Transfer #10!!!‏ - August 18, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week had been pretty good week.  On Monday we had a family home
evening with the Stoddard family and introduced the Member Missionary
Menu to them. They are excited to try it out and see what works for
them.  Tuesday was spent biking all over the place with not much
success with getting in with people. We biked about 15 miles up to go
and contact a media referral that we had received. We were on the
busiest streets in our area, and we didn't pass a single person on the
street to talk to until we were just about there. The guy that we
talked to, his name is Marcus, and he is quite interested in coming to
church to see what it is like.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and got
his contact info.  Hopefully we will be able to get to meet with him
again this week.  The media referral ended up being not interested and
didn't want anything to do with us.  So we went and had a great dinner
at Texas Roadhouse thanks to Brother Hansen who owns it. We also had
another great visit with Brother and Sister Innes were we talked about
Brother Su'a's youth fireside.  I am tying to get a copy of his talk
that he gave so that I can send it home to you.  He is the best
speaker that I have ever listened to.

On Wednesday we went and saw a less active member, probably for the
last time.  He isn't wanting to come to church and isn't keeping his
commitments.  His doesn't have his priorities set straight right now
in his life.  We will just let the home teachers continue meeting with
him for now.  Later on in the evening, we went and visited another
medical student whose records we just got.  Her and her husband are
really nice and sweet people.  They do come to sacrament meeting but
leave before the closing prayer. So hopefully we can try to get the.
To stay longer because we really need them here at church for the
other two hours.

Thursday evening we spent an hour at the Fiefia's home.  A Tongan
family that just moved from Utah.  I couldn't map out their family
tree with all of the relatives that they have living nearby.  We are
always meeting new people and it is difficult to keep them straight as
to who is related to who.  They are the best and I love visiting with
them.  We had a fun time with the kids reading from Book of Mormon
stories. Then they gave us some really good home made bread that was
still hot.  It was delicious.  After that lesson we went and visited
with on our our investigators, Justin.  Brother Weldon came with us
and this was his first time ever going out with the missionaries since
he was baptized. It was really good to have him there. He shared a
really strong testimony about prayer and about how he was able to find
out that the church was true.  Just a short rundown of his experience,
it is pretty crazy, sort of. He kept on praying to know if the church
was true and he didn't feel like he was getting any answers to his
prayers.  Then one day he was in a store and saw a package on the self
that contained four crazy eight balls in it.  He then had this idea,
but then he thought that he shouldn't do it. He did anyways.  He asked
God if the church was true and shook the crazy eight balls.  All of
them came up with answers such as "yes", "no doubt", "absolutely",
"totally". He then went home and prayed again asking if that was his
answer and he felt that it was.

Then on Friday we went and visited with two less actives, both of them
in care homes. We then had an enjoyable dinner at the Eberle's home
and presented the Member Menu to them as well.

Saturday morning we went fishing on the old skyway pier. I've heard
that it is the longest fishing pier in the world, and you can drive
out on. It used to be an old bridge that a barge ran into and
destroyed, and now they have made it for people to fish off of.  We
had a elders quorum activity that Jason Innes was able to make it to
with his son Christian.  We had a really good time being fishing.
Brother Hoynacki caught the most, which was only three fish.  I at
least got on the board with catching one.  No one had any luck
catching anything with the bait fish, so we all pretty much ended up
going back to using shrimp so that we could actually feel like we were
doing a good job catching something.  Most of the were just pin fish.

On Sunday we pretty much kidnapped Brother Conway for the whole day.
We had him come out with us at 10am to go and visited Aura, another
investigator we are working with.  Brother Conway shared a great story
about how he and his brother grew up in the same circumstances, but
they both made different choices that effected how their life is now.
It was pretty much spot on for what Aura needed to hear.  He then came
with us after church to give a blessing to a single lady, and didn't
make it home until 6:30pm or so.

Today I had to say bye to Elder Peterson, he is going home tomorrow.
His companion, Elder Coleman will now be with us until Thursday when
he gets his new companion. So we will be in a trip companionship for
the next few days.  Hopefully all goes well with that.  Elder Coleman
just barely got done with being trained.

Love,
Elder Leavitt

Sent from my iPad

Year Mark!!!‏ -August 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has had plenty of ups and downs, and we now have a lot of work to do this week.  Some of which I wish that we didn't have to worry about. I will explain it more in the letter.

Monday we had a FHE with Brother and Sister Balle.  There son Dawson wanted to play the Wii for the activity.  We got through two holes of golf on it.  I must say I forgot what it is like to play the Wii, but we had fun playing golf with them.  Brother Balle is the Elder's Quorum president, and he is a great member missionary.  He is always looking for different ways to make investigators feel welcomed.  We have a fishing activity this Saturday morning that he planned specifically for fellow shipping. I am looking forward to it. Tuesday wasn't too much of a productive day for finding.  It was pretty discouraging not being able to talk to too many people.  

