Monday, April 10, 2017

Pretty solid week for us!

The other day we finally got to meet up with our deaf friends again and teach them another lesson in the members home! We taught them the whole Restoration in sign language and it was such an amazing experience. We've did all we can trying to study for it but it's just one of those things you can't really prepare for. We went in with a prayer that we would be able to communicate and the Lord blessed us again to be able to teach them a whole lesson and have the spirit there so powerfully. They were saying how impressed they were with how fast we were able to pick it up and communicate with them so smoothly. We were definitely blessed with the gift of hands once again to have that lesson. They are excited to keep learning and they were planning on going to church yesterday but had a emergency with a friend come up so they are planning on it this week. We also got a return appointment with them for this week so we hope we can have it work out again!

So both Lisa AND Peggy had their baptismal interviews this past week and they are both set to be baptized this upcoming Saturday if everything works out! We are planning on keeping close contact with them this week to ensure all goes well and we are all super pumped for them. They have both over come so much to be where they are now so we will keep praying for them!

We got some pretty sad news this morning. A missionary in our zone is having to go back home so there is going to be an emergency transfer. We are going to be having Elder Kealer join our companionship to make three of us and we are now going to be covering both Branson wards. It's going to keep us really busy but it should be fun.

Hope everyone is doing well! Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We went on an awesome hike for pday

Monday, April 3, 2017

Hey There!

Alright, first off: How awesome was conference this past weekend? There were seriously so many notes being taken during it. Those men and women that spoke to us were all so inspired. I went to conference with a lot of questions in mind and they helped me resolve a lot of them just by what they were talking about. I've got some studying to do for sure. One of my favorite talks was President Nelson's on the Power of Jesus Christ and His atonement and how we can draw closer to Him. That really put a lot of things into perspective for me. I encourage you to go back and read it or watch it if you didn't get the chance!

Other than all the personal revelation I got the past couple of days, we are still teaching a couple of solid people. Got to visit with Peggy again this past week and we had a super great lesson on the plan of Salvation with her. She pretty much just taught herself the whole thing because she knows it so well. She also came to the church for conference yesterday and she said she learned a ton! Lisa came to the church yesterday as well and she loved it! That talk by Joaquin E. Costa was just what both of them needed to her so we are hoping they were paying close attention to everything being said and to the spirit they felt.

The best part about conference is that it is so easily accessible today that we can just go back and listen and read them all the time! There is so much wisdom in the words spoken and I invite everyone to go back and ponder on the messages contained in each talk. Hope all is well where ever you are and I hope you have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Conference breakfast with my district

Our new ride. Haha

Monday, March 27, 2017

Super good week for the Missionary work in Branson!

I was blessed to be a part of some of the most powerful lessons of my mission this week. Elder McArthur and I have been teaching super well together and it's been helping out a lot with the people we are teaching. We had a really powerful lesson with Peggy and Lisa this past week. We had a member with us and he was quiet almost the whole time. At the end of the lesson, we felt prompted to ask him his feelings towards everything we had discussed. He bore one of the most powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the church that I have ever heard and the spirit was so evident there. The Lord taught me so much during that lesson. After we left, we got a text from Peggy saying that we were definitely the missionaries that need to baptize her and she set a date for herself! She has been taught for over a year now and she is coming so close to baptism! We are really excited for her. She also came to church!

Another Highlight: We met a guy outside of CiCi's that was being taught in Tennessee and then moved to Branson right before he was going to get baptized. He said that he has been looking to find the missionaries and then we just walked out of nowhere right into him. He wants us to come by and teach him later this week! This has helped my testimony grow even stronger in the fact that God knows us all personally and he is so involved in this work. Love you all and hope you have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Yeah...we have a good time!

Bro & Sis Williams are leaving us so we got a pic

Zone Conference with friends

Monday, March 20, 2017

It hasn't been too long since my last email so I'll keep this one a little brief!

We had a super good couple of days. I got my new comp Elder McArthur on Thursday and we have been doing great together ever since! He is from Paradise, CA and he's been out a little less than me so we are working great together.

Some updates on the area: We went and saw Peggy again this past week and had a super good lesson with her. We read from the Book of Mormon and had a lesson about it and the spirit was obviously there. She started to tear up and she held up the Book of Mormon and said,"I know, with all my heart, that this is true." It was super powerful! These are the moments I live for. She said that she still has some demons in her life that she has to get rid of before she gets baptized so we are working on it. Our Bishop is super involved with her too.

