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
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