On Wednesday after District meeting, Elder Coleman came on exchanges with me again.  Elder Coleman and I went and visited pretty much the same people who we went and saw last time that he had come with me, so that was pretty fun.  , Elder and Sister Greenwood picked us up to go visit with Sister Milankovich. She is 97 years old.  It is always great to have them at lessons with us, and they are really good at fellow shipping and sharing their testimonies.  We went over baptism and putting our faith Christ pretty heavily with them.  Melanie loves the church but finally showed one of her concerns about the church dictating and forcing people to act a certain way.  She told us that if she wanted to be baptized that she would have by now.  We also showed them the video, Rescued by Christ, and how they can seek for his aid in their life.  Elder and Sister Greenwood are leaving in the middle of September, and they have a farewell talk at the end of this month in sacrament meeting, so they committed Melanie and her mom to come. The one lesson that was different then this last time we were on exchanges was with David Fonua, and we had a pretty good visit with him. He told us that he put in his two week notice for where he is working at right now. He has Sunday off of work, so we committed him to come to church.  David also told us that his brother Si is now living with them and is trying to change his life around.  They have had contention between them in the past, but David wants to have a better relationship with him and so that his son can like wise with his uncle.  We showed the video "The Savior wants to forgive" and he enjoyed watching that.  We then biked down to Freddy's for dinner since we had some free coupons for food.  Than we biked bike for a lesson with the Innes. Jason was too busy with work tonight, so we just had a good evening visit with sister Innes and having a one on one time with her.  We just,talked for a good amount of time on different subjects, and we shared with her one of my favorite videos, "Moments that Matter Most" and "Expressions of Love". She absolutely loved both of them and wants to now share them with Jason.  We then gave her a good size list of more Mormon messages to watch that she would enjoy watching over the next few days. She just needed a spiritual lesson night.

So Thursday was my year mark.  I can't believe how fast that time flies by. To celebrate, I didn't really do anything.  It was just another day of missionary work.  We had a dinner appointment with the Goertzen's, new members who just moved into the ward.  We had a good member menu lesson with them in helping them to do missionary work in a new area. They shared with us some of the successes they had while living in England and in Utah. We had a good visit with them and their you kids who are a lot of fun.  We then left and biked around trying to find people to talk to.  Didn't have to much success with that, but we were able to see a beautiful sunset.   The sunsets and clouds here in Florida are gorgeous and incredible. I love seeing them so much. 

Friday was a pretty amazing day all around.  It started off with a card that Elder Coleman and I handed out to a lady walking with her two kids riding bikes when we were on exchanges. Yesterday we got a church headquarter referral for her.  She wants a copy of the Book of Mormon so that she can read it, and so that her kids can learn about it so that when they get older they can choose for themselves what religion that they want to join.  So we went over and dropped off a Book of Mormon to her, but she doesn't really want any visits right now at this point, but she did promise to read it.  We will check up we her in a few weeks to see if she has any questions because she doesn't want to be contacted too much.  I think that this is one of the first times that someone has called or requested an item from a card that I have given to them.  We headed up to the Horth's and somehow messed up the timing of it and showed up an hour later than we were supposed too.  Oops.   I'm not sure how that even happened and I felt pretty bad about it.  We didn't get too much of our lesson in with them, but we did talk about family history work and how they can get started on doing that.  On the way to the Horth's, as soon as we turned on their street I got a flat tire on my bike somehow.  Brother and Sister Horth were nice enough and gave a ride home with our bikes in the trunks.  So we got that fixed after returning to the apartment and finished our weekly planning from yesterday.  It didn't feel liked we got too much work done today but we were being effective with the time that we had.  After dinner we headed back out for finding for the rest of the evening.  We first talked to a guy named Russ Marquart who was walking his dog.  He is an older gentleman that worked with Hew Pinnock, a Bishop form Utah twenty years ago and he talked about how great of a guy that Hew was. Russ has been Lutheran his entire life, and just recently lost his wife.  We wanted to talk about the plan of salvation, but Russ got emotional and walked inside.  We will probably try to stop by in a few days to check up on him.  The Lord's timing of tonight's activities is incredible to see come together.  If we wouldn't have been there at a certain time or if we would have done this or that, things wouldn't have turned out as they did.  As we were biking along by Sister Hills house and handing out cards to people we passed by, we got a phone call from Sister Canulette and started talking to her about a bunch of things for this next week. Like going to give Sister Milroy to give her a blessing, and having Brother Weldon come out with us to visit Brother Denison.  We were talking to them for some time when a car pulls up to us.  Her name is Sister Farr, a member from Ohio who has two sons out serving missions right now. One that has been in Tokyo for a year and the other who just went to Atlanta, Georgia two weeks ago.  She told us that she is visiting her aunt  the street, and she was wondering where and when church is down here.  Sister Farr wants us to come by for breakfast on Sunday morning so that we can meet her aunt.  It was pretty cool how it all worked out.  It was getting late so we started biking home.  There was a Hispanic lady walking with her grandkids on the other side of the street.  I felt that we needed to go and talk to her so we did.  Her name is Maria, and she is raising her two granddaughters.  She asked us where and what time that church is and committed her self to being there this Sunday.  She speaks English well, but prefers to speak Spanish, so she asked if there was a Spanish time that she could go to.  She is a super solid potential, but I'm just sad that we have to hand her over to the Spanish Sisters, but I know that they will do a good job with her.  I know that as we exercise our faith, doing what we are supposed to, and planning specific areas to find, that they Lord will place people in our paths for us to meet. We just need to open our mouths to speak with them.

