Friday, January 29, 2015

Today we had our last zone meeting. This transfer as a zone we have
been working together to develop Christlike attributes. Today we all
shared experiences and bore our testimony of Christ and his perfect
character. We got together and watched a sweet slideshow that Sister
Fong made of the transfer and then we had all the departing sisters
bear their testimonies. There are four of us leaving in the zone and I
went last to bear my testimony. There's a lot of things that have
changed me as I have been a missionary but one of the new things I
have discovered is that it has turned me into a cry baby. And I'm not
a pretty crier. Austin and I were talking about this one time and
with both of us, even if we shed a few tears, our face swells up like a
balloon and it looks like we have hives on our face it's just....not
cute. Anyways, afterwards we all sang our mission song together and
there was many a tear shed.

I don't have the words to describe how much my mission means to me. It
has been the greatest most challenging/rewarding experience of my
life. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been called to serve in the
Salt Lake City Temple Square mission and the Oakland/San Francisco
California mission. I love them so much and the people I have met in
both missions. These past few weeks I have been in a glass case of
emotion thinking about returning home and being an adult. It is
difficult for me to imagine anything better than what I am leaving
behind. That life could possibly get even better than it is now. But
alas, God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Even post
mission. Friends, I know this church is true. I can say that now with
my whole soul! I am so grateful for the message of the restoration. I
honestly did not completely understand it before. Joseph Smith is a
prophet of God. He restored Christ's church to the earth and
translated the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is the word of God
and another testament of Jesus Christ. It is a true book and my favorite book :)
I love, respect, and admire the faith of the pioneers. I know that if
it wasn't for their incredible faith this church would not be what it
is today. The sisters in this mission have drastically changed my
life. Me and some sisters from Idaho are from the most boring places
compared to sisters from literally all over the world. Hearing their
stories and testimonies have strengthened me and converted me. It
has been a wonderful blessing getting to serve on temple ground. I
have had the opportunity to teach people about this amazing house of
God every day and that has strengthened my own testimony tremendously.
I love my Savior. I have a relationship with him and I know that he
knows me perfectly. The atonement is infinite. If there is anything I
have learned on my mission it would be the importance and reality of
daily repentance. I'm so grateful for the love, support, and prayers
given to me by all of you! I have felt your prayers and they have
strengthened me so much. Hope this doesn't sound like I'm writing my
own Eulogy or accepting an award haha. Seriously though, one thing I
always tell the sisters about missions is "the struggle is real, but
so is the atonement."

I love you all.
See you soon 

-Sister Leavitt

I keep these teeth in my coat pocket and scare Sister Fong with them daily.

Zone friends. Last hurrah :(

Friday, January 22, 2016

Greetings loved ones!

It is way too much fun being with my Chinese comp. We are SO different it's unreal but we still get along super well. She is the easiest person to scare on the planet. I scare her at least 3 times a day and she usually ends up on the floor. I love doing things that confuse her. The other day, I threw a pine cone at her. She didn't really react so I asked her to throw one back at me. She said she would never do that so I started picking up pine cones and throwing them at myself. She was in tears laughing so hard and then she said "you have mental problem" haha! The sisters in our zone have rightfully named her President Fong and we all give a big dramatic salute when she walks into the room. She says she doesn't like it but I think she secretly does lol. For some unknown reason my companion still loves the crap out of me and cries every time we have to go on exchanges. I can't even talk about going home cause she gets the saddest most Asian look on her face and says "don't say that." I ❤️ my Asian.

We have been working with some elders in one of the salt lake missions. These elders got thrown into the mandarin program like a month ago and I think I know more mandarin than they do. Sister Fong (and me I guess, but not really at all) have been helping them with their mandarin investigators. They come by the square a few times a week and sister Fong translates and helps out. I haven't taken too many language tours since the beginning of my mission so it's been really neat doing that again and remembering the language of the spirit to guide me to what I need to say. It's really cool getting to work with the salt lake missions as we all have the same purpose in helping our brothers and sisters come to Christ.

The new mission president and his wife are the realest. Sister Risenmay is awesome! She came into guest services the other day and talked to me for like 30 minutes. When she left she said "look, I can still do a heel click." Then she did the most spectacular heel click I've ever seen. #LifeGoals

Ooh side note, I met Elaine S Dalton at Smash Burger yesterday. She came up and talked to us and I was like hold the phone she looks familiar. Turns out her voice is not always like that. Kind of wish I got a picture but oh well.

