September 1, 2014 -- Monday
We then went to the Labor Day Luau that the Sarasota Ward was putting
on. Our next door neighbor, John, showed up the the church. He didn't
stay for the food, but wanted a look around the church. We walked
around with him, taking him on a church tour, explaining our beliefs
and what makes this church different from the rest. I don't know if
he was quite understanding, but he seemed to really enjoy it. He wants
to come and check it out on a Sunday to see what our worship services
are like. So for the Luau, they had some really great tasting food
there, but Elder Hicken and I didn't get to try any until the very end
because we were running around helping the Sarasota ward members out.
The Sarasota missionaries were there, but they pretty much came for
the food and left right after they ate. The appointment we had with
the Parisi's tonight canceled on us because they had to go and get
some things done before school the next day. So we then decided to
walk for the rest of the evening since we only had forty minutes left.
We talked to Brian who was out walking his dog and we asked him if he
had ever been baptized before and said that he was when he was a
little kid. He said that he's been kind of looking for a church to go
to so we invited him to come to our church. We gave him a Book of
Mormon and explained that it goes hand in hand with the Bible. We
taught him that he can receive an answer about the Book of Mormon
through prayer. We will follow up with him later on this week.
September 2, 2014 -- Tuesday -- 20 years old!
No longer a teenager anymore. It is so weird to think that I am now
twenty years old. The time has gone by so quickly. I am so glad that
I get to spend it in the best place on earth, on my mission. So
today, nothing too exciting really happened. We did a lot of walking
and finding, without too much success. There really weren't too many
people out today. We did however have a street lesson with a guy
named Cedric that lives down by MLK. He said that he has just started
studying the Bible, and that he is planning on being baptized this
Sunday at his grandmothers church We gave him a copy of the Book of
Mormon, and he said that he would look at it with his grandmother, who
is the one teaching him about the Bible. He was in a hurry, and
really didn't want to talk for too long. There were several big
storms that came through today, but the ones that came when we were
out walking on the streets all missed us. We did get a few drops on
us and it felt really nice because it cooled us off a little bit. It
did get pretty crazy with the lightening storm this evening when we
were in our lesson with Justin. So I got many letters and packages
from lots of people for my birthday. Almost all of them containing
balloons with messages written on them. I had already figured out and
guessed what was in the envelopes that I got, and I was right on that
part. I started blowing up all of the balloons that were in the
envelopes first because I wanted to save the packages for last. It
took quite some time and my fingers were black afterwards because of
all of the ink that was rubbing off of the balloons. Thank you so
much for all those who sent me a letter and package. It really made
my day!!
September 3, 2014 -- Wednesday
This morning we had district meeting, and it was Elder and Sister
Greenwoods last district meeting. Next week there is no district
meeting because of Zone Development day on Monday, and they won't be
able to make it to that either because they have interviews with
President Cusick. The rest of the day was spent biking around through
various neighborhoods, we came across a couple who were trying to move
a great big dresser into their home. We went up to help them out and
they were extremely grateful for the help. Their names are Cherie and
Dave. We talked about the restoration and Book of Mormon and invited
them to come to church. They too, invited us to one of their church
socials that they are having up in Lakewood ranch in three weeks.
Maybe we will go to that. When we left, there was a great big thunder
storm rolling our way, so we quickly booked it over on our bikes to
the Innes for a lesson, getting there early so we wouldn't be caught
in the storm. It was a pretty crazy rain storm, and I'm glad that we
didn't get stuck out in it. We decided to take a different approach
with them this evening, so we focused the lesson on Sister Innes more
than Jason. Jason still sat in and listened to all we had to say and
we read through Jacob 5 about the allegory of the olive trees to help
Sister Innes better understand what was going on and the meaning
behind the words. At the end, Jason had some more questions about
temples and family history, so we explained the importance of why we
do family history, to take the names of deceased ancestors to perform
proxy work for them. Teaching about the temple makes me miss the
temple even more. I can't wait until I get to go again.