Saturday started off with Ward correlation and that took quite a bit of time out of our day. We ended up only having about two hours to proselyte for the day before we went to the Youth Fireside. Usually the middle of the afternoon is the most difficult time of the day to talk to people on the street, but during those few hours we spent finding done in by Martin Luther King.  We talked to Kevin who was super nice and he said he would come to church to check it out.  We didn't get any of his contact information.  We then talked to Terrance as he was waiting for his kids to finish getting their hair cuts.  We tried talking to him about the restoration and then the Book of Mormon. He didn't want to take a copy of one until he does some more research.  Hopefully he will look in the right places to look up information about the church because a lot of people find anti Mormon material on the internet. We then meet Larissa and Silas on our way home and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon.  They said that it would be alright if we came by again to help answer any questions about the Book of Mormon. Silas asks us why we have trials in our life, and I shared Ether 12:27 with them to see what things that the Book of Mormon contains about faith in Christ.  They seemed fairly interested. We then meet Angel, who I think might be homeless.  Anyways, she told us that her mother was a member of the church, but she hasn't looked into it too much herself, we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon as well and she was grateful for that.  She knows that God is watching over her and that is why we had the chance to meet up with her.  I hope that she too, will give us a call later.   The last street contact that we had was with Rodrick who was returning home from working at the new mall.  He lives in the Bradenton ward but said that he wouldn't mind having missionaries come over and talk to him. So we got his information as well.  The last few days we have done a lot better at street contacting and finding a few potentials.  I decided that MLK area isn't to bad of a place to be finding in during daylight hours, so we may try that area more often and won't avoid it as much as we used to. The youth fireside this evening was really good, and I absolutely enjoyed listening to Brother Su'a speak.  He is the best member and speaker that I have meet and listened to so far on my mission.  He is amazing at what he does.  Sam Gamboa was able to get a ride with Brother Conway.  I think that he really enjoyed it.  There were quite a few youth there from all six stakes that are in the mission.  Afterwards they had a huge dance for everyone that came.  I heard that they were planning on 150 people showing up but over 300 came. They had to order an additional 25 boxes of pizza later in the evening. Since the youth are starting school a week for this Monday, Brother Su'a talked about ways that they can be prepared to be ready.  Everything he talked about applied to any one in their life.  He listed seven principles that they can do, and the first one he talked about was receiving a priesthood blessing.  That we need to hear the word of the Lord for ourselves because he wants to speak to you. The next point is that if we want to start having a Christlike life, then you need to start thinking Christlike thoughts.  To demonstrate how what we think impacts the way that we act, he had all of us hold our arms straight out and close our eyes.  Then to imagine that you have a brick in your left hand, and that you have a feather in your right hand, open your eyes and notice the difference in height between the to imagine that you have a brick in your left hand, and a feather in your right hand, open your eyes and notice the difference in height between the two. We also need to focus on the things that we can control, and that it is okay to take a  beating every once in a while.  I really I wish that I had a tape recorder so that I could have his talk to listen to at any time, and that I could send it home to my family to listen to before they start school this upcoming week.   The fourth point was about living worthy of the Spirit.  We need to put on the whole armor of God, and use the weapon that we have been giving.  The sword of Spirit is our offense to use against Satan, and he wants us to be vulnerable when we drop our sword.  If we aren't worthy of the spirit, than we need to change, or repent of the things we have done.  The bishop is on the Lords team, and The Lord is going to win the battle. We need to trust the process and the Lord.  After that we need to aim high, and not be afraid of failing.  We will all fail at one point or another.

Sunday was a pretty interesting day.  It started off great with the breakfast with Sister Farr and her aunt Aura.  She had some authentic Hispanic food. She made some arepas, which is a lot like bread and really good.  Brother Davis ended up coming with us.  It was really good to have them there to help with the lesson. I just felt bad afterwards because his wife wasn't able to make it to church today since she didn't have a ride.    Aura had many questions and concerns about things like resurrection verses reincarnation. We gave her a Book of Mormon to read and told her that as she did and if she would pray about it, that she would be able to gain her answers for herself.  Sister Farr gave a great testimony about the Book of Mormon and how much that it testifies of Jesus Christ.  They did come to church today, but only for sacrament meeting before heading home.  I hope that they liked it and weren't scared away from one of the talks that was given.  I am also worried and concerned about a few other people now after what happened.  The speaker got up and started talking about fasting since that is was the assigned topic was on.  During her talk she asked people in the congregation to raise their hands if they had a temple recommend. There are a few other things that happened this week that I probably shouldn't mention.  Other than that, church was really good and I can't tell you how much that I love attending church meetings every week and being able to take the Sacrament.

