Parisi Family!!! 09/29/14 & Rained Out 09/29/14

Sounds like a pretty crazy week.  Don't worry about the cookies.  I still have a few bags that I will try out again.  I did have a fun time trying to make them though.  

Tell Lainee hi and that I miss her too!! I hope that she gets to become the Choir President. 

I can't tell you how sad that it made me to hear that Sister Warby passed away.  I didn't even get the chance to write her a letter yet.  :(   I will continue to keep her family in my prayers each night.  I am glad that you were able to help them out with food before she passed away.  You take great care of others when they are down.  Have you seen the new mormon message, You Never Know.  It makes me think of everything that you do and the sacrifices that you make.  Somehow you are still able to make it to all of us kids events and activities.  You are a super mom,  and I I love you for that!

I'm also surprised that dad doesn't like spicy food as much anymore.  I am always looking for the spiciest thing whenever we go out.  One of the investigators, Justin Innes makes some really good chili verde salsa, and there are some members that make some mean fireball chili.  Really good!!

I would have loved to help you out with setting up and taking down the candle making.  I would have been on top of that for you.  :) I would have done the same thing that you did the two kids walking down in the cellar.  You got an added bonus also with scaring Lexie as well. That's awesome!  

It sounds like you have been getting some Florida weather lately.  That is all that we have had for the past two weeks.  Pretty much getting soaked to the bone from either walking or riding our bikes in the rain.  Just this week, I probably got drenched 5 out of the 7 days, and it was because he had the car and were traveling back home from Tampa.  I will send you a video of us going over the bridge from St. Petersburg to Sarasota/Bradenton.  Hopefully it works for you.

Kiera seems to be doing super well in cross country and running lately.  Two medals in one week. Great Job!  Tell her to keep up the hard work and she will do great with the rest of her races.

Loves Ya tons.  I'll tell you next week who my new companion and new area is.  But you will probably find out through Facebook before I get the chance.

Love, Elder Leavitt

 

 

Pictures 09/29/14

Parisi Family

Tampa Metro!! 09-29-14

Dear Family and Friends.

(Sister _, Sister _, Bro & Sis Greenwood, Elder Chase Leavitt, Elder Hicken) 

This week has been pretty crazy with interviews with President Cusick, Tampa metro, car getting towed, and transfer calls.  Let's just say that I am a little happy that it is all over now. After preparation day ended last week, we spent the rest of the evening stuck inside because of the rain/thunderstorm all night.  It would have done no good to go out in the rain trying to find people to teach because no one else would be out, and it's not worth getting sick over. So we just tried to set solid appointments for the rest of the week. 

Tuesday is when we had interviews with President Cusick.  I know that Elder Hicken told him that I had been here forever, and President Cusick told him that forever would be my entire mission.  President Cusick also mentioned to both him and I that the minimum amount of time that President Monson wants a missionary in one area is eight months.  and I have only been here for seven months so far.  Later on in the evening, we had lessons set with some investigators, and we were going to be on splits with members coming out with us.  We thought that we had a really good evening planned to get some member present lessons.  When we showed up to the investigators homes, they weren't home and wouldn't answer their phones, so we then helped the members with their home teaching lists and were able to get in with a really sweet older lady. I was with the 2nd Counselor (who just got called to this position a month ago), and he told me that he is moving out of the ward in a month.  It seems like everyone is always moving out of the ward boundaries here.  It also makes me wonder who they are going to call to be the next counselor, because all of the active high priests already have big responsibilities that they have to deal with.

Wednesday we did some more Facebook finding with sending messages to members. I love the youth in the ward, because they don't have any fear for sharing the gospel and are always giving us names of people that we can talk to.  We also had another lesson with the Innes family and watched "The First Great Commandment" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  They are excited for General conference to come around this week!

After weekly planning on Thursday, we found some more potential investigators.  We had a less active member give us a referral of one of his neighbors last week.  I don't know what to think of this guy, and he was just joking around when he told us to go and visit them.  We didn't want to ask ourselves, 'What if?" by not even trying, so we stopped by and showed them the Because of Him video on the front door step and talked about baptism.  They are very active Catholics, but they loved the message and said that we could come back again.  They also want to come to church to see what it is like to check it out.  I learned from this experience that I need to make sure to visit every single referral that we do get, even if we don't think that it is that solid.  You never know if they will accept your message about Jesus Christ until  you try, and who are we to hold them back from that opportunity.  We traveled up to Tampa for Metro, and first thing we did when we arrived is head straight into the city for street contacting all night.  We did get rained on pretty hard and got back to the apartment soaking wet.  We followed the AP's in to park our cars in the back of the parking lot where they told us that the visitors parking was, then we went in for the evening.

