Monday, February 22, 2016

Yep, we got our transfer calls this past Saturday and I'm staying another transfer in Fayetteville. That makes 6 months here and I can't complain about that at all. I seriously love this area and there is still so much going on so I'm excited to stay here for a little bit longer. Sadly, Elder Greenwood is moving on. He is going to Salem, Missouri which is in the middle of nowhere but he is going to kill it there. My new comps name is Elder Rooto (Row-Tow) and the rumor is that he is from Fiji and is learning English as a second language. He has been out for about 4 months now. I'm really pumped for this next transfer.

This past week was petty incredible. Our whole zone had those high goals set and we got to witness some pretty remarkable miracles. I wish I could just type them out for you. I don't know how to even begin typing it into words so just remind me the next time you see me to tell you about it. Basically, God blessed our efforts beyond measure. We got to have Elder Christofferson come and speak to us on Saturday and we got to walk through and shake his hand which was a really cool experience. He spoke a lot about miracles in the latter days and about faith and all this other stuff that I wrote down and then he opened it up for questions. It's funny to see that the Apostles are human too because he was joking around with everyone and had to think about questions for awhile sometimes.

I'm looking forward to these next 6 weeks and I'm excited to see the progress in Fayetteville. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

We had a fun Marshallese party

They gave us new backpacks. We look like its our first day of third grade :)

Pday swag at one of our favorite places

Dinner with the stake Presidents family

Monday, February 15, 2016

First off, I would like to send my love and best regards to the May family. My heart aches along side everyone back home for the passing of Brent May. Give their family as much love for me as you can please.

This week we are preparing for an Apostle to come to Tulsa, Oklahoma and speak to the whole mission on Saturday. It's going to be D. Todd Christofferson and we are all pretty excited for that. We have been asked to prepare spiritually and to come pondering on some questions we have. That's going to be a really uplifting experience. We are pretty excited for this next week because the whole zone has set some pretty high goals. We have been fasting and praying that the whole zone will be able to accomplish them. It's going to take effort on everyone's part but I feel like we are going to be witnessing some miracles this week.

This past week has been pretty normal. We are getting transfer calls this week and I'm hoping to stay in Fayetteville. There is still so much to do! But as the old song goes, " I'll go where you want me to go." Love you guys and I hope everyone has a great week. I'll be keeping the May family and the whole Valley in mind and prayer this week. I hope you all might recognize the Lord's hand in all things this week.

Love, Elder Leavitt

We went on a great hike on pday

How can we compete with that??!

Taco night

Monday, February 8, 2016

It's been a pretty insane week. So the Marshallese couple that I was suppose to baptize on Saturday, the wife had a stroke a couple days before the baptism. They don't have a phone so they didn't tell anyone so we thought they had just fled the country or something because they really didn't want to get baptized but all is well after we finally found them. We are going to wait until she is feeling better and then we will get them baptized. We had interviews with President Loveland this past Friday which was really great because he is just an awesome potato farmer from Idaho that knows what's up. It was good to get to visit with him and talk about the area I'm in and what's been going well and what needs to be worked on. 

Also, I love Old folks homes. We go visit one every Sunday afternoon to play dominoes with some of the ladies and we are practically celebrities there now. I've been teaching this older lady named Tina how to do a secret hand shake for the past 3 weeks and she forgets it every time. That's okay because every time I try to give her a fist bump she just stares at me and then laughs and says," Wow, you sure are a good looking. Lord have mercy!" Hahah! if you ever need a self esteem booster, go to an old folks home.

This past week, we couldn't get any appointments one day so we decided to go tracting at this apartment complex. We felt like it would be a good place to knock some doors. We only knocked 4 doors and out of those 4 doors we got 3 return appointments that we saw on Saturday, gave away 2 Books of mormon and two pass along cards. Now we have 3 new investigators that we can go teach! We have been praying for some new people to teach because our area hasn't seen any new investigators in a long time. That was a huge blessing for us and it all came out of tracting which is amazing. It's really cool to see the Lord's hand in our work. It's always there, we just got to have our eyes open enough to see it.

Everything else was just business as usual. We got to see a lot of good come into our area and we are hoping to keep the momentum going. I love you all and thank you so much for the emails this week. I hope you all have an amazing week.

Love, Elder Leavitt

Monday, February 1, 2016

This past week has been pretty interesting! Our whole zone has been doing really well. Our Mission President has challenged us to set goals within our individual districts to help us improve the work in our area. We have set some pretty good district goals that are going to help us out a lot. We have a goal set to hit the Standard of Excellence as a whole zone on the fifth week of this transfer. The Standard of Excellence is a mission wide goal for member present lessons and referrals and other things like that which are set to help us strive for something each week. We are preparing to achieve it here in a couple weeks. We are setting goals now that will make it easier for us!