Until Next Week,

Love, Elder Leavitt

Member Missionary Menu‏ - August 4, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been a pretty good week and a lot of fun.  We had a
good and fun visit with Sam.  He is still wanting to go on a mission.
He is a really great kid and has been coming out with us more to visit
people and come to appointments with us.  On Tuesday, we biked twelve
miles to get to his house so that he could come and help us pack and
move a few things at a less actives home.  He then came finding with
us for a little while afterwards and visited a few other members.  I
think that it was really good for him to come out with us and that Sam
really enjoyed it.  We visited with him again on Saturday night and
did some preach my gospel studying with him. I saw a book about the
Presidents of the Church on his shelf, and I opened it up to President
Hinckley and scanned through it.  What stood out to me was when I read
about his patriarchal blessing.  That he would bear his testimony to
the world. So after his mission he had already shared his testimony in
four capitals of the world. But now his testimony has been heard
throughout the world. We talked with Sam about calling the bishop to
have an interview so that he can receive his patriarchal blessing to
help him make decisions in life.

Also on Tuesday, we had our first lesson with Justin.  We found out
that he meet with missionaries before when he was living in Colorado,
so that is why he knows so much about the church already.  He wasn't
able to make it to church on Sunday because he had to work.  So
hopefully we can meet with him this week.

We had good lessons with the Innes' on Wednesday and Saturday night.
They are doing really good.  Each time, we have just been reading
thought the Book of Mormon with them.  Wednesday night, we gave Jason
a priesthood blessing to help him not be so stressed out about work
and family.  Brother Schulte, who is one of he best members ever came
with us to the lesson night. He is their new home teacher and got
along great with them.

We have started using the member missionary menu with a few families,
and I am really excited to see how it all turns out.  We presented it
to a few families, and they are all stoked to try a few of the ideas
out.  You will have to try a few of the creative ideas out and let me
know the results of them and how they worked out for you.

The other neat miracle that happened this week is that we got e
records of a less active who moved into our apartment complex a few
weeks ago.  He has been sick for the last week or so, but we finally
got in with him.  He asked us for a blessing and we gave him. He told
us that he has committed himself to coming to church each week now,
and that he would be bringing a friend with him who is going through a
rough patch in life.  It turns out that his friend that came with him
to church was one of our former potential investigators.  I hope that
they enjoyed church and that we can get in with them again.

There not to much more to update you on for this week.  I hope and
pray that all is going well for everyone at home.  Sending my loves
from Florida to you.

Love,
Elder Leavitt

 

FB stalker Mom! Aug 3, 2014

Because I am a FB stalker Mom on the Cusik Florida Mission page I found these fun pic's of my Elder!  My family may laugh that I KNOW- not think that that is the back of his head, but it's him!  And I get all excited to see him caught in pictures doing what he is doing- Serving the Lord!  Luv Mom- Makayla

Elder Leavitt & Elder Ronfeldt awaiting their new companions at transfers.

Unsuspecting new Elder Hicken to be Elder Leavitt's new companion.  Seated 2nd row, 2nd from the left with blonde hair and a dashing smile!

 Elder Hicken & Elder Leavitt

I spy Elder Leavitt helping Elder Hicken with his luggage!  See the blue tie!

 Now I know these Sisters are super cute, but check out the Elders walking in the door!  Yep! Elder Leavitt & Elder Hicken!  Yes!  I know the back of his head even though he has many hair cuts since I have seen him last!!!

Elder Leavitt & Elder Hicken in their shades!  Ready for work-  see that stack of pamphlets ready to go?!!

Pioneer Potluck + Many Great Miracles!‏ - July 28, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a slow start to the week, but the weekend definitely made up for all of it.  On Monday, we weren't able to get in with anyone. We stopped by a former investigators home and talked to the wife.  She was feeling pretty sick, so we told her we would come back again.  As we were biking through the neighborhood, the husband was driving around looking for us since he heard that we had just stopped by.  He found us and told us that he was going out of town for a work trip, but he would give us a call when he gets back to set up a time to come by and visit.  I have only been in their home once before, but they want us to come by, so hopefully we will be able to soon.

Tuesday was exchanges with Elder Peterson, the District Leader.  Elder Hicken went with Elder Coleman, who has been out for eight weeks.  They didn't have that great of a day because Elder Coleman got a flat tire in the morning on his bike.  They weren't sure what to do so they called us and we told them to go and walk around street contacting.  Elder Peterson and I went to a HT/VT meeting with the quorum presidents, missionaries, and bishop, and talked about ways that we can bring those numbers up from 25% home teaching and church attendance.  Hopefully this will help the members to see the importance of visiting others and showing the love and care for our fellow brothers and sisters.

Wednesday wasn't too productive other than district meeting.  Everything seemed to cancel on us or not be home.  And that goes for Thursday as well.  

Friday seemed to pick up some more.  We got to visit with the Horths.  Brother Horth has now gone 17 days without smoking a cigarette.  Sister Horth is still slowly cutting back, but doing better.  