September 4, 2014 -- Thursday
We had a really good morning planned out. Brother Hoynacki came with
us to go and try to visit with Marcus. We ended up getting to Marcus'
house and he wasn't there. We thought it was going to be a pretty
solid appointment. Marcus' dad answered the door and had told us that
he hadn't seen his son at all the last two to three weeks, so we
thought that it was weird that he gave us this address. We then came
back for another long session of weekly planning. Then we went finding
for the remainder of the afternoon. We went to Benderson Park, which
is where they have a bunch of rowing competitions and 5k runs. There
wasn't anyone there but this would be a fun place to come to to work
out and go for a run. We kept on finding for the next few hours
before heading back to start off our exchanges with the district
leader. Hopefully all goes well again tomorrow because all that we
really have planned is finding.
September 5, 2014 -- Friday -- Exchanges with Elder Gherkins
Exchanges today with Elder Gherkins went pretty well. It wasn't the
best because we were pretty much street contacting all day long, and
we did talk to quite a few people, but only got information to visit
with two of them again. Most of the people that we talked to today
were homeless, and we had some pretty interesting encounters. So to
start off the day, we were supposed to go and see Brother Sean
O'Fallon but he ended up pushing it farther back to today. Later on he
pushed it back another hour. We decided that we couldn't visit with
him today if he was going to keep on doing that to us, otherwise we
wouldn't get any thing done for the day. So we went finding down by
the mall and we met Judy who was sitting on a bench out side of the
store. We just sat down next to her and started showing her the
Because of Him video. She really enjoyed watching it, but wasn't too
interested in learning more and rushed off when her husband came out
of the store. We meet several other people who were just out in their
yards, gardening, painting, or working on their car. We stopped and
talked to everyone who we passed by, but most of them weren't too
interested. Quite a few of the homeless people we talked to were
just trying to give us hard time and wanted money from us.
Particularly Frederick and Jason. They thought that we were Jehovah
Witnesses the entire time and were trying their very hardest to bash
with us. Then we told them that we weren't, so they then thought we
were Catholics and continued to give us a hard time. We told them
that we aren't Catholics either, that we are Christians. They then
both realized their mistakes and quickly apologized. Jason
especially, he kept apologizing over and over, and kept asking us to
forgive him. He told us that he didn't mean to hurt his fellow
brothers. We left them with a prayer afterwards. We continued on our
way. So we headed over to Sister Williamson's and waited in her car
porch until she got home. Where we then got water and said a prayer
with her, trying to get some referrals, but with no luck. It wasn't
until we started biking to the Fonua's when we finally meet someone
who is interested. She saw us biking by and called out to us, asking
us if we would be able to come by on Sunday to help her take some
couches and other furniture out to the curb for the trash to pick up
the next morning. We got her number and address, and told her that we
would be there Sunday night to help out. We then biked up to the
Fonua's because it was getting late on time. We had such a good lesson
with them in helping them to understand the importance of prayer. We
talked a little bit about the plan of salvation since they had
questions on why God would take their brother Allen, and also a four
year old nephew. We committed them to daily prayer individually, and
with their family, and promised them blessings of peace and comfort as
they do so. They are a really promising family to be working with.
David wasn't there tonight, so we talked to Kayla and Siosaia, and
also Kathina. All three pitched in quite a bit, and Siosaia said the
closing prayer for us. It was so great to listen to him pray we a
real desire.
September 6, 2014 -- Saturday
This morning we had ward correlation at our club house. This was the
very last ward correlation that Elder and Sister Greenwood are going
to be here since they leave on Wednesday. When Sisters Skeem and
Vanderhoff came walking in, you could tell that something was up, and
that Sister Skeem had been crying. I guess that they had exchanges
with the STL's yesterday, and that their car was semi dirty with Book
of Mormons and a purse that had been knocked over and all of the
contents had fallen out. So the STL's reported back to President
Cusick, and now President Cusick is taking their car away and making
them be on full bike now. They didn't get any warning about any of it.