Friday was spent street contacting eleven hours straight walking around in Downtown Tampa.  The goal that we set for ourselves was to have 63 baptism invitations and 11 return appointments by the end of the day.  We were right on track until another big rain storm came through the city.  We couldn't do anything besides take cover for about an hour or two.  During those eleven hours, we did exceed our goal of asking people if they would be baptized.  We counted only those we had good conversations back and forth with.  We only got seven return appointments with people.  It just goes to show how ineffective that street contacting really is.  It's tough trying to get people's information so that you can go and visit with them again.  

After we finished studies in the morning, we packed our bags and headed out the door. Only then to realize that where we had parked the cars wasn't visitor parking, and that the two cars had been towed.  We parked where the AP's had told us to, and it didn't say resident or reserved on the parking space.  We found out that the visitors parking had white writing on the pavement, but with how dark it was and how hard the rain was coming down, you couldn't see anything.  We had to wait a few hours for Elder Jepson, who is the vehicle coordinator, to come and pick us up to go and get the cars. He told us that this was the 8th or 9th time that it has happened to missionaries cars when they come up to Metro.  The mission paid for the first few cars to get them out, but they were tired of having to keep paying for them so it came out of our own pocket.  So six hours and $220 later we got the car back.  it was quite the ordeal that I never want to deal with again. It put a damper on the rest of the day. 

Sunday morning we got our transfer email.  We found out that both Sisters in our ward are being pulled out.  This doesn't surprise me too much because President Cusick told me in my interview that this ward can't support two sets of missionaries right now.  I kind of saw this coming when they got their car taken away a few weeks ago.  So Elder Hicken is staying here in the University Park ward, and I am getting transferred to a new area.  I know that he is super thrilled about this and can't wait for his new companion.  I too, must say that I am ready for a change. I won't find out where I will be at next until Thursday at Transfer meeting.  Who knows? With how long I have been in these past two areas, this next area could possible be my last area of my mission.  I guess we'll have to wait and see about that.  So I didn't get to say bye to too many people at church today because we left early with a member to go and give a blessing.  But it was well worth it.  We had a super fun FHE with the Parisi family.  I love them so much and I am going to miss them.  We did a High and Low game during diner, and everyone's high was that we came over for dinner, and the low was that I was leaving.  They really are a lot of fun to be around.  We had a great lesson talking about missionary work and general conference.  They have quite a few people that they want to share the Gospel with and invite them to meet with us.  We also watched a bunch of Mormon Message videos and had some great dinner and dessert.

So that was my week.  This week is also going to be crazy busy with saying bye to people and going into a new area where I don't know a single person there.  It will be lot's of fun.

Love,

Elder Leavitt

"Ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men"  -2 Nephi 31:20

Eye Single to the Glory of God - 09/22/14

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a pretty good week.  It started off with a Combined District Meeting with the Zone on Monday.  That was why we didn't have much time to write any emails last week.  The Zone Leaders did a training on having a vision for our area and the number of baptisms that we want before the end of the year.   They also talked about working hard, and working smart.  Thinking about the opportunity cost of the things we do.  Later that day we dropped the few investigators that we did have, because they aren't progressing towards baptism right now.  We don't want to miss the chance of teaching someone who is ready to make those steps by spending out time with those who aren't quite yet ready to make those decisions.  Later in the evening we had an FHE with some members, and we challenged them to send the Because of Him video to a few of their friends on Facebook. 