The church is true folks. Have a swell week and in remembrance of Elaine "you can do hard things but with the Lord you can do ALL things" ❤️

Love

Sister Leavitt

yummmmmm!

This is how serious my comp gets when its raining!

Sleeping Fong

Friday, January 15, 2016

Hahah 19 days and counting! 

The work is going good! Yes it is a rough balance between worrying about the future but wanting to stay here and just coming to terms with everything. I guess missions don't last forever :( We are still staying busy here. There is always something to do and someone to teach so I am grateful for that. We had to say good bye to President and Sister Poulsen this week and that was weird. They just packed up their stuff and left like it was allowed. They did a lot for this mission and forever changed my life for the better. We got a new mission president yesterday! President and Sister Risenmay from Washington state! They spoke to us yesterday in Relief society and they are amazing, and definitely really excited to be here. The Lord knows what he is doing when he calls his leaders, that's for sure. We had zone leader meeting with him afterwards and it was great. He has a lot of awesome new ideas. 

I don't think I've taken an English tour all transfer I take at least one mandarin tour a day and I love it. It's like the dead of winter and you would not expect that many mandarin tourists but no, they still come every day. I know a couple phrases in mandarin and when I say them they get super excited and clap for me and then I bow and it's really ridiculous and cute. 

There has been a flu epidemic in the mission and I've been going on exchanges with sick sisters from the zone and taking care of them (giving them ibuprofen and praying for them). Then I ended up getting sick on Wednesday. It's like one sister gets sick and then we have a plague. I guess that's what happens when your mission boundaries are two blocks. 

I talked to Fred yesterday and he's doing awesome. He got his patriarchal blessing, is taking Melchizedek priesthood classes, and is preparing to serve a part time family history mission. He is a huge inspiration to me and one of my good friends. Yay Fred. 

As for our current investigators we have a lot if "Ni Haos."  I am still trying to keep track and all but I can't understand a lot of what's going on. I think it's the Lords way of humbling me even in my last transfer. I'm grateful for that!

I think that's it for this week. It's great to be a missionary!

Loves, 

Sister Leavitt

Asian friends

Friday, January 8, 2016

Hi friends

This week was brutal cause President and Sister Poulsen are leaving next week so
we did all the departing stuff early. We had our departing meeting on
Sunday and that's when Pres P gives us all super great life advice and
makes us cry. Then I had my departing interview on Tuesday and that
was surreal. He gave me a really sweet blessing then said "love you
Sister Leavitt, wish I had 100 more missionaries like you" 😭😭 Then
we had a surprise "goodbye meeting" for them where each zone did
something different for the performance, our zone did the EFY medley.
The water works in the meeting were more intense than the Bellagio.

We did minute to win it zone activity (missionary edition) and it was
way fun. Zone training meeting and zone activity are done now so
that's always a nice feeling.

We have a lot of Chinese investigators and I think they are doing
pretty good. We have one lady from Hong Kong named Amy Wong on date
for feb 10th! We met her at the beginning of the transfer in my first
mandarin tour.  My Chinese name is Sister Lai in case you were
wondering. We have a lot more Chinese peeps but it's hard to keep
track. The only one I can remember is our investigator Ja Wey and
that's only because his name sounds like John Wayne.

I have been teaching a less active named Eric for like 6 months now.
We meet every week and he has improved quite a bit. He has a goal to
get to the temple. This week it slipped out that I was going home soon
and he about went into cardiac arrest. We are working on having him
having a solid testimony in Jesus Christ and not relying on others.

Thanks to everyone who sent me letters on Christmas! The holidays were
really amazing here and I am really missing the lights already. Hasta
Luego amigos.

-Sister Leavitt ❤️💋

Friday, January 1, 2016

NI HAO!

It feels like it's been a good while. It was so good to see y'all on
Christmas it was definitely the best part of my day. I spent all
Christmas preparing for zone training meeting which was nice cause the
day went by fast haha! We had the training the next day and it went
really well focused on Christlike love and improving teaching skills.
We delegated a lot so I'm getting smarter.

So our mission baptismal goal for the year was 900 and we exceeded
that goal with 915! Sister Mahoney and I made this tree to track our
progress. We painted it each week. I'm pretty proud of it.

Mandarin motorcoach tour 

Friday, December 18, 2015

This week was insane in the membrane. 

