Monday, January 23, 2017

Well, Well, Well. It's Monday again and you know what that means. You get another one of those updates from Elder Leavitt!

What a week it's been Ladies and Gentlemen. We had exchanges with the Assistants earlier in the week and then later in the week we had interviews with President and Sister Loveland. Both of those days were full of learning. I love meeting with my mission President because I'm so comfortable just talking with him about what's going on in the mission life. Sister Loveland is also super inspired. She always knows exactly what to say when we talk with her. Both are just spiritual giants so I'm glad I have them so close.

We met up with Wesley again last night and this kid just continues to amaze me! He's been reading the Book of Mormon and he's been taking everything in so well. He has some great questions that lead us into some cool conversations.He came to church yesterday and last night, we taught him the plan of Salvation and he loved it all. At the end of it we asked him what his thoughts were and he said,"I've never heard anything like the Plan of Salvation before in my life.... yet nothing has ever made more sense to me." These are the moments that missionaries live for. This is why being a missionary is such a rewarding experience. He's still planning on being baptized in February!

We are still meeting with Chayce as well and he's been doing great with everything he has been learning. He just takes it all in and keeps wanting to learn more. We also are going to start teaching a foreign exchange student that's living with a member. She's been to church a couple times and she told us this past week that she wants to take the lessons. Hopefully we can get over there soon!

I'm getting really excited about the work starting to pick up here on the members end. They have been doing miracles when it comes to member missionary work and we are super grateful for them. Transfers will be this next week so I won't be back on until next Wednesday but I love y'all and hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Modeling a Jacuzzi tub that was at a service project

Someone admired our display and bought the tub. We helped them load it up.
Hahaha, Arkansas!

Monday, January 16, 2017

Well, I've officially completed my sister mission this past week but lucky for me, I get another 6 months to serve the Lord! I'm really thankful for all that I've learned in this short period of time and I know I've still got a whole lot to learn so I better get on it!

We were seriously so blessed this past week! We have still been meeting with Chayce and he has been progressing so well! We got to meet up a couple of times this past week and we even gave him a tour of the church before Sunday. We were a bit nervous about the word of wisdom with him but we taught it to him and he told us that he quit smoking months ago and has always hated the taste of tea and coffee and wasn't a huge alcohol kind of guy! So, now he's on track to be baptized at the beginning of February if all keeps going well. When we did the church tour, Chayce brought one of his friends named Hailey and after we gave our lesson, she had a ton of questions about the church. Naturally, we taught her the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said her dad is super against the church but we invited her to the next lesson we have with Chayce so we will see how that turns out!

We were welcoming people to church on Sunday and the Miller family walks. Their daughter who is a senior this year comes in with one of her friends who wants to learn more about the church! His name is Wesley so we couldn't help but make 'The Princess Bride' references. This kid is incredible! He loves how involved members are in the church and he kept saying that our gospel was a "Living Gospel" that doesn't just ask people to accept Christ and then move on. We went over to the Miller home after church and taught Wesley the Restoration and wow it was such a powerful lesson. One of the best lessons I've been a part of in a long time! Wesley had so many great questions and he is so prepared to know if it's all true. We set a date with him also for February. We are excited to keep working with him.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I have grown to have such a seriously love for the scriptures. They are literally words from God for us. If God wrote you a letter to help you out in your life, would you just let that letter sit on your nightstand or in your living room without actually reading it through? Maybe you'll read a couple words of the letter and then not pick it up for awhile or maybe strive to start reading it and then get discouraged and start over 50 times. If you haven't started a serious study of the Scriptures yet, do it now. The Lord has already provided us with the answers. You just have to find them.

I hope everyone has been having a great New Year! We are super blessed here in Arkansas. Love y'all and hope all is well!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Dinner in the Hill's home

We met an amateur WWE wrestler named Dusty Gold

Getting prepared to teach Wesley

Monday, January 9, 2017

Well everyone, it was another good week!

We had our transfers happen this week and it's been great having Elder Nauta here. We've been doing a lot of good work lately so it's exciting. So remember Jorge? The guy that got baptized last Sunday? So two days after the baptism he calls us up and says,"Hey I talked to one of my friends and I told him about you guys and I told him to meet you guys and now he wants to meet up! Are you free tonight?" We arranged our schedule so we could meet with him! His name is Chayse. We taught him 3 times last week and he wants to get baptized. He worked this past Sunday but he is quitting his job so he can come to church. Super excited about him!

We also had the confirmations of Jorge and Jenny yesterday and it was incredible to be there with them. They are now on their way to a happy life in the gospel and I couldn't be more excited for them.

I hope y'all have a great week this week! The church is true!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Transfers

Zone conference meeting

Monday, January 2, 2017

What's up?!? It's the first email of the year!

