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.
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
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