Last Saturday, lets talk about this, it was probably one of the best days of my mission cause FRED CAME to visit me and he brought his whole flippin branch with him. He is so awesome I can't even explain! He got baptized like 2 and a half months ago and he has already been baptized for all of his immediate family that passed away. He is just way too nice saying a ton of sweet stuff to me I didn't deserve. The relief society President in his branch was with him and she started crying when she meet me and was just thanking me so much. It was a little uncomfortable but really kind at the same time. She said, "Every soul is great in the sight of God sister." I was like "aww, I know right?" We talked for like 2 hours haha! He is thinking about moving here to Utah. He really likes it here. He is wanting to get his endowment soon too and is preparing for that. Anyways, it was just cool definitely feel really blessed.

Sister Mahoney went back to OH Canada on Tuesday. She left at like 5am I think? It was so weird she just like got in the car and left and I was like, "wait companion you left me waaaiittt comp nooo wait noo comp wait nooo dont go!" I was thinking that in my head. So I didn't have a companion until wednesday waiting for Sister Fong to get back from outbound. So I went and got my nails done, went to a movie, and had a girls day all by myself. Just kidding I was in a trio with my roommates and we did missionary work. 

Then my beloved new comp and Hong Kongian came on Wednesday back from the icy tundra of Wisconsin. Sister Fong is great! She loves me and I don't know why. She thinks I am hilarious and I don't get it but I won't complain. She reminds me of my trainer, super hard working and fun. We are ZLs over the same zone as I was last transfer so we are in charge of Guest Services. We did a training yesterday. It can be pretty brutal explaining that crap (scheduling tours, taking calls, sending emails) to sisters who have never served there but we tried to make it as painless as possible and we brought food so it was a success. We go with them for their first shifts and they get it more that way. Also the mission department came to our mission yesterday and introduced the Area Book app. They trained the leaders of the mish and we are training our zones on it. Its all fancy and technical. We have our planners on the app too and TBH I'm not a huge fan. I like my old fashion planner but I guess its mandatory so okay I'll do it.

So I have been teaching a man named Javier since January and he is finally getting back to church and working towards baptism. It is because we started reading the Book of Mormon together and heck ya that book is powerful. Turns out its true! He said he will be baptized before I go home.

I feel weird saying Merry Christmas cause I still feel like its March. The lights are on here though and I went to the MoTab christmas concert yesterday so apparently is Christmas time. Its so special to be here on Temple Square for my second Christmas. I know that #ASaviorIsBorn and that He lives! Talk to you next week! Love ya

-Sister Leavitt

Fred came to see me!

Fred's fan club

Friday, December 11, 2015

Hello all!

This week I have been sicker than a dog. All week I would try to go to the square but then I would throw myself into a coughing fit somehow and embarrass myself. For example we were showing some people a video called "gods plan" and it was just finishing up and we were about to go up to talk to the people about it when all of a sudden I got this massive tickle in my throat. It was unbearable! I was trying to hold back my coughs but then tears started leaking. So when I went up to talk to them I had to improvise.  I just said "this video gets me every time" and tried to bear my testimony in between coughs. My comp could clearly see that I was struggling so she took over from there. Then one of them gave me a cough drop so that was nice. It was cherry flavor. So yesterday Sister Poulsen told me to stay home ALL DAY it was my first time doing that on my mission and I thought I was going to die. I felt so unproductive and I have seen the Joseph Smith movie way too many times. When I got back to the square today, I was so happy to see everyone and it had only been one day, haha! People even said they missed me yesterday I felt so loved. Definitely not ready to leave yet or maybe ever I love this place too much. 

This transfer is already over and I am getting a new next week cause I guess sister Mahoney is finishing her mission or something, how rude. I'm getting my first Asian companion Sister Fong from Hong Kong. What a fun little rhyme. Now I have officially had a companion from every continent excluding Antarctica. Oh yeah!! I know I didn't technically go to a foreign mission but I basically did, ok? 

Fred is coming tomorrow whoop whoop! Give you the deets on that next week.

All is well ya know. The church is so true. Hopefully we are all looking for opportunities to serve one another. Like if you happen to come across a choking sister missionary, give her a cherry flavored cough drop. Service is the best birthday present we can give to the savior! Love y'all.

Sianara

-Sister Leavitt

We recreated the Nativity. I am a sheep.

Assembly Hall

This guy is from 'Singles Ward' and other Mormon films. He was flattered that we recognized him.

I mustache you a question but I'll shave it for later!

"Sister Leavitt, someone is here that went to Prom with your brother." Sister Henry is on her way to a visitor center mission so she came from the MTC for a tour.