Friday, November 20, 2015

This week went by way fast! They keep getting faster and faster. We
are getting mad prepped for Christmas coming up.  A week from today we
will be on Christmas schedule and the lights will be on! We had a
training from the mission department yesterday and they showed us the
two new Christmas videos. They are pretty sweet! The slogan dealio
this year is "A Savior is Born." It's going to change lives! They
bought out the main YouTube banner for when it comes out next week
with a direct link to talk to us missionaries. I remember when they
did this last year. The chat was blowing up with people who weren't
anti so that will be a nice change hopefully 🙏🏼

We had mission leadership council for district and zone leaders on
Monday and for just zone leaders on Wednesday. President and Sister
Poulsen are ending their mission the same time as me so to end with a
bang we made a goal as a mission to get 900 baptisms by the end of the
year for 2015. We are at 805 right now! We are doing a zone training
meeting tomorrow on getting the vision to baptize. We gots some good
stuff planned. Our mission can do it for sure! Our training is
supposed to be like 2 hours so we delegated a little to the district
leaders cause I would probably fall asleep myself listening to me
that long.

When we first met as a zone last Saturday to break the ice sister
Mahoney and I showed them our elf yourself video we made and yeah
we've gotten a ton of respect since then hahah. I just got back from
zone activity. It was awesome cause we have a senior couple in our zone
that made tasty food for us and they're a ton of fun. Our zone is
awesome!

On Wednesday we went to Savior of the world as a zone and it was
sweet! It's a musical play thing that they do in the conference center
theater every year during Christmas time.I watched it last year too
but I think I fell asleep cause I don't remember it being that good.
It really gave me a better vision for the whole story of Christ's
birth including Zachariah and Elizabeth. I was like mind blown. It's
funny how I grew up in the church and have been on my mission for a
minute now and sometimes I still feel like I know nothing haha. I do
know this church is true though so I have been going with that and it
has worked pretty well as I learn along the way :)

I think that's all for today, love you all.

Sister Leavitt

He plays Hyrum in The Restoration. He is super nice!

Friday, November 13, 2015

Hi.
Wow it's been a while. Last week I started feeling 22 and it was a great birthday. I got a ton of love from the sisters. I don't know if I've ever felt more love from a group of people (besides my fam) in my life! Just a lot of cards and candy and stuff and about 20 of us went to Cheesecake Factory so it was sweet! A lot different than last year when no one knew me haha. Thanks to every one who sent me love!

Since we last talked, Fred got confirmed and Patrick got baptized! Yay! Patrick is legit he is 19 years old and can't wait to serve a mission. He is reading the Book of Mormon with us and he is teaching us the preach my gospel lessons to practice! It's a nice change. He is teaching us a lot. He's cool! I will visit him in London someday.

Regarding the clarification from the first presidency that came out last week, let's just say we've been getting all kinds of haters. There was a protest outside the square last Saturday and they have been coming through the cracks left and right via chat, calls, beehive, and on the square. We had a meeting about it the day after it came out so President Poulsen prepared us well. The thing about it is that it is
not anything new. This has been Gods law since when, the beginning of time and even before? They are just clarifying it and everyone is having a conniption. It has been a real testimony builder to me of planting your testimony on the foundation of Jesus Christ and His chosen servants. "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."-D&C 1:38. That's all I have to say bout dat.

Thirty people went outbound on Wednesday including A LOT of the homies. It was sad saying good bye to them cause I won't see them again while I'm on my mission. We all get really close in this mission cause we see each other all day err day. I even helped baby Bon pack and we cuddled and cried a bit together, real tender. Seriously though, it's cool that everyone is from all around the world but they are just so faaaar! It's fine though it gives me an excuse to travel.

We started a new transfer on Wednesday and I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Mahoney and she's from Nova Scotia Canada. She's cool! We have been low key tight our whole missions and I was hoping I would get to be with her. President asked me Friday if I would be zone leader and it was cool cause he said some nice things and my thoughts about him not liking me too much disappeared. I have this thing where I think most adults with any kind of credibility hate me but I don't think that's the case most of the time. Anyways, it's been great so far. Sister Mahoney is a proud Canadian and she informed me today that they don't even eat Canadian bacon so that was slightly disappointing. We are in guest services this transfer so we did a training for all the new sisters that haven't served there yesterday. We had to go through a bunch of boring info but we tried to make it as painless as possible. We have Zone training meeting next Saturday so we are starting to prepare for that too. Also we are doing a zone activity next pday and there will be food and service so yes there WILL be fun to be had.

