Time is Short

So basically, in the mission time is really short, and it´s flying by way too fast. I already have two weeks in a different area, and this week I hit my 6 month mark. Tomorrow I only have year left, how? The mission really is amazing, like I first heard from my brother, you´ll never regret serving a mission, and that´s for sure.

I don´t know how many times I can say that Cacahoatán is beautiful, but holy cow it´s beautiful. I love that I´m not in the city anymore, the people here are super nice too, and we have a huge area with tons of people to teach and we feel like we have no time to do it. I was telling my companion this week that for us to travel to one of our areas, it´s 45 minutes to an hour, which is basically going to another city at home (cedar city). How crazy is that! Hopefully I´ll be able to send more pictures another week, because we didn´t really take any...

So this week we have focused a lot on Matthew 19. For my plaque at home I chose Matthew 19:26  "26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

I´ve always liked this scripture because it´s true, with God, all things are possible. But we´ve been focusing a lot on the story before this scripture. It´s about the rich young man that came to Christ and asked him how he could obtain eternal life. Christ told him that he needed to keep the commandments, which the young man had always done. Then... 

  20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

 21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

As missionaries, are we willing to give up all that we have to serve the Lord and follow him? As memebers of the church, are we willing to follow Christ and give up our pride? I´ve come to love this story, and it´s really helped me to reflect on what I can change in this short time I have left in the mission, so I can truly help others. 

Love you guys! I love hearing from you, and I´m sorry if I don´t have time to write back, but I´m working on it. Love you!

Cacahoatán!

Hey everyone! So basically I´m not in the city anymore... I love it. I´m in this little town called Cacahoatán, and then we also go to some other pueblitos around here too. It´s so beautiful here! It´s super green and there are some areas we´re just walking through all of the greenery from house to house. It rains a lot here, a whole lot more than Tuxtla, but somehow I got lucky and it´s not super hot. Ah I don´t know how to explain it, I´m pretty much in heaven here. The people and the members are super nice, and overall I´m really excited to work here. 

So my companion has told me that pretty much it´s just been miracles here this week, I haven´t known because I wasn´t here to see how are out investigators. But a lot are making a lot of changes and progressing a lot. The gospel is wonderful, and to see the hand of the lord in our lives is remarkable. 

I love you guys!

Love, Hermana Leavitt

Cambios!

This week has been funny and spiritual and lots of change. I´ll start with the obvious first, we had cambios and ya, I´m gone.It´s weird, but you can honestly feel when you´re going to leave. Now i´m in Tapachula, it´s more by the coast, it´s about a seven hour bus ride, so lots of sleeping today. My area now is Cacahoatan, and everyone is telling me that you can see the Guatemalan mountains.... Pretty much the only other thing people told me too was it´s hotter, rains more, and more mosquitos, but I´m honestly really excited to learn more although it was hard saying goodbye. My new companion is Hermana Castillo, she´s from Bolivia. Ive  only known her for an hour but she´s really sweet and i´m excited to work with her.She says our area is awesome, and beautiful. I´m excited:)

Ok, a funny experience this week. So we had contacted a group of kids one night that live close to eachother. One day we were trying to find one of the kids when we saw across the street that the other was home, door open and all. So we started to cross the street when we see one of the kids jump off their couch, and run and shut the door yelling, no no no no no! oh, and turning out the lights too. We just stood there in the middle of the street laughing so hard. You could still hear the kids inside, shhh...nobody´s here. We then took out a card and wrote on it that jesus loves you, and slid it under the door. 10seconds and it flys back out. So we slide it under again, and again it´s back out. It was all just really funny, I think we laughed for 10 minutes straight. 

This week we had the opportunity to go to the temple, which I´m really grateful for now that I´m in Tapachula, because we can´t go as much since it´s so far away. It was really just a good experience. Go to the temple! It´s beautiful!

I´ll send pictures next week....

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Leavitt

Adventures!!!

 Hermana Leavitt & Hermana Ruvalcaba

El Aguacero

This week has had a lot of changes for me, and let´s just say I´m in a much better mood than I have been for a long time. 

So in our mission, every six months we have an activity as a mission. So on Thursday, all the missionaries in Tuxtla went to the waterfall El Aguacero, it was basically the most fun day in the mission. To get to the waterfall, you had to go down over 700 stairs, walk through the river a little bit, it was awesome. It´s so beautiful here! I was super stoked to go and be away from the city for a little bit. I forgot how much I love hiking... We played some volleyball and frisbee and stuff too. Then the fun part, we had to go back up the 700 and something stairs. It wasn´t too bad for me, but my comp would say otherwise. I tried to count how many there actually were. And I got to 553, then we were talking with President George and his wife, and then I forgot after that. Sad day. Afterward all the missionaries went to the stake center and some of us played basketball. It was pretty much like I was at home. Haha basically my companion thinks I´m crazy because I wasn´t really sore the next day, and she could barely walk... 

Well health wise things are better. I think it was Saturday, I woke up in a good mood, and I´ve basically been in a good mood since. I think it´s because I´m sleeping again, but who knows. 

In reality, I´m so grateful to be here. I don´t know how many days I just stop and think that I´m here in a different country, talking in spanish, and sharing the gospel. Yeah it´s been challenging, but I´ve never been happier. The time is flying, I really can´t believe it. I´ve only got a little over a year to have this time dedicated to share the gospel, and I don´t want to lose a minute of it. It really is the best thing that I could be doing right now. 

I love you guys!

Love, Hermana Leavitt 

Change of Attitude

So this week has been pretty normal. Just still keeping up with our visits and trying to help our investigators the best that we can. Some days it´s hard and some days fly by, but it´s all worth it to be here. For myself, I´ve had a lot of time to think of what I´m doing here, and how I can be better. This week has been hard mentally, and physically. I don´t think I´ve ever been so tired yet. Basically, I wake up at 4 or 5 every morning and can´t fall back asleep, or like today... 1:30. At the beginning of the week I was pretty mad everytime that this happened. Because every night I´ve prayed that I could learn what I need to learn from all of these trials, and I´ve asked for help with being able to sleep. But then later in the week we ate with a member that just got back from her mission in October, and even though nothing had to do what I was going through, one thing really hit me. We should never get mad at Heavenly Father, or our saviour Jesus Christ. Christ has suffered so much for each and every one of us, and they are both always trying to help us, always.

There are always things that we can change. For me, it´s my attitude towards my trials, and trying to learn how I can be better. "Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure." So now I´ve used the time I can´t sleep to read, especially the general conference talks, and it´s helping so much. And to just focus on loving the people, because without love, we aren´t inviting the spirit into the lessons, because we´re not doing the work to help them, we´re just doing the work to do the work. "When someone else´s happiness is your happiness, that is love." 

I´m really grateful for each lesson we´re able to learn through our trials. Yes they´re hard, but they´re needed in our lives. Heavenly Father knows us perfectly, and he´s only waiting for us to come to him, arms open wide. Yes, I´m really tired every day, but when we come in at night, I feel like I´m actually giving it my all. I know the lord is with us every step of the way on our missions, and in our lives, if only we invite him. 

I love you. I can´t believe how fast the time is going. In no time these 13 months are going to be over. I hope you have a good week, and I hope that you can find a way to serve someone else this week, and show your Christlike charity for them. 

Love, Hermana Leavitt