Sister Skeem was is a little bit stressed out about it all. Since they
will now be on full bike, Sister Skeem asked me if I could help her
fix her flat tire so that she would be able to ride it, so we went
over to go and help her out. They will have to be getting rides from
members more than ever before. I kind of see it as a blessing in
disguise, because now it will force the members to step up and help
out. I think that they will now become much more involved in
missionary work now. The rest of the day was pretty much spent out in
the sun finding all day again. I am really getting tired and
exhausted from doing this every day. We didn't have any luck getting
any new potentials, but we did have some good conversations with a few
people today. The first one was with a man named Tom Washington. He
was super nice and really cool, just like all African Americans are.
He is also a coach of many teams, and has taken them to nationals
eleven times while coaching football. His son, who we saw but didn't
meet is the head basketball coach at SCF. Tom is a strong believer of
Christ, and talked about how great it is that we are helping others to
come closer to him. Tom helps kids in a correction facility with
rehab from drugs and helping them to have a more structured life. We
made it up to the Fiefia's because that is were I felt like we needed
to be. We didn't have a lesson or anything prepared, and had no clue
what we were going to share with them. In the end, it didn't matter
because they weren't even home. But if wouldn't have traveled up
there, we would have never meet with Tom, and then we would have never
meet Andy and Carol as well. Andy was working in his front yard
pulling weeds, and I stopped and told him how nice that his yard
looked. I found out that he is a biker as well, road and mountain, so
I asked him if the were any good trails nearby. I already knew my
answer because Florida doesn't have mountains, and there are very few
dirt trails, but it was a good conversation. His wife Carol came
walking out of the house and was super nice when she saw us and she
went inside and gave us some water. They weren't too interested but
what was really neat is that they asked us about the Bauers, and if we
knew them. There name had been talked about a lot in ward council
lately and because the are members that live in our ward boundaries
that are going to the Bradenton church, but we were told just to leave
them be. Anyways, Treighton Bauer just so happened to be hanging out
with their son. They went inside and told Treighton to come out for a
minute. So we finally got to meet him. He told us that he is going to
the Bradenton ward but just found out that they are supposed to be
going to the UP ward. I know that it was no coincidence that we meet
him this evening, and that it is really important to follow the
promptings of the Spirit. The last lesson of the evening was with
Justin. We started off with reading from 2 Nephi 31 and we didn't get
more than five verses done when he goes off on a totally different
subject than from what we were reading. His mind is always all over
the place and jumping around so much. Tonight he went off on telling
us about Buddhism and other spirituality things. We tried to commit
him to coming to church but he already has plans for the next two
weeks. He did tell us that everything is always pointing him back to
this church, yet he won't do anything to act on those promptings.
Like reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.
September 7, 2014 -- Sunday -- Fast Sunday #13 -- 13 Month Mark
Fast and testimony meeting was great this morning. It started off
with four really strong testimonies by great ward leaders in the ward.
Bishop Leedom started off, followed by Mark Parisi, Justin Su'a, and
then Paul Schulte. All four of these guys I just absolutely love and
they are so amazing. I wish that Justin could have made it so that he
could have felt the power of the Spirit in that room. It was
incredibly overwhelming. Guess what, Sister Innes made it to
sacrament meeting with her kids. This was the first time in eight
weeks that she has been to church, so it was really great to see her
there. It was the Greenwoods last Sunday here at church, and Sister
Greenwood wanted to make a fuss about the members not feeding the
missionaries and helping us out. So Brother Schulte in Priesthood
today kicked us out of class. As a missionary, I have been kicked out
of homes and other meetings, but Priesthood meeting was a first for
me. He talked to the brethren about signing up to feed us meals or
bring us food. Food is great and all, but what we really need help
with is finding more people to teach. Hopefully this will help get
things rolling in the ward over the next few weeks. After church we
went and had dinner with Brother and Sister Eberle. We didn't really
get a chance to have a lesson or anything, but we did talk about the
member menu with them. Brother Eberle then took us over to Flo's
house to help us move her furniture out to the curb. Elder Gherkins
and I first met Flo while biking and she stopped us and asked us for
help. Hopefully we can go back and meet with her again and start
teaching her. We then biked up to the Innes' and had a good lesson
with them as well. We watched the Bible video" He is Risen" with
them, but we cut the lesson short because Jason wanted to get to his
Broncos game that had started.