This winter is sure going to be a doozie. Holy cow it is cold! I have been on a tights strike until yesterday. I finally gave in, it is too darn cold, For some reason I sent home all my scarves thinking "I
won't need these!" Bummer man. I forgot I had another winter here and this one is already worse than the last. Interesting huh? I knew you all wanted to hear about the weather.

Have a fantabulous week y'all and stay classy.
Love you,
Sister Leavitt

Trying to keep warm!

We made cupcakes without cupcake pans :)

Happy Birthday breakfast

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Hola Familia

I hope every one had a good Halloween! Mine was awesome! We closed the square at 5 and had dinner together as a mission. Then we all did a Temple session together like last year. It is always such an amazing experience to see all my fellow sisters dressed in white in the Temple. It just made me reflect on how much more I want to keep my Temple covenants so I can be with all of them again someday. It really did feel like a little piece of heaven, definitely an incredible time.

FRED LAZO GOT BAPTIZED. Hallelujah God is good, he has been an investigator for some time now. This entire transfer Sister Burke and I have been reading the Book of Mormon with him and that honestly made sooo much difference in him finally deciding. He got baptized with another guy who only was investigating the church for a few months. We got to skype it and it was so good seeing him again. He was just beaming and so happy and kept saying "I couldn't have done it without ya." He is an absolute gem. The Book of Mormon truly is the most powerful tool for conversion. He's awesome! He already has a calling as a family history dude and every thing. I met him when I was with Sister Yunda and we are both just so so happy!

This week makes week six, so I with find out the fate of my life on Monday and I'll let you know if my PDay changes.

District activity was fun. We went to go buy seven pizzas at Little Ceasars and then a member came out of no where and said "I got this one sisters." #PERKSOFSERVINGINUTAH. Seriously the members here are saints! I don't get to work with them much but they are always so sweet and generous. Definitely didn't get much of that in Oakland haha. We just ate and shared miracles tonight. It was a good time. Three of the sisters in my district are going outbound. Sister Kaiser is going to San Diego, Sister Mtyobile is going to Oregon, and my dear baby Bon child is going to New Jersey. I am genuinely afraid she is going to get lost in the airport and end up somewhere down in South America. There are a total of 32 sisters going outbound! I have not seen that many go out my whole mission but its because they only sent 4 last transfer cause it was still busy season but its slowing down a little bit.
 

Thanks for your support and prayers. I think I have said this before but I love my mission! Read the Book of Mormon every day, alright? K thanks. 

Love you,

Sister Leavitt

District activity

We are not normal!

Baby Bon cut her own bangs. Say hello to Lloyd Christmas!

All bundled up cause its getting cold!

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

GREETINGS LOVED ONES

Yes its true I made it into the Ensign but unfortunately I look like a dweebus. I know exactly what that face is. I was trying to act natural and it just did not work. Anywho, its fine. I shouldn't complain at least it is an accurate picture of who I really am, a dweebus.

This week we were able to put another one of our investigators on date for November 8th. His name is Patrick and he is from England. We literally met him about a week and a half ago and he's already on date because he is the most prepared dude I have ever taught. Do you want to know what makes him so prepared? He has already read the entire Book of Mormon and prayed to know if it was true. He has been researching the church for about a year after he found a copy of the Book of Mormon in a Marriott Hotel (yeah!) and he has been wanting to join the church ever since. The kid is only 19! The Book of Mormon makes our job so easy if they just pray about. So powerful! So we have been really blessed lately. We are excited for Patrick! He will get confirmed next transfer.

I gave my farewell on Sunday. Yes I am aware that it is super early but there are a lot of sisters going home these next 2 transfers so APPARENTLY it was my time to shine. It went really well actually. The topic that I was assigned was really inspired, "The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how something happened, if we truly repent, he has promised that he would atone. And when he atoned, that settled that." It is a quote out of President Packers last general conference talk. It was pretty easy to talk about that one. It was surreal having it be my turn but I still have a while left thankfully!!!