Part of working smart is not spending four hours of biking around, and only getting two potentials. So this morning in one hour, we sent 80+ Facebook messages to members helping them to share the Gospel online because it is something really easy to do that doesn't take up any time at all.  The rest of the afternoon was spent with members.  Today we started splits with the members that will be scheduled weekly for them to come out with us.  We went and visited with Brother Strattman to help Brother Horth do his hometeaching, then he came with us to see Liz.  Liz is a mail carrier, and when Brother Horth came in, they recognized each other, but it took them a few minutes to figure it out. Liz deleivers to the Horth's house every Saturday, and Brother Horth is always waiting outside for the mail to come everyday.  So that was kind of fun that they were able to make that connection.  Later on we went to Tijuana Flats with Brother Walbom, before heading out to make a few other visits with Brother Weldon.  We had some set appointments set for this evening but one of them ended up canceling on us, the other lesson we had was with Anthony.  Anthony seemed like a pretty solid guy when we first met him last week, and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  When we met with him Tuesday night, he said that he had read all of it except the last six pages.  You could tell that he didn't read all of it, because he was hung up on the part where Nephi kills Laban. We wanted to share with him verse 13 in chapter four, about how it is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. He had already hardened his heart, and wasn't willing to listen to anything with an open mind.  He didn't want to hear a word of what we had to share with him.  He did say that he might pick up the Book of Mormon someday, so it's not a complete loss for him yet. 

On Wednesday, we had exchanges again.  This time Elder Coleman came out with me, while Elder Hicken went to Brandton with Elder Gherkin. It felt like a really short exchange this time, because all we did was bike down to a potentials house.  We had only gone about five miles away from our apartment when I ended up getting a flat tire on my bike.  He then ended up calling us to tell us that he would have to reschedule. He had just gotten off of work at that time and was waiting for the bus to pick him up.  He wasn't going to make it home in time.  We were able to get a ride back home from a less active member. I then got my tire fixed and we headed back out again to go and visit with the Innes family.  Tonight, we showed the conference talk by President Ucthdork, Grateful in any Circumstance.  Both Brother and Sister Innes Realy enjoyed the conference talk, and Sister Innes is excited for General Conference to come around again, as am I!!  I gave Brother Innes all of the sunflower seeds that you sent me in a package.  I don't really eat them, but he has been eating them to help him get over smoking.  He hasn't smoked any cigarettes in quite a while now, and he is doing great. 

Not too much happened on Thursday, just finding pretty much all day after weekly planning.

Friday we had more finding and had a lot better success. Which was surprising because it was raining pretty much all day. We got soaked quite a few times and there was nothing we could do about it.  Since we were pretty much drenched to the bone, we went to the Walmart parking lot and took some umbrellas with us.  We would hold the umbrellas over people who didn't have any with them.  They were really appreciative of the help, and we had fun doing it. 

Lot's of finding this week. There isn't much else to do until we build up our teaching pool.  We do have some good potentials that we are going to follow up on this week that we meet on the street.  We are trying to get the members more involved, but not much is happening with them at this moment. It does feel like things are starting to click with them about how much that we really need their help. Things are changing slowly, but hey, it's heading in the right direction now.

I love going to church at the end of every week. We had some investigators and less actives that committed to coming, but no one showed up to church who was committed to.  I was glad that I could be able to enjoy my Sunday, because I really needed it to give me a boast though this next week. 

Just for a scripture thought.  One of my favorite scripture verses (You'll learn that I have a lot of favorites!) is 2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light afflcition, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

I love you tons!!! Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers. 

Love, Elder Leavitt

RE: Rampin' up in September!- 09/22/14

Yeah, sorry about just sending you my journal and not my thoughts or anything.  I just haven't really been in the mood, or even had the time to write these past three preparations days.  What did Elder Hicken's mom talk to you about?  I've sent them a nice letter about their son a few weeks ago, but I know that it didn't receive the greatest response from them. 

Kiera should be ready for state by the time that she has ran the region course a few times and with those dinners that you have coordinated!  ;). That's awesome.  It's fun that Lainee wants to do the tough kids triathlon as well.  I think that I really want to get into triathlons when I get home, they would be way fun.

That is so sad to hear about Brother Bray, I will keep his family in my prayers. As well as the Coop family.  Especially the Ingalls as well.  I've got a good long list of people who I can keep in my prayers each night.

That is so cool that you got to participate in the rededication of the Ogden temple.  I told dad that I was jealous, and that I can't wait until I can go to the temple again.  Less than 10 months now and I will be able to go! :)

Loves ya tons!!

