2014-12 Couple of Videos

Ward Children and Making Kimchi

November 16, 2014

Nov. 16

Hello everyone!!

This week was a not too eventful. This week we had to perform in the Stake Relief Society Musical Festival. Hahaha that was too funny. We didn't have much time to plan and our young women didn't really know how to dance but it was still so much fun to do. We performed to a Korean song call,"Must have love" hahaha it is kind of a carol. Look it up and just imagine us and the young women in our ward trying to dance/sing to it and then spraying snow from a can bottle.. Yeah, it was pretty interesting. 

Anyways, last week we went ice skating for P-day and there were sooo many skaters there like being trained. Koreans are extremely talented! I used my Go-Pro mom, don't worry, I have some videos of it.

It is starting to get cold. Here are a few pics. 

Eating with a member at a Pig Meat place.  We ate pig leg/foot

My Companions and Mission President and his wife

1st time Proselyting

Eating with the District then Service

Hans River

My Bishops wife and his kids

This week, we taught a lot about the Plan of Salvation. I have been gaining even a personal testimony of studying it and sharing it. We taught 김태홍 (kim Tae Hong) again and he just loved it. He asked so many questions and now is contacting us much more about questions he has. In our last lesson with him he said that he really wants to learn from us so we have been trying to bare testimony a lot more when we meet with him and it seems to be working really well. The more I try to share my sincere testimony in Korean the stronger it seems to get. We also met with 강진 자매님

She seems to love the gospel but her spirit seems blue so if you could keep my investigators in your prayers. Oh the family I was talking about last week, the postponed our visits for a few weeks which is really sad. Hopefully we will see them soon. 

I have even seen it when we teach our members. I have realized that even 20 minutes lessons are powerful. When I first went into a 20 minute lesson I thought it was going to be a "practice" lesson for us. It definitely isn't. The more 20 minute lessons we have I have come to realize that they really need to hear the message. Our members are struggling to do their own missionary work and build their own testimonies and I think this really help. So please share just even the smallest thought with anyone I would truly love that.

A lot of our appointments dropped but we saw lots of little miracles. I know the Lord is still watching over us.

I was doing my personal study today and I was reading the New Missionary President Seminar by Russel M. Nelson and it talked about Enduring to the End. 

I just thought I needed to share with you all that temple work is extremely important. We can't endure to the end without temple work.

So to answer all the normal questions:

Yes, the language is still hard. I learning but I am not good at all yet.

Yes, it is getting cold 

Yes, I love my mission. It is hard but I really enjoy every minute of it

Yes, I love the food... except Kimchi which is the most popular thing here. But i am slowly getting used to it

Yes, I LOVE my companions. They work me so hard and are really good supports. We seriously have a lot of fun together

Well that's all I have to say this week! I love you all sooo much!! I forgot my camera today so I will send pictures next week!!

Love 

Sister Leavitt

                                                       Salt Lake Airport on her way to Seoul South Korea

October 27, 2014

HELLO FAMILY!!

Okay things are going super good here in the Seoul Hood, haha.. Okay So let's see what happened this week.

Last Tuesday we had a zone conference and we talked a lot about setting/keeping goals and A LOT about relying, recognizing, and feeling the Holy Ghost. I just want to first say that not only missionaries have to rely on the holy ghost everyone at home should also be doing their part of trying to feel the spirit in their lives. For some reason it has been really hard for me to recognize what the spirit is prompting me to do. I can definitely feel but sometimes I don't know what it wants me to do. So In the next few days I am going to try to pray hard to feel it, search scriptures to apply it, bear my testimony, share experiences with people so that they can relate to it, and lastly express love to the Lord and to people around you. In lessons especially it is extremely hard to do theses things because I am not even close to knowing what the language is (sometimes I think I have gotten worse, but I keep trying) but I promise that even not in lessons and you express these things to people they can know for themselves the things you believe. This will help you bring the spirit into the home, school, work.. So my suggestion to you is to try to bring the spirit where every you go. It requires a lot of work. Pray often and show your love to the people around you. So I am going to ask you all in a week how you have done this and I better get a response back haha. I don't write this stuff for fun because honestly my hand is crmaping up write now so please try this next week to be a better example of the believers. We also had this Fireside last night (which was in half Korean half English because everything was translated depending on the speaker) talking about media. I know we hear it a lot but we have to spread the word of the gospel because I think we would be wasting our time on earth. "The worth of Souls is great in the sight of God" So just think about that okay... Facebook anything that Christ would post, ( I am not sure if that is appropriate to say haha but just pretend) Tweet uplifting gospel quotes, Instagram a picture of service.. I don't know you all have brains use them for good! haha seriously though what good have you done today? Elder Whiting (of the quorum of the 70) talked in our English branch yesterday and fireside and he talked about sacrifice. What must we sacrifice in order to become the men and women god would want us to be... Do something differently in the next week. I am going to check up on you all so... DO IT! Please :)

