2015-3-15

Hello FAMILY!!

Last week we went to a 목욕탕 last week. It was soooo refreshing. Lately I have had some really bad back problems. Like I have been aching in the weirdest spots on my back. I haven't ever had back pains before but I go to this "bathe house" and it was the most relaxing thing and I even talked to people and handed out name card. One lady even bought me a water. Koreans are soo nice. Anyways. Ohhh.. yeah yesterday we went to one of our English member's house to eat and share a small message with 3 other families. One of the mothers was talking about how she gives her kids pass along cards and they pass them out like crazy. And I was just curious. Do you all do that? Because it would make missionaries lives SOOOOOO much easier if you passed out the cards to people you know. It is more awkward for us to hand it out to people we absolutely don't know rather than members handing it out to friends. People see your example and that is really what bring people into this gospel. So my commitment to you is to hand out 3 name cards or pass along cards to your friends or co-workers. I know you are in Utah but find someone that stands out that really needs the gospel. 

One thing we did have this last week was the Relief Society Establishment Meeting. Our Stake did these dances and singing things it is sooo fun! Korean go all out for these things. I will send you a video our Ward did handbells and 2 women sang the OLDEST Korean song out there is was fun!! L)

Well time is flying by sooooo fast! We get transfer calls in like 2 weeks. I think I will be leaving YeongDong-Po ( I don't know how to spell it in English) 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Be safe! Miss you

Love 

Sister Leavitt

Preaching the Gospel

Hanna was down for a couple of days. This is how she spent her time.

Back Problems

2015-3-8

FAAAAMMMIIILLLLYYY!!!

Okay haha let me just tell you what I ate last week. (weird way to start off an email) 

So we were at one of our member's house. This is the old grandma I have told you about. 임복심 she is thee funniest old person. She feeds us very traditional Korean food. And as we are eating a whole bunch of food her and Sister Stastny started talking about Sting Rays. Sister Stastny had heard that they smell like pee and she wanted to know, so 임복심 pulls out of her fridge this frozen Sting Ray meat. She smelt it and there wasn't a smell so being a nice old grandma she wanted us to feed this to us too. She throws it in the microwave and within seconds, as it is heating, you could smell it. It smelt like ammonia. Like it was the strongest smell I have smelt here. She also grabs out of the fridge some HOT sauce to dip it in. So being Korean she takes one of these raw fermented drenches it in this sauce and throws it in her mouth like NBD. So Sister Stastny was like yeah I want to do that. So she does it first and she didn't mind it but she said it stung... then Sister Nebeker tries it and her face said it all. She did not like it, She looks at me and says, " I can't feel my tongue." haha I was terrified. They both looked at 임복심 and said "맛어요!" So then the Grandma looks at me and tell me to eat it. If a Korean tell you to eat something, it is really respectful to eat it. So I took the sting ray dunked it in some sauce and ate it. AHHH it seriously stings. The smells goes throughout your whole body. Like I really just at raw poisonous fermented sting ray and I did not like it. Here in Korea Sting Rays are super expensive and no one really likes them except the older generation, so we took our last opportunity to eat it and I hope it is the last. haha It was fun. So we had so much food and the member then gave us rice. Rice is soooo filling and you have to eat it all. Which I usually can. But I couldn't finish it. When she was watching her Korean Drama I rolled it in a ball and hid it in my clothes. I didn't want to offend her and I really wanted to eat it all so that was the last option I knew to do. #lifeinKorea

So yeah Korea is amazing. My Korean on the other hand is getting better but I am not even close to being fluent. I can understand maybe 30% now. That's a lot for me. 

. But I am teaching about 40-50% of lessons now so that is really good. Don't be surprised when I come home and I still don't know Korean. It is hard.

Scripture of the week:

 31 And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way,declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen.

I know when we are MEMBER MISSIONARIES we are blessed.

 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ.

I love and miss you all sooo much! I pray for you daily!! Be safe and do God's work!

LOVE

Sister Leavitt

2015-3-1

Hello FAMILY!!

How are you all!! I miss you! Not enough to come home but I miss you and love you all! I really want to here about how you all are doing! I should be sending 2 packages in a short time or maybe just one big one.. we will see. Anyways, this week was soooo interesting! haha I will start on Tuesday.