Love, Elder Leavitt

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 22, 2014, at 1:50 AM, Makayla Leavitt <leavittmakayla@hotmail.com> wrote:

It was good to hear from you or at least your journal to see how things were going for you the last two weeks.  I am glad that you have been busy that way.  I was very happy to hear that a member brought you some food.  That warmed this ol'mom's heart!  I did share that with Elder Hicken's mother and also the part of Elder Hicken's prompting to go to Eagle Beach and meeting that person there.  I told her that I was happy to hear that my son was working with an Elder that listened to promptings and followed them.   My prayers were that they feel warmth from another Elders family and that my Elder (you) recognized him (Hicken) as doing good things in your companionship.  You are a good Elder and a good trainer Elder Leavitt!  I just know it!!

RE: Flood, Wedding Dreses, Run Dance! -09/22/14

I did try out one of those cookie bags that you sent. The Heath cookies and they did to turn out to well. The brown sugar/sugar had some really big clumps in it, and I didn't use enough butter.  So they didn't turn out too well.  I think that I have just lost my ability to bake, bur maybe I will try again in a few weeks.  I also tried some of those "To Go" emergency pack foods, and those are nasty.  Just the smell alone is awful.  I don't think that I will try making them again.  I tried the chicken cheddar rice and it leaves the worst aftertaste in your mouth.  I do like the protein shakes though. I don't know what one is my favorite because I like all three.  I usually put in a banana in the blender as well with it and sometimes some strawberries, and that helps a lot.  Just the shake alone with no fruit, I would say that the vanilla or chocolate fast the best.  I so like the protein shakes tho, so that would be a good thing to send out. Just don't send anything until after general conference weekend.  I have a feeling that I will be getting transferred this next week.  I will be really surprised if I don't.  I'm ready for a change of companions and areas.  I have been here to long and feel like there isn't much left for me here, and I am just getting discouraged and a little depressed these last two transfers, so I'm ready to start fresh in 

a new ward.

When does Lexie's musical start playing, I would love to see her in her play.  I'm sure that she will do great in it.  I think that it is way neat that there have been so many new courses being ran this year for cross country.  It would have been so cool to run up at Brian head.  Thanks for sending me pictures and videos.  I love them so much.  

I can't believe that Andressa is now in the MTC. That is so cool.  I'm glad that she was able to do a good job at her farewell talk, and that she has such great family support.  

Thanks for the prayers. They are really helping.  Hopefully things will go well with interviews with President Cusick tomorrow, and also with going up to Tampa from Thursday to Saturday for metro again.

Loves ya tons!!!


Sent from my iPad

On Sep 15, 2014, at 1:41 AM, Makayla Leavitt <leavittmakayla@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hello Elder Leavitt!!!

How ya doin' this week?  Because family & friends have been around there have been more questions and thoughts of concern for you!  It's great to have people ask about you and your well being and to know they are thinking of you!  Have you tried out any of the cookie packages?  I wanted to know if that was any fun?  If it was great to have warm smelling and tasting cookies in your apartment?  Any report back on the protein shakes?  Remember to shake them up super good.  A blender would be good to get the chuncks but if not throw a couple pieces of ice in for a little help on the break up there.  

Monday Lexie had her CCR this week with the school counselor and she told him that she wanted to be a vet or in drama.  It was fun to sit there and listen to her plans.  Then we'll see where her goals take her!

Rains continued from the few on Monday and then it just really came down!  In buckets and buckets!  We received down the rivers was more than they have had for a long time and so yes, the water did overflow the banks and cause flooding. It was so much that Dad left work and helped with the flooding and medical.  Some of the XC kids wanted to run/swim down the xc coarse and Kiera stopped them In their tracks saying; "see down there? That's my dad just waiting for someone to get in to this pond and yell at them to get out.  I'm not going in there to get my butt kicked!" Only 2 girls attempted and they did get yelled at to get out.  Haha!  Our house and street were fine. Lexie made it on the Suessical Musical and I was happy that Grandpa Ferron helped to pick her up from school.  It helped me feel better as I saw the rains come down while I was at work.

Weds was YW and the Mia Maids planned a wedding fashion show.  Kiona Cox did a fabulous job! She got her grandma Jill Ence to come and speak about the qualities of a husband and not settling for anything that's not on your "list".  Then the girls modeled their mother or grandmothers dresses.  Kiera wore mine, Lexie wore a coo-workers of mine & Lainee was the un-official "fluffer" of the dresses (since she's not 12 anyhow!)