On Saturday, Bishop Leedom picked us up along with Sisters Skeem and Upshaw to take us to the church for the Pioneer Potluck.  We had a great turn out of people and food there.  There were 70 people who attended.  Brother Paxton won the chili cook off with his special Mark's Fireball chili that was really good.  I thought that it was pretty spicy, and he told us that he toned it down quite a bit.  I told Sister Skeem, Angela Carreau, and Elder Hicken to try it, and they all hated me afterwards because of how hot it was.  I want to try Brother Paxton's normal chili.  Elder and Sister Greenwood made 8 gallons of home made root beer which I quite enjoyed.  So later that evening, I felt that we needed to head down south from our apartment to try and visit some less actives. We never did make it to their homes but now I know that we weren't supposed, we just had to be in that area.  This is one of the greatest experiences that I've had in finding someone to teach.So we were biking along and passed this stray dog on the sidewalk that had a collar on.  We kept biking by, but then I felt that we needed to go back and see if there were any phone numbers on the tags the dog had on.  I was thinking to myself that this could maybe lead us to a finding opportunity if we could find the dogs owners.  We called the numbers on the tags and nothing happened.  They were business numbers and they were all closed this time of the night.  So after a few minutes of trying, we decided to leave the dog behind and continue on our way again.  Before you know it, you see this dog sprinting down the middle of the road chasing after a motorcyclist. It tried nipping the tires as he drove by. The guy on the bike saw the dog chasing after him in his rear-view mirrors and pulled off to the side of the road.  We biked up to him and told him about what we had found out about the dog.  He tried calling the numbers also, but he didn't have any luck with the phone numbers.  So he let he dog go and when another motorcyclist drove by, the dog started chasing that guy.  We figured that the owner had to have a motorcycle with the way the dog acted around them.  Anyways, we got talking with this guy for a good 20-30 minutes after that about the church.  He lived in Colorado for nine years and found out quite a bit around the church there.  He also went and visited temple square to see what it was like.  He has quite a bit of knowledge about the Gospel already. Early that day he was in a painting shop and saw some guy painting a picture of Christ that he recognized from the Mormon church.  We got his personal information, and invited him to church the next day.  His name is Justin, and he came for all three hours of church yesterday and participated in every class and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  We have another appointment to meet with him tomorrow which I am really excited for.  Just to think, if we would have just kept biking by and if we wouldn't have stopped for the dog, then we would never have meet this guy.  I know that it wasn't a coincidence, that the Lord works great miracles everyday.  I've learned that we never should miss a spiritual prompting, and when we do receive one, that we need to act upon it immediately.  

That was the high light of the week and a great way to end it.  This week should be a great week.  We have Zone Conference with President Cusick on Wednesday which will be fun.  I will be hitting my Hump Day on July 30.  And we have a few dinners planned with new ward members to get to know them more and help them with member missionary work.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Leavitt

52 Weeks Left! July 21, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

To am pretty glad that this last week is over now and that I can start
fresh again.  It just felt like it was forever long.

On Tuesday morning, we went and helped the Goertzen's move into their
new home with Elder and Sister Greenwood, and the Sister missionaries.
We got everything moved in from the truck pretty quickly with all of
us there helping out. They are one of the many medical/dental students
that have just moved into our ward.  Later that day, while we were out
street contacting on our bike. We came up behind a young girl named
Kenia.  We accidentally scared her pretty badly.  It wasn't the first
time that I have scared someone by approaching then when they are
paying attending, and I know it won't be the last time either.  As we
got talking with her more, she looked at the back of he card that we
had given to her and she noticed that you can order a free copy of the
Book of Mormon.  She then told us that she saw this book on her
kindle, and that she just downloaded it so that she can read it.
Kenia and her mom are wanting to come back to church, and she said
that she wanted to check out this church to see what it would be like.
They didn't make it yesterday, but hopefully they will be able to make
it this Sunday.  We are also having a Pioneer Potluck on Saturday, and
we will invite them to that.  I am looking forward to this activity
coming up and it sounds like it will turn out pretty well even though
it was all just planned yesterday in ward council.  We will be having
a chili cook off, and Elder and Sister Greenwood are going to bring
homemade rootbeer.  Yum!  I'm excited for that.

On Wednesday, we had a Zone District meeting which was a lot of fun.
Elders Spach and Gross, the zone leaders did a training on how to plan
great lessons, then they brought one of their investigators in, and we
taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a zone.  It was pretty good.

The rest of the week was spent doing service for other, mainly helping
new members moving into the ward.  Then we have done a lot of finding,
with not too much success.  Brother and Sister Horth are doing great.
Brother Horth still hasn't smoked a cigarette in the last 10 days or
so since he received a priesthood blessing.  I absolutely love the
Horth's!  They are the greatest.  Sisters Skeem and Upshaw got the
letters from Kiera and they loved it.  Sister Skeem's grandmother just
passed away, and she asked me to give her a blessing of peace and
comfort.  It made me reflect on how much I have used the Priesthood
authority while I have been out here.  I have been able to be an
instrument in the Lords hands so many times to give blessings to
others and the Spirit directs.  This is what I spoke about in the talk
I has to give yesterday in Sacrament meeting.  I know the the true
priesthood authority has been restored upon the earth today. That our
leaders, the prophet and apostles, with this priesthood and keys that
pertain to it lead and guide the church today.  I still don't like
giving public talks in front of a lot of people.  Right after that, I
had to teach gospel principles class.  Luckily it was on an easy
subject, developing our talents.  So that wasn't too bad.  I just
really needed Sunday to come.  It was a great refresher and a great
start to this next week.

I wish that I could write more, but I have to get going so that we can
get our shopping for food done for this week.  I hope that all is
going well for you.


