Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Hallo,

This week was a great one. There was a comicon convention so we had a bunch of characters on the square (literal characters.) Some of the foreign sisters thought it was Halloween haha. Temple Square is never boring thats for sure.

 The Church History Museum finally opened up again after a year of renovation and its sick! We got to take a tour of it on Wednesday. It was awesome! Some of the stuff in there is unreal. Like some clothing that Joseph Smith was wearing when he was killed and all kinds of treasures. It will be a good addition to the square for sure.

Then of course there was Womens Conference on Saturday. This Sister did not get to go cause I went last time. Lame sauce. But I did get to go on exchanges with Sister Rajah so it wasn't too bad. I heard it was awesome though I cant wait to go back and watch it. 

I did get to go to Richard G Scotts funeral though and that was amazing. They have a section for all of us sisters and I dont think I have ever been that cloe to the Prophet before. It was a beautiful celebration of his life and every one there was overjoyed that he is reunited with is sweet wife again. He will be missed here on earth. I remember he came to speak to us at the MTC the night before I came to my mission. He gave a wonderful talk on prayer and I have always remembered it. 

This week we had a miracle. Way back when I was with Sister Yunda we were teaching a man named Fred. We took him on a tour and he was absolutely golden. I taught him up until I went outbound and I have not been able to get a hold of him since I have been back. I have been so sad because I know he is so prepared and was planning on getting baptized soon. Well I think it was on Friday I got a call from him saying sorry he missed all my calls. We set up a time to talk and he told me that he is going to get baptized on October 31st! I am so happy for him! That will be the second time someone gets baptized on Halloween on my mission. Last year it was Mary. So that is the miracle and I am so happy about it after the bit of a drought we have been in. God is good and he answers prayers.

 

It is time for transfers and I have some great news...I am staying with Sister Burke! I will be serving as district leader again at the Beehive house. Baby Bon is also in my district. I am so excited! It is going to be awesome! It's hard to believe that this is my 10th transfer. I am getting so old! My pday will change to Wednesday so I will get two in a row!

So this week it occurred to me that God loves an unlikely scenario. For
example when the church was restored in 1830 there were approximately 1 billion 150 million people on the earth. How many members of the church were there? 6. Can you imagine the faith that they must have had that this was the true church. Imagine God is the coach and he tells you that your team is going to win when you enter the game of life and the score is 1,150,000,000 to 6.

I believed that God restored the gospel as soon as he could. He did it in a place where there was religious freedom but still the prophet Joseph Smith was persecuted and murdered at age 38. So it was unlikely that the church would continue to progress especially to the point
where it it today with over 15 million members but we made it. You can see another huge example of how God loves the under dog scenario by the life that Christ lived. He is the Savior of the world but he was a minority when he walked the earth. So if we feel like a minority sometimes in our own positions in our mission or just life in general we are in the right place. We are right there where the Savior walked and that makes us better and more true representatives of Him. 2 Timothy 3:12.

I am grateful for this work and for me there is no where else I would rather be. I am excited for conference this weekend to be spiritually fed and uplifted by the leaders of our church. Look for me in the Ensign. love you all.

-Sister Leavitt

The best district! I am going to miss them.

Cinderella visited the square. Some people were not impressed.

Selfie with Joseph Smith

 

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Yeah hello,

how is everyone? Good good good good.

This week was awesome we had district activity and it including two of my favorite things: food and my district. It was a good time. I wore my tiger onesie. Gained some respect. We only have one more district meeting before the end of the transfer and I am real sad about it. I wrote to President this week and told him of the urgency that Sister Burke and I must stay together cause we were only together for 5 weeks and thats not enough okay?! I was more professional than that though.

This week we met Linda K Burton in the secret tunnels and Tad R Callister at the Lion House promptly after a member paid for us so yeah it was a good day! We saw him sit down fairly close to us and of course we wanted to approach him but we were panicking big time because we did not know how to address him we were like, "Is it just brother Callister? Is it Elder Callister? or is it President Callister?!!" It was a real big concern. So finally, we decided not to approach him but on the way out the spirit prompted me to go back so I took all the courage I had and ended up just greeting him with a real big awkward "hiiiiiiiii....?" hahaha. He stood up and greeted us immediately so that was nice. Then I was able to tell him that his talk "The Blueprint of Christs Church" has changed my mission (which it has) and he said, "Thank you, I am glad." Also, he has heard of Logandale. WINNING! But as usual he was much more interested in talking to my cool foreign companion from Brisbane Australia. Its cool though, I'm not bitter. It was awesome! I mean this is not doctrine or anything but pretty dang sure he is going to be one of the now 3 new apostles. Calling it!

