Wednesday, July 19, 2017

I don't really know how to begin with all of this.

It seems almost impossible for me to sum up my feelings that I have towards the past two years of my life. The emotions I have right now are everywhere as I reflect on everyday I've been blessed with the opportunity to wear the Savior's name on my chest and more importantly on my heart. I've witnessed people reject the Gospel as well as accept it. I've seen people turn away from Christ as well as turn to Him. I've been persecuted for what I've come to know is true as well as welcomed in to the lives of brothers and sisters. This Gospel is life changing! That's something I can't deny. My testimony is simple. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He is apart of our lives more than we can even imagine. I know that life is going to get hard in the future. There is still so much in front of me and so many more trials I need to go through. My life circumstances may change but I pray my relationship with Christ never will. I pray that I will always remember the experiences that the Lord has blessed me with on my mission. I've changed while over here in Arkansas and now it's time to apply the changes to my life. I still have a lot of work to do. I'm not perfect yet and I never will be in this life but this life is a time for us to change and become like our Father in Heaven. He has a wonderful plan for each and everyone of us and it all starts when we recognize that we are His Children and one day we can live with Him again. This work will continue onward. My work will continue onward through Christ. I'm ready for the tasks that the Lord has for me.

Thanks to everyone that has supported me out here on my mission. I could make a pretty big list of people that I would like to thank but the most important is my family. The support I have received from home has motivated me to be a more worthy servant. What a blessing that has been to me. I love you guys and hope to see everyone soon! All is Well!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Monday, July 10, 2017

Hope everyone had a good American day!

We were able to have a great 4th of July. President and Sister Loveland invited all the missionaries around this area to breakfast in the morning so that started off the day great. Then all the afternoon was mostly just normal missionary teaching and finding until evening time. We got to have dinner with our Ward Mission Leader and his family and then a second dinner with one of our members later that evening. At the end of our night, our WML invited us back for fireworks in their HUGE backyard which was super fun. The best part was that is started pouring rain so we just stood outside and watched everyone light fireworks while it rained haha! We got to use some sparklers and some snaps so it was pretty lit.

Theres a couple of things that we are excited about! Angelina is such a stellar member. We saw her a couple of times this past week and she is so happy to be a member of the church. The day after her baptism, she went to work and told everyone that she just got baptized and that they needed to meet with us. She is living with her cousin and now, after the baptism, her cousin is interested in learning more so we are starting to work with her as well.

We've been pretty pumped about the work that has been going on here. We have been teaching a couple of people that we tracted in to. They are looking promising so we are hoping all goes well with them! Next week is going to be transfer week so I won't be emailing until next Wednesday. Stay tuned for the final weekly next week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

When weekly planning is too lit

New contacting approach where we ask people to take our picture. Haha we got a return appointment! Please ignore the fact that we both have the Book of Mormon upside down and backwards.

My best friend Taro

Some of our members just got a pet alien

Companionship

Happy 4th

Monday, July 3, 2017

We had a ton going on this week!

A couple of highlights of the week was going on more exchanges! We went with the Elders over in Bentonville that are serving in my old area there. They set up a dinner so I got to see Jorge, the solid recent convert I got to help baptize while I was over there! It was so good to see him and he is still going really strong (picture below)

This was a really good week for finding for us. We got a lot of new investigators that we started teaching this week which is always fun. We got to teach quite a few first lessons to some people. We started teaching some kids of a less active lady in our ward. The lady use to be super stand off-ish to the elders but now that she is coming back to church and wants her kids to be baptized, she has been the coolest.

Our friend Angelina got baptized yesterday and it was such a great service. We have been teaching her for a couple of months now and she has been loving the church. We found her when I was out tracting during exchanges and she was knocking on the door of an apartment next to the one we were knocking on so we just started talking to her. Just from that simple act, and some commitment on her part along the way, she is now ready to start her journey as a member of God's church. Missionary work is the best.

All is well here. Got some good pictures for you this week. We had an investigator invite us to their daughters birthday so we made a quick appearance to say we were there. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Sister Blackwell and I reppin MV!

Angelina's baptism!!

My Boi Jorge

Let's play 'Find Elder Leavitt among the Islanders'.

Island food

An authentic necklace they gave us

Monday, June 26, 2017

Oh hey,

We had another good week here! We've been staying busy with some more exchanges and just the usual missionary work that we do. President and Sister Loveland have been traveling the mission getting interviews done and so I had one of my last interviews with both of them and it was incredible. They are both so inspired and they gave some amazing advice on what I need to do to prepare for the future. Probably one of my best meetings with both of them. It was well need haha They're great!