Tuesday:

We did the normal, studied for 3 hours and had lunch. We then had a lesson with one of our recent converts. 박준회 (Park June He) She is the nicest smartest woman I have met. So We had a nice conversation and asked her about her week. She broke down telling us about her hard time with life and family. We then talked to her a little bit about how we can overcome problems and she just really wants to know what to do with her life and what path to take. So we then taught her about patriarchal blessings. Patriarchal blessings are really such a reward that we can have personal scriptures to help us make decisions and to guide us through out our lives. in Korean this is kind of a difficult subject to talk about and we had a little miracle. The institute coordinator had been walking in and out of our lesson to get things ready for whatever she was doing. Then she asked if she could help us out a little bit. We appreciated it so much. She then went on to tell her the importance of patriarchal blessings and she can used and receive it. The spirit was really strong and now she is getting hers this week! So I encourage everyone to get it. I have read mine at least once a week. It really does help to grow and to strengthen you spiritually.

But... this wasn't the "interesting" part I was talking about. So... after the lesson 박준회 & 김승하 came with us to a member's house right after the lesson. We head out and I got lost. I went the total opposite way and we had to figure out which way we needed to go. When we finally got to the subway station that we need to be at to transfer. ( 당산) We saw these deaf Korean people walk passed. All 5 of us had been taking Sign Language classes at church and we knew how to introduce ourselves so we kept thought about it and I had a feel like we needed to try to talk to them. So me and 긴승하 back and I started the conversation with them. "Hi, what is your name?" "My name is.." "I am learning sign language.." "Want to come to our class" And at this time I was trying to find the Korean Sign language missionaries' number ( I couldn't find it for the life of me) and I turn to my companions and I see Sister Stastny with this weird look on her face. And apparently as I was trying to talk to the deaf men another man came up to Sister Nebeker and stroked her arm and was talking so to her face. He was a drunken man who wanted to know why we knew sign language and then started talking about a bunch of weird things. 박준회 then tries to have Sister Stastny get us out of the situation and she was like you know Korean and you are 30, get us out of this. We eventually had to like tell him we have a appointment. As we were quickly walking away from him he like yells at us to have us eat with him. We said no but he kept insisting so we just ran. 

We get on the subway that took us to the stop where our member lives. There is literally two subways you can take. And there are sooo many stops. ( I will explain later why this is important) So finally get to our member's small house with us 5 and taught about hope and listened to her talk about life because she just really needs someone to listen to. Anyways, on our way back from our 45 min lesson (so it has been an hour since we were at the station) and we saw the same man again!!! He didn't see us but we ran sooo hard to the subway and this is where our miracle kicks in. 

Like I said there are 2 subways. One is an express which misses some stops and one is a normal one. So the first thing that was weird was out of all the stops we saw the same man twice but... as we were waiting for the subway to get back we were deciding on which one to take. At the moment I didn't care which one we needed to take. So we decide obviously,which ever one came first. The normal subway came up first and we were going to hop on it and that is when I decided... no, we should take the express one. As I said that the express one pulls up and we were caught in trying to pick a train and I was firm and said we need to take the express train.

They were going to argue. The express train doesn't take as long to get to our destination so we hopped on. The subway was a little packed so I was standing really close to this other woman and being a missionary you look at all your surroundings to pick up on something to say to them. This lady was on her phone (like anyone else) but I decided to try to read what she was reading. SHE WAS READING HER BIBLE! I like nudged my companions and our members and told them "Hey, she is reading her bible.What do I do!?" I then looked again to make sure and she was even reading in Mark! So I was nervous as ever so Sister Nebeker took it like a man and just started the conversation about the Bible. Then our members started talking to her. We thought we would have to end our conversation with her but she got off at our stop. We talked about who were are and our members bore testimony. We exchange numbers and got an appointment. Just like that we have a new investigator and a fellow-shipper. Our member is even staying in contact with her! It was such a blessing!! 