September 8, 2014 -- Monday -- Zone Development Day
So today was a another great preparation day although we didn't have
time to get anything done. We only had about on hour in the morning
to get emails to President Cusick (Sorry family for not emailing last
week, didn't get enough time to write) before the Bradenton Elders
picked us up for Zone Development Day at the Sarasota church. So for
the p-day with the whole zone, there were forty missionaries there.
We started off by breaking off into groups and playing ninja, then
trying to get an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth, (which I
completely failed at) and playing signs. It was a lot of fun. I got
to visit with Elder Westover again, and got to meet quite a few other
missionaries as well. Sister Calder was there, and I think that she is
going home pretty soon. I got to meet a bunch more of great
missionaries, Elder Wing, Sister Day, Sister Baugh, Sister Schaumkel.
They are all really fun missionaries that I would love to hang out
with after my mission. They just make everything so much fun. We
played some fun games of soccer outside in the hot humid heat, and
volleyball inside. I love playing group games that get everyone
involved, even if I am not that great of a ball player, I still love
playing. We also had a white elephant gift exchange in which we gave
away a fishing cast net. It was quite an enjoyable preparation day,
but I am looking forward to having a relaxing day where I can take a
nap for a little bit and actually get a chance to email my family. We
were supposed to back inside of our apartments by 8:45 but Elder
Coleman and Elder Gherkins had lost their phone somehow at the church.
So we stayed there for a little while searching for it with out any
luck of finding it. They decided to give up and head back home. We
still hadn't done our shopping by this point yet, so we made a quick
stop at Aldi's for milk and a few things. We then took them to their
apartment and had to rush home to make it back in time before 9:30.
Brother Sweat then called us and told us that he had a bunch of
groceries to drop off at our place. We meet him downstairs and he had
quite a few bags of food for us.
September 9, 2014 -- Tuesday
It was an amazing day today. It started off we cleaning the apartment
because we didn't have any time on preparation day yesterday because
of the Zone Development, so during lunch I started cleaning up the
apartment and doing a deep clean of the bathroom. It feels so much
better to have a clean apartment. We then had planned to go and visit
with Sister Tyler. We talked more about the member menu and committed
her to go and meet her neighbors by doing something nice for them. We
then started to head down to a less actives home, but I felt that we
needed to go to this park that we were passing by. There were two
guys in a pavilion that I went up to and asked if we could share a
short video about Jesus Christ with them. We showed them Because of
him and got talking to them for sometime after that. Their names are
Garry Phillips and Reuben. Reuben is a Cuban and likes to talk a lot,
half of what he is saying you can't understand what he is even talking
about. Garry was a drug addict, but has been clean from that for
twenty five years now. He now only smokes cigarettes and drinks beer,
and wants to quit doing that. So we got talking to them and Garry just
lost his son to the government recently, and so he is working on
trying to get him back. He really wanted us to pray with him about
his family situation he is in. We introduced the Book of Mormon to
him, told him of living prophets and apostles, and a little bit about
the plan of salvation and what happens after we die. He was loving
all of it and said that he believes in the same thing that we do, and
thought that it is amazing that there is a prophet in the earth who
leads and guides us today. We got his contact info, and we will meet
up so him later this week at the park again. He asked if he could
bring a few friends and told him to bring as many people as he wants
to. He committed several times to reading and praying about the Book
of Mormon to find out if it is true or not. I can tell that he is a
guy of his word and that he will do just that as he does read from it.
This is one of the blessings after dropping six not progressing
investigators this morning. We were probably talking to him for a
good 1.5-2 hours, and it didn't feel like it was that long. We then
went to dinner with Brother Walbom at Woody's BBQ which is a really
good place to eat at. He is a really cool guy and has everything
planned out really well. He is going to Leecom for dental school
right and and loves to fly planes. His wife is up in Ohio for the
next few months finishing her schooling, so he is down here on his
own. To go to the temple he flies to either Orlando or Ft. Lauderdale
which only takes about 45 min instead of the 2.5 hour drive. I'm glad
that we got the chance to get to know him better, and to start working
with him to see if we can't teach one of his roommates he is living
with right now. We the headed over to the Fonua's and had another
great lesson with them. We followed up on their individual prayers
each day and most of them had been keeping them. Kathina talked about
how it has been helping her to feel more peace during the day.
