We did have a baptism and there´s a great story, just no time, I´ll tell ya´ll next week.

Hermana Leavitt Loves playing the guitar!

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

Hermana Leavitt & Hermana De Aquino

Well, another week has gone by fast. You´d think it would start to feel normal, but it doesn´t. This week we had a pretty cool experience that I wanted to share with you guys. 

So on Saturday we needed to go visit a family because we had an appointment, but it´s about 20-30 minutes and we have to take two transports, and they weren´t answering their phone. My companion wasn´t sure if we should go or not, because they always answer when they´re home, but we decided we felt peace and headed out. When we knocked on the door, well, the young couple wasn´t home, but their parents were and they allowed us to share something with them. After talking for a little while, we learned that they were members from another ward nearby in Tuxtla, but that they haven´t been active for some years. And I´ll be honest, I had no clue what we could share with them. But my compaion opened up to 3 Nephi 11 and we read a little bit from the beginning of the chapter. After sharing a message with them, the hermano shared with us (the both of them with tears in their eyes) that he could feel the spirit, and by hearing us, he wanted to make some changes and return to the church. 

This small moment with this couple is really on of many that are priceless, I don´t have the words to explain it. I´m so grateful to be able to be part of this while here in Tuxlta. But we don´t have to be a full time missionary to be able to have these moments, we just have to allow the spirit to guide us. I know that Heavenly Father loves us, and he has a plan perfect for all of us. 

I love you guys, and I hope that you too can do the little things to allow the spirit into your lives. Honestly, it´s difficult, sometimes we can feel His guidance, and then we don´t know what to do next, but this is where trusting in Him, and trusting in those around us comes in. If we do our part, He won´t let us fail. I know this to be true. 

Love, Hermana Leavitt

Saludos de Chiapa de Corzo

So we`re really short on time today, and even though this week was really good, we`re just going to have to settle with pictures. Honestly things are really good for my new companion and I and I`m really excited to work with her here in this new area. 

I love ya! 

Hermana Leavitt

Transfer Day!

1. Multi zone conference with President George!

2. I don`t know why we always wait until the end of transfers to take pictures, but here`s our district. But now it`s only going to be the four elders since they`re closing our area. 

So there`s not a whole lot that has happened this week, but we did have a little miracle you could say. We found out that last Tuesday we had to travel to Tuxlta for an appointment in immigration and we were pretty bummed because we`d lose a lot of time due to traveling (like 6 hours in all) and wouldn`t be able to work very much. But a small miracle was that our capacitadoras called and also wanted to do interchanges with us so the trip wasn`t in vain! We were able to change in Tuxtla and at least the other hermanas didn`t end up losing a lot of time due to traveling. I was able to work in Tuxtla a couple days which was pretty good, although I feel like I was barely in my area this week.

Well, today is transfer day and it looks like they`re closing our area. My companion is heading off to Tapachula and it looks like I`m going to Chiapa de Corzo. I`m pretty excited, everyone says that it`s beautiful there. Only 4 transfers left, it`s super crazy, but it`s the best experience I could be having right now. I`m so grateful to be in the mission. 

I love you, hope everyone`s doing great! 

love, Hermana leavitt

1 Year Down

I can`t really believe it, but it looks like 1 year down and only 6 months to go. It`s crazy, time here in the mission is so different. I really can`t believe that it`s already March again. There have been a lot of changes for me, and there`s still a ways to go, but I`m so grateful to be here. I was thinking a lot this week about a quote that our cross country coach always told us. "Run the first mile with your legs, the second mile with your mind, and the last mile with your heart." I have to admit that it`s been pretty true. The beginning of the mission was a lot of following my companions and trying to take everything in, and trying to just give it all of my energy... even though that usually meant nodding off in the lessons while my companion continued on... Luckily that`s one thing that has changed haha. The second part of the mission started off with a lot trials, internal and external. I still remember that the day I hit six months I spent in a clinic sick from Dengue. I still think the doctors were exaggerating and I could`ve just stayed at home to rest, but oh well. It really has been a battle of sickness, staying positive, try to change to be a better person, and rejection from a lot of investigators. Now we`re hitting this last part, and even though it should`ve been like this from the beginning, it`s time to work with all my heart. 

