Exemplary Saints! -October 15, 2018

Hey Family! 

Looking back through my journal and what happened this week, we did quite alot but it feels like it was weeks ago. Time is so different on the mission. You are able to fit so many more activities in one day. They go by so fast but at the end of the night you feel like that morning was years ago. 

We met this lady Hether this week. I love Hether! She opened the door and we had asked if she ever spoke with missionaries.

"Yes." She replied "but they dont usually like what I say." 

"Oh well what do you usually say?" I replied 

Hether looked at us and said firmly "that I dont believe in God." 

Not sure how the rest of the conversation happened but we came to find out that Hether does believe in God she just has alot of anger at Him for taking her mother from this world. She feels like God doesnt answer her prayers and with many tirals on her shoulders she feels weak. We were able to teach Hether how to pray and when she took the plan of Slavation pamphlet she told us she would read it that night! I pray we can help her seen Gods hand more directly in her life.

We taught Ruby this week. She has been a memebr for years the sweetest old lady you will ever meet. She is preparing to go to the temple! We have been going through the preparing for the temple teacher mannul to teach her. Something I learned this week is that the apostasy was the reasons temples were lost there meaning and were destroyed.  It seems like such an ovbious truth but when I read that so simply stated the spirit testified to me that it was true!

Babara and Nick are still doing fantastic! We taught Nick the law of chastity and Word of Wisdom this week. The week before we had mentioned what the word of wisdom meant. No coffee, tea, tabacoo, alcohol, etc. Well Nick came prepared from that overview as he has gone a week without coffee! Babaras face was in shock as she didnt even realize hahaha.

Our lesson with Shannon and Jorge was probably the best one yet! They had read so much in the scriptures and even read President Nelsons talk during the womens conference. They thought it was very neat that he asked all of us to do a 10 day social media fast. Which was exactly what we wanted to talk about Fasting! We read the story about Esther and how she asked her people to fast for her. Jorge was so into Esther as he said she was so gangster. He loved the scripture where she said "if I perish, I perish." She trusted fully in the Lord. The spirit was so strong in this lesson and they understood that we needed a purpose behind fasting. I asked Jorge if he wanted to know what happened in the end. With excitment he said "Yes! Well, unless she dies then I dont want to read anymore."

"Well...." I say as I start to close my bible and his jaw just drops!

"What!" He shouted.

Then Sister Davis jumps in to put the cherry on top. "Well Jorge they build a gallow 55 cubits high...." 

Haha Jorge was more than excited when we gave him the rest of the story and to hear that Esther saved her people!

We had zone conference this week in Roseburg we talked alot about what the prophet has asked us to do. He has asked us to....

-correct our vocabulary and use the proper name of the church. I have pondered alot about this the past week. There is so much power in the name of Christ and we offend Him when we take His name out. I have also thought about vocabulary in general. There are so many slang words that are thrown around now days. How do we speak one to another? Do we hear each other? Do we understand each other?

-Read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Ill be honest I was a bit nervous about this one but as I have been reading more each day I have felt learned new things and felt the spirit strongly. You can do it!

-Go to the temple. It may require more sacrifice but make an appointment with the Lord in his house and then make sure to keep it!

-Participate fully in Relief Society, read the declaration and purpose. It will help you find your own life purpose. 

-10 day social media fast or fast from any negative influences. Wow is this powerful! 

-Be exemplary Saints!

I have seen many blessing flow into my life as I have been doing the things the prophet has asked. I truly know he is a prophet of God and I love him. I love my Savior and im grateful for the oppertunity to speek about him everyday! 

I love you all so dearly. Keep moving upward! 

Love 

Sister Leavitt 

Makayla asked Sister Kiera to share her conversion story for a Primary Sharing Time.  This was her response:

My own conversion story.....that is a huge question. Funny you ask. 

I actually started completely over in the book of Mormon i think last transfer and I picked a question which was "what is conversion?" Its been super interesting to see how people in the book of mormon were converted. Such as Lehi i remember reading and thinking "This is his moment of Conversion!" I was so excited and then suddenly in that same chapter he murmurs! What?! I thought he had been converted. Well what i learned is that lehi was converted but even after, sometimes we slip and make mistakes but i also learned that conversion isnt a specific moment but a process we go through. So if youre asking me for my conversion story, im still working on it. But i can share with you my exspirence of how i came to know the Book of Mormon was true. That too was a process. But i knew that if i could find out if the Book of Mormon was true than i would know Joseph smith was a prophet and that the church was true. I trusted in that promise. I think it was about my sophomore year of high school where I thought to myself "if this is true i will stick with it but if it is not Hevenly Father then I dont know how I will tell my parents but im walking away from it." I started to read the Book of Mormon and everytime I did i would start and end with a prayer. I hoped that God would send me a lightning bolt of an answer, but he didnt. In fact i wondered why he wouldnt answer my prayers. It took a long time. I was getting to the end of the Book thinking maybe i wasnt going to get an answer, maybe it wasnt true. I remeber kneeling down after i had read one night and a thought distinctly running through my mind. "Why do you keep asking? You already know it is true." I believe my conversion came so gradlly like the sun coming up that i didnt even relize it because i wasnt looking directly at the sun. 

That moment has been an important one on my journey but im still going through it. My mission has changed me so much. I dont know if many people understand what it truly means to fear God. Well, there was a point on my mission where i felt that. Nothing else mattered. I didnt care what others thought about me I didnt care what it would have to take but I knew all I wanted was to know that I could stand worthy in the sight of God. God doesnt use perfect people to do his work. If he did he wouldnt have anyone except for Christ to help him. But remember that He is willing to use anyone who is submissive to His will. The conveants we make in the temple are vital and so important. This Gospel is true. Christ lives, he understands how we feel becuase He has been there before. We have no need to fear about anything because He has already been there. We have a living Prophet on the earth today who is truly called of God. 

I love God and I only want to make Him happy and sometimes that means doing hard things. 

I dont know if that answered your question....but thats a hard one for me to answer im still studying and reading about what that truly means. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 

Mom, what is your conversion story? 

Transfers are next tuesday. I will find out on Friday if i am staying or leaving. I have mixed feelings about staying and leaving. I pray i leave for the reason of sister Davis. I feel she needs the oppertunity to step up and take over the area. Shes been comfortable taking the back seat. Shes let me know that as well.  This last week has been really good together as we have been able to talk about how we feel.