Saturday:

I am going to try to make this one shorter. So we went our with a member and her non-member husband to dinner. They took us to a NICE restaurant. Very Americanized. So at this restaurant it was as much wine and beer you can drink. Because he husband isn't a member he had about 3 to 4 glasses of wine by the time we went to share our message. It was actually kind of funny. We started to teach about Matt: 3:13-15 and how we can give Christ our burdens. He then talked about how he doesn't know if there is a God. How miracles are of the devil. But then would contradict himself by saying there are good. It just was interesting. And every time I spoke he questioned something. Like they were bad questions, they were actually really good. But I didn't have enough time to even explain what I was testifying about. But then she bore her testimony. And even in this busy loud restaurant I could feel the spirit so strong. You can tell she has just been going through a hard a time. Sometimes we plan a lesson who we think needs it but can end up being for someone completely different. 

On the way home, we were already going to be late getting to home (we have to be there by 9 or if we teach a lesson 9:30) and we were out of our area but still in our zone. So from Gangnam to Yeongdung-po it takes about thirty minutes and it was 8:45. But... we didn't get on the right subway. We went accidentally on the other side and as we sate there for about 20 mins Sister Stastny looks out the river and sees the river. She looks to me in a panic and says,"AHHH we are crossing the river, we have to get off NOW!" So then we had to call President about it. We were scared out of our minds. He handled it so calmly. We eventually got back to our house though around 9;45~10:00 

Anyways, this is the life a Sister Missionary.

I don't have time to write anymore. I love you all! I will try to send pictures!! Do good in the world!

LOVE AND MISS YOU

Sister Leavitt

2015-2-22

Hello Family & Friends

So this week went really slow because it was the Chinese New Year and it is Huge here. So now one was out in the street and everything was closed until today. So we didn't get to see or meet a lot of people. But.... We had another baptism!! WHOOT WHOOT!!

We have been meeting 조하니 자매님 (sister Jo Ha Ni) for only a few weeks now. She was a referral from another missionary because she moved into our area. So all we had to do was teach the 5th lesson and get a baptism date. She has been pushing back the date with the other missionaries because she really doesn't want to break any commandments after she gets baptized. When she was worried about stuff like that I knew she was ready. She really lives a good life and wants to do good. She just wanted to make sure everything was for sure before she went through with it. She prayed and prayed and she finally decided on this date. Me and my companion weeks early made a goal to have her get baptized on this date but we never reach out the invitation for this day. We kept asking to do it few weeks earlier but then she finally texted us the date she had prayed about and it was the day our original goal was. So that was really cool. She is a super sweet girl. I am excited for her journey ahead. I felt the spirit strong in her baptism. It reminded me of my own baptism. I am living my baptismal covenants everyday. Remembering the promises we made with our Heavenly Father can really make this easier in life. Just live as the Savior would. I am slowly learning this. Sometimes it is really hard to do this. I want to be my crazy immature self but I am learning that I must act as the Savior would but still have my own personality. 

So as you can see from the picture, I also got a new companion. This is my 3rd three some since I have been in country. She is my 5th companion. That is more than a lot of people who are older than me in the mission. But she is super nice. Her name is Sister Nebeker. She is from Salt Lake. She has been out for 9 months. She is the cutest nicest thing ever. She is 22 and has done A LOT before her mission like went to China to be an English teacher. Us 3 are working really well together. I am excited to see what we can do.

Also this week we had Zone Activity. Because no one could teach because everyone was celebrating the New Year, we all went hiking and watched "Meet the Mormons". I never even knew they had this movie in theaters. (you all should see it, it is way good!) We had our zone training on the mountain looking out at Korea. Well you couldn't really see Korea but you could see something that they were building and just a lot of country so it was really pretty. We called it our "Sermon on the Mount." (but not in a disrespectful way) 

The rest of the week was pretty boring. Life is good. Korean is hard. Companions are awesome. I love my mission!!

Everyone be safe. Go to church, read your scriptures, say your prayers, and go to the temple.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU! I pray for each one of you! Have an awesome week!