Siosaia told us that he does have to go back to jail for a little
while in about a month. He has at least 28 months right now, but says
it will probably be closer to 5-7 years by the time that he is
finished with his court cases. He knows that he has to pay for what
he has done, but he is going to use his time while in jail for good.
He is going to go to school, lose 70 pounds, stop drinking alcohol,
and reading the scriptures and praying each day. I will have to see
if I can contact him when he is released to see how he is doing. He
committed to coming to church if Kayla isn't working, and so did I
David and Kathina. They all love having us come over to visit with,
and today we introduced the Book of Mormon. None of them have ever
really read it before, so it will be fun to teach them and see them
gain more faith in Jesus Christ. I am really loving this family right
now, and they are one reason that I hope that I don't get transferred
at the end of this month. The last lesson of the day was with Kyle on
Skype. He is doing pretty well and is planning on coming down here to
Florida next week with his mom. He told us that he has a Baptism date
set for something in October. We read through Mosiah 13 to help him
better understand what is going on in that chapter. He seems to be
doing pretty well. So to sum up the day, it was an incredible day and
it felt so nice to be busy during every hour of it. We had some good
success and things are about to come around for the University Park
Ward.
September 10, 2014 -- Wednesday -- 400 Days Out
So this morning was spent with finding down in Sarasota. We meet Enez
who was waiting at a bus stop. She is Episcopalian and we gave her a
copy of the Book of Mormon. We had many good conversations with
people throughout the day, but nothing really lead to potential
investigators. We did have an interesting conversation with some
black people who were talking to us about racism. I not sure a what
their point was all about. We also meet a guy named Tray Day and gave
him a Book of Mormon as well. Hopefully we will be able to talk to
him on Facebook and try to visit with him again. Debbie and Marie
told us about a pizza night at the front office today, so for dinner
we went there and it was pretty fun. We got to talk to a bunch of
people that we see throughout the apartment complex. The last lesson
of the evening was with Brother and Sister Innes. We read throughout
"The Living Christ" with them, and then talked about faith and hope.
Sister Innes told us about a very vivid dream that she had about a
month ago. She said that it was about moving to Enoch, UT, which would
be super cool if she did, but she doesn't like the snow all that much.
September 11, 2014 -- Thursday
The 13th Anniversary of 9/11 today. Nothing to different from any
other day. We went and tried contacting a bunch of less active
members but found out that they had all moved away and have been gone
for some time now. We did have a lesson with Gene Strattman reading
through Alma 48 today. (He said that he was going to write you a
letter, so be watching for one, I know that he would absolutely love
it so much if he got one back) We did visit with David and Siosaia
today in their front yard. Sio had been in another court case all day
and said that he could now be facing up to twenty years in jail. He
is pretty distraught about it all, but he knows that it is something
that he is going to have to face if he wants things to start working
out better for him. Hopefully he can find a good lawyer to help him
lower those years, because I can tell that he is a changed man, and
just wants to be there for his family. I really hope that I can stay,
or at least get back in touch with him again. He tells us that he
feels something different when we come over and visit with them. They
have been doing well on praying everyday on their own, and have seen a
difference now that they are. We also went and visited with Liz Perez
for a few minutes, and we found out that the Bradenton Elders hadn't
visited with her since the last time we came by. No surprise there.
She too has been praying every day and really wants to understand the
Book of Mormon better. She expressed to us that she has been trying to
have a family home evening, but it is difficult for her to get things
organized with her family. We told her that all that really matters
is just to spend some quality time with her kids and husband.
September 12, 2014 -- Friday
We did a lot of finding and biking around up by Sam's house this
afternoon. Probably not the best place to go finding because there
was like no one outside to talk to. We did find this really cool park
though and tried talking to the few people that we saw there. So at
Sam's, we showed him the video Earthy Father, Heavenly Father, and
talked about reading the scriptures. We asked him what he is now
working towards with work, and he said saving up for a mission, I
know that he is in a very tough situation right now with his family.