Thursday we talked about going to the rodeo.  But plans were diverted.  it was a super stressful day at work anyhow for me and then dad ended up having to EMT the PV/SC games this evening.  They were to start in the afternoon but didn't get going till a lot later -hence ending later too- due to a bank robbery at Zions bank on 700 S/RiverRoad (that's by Harmon's just up the street from Grandpa Dennis')  The robbers took 2 bank tellers hostage in their car and then sped through Washington Fields and along the river beds.  This put all schools on lock down for a while.  Some schools didn't let their kids out for about an hour but some here at their schools till almost 7pm- like your cousins Savannah, Sam & Ammon & Sabrina.  After several shots fired and they tried to run on foot they apprehended on man and another man was killed.  Scary & sad.

Friday Kiera headed up to Panguitch Lake with Coachs Bently & the Varsity runners.  Coach hosted an overnighter to gain unity and talk game for getting to State.  Kiera needs to keep up and stay ahead of that 7th spot so when (not if) the girls go to State she is not the 8th man out.  When Dad & I got home we loaded up an overnight bag with Lexie & Lainee with some dinner and muffins and went to the cabin.  We invited Thom to go with us and he brought his 2 boys and 2 girls as well.  His oldest Jaden was running JV at Brianhead too in the morning.  It was fast- too fast but fun.

Saturday we drove over to Brianhead to watch the xc meet.  It was a beautiful day for running.  The temps were good, no headwind like you had when you ran.  Hills were still there and that slowed people down about 3-4 minutes.  Kiera came in 6th!  Dad & Thom found a great trail to perch on and got some really cool running pictures with the leaves in their changing colors!  It too was too fast to leave as it was a beautiful day!

But alas, Kiera was anxious to get home and go on her date with Ben for DHHS Homecoming.  They played some group games and went to a part for a shaving cream fight.  Then they all got ready for the dance and dinner.  We were like paparazzi as we had Myron & family here to see her get picked up, Erdmann grandparents & Cassie & Grandma Peggy and Dad & I followed them around for pictures!  I posted them on FB and was happy of all the comments we got!  She was so happy and beautiful!! (missed all the Leavitt boys as they were out hunting for an Elk for Braden. He has a tag he needs to fill and the boys want to help him find a good one!  Reports back that they only saw 1 doe and 1 baby.  No antlers.)

Today was busy in that we started with "Preach My Gospel" reading.  Then I went to BYC.  Then we had the Primary Program.  Lainee is the last one of our family there.  Crazy!  You should be able to see her last program if you are around next year!  oooo these transitional life phases I don't transition too well!!!

After YW was over we raced over to Andressa's farewell, had a dinner with them afterwards.  She did a very good job.  She will be set apart on Tuesday morning then they are traveling up to Provo  to be together as a family for the day, then she goes into the MTC this weds.  She seems quite excited and I am sure she will be a wonderful Sister Missionary.  I hope she stays warm enough!!!

Then we came home to get ready for a Trek wrap up Fireside.  It was done very well and entertaining!  Afterwards Lexie was questioning the missionaries.  She said that Elder Ridd reminded her of you and she just kept talking on and on and making sure he had his appointments in line and his planner ready to go!  She was cute!

Now onto a busy week ahead.  Lots to do, lots of wants to do and too much work to interfere with it! 
I hope you got the pictures I sent you.  They sum up the busy week.  Really this will be a good week.  I think and pray about you and your companion quite often.  I hope the spirit is able to be with you as a team to teach others the gospel and that they may feel the spirit and the link with our Heavenly Father! 
Keep up the faith and the good work!  Know we love you more!!!

Mom

Zone Development Day!! 09/15/14

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

RE: Happy Birthday Week! -09/08/14

Loves ya tons mom!!!

I did get the birthday package in Tuesday.  It came right on time.  I just wish that I would have opened it up first before I blew up the rest of the balloons that came in other letters from people.  It would have been nice to have the balloon pump for this balloons. :). I think that there were 92 balloons altogether.  I blew them up and read the message the best that I could.  It was actually easier to read them when it was deflated.  My hands were black by the time that I was done tho because of how much ink smeared off. I didn't tie them up or anything, that would have taken way to long for me to do that.  Thanks for the fun creative birthday messages.  I had a feeling you had a something to do with it as soon as I got the first letter in the mail, I could tell that their were balloons in it and nothing else.  Plus the rest of the letters that came after were all the same.  I did get grandma Leavitt's cookies and they were delicious.  I sent her a postcard for her birthday told told her thanks for them.  I had an enjoyable day.  It was spent out finding on the street all day without too much luck.  Pretty much sums up the rest of the week also.  We did have one lesson with an investigator and he just went off about his past and his ex wife, and doesn't want to let it all go.  It was an interesting lesson, but that was pretty much my day.  I can't believe that you have been working at Richen's for 3 years now.  I'm glad that they treat you well there.