So let me just tell you what I have experience so far since I have been here. I have eaten octopus jerky, lots and lots of rice (hopefully my stomach doesn't explode) lots of different spicy soups. My trainer Sister Kim cooks us Korean lunch everyday so hopefully I will pick up from her.

That's me in my 2 Week. Everything is good so far.Pray for me! I pray for all of you! Love you all! Remember God loves you!

Sister Leavitt

레벳 저매 (ohh yeah a lot of people call me sister rabbit because Koreans can't say certain letters so that is one of my names 토끼  or 이 하나 (lee hanna) which is very korean name)

2014-10-10

HELLO EVERYONE!

What? I am in Korea... This is so crazy to me that I am here. Uhh... yeah... I still don't understand a word anyone is saying but I love it here. I also love my new companions. I am in a tri-o. I have my trainer who is Sister Kim and my other companion which is Sister Allred. I am sooooo blessed to have them as my first companions. My trainer works me hard which I love. She is from America but she has lived in Korea and is full Korean so she knows the country and the language super well. I will be her last companion. She will be leaving in December which is super sad!! Sister Allred is awesome!! She works so hard even tho she doesn't think she does. The are too nice to me too!

 I am also blessed to be in the best area in Seoul! 영등포 (yongdunpo) our area has literally everything. The members here are amazing. Even tho there isn't a lot of them. Ohhh... let me just tell you... We are learning KSL. Korean Sign Language. It is way awesome. We are apart of a deaf/Korean ward and english ward (which is huge, about 400 people). It is really awesome. Also in the english ward there are a lot of Filipinos so I probably will learn like one or two words in tigaglyon. (have no idea how to spell that) Like in a few weeks the English ward is singing tigalyon music in one of our firesides I think so... yeah. A lot of new learning. We also see a lot of Chinese and Japanese people. My companion knows a little bit of both so I hope to pick up on some of that as well. 

This week was crazy good. So we first started off the plan by proselyting on the subway and then going to the Mission home. We had dinner all that fun jazz. Woke up did some meetings and then met our new companions and headed to our new areas. And on our way there had to do more proselyting again. The next day we met with a investigator that I couldn't tell you her name right now because they all kind of sound the same to me at the moment haha. Anyways, we also met with some of the young womens. Every Thursday and Saturday we play basketball with the members and (future) investigators. We also teach a english class every Thursday and Saturday which is really cool. I never thought I would be using so much English here. But I am striving to get better at my Korean. Hahaha it is funny because sometimes when we are proselyting I only know like two phrases when we are handing out our English flyers and our Gospel Question cards and its. "Is your english good?" and when I say that they hurry say no and like run away and I have to chase them to say "its okay we teach English classes" so my trainer said I have to find a new way to say that because it is intimidating hahah. The other thing I know how to say is " can you play basketball well" to invite them to basketball but most people don't understand me enough so I get embarrassed and start laughing and they get all confused and walk away. Ohh I guess there is another thing I do say and I say it wrong every time is. Have you had these questions before?" (pointing to the question card) They never understand so they eventually take it and hurry off. I actually like proselyting but the only hard part is keeping a conversation. So that is when Sister Kim does her magic and gives them a Book of Mormon. So that what I do is scare them until Sister Kim comes and saves them. hahaha

Ummm... food here is amazing... I haven't had anything too weird yet. One night as like a 10 o'clock snack we had octopus jerky... It was weird but they made me still eat it haha.. 

This week week we have a lot of service for members I will send you pictures of them and the stuff we did.

Keep me updated on life! Love you all! Be Safe!! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Love,

레벳 서매

Sister Kim and Sister Allred

 Our apartment from the outside. We are on the very top floor on the corner so we have many widows to see the outside it is awesome!!