Love,
Elder Leavitt

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New Comp - Elder Hicken‏-July 14, 2014

 

Dear Family and Friends,

The last few days that I spent with Elder Ronfeldt, we went around saying good bye to a bunch of people.  We had a fun family home evening with the Stoddards.  Their son had his girlfriend over for games, so we got talking to her for a little bit.  Sister Stoddard invited her to take the lessons so that she can find out what has made her son the way that he is.  She said that she would think about it, but sadly, it won't be with us.  The Sister missionaries will be teaching her if that is what she wants. 

I don't remember if I told you about the investigator Paula, who we handed over to Sisters Skeem and Upshaw.  But she now has a baptism date for July 26th, so I am super excited for that.  She absolutely loves coming to church and loves the members there. 

So the big news. I now have my new companion who I get to train for the next eleven weeks.  His name is Elder Hicken, and he is from Orem Utah.  He is a great kid and is anxious to get to work.  Elder Ronfeldt is now up in Hudson.  Hudson in north of Clearwater in the St. Petersburg Stake. I bet that he is liking it up there quite a bit.  Very first thing that I did with Elder Hicken is weekly planning, and I hope that didn't overwhelm him to much with all of the names and issues of everything that is going on.  There is quite a bit to work to do in this ward and area.  Brother Hoynacki at ward correlation told us the percentage of home teaching for last month, and it was 14% of it.  Pretty much all of it was who we went and visited as missionaries, and they counted that as home teaching, which it shouldn't.  I was curious at the number of how many active members that we have in the ward, and there are 123 all together.  With 32 do not contacts and 70 people that no longer live in this area that need to be forwarded out of the roster. 

We've got rained on a couple of times this week and ended up getting soaking wet.  We have had great success in being able to talk to people out on the street and giving them Book of Mormons.  Hopefully we can start meeting with some of them again pretty soon.  On Saturday, we went and helped Brother Parisi move some furniture to Sister Hills home.  Then we went and visited the Horths.  They are both working on quitting smoking again for the second time, and they really want to stop so that they can go to the temple.  We had a good lesson about the atonement and showed a video of a College runner who tripped in a 600m race.  But she gets back up and not only finishes the race, but wins it.  We gave Brother Horth a blessing so that he can overcome this addiction and receive the blessings by doing so.  He is going at it cold turkey right now, and hasn't smoked for the last four days.  We then went and gave Sister Lazenby a blessing with Brother Gheldof.  She has had four surgeries since November for cancer, and has another one coming up pretty soon.  She has been super weak lately, but after that blessing, she was able to come to church the next day and stay for all three hours.  She was exhausted afterwards, but didn't have any pain.  She loved being able to come to church and see her kids that she teaches after missing them for several weeks.  I know that the power of the Priesthood was restored upon the earth.  Just from being able to give these blessings and to be an instrument in the Lords hands.  I felt the spirit so strongly as I was giving them.  I am so grateful that I can be worthy to be able to bless the lives of others as Heavenly Father places me in their lives. I think that it is so cool that we can trace this line of authority all the way back to Jesus Christ himself.

 

 

 

That reminds me of another thing neat thing that happened this week.  With some of the members here, the Carreau's, as they were doing some genology work, they found some Leavitt's in their line.  So at church they asked my about my family, and then they were later able to find out that we were related, and that we are 10th or 11th cousins or so.  I think that we are connected back up to Nathaniel Leavitt.

Another thing that we have been working with is almost all of the members being gone.  Yesterday we didn't have any bishopric at church, and I'm not sure if we will again this next week or not.  A lot of the members are traveling for months, being on vacation, or working.  There are a few really active members that are moving out as well.  Usually for Priesthood meeting, there are only 6 or 7 of us there.  That is High Priests and Elders combined, and the full time missionaries usually make up half of it.  But last week we had 11-12 people there, and this week there were 18 altogether.  This was the largest that I had ever seen Priesthood since I have been in this area.  Brother Horth stayed for all three hours for the first time.  It was great to have him there.  Then on top of that, there are about 6-7 medical students, some of them with families, that just moved into our ward for schooling.  The YM in this ward is going to double here pretty soon with just one of the families moving in. It is so great and exciting to see this growth in this area after so many people have moved away. 

Not much more to tell you about for this week.  I hope that you have a fun time on trek on Martin's cove.  I would love to go, so you will have to let me know how it is and send me pictures.  :)  Love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Leavitt

 

P.s.  Just a few pictures.  1) Really cool sunset on Saturday night.  2) The Stoddard family with Elder Ronfeldt. 3) Elders Peterson, Ronfeldt, and Coleman

 

Transfer #9‏ -July 7, 2014

Seeing a fun family on the 4th of July Celebration!

 

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was difficult trying to get into people's homes for lessons
because just about everyone is out of town, or super busy for the
Fourth of July.

