Monday, March 28, 2016

I hope you all had a Happy Easter! Ours was awesome because American Easter is nothing like the Easter that Elder Rooto is use to. The whole dying eggs and hiding eggs with candy in them to find them later was a completely foreign idea to him. I got a package from my mom with a bunch of plastic eggs with candy in them so I hid them around the apartment Saturday night. The next morning I got him all excited and he came out with his bag looking for eggs. It was seriously the funniest thing ever! We had a great Easter at our ward mission leader's house and Billy came too. He had a lot of fun and he is still progressing towards baptism. We got some sweet Easter gifts from some of the members including a couple jugs of chocolate milk so we are pretty pumped about that.

The best part about Easter was that last night we went Easter tracting with some other Elders at this apartment complex in our area. We went door to door wishing everyone a happy Easter and trying to share an Easter message. Our efforts were extremely blessed! We ended up showing a family of 6 the Easter video and they loved it. They want us to come back later this week and teach them more about our church cause they were really impressed. We also found a less active lady with two small kids that recently moved into our ward but her records didn't transfer over.  She wants us to help her get her records and come by and see her again this week.

It has been such a blessing to be able to share the real reason we celebrate Easter this year to so many people. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is such a glorious message that has blessed and will continue to bless so many lives. I'm also excited for General Conference this coming weekend! I know that as we come with sincere questions and hearts willing to act, we will receive answers through our faith. Love you all and hope you have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Elder Rooto finding the last egg

All them eggs!

Egg hunt at the ward mission leader's house

Monday, March 21, 2016

It's been another week of the usual missionary work in Fayetteville. We had our Zone conference this past week and we got to learn a lot from our Mission President and all those who gave instruction. We should be expecting some pretty amazing changes and blessing coming up in our mission so we are all pretty excited about that. Things have been just swell with Elder Rooto. We both were asked to give talks in Sacrament Meeting yesterday on what we learned in General Conference in October. Elder Rooto did an amazing job on his. He still doesn't know a whole lot of English but his talk was still really powerful. Funny story with him. We were driving around the other day and I called someone a "Weirdo" and he says," OH, I know weirdo! That's women without husband!" It took me awhile to think about it but I started busting up when I realized he was talking about a widow hahah! Maybe you just had to be there for that one but it was great! The language barrier is definitely there sometimes but it has kept things interesting.

Our investigator Billy has a baptismal date set for April 9th so we are hoping all goes well with that. We have been going through all of the lessons with him again since it has been awhile since he's heard them. He comes to church almost every Sunday so he is ready. Right now we are teaching a lot of people who are going through hard moments in there lives. Sometimes it makes it harder for them to learn and sometimes it opens them up to us and our message. Some of the trials they have gone through and are currently going through are unimaginable! I know that no matter what the heartache, pain, trial, or tribulation, the atonement of Christ is there for all of them and I'm indeed grateful for that.

It's been awesome to be able to share the Easter initiative video, #Hallelujah, this Easter season. It really invites the spirit in all settings. I invite you all to view it and share it whenever you can because it really is an incredible message that we have to share. Love you all and I hope you have a great Easter!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Dinner with the Young family

Swan's are vicious!

Happy St Patty's day! Late night apple juice :)

Yes, very true!

Monday, March 14, 2016

Well, another week gone in the mission field. This past Thursday, we got to go to a meeting with one of the head guys in Salt Lake. His name is Brother Hemmingway and he is something like the head of missionary proselyting in the Mission Department so this guy knows a lot about missionary work. He talked to us for a really long time and pretty much changed everyone's view on missionary work... It was incredible. We all took real close notes and it has been an eye opener for me. It has shown me that I have a lot to work on but now I have some ideas on how to improve and that makes me excited for the future.

This past Saturday, there was a baptism for a little Marshallese girl named Bina. I got to interview her and she was really enthusiastic about getting baptized. Her dad was going to do it but unexpectedly said that he didn't want to anymore. So Friday night she called me up and asked if I would baptize her in Marshallese. I got the opportunity to baptize Bina Riklon a member of the church and I didn't even mess up my Marshallese! If that isn't a miracle I don't know what is!

I'm so very thankful for the Power of the Priesthood. I have seen miracles come about from the faith and authority of worthy Priesthood holders. I'm so blessed to have grown up in a household where it was present and to have a father willing to live worthy to bless his family. Having this restored authority on the earth has blessed countless lives and will continue to bless my life and the lives of those who are willing to have faith in the divine origin it comes from. Thank you all for the amazing letters and emails you have sent this week. I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Bina's baptism! I was on splits with Elder Hanson

Monday, March 7, 2016

Hey there!

So nothing too eventful to report on this past week. We've still been hooving it (deer pun intended) since our car is still being worked on. We found Elder Rooto a bike so we've been able to bike around a bit to some appointments. It's been really fun introducing him to normal American stuff. Like the other day, I made him a Root Beer float and it blew his mind! While we were biking we saw a baseball game going on and he had no idea what that was so I got to explain the whole game to him. It's just crazy that little normal things that we are used to are completely foreign to him. He comes from such a different culture so it has made things a lot more interesting.

I had a pretty cool experience the other day. We were listening to Elder Henry B. Eyring's talk and it was the one about when his dad prayed at each intersection to find out which way to go to find a church. So we thought," If it worked for him, it will look for us to find people to talk to." So we started biking and every intersection we stopped and said a little prayer to know where to go. We went all through these really sketchy streets and we were on bikes at night but we still felt like we should. Anyway, we were biking and some guy saw us and pointed and said," Aye Mormons!" so we stopped and talked to him. Turns out he was seriously investigating the church but then moved and wasn't able to get in contact with the missionaries. He really wanted to continue his learning. He didn't live in our area but we got all his info and gave it to the other elders.

Blessings come when we show that we have faith enough to act. I'm thankful for the opportunity each day that I have to show my faith. Thank you all for the continues support. I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

 

 

 

 

Monday, February 29, 2016

Where dat at doe?

 

I got my new companion this past week. Elder Rooto is from a small island called Tarawa which is over by Fiji somewhere. He is such a cool guy. He is still learning English so I have to help him with some words every now and then but he can speak really well for just barely learning it. He's really funny and enthusiastic about the work so it's going to be a good transfer. So the Subject of the email has two significant purposes. First off, "Where in the world is Tarawa" is the conversation of almost every dinner we have gone to and I'm still not sure exactly where it is. Secondly, we totally got hit by a doe last week. We were driving along this really busy street in Fayetteville when this deer jumped out of the woods and hit the front of our car! It was seriously the craziest thing ever. We tried to track it down but I think it got away. While our car is getting fixed, we are hitching rides as best we can.

We've been able to see a lot of progression in a lot of our newer investigators. We are hoping to set some baptismal dates in the next week. There is a man named Billy that we have been teaching for awhile now and last night we had a pretty serious talk about baptism with him. He wasn't really into it before but he is actually leaning towards it now. He has grown to love the church and the members here have done such a great job at loving him and getting to know him whenever he comes to church. We told him to ponder and pray about it this next week so we will see how things go with that.

Other than our suicidal deer incident, things have been great here. The ward has been getting really involved with the work lately and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they get to drive us around. This is probably a blessing in disguise. I love the work I'm a part of and the service I get to do each and everyday. Everyone have a safe and blessed week. Watch out while driving :)

Love, Elder Leavitt

 

Our whole zone on transfer day

An Asian party we went to in Clarksville. You can tell how fun that was! Haha!