LOVE,

Sister Leavitt

Hiking with my District

2015-2-15

Hello 가족, (ka jok)

Happy Late Valentine's Day (for missionaries this day is really weird haha)

So this week was too eventful. We got our transfer calls yesterday. Me and Sister Stastny are staying together and...... We are getting another companion!! I am in a 3 some AGAIN!! So this is my 4th transfer here in Yeongdung-po and This is my 3rd three some. Hahah I have had more companions than a lot of people in our mission. But it will be fun. We really needed it because we are in charge of two wards. So this week is  솔날 (I am not sure I spelled that right) It is the Korean New Year. So everyone here goes home to their families and the just like eat all day for 3 days. It is bigger than Christmas here. So we are going to have a Zone Activity and go hiking and watch Meet the Mormons. So it should be a really fun day. 

This week we spent a lot of time with one of young woman and ( ahhh I can't concentrate right now someone is smoking indoors and my head hurts. *picture this* I have my shirt up covering my nose and I smell like one of the Grandmas here, people smoke here all the time, sometimes we get a lot in our apartment from our next door neighbor through the vents. Smoking is not good for you. Spread the word.... AHH IT SOO BAD) Anyways, this young women really wants to become a missionary and she has been working with us. It is really fun to see her grow when she works and teaches with us. 

I have been praying and been hearing a lot about this lately but we all need to be member missionaries. We just need that desire to want to bring others unto Christ. But we first but have our own desires to come unto him as well. That means: Reading our scriptures EVERYDAY and praying and going to church and actually listening. I have been learning something new everyday here on my mission. I have been praying for you all the have missionary opportunities even if that is to our own families. 

I want you all to read the Book of Mormon slowly and really understand what it is saying. I always just read it but didn't understand it. Many people say it is hard but it really isn't if you are studying out the words that they are saying. I find the Book of Mormon to actually be quite entertaining.. reallly! It is interesting and there are things I didn't even know existed in it. Just as I keep telling you this... The Book of Mormon is true and I really want you all to have a DESIRE to read it.. Start from the beginning and I am going to ask you again next week where you are :)

I just really want you all to have the desire to improve yourselves. I read today A LOT about desire. Desire leads us to FAITH which leads us to REPENTANCE which leads us to SALVATION. I promis no matter what you are going through and even if you aren't going through anything it will enrich and bless your life. 

Okay that is my thought for the week. I really believe this... So family please do this. We can't waste time here on Earth! 

Ohh... this week we have another baptism! WHOOOT WHOOT!! I will tell you next week how it goes! 

LOVE

Sister Leavitt

Young Women playing soccer. They want to serve a Mission.

2015-2-8

HEY FAM!!!

This week was a really funny one. I wouldn't really consider it the best but you'll see has I write my letter. 

Hahaha okay so last Monday wasn't really P-day because we have Temple day this week so we have P-day on Thursday but we still get to email.. anyways,

Last week we met with this really old lady 임복심 She is serioulsy the funniest old thing. So in Korea the culture is that all the old people don't work but how they receive money is that they collect trash and they recycle it. Like I told you before they don't have normal trash her.. everything is recyclable. Like there isn't trash cans, there are certain areas for plastic, paper, cans, foil, food, ect. So we had a meeting to met with her and she was just picking up trash and like I don't even know how to explain it... just being an old person. So we help her a little bit going to each house and picking up there beer cans and that sort of thing. When we first walk into her house there is food drying everywhere. That is how lots of old Korean like their food is dried. So we get in there and she feed us her homemade potoatoes and kimichi and this weird fish soup that I still don't like. It is just like the whole fish is sitting in a bowl of random stuff found in Korea. Anyways as we start finishing up on our dinner she turns on her TV to her Korean Soap opera. Korean LOVE their soap operas. Like they eat kimichi and watch soap operas. So she is sitting in her room and laughing and talking to herself. We then join her in her bedroom. (That usually where we always teach is on the beds. Yeah a little weird but it is culture.) So we begin to teach her our message but she doesn't turn the TV off and you can't really tell and older person what do to in Korea so we let it play. Then as we are teaching she was like I know English and starts doing alphebet. "ABCEGH" we were like you are missing some letters. And she like no.. I don't think so. (I don't know how to translate that in english) So then we move on to numbers and she goes "1234567910" haha we were like you are missing "par" and she was like no.. But the funny thing is that numbers are universal so anyways... Old people are just funny. And because it warming up they are starting to work our more outside and it is the cutest thing. They get all the old people together in a circle at the park and raise and low their hands to ooooollllldddd Korean music... Ahh they are so cute. I will have to show you a video later.