Some pretty cool stuff is happening for us lately! Elder DeGooyer and I have put and emphasis on finding in the evenings so we have dedicated a time after dinner to going out and knocking doors for awhile. We found a guy named Doug the other day while knocking and we invited him to church and he actually showed up with his fiance! They seemed to really enjoy it. He said that we need to come back this week so we will be visiting with them now hopefully. We are still working with a lot of the same investigators and many of them are getting close. Things have been pretty solid lately. It's starting to warm up but not too bad yet.

I'm really thankful for the ability that we all have to change. It's funny how changing is just something we naturally go through but sometimes we have to choose to change and those choices are usually the ones that matter the most. The Lord has definitely been teaching me about that. I'm thankful that we all have the ability to choose to turn away from old habits and ways that aren't always the best for us. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

This is Mely. She takes good care of us.

Pretty neat!

Found this snake the other night on our way home.

With Elder Green at the mission home.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Hey Everyone,

It was a pretty usual week for us! Just a lot of the usual going on which is a really good thing. Exchanges have started back up so we have been busy getting everyone scheduled and in for the next transfer. We have already had one this past week and we have a couple coming up this week. We should be having a couple of baptisms coming up soon that we are really excited about! We are loving it so far.

Yesterday was Father's Day and I had an opportunity to reflect on the amazing Father figure I was blessed with. I run into a lot of situations in families where the Father doesn't fill the role he is suppose to and it has an eternal effect on the family. I'm grateful I was blessed with an example to show me what it means to be a husband and a father.

Things have been crazy so sorry for the short email. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

The pics are all from Presidents camera and more are found on their blog: arkansasbentonvillemission-loveland.weebly.com

President and Sister Loveland

Temple trip

Transfers

Monday, June 12, 2017

It's been too long,

Everything was a little crazy with transfers going on this past week but it was a lot of fun to see some old mission friends. I got to pick up the new comp, Elder DeGooyer, and we have been killing it ever since! We've been trying to get him introduced to everyone we are teaching and the members of the ward so we've kept busy with that. It's been a good time! I have high hopes for this transfer.

I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday on obedience and so we were trying to invite everyone we know to come and we got quite a few people to show up. We are working with a 9 year old kid named Brandy right now and he came to church again yesterday. His mom is a member and she wants him to get baptized. We taught him yesterday and after we were done he asked when he could be baptized. We set a day with him and he's wanting to work towards it. He's a really sharp kid so we love teaching him.

Things have been chill in the ABM lately. It's been the usual work that I love doing. We have a lot of members that have become excited about missionary work so we are hoping to see some miracles happen in their families. Missionary work only requires a desire to serve and a determination not to get discouraged. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Some of the friends

Elder DeGooyer

Some Marshallese fed us a yummy dinner and then gave us matching blankets as a gift. Haha!

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Hey Viewers,

We ended up getting transfers all figured out and it looks like I'm going to be spending another one here in Rogers which I'm really excited about! Sadly though, Elder Green is moving on to bigger and better things. I'm really gonna miss him. We had a good time together and he taught me a lot. I'm going to be getting a new comp named Elder Degooyer.  I've served around him a bit so we were both really excited when we found out we would be together! The past couple of days have been spent doing a ton of office work to try and get everything organized for transfers. We've put in work in the mission office and I'm ready to get it all done and put away for awhile.

We've been really blessed these past couple of days though. We've been working hard to help get people to church and this week a whole family that we have been teaching showed up to church! Some of them are less active members that we found and a couple of them are working on being baptized. We are teaching a Marshallese girl from that family named Mercy and she is loving it. At first, she wanted nothing to do with the missionaries but after she saw how we treated her family and the other kids that live around her, she really opened up and now she looks forward to every time we come by.

I'm really grateful for everything I've been taught lately. I've seen in many different ways how the Lord works with people. Sometimes we want people to progress and learn at our pace so that they can be as happy as we are right now but God knows how these people learn and what they are ready for. That's why we must seek His will especially when it comes to helping others along their path. Love ya and hope you have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We went caving last pday

Island life in Arkansas

Monday, May 29, 2017

Kind of a crazy week for us!

We were able to finish up all of our exchanges this past week so it's been good to finally be serving back with Elder Green haha. We went on a mission Temple trip again this past week which is always a great time! Our district leader challenged everyone to take a name of one of our ancestors to the temple so I found one and was able to do the work for them! It was a cool experience to take someone like that. It made going to the temple that much greater. I saw a lot of old mission friends as well. It's fun being in the Temple with your friends.

So, the Rogers ward gave a Marshallese family the calling of doing a family home evening group with the rest of the Islanders. They do it on Saturday nights since that's usually their day off. They invited us over to help out for the first one and we showed up and found out that it was actually a girls birthday. They quickly transformed the Family Home Evening into a birthday party/Spiritual thought haha. Everyone there was so grateful to have us there. We had a couple of people translating for us. They asked us to stand and speak to them part way through so we taught them all in simple English and invited them all to church. It was really neat. We got a couple of new investigators out of it and a lot of respect from the Islanders. The Marshallese know how to throw good Birthday parties!

