Dear Family and Friends,
This past week has been fantastic, there have been plentiful miracles and new people to teach.
Monday: We had a lesson with Christy and Ckova, two investigators that have a date set for July 18. Christy loves reading through the Children's Book of Mormon so much, and she really understands. She then goes and shares it with all of her friends. We also had a few street contacts.
Tuesday started off with a Zone Training with President Cusick. We talked about planning and sticking to the schedule. One thing that we have started doing about three weeks ago was planning for the entire week and not having any white space. Meaning that each fifteen minutes has a specific event, whether it be teaching or finding. Elder White and I have gotten fairly good at this for planning the week in advance to what streets that we want to be finding on, and how we are going to do it. We have started tracting again because we can't always be waiting on the members to find us people to teach, and street contacting isn't the most effective way. We also received another investigator that has a baptismal date set from a set of missionaries that got emergency transferred out of the ward today, so we went and had a lesson with her. The evening got rained out with a pretty cool lightning storm. I love watching the storms here and listening to the thunder.
Wednesday: Today we had a bunch of great lessons with returning members. Elder White really wasn't feeling too well today, so we didn't push it too hard. We did got and street contact without too much success, but we did have a neat miracle that happened. As we were walking, a guy in a car that drove yelled to us and asked us if we had a minute to talk. He then had his wife pull over, and we later found out that she didn't even know why. It turns out that she is a member of the church, and the husband isn't. He has taken the lessons before from missionaries and remembered the feelings that he had when he went to church, and he wants to have that back in his life again because he knows how important that it is for his wife and daughter. We then set up an appointment to go by and teach them on Saturday. In the evening we had our first missionary correlation with Brother Revoy and it was really great. He is excited to get started in his calling as ward mission leader since he has never had that position before. I am looking forward to working with him more often to, because he is such a great guy.
On Thursday, we went back and visited with Christy and taught her in her front yard. She was playing with friends when we first showed up, so they joined in the lesson. By the end of it all, we had about 15 neighborhood kids listening a participating. We were teaching about the ten commandments and showing them all hand signs so that they could remember them, and they loved it. It did get a bit rowdy with some of the older kids there, but I love teaching children because they are always so willing to learn new things. We also visited with a recent convert today and had a good lesson about how important that families really are. We also found out that her husband, Robert, wants to meet with us just one on one, and he doesn't want anyone else there. He has been to church three times now and loves it so much.
Friday: We received a church HQ referral for a lady that wanted a Bible, so we went and delivered it to her and introduced the Book of Mormon to her, and she loved it so much. She wants her son to learn about Christ, and that is what made her search for a Bible online and that was how she found us. We set up an appointment for the next day when her husband would also be home, but she ended up rescheduling for tomorrow, Tuesday, so we will find out how that goes.
Saturday: We went and visited that part member family that we met on Wednesday today, and it was a great visit with them. He has many concerns and is confused with a bunch of things, but he really wants to come closer to Christ and to learn for himself. He wants his answer to come overnight, like a slap to the face so that he can know that it is true. We ended up giving him a blessing and that brought the Spirit in so quickly. I think that he will come with time, and he is such a great guy. We will be visiting with him again tomorrow to help him get back into coming to church. He was attending regularly with missionaries about a year ago, but once they left he didn't go at all. Now he feels that it is time to start coming again. The other really great lesson was with Robert. He is such a great guy. We went through the Restoration with him, and he had some sincere questions about it. It was great being able to talk about what faith and the priesthood is with him. He has a thick Jamaican accent, which can be hard to understand at times, but sounds really cool. We have become great friends with us. One day we were walking near his house and he saw us from across the street, then he came running across and gave us great big hugs. Which was a really good confirmation that he liked us.
Sunday: I love being able to go to church at the end of each week and partake of the Sacrament. It is such a joy and refresher to begin with a fresh plate for the new week. It wasn't until the opening prayer when Brother Van Etton mentioned that we are sad to hear about the passing of Elder Parry. Elder White and I just looked at each other in shock. I loved listening to him speak at Generfal Conferences, and he will be greatly missed. I know that he will continue to do amazing work on the other side of teaching others about the Gospel. We had four investigators at church today, even without Robert, Ckova, and Christy being able to make it. We went and picked up one of the investigators that lives in the ghetto area with Brother Revoy in one of his Maserati's . In the evening we went and visited with Ckova again, and we read through parts of the New Testament and taught about some of the miracles that Christ performed while he was here on earth. We then got rained out on pretty hard. So we left our bikes there and had the other Elders come and rescue us so that we could get home.
Today for P-day we get to go to the beach as a mission for a June Christmas party. I will be sure to take pics so that I can send them home next week. We will be going to Fort De Soto Beach in St. Pete, so I'm pretty excited that I get to go to my old area for a day. Merry Christmas!!! :D
Love, Elder Leavitt
“This is the most remarkable era in the history of the Church. This is something that has happened to us at this time that ranks with the great events that have happened in past history, like the First Vision, like the gift of the Book of Mormon, like the Restoration of the gospel, like all of the things that build that foundation for us to go forward and teach in our Father in Heaven’s kingdom”
-L. Tom Parry, “Concluding Remarks” new mission presidents seminar, June 26, 2013
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