Monday, May 30, 2016

I really don't know where to begin with this past week! So much has happened in our areas and it has been keeping us real busy. First off, an investigator from a different ward just recently moved into our boundaries and this guy is awesome. His name is Larry and he knows the church is true without a doubt, is almost done reading The Book of Mormon a SECOND time, and wants to be baptized so bad! The only thing keeping him from being baptized right now is that he smokes. The previous Elders got him down to only smoking one cigarette a day which is close but not quite there yet. He wants to be baptized at the beginning of August and we are hoping to motivate him to do it sooner. He came to our ward yesterday for the first time and the members loved him. We are really excited to get to teach Larry!

We have been receiving a ton of referrals lately from the ward and over the media. This past week, we got three referrals from the media. One of them was named Jamie and we called her up and scheduled an appointment with her. We got a member to go with us over to see her. She has been going through some really hard times lately and she just wants to find happiness through God. We weren't planning on it, but we both felt prompted to teach her the Restoration, so we did. She had some questions that we answered and she committed to read The Book of Mormon and pray about it. She told us before we left that she felt at peace while we were teaching and that she hadn't felt that way before. We helped her recognize that it was the spirit and promised that she would get the same feelings from reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We hope to see her again sometime soon!

So remember that guy that was walking his dog that we talked to last week? We weren't able to visit him this week but he texted us the other day and told us how eager he was for us to come over and teach us about our religion. He said that he is hoping to come to our church this next week. I don't think I've ever street contacted someone that is as interested as this man is. We are planning on seeing him this week and we pray that all goes well with him.

So much more has happened this week but I better save those experiences for a different time. We have continuously seen the Hand of God in our work and he has been blessing us beyond belief. God truly is aware of those that are ready for this gospel and he will always send his worthy and willing servants to them. Thank you all for the emails and letters. I hope you all have a great memorial weekend and enjoy the beginning of summer!!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We went down a back ally to locate a less active and found this. Hood ballers! 

Monday, May 23, 2016

So we got the call this past Saturday and it looks like I'm going to be spending another transfer in the New Haven and Riverside wards. Elder Udy is staying too and we are really excited about that. We get along and teach amazingly together so we are pretty stoked for another six weeks of doing this together. There are a couple of people in the zone that we are losing that we are pretty sad about but we will hopefully see them sometime later.

So this past week we were really busy with all this stuff so we kind of just forgot to get gas in the car one night. The next morning, as we were literally on our way to the gas station down the street from where we live, we kinda just ran out of gas... We had to have some other Elders close by come and help us out. BUT we took it as a teaching opportunity and tried to talk to the people in the store whose parking lot we had to coast into haha. We handed out some cards to them so maybe something will come out of it! After getting gas in our car we went on our way to try to see a referral.

As we were walking to the referrals apartment, we said Hey to a guy walking his dog and he called us over to talk with him. Turns out that he was a media referral awhile back and the missionaries saw him once and then he never saw them again. After talking for awhile, he agreed to let us come back and teach him some more! He said he couldn't go to our church this past Sunday but he was more than happy to agree to come this upcoming Sunday so we will see what will happen!

It's funny how we don't always know how the Lord is working things out. We have a tendency to see how everything is affecting us now without seeing what the Lord is preparing for us in the future. He is in control of everything and it's pretty comforting to know that he will not abandon us. Love you all so much and I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Comp photo with Elder Udy

Baptism of Morgan Freeman! Not really but very close!

Tulsa, OK

Some Elders turned 20 so we got root beer floats

Monday, May 16, 2016

Another successful week in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission! Yesterday, Elder Udy and I hit our 

10 month mark! A super cool less active girl in our area found out about it and made us blue

 velvet cupcakes to celebrate. We went over there last night for a lesson and afterwards we had 

ourselves some dang good cupcakes. It's seriously crazy to think that it's been that long but there

 is still so much to do!

This past week we scheduled our usual appointment with our recent convert Kamal. He's the one

 from Syria that doesn't know a ton of English but he's got to be the nicest guy I've ever met. He's

 a Taxi driver so he doesn't make a whole lot but this week when we went over there, he had

 made us lunch. It was a Syrian food called Kshk (kishk) with this kind of Syrian bread and it was

 seriously amazing. It's like this chowder kind of thing that you put on the bread. I'll just have to 

send a picture of it. I can honestly say that when I got called to this mission, I didn't think I would 

be eating Kshk with a Syrian Convert.

