Dear family and friends,
These past two weeks have been so busy, so I'm sorry that I didn't write anything last week. This email will briefly go over the crazy things that have happened since I lady wrote to you all.
So last Monday, I get a phone call from the assistants while shopping at Walmart, and they asked me if I would be willing to go to Port Charlotte. I guess a missionary there was going home, and they needed me to go and fill in for him. I really didn't want to leave because I loved the New Tampa area and Elder Wing and I got along great. We were just getting to know the members there and had some good working that was just getting started. Later on in the day, I received a phone call from President Cusick asking me how tough that I am? He also asked me how I did in St. Petersburg when I was being trained by Elder Whaley. President Cusick then told me that I would be going to St. Petersburg with Elder Ware. I still didn't want to leave the New Tampa area, but I was more excited than before. Elder Ware is a hard working guy, but now I can see why President asked me how tough I am, because sometimes he is pretty difficult to get along with. The rest of the day was spent packing my bags since I would be leaving first thing Tuesday morning. His companion was only out in the mission for five days before he went home. I guess that Elder Ware has had a hard time with seeing companions go home, because out of his five companions he has had, three of them went home while serving with him.
They ware is super excited to have me back, and I am thrilled to be here again. I always thought of how cool it would be to go back to my first area, but I never did think that it would actually happen. Since I have been here for the last two weeks, we have set six baptism dates. It has been so great to see how well the work is going here in this area. The two most solid dats set right now are with Felix and William. They have changed so much since we first started meeting with them. They came to church yesterday, along with four other investigators. I sent you a picture of them both. Both of them absolutely loved coming to church, and they are so ready to be baptized.
We have recently made some new changes in our area, and we decided that we are no longer going to spend any time street contacting. I guess setting aside to street contact, because we will still talk to everyone that we see. It's just not that effective. You want to be in places where people choose to be, instead of them being forced to be there. So we now just going off of referrals, and we have had some pretty cool experiences. There have been so many miracles that I can't even remember them all. On Saturday night, we went and saw a less active who hasn't been to church for a few months. Her name is Amanda, and her daughter Angelina was baptized not too long ago. During our evening planning on Friday night, we were trying to figure out who to go and see for referrals. We prayed about who to go and see and I felt that we should go and visit Angelina, and Elder Ware felt that we should go and see Amanda, so it just confirmed that we were supposed to be there. Before we go into her a persons home to ask for referrals of family and friends, we pray specifically to know how many people that we will receive from them, and we felt that we could get four. As we got out of the car, Amanda was just leaving on her bike to pick up Angelina. We grabbed our bikes off of the back of the car and went with her. We did talk to a few people, but no one was interested. When we returned to her home, we told her about the number of referrals we felt that she had for us, and then we said a prayer. At the end of the prayer, she said that she had four different names for us, and they were all families. I can testify that God never lies, because each time we have done this before, we have hit of succeeded the number we had. She called all four of those names right then and there, and set up times for us to come by and say a prayer with their family. We went and saw two of them that day, and set up return appointments. It was so amazing! After we left, Amanda called her sister to tell her what happened, and now her sister wants missionaries to come and visit her. Amanda then came to church yesterday for the first time in a few months, and she gave us seven more names of people that she wants us to go and visit with her! Amanda is the referral queen. It was really cool to see all of this happen, and to be part of the Lords Hastening the work as we work alongside members.
I love you all tons, and I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving week! Oh, almost forgot, be on the lookout for the new Mormon Message, "He is the Gift". It is super good, and make sure that you share it with everyone!
Love, Elder Leavitt
Sent from my iPad
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