So keep him in your prayers. We were about an hour early before we
were supposed to meet the Horth's, so we went over to see Sister
Stoddard and get a picture of her member menu. She is doing great
with her missionary work with her neighbors, and wants to check off
every box on the member menu list. That is an awesome goal that no
one else has committed to yet. At the Horth's, we went and had
dinner at Subway, which Elder Hicken likes a lot since he used to work
there and it makes him feel at home. Then we headed over to the
Manatee vs. Naples high school football game. The high schoolers all
look super small and young. I can't believe that I was just starting
my senior year in high school two years ago. We left right after
half time after the Horth's granddaughter dance routine. It was
pretty cool to watch because Manatee has a huge band, and they did
field marching for half time. I was hoping that drumlins would be
performing on their own but they didn't. Oh well.
September 13, 2014 — Saturday
This morning we had our monthly meeting with Bishop Leedom at his
house. He made some really good eggs for breakfast for us. We spent
time talking about our investigators and members that we are working
with. Bishop Leedom is really fired up for missionary work, and he
really wants to get the ward members involved more in finding and
teaching nonmembers. He talked about how he thinks that the reason
that the Sisters no longer have a car, is so that it gives the members
a chance to be stepping things up with missionary work. Both Elder
Hicken and I had the same feeling as well. We then headed out to go
and visit with Garry, but he ended up not being there at the park, and
wouldn't pick up his phone for us. Hopefully he just forgot and isn't
trying to avoid us. We will try again to set something up for next
week. We then had some spare time to go and find, I wasn't feeling
anything particular but Elder Hicken wanted to go and try Indian Rock
Beach. We parked down the road a little ways and started walking
towards the beach when there was a guy on the other side of the road
talking on his cell phone. His name is Anthony and he just moved here
a week ago from Texas. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and
gave him a copy of it. He is living in Salvation Army right now, but
we set up a time for next week to come back and tell him more about
it. The next people we talked to kind of caught us by surprise. It
was Marcus and one of his friends Shawl. Shawl is an interesting guy
that you can't listen to for too long, and won't answer any questions
that you ask. So Marcus was there but we didn't get to talk to him as
much as we would have liked to. He has read a little bit out of the
Book of Mormon and said that he would call us if he wanted to come to
church again with us tomorrow. I know that it was no coincidence that
we ran into him again. We then quickly left to make it to a pass off
lesson in time with Sister Trebotich and Sister Day. They are now in
the Sarasota ward instead of the YSA ward. The guy we were visiting
with, his name is Benjamin. I feel like he is so ready for baptism,
and I am looking forward to meeting with him again. He is super fun to
be around, and likes to crack jokes. The lesson was a little bit too
long, but it was really good because we got the chance to talk about
the restoration of the gospel, and to show him a few things in the
bible that he didn't know about when people like Moses saw God face to
face. Benjamin said that he would be at church tomorrow, so I am
looking I forward to seeing him there. We then went and had a quick
dinner at Wendy's before heading over to go and visit with Calvin
Bryant. We wanted to keep the lesson short, so we showed him the
Earthy Father, Heavenly Father and talked about it some.
September 14, 2014 — Sunday
I love Sundays so much and going to church to be around all of the
members. All of the investigators that we had committed to come to
church today, not one of them showed up. The Fonua's, Benjamin,
Xavier, and the Innes family didn't come today. Sister Innes also
canceled the lesson for this evening on us because she said that she
was feeling sick. Kind of a disappointing day on that part. Other
then that, all of the members are wanting to feed us and come out on
splits with us. Brother Weldon and Brother Horth are both coming out
with us on Tuesday. Hopefully we can get some appointments set up so
that we can actually go and visit some people. This evening, the
Sarasota elders called us and asked if we would go and give a blessing
Brother Peecher again. He is the one that is staying in the hotel
that we went and visited with Elder Greenwood.
Today is another one of those preparation days where it would be nice
to relax, but they sprung a surprise meeting on us this week that we
have to be at today. I don't have much time to write so I just copied
and pasted most of my journal. Thanks for the emails and letters.
Hopefully I will be able to get to them and have some time to write
them next Monday. Loves ya all tons!!
Love Elder Leavitt
Sent from my iPad
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Mom