That is awesome that you have been spending time with Carol and hanging out with her. You will have to tell her hi for me.  I wish that I could go and see Tommy run in Tampa.  That would be way cool. Tampa is about 60 miles north of where I am right now, so it's a little bit to far to travel.  I know exactly where it is at tho, and I have walked on that campus before when I went to the Downtown Tampa Metro back in February.  I know that the AP's will want us to go again sometime soon, because they called us last transfer but we could go because of appointments. 

It sounds like it has been a pretty good back and forth battle for Kiera and Camry.  That's sort of how it was with Adam and I.  I will have to train with Kiera when I get back and help her with one one time.  She will be faster than me tho with how out of shape for running I have been.  I cant do the type of running that I want to be doing out here.  The treadmill is just to rough and no fun.  I thought that my knees would start to get better after two years of not running, but there are still some days when thy bother me some.  

So my eyes and teeth seem to being okay right now.  I can't ever wear contacts because they make my eyes it to bad and become blood shot.  I try them about twice a month wearing them for a few hours, but I have to give them a long break in between, and I don't like that too much.    In trying to eat healthier foods.  What I need to do is find a good protein that I can take each day.   Other than that, things are going great for me.

Thanks for the prayers, and I love you mostest!!!

Love,

Elder Leavitt

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 8, 2014, at 1:33 AM, Makayla Leavitt <leavittmakayla@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hello Elder Leavitt!!!

Did you get your package on Tuesday or did it come past your birthday?  I have been hoping it came on your birthday but knowing that it wouldn't really matter cause you would use what's in there any time. Grandma Peggy wanted to know if you got her cookies too?  She thinks that they are probably bad every time she sends them.  I told her that they probably weren't and that you are happy that they come anytime!!  She gets super stressed that they aren't just right for you.  Did you have an enjoyable day?  I was praying that you really would meet some new contacts for a super good gift.  Did that happen?  Could you read the balloons?  I know it wasn't much but we had fun having people write you notes and thinking about you!

The 1st of September also marks my anniversary with Richens Eye Center.  I have been with them for 3 years now.  My how time flys! I was hoping by now we would be out of our debts but I feel that we are just scraping by just as before.  Crazy sick!  And life goes on.... happy and blessed as it is!  Thank you God for that!

So Monday being Labor Day Dad & I enjoyed the time at home with the girls.  They played with a few friends and we were super lazy and it felt pretty darn good.  I should have done some more things around the house but they will still be there when I get around to it.  The week continued on busy enough so a lazy day is okay.  We did pick up flags for the holiday that evening. 

Tuesday had piano lessons and Kiera had XC Dixie meet out at the Bloomington park.  It was super hot today.  They even delayed starting by half and hour so that it could cool down a little bit, but that didn't happen till later.  Kiera ran and was doing okay but on them next loop around I could tell she was super red and hot, probably getting dehydrated.  And she was.  She said she was dry heaving on the course and she hasn't ever done that before- usually at the end.  She was about 2 minutes slower than her normal time.  She still came in 7th place on the team however.  I believe she didn't tank enough O2 before the race and then getting overheated kicked her in.  She ran it at 25.48.

Wednesday Keira had Aunt Carol and Grandma Gloria help her fix up sleeves on her new prom dress.  And it looks really good!!
YM/YW played Bigger & Better (Laurels in charge)  I must say I am not good at being in charge of these things and thinking that I have thought through everything and then realize I don't have the answers for everyone's questions.  The Laurel Pres (Sadie) didn't show up so I made Addie help me- cause I haven't played this before.  We broke them into 5 groups with leader drivers.   Gave them each a magnet and they were sent to other areas to trade their magnet for something bigger or better.  Bart Smith quipped that he was just going to go to his house and he had a ton of things that would  make it so his team could win.  So I sent his group to Ivins.  He looked at me like "Are you seriously kidding me?"  I know.  It was mean. I  seem to always find a run in with Bart.  Not sure exactly why, but I do.  In defense, I did send another group up on the heights and another group over to Country Lane (down by David's house) and only one group stayed here in our ward area so that we weren't all on top of each other.  So after 30 minutes we all returned with crazy things like a bike, carpet, suitcases, traffic cones, elliptical machine and even the Esplin kid on loan.  At that point I realized that everyone wanted a declared winner.  Dang!  How do you judge that????  Of coarse, as I tried to get everyone to vote on what they thought then they all voted for their own.  So I told them it was the homeowners that got rid of junk and have fun with that then told them to eat the rice crispies.  Didn't go over very well esp. with Wyatt Parry who ALWAYS has to win!  sheeezzz!