One of our investigators Kevin is so prepared and ready to be baptized but alas, he has a smoking addiction. Sister Burke thought of the idea that we will quit sugar if he quits smoking and lets just say we have not been living up to our end of the deal.  We may have to do some serious repenting and think of another alternative! Its not easy to quit something you love, I realize that now.

We have been getting some seriously mad antis coming through the Beehive House. They all seem to come out of hibernation right before conference and boy they are grumpy! We have learned that when they ask how many wives Brigham Young had that if we just put a massive smile on our face and confidently say "Over 50!" they get thrown off and don't know what to say. Confidence and a powerful testimony are key cause they can't argue with that.

"It would be difficult to imagine anything more exciting to do as a young man, woman, or couple in the world today than to be a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The message of the restored gospel we share is absolutely vital. It is from God our Eternal Father for every one of His children on earth and is centered in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. When that message is understood and lived, it can replace turmoil with peace, sorrow with happiness and provide solutions to life’s persistent challenges."-Richard G Scott

Love you all.

-Sister Leavitt

District Activity :)

I spy Tad R Callister eating at the lion house.  Look at my companion being low key ninja.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Hello!

 

This week I had 4 exchanges in 5 days. I saved Sister Rajah best for last on Friday and it was a glorious day. She taught me so much.

but they are dun now.

Now I actually get to spend time with my companion which has been awesome. We pray we stay together next transfer.

A couple weeks ago President Poulsen introduced his idea for us sisters to prepare for a 5K race that will take place in November. In preparation we have group leaders that take us for a run every morning up the canyon and around the world it feels like. It was cool and cute the first couple days but it has turned into absolute brutality running every morning. This altitude has no charity for the lungs and I feel like I should not have to struggle to receive oxygen as much as I have! In California I could run no big deal cause the sea level was quality. This may just be an excuse for my horrible stamina but none the less, I now remember why I skipped out on so much track practice!

On Friday morning after comp study we got a call from our zone leaders asking where we were. I didn't remember any kind of meeting we were supposed to be to so I asked what they were talking about. APPARENTLY they sent out a text at 9:30 that morning that the whole mission was to meet together that same morning at 10:10 for a special meeting. Guess who didn't get that text? Us.

Guess who was speaking at the special meeting? President Russell M Nelson! So the meeting was starting at 10:30 and the Zone Leaders called us at 10:25. And I was NOT going to be late for a meeting with the next potential prophet, right? Sister Burke and I have never ran so fast in our entire lives and we made it right before the opening song. My comp and I did a secret high five and enjoyed the presence of an apostle. It was awesome!  He just decided to meet with our mission for no apparent reason. I honestly thought he was going to announce the second coming or rebuke us but he just felt like he should come talk to us and I'm so glad he did! He gave a message on our purpose as missionaries and it was so inspired! I love this mission so much.

We were able to find 7 new investigators this week because there was a massive Doterra convention here this past week. This whole square smelled like essential oils. It was pretty great. It was like the largest convention in SLC ever.  There were plenty of hippy mormon moms running around along with a ton of non members too. We took sooo many tours and found some who are prepared for the gospel so we are excited to start teaching them.

I know this church is true!

Loves,

-Sister Leavitt

Accidental matchy match

My district minus Sister Rajah

Wait,  this Asian man is grabbing my hand...

OK. We'll go with it!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Hi there!