Looking at the Sunrise from my Apartment

Crazy lady spying on Hanna

On thursday morning I received Hanna's email.  She told me that she goes to the Temple on P-days around 2:00, so what does any abnormal loving mother do? I thought it would be fine to Spy. Hey, don't judge me, she leaves for South Korea in a week.  I just wanted to make sure she had all her fingers and toes. Kind of like when they are born.  Just wanted to check.  So I parked in a parking lot across from the Temple. I was so far away you could barely see it.  There was a road, a huge grass area, and a parking lot separating me from any unsuspecting victims.  I watched the Missionaries as they exited the Temple. They walked off the grounds down to the road on the grass and made a left to the sidewalk and then turned right and headed to the MTC. I was not in the line of fire so I  hunkered down as if I was in a fox hole and aimed my camera.  After an hour and half I saw her come out. Grant it, I was looking through a 400mm lens. I couldn't see her with the naked eye but with my stalking equipment I was able to find her.  When she came out she didn't go as the other Missionaries had. She came straight across the grass and headed straight for me.  She kept looking at the car and then would stop look and then walk again. Finally she met up with some other Sister and walked on down.  I thought I was so busted. I drove around the Temple and headed home. When I got to the light directly in front of the MTC I came to a slow stop.  I looked to my left and there at the cross walk was Hanna I honked and waved as I drove through. I could hear her yelling, "I told them that was my crazy Mother. I knew that was you!!" Awwwwwww I'm so happy.  I could see all her fingers and toes and she was smiling the whole way. Notice the one picture. She actually stopped to smell the Roses. That's our Girl. Love her so much. 

Waiting and Waiting

Smelling the Roses

Her and Sister Johnson

Stop Stop Turn Turn

This is where I wanted to run after her!

October 2 2014 One more week. Let the tears begin.

HELLO EVERYONE!

Time is seriously flying by soooo quickly here. I have been loving every minute of my mission. Yes, it is extremely hard and I am not even in the field yet. This week was a good one.

So after our devotional on Sundays we get to watch a video that they let us choose from. This week I rewatched this Elder Bednar talk. It is really a good one. It was talking about how we need to be turning outwards never inwards. And its talks about how when we are on missions it should never be about us. And he used the Sesame Street cookie monster as an example saying,"I want cookie, NOW!" We all need to remember that the Lord as a place and time for everything and we must not be so selfish and looking inwards and start looking outwards to people. So I have been thinking I will not know everything now and my prayers might not be answered now but they will. We are on God's errand and in his own time.

Okay, so I am going to tell you this super funny story but I might warn you it might be a "you had to be there" kind of moments. So me and my companion were teaching our "investigator" and I start off with my sentence that I had been practicing and I say," Today, we are going to teach you about how we are to prepare to meet God." Let me tell you that is a hard sentence because there is a indirect question and you conjugate different things... anyways... SO that was really good and then my companions says,"How do we feel?" and our investigator was confused so she reapeated the question and my companion was like yeah how do you feel? ( she totally meant to say something different) and our investigator was pondering like this is really deep and she was not answering the question so I say." Where are we going?" And she was like Uhhh I am here... I don't know. I figure out she doesn't understand what I am asking so I went to try to say to her, "After we die, where do we go?" but all that came out was 휘 죽여 which mean "haaeee, DIE!" Because I was trying to ask my companion what the word after was and that is what she told me... our investigator just broke and started to laugh soooo hard! So we started laughing because we had no idea what we said soo I hurried and flipped to the scripture I was going to share and try to forget that I just told her die. Seriously the funniest thing.. Sorry it was like a had to be there moment but it was the funniest thing. 

Other than that I am trying to learn new vocab but I don't have the patients because I forget them the next day so we will see how it goes in the field. Ummm... SO... TOMORROW WE GET OUR FLIGHT PLANS! CRAZY, RIGHT!? SO Next P-day I will let you know what time I can call you and such.  I have one and 1/2 more weeks left here. I hate to leave her but I am excited/nervous to leave to! 

September 25th 2014 MTC

Okay so it started on Sunday when we were able to watch and participate in the Ogden Temple Dedication. That was seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen. I have never seen a dedication before so watching it was really cool. I had no idea the process for dedicating temple was. I loved all the talks but my favorite part was when we sang Spirit of God. It brought all theses good memories of the back east trip when we were at the Kirkland Temple and it was just a reaffirmation that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God and that he did see Heavenly Father and our Savior. He did so much work for the church to be restored and I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of this church.