Okay later on this week.we went to the temple. Temple is always so nice when we go but this time I lost my name tag there so for the rest of the day I had to not "be a missionary" :( it was sad. I have only one more so I have to order more. Anyways, Brady should be getting a package soon!! yeah...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :) 

I save the best for last just to see if you are all still reading...

WE HAD A BAPTISM!! WHoo! Okay so this girl has been taught for the past year and she has gone through a lot of hard times and her mom wouldn't allow her to get baptized. So she finally got permission from her and we got the papers signed. She went through 5 interviews and finally got passed because she has just gone through a lot of hard times. So anyways, she finally got baptized yesterday. The funny thing is, so you know how they change into there baptism clothes and then come back and they do the program and the baptism is last. So what happened was that we went with her to go get changed and we were waiting there for a while until she was done and she says (in Korean) " Can I enter?" We thought she said "Can I return" which sounds really close to each other and we like of course like yeah come. And then she never came out and we called her name and there wasn't an answer. We open the doors to the font and she is just sitting there like okay I am ready someone baptize me. hahahaha it was literally the funniest things. So we had to find a new suit and get her all changed. She looked so pretty in her baptism dress. Reminded me of my own baptism. 

I just love Korea and the people here. Language is still hard. I don't know much. I hear all the time. It is not hard but it takes a long time. Yeah... it is taking me a really long time. But if you could keep sending me prayers to improve I would LOVE it haha

I love you all! I hope you have a fabulous weekend. Don't forget it is Brady's birthday. :) Do something fun for me for him..? haha LOVE you all I pray for you every week! Be safe. Read your scripture. Pray Daily

MISS YOU TONS!

Sister Leavitt

2015-2-1

HELLLOOOO!!!

So it looks like today is the Super Bowl Sunday! I am routing for anyone that Amanda isn't so GOOO ________!!! hahaha ( read your scriptures during commercial breaks) ;) 

So this week was really eventful. So last P-day we went to a 목요탕 or a bath house. That was scary let me just tell you that.

 The next day we had one of our investigators text us and say " Hey when we meet today can you bring the baptismal papers?" We were in shock. So we called her and she said she had finally got permission from her parents to get baptized because she was under age to do it by herself! So that was a miracle. The only thing is we are a little afraid of her repentance. I can see she really wants to get baptized and she has been meeting with the missionaries for a year now. We asked her why she wants to get baptized and she said she doesn't feel like a member. She can't go to seminary or do the things on lds.org like members can. And then she hesitates and goes... "Oh, and for eternal life." haha she is so cute and she really wants it. She has had a really hard life so we are just making sure she is completely ready. So if everything goes has plan we will have a baptism next week!! ^^

Also this week we had lessons with 5 investigators. That is a lot then when I first got her. Here in 영등포 I teach in half Korean and half English so I feel that my Korean is progressing like it should. 

But one of the English appointments we had was with a women name Valaria. She is from Russia. She has been going to church for a year now but hasn't accepted it yet. She has a rough life too and she was asking us this week, "Why do we have to suffer if God wants us to be happy?"

The next day we had a Korean lady who speaks really good english ask us that same question. Her name is 김애경. Sister Kim.  So let me just tell you this experience:

We met with her and we walk to one of the church rooms that we are going to teach her in. She doesn't really say anything (which is really unusual) and she sits on the the chair, and pulls out her scriptures to read the B.O.M with us. We usually met with her to read the scriptures with her because she is a recent convert. After we say our opening prayer she just started bawling. We went over to comfort her but she didn't want any of that..(which is understandable I probably would have done the same) and she just says. Why? Why does God to this to him when I start to believe in him. She is having a hard time. She starts to explain to us that she is afraid of God. She goes to church because she doesn't want God to punish her anymore. We try to explain that he doesn't punish us. Sometimes we go through hard times so that we can be more experienced. We mentioned that the mistakes, blessings, trials, and how we overcome it can help us receive eternal life.She then says," No, I don't really believe that. I just want to focus on my life now. I just want to be happy now." I then felt so passionate to tell her that this life isn't for us to just be happy. It is in a sense but we have to experience sufferings. This life is for us to be tested to see if we can trust God in all things, and in all places. Our faith in God through our trials determines if we can be worthy to live with him after this life. They will judge us according to our good works. It doesn't say that they are going to judge us for the bad things in life. If we do good things to overcome the bad things we can be saved. Through Christ's loving atonement we are able to be lifted from our burdens. I haven't felt the spirit in this lesson than I have since the MTC. I just the love God had for this women that if she kept enduring that she will overcome this trial. Everytime I looked down at the scriptures in front of me that I had this impression that she really need to read them. I haven't had a prompting so strong. Me and my companion were both prompted to tell her that if she reads and studies the Book of Mormon  in her heart and mind (and not just read yet) that she will be strengthened by the Lord. I even had a thought that if she would read them for 2 weeks that what ever she was going through would go away. She then says to us, " I don't need to be strengthened.. its not me but them." "Is he punishing me because I am not reading the Book of Mormon?" We then explained to her that the things we are telling her are through the Holy Ghost. We don't know how he will help you and why you need to read the scriptures but in order to overcome this trial of yours you need to do this. God works in his own time and in his own way. 

This scripture comes to mind:

”What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

As missionaries, we are servants of the Lord. Here to bless the lives of others. To invite others to come unto Christ. 

This morning as we were doing companionship study this scripture came up:

 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.

After we had this lesson, we asked a young women how she would answer this question. She said  in her funny but okay english, "No pain; No gain." That is so true. Without experiencing hardship we would never know what true happiness is. In 2 Nephi 2:2 Lehi tells his sons that they have bared much afflictions but because they have experienced theses things God with bless them for their gain. So I know that if anyone is going through hard times. Only through Christ's atonement and Heavenly Father's love for us that we can overcome it. There is no other way. 

Fear God; not man

God will bless you! 

Doing Service-Picking up trash

2015-1-18

HELLO!!! 안녕하세요

Okay this week was really good we hit must of our goals this week! WHOOT WHOOT! Yeah that is what missionaries get excited about! So last P-day we just stayed inside and watched a movie with Sister Holt and Sister Hurst. They live super close so we see them a lot!

 And also later that night we had a lesson with one of our investigators (조하니)at our member's house. Okay, let me just tell you this old couple is so faithful but... they can be a little 부담 which is like pressure or burden. I don't know how to explain it. It has a different expression in Korean. But they first stared off with a OOOOLLLLLDDD church video and then we ate and they were asking here the weirdest questions. It was kind of strange. Then after that we watched another OLD video for 30 minutes. This investigator though was really strong about it and took it well. They were asking her what is keeping her from baptism and and she is worried about keeping the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity in the future. She is keeping it now but she is worried for the future. Our members told about their experiences and with work. It went really well. But, it is hard to explain they are just a little too bold at times ㅎㅎㅎㅎ

So we are hoping that will have a baptism in February for her. I am really excited. We also have another investigator (이지선) and she is really good. She is just having a hard time with her beliefs about Joseph Smith. She keeps wondering why it had to be him. She said she has been praying about him but she hasn't received an answer. We explained to her that sometimes we don't get answer immediately and in the way we think we will get them. Sometimes we have to study for a long time until we know for sure. Like I didn't know for sure everything was true until I was in High School and I actually tried to know for myself and not from my parent's testimony. I grew up in the church but I think back and I just relied on my parent's testimony but because I strived to do what is right and had a desire to know for myself I received that answer. We have to put in our part. Like continiously going to church and not sleeping in. Reading and Praying everyday even if we are tired and "we don't have time". Honestly we always have time. The time we are spending on our phones or watching TV we could do 5 minutes of reading our scriptures. All it takes is 5 minutes. I study for an hour or up to 3 hours. I know you can do it. 

