he shows that he is committed and ready. We are hoping that all goes well!

As a side note: I turned 20 this past week and it's kind of a crazy feeling... Hopefully it will feel a little more real later on. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great week and thanks for all the birthday packages and letters and emails. Y'all are #1. Love ya and have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Carving pumpkins at a members home

The ward sang Happy Birthday to Elder Leavitt

Liberty Jail

Kansas City temple trip