Then on Tuesday we had our devotional like every week but guess who came this time.... ELDER M. RUSSEL BALLARD!! And for this devotional I sang in the choir... Yes, you heard that correctly, I willingly volunteered myself to sing. We sang Joseph's First Prayer and it was arranged so differently. It was very spiritual. Elder Ballard said that is the best arrangement of that song that he has ever heard. I bet he was just being nice but it is nice to be appreciated :) His talk was seriously sooo amazing!! He talk about a lot of different things like: 

How the Gospel is about Families

WE (all) are servants and we are to build of the Kingdom of God

Always have the spirit with you

Come to know the scriptures

Setting Goals

Get Up and WORK, you are still alive make your life worth something

Ahh.. he talk about soo much... Definitely my two favorite things he questioned us and made me really think and I ask you to do the same is:

How much do I love the Lord?

How precious is one Soul?

After every devotional we have a District meeting discussing the things we have learned and felt. And this was propably the most spiritual meeting. Not gonna lie, I ended up bawling while I was talking because it was seriously so strong. So let me just tell you what happened first. Sister Moyer ( a sister in my district) started talking about how she loves the Lord and what would have been going through his head after he just suffered all the sins of the world. What do you think he was thinking as he was be spit upon, whipped, mocked, and then crucified on the cross? Love. "Father forgive them, for they know not of what they do." And that seriously hit me hard and I was all fine and I raise my hand to comment and as I began to speak I could feel the tear coming on and if you know me you know that I don't handle crying in front of people well so I started to talk to myself and prep myself and like waving at my face to stop crying. It just got worse. Anyways, I don't even remember what I said and I didn't know what I was saying at the time, but my testimony has grown for the love of my Savior.

Elder Ballard talked a lot about the worth of souls and what he suffered for us and how selfish is it to keep it from others.

So this week was spirtually good one to say the least!

사랑합니다

레빗 자매 (pretty sure thats how you spell Leavitt) 

The cutest, sweetest Natives in the whole world

This is all of the sister in the Korean Branch at our last Queso Party! (ignore how horrendous I look, I just showered)

Couple little things from her letters. Mom's will like one of them especially.

Hanna's District

Hey family & friends!

This week was a really good week!! We had some awesome devotionals. On Sunday we have been told to start keeping a study journal. It really hit me hard. The point of a study journal is to start to recognize when Heavenly Father is prompting you or blessing you. And to me that is really important. Sometimes when I am here I sometimes "forget" whos work I am doing. I really want you to all to take a moment out of your day and count your blessing that God had given you that day. You would be surprise to see how much he has a hand in each day we live. Since I have started this study journal I have realize that I have promptings. Oh, and I am always have something to say in class. This is usually not really me. I feel that I can feel the spirit prompting me to say things that I normally wouldn't. Also in our devotionals we talked about in-actives. Us, as missionaries are suppose to reach out to those who have been in the church but have lost their way. The speaker had us stand up if we have members in our families who are in-active. EVERY SINGLE MISSIONARY stood up. They told us that we must treat each investigator as if they were our family trying to bring them back to the Lord. I really want you to think about that. Pray for those and guide a hand to those in our family or seem like family to bring them back to him. I think this is really important, because if we can't bring our own family back how are we suppose to bring back others who are not our family.

                                 Poor Hanna………hang in there. 

She worries about me

This is sooooo Hanna.

Thursday August 28, 2014

My name in Korean

So this week the language has been a little difficult. We are learning sooooo much it is cramming in my skull. Like we are learning grammar structures and how to use different words. They also have multiple number system and they are used for different things. The thing that gets me and Sister Johnson is that we stress out from our lessons with our investigators. So from day 2 we have been teaching lessons in Korean to investigators. It is extremely hard because we can't ever tell what they are asking and we can't ever move on from lesson 1. Our teacher have become our investigators. I just absolutely love my teachers tho. They are very patient with all of us. So we are taught 8 hours of Korean a day so we see them ALOT!! 

But even with all the learning and stressing out... I have come to LOVE the MTC!! I can't tell you all the people I have met and people that I know. Yesterday, I saw Elder Grow walking through the halls of the MTC for his first time. It was actually kind of funny because you know who all the new elders and sister are because of their stickers and so everyone welcomes them and as wee were walking to lunch I was welcoming them and then I like awkwardly stopped and stared and like "Hey, I know you" We shook hands and I wish him luck. haha ( yeah that is how good my stories are going to get) hahaha There is not much that goes on. Each day is the same. You learn. You Stress. You are happy. It is like a rollercoaster each day. I thought I would be stressing out even more but I like to think of it as a good kind of stress because I haven't really broke down quite yet and it is just more out of frustrating that I can't tell my Korean investigator everything that I know because I just don't know how to say it. 