Thursday we were going to get a foreign exchange student for a week but they had some fall through so we didnnt'.  My work had an appreciation night at Tuachan to see "Joseph and his amazing Technicolor dream coat"  I was able to get enough tickets for our family.  Kiera ended up not coming due to Special Needs Mutual and missionary choir; so we took Grandma Peggy for her birthday celebration instead.  IT was fun.  I was made aware that there were several co-workers that didn't know the Biblical story of Joseph and so they were having a hard time understanding the show and it's spin-off's of the story.  I did find it in my iPod and sent the story to them and where they could find it.  Told them this was their scripture reading for the night! 
Kiera answered Ben at singing tonight.  WE had fun putting cupcakes together with messages in them that said "game on -yes- Kiera"  and playing cards on top with No Joker;  the King that stole; the Queens heart; now be an Ace and find the answer inside!  It was cute, but when he came to choir he brought a different girl with him and Kiera felt super awkward giving them to him and he was kind of ignoring her because he had a girl with him.  So needless to say, she wasn't thrilled on how it was delivered and as much as they say they aren't together I know it broke her heart that evening. 

Friday Lainee started Drum Corp with Mrs. Boyle.  She retired last May from teaching and choirs.  The new teacher teaches orchestra early morning so she in unable to do a Cougar Choir and Drum Corps.  Lainee has been sad about that almost every day since school started.  Well, I don't know what changed but Mrs. Boyle is back for Cougar Choir and for Drums!  YES!  Lainee is super happy!!! 
Kiera rode on the bus to Timpview for XC for the weekend.
I finally talked dad into going to the movies with Lexie and Lainee and myself.  I have wanting to see "Maleficent"  all summer and now it's at the cheap theatre and I had discount tickets on top of that!  And the show was as good as I had imagined it!  So much so that I went to see it again Saturday night with Carol Ingalls and Kiera!  (Carol had some discount tickets too!!!)

Saturday Trey was Baptized.  Our family did not make the drive up to Ogden as Dad needed to be back to work at 6pm in Ivins Ambulance.  I heard it was nice and Brian also blessed Ashlyn too.  Then all the Leavitt's up there went to Lagoon for the rest of the day.  There is no way we would have had the dollars to go to Lagoon and the girls would have lamented that so it's a good thing we didn't drive up. 
Kiera was running at Timpview.  They were running 3 heats; 1-Varsity; 2-JV1; 3-JV2.   All split by times.  Kiera was notified she was to run the JV1.  She was blown away.  At the last meet she came in 7th team so why?  After I talked to her and told her she needed to talk to Bently- she did.  Pyper Schmutz who has only ran a couple of races was faster than she and Camry.  Camry and Keira had only a 1 second gap.  Camry got it.  So Kiera knew she had to run a good race to show that she deserved to be there!  And she did!  She started off really good and was the lead of the whole pack until she made a wrong turn and that cost her 3 people passing her!  She came in 4th overall and that put her 6th in team times.  This time she beat Camry by 40 seconds.  Camry was not pleased and did not speak to her the whole bus ride home.  oh sheez again!  Kiera ran 22.50. 
I spent the good portion of my day at a woman's expo with Carol Ingalls.  She won free tickets so we went together and had a blast.  I came home made dinner, waited for Kiera to get home/shower, sent dad off to work at Ivins Amb, told girls to wash hair and went to movies with Carol and Kiera.  It was a good day.  (Oh and I took Candy for a walk in the morning too and even jogged a little bit.  yes, yes I actually lifted my feet, and yes I am sore today!)