Also! Lisa, the investigator I was teaching right when I got here and was suppose to be baptized, showed up at church yesterday! We haven't been able to contact her for awhile now but she showed up and said that she is ready to put everything aside and join the church. We are meeting with her this week and it should be a good visit!

The Lord is preparing this area because we have a ward that is super involved. There is a lot of work to be done here so we are pretty excited about it. The gospel has been restored to the earth and it is a pleasure to share the good news. I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Sister Taylor  from the office is going home

My comp, Elder McArthur is on the far right

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

It's been a pretty crazy week!

First off, we had our transfer calls again this week and it looks like I'm going to be hanging out for another 6 weeks in Branson! Really excited about that but Elder Powell is getting transferred over to Arkansas which stinks cause I thought we would have another one together but he is going to be with one of my old comps so he will have fun! I'm getting Elder McArthur as my new companion and I don't really know him but I'm excited to get to know him!

So, I was blessed to have another Tornado experience this past week! We were driving past the church when all of a sudden the sirens started going off and it started raining and hailing like crazy! We went to the church and a couple of the other Elders were already there. We had to hang out in the church for a couple hours while it all went down. The safest place in the building is the baptismal font so we were told to sit in there for a while until the worst part was over. We made it was a good time! Also, a couple days later, we had a huge snow storm happen here. It was the most snow Branson has seen in awhile. Then, the next day, a less active family had their house catch on fire and we had to help clean up with that. It was so sad.

We have some good stuff happening here in Branson so I'm excited to be staying another transfer. We had and investigator come to church on Sunday that we have been working with for awhile and she has accepted a date to be baptized! I love the work here. Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Elder Leavitt

We did some service at a  city skate park 

Strike a pose

Snow day

Tornado!!

The refugees taking cover at the church. We barely made it!

House fire :(

Monday, March 6, 2017

Hey Fans,

To start off, I'll give you all the address to my new apartment so you can hurry and send off all those letters you have! 825 Lost tree dr apt.8 Branson,MO 65616. We had a moving crew of ward members and missionaries show up at our old place to help out with the moving process. We got everything into the new apartment and we've organizing the place for a couple of days now. It's a really nice apartment so we've been loving it.

We have been teaching this Recent convert family named the Milachs and they are seriously some of the most converted people I have ever met... they are just soaking up the gospel like nothing else. We got to go to Kansas City and attend the Temple with them! It was super cool to be there with them for their first time. We also got to visit Liberty Jail and the Independence visitors center while we were there so it was a fun little road trip. The senior couple serving here, The Williams, drove us up there and they are so dang funny. It made the trip that much better.

We have been finding a few more people for our teaching pool right now and they are quite promising. I found out that someone we found and taught in Bentonville got baptized this past weekend! It's exciting to see that the work continues on even if we aren't there but the things we were able to help them with will forever impact their lives. There is a quote I heard once that says," The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy." I'm not trying to make a legacy out here but it's true that whenever we step outside of ourselves, we can truly help others if we so desire. I love this gospel! I'll throw my address in one more time just in case you forgot it. 825 Lost tree dr apt.8 Branson,MO 65616

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Hey, we are the Elders  and welcome to our crib!

The Kansas City Temple

Visitors center pic with The Milachs, and Bro & Sis Williams

Liberty Jail

There's a lion that hangs around our complex. I was lucky enough to get a pic.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Hey Everyone!

The weeks just seem to be flying by so fast lately! It was a pretty eventful one for us too. I got to go on an exchange with a Greenie in our district. His name is Elder Tanner and I say Greenie but he is also 6 foot 8 and weighs over 300 hundred so he's got me beat on that. We got to spend a couple days together here in Branson and we switched back comps when we went to Springfield for interviews with President and Sister Loveland. Had some super good chats with both of them. They are both power houses when it comes to giving counsel.

We've been trying to get our members involved with missionary work a lot lately. We had a member that is super missionary minded set up a lesson with the lady he rents from who has seen missionaries in the past. We went over to talk with her and she was WAY contentious, so we just sat and listened to her go off and didn't say anything. When we talked we refused to have any kind of contention and when we did that, she calmed down a whole lot and actually had a conversation with us. It didn't go any further than a nice christian talk but it was a testimony builder to me that the spirit can not dwell in a place of contention. The holy ghost can not be with us if there is any kind of contention in our homes or in our relationships with others. It takes two to bring in the spirit of contention so we get to choose to fall into it, or not. I saw the blessings of keeping the holy ghost close to us this week.

Hey we are also getting a new apartment this up coming week so hold your horses with all those packages and letters you are wanting to send me. I'll get the new address to you next week. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Out here in the sticks doing work. Haha!

Branson baby!