Mother RUSSIA

Here is Sister Leavitt's first letter from Russia.  We heard from her mission President last Wednesday to let us know she had arrived safely and they were excited to have her in the mission.  He also sent the picture of her first day in the mission.  She looks so tired, but happy.  She really wants to hear from her friends and family, you can write her at her mission address here or on Dearelder.com just choose her mission and write a letter, it will get to her if a few weeks.  Thanks for your love and support! 

Sister Courtney Leavitt

Russia Rostov-na-Donu Mission

Vtoraya Voladarskaya 64

Rostov-na-Donu

Rostovskaya oblast

344008

RUSSIA

Hello!!!

So I'm in Russia. Who thought that would ever happen? Well first of all I just have to tell you that I love it here! Now I will tell you all about my week... This may take while. So last Monday we left the MTC so early, at like 5 am then we got on an airplane to New York. Long story and in the end I forgot my carry on bag on the airplane. So Elder Haws and I spent the next hour trying to get it back. But we got it back and by some miracle we got everything taken care of and through the secruity line in time to get something to eat and for me to call Casey. We thought we were running so late, but our flight then left an hour late... It wasn't even delayed. It was weird, but it all truned out fine and 10 hours later we were in Moscow. When we got to Moscow we had to go apply for our second passports at the US embassy, It took almost our entire ten hour layover to go into moscow and get it all taken care of. Then we got on another plane, and headed to Rostov. We got in at like midnight and we met our mission president and his wife at the airport. We got our bags and went to the mission home where Sister Nichiprova made us dinner at 1:30 in the moring... That was a little strange, but i didn't mind because I was starving. We got to sleep after that until 8 in the moring! Then Prisident Nichiprov interveiwed us and the AP's told us some rules. We locked our hearts away and did some other things that I only sort of remember. Then we went the the office where I met my first companion Sister Kirshisnik. She said you can call her Kep if you would like. That's what some of the members call her when they can't say her name. She's from Farmington and she's amazing. So fun and She loves music just as much as I do. Her dad even played the game with her where she had to name the song title and artist when they were listening to the classic rock station. So that's pretty cool. Oh, and her dad wants to call you guys and tell you all about her, so he probably will sometime this week. So I met her and we waited for a little while and then we headed off to my first area it's a city called Tagonrod. It's about an hour outside of Rostov. It's medium bigness. Not as big as the salt lake valley, but bigger than Cedar City, so Medium size. The branch here is bigger for Russia, it has 40 members! They are all really nice and they tried to talk to me a lot. I understood about half of what they would say. So let me tell you a little about our investigators right now. We are teaching Tamara and Leona. A mom and her son. They are super nice. The son is about 12 and he is so fun. He gave me a big hug first thing when he saw me and he was so excited I was there. He showed me pictures and talked to me a little bit. I talked back a little too, that was fun. We taught them about the plan of salvation last night. We used pictures to teach and they understood it. By the time we were done teaching the lesson Tamara could tell us about all of the parts of the plan of salvation. That was cool. Oh, and when I say, "we taught" I mean that I said all that I could and then Sister Kirshisnik took over the rest. Let's see, we are also teaching an older man, Genadi, he's been athiest his entire life but he is praying now and he comes to church every week. We are teaching Marina and her family also. Marina has a lot of questions and sometimes when she starts going off, Okay most of the time, I have no idea what she is talking about. We met another lady this week while we were knocking named Tatiana she loves us. When we knocked on her door we taught her a little and she thought I was so funny because I can't really speak. We went back on Saturday and taught her about Joseph Smith. That was funny because her husband was super drunk and we were just trying to teach and he kept talking and talking and being loud. Tatiana kept trying to send him to the store to get juice for us so that she could listen. But he finally left the room and we could teach. The spirit was so strong. I told the Joseph Smith story to her and she just listened. Then we gave her a book of mormon and commited her to her. She said she would read the whole thing and have it memorized by the time we come back... :) She's funny, but we're going back tomorrow morning, so we'll see. We are also working with a few inactive members. One is Sasha. He is a little older, but super nice. We fasted with him this week to help him stop smoking. We also work alot with a member named Tatiana. She's so  nice and gives us so many referrals and always comes with us to help us teach. So that's how the work is going. It's going so good!!! I love it!

In other news. Leavitt is leviticus in the Russian Bible so everyone gets so excited when they see my name. I am over jetlag. It actually wasn't too horrible. I only couldn't sleep for one night and then I started beig able to sleep for most of the night and now I can sleep the entire night! Whoot! And that’s all I can think of right now. I love it here. It's different, but I love it. And I just love my life. I hope everything is going well for all of you! Can't wait to here all about what is happening!

Love,

Sister Leavitt

Look out World......