The other hard part about teaching her is she doesn't understand our Korean and she understand our English better but not quite. She is has been living in Canada for awhile and the Korean there is a little different so we don't know quite how to teach her but she is slowly understanding us. Last night, she said it was the first time that she had felt this "spiritual feeling" and that is really good!! :)

This week we also had Zone Conference. We were combined with two zones. It was a really good training. The President and his wife came and trained us, We talked about Stewardship. I think that is really important to have this quality in our lives. Stewardship means to be reliable to be responsible. As members of the church we must continue be able to have this quality so that God can trust us with any kind of work he has in stored for us. I think that I haven't really had that so this next week I am going to be reliable. During our Companionship Inventory I came up with the 3 P's:

Proactive

Punctual

Positive

I am really slacking on these things and I can't do anything alone so I would ask that you try to try to have missionary opportunities and to use these 3 P's. I will follow up with it because that is what I do is I ---> Follow up, Teach, and Give a commitment ( should count this email as a lesson) haha but please help me do this! :)

Okay well that is it for this week. The Quote of the week is:

"Oh, SWEET MOSES!' - Sister Stastny

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! I pray for you always!! 

Sister Leavitt

(the reason I am emailing so early is because we are going to President's house. Sister Morrise is have a Sisters Day. It should be really fun)

Thursday Basketball

2015-1-11

Family & Friends

This email is going to be short because I am trying to respond to all my emails. 

So this week I got a new companion! WHAT, WHAT?? Yeah this will be my 5th companion. This is very rare. She 10 months into her mission and I am her 5th companion.

Her name is Sister Stastny. She is from Meridian, Idaho! She is super sweet. Her ancestors are from slovakia! She totally looks Europian!! It is crazy!! haha We are both really weird so we get a long really well! I first met her when we got stranded at North Korea so we bonded really fast :)

Since she has been here we have been working really hard. We are now visiting all of our members that even I haven't met with, we are doing lessons all the time! It is really good to stay busy.

Even when you are at home, try to stay busy!! If there is one bit of advice I could give to you all is to use your time wisely. STOP WASTING TIME!! Okay, that is it. I have noticed that since I have been out on my mission, when I was at home I was super lazy. Here, I have no time to be lazy and sometimes it is hard!  hahahaha so yeah. Read you scriptures, pray, repent, and remember our Savior DAILY!!  Please don't get lazy! Always serve. 



Mosiah 2:17
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are onlyin the service of your God.

Okay, I want to make my email short this week. So one cool thing now that we are doing in area is that we play basketball, soccer, AND volleyball all on different days of the week! Korean are sometimes amazed that an American GIRL can play decently. I will say I have lost a lot of my talent but hey this is really good way to get investigators and become close with our ward!!

Yeah, not much happened this week besides getting a new companion and showing her around and scheduling for the first couple of days. Today for P-day we decided to just stay home with some other Sisters and watch a movie! We really need one of these days. So hopefully I can send you all a letter.. but we will see :)

Love you all! I pray for you daily!!

Be Safe,

Sister Leavitt

The apples are huge here.

North Korean Border!

Okay this week has been interesting... So last P-day .. I literally went to the border of North Korea. There is this exhibit there that you can look across the water and watch people. :The crazy part about it is that all the buses left when we came out so we were stuck there. It was on the foggiest of days and it was the eeriest expereince. We had to sit there for an our in the middle of now where next to the barbe wired fence that seperated North Korea and South Korea. There military men everywhere and we couldn't go back inside because the exhibit closed.. CRAZY, right?! We almost had to hitch hike back and we got into someone's car but then someone found the taxi's number and we had to wait there for another 30 minutes until it came to pick us up. Seriously this was like a scene in the movies. Let me discribe you the setting. So there are 3 white girls and 1 Korean standing on the snow on the side of the street. Probably one of the coldest and foggiest days since I have been in Korea. You could hear dogs barking 100 meters away. Occasionally you woud see a baby deer prance across the empty street. You would see a car pass drive every 20 minutes and you had to just sit and wait. 1/4 mile away you could see the fence tat kept North Korea and South Korea divided. Hahah okay seriously it was spooky but so funny.. I will send you pictures. I also gave out my Book of Mormon to the Taxi Driver and he seemed really happy to receive it. So the power of getting stranded.

Border

Peace Notes