Week 36 Transfer Week

Cooking up a little something.

Transfer Week!! I found out yesterday that I'll be staying in Columbia as District Leader for the next transfer, so I will be here at least until September 23. I'm so glad!!! I have loved Columbia so much, it is such an amazing place to serve!!! I will still be with Elder Chaico, this will be our 3rd transfer as companions overall.

Well...last Monday we got in a car accident! Someone ran a stop sign and ran us off the road..so we've been without a car this week! So it's definitely been interesting, because everything is super spread out! But because of that, it has given us a great opportunity to talk to more people on the streets.

You really are "ONE in a Minion", Elder Leavitt

Minion Package from Home.

I love how God provides miracles, they come in so many different ways!! This week, one of the nights we went out with a member named Gino to eat dinner. Gino is 18 and preparing for his mission. In the hour that we were with him, he received a text from a friend of his named Ethan. The text said "Hey Gino! I'm hoping that you have an extra book of mormon..I've been wondering if I could learn some more about the church!" So Gino replied to him and told him that he was actually with the missionaries and set an appointment up for the next day! 

The next day, we drove with Gino to Ethan's house and had a wonderful talk! He has a girlfriend that is a member of the church, and has been super interested in the Book of Mormon. So we gave him a copy, and he is so excited to read it! It was such a miracle that Gino had received that text while we were with him and that Ethan had such a desire to read!

I got the chance this week to talk to one of my former investigators that lives in Frederick. Her name is Carolina, she is the one that had been in the hospital and as soon as she came home, we knocked on her door. She is doing well and is still trying to read the Book of Mormon!

This week as I've been reading the New Testament, I finished the Book of Matthew! It has made such a difference as a missionary to be able to have the time to study the scriptures! I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and for the amazing example he is. This week as I was reading, something stood out to me that I had never realized before in Matthew 26. This chapter is all about the last events before the death of Jesus Christ, including the Atonement. In verse 51, one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ makes an attack at a guard, and in verse 52, Jesus tells him to put his sword down and not make a fight. In verse 53 and 54 Jesus Christ says: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" As I read this, it really hit me that Jesus Christ could easily have escaped this! He could have easily called upon the power of God to get him away from these guards or  the pain that was about to happen to him.  But he had to do it because it was a necessary event, and God needed him to go through that. WE needed him to go through that. And because of his selflessness, he went through that pain for us.

I love this quote: "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don' throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." I have a testimony that God is our Engineer. Sometimes, we seem to be going through the dark tunnel, but if we show our trust in him, he will ALWAYS continue to lead that train to light. We have to go through the dark tunnels so we can appreciate the light! I love that quote and I'm so grateful we have an engineer to guide us!

I hope that everyone has been doing well! I love all of you, thanks for the support!

- Elder Leavitt