Everything has been going swell here. Loving the work that I'm apart of and Rogers is a good place to be. We are preparing for transfers coming up next week so it's going to be next Wednesday when I email again. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Some of the Marshallese fan club

Friends at the temple

When you go to pick up your investigator for church...

Monday, May 22, 2017

I can't begin to describe to you how much I love serving in the Marshall Islands right now haha. I don't even feel like I'm in Arkansas anymore. Take away running water and Walmart and I would be in the islands. We were able to get a lot done this week! We've been working hard on learning phrases in Marshallese and we can almost have decent conversations with most of the islanders. The kids that speak both have been practicing with us. We have had to adjust a lot of our teaching to help those we come across understand our message. You have to use different words and sometimes speak a little in their language to get the message across so it has been interesting. It's a new kind of teaching I've never experienced before! The other night, we had dinner with one of our recent converts from the islands and it was probably the best dinner I've ever had. We made all the island food with her to start off and then, after we prayed, we ate a ton of food while she played the ukulele and sang island songs to us. It was incredible!

The Lord truly blessed us this week. We had a huge focus on finding new people to teach and setting baptismal dates and we saw a lot of miracles in both those areas. We met with the white couple we are teaching again this week. We read the book of mormon with them and things are going super solid with them. We actually found another white couple that we are teaching and a ton more Marshallese haha. It's funny cause a lot of the people coming from the islands were actually baptized members over there but when they get over here, they don't know where the church is or how to get there so they just hang out until we find them haha. We've been transferring over a lot of records from the islands lately and we have more people wanting to come to church.

The Lord has been teaching me so much lately. I'm just trying to soak it all in and learn from all the experiences I'm having. I am grateful for this work. It's seriously so cool to be a part of. Love ya all!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Pictures from Sister Loveland

Elder Leavitt keeping a noticeably appropriate distance ;)

Monday, May 15, 2017

Pretty stellar week for us!

We were able to squeeze in a couple more exchanges this past week which is always a good time haha. I got to be with a couple of missionaries I've known from previous mission experiences. I was able to learn a lot from all of them! Having all of them here has helped us a lot in the whole finding new people to teach department so we actually have tons of new potential in the area!

We teach tons of islanders but we actually got a new white couple we are teaching! They were a referral from a Bishop in Utah and they are amazing. It was one of the warmest welcomes I've ever had into a new investigators home that I've never met. They live right off the lake and their house is beautiful! They are both retired so for fun, he like makes fancy knifes and she paints and they travel around and sell their stuff. It's a pretty good life that they got going on but it's just missing the gospel! We had a great lesson with both of them and they both know quite a bit about the church. Before we left, he asked for a priesthood blessing because he has been really sick. The wife felt the spirit super strong during the blessing so after she asked for one as well! Really powerful experience. Glad I got to be a part of it.

It was great to get to talk to the family yesterday! I've realized over and over again on my mission how blessed I have been to be placed in the family that I have. I'm always bragging on the family and telling people all that I've learned from my parents. I'm beyond grateful for the mom that I have! She's one of the best :) Love her. I hope everyone had a great week and pray everyone has a blessed one this week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Some of the awesome island kids

Our last call home. 9 weeks and counting!

Monday, May 8, 2017

What a week it has been for us!

We started doing exchanges with the zone leaders this past week and it's kept us pretty busy having them coming in to our area for a day. We had two sets come in this past week so I was able to spend a day with both Elder Buhler and Elder Guana. They are both studs so we had a lot of fun together! We have this huge apartment complex that we call the Marshal Islands because it's just chalked full of Marshallese people and they all know the missionaries from when they lived out in the islands. We are teaching a couple of people over in that area so we are there quite a bit. All the little Marshallese kids treat us like celebrates whenever we go over there. I have acquired the nickname of "Elder Banana" to the little kids. It started off because they know Elder Green and they started calling me Elder Yellow because of the blond hair. That somehow morphed into yellow like a banana so they start shouting it every time we show up. Haha it's hilarious!

Carl was able to be baptized this past Saturday and it was such a great service. One of the priests that he is good friends named Dusty baptized him. Almost all the young men in the ward showed up to it. The young men in this ward are amazing! They are a close group of boys so Carl feels really welcomed in the quorum. We are excited for Carl! I know he is going to do so much in the church.

The Rogers ward has been a really cool place to be. I'm still working on all the different languages we have here and trying to keep a bit of sign language that I learned before. I'm thankful for the time I have to serve. It's been such a blessing to be apart of the Lord's work!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Carl's Baptism

The squad at the baptism

This is Elder Udy