We had the 5k race on Saturday but due to a serious of unfortunate events I was unable to run. I made it back for the breakfast at the end though and that was the best part I am sure. They were some pretty good bagels!

I am getting excited for the holidays. The workers are putting up lights like mad men and dare I say its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Whoop dee dooo!

Love you all a heap.

Love,

Sister Leavitt

 

5 seconds of fame

Sister Burke can do small eyes like dad!

Sis Burke ready to scare Sis Rajah

 

Wednesday, October 21,2015

Hey y'all

This week was tiring but still super duper. I did 5 exchanges with 5 different sisters in a week. It is a lot of fun but it can be exhausting cause you have to be on your A game all the time haha. I have some amazing sisters I get to serve with so it has been a good opportunity for me to learn from them. The sisters in my district are from Australia, Micronesia, California, South Africa, Wales, Argentina, and Switzerland. So yeah you could say this mission is diverse.

This morning Elder Holland came to visit our mission and 7am. We had to be there at 6:45. It was so worth it though. He shook all of our hands and he wanted to hear our names and where we are from. When it was my turn of course I said "I am sister Leavitt from Nevada" and he said with a smile on his face "Well welcome to Utah." Not even an apostle can give me a break haha. It was awesome, I loved it! He gave an incredible training on the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone to our religion. His voice even got loud at some points. So intense! It was amazing. Yeah, I love this mission.

This past week there was a huge religious conference dealio thing here in Salt Lake. There were so many different peeps here from monks, to Hindus, vicious catholics, and Sikhs (my favorite they are so flipping nice!) So that was exciting to share with all these people the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in the Beehive house was bumping all weekend and we were making it rain copies of the Book of Mormon (is that appropriate?) People who are open minded are always like "ahh yeah this makes sense". I'm just like "Yeah homie cause ITS TRUE." Being a missionary is awesome. I highly recommend it!

Fred is still getting baptized but his date has changed to November 1st by popular request of those in his ward. They weren't happy about the Halloween baptism apparently so they asked if he could change it. It makes more sense really. He is excited and so are all the people around him. He has been investigating the church since March when I met him so every one is super stoked for him.

Thats all for this week folks. Read the Book of Mormon every day. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Love you,

Sister Leavitt

My amazing Australian Comp, Sis Burke

Our district killed it at zone activity games

Throw back Thursday exchange #bonitt

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

 

YES that story about the ghost is real. Sisters have been having other experiences there too like they hear the piano playing at night and also phantom children running and playing on the third floor. Apparently it always happens around this time of year. We are safe though they are nice little pioneer ghosts and they wont hurt us ;)

This week nothing too eventful happened besides recovering from conference and a whole ton of exchanges. I have three more before the end of the week then I am done. I am doing exchanges with baby Bon tomorrow so that will bring back the mems. She requested that we do it on a Thursday so it would be a "Throw Back Thursday" and I couldn't say no to that. Ah my child.

We always have crazies on the square but we had a super crazy on Friday. Sister Bon described it to her family in an email like this:

INTERESTING OCCURRENCE NUMBER 2 (This one's really interesting):

Right after this lady got taken away by security, a man walked up to the desk.

If I were to describe this man with one word, it would be... intense. His head leaned slightly to the left and he spoke with a very intense Austrian/German accent. Every word was emphasized and every consonant was pronounced very precisely. His eyes never stopped darting around. At first I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or someone else, because he never made eye contact.

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS." His eyes were practically bulging out of his head.

"...Sorry?"

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS. DO YOU KNOW WHERE INVESTIGATORS GO ON TEMPLE SQUARE?"

"I guess that would depend on the missionaries... There's not really a specific spot."

He left. It was weird but whatever. Then he came back a few minutes later and started talking to Sister Leavitt and her companion Sister Burke, who had just walked up to the desk.

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS." We still couldn't tell which sister he was talking to, but Sister Leavitt answered.

"I'm not really sure what you mean."

"I HAVE A FRIEND WHO SAID SOME AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS WHO ARE STAYING WITH HIM MIGHT BE HERE TODAY."

"Sorry, I don't really understand-"

"WHERE WOULD INVESTIGATORS GO ON TEMPLE SQAURE?"