Sundays are seriously the best days here. You don't have to worry about anything and the Spirit is soooo strong its ridiculous. I can feel my testimony grow each day. At times I feel that I am not gettting anything from the spirit but then I look back at what I knew just a week ago and things and just progressing more and more each day. Faith, Hope, and Work is key. Yesterday my district was stressing out really bad so Brother Hone had to stop his discussion and talk to us. Pretty much in summary he told us to put everything out on the table. Don't look back on your mission and wished you would have worked harder. Make goals and learn to overcome trials. I am now in the mind set that I must learn to push myself past the limits that I think I have. Go out of my comfort zone and get to work. 

I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH! I pray for you and I hope everything is going well! Please tell me everything that is going on outside the MTC! Be safe!

LOVE,

Sister Leavitt

Service-Cleaning

Compassionate Cruelty

        Dropping a child off at the MTC is a Compassionate Cruelty. There's so much love felt as you leave them. Workers and Missionaries there to greet them and guide them to their next destination but they give you only  2 ½ minutes to tell them everything you forgot to tell them the previous 19 years. How is that possible. I barely mouthed the words I love you while her dad buried his face in his hands and made noises we've only heard from the first Alien movie.   Ugh!!! Parenting is hard.

Love you Hanna….umm Sister Leavitt.

                  She's obviously ready to go.

Time is running out!

Just a little over a week before this girl leaves on her Mission.  It's going to be so sad but we're excited also.  She had one farewell in Logandale last weekend and has one more to go in Utah.  This picture was taken at her farewell.  She did a great job.  She is going to be such a wonderful Missionary.  This hug encompasses the love we felt from everyone that day. Thanks you all and thank you Donna Swanson for sharing your home.

 We love her sooo much. 

The Beginning

My Call Arrived

Wednesday, April 3 was probably the second most exciting day of my life. A week in half prior to the 3rd I turn my papers in. Let me just tell you tho, it was not an easy process. I went through 3 different bishops because I moved so many times. I first started at my Single's Ward  in Logan, Utah because that is where I was attending college. Then after the semester ended I went down to my Home Ward in Logandale, Nevada and started some of my papers there. Then my parents moved to South Jordan, Utah. So every bishop had something different. I was suppose to put my papers in during the month of February but ended up putting them in at the end of March. But being patient pays off and I know now that I was suppose to wait because of where I need to be called.

So back to April 3rd, I check every 2 hours from 10:00am to 4:00pm and nothing. That night, my mom and I decide to drive around Provo and so we didn't get back until 10:00. I thought I am just going to try one more time to see if it is here. And... IT ARRIVED!!! I just wanted to rip it open right there and then. I called my dad and he said he could fly home the next day. So the next day, I woke up and was ready for my dad to be there but he called and said he can't get here until Sunday. SUNDAY? That was in 3 days!! How can anyone wait that long? So I waited... and waited...

Sunday came. My family and I watched conference together. I could feel the spirit and each talk connected to me in a different way. Then, 4:00 came around. People started to come to our door. Friends and Family were filling our family room. (Okay our family room is pretty small so there wasn't too many people)  People were recording, face timing, and taking pictures. My stomach was in knots. I sat on our fireplace and I began to rip open the letter. I took a deep breath and I began to read:

Dear Sister Leavitt,

You are hereby called to serve are a missionary of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Korea Seoul South Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve a period of 18  months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, August 13,204. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Korean language.

....

I read where I was going inside my head and then began to say, "Ohh....my... gosh!" I couldn't speak. My mom was afraid I went sent somewhere bad. (Not that that is possible.) And As I said those word everyone began to scream. I felt so overwhelmed. I wanted to cry but couldn't because there was so many people! My Grandma Lamb started to cry, my mom look like she was, my dad was in shock.It seemed like everyone was surprise that I was called to serve there, including me. I thought I was going to the states, for sure!

But, I am fill with joy to soon be able to serve the Lord and the people of Korea. I know these 18 months will be one of the happiest/ stressful/ peaceful/ and best learning in experiences I will have in my whole life! I have already downloaded apps and practice the language. I am so excited to serve and will keep everyone updated on my journey to serve my Heavenly Father.

I have the greatest family & friends! :)