Monday, December 14, 2015

This past week has gone by so fast and so much has happened that I'm really excited about! It's been in the 60's for the past week and everyone has been telling us that if it's this warm now, then January and February are going to be brutal. I don't know how I feel about that.

I've got some good news on Michael! We visited him last week and we taught the word of wisdom. He said that he doesn't smoke or drink coffee or alcohol but he said he does drink tea. When we told him that he had to stop drinking tea to get baptized all he said was,"I've got some tea in the fridge and when I run out I just won't make anymore." So he is determined to stop that and we officially set his baptismal date to January 2nd. He came to church yesterday and was so excited to tell everyone about his date. He is practically part of the ward family now. Everyone loves him! We are hoping that the next couple of weeks go by smoothly and everything works out.

Jo Szot has also committed to be baptized on January 2nd too so we might have ourselves a double dipper! He was struggling with the smoking thing at first but he really wants it so we are hoping that he is able to quit the awful habit and be baptized.

We are teaching a little girl named Hazel Holt and I think I've mentioned her before. She came to church yesterday with a less active lady in our ward. She went to primary for the first time and absolutely loved it! We hope that we can get permission from her dad to start teaching her the lessons and we are hoping to set a date with her soon.

The work is so fun to be a part of and I'm thankful for it everyday. There are so many people hid from the truth because they don't know where to find it. It is my goal and hope that I can find those searching and I challenge all of you to keep your eyes open for those who are spiritually ready for this gospel. Love you all and have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Merry Christmas!

We found this confederate cemetery out in the middle of nowhere.

This is how crazy warm it has been! Don't worry I wasn't driving!

Elder Foster from the second quorum of the Seventy and his wife came to visit.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Things in Fayetteville are moving along great. We have been doing tons of service lately. The other day we spent almost all day moving a family out of their house and into a ghetto apartment on the top floor of the building. Needless to say it was the roughest move of my entire life. We get to rake a lot of leafs for people and it's a good way to meet new people because no one is going to turn down having there yard raked for free!

We got a new family of investigators this past week! They moved from 2nd ward into our area. The other elders said that they had trouble with them and that they probably won't progress anywhere because they are stuck in their beliefs. We went over and talked with them for a really long time.
We even got them a free couch that they desperately needed. Just from being friendly to them, they have agreed to come to church this next Sunday. We can't push people into church or reading the Book of Mormon. Sometimes we just need to be their friend and lead by example. The blessing will come into their lives and our life as well when we teach as the Savior taught. Through love and compassion.

Michael has been really sick lately so we haven't been able to see him but last time we talked to him, he was still on the right path. Love you all and if you haven't watched the A Savior is Born video yet, I challenge you to watch it and share it with someone who needs it. This time of year is the most wonderful time for missionary work and we can all be a part of it. Peace and blessing.

Love, Elder Leavitt

Elder Anderson and I helping an older couple set up their tree

The package with the decorations came before the one with the tree. We couldn't wait so we improvised!

Monday, November 30, 2015

On Saturday we got our Transfer calls and I am pleased to announce that I will be staying in Fayetteville for another transfer! Elder Anderson is staying too and we were both really pumped about that because we have been serving really well together and we would hate to break up this power packed duo haha! Things have been going great here in Arkansas. The weather is starting to look a little more like the winters I have heard all about. It has been raining a lot lately but we haven't had the first snow of the year yet. I'm going to have to learn how to drive on the ice which is going to be scary. Thank goodness Elder Anderson is from Idaho so at least one of us knows what we are doing. 

Michael is doing better than ever! We went over and taught him the third lesson the other day and he was really involved. We asked him to pray about a baptismal date and he said that he has been thinking about that a lot lately and he said that he really wants to get baptized on Christmas because he thinks that there is no better present than a new start at life so yeah he is golden. He came to church too the other day and he stayed for all three hours. He just loves being a part of the church. He said that beating his addiction will be easy now that he has so much support. You can really see the hand of the Lord working in his life.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be doing the Lord's service in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I encourage you all to support and fellowship those who are new or investigating the church because you never know the impact you will have on their life. Love you all and have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Your basic fall picture

Thanksgiving with the Clark's. Their daughter knitted us scarves

Mission life

Monday, November 23, 2015

This email is coming a little bit later because my email was acting up this morning so sorry about the delay! Wow, where do I begin with this past week! Jo had some troubles with the smoking so we had to push his baptismal date back a week but he is super motivated now so we are hoping he can push through it. We call him every night to check up on him and he has been killing it so far. Transfer calls are this week so one of us might not be here for it which is sad to think about.

Remember Michael from last week? Well, we saw him again this week and now he is praying for a baptismal date! He came to church yesterday and a lady from Las Vegas that just recently moved here and is a recent convert spoke in sacrament meeting and she told her amazing conversion story. Afterwards she came up to us and Michael and flat out asked him if he was going to get baptized. When he said that he would like to she said," Then what are you waiting for?" That motivated him a lot and now he is praying for a date! He loves the church a lot and our ward is very good at fellow shipping which helps so much!

We have been very blessed here in our area and thank you all for the prayers and love in my behalf. I hope you all will continue to help those in need of help and comfort those in need of comfort. That's our job as members of this church. Love you all and stay safe.

Love, Elder Leavitt

Lights of the Ozarks! It looks like Temple Square around here!

