Dear Family and Friends,
This past week has been amazing, and it was such a great blessing to
be able to talk to you all on Christmas! I am so blessed and grateful
for how much love and support that I have from back at home. Thank
you so much!
On Tuesday, Elder Farley came on exchanges with me to St. Petersburg.
We also came out to the mission at the same time, so it was a pretty
good day, other than all of the lessons that we had canceled on us.
We did quite a bit of walking, the most that I have done in a long
time, and it was a really hot and humid day today. It was a little
miserable, and I was hoping that a little rain would come through to
cool things down a bit. Everyone that we seemed to talk to today just
wanted to bash with us. Especially these two baptists guys that were
mowing lawns. They were trying to tell us how it's only by grace you
are saved, and that you don't need to be baptized. The two scriptures
that I wanted to respond with "Faith without works is dead", and "If
ye love me, then keep my commandments." They wouldn't listen to a
thing we had to say, and they were just trying to preach to us the
entire time. We still had a good time together with street
contacting, but that really isn't the most effective way to find
people. Later on in the eveing, Brother Owen came and picked us up
and we went to visit with Charley for a hand off lesson with the
Seminole Elders. The Seminole Elders are now Elder Coleman and Elder
Brandon. Elder Coleman was talking about how he has been out for eight
months now, which I think is crazy because I remember his first day in
the mission field, and I can't believe that he has already been out
for that long. Anyhow, with the lesson tonight at Charley's, we went
over the baptismal interview questions to make sure that he wouldn't
need a special considerations interview. He passed, and now I don't
have to be stressed out with trying to getting President Cusick or
President Healey to come out and do an interview because the Zone
Leaders can now get it done. We had some really good discussions based
off of the questions like Thomas S. Monson being a living prophet and
the law of tithing, both of which we haven't gotten a chance to go
over yet with him.
For Christmas Eve, we started off with a fun district meeting. Elder
Stephens had a creative activity planned where we had to wrap someone
up in wrapping paper and decorate them. We ended up being the winners
with wrapping Elder Farley up since he is the smallest in the group!
After District meeting, we went and had lunch with Elders Farley and
Anderson at Streak-n-Shake which was pretty good. We also had an
awesome dinner with Sister Linda Bui and her nonmember son, Michael.
Brother Owen is the best member missionary in the ward, and he came
with us to the dinner. As we were eating, we taught the Restoration
lesson and answered a bunch of Michael's questions. We then showed
"He is the Gift" which they both loved and enjoyed. Michael had to
leave dinner early to go to a church with a bunch of his friends. He
seemed really interested in learning more, so we will definitely
follow up with him. After dinner, Brother Owen dropped us off at the
church to get our bikes and bike home in the rain. It's only about a
mile bike ride, but we were drenched by the time that we got home.
So Christmas was such a good day. So Elder Stephens is an amazing
companion. He bought me some pants from Bealls, and when I went to
try them on, they ended up being way to small for me. I bet that I
looked pretty funny with super small pants on. For lunch, we went to
Kevin Secrest's house with his family and we watched Bear open up all
of his presents that he received from Santa. He is only three years
old, and he was having a pretty good time opening up all of his gifts.
Mary and Bobby Gill, Kevin's parents also gave me a give. They gave me
a blue University of Florida Gators jacket, which I think is really
cool. We then had an awesome Italian dinner at the Hesse's home. Then
afterwards Sisters Abbott and Swisher read "The night before
Christmas" in their Texan accent. It was so great to be able to talk
to everyone on Christmas. That was by far the best gift that I got
was being able to talk to my family!
Friday morning, Elder Stephens and I were talking about how many
priesthood blessings that we have given since we have been companions.
I don't think that we have missed more than two days without giving at
least one person a blessing, I love the Priesthood so much, and I know
that it does truly bless the lives of others. The first one was to a
member from the Bradenton ward who was in the hospital. That sure was
quite an interesting experience there. Since then, we have given one
to Sister Swisher, Donna Starks, I gave one to Elder Stephens, Bruce
Plumely, and that night we also gave one to Kirk Xamongkongh.
So guess what else happened? Charley got baptized yesterday! I was so
blessed that he asked me to be the one to baptize him! It was such a
great experience, and both Charley and I enjoyed every single moment
of it! I did make sure to get pictures before hand, so I will add
them at the end of the email. I made sure that Elder Stephens and I
even wore our matching ties. (But I just realized that we didn't get a
picture of us wearing them together. I was thinking that we did
because of the pictures of the baptism, but I was wearing a white tie
instead) Anyways, back to Charley's baptism. There was such a great
turn out of people who showed up to support him. It was awesome.
There are so many people in the Seminole Ward, and we met Mark Jones
who used to be a Seventy, and he was given that office by a guy with
the last name of Leavitt, so that was super cool. Sister Nielsen, she
gave the talk on the gift of the Holy ghost, which Elder Brandon
confirmed to him in Sacrament meeting right after the baptism. We
didn't' get to stay for it because we rushed back to the St.
Petersburg church hoping that we could make it back for the Sacrament,
but we made it there right as they were passing the water out. I felt
bad about being late to that, especially when you have President
Cusick and the rest of his family attending. The Spirit was so strong
during the program, and Charley seemed to enjoy every minute of it.
Charley even bore a strong testimony about how he was able to come to
the truth of everything for himself. He talked about his Jewish
background and how it was so similar to his beliefs that he had
before. He also talked about his three previous wives and one
daughter who had all passed away, and then meeting Kathy Nielsen.
Charley is 74 years old, and now feels as if he has found the truth,
and that God has been preparing him for this this his entire life.
Charley did end up coming to the St. Petersburg ward after he was
confirmed a member in Seminole. Sister Nielsen had the lesson for
Relief Society class, so she had to be back for third hour. Church
was also pretty amazing, we had two investigators show up. Jessie who
is a big black guy that has a big beard, and Taylor, who is twenty
years old. Taylor referred herself online this last week, and we
invited her to come to church and she did. She absolutely loved every
minute of it, even with being overwhelmed with so much information all
at once. You will probably be hearing about her over the next few
weeks, and I think that she will be baptized pretty soon. She is
praying about a date for herself right now, and she wants to be
baptized. I am super excited to visit with her again and to help her
grow closer to Christ.
I don't have too much time now, but I just want to end with saying
that I love you all, and I am so grateful to have such great family
and friends that support me.
Love, Elder Leavitt