Wow, I hope everyone had a great time staying up and celebrating the new year! We got to celebrate it by going to bed at 10:30 haha but it's all good. We also had two baptisms yesterday for Jorge Diaz and Jenny Graves! It was such an amazing way to start off the new year. Two people who are both ready for a new start and a new life. I'm excited to see where their paths in the Gospel take them.

We also got transfer calls last night. Since we are losing three zones in our mission, we now have to move in all of these missionaries so we are splitting up the two wards in my area. I'm going to be staying in Bentonville 2nd and Elder Czirr will be going to Central Park. I'm sad that I'm losing that ward but I'm still close so I'll get to see everyone regularly. My new companion is going to be Elder Nauta so we will see how these next couple of weeks go!

I've been thinking about goals to set for myself this upcoming year that will stretch me and help me to be a better tool in the Lord's hand. When it comes to setting these goals, if we have a righteous desire in mind and a determination in our hearts to press forward with it and not just have it die out the second month, we will have the help of our Heavenly Father through it all. Love you all and Happy 2017!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Jenny's Baptism

Baptism of Jorge Diaz

A hidden Arkansas wooded glen

Monday, December 26, 2016

Hope Everyone had a great Christmas!

It was good to talk to the family and to celebrate the season with a ton of people I've grown to love. What made this Christmas even better though is that we had the Baptism of James Clay right after church and it was amazing to be a part of that. He is so ready for these next steps in his life and I'm happy for him.

Jorge came to the baptism too and right after the baptism he got interviewed and is ready to be baptized next week! The little girl that was suppose to be baptized this week got super sick so we had to push it back a week so hopefully she will be getting baptized this coming week as well!

I can't think of much else that is going on but I'm loving it still and I can't believe that it's going to be 2017 this week! What the heck??? It's exciting to start a new year and to see how far you have come but also set goals to work on. I hope we all choose to look forward to progress instead of looking back on weakness. Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

 

A white Christmas! James was baptized!

Christmas eve with some members of our ward.

Service at a shelter

Some of the missionaries I came out with. The sisters will go home next transfer...crazy!

Hot cocoa

Monday, December 19, 2016

Hey Fans!

I hope everything is going to well back home for everyone. It's actually super cold here it got down to 3 degrees  and it started snowing so everything was shut down for a little while church actually got cancelled because the roads had so much ice and we couldn't bike so we started walking around which was a ton of fun.

James, one of our investigators, was interviewed for baptism and he passed so he is going to be getting baptized on Christmas!  Also, a part member family with 3 kids agreed to be baptized on Christmas. Unbelievable! So we might be having a white Christmas this year *bum* *bum* *tsh* haha sorry bad joke.

Sorry, I'm short on time today but I'm loving it here and hope everyone has a great Christmas! Love ya!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Merry Christmas, from Arkansas!

We got snow

Surprise visit from former Elder Constandse

Wednesday, Decamber 14, 2016

Hey everyone,

It's another one of those transfer weeks again which means a lot of crazy changes going on! I'm actually going to be staying in Bentonville for the Christmas season which I'm super pumped about! Elder Czirr is going to be staying as well and we are excited that we get to spend Christmas and another transfer together here so it should be good!

Some pretty crazy news though: Elder Robert C. Gay of the Seventy came on Monday and had a huge conference with everyone and taught us a whole lot. He gave us a lot of advice and got us all excited to go out and improve our areas. He also told us that the first Presidency just approved a change of our mission boundaries. We are losing the 3 zones that we have in Tulsa to the Oklahoma city mission. This is super sad! I'm glad I got to serve there while I could but that means we are going to have to move a whole bunch of missionaries out of those zones into other areas in the mission. That whole shuffle is happening in 3 weeks so it's pretty much going to be a super short transfer.

We met up with George again this past week and taught him some more on tithing and I seriously love this guy! He agreed with everything we talked about and after we asked him what he thought about everything and he said,"It sounds all good to me and I'm going to go home and pray about it just to make sure it's right." Well, he prayed about it and it was right! He is still on track to get baptized at the end of the month so we are hoping to end the year on a solid note!

I'm so happy that I get to stay here in Bentonville. It's starting to get cold again and I saw it actually snow the other day which was super cool! Everyone here is really involved in the Christmas initiative and I hope you are as well! It's been amazing to be able to reflect the life of the Savior this time of year and to be miracle workers in small ways in the lives of others. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Leavitt

I was asked to be a shepherd in a parade

The whole posterity was together! My dad, brother, and 3 sons!

White elephant exchange at Presidents house. It you look closely you can see Elder Chapman scored a black and white of me modeling my new suit. HA!

Ugly sweaters!