Taco's....

Sister Leavitt's email this week made me crave mexican!  Don't worry, I will be sending her some taco seasoning very soon....afterall she LOVES tacos!

So this entire week I have had the biggest craving for tacos. I think that this is the longest I have gone without tacos in my entire life... it's so hard. I even had a dream about Cafe Rio this week... I just want mexican food so bad! But they don't even have taco seasoning or tortillas or anything! And for those of you who really know me, you know that this is a really big sacrifice. I love tacos so much. But in other news... This week was so good! It was freezing outside, but when you have a coat and thermals and boots and all your gear on you don't get too cold. My face and hands are really the only things that get super cold.

So this Saturday we met this crazy lady. She's actually amazing. She just has so much energy and is always talking so fast and running around and doing so many things at once. She talks on "cutesie" form of Russian all the time, which basically means that you end every word in "ka" it sounds so funny. But she's really nice. I think she's going to make me a new coat. She thinks that mine is too thin and that is not acceptable. She got so upset and mad at me about it. She said that she already has some white fabric to make it out of and everything. I told her she could make it, but I would pay her for it. She agreed, so we'll see how it turns out. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Also on Saturday night we did service for some of our investigators. I think I told you about them already. She's the one who is paralized and has the amazing daughter named Karina. Anyways, they are fixing up their house a little and so we wanted to help them! So we went over there and helped them "mud" their walls.Which was so fun! Their walls are cement and so you just  put a layer of this plaster mud stuff and then it looks so much better and after that you can paint it or do whatever else you want to.

Oh, yesterday one of our new memebers in our ward, named Vlad, got the priesthood because he just turned 12. He spoke in sacrament meeting and then got the priesthood in priestood meeting and he was so excited! He ran up to us after church and was smiling so big and was so excited to tell us that he has the priesthood now. We went to go visit them last night at their home and teach him a little lesson about how cool the priesthood is. His younger sister, Alionka, is memorizing the articles of faith right now and she has the first two down. We told her we would give her a treat for memorizing them, so we gave her some american gum, and then I taught her how to make her gum wrappers in to little people. She thought that was the best thing in the whole world! She's so cute. She turns 8 soon and can't wait to be baptized. I hope that I am still in this area so that I can see her be baptized. That would be so fun.

Well, I think that's about it. I hope you all had a great week and everything is spectacular. Spectacular, Spectacular...

Love,

Sister Leavitt

What the World needs now is LOVE Sweet LOVE...It's the only thing that there is just too little of

Happy Valentines from Sister Leavitt.  It's always a great day to hear from her!  Enjoy!

Well, Cam said my letters are so interesting that I thought I would try to make this weeks letter a little less interesting.... Nope can't do it I just have too much to say about this wonderful place of the world called Tagonrog Russia. So this week we wanted to get one of our investigators more involved with the members of the ward so that she could make friends, she's had to work the past couple of Sundays and hasn't been able to make it to church, so we wanted her to meet some people, so on Monday night we had a family night with our branch president and his family and we had so much fun and laughed our pants off... Our investigator also gave the branch president and his wife some parenting advice. It's so funny to me that people in Russia just say whatever they feel like saying to people. They are so blunt and sometimes it makes me laugh so hard, but I guess it's good in a way. Anyways, so then on Wednesday night we did yoga with our investigator and some of the other ladies on our ward, it was a blast. Mostly I just laughed the entire time because I am no good at yoga, but it was fun and now our investigator has friends and the people in our branch are starting to love her just as much as we do.

So also this week... the weather has changed a little bit. It's now FREEZING!!! Well, it's not too bad if the wind doesn't blow, but it's usually blowing and so that equals freezing. Sister Kershisnick and I have taken to fake crying when the wind starts blowing, mostly because it's so cold that we want to cry and also because it make us laugh so hard that we feel better. February is the coldest month here and then it should start getting a little bit warmer and I cant' wait!

