Week 3 Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas in just a few days!

This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my life as far as the strength of my Testimony and the Faith that I have gained in the Lord and Savior.

Sunday, we had our weekly devotional, it was with the BYU Men's Choir. It was so amazing, they are great singers and brought such an amazing Christmas Spirit into the MTC. We watched "The Testaments" a movie I had seen before but for some reason it hit me even harder this time. At the very end, the man has waited his entire life for Jesus Christ to appear in the Americas. When Jesus Christ finally comes, the man has become blind, but Jesus Christ heals him and the man looks right into the face of his Savior and Lord. I imagine this moment is how we will feel when we finally see him. What will we say? I don't know how I can tell him thank you, there are no words for that. I love my Lord and Savior and can't wait to see him once again and tell him I love him.

My companion, Elder Bernard has been so frustrated with Spanish. I feel like he doesn't give himself enough credit, because honestly he is doing really well. But this week he took the challenge from my favorite teacher, Hermano Stallings, and he hasn't spoken English at all this week. He is quiet but I haven't heard him speak English at all and he has put his faith in the Lord and I admire him for that.

On Tuesday, my companion and I had a really cool experience. We were walking to lunch when one of the investigators, Mercedes, that people use to practice with started talking to us. She isn't our investigator, but we got talking and set up an actual appointment. It felt so real to actually be setting up our own meeting and I was so excited to talk with her. She wanted to know about Jesus Christ and why the Church talks more about Joseph Smith than Jesus Christ. We met with her on Wednesday and Friday and had some of the most amazing lessons I've ever been a part of. On Friday, our lesson was about Repentance. She said that she feels everyone is always on her back about Repenting. All of a sudden I felt the Spirit so strong and I said Spanish words that I had no idea I knew. I told her that God is never going to force us to repent. God wants us to learn from our mistakes and get better and better. I talked about the Grace of God. Elder Bernard bore a beautiful testimony and Mercedes starting crying. It was such an amazing Spiritual experience.

We had our 3rd and 4th lessons with Carlos, our actual investigator. He is doing well and is such a good investigator to teach. We had him start the Book of Mormon and he believes the story of Joseph Smith, so we are on a good start. We were told to talk about the Invitation to Baptism every single lesson, even the first one. At first, I was so confused as to why we would do that. But now it makes perfect sense: when we ask them to be baptized, even if it is the first lesson, they will tell us every reason they won't be and we will have a perfect map of what we need to teach. It's amazing how it works. Carlos is progressing so well and I hope he will accept baptism soon.

In my Personal Study this week, I started studying the Spirit World. There are so many amazing aspects of the Spirit World. Brigham Young said that it was hard for him to want to stay on this Earth when he saw what the Spirit World was like. If we want to see Jerusalem during the time of Jesus Christ, we just think about it and we are there. We will have the opportunity to do so much missionary work, what an amazing blessing.

Well this week is Christmas. What an amazing time of year. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Always remember our Lord and Savior. Sometimes we get caught up in the festivities of Christmas and forget the most important part: Baby Jesus. On Thursday, wake up remembering the story of Jesus Christ. Not just his birth, but everything about him. The Atonement. His life and his teachings. I truly love Jesus Christ, he is our Redeemer. He has saved us from our sins, and we can live with God once again because of that. What an amazing thing to remember. Merry Christmas! Love you all!

- Elder Leavitt

 

This is my favorite teacher here, Hermano Stallings. He has taught me so much, he is now moving to another building! I'm so grateful for him and the Spirit that he brings. He is the best Spanish Speaker I've heard, and has taught me so much. 
I love the people here, everyone is truly filled with the Light of Christ.