In this branch that i`ve been in it`s been hard. My companion and I have been trying hard to talk to everyone we can and do what we can, but there still isn`t progress. But, after a good talk the other night we decided that we still have things that we can change in ourselves to be able to Always have the spirit with us in our lessons. I`m excited to see what happens. It`s been really rough for me to be able to change and adapt to this area, but finally after a month I feel like we`re really going to make a difference here. 

Thank you for your support. Oh, and thank you for the Christmas Letters from the ward. Maybe I didn`t receive them for christmas, but I did receive them for my year mark so that was a great surprise! 

Love you all!

Love, Hermana Leavitt 

Feliz Dìa de San Valentin!

 Reunion with Elder Oaks and all the missionaries.

 Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine`s Day... again...

Hermana Lopez and I

Happy Valentine`s day, I hope it was a great one!

So basically everyone here in Chiapas has been super excited this week because the Pope came here to Tuxtla to visit this weekend. But, as members, and especially as missionaries, we`ve been pretty stoked because this weekend, Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles also came to visit, along with Elder Whitney L. Clayton, president of the seventy. And as missionaries, we had the special opportunity to hear from them both in a reunion of only missionaries. It was pretty cool to be honest. Especially because we also had the opportunity to shake their hand too. Our meeting was filled with the spirit, and it really is something special to have a room full of missionaries and listen to a living apostle in person. One of the things that I learned the most from this meeting is the importance of understanding and teaching repentance. Often we have converts who are baptized and soon after inactivate in the church, and they shared with us that one of the primary reasons that this happens is because our converts didn`t understand the doctrine of repentance. That it is not a one time event, it`s a process, and a change of heart. One other thing that really stuck out to me too was that Elder Oaks shared with us that we are not here to convert people to the church, we are here to convert people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are we truly converted to the gospel, or only the church?

After all of our meetings this weekend I was able to have a few miracles pass by for myself, and I`m super grateful. On Saturday after our meeting with Elder Oaks we were leaving from the church, about to cross the street, when I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see two members, but I thought they were elders. Only to realize when they were shaking my hand that it was my bishop and ward mission leader from my old area, Cacahoatàn. I was basically in complete shock. We were only able to talk for a minute and then they had to head into their meeting with Elder Oaks. I`m super grateful because my other area is about 8 hours away, and I didn`t think I would be able to see them even though I knew that they were coming to Tuxtla too. Everything literally passed in the right moment, and it really strengthened my testimony even more that Heavenly Father knows our desires and wants to help us. I miss my old area a ton, but I know that cambios are good, and I`ll see the people there again. After our meeting on Sunday I was suprised to have someone tap my shoulder and turn around to see one of my converts, Maria de los Angeles greet me. This is one great blessing of returning back to the same stake where I served before. It was great to see her and be able to talk with her and find out that she`s still so strong in the church, and even has a calling in relief society. It really is a blessing to be able to see the difference from when we were teaching our investigators and how they are now in the church. I was also able to see a lot of different members from la Salle, and it was pretty funny because I think the most common thing I heard was that I can actually speak spanish now.. Lots of progress still but I`m super grateful for this opportunity to learn spanish, and I know that the gift of tongues is real. 

There`s not a whole lot happening in our area, we basically don`t have anyone, but we`re just going to keep looking for new people to teach. This week in all though was really great, and I`m so grateful for the experiences that I could have.

I hope your week is great, and I love you

Hermana Leavitt

Short and Sweet

So last week I got transferred to a new area, Villaflores. It`s kind of inbetween a town and a city, it`s pretty good. I do miss my little pueblo though. And i miss the warmth! Ok, it`s not super cold here, just a little chilly, but Cacahoatàn was wonderful! It`s a branch here, it`s weird to not have so many people to see in the classes. My new companion is hermana lopez, she`s got 13 months in the mission, and she`s from Guatemala. She`s super sweet and always happy. 

So an experience that we had this week. My first night here we contacted someone in the street and ended up having a lesson with her. At one point my companion started to open her scriptures to share something, and a scripture came to my mind. I waited though and the scripture that my companion shared was what i was thinking to share in that moment. After a couple minutes at one point I was sharing something, and a scripture came to my mind and I shared it. After the lesson my companion said that she was thinking of the same scripture too. I`m really excited to work with her, and learn a lot from her. 

Not much else has happened, but things are going good. I hope you all have a great week! 

Hermana Leavitt