"Sir, we don't understand what you are talking about so we don't really know how to help yo-"

"I DON'T NEEEED YOUR HELP. YOU'RE AN AMERICAN. I HATE AMERICANS."

...

...




As this angry Austrian man was storming away, Sister Leavitt called out, "So why are you here?"

His parting words were very profound. They glittered in their straightforward truthfulness. One could even compare his words to a precious Austrian gem in a dirty American coal mine.

"EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES!"

CLOSE QUOTE

so yeah that happened. I honestly didnt mean to say "why are you here then?" out loud it just sort of came and then he heard me so that was awkward.

Our Zone activity was today! It was a good time we just got together at a park and played some games. Kind of like a FHE. It was district against district and of course my district dominated the scene.

I am sorry this email is so incredibly lame.

The atonement is real so I will be better next week. I love you all "heaps" (I learned that word from my Australian comp)

-Sister Leavitt

 

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2015

Hi there!

Si, this week was amazing and I can not and will not believe that my last conference here is over. It was sweet, I even guessed the color of the dresses right. I promise I did. I went to the Saturday morning sesh and the choir was wearing dark blue. I was hoping that session would be the one where they would announce the new apostles but no dice. It was an awesome session though. It is a blessing that we get to attend! I didn't see too many people I knew this time around. On Saturday, I saw Natalie. She was with a boy and she is beautiful! Then yes I did see Elder Llewelyn. Before I saw him he gave some sisters a note to give to me that said something like, "Just wanted to say hey! Your family, especially your dad, were so good to me on my mission. I am happy to hear you are serving!."  and then I was talking to some people like an hour later and he comes up to me and goes "do you remember me?" and I was like "uhhh you look familiar?" Then it clicked. We talked for a minute and it was cool. On Sunday I just saw a few missionaries from outbound and the Tagilala family so that was awesome. We will have to go as a family to visit that area some time and that family especially you would love them.

Sister Burke and I managed to talk to 1 out of the 10 non members that were at Temple Square on Sunday. She just moved to SLC a few weeks ago and came to check out T2. We told her what was going on and did begin teaching her and turns out shes pretty golden. She actually lives right next to us but we aren't allowed to tell her that so we plan to just meet on the square with her and her husband. Conference never ceases to bring miracles. I got to listen to a little bit of the Sunday morning session as well and it was amazing to hear from the new apostles. I'm not real familiar with Elder Stevenson or Renlund but hearing them speak you know they are very humble men called of God. I love our dear prophet! It was so good to hear from him. At the funeral last week it was so sweet to see President Utchdorf and Erying by his side whenever he made the slightest movement or sign of stumbling. Let us all remember to keep him in our prayers as his health is...not the best.

At 7:30 on Sunday, after the craziness, the Piano Guys came and did a performance for us. One of the Sisters here was outbound companions with Jon Schmits daughter so she got the hook ups for us. The rest of his family performed too it was a good time.

HOLY MACKEREL.

So I am in the Beehive House again this transfer and my district and I were there together for the first time on Thursday night for closing shift. We close the Beehive at 8:15 and then have to wait a few minutes for security to come and close it. Anyways we wanted to do some exploring cause there is an attic up in the house that no one ever goes to. Long story short we were just exploring up there and all of a sudden we hear someone coming up the stairs. It was a young woman about my age dressed all in black and she just goes "what are you doing here?" "Are you new here?" I am SERIOUS okay... we saw what we are pretty sure was a ghost and she spoke to us!!! I am pretty sure it was 1 out of 57 of Brigham Youngs children! Ha! There were six sisters in total and we were all so scared. Sister Burke was finally like "hey we are closed you need to leave" and then she just bolts down the stairs and through the door but we never actually saw her leave. We told security and they said they have seen stuff like that too! The flipping house is over 160 years old of course its going to be sketch! So yeah Thursday nights if you could send an extra prayer my way that would be great.

Other than that every thing has been peachy. My new district is great! I am starting exchanges tomorrow with Sister Alliaud from Argentina. She knows my mom. (Sister Cardus)

I love you all. Take care and have a great week.

-Sister Leavitt

 

Saturday morning session

Sister Sami and I with the Tagilala sisters from outbound

Don't be jealous of my sweater