Our Zone after an activity

Monday, November 16, 2015

We have been able to see so many blessings this past week! On Wednesday, after our district meetings, the whole zone got to together and went to the U of A campus to talk to random students on campus and pass out Books of Mormon. Together, we handed out so many Books and got the numbers of a couple students! It was fun just going out and trying new approaches with different people to see what works best and it benefited us all. We are planning on doing it every Wednesday now so we are hoping to bless the YSA elders a lot from this.

Now for the inspiring stuff. We have been trying to meet with this guy name Michael for awhile now but we kept on just missing him. This past week we got in the door and invited him to church and he seemed really excited to go. We got him a ride and he came to church yesterday. He was talking about how he needed to get off of some stuff that he was addicted to and yesterday, the couple who run the 12 step program in our ward spoke to us. How convenient! Michael talked with them and he is going to their meeting this week. He loved church and he is willing to progress with whatever we ask him to do so we are really excited for him.

Next is the miracle of Jo Szot. I've talked a little bit about him before in past emails and how he needed to quit smoking in order to get baptized. We gave him a priesthood blessing a couple days ago to help him quit. Well, Saturday was the day that he needed to stop completely. We couldn't get a hold of him all day so we were a bit nervous for him. On Sunday he came to church with the biggest smile on his face. He said he woke up Saturday morning with absolutely no desire to smoke and all day he didn't crave it once. He knew it was because God was helping him because getting baptized is what he needs to do. He will be getting interviewed this week if he keeps this up and we should be having ourselves a good Ol' Fashion baptism next week!

As always, thanks for the love and support! Have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Our Halloween costumes

We found this random thing in the woods so we took a tough guy picture

Hey, what time is it?

Monday, November 9, 2015

This week has gone by so fast! We got to have a Zone training meeting on Saturday and that's when President and Sister Loveland came down and talked to us. We got to do interviews with him and tell him what our area needs. He gave a great instruction on tracting so after our meetings, we decided to try it out. We first stopped by an investigators apartment and when he couldn't meet, we tracted the rest of his complex. Every single person that answered the door ended up taking a Book of Mormon! We had our number in it too so we are hoping for some calls back. We went and stopped by another investigators apartment and when they weren't home, we started talking to these guys outside and we ended up giving them Books of Mormon too! We have both been working on the idea of talking to everyone and we have seen the blessing that it has brought into our lives.

Let's talk about Bob Brown. Bob is this old man who's wife is a member but he isn't. Whenever we go over to see him, we bring a video because he loves the Mormon videos. He is so dang stubborn though! He has stopped reading the Book of Mormon and he refuses to come to church and we told him that if he didn't then we couldn't come over anymore. We watched a video on Joseph Smith and we talked about the Restoration and he just kept on saying,"You boys look like you need some ice cream." It was really hard to try to get through to him but we will just keep on praying that he has a change of heart.

I have been taking the Ponderize challenge lately and I have seen the blessing it is in my life. I have been ponderizing Alma 32:14-16 this week. I would encourage all of you to always have a scripture in mind because you never know who's life you can bless with it.

Love, Elder Leavitt

Serving at a soup kitchen

A frog we saw chilling on a mushroom

Monday, November 2, 2015

Hey everyone!

So we have been doing so much lately! I've been getting the names and faces down and I can almost drive around Fayetteville without having to ask for directions now. I've been able to work closer with the members here and they are awesome when it comes to fellowshipping investigators and coming out on exchanges with us. I have some pretty crazy stories to tell.

First off, a couple nights ago we didn't have anyone scheduled to go see because they cancelled so we had the feeling to go by and check on a less active member. She is this little old German lady named Sister Henning who hasn't been to church in awhile. So we go over there, and some random guy opens the door and the smell of alcohol just hits us! He insisted on us coming in so we went in. It turned out that it was Sister Henning's son and his wife was there and also this potential investigator we have named Bruce was there. Every single one of them was hammered beyond belief. We didn't stay for long but Sister Henning's son liked us a lot so we got his address and phone number so we will go see them when they are sober.

Next, I got a pretty nice birthday gift this past Saturday. We have an investigator who's name is Anna and she is super nice. Well, one of our appointments cancelled on us and we had nothing to do until dinner. Then, Anna texted us and said that she had two free tickets to the Razorbacks game and she wanted to take us. We asked for permission first (of course) and it was granted because of my birthday! So we got to go to the game! We were on row 20 right on the 50 yard line and it was their homecoming! We didn't stay for the whole game because we had other people scheduled for later in the day. We left at half time like good Elders so that we could go to those appointments.

Now for an inspiring story. We have this investigator named Jo Szot and he has been investigating for a few months. He has a baptismal date set for November 28th. He has been smoking his whole life and wants to quit so badly. He called us up the other night, after not seeing him for awhile. We were a little bit discouraged thinking that he gave up on us. He asked us what he needed to do personally to prepare for baptism. We went over and saw him and he promised to stop smoking the next day cause he wants to get baptized so badly. He came to church yesterday and he said that he is almost completely off. He wants to be a member of the church so badly that he is willing to do anything for it.

He has been humble enough to accept our message and do anything it takes to come closer to Heavenly Father. I have learned a lot from Jo and I have been working on my humility as well. Thank you all for the amazing emails and gifts you sent for my birthday. I challenge us all to check our humility because we never know when the Lord is trying to tell us something but we are too proud to hear it. Love you all!

Love, Elder Leavitt

 

Sister Muccirone got me a cake. Happy Birthday Elder & Leavitt!

Go Razorbacks!

Halloween fun