So, let's talk about how Elder Quinton L. Cook low key showed up to our sacrament meeting on Sunday and blessed the entire mission! Wow! These are his words, "I evoke a blessing that you will have some sense of the work you are doing." I thought that was powerful and it really hit me hard and made me take a step back to realize that this is the culminating work in preparation for the second coming of our Savior. Does that happen anywhere else? I am definitely not in Hayward 1st anymore. I felt bad for the sisters that had to talk that day. He came unannounced so that added all the extra pressure. They handled it well though! I guess it was better than knowing he was coming and stressing out about it!
I had 3 more exchanges this week after Sister Li on Monday. I had Sister Wong from Hong Kong on Wednesday, Sister Piutau from Tonga/SoCal on Friday, and then Sister Nguyen (my zone leader) from Vietnam yesterday. They have been so much fun, honestly. I am loving getting to know all these Sisters. My companion has been a champ too! I remember back in my third transfer I was the district leaders companion and it was not easy going on all those exchanges but she is a good sport about it. I was a wee bit scared for the exchange yesterday cause Sister Nguyen is nothing less than intimidating. Turns out she has a funny side though and we got along surprisingly well. We were at Beehive House like all day yesterday cause it was super busy because of Labor Day. I was able to get a bit of practice with knowing the details of that place this week so I am getting better :) This might sound strange but serving there has helped me gain a testimony about polygamy at the time and an even stronger appreciation for the pioneers and early church history. It is actually really interesting and quite incredible. I love it so far!

It has been good getting back into the swing of things here and it has still been fairly busy on the square with summer wrapping up.

To be honest we are having a bit of a drought when it comes to progressing investigators. It is always a little bit hard for sisters the transfer after they get back from outbound because we sort of have to start from scratch again and pick up the pieces that we left. We have plenty of people to teach, but they don't really want to keep commitments so it is kind of a bummer. We are praying for some miracles though and we know the Lord will bless us :)

Keep smiling y'all.

-Sister Loveitt

Baby Bon was happy to see me!

Sis Wong from Hong Kong

Secret tunnels ;)

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Hey howdy hey guess whos back on the square?!

Whoaaa this week has been nuts.

My last couple days in Hayward were hard. It was not easy leaving the people there! They are all so sweet and some had a good cry when I left. Some of the families plan to come to Temple Square for conference and christmas so hopefully I get to see some of them again. I also plan to go on vacation there after the mish and visit them :)  It was especially hard to leave my companion Sister Tshibola. The night before I left California I think I got like an hour of sleep because my companion was just a wreck. Yeah, let's just say she did not take it well. It's just tough cause it's like when is the next time I am going to be in Congo?? I know we will see each other again. She said I have to come see her after I go home for my "second coming".

Coming back to Temple Square was kind of a surreal feeling. The mission has changed SOO much I swear I don't know anyone anymore cause a ton of sisters went home and even more new sisters came in. I got an awesome welcome from many familiar faces though and that was soo nice! On Thursday (the day after I got back) was my year mark! Gadfries! Gadfreys? Gadfrees? I am officially here "over a year." That was a crazy day as well! I was so out of it and I had district meeting that day. I was just not all there. I am pretty sure I was exhausted but I tried my best and it went pretty well. When I found out who was in my district a couple weeks ago I could not contain my excitement! I was losing it! Now in person it is even better. We have had so much fun together and are super close already.

So as district leader, I have to do exchanges with all 6 sisters in my district for 12 hours. I started them on monday with Sister Li from China. It was so fun. She is in her third transfer so she still does not know english very well but when she does bear her testimony it is so powerful. I have already learned so much from the sisters in my district and from this mission.

Beehive house as been a little stressful so far because of course they did the Beehive training like 2 days before I got back so I know nothing about the place. There is a Beehive guide that is like a dictionary long that I have been trying to study in my "free time". I have basically been living on a prayer this past week and letting sister burke take the lead cause she has served there before. Oh by the way my new companion Sister Burke from Brisbane Australia is awesome! We get along just great. I think she might be the craziest companion I have had so far. I find myself shaking my head and laughing a lot. Shes in her fourth transfer and she's a great missionary. This transfer is going to be just as amazing as I thought it would for sure.

Brothers and Seesters I am so grateful for this incredible past year of my life. It has been the best year of my life so far. Thank you so much for your support and prayers, they mean everything :)

Much Love,

Sister Leavitt ♥

Sister Rajah, I've missed you!

Sister Burke is from Australia just like Sister Rajah!