Monday
We had a awesome family home evening with the Parisi family again.
They are one of my favorite families to be around.  The are really a
Christ family in their home of five girls, Marin (15), Morgon (13),
Megen (11), Macey (5), and McKinley (3). Macey was sitting next to me
when we were playing Bible Apples to Apples and was having a good time
and was asking for my help choosing every card. At the end she gave me
a great big hug.  She is so cute.  They love having the missionaries
in their home so that they can have a good example for their
daughters.  They asked us about what made us want to come out on
missions and why we are here. We had a great discussion about how much
the gospel has blessed our lives and what it means to us.  Brother
Parisi is wanting his girls to marry a worthy priesthood holder who
puts God before anything else, and is doing a great job at raising his
family in the Gospel with love.  They are also working with someone
who they want us to start teaching pretty soon.  Her name is Julie,
and we meet her at a sculling regatta where Marin was competing.  They
have invited her to church a few times and she wants to come, just
hasn't been able to make it yet.
Tuesday
We biked up to Sister Touchstone's and right before we arrived at her
house, Brother Hoynacki drove by us.  I guess he has been trying to
meet with all of the ward missionaries and trying to coordinate and
start setting things up with them.  Anyways, at Sister Touchstone's,
she gave us some watermelon and popsicles. We also talked about Sister
Biggs, who told me in gospel principles that she loved coming to
church this last Sunday with Sister Touchstone and feels a lot more
comfortable now.  She expressed how much that she has missed feeling
the spirit in sacrament meeting, and that she wants to have that
feeling with her more often now.  Sister Touchstone also brought two
nonmembers with her to church last week, Tammy and Christopher.  They
are now living with Sister Touchstone, and are complete strangers that
she toke under her wing. They just moved from Ohio a few weeks ago to
get away from drugs and are trying to Chang their life around. They
loved coming to church, and are planning on coming again. They really
liked Brother Su'a teaching Sunday school, and having the combined
gird hour with bishop teaching. Brother Su'a is a super great guy and
has a great knowledge of the gospel, and connecting with everyone.
Everyone here that knows him absolutely love him and his lessons.  We
are having a dinner with Sister Touchstone on Tuesday and we are going
to introduce the Book of Mormon to Tammy and Christopher.   This
evening, we were supposed to have a lesson with the Banerjee family,
but Kuntal had to stay at work late this evening so they canceled on
us. We will have to reschedule with them.

Wednesday
This morning we started off with district meeting and had a training
from Elder Peterson on how to introduce and help recent converts with
family history work.  Afterwards, we went and had lunch with Elder
Peterson and Elder Cooper.  They are on exchanges today.  Elder Cooper
is a pretty cool guy, and I wouldn't mind being companions with him
one of these days.  Anyways, we went down to Sarasota to see Leroy,
and we saw him on the side of the street. We had a brief visit with
him since he was heading off to lunch.  We found out that his friend
Eddy, who we have taught before in lessons with Leroy, just passed
away yesterday on the side of the road.  Not sure how, but Leroy was
having a tough time with that.  He is really trying to get out of the
place that he is in now.  We then went and visited with Brother Brown.
We learned that he is taking a health and nutrition class through his
doctor, and he had just gotten back and we were going to teach the law
of tithing , but felt that the word of wisdom would be more
appropriate. We talked about his experience learning about the word of
wisdom with his first set of missionaries. He has never had a problem
keeping the word of wisdom, and understands the great importance of
doing so.  He wants to help his boys understand more about it as well.
The rest of the day was spent at the dentists office, hopefully the
last time there.  Visit Number six I believe.  Dr. Aaron Leavitt is
such a great guy and so are his assistants.  They did a free cleaning
for both Elder Ronfeldt and I.

Thursday
We started off the morning with weekly planning and then spent the
remainder of the day with drop by appointments since we didn't have
anything set in stone. We went and tried to visit with Sister Biggs,
but it wasn't the best timing with her.  So we will try to see her
again in a few days.  We then went down and helped Sister Williamson
move some furniture around. She wanted us to stay for dinner win her
and Sister Tyler, but since there was no male present we were unable
to.  However, we did find out that she does know Calvin Bryant, a
former investigator we are trying to work with right now. We are going
to try to have another dinner where he can come over and join us.
Sister Williamson did give us some of her chili, salad, and watermelon
for us to take home for dinner.  The watermelon was definitely the
best part of it.  We drove by Brother Wilburns to see if he was there
for later in the evening, and he was standing on his front porch with
a great big grin on his face.  We think that he may have seen us.  So
about an hour later, we went to try to see him with Bother Curtis, but
he was no longer there.  We felt bad for making Brother Curtis drive
all the was down to try see him.  But since that fell through, we
tried to visit the Guminski's but they weren't home either, than
Bother Curtis wanted to try Sister Rosploch, but it wasn't a good
night for her.  As we were driving around, Brother Curtis was telling
us that he is moving at the end of this month back to Utah for his
next rotation.  We knew about this, and are greatly going to miss him
and his wife.  They are super fun to be around. He told is that the
doctor that he is working under right now, that he just found out that
she is a Mormon.  We got talking more and he said that he works in St.
Petersburg, so I asked him about this doctors name.  He only knew her
last name which is Oberbeck.  I asked him if her first name was
Jenisha. He said that sounded rights.  I know her from St. Petersburg.
She was one of the first people that I gave a blessing to late one
night with Elder Whaley and Brother Owen.  She is a great missionary
member with talking with her coworkers, So that was pretty cool to
find out that connection.