Today was Stake Conference and there were good talks given.  Dad was in charge of medical for the conference again so he was down there early.  I saw Ethan Grant and went to talk to him.  I told him that you said hello and that he has been in your thoughts and prayers since he left.  He said he is doing good.  He is working at Kai'ilis down the street (that Bassos own, Hawaiian restaurant where Grandma Toblers used to be on SC drive.)  He is saving money to go to college at Dixie in January.  He said to tell you hello as well. 

The picture I sent of Tommy was his 8k run in Tampa.  He will be running at the University of Tampa on this Friday the 12th.  I have no idea how far away or anything that is for you, but here is the address 401 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa FL 33606.  His run is scheduled at 6pm, Girls usually run first. 

I hope all is going super good for you and your companion learning well.  How are your eyes?  How are your teeth?  Are you finding good foods to eat?   ......What other mom questions can I think Of?  hmm.....
Know that we are praying for your investigators and the wonderful people down there in Florida with you!  Share your spirit!  You have always had a kind and loving spirit!  The world needs to know that God granted you with this spirit to share! 

love love love you tons!!!!

Mom

RE: Quick Q & A- 09/08/14

I don't know what the mission home address is.  But the mission office address is 13510 N 42nd St Tampa, Florida 33613 United States.  I must be honest, when you were going to sing for me at 10:08, I didn't even realize what time it was until a little bit later, and I was devastated that I forgot all about it. I really am sorry.  

Most of my list is to family members, so I kind of need to write them back.  It took me long enough to respond to Kiera's letter.  I just am always procrastinating on writing and I need to stop so that I can stay caught up with journal entries and letters.  Thank you tho.  I hope that I have time to do it soon, because today we have zone development day starting at 1, so I don't have any time to do it today.

Thanks for you love and birthday wishes.  I had a great week.

Love your adult son,

Elder Leavitt

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 1, 2014, at 2:45 PM, Makayla Leavitt <leavittmakayla@hotmail.com> wrote:

10:08pm Florida time- It's your birthday and that's where you are at!!!  We will be singing at the tops of our lungs at 8:08pm Utah time!!!

I did not get to pie Kiera and Lexie too much.  Threw some at them but the YW together were each others demise!!!

IS the address on Maybre Street the mission home where Pres & Sis Cusick live?  IF not then please find out that address and let me know what it is that I may hopefully mail them a Christmas card. Thanks!

Don't worry about writing people back so much.  I will send on your wishes and good thoughts if you want to send me your list.  Most people realize that you are focused and busy doing the Lords work.  That is what a mission is.

Keep following the Spirit to where you need to be.  Even the acts of service show a lot!  The seeds you plant are innumberal and you may never know when they bloom and it may not even be in this life here.  Keep planting.  It's always planting season!!

Love you- my soon-to-be-an-adult-last-day-as-a-teenager- awesome-Elder!!!

Mom

Florida Tampa Mission-Emails & Letters- 08/27/14

Dear Brother and Sister,

Thank you for all that you do to support your missionaries.  We know that hearing from family is very important to all the missionaries. 

We do need your help.

While hearing from family each week is important, we need you to only e-mail your missionary once a week.  If possible, send your e-mail on Sunday evening each week and it will be there for your missionary to read on Monday.  It is very hard for the missionaries to receive messages from family and friends during the week.  This can cause them to suffer from homesickness and makes it hard to concentrate on the work that they are here to complete.  Our missionaries carry iPads so they are constantly reminded of personal e-mails coming in through the week.  In some cases we are required to have missionaries give up the iPads due to being a significant distraction.  Taking their iPad has worked well to eliminate the ability to become distracted daily but hinders the missionary work.  It is also hard on them to be singled out.

It is also wise to limit e-mail to immediate family members.  As noted below from the Missionary handbook, e-mail is authorized for family.  Missionaries still love getting regular mail.  If you truly want your missionary to be able to focus on the work and reduce homesickness, ask friends to stick to once a week and regular mail is probably best.  I understand this is hard for some but if you want to completely distract a missionary from missionary work, just have their boyfriend or girlfriend send daily e-mails.

Please understand we are doing our best to take care of your missionaries.  We love them.  We want them to be happy here.  The best way we have found to do that is to allow them to become fully engaged in the work.

Thank you for all your support.

………………….

From the Missionary Handbook - COMMUNICATING WITH FAMILY

Write to your family each week on preparation day. Limit correspondence with others. Share your spiritual experiences. Never include anything confidential, sensitive, or negative about the areas where you serve.