Here is her email from yesterday. I am offically caught up on her posting now.  We will post her first email from Russia as soon as we hear from her.  Hard to believe that she has already been in the MTC for 3 months.

Here I come!!!!!

So this week has been so crazy and I don't even remember what happened. New Years was fun! We got to go to classes all day and stay up until 10:30! Also, fun fact about Russians, they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January and they don't get each other presents for Christmas, the get each other presents for New Years and Christmas is a spiritual holiday for them.. So there's your fun fact for the day.

Well Sister Ward left this moring at 6:00! It's kind of crazy to not have her around. We've been right next to each other for so long that it feels so weird to not have her next to me all the time, but she's amazing and if we stayed in the MTC our whole lives no one else would ever get to know that, so Mostly I'm so so so so so EXCITED for her! I'm also excited for me too! I leave in 6 days! Hoorah! I have loved the MTC, but I think I am going to love Russia a bit more! For all of you that want to send me anything.... just make sure it will get here before Saturday. Also I love my life. I just had to tell you and I couldn't keep it in any longer. I am so blessed to be here and to be able to serve the Lord. He sure does love his missionaries.

My teacher told me yesterday when I walked into class that he knows my trainer when I get to Russia! And I said what the heck! HOW? And he said that he gets her emails every week and she already knows that she is training me and so she told everyone. I asked about her and he said that she's the most energetic person he has every met... So this should be fun! REALLY... Look out world!

Well, I just have a few thought for you all:

~Every situation we are placed in is another opportunity from the Lord.

           So even when life stinks... Make the best of it

~Look unto the Savior, Doubt not, fear not.

         I think that we spend too much time worrying, well at least I do, and I think it would be more beneficial if I spent more time DOING.

~We become what we want to be by continually being what we want to become.

         I love this one. We can become what ever we want if we just do it. Just do it, like NIKE!

Well that's all for today I think... And the next time you hear from me I'll be in RUSSIA!!! What the !

Christmas in the MTC

Opps...I forgot to post last weeks email.  So here is last week and this weeks will be posted in a few.  Maybe I should be fired from being the offical poster.....I get busy and forget.

Alright, I am sure you are all dying to know how Christmas at the MTC was... So let me uncover the mystery for you.... (insert mystical music.)

The day started with waking up at 6:30 as usual. As soon as we got up we opened our presents from home. That was fun! I got four packages of oreos for christmas... people know me too well. After we opened presents we got ready for the day, I think this is the first Christmas in a long time that I actually got ready! It felt kind of funny. So after we got ready we went and ate breakfast. Then we went to the talent show... where we performed a Russian song and danced in front of 2000 missionaries... That was an experience I will never forget. We messed up, but it was fun and so all's well that ends well. The native Russians performed a Lady Gaga song. They changed the lyrics and made it about missionaries, it was hilarious! They are now the starts of the MTC and have done many more performances for crowds of people who wanted to record it. After the talent show we went to lunch. We had turkey and potatoes and real green beans and rolls. It was a pretty good meal. After lunch we went to a devotional given by Elder Russel M. Neilson. I love him! He is so amazing! He is so smart and knows about so much, but not only that, when he speaks, he speaks with the power of the spirit. My favorite quote of the day is this, someone once asked him if we believe in the Bible, and he said, "Of course we do. Our people wrote it!" I loved that he is not only smart but funny too. I learned so much from his wonderful teachings. He and his wife stayed until sunday afternoon with us and it was good to hear from them and see them and talk to them. He know a little bit of Russian and will be visiting the missionaries in russia in june, but not my mission. Bummer. So after the devotional we had free time! What the! Yep FREE TIME! So we went back to our rooms and ate our sack dinners and talked. We read christmas stories and just had fun together. After those wonderful 2 hours we went back for another program. This one was amazing! These two men perfromed "A Christmas Carol" for us. One of the men was Scrouge and one was all the other characters. It was amazing! complete with sound effects and voices and everything. One of the men who performed for us is leaving to be a mission president in the Philipines? I don't even know how to spell that right. Sorry Cam. Our mission president gave us the assignment after that to go back to our rooms and read a few scriptures about christ, it was an amazing day, maybe even the best Christmas ever. Full of love and joy and most importantly Full of Christ and his teachings. I love learning about them! I hope the day was wonderful for all of you too.

One last funny story. On Christmas eve we had a fun devotional and we sang this song 12 days of Christmas MTC style... It was hilarious. I am telling you. Give missionaries just a little chance to have some fun and we'll take it. By the end everyone was laughing... Even our mission president... So mission accomplished.

For your general information, I am feeling much better this week, just a little sniffle. But I gave my sickness to sister Ward :( Also I am leaving the MTC January 10th! Just so you know, I am absolutely stoked! And that's all! I love you all!

Sister Leavitt