Friday
This morning started off with ward correlation up at Brother
Hoynacki's home.  The Sisters talked about Paula Obryan, who we handed
off to them earlier this week because we felt that she would be better
for them.  Paula is coming to church on Sunday, and has said yes to a
soft commit for baptism.  Elder Ronfeldt and I are a little sad that
we didn't keep her in our teaching pool, but we are excited for her to
come to church.  Sister Canulette gets along great with her, and we
felt that she would be the best person for fellowshipping. We talked
some about Harry Potter World, because Bro. and Sis. Hoynacki are
going there tomorrow to upgrade their tickets, so that they can go
opening day on Tuesday.  Sister Skeem is a huge Harry Party fanatic,
and she was so jealous that they were going.  It was pretty funny
hearing them talk about it, especially when Sister Skeem noticed a
picture of Hogwarts School on the wall, and when Sister Hoynacki was
showing pictures of it that she had taken of it herself.  The other
really funny thing that happened at that meeting was when Sister
Hoynacki was giving us the brownies that she had made.  Elder and
Sister Greenwood are on a diet, so Sister Greenwood said no that they
wouldn't take any.  Next thing you know, Elder Greenwood taking one
against his wife's will. You should have seen the look on Sister
Greenwoods face, and everyone just started laughing.  You could tell
that he was going to get it as soon as they get in the car.  After
correlation, we didn't have any appointments set for the day sine it
is the fourth of July.  So we had less active contacting to do.  We
weren't able to get in with anyone, but did find a few more names that
need to be forwarded out of the ward.  At one home, I was pulling up
in the driveway and there was a super small ditch.  We have a super
junky bike rack that we have and it feels like it is going to fall
off, but the tires of our bikes hit the ground and next thing you hear
is air hissing out of the tire.  We got out  and inspect the damage
and of course, it is my bike that has the flat.  The cause of it was
from the other bike pedals hitting my rims and spokes and scratching
them up, then it hitting the valve and broke it off.  There is no way
of repairing it, so now I need to buy some more bike tubes. In the
evening, we felt that there would be a lot of people on downtown
Sarasota for the fireworks.  So we headed down there for street
contacting.  There were quite a few people that we talked to and
handed out tons of cards.  Elder Ronfeldt wasn't in the best mood
because he hates being in large crowns.  We did have some luck talking
to people.  The first guy was a security guard that came up to us in
front Chase Bank.  He started talking about his research that he is
doing for a flag.  I wasn't quite understanding all of what he was
talking about.  I think that he is Jewish.  He told us that our church
had just creat a flag, but we are pretty sure that we haven't.  The
next family we talked to was members from Brandon ward.  Diana Sevigné
and her three daughters, and one of their boyfriends.  I guess the
boyfriend isn't a member, because Diana said he is going to start the
discussions soon.  Whenever they see missionaries, they like to take
pictures with them. It was fun seeing members there in e large crowds.
Most of the people weren't too friendly, and one guy told me to bite
him, which I thought was pretty funny.  The last people who we talked
to were Derek and Linda who were sitting in lawns chairs getting ready
to watch the fireworks.  We were biking by and stopped to talk to
them.  They asked us about what was different about our church. So we
explained the restoration and gave them a pamphlet that they could
read through as they were sitting there.  We talked some about the
Book of Mormon and how it goes along with the Bible.  It feels like
it's been quite a while since we have talked like that to anyone we
meet on the street, so it was a really neat experience.  We should
have asked for their information so that we can meet with them again.

Saturday
We started off the morning with our monthly meeting with Bishop and
had a great breakfast that Sister Leedom made for us.  We spent about
2.5 hours just talking about the ward and the people who we are
working with.  Afterwards, we went and visited with Leroy again.
Today we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tried to commit him
to baptism, but he didn't accept and shot it down.  He says that he
has been baptized twice before and doesn't need to be baptized again.
We explained about the priesthood authority being restored on the
earth again, but he was quite getting it.  We invited him to come to
church, but he also declined that invite.  He still wants to meet with
us so we will be coming back again tomorrow.

Sunday
This morning we got our transfer calls differently than we normally
do.  Usually we have a conference call Saturday night, then transfers
are Tuesday morning.  This time we got an email Sunday morning, and
transfer meeting in on Thursday morning.  There are 24 missionaries
that are going home.  Most of them are sisters because that is when
the influx of missionaries started.  There are 25 missionaries that
are coming out.  So you are probably wondering what happened.  Elder
Ronfeldt and I will no longer be companions.  We were together for
three transfers/four months.  Elder Ronfeldt is leaving University
Park after being here for his first seven months, and he is white wash
training a new missionary.  I too, will be training a new missionary
for the next two transfers.  It has its pros and cons, but it will be
good for me to train someone.  I'm not looking forward to it too much
right now, but I know that things will work out. We will have to see
how it all goes. Hopefully he is a cool guy.  The rest of Sunday went
really well.  I felt like I was able to have better connection with
the members than ever before, and that is one of my goals is to work
with them more this next transfer,  because I know that they have
friends and neighbors who are ready to receive the gospel into their
life. I know that this church is true and that we have a living
prophet who guides us today.  I am so blessed to see the miracles of
people accepting Christ into their life each day and it is something
that is really special to witness.  I love you all and hope that
things are going great for you.

Love,
Elder Leavitt



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