In other news, this Saturday is when we will get the transfer calls. I'm hoping that we both end

 up staying cause I've loved it here with Elder Udy but he's already been here 4 1/2 months so I 

guess we will just have to see what happens. I hope all is well wherever you are. Thanks for everything!

Love, Elder Leavitt

A funny sign we saw in a rough part of town

Kshk!

Blue velvet cupcakes! Yumm!!

Monday, May 9, 2016

Mother's day this year just so happened to fall on my mom's birthday as well so getting to talk with her and the family made the day very special. I hope everything worked out for everyone so that you were able to talk with your  families. It was great to talk to my family. They are all doing well and I am so thankful for that.

Other than Mother's day, this week was full of service. We were asked to help paint an Elderly ladies house and help her with some yard work. We were given paint and then they left so we painted the inside of the house while they were all gone and when they came back, they realized they gave us the wrong paint so we had to get the right paint and repaint it all over again! We had other things scheduled so we had to speed paint the whole thing over again. We also went out and helped on a farm a couple days ago. This guy wanted help to clean up his mom's farm for a Mother's day gift so we went around and fed the chickens and picked up garbage and made the place look better for his mom. It was a ton of fun to be farmers for a bit!

This week we had a really cool miracle happen because of our obedience. We drove back to our place and it was about 8:55 and we aren't suppose to go in until 9. So instead of just going in a bit early we decided to walk around our complex and try to talk to some people. As we were walking a Chinese guy walked past us and said,"Wait why are you both dressed up?" So we proceeded to tell him why. Turns out that he has a friend serving a mission right now and he would like to learn  more about what his friend is teaching others. We got his info and we are hoping to see him sometime this next week.

It's amazing to witness the blessings that come through our own obedience. In the scriptures it tells us that every blessing we receive is because of our obedience towards the commandments we are given. We are promised these blessings and as we seek to do what is right and follow the straight and narrow path, we will be able to recognize and receive those blessings promised to us. Love you all! Thanks for everything you've done for me. Keep it real.

Love,

Elder Leavitt

So good to see that smie!

At Zone meeting

I saw this license plate cover the other day, Haha!

We found this dog and pond while we were working on the farm...so naturally we took a pic :)

Monday, May 2, 2016

Just another typical week in Oklahoma! Minus the fact that we had a tornado come right through Tulsa! I know my mom probably doesn't want to hear this, but last Tuesday was my first experience with a Tornado. We were just sitting in our apartment, getting ready for bed when all of a sudden, we hear the tornado sirens going off and we got all these texts telling us to seek shelter. We packed up all we felt like we needed and got out of there since we live on the 3rd floor. We went to the church with some other elders and we went down to the basement and we stayed there for the night. We totally forgot to bring anything to sleep with so we slept on the ground all night. Needless to say, it was unpleasant. The next morning we came out and there were trees and telephone poles everywhere but it didn't do any insane damage. Apparently, it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be but we were safe and that's all that matters. Really crazy experience and it's a story that I can tell now.

Other than that, this week has been full of blessings and miracles! There was an amazing miracle this past week. I was on an exchange with another Elder in his area and we went to go contact this referral. The guy wasn't home so we prayed and we said that we weren't going to leave the neighborhood until we found the person we were sent there for. So we were going around knocking doors and then we saw a lady down the street unloading her truck. So we ran over there and asked if we could help her move her stuff. We got talking and it turns out that she is our age, a month pregnant, and just moving in with her fiance. We sat outside and taught her the Restoration right there and she loved it! We gave her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read and pray about it. I was just recently informed by the Elders in that area that they went and saw her again and she had read the Book of Mormon and she loves it and she's been praying about it cause she wants it to be true!

Miracles come as we ask for them and as we show that we are willing to seek them out through our actions. I've been able to learn this lesson over and over again as I've seen the hand of the Lord working through my life as I've served. I love you all and thank you for the constant support! I hope y'all have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

It turns out that those claw things used for picking up trash make a pretty good selfie stick

Some of the aftermath of the tornado. Crazy!

There is the sweetest non member lady who takes great care of the missionaries. Her nickname is the Tulsa grandma. She leaves cases of ice cream sandwiches and Dr pepper in a fridge for us to come by and get anytime. It was her 92nd birthday on Saturday so we gave her a rose. She loved it!