We have a branch in our Stake for the Marshallese people because there are quite a few people that move here from the Marshal Islands for some reason. A few days ago I was asked to give a baptismal interview to a couple that the Marshallese sisters have been teaching. Oh, and they don't speak a lick of English so we had to have a translator come in a tell me what they were saying the whole time. Even though I couldn't understand a single word that they were saying, the Spirit was still so strong when I asked them to bear there testimonies. It's crazy how the Spirit knows all languages and it will testify of truth always and even if you don't understand them verbally, you can understand them spiritually every time. Well, after the interviews the sisters were talking to them about who they want to baptize them and they both asked if I would baptized them. So now I have to learn the baptismal prayer in Marshallese for this upcoming Saturday! I've been working on it but I still sound super white when I say it so I'll continue to work on that.

Kommol Tata (Thank you in Marshallese) for all the love and support in my behalf. I am thankful for all of you back home and for all the work that you do behind the scenes of missionary work. I hope you all have an inspired week. My sister is going home this week. Say Hello to Erin for me!

Love, Elder Leavitt

The south is full of their symbols of devotion to Jesus Christ.
We all can rejoice in His resurrection!

Monday, January 25, 2015

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week. We had a pretty solid week full of lessons and inspirational training. This past Wednesday, there was a World Wide Mission training from Salt Lake City that we got to watch and learn from. There was some powerful lessons taught and it really made me reflect on missionary work. I took some pretty sweet notes so I'm excited to apply it to the work going on in Fayetteville.

Elder Greenwood and I are now getting into the swing of things and we are able to teach off of each other really really so we've got to have some amazing lessons lately. The training talked a lot about having the Spirit with you at all times.  We have been praying for the Spirit a lot more often during the day and we have been able to see a difference. We have also been praying for new people to teach and asking the Spirit to identify those people to us. The other day we had to get our car worked on so we decided to go out and talk to whoever we could find. We talked to quite a few people and some of them took a Book of Mormon and we gave out pass along cards as well. When we got our car back,  we were driving and we noticed a guy pulled of to the side of the street. We both had the prompting to help him. We helped him get his car running and he told us that the LDS church members have helped him out so much the past week as he has been preparing to move to Fayetteville. He wants to see us again so we got his number and we are hoping to teach him sometime!

This proves that people notice everything that we do. If members hadn't reached out to this guy and helped him, his heart might not have been ready to except the missionaries into his life. We only see a small portion of the influence we actually have on others. We never know the impact our habits as members of the church will have on certain individuals. Always be an example and always follow the spirit. Blessings will come and we are promised that.

I love you all and I hope everyone has a blessed week! Keep the Faith and keep pressing forward!

Love, Elder Leavitt

For some reason, Elder Greenwood thought this would be a good idea!

Our zone and Pres. Loveland moved a homeless shelter

Sums up Arkansas in one sentence 

Monday, January 18, 2016

Hey There!

So this past week I said goodbye to my old Comp and hello to the new one. Elder Greenwood is really great. He is definitely going to help out this area a lot and he is going to be a great companion. We have already taught a couple lessons together and he knows a lot and is ready to learn more. I'm excited for the new transfer. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to go out this morning on a bike ride for our exercise. When we came out side, there was about a half inch of snow on the ground and I don't know why that didn't stop us but I got to experience the first real snow in Arkansas by just about sliding face first into it this morning.

This week we got to have a pretty serious talk with Michael and he told us that he has to put the baptism on hold. His brother is really sick and so he doesn't want to plan anything so that he can be with him. He knows that baptism is something he needs and wants to do but it's just hard for him right now. Jo is getting things all figured out this week so we are hoping to schedule a date with him later this week.

We went and visit Anthony and Norma this past week and it was their daughters birthday. Among all the craziness, Norma came up to us and said that she wants to start reading the Book of Mormon with us because she wants to understand it.  That is a huge step for her.  We are hoping that that will motivate Anthony as well.

I hope you all are doing well and I know that as you are going throughout your day with your attitude focused on what you can do for someone else, then God will put those opportunities in your path. As a missionary, it is vital that we have this mind set. Every member is a missionary so keep the faith you have and move forward looking for service opportunities. I love you all and I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Burning of the tie ceremony for 6 months of service

Cereal Party at a members home.

Feeling like a Rebel

Monday, January 11, 2016

Hey everyone I hope you all had a great week. We received our transfer calls this past Saturday and it was sad to find out that Elder Anderson is going to be leaving. He is going up to Springfield Missouri. It's been a great couple of transfers with him and I'm now getting a new comp this week named Elder Greenwood. He hasn't been out long so I'm senior comp. Our District leader's area is getting shotgunned ( Missionary term we use which means both elders leave the area and two new people come in) with sisters so I've been assigned as the district leader so we will see how well this all plays out.

We finally got to see Michael this past week and the adversary has been really working on him these past couple of weeks. His next baptismal date is up in the air right now but we will continue to work with him and pray for him. Jo is in the same situation so we will see how these next couple of days and visits go.

The Weather is starting to get a bit colder now. It snowed the other day which was something new to me. I guess it's about time that I invest in a coat. I hope you all have been enjoying the new year and thanks for all the emails and support. I have been able to see the Lord's hand in my life recently and I pray that all of you can see his loving guidance as well. Love you all and have a blessed week.

Love, Elder Leavitt