Week 17

My Easter Care Package!

The Easter Bunny found me in Maryland!

The weeks fly faster and faster, it seems like I just sent an email 2 days ago!!

 This transfer has really gone by so fast, and on Sunday night, I will be finding out whether I will be staying here for the next transfer or getting moved. I feel like I'll be getting moved, because they want to bring Sister Missionaries back into the area, so yesterday felt like my last Sunday with the Frederick Branch, and was SO special! The very last song was "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" and since I'm the piano player I got to look out and see everyone singing it together, the highest attendance that Frederick Branch has seen yet. I'll never forget this place, it will always be the branch that I started my mission in. And who knows, maybe something will change and I will get kept in this area, and I can spend another transfer with all these dear friends that I have made. Either way, I know that the Lord knows where I am needed and where I need to preach the Gospel next and I am so grateful for that.

There have been a lot of things going on with members in the Branch, and the Branch has grown so much closer because they are reaching out to the members that are in need. For example, Maria Quinones, who is only 14, just found out she is pregnant. That obviously has been incredibly hard for her mom, who is a single mother with 3 or 4 kids. Their family is less active and has gone through many hard things. But the Branch has helped them SO much. Strangely enough, about a month ago we got the prompting to go visit them, and Maria came out and talked to us. We talked to her about the Atonement and that God can help us no matter what we've ever done. At that time, we had no idea that she could be pregnant, but she knew what she had done, and was probably feeling the guilt of Sin badly in her life. I know that it was meant to be that we visited with her and randomly chose that lesson.

Happy Easter, We Love & Miss You Elder Leavitt!

Things have been tough with setting appointments, lately people seem to never be home! But we have been working a ton with Axel to teach his little sister Carla, and she has actually liked the lessons a lot so far! Their parents are still very catholic though, and try to keep Carla that way too.

Mom made me an Atonement Advent Calendar for Easter.

Well, Easter is this weekend!! General Conference and Easter, always such a great pair, and I know that it is going to be amazing to hear the Prophets and Apostles of our Heavenly Father. For my spiritual thought, I have 2 quotes:

"Our great personal challenge in mortality is to become a saint through the Atonement of Christ. The pain you and I experience may be where this process is most measured. In extremity, we can become as children in our hearts, as we humble ourselves and pray and work and wait patiently for the healing of our bodies and our souls. As Job, after being refined through our trials, we shall come forth as gold."

- Kent F Richards

"It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind - us, all of us - would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone." 

I testify of the power of the Atonement and that He truly knows everything we are feeling. He knows every thought that crosses our mind, and how it feels to be us. He knows what it is like to be a Missionary, a Father, a man on the street, a man dying from cancer, anything. He is truly our Loving Brother who has done all he can to help us back on our pathway to our Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful for this time of year, and I hope that everyone continues to think about Jesus Christ, more than ever, as you listen to Conference and have Easter. I'm so grateful for my Big Brother.

Thank you so much for the support, 

Elder Leavitt

P.S. Last night's menu was cow intestine tacos and cactus juice!