Well, I think that's about it. We're just doing the same old things, teaching the gospel and talking to as many people as we can! So that's all that I have to talk about. Oh, I don't know if I told you, but we just started to teach this man  named Sergei. He's a dancer... He's so funny. I'll tell you more about him as the story unfolds. But I hope that you are all happy and safe and helping the missionaries.... Because if there is one thing that I've learned it's that when the members are willing to help us and teach with us and help us find people, then the work goes a lot smoother and it's a ton more effective.  I love you all And I hope that you're having the best Valentines day you've ever had, and if not, then just remember I love you! See, I bet you're happier already!!

Love,

Sister Leavitt

Livin It Up At The Hotel California!

I love Monday!  Courtney just makes my day!  She sent me an email and said that if you want to write to her on dearelder.com she would  love a letter from you.  It is soo easy too.  Just go to dearelder.com and on the right hand side select her mission “Russia Rostov na Dona,  then click the “Write Letter” tab.  She LOVES letters and this makes it a practical easy way to send them.  she also said to tell her friends she has written some letters and just needed to mail them.  She tried to email some pictures and they didn't come through, maybe next week.  Hope you love Monday’s as much as I do.  J

Well, I have a funny story for you today. This week we were teaching this refferal. She was kind of older and just kept talking and talking and talking and talking and I couldn't fully understand what she was saying, but I tried. At one point she grabbed my ears and said that I had good ears and that meant something really good, but my companion and I both had no idea what she was talking about. So I was sitting there trying to understand and the radio was on and all of the sudden out of nowhere Hotel California came on... yep I was done for. For the next five and a half minutes all I could do was listen to that song and smile so big and Sister Kep was smiling so big too and then the lesson was over. So that night when the zone leader, Lord Apsly (we call him lord because last week he was on family search seeing how far back his line went and he found out he is related to Charlamane, hence lord apsly), so he called and asked us about our lessons for the day and then when we were talking about that one he asked where it ended and I said, "With Hotel California." and it was funny. The end.

So this week was wonderful! The past couple of days here have been so warm and all the snow is melting. Unfortunately they don't ever plow their roads or shovel the sidewalks, so this equals a ton of slush everywhere that sneaks into your boots and makes your feet soaking wet. But that's okay life is still happy, even with wet feet. On Saturday night we went over to this lady's house and she taught us how to make borsh! Yikes spikes! It was so delicious!!! So I wrote down how to do it and I will make it for you in a while, when I see you all again. You should be excited! I am! YUMMMY!

So then also this week we taught this amazing mother and daughter. Their names are Nadegeda (which means hope) and Karina. So we've taught them before and I can't remember if I told you about them, but the mom got in an accident and is now paralized. She is always so happy though. And the daughter turned fifteen on Saturday and is just so amazing and helps take care of her mom and she rocks. So last night we went over there to visit them and to teach them and Karina came and picked us up from the bus stop and walked with us back to their house and talked to us and it was so fun. Then when we got to their house we discovered that they saved Karina's birthday cake from yesterday for today so that they could eat it with us! It was so nice of them and it made my heart so happy. There is just something about this family that makes me so happy and makes me feel the spirit so strongly that I'm almost crying just thinking about it. So after we ate birthday cake with them and talked with them for a while we did a thought. I shared one of my favorite verses from the bible with them, Joshua 1:9 and we talked a little bit about having courage and being strong and how when we trust in the lord we don't need to be afraid of anything. And it turned into a mini testimony meeting and Nadegeda told us about how she knew that God loves her and it's because She got in that accident and is now stuck in that bed all of the time because before she would party all of the time and leave her kids alone at home and her and her husband would fight all the time and it just wasn't good, but now she is in this bed all day everyday and she is always home with her family and they love each other and she must have more to learn because she is still in that bed. She is so amazing! She really is an inspiration to me and I love her! I'll keep you updated on that family, because they are amazing!

Well today we are going to the reenick, which is basically all of these shops set up all around that have anything you could possibly want to buy. I am so excited! I'm going to buy some cute hats because it turns out that if you go outside without a hat on in the winter time all of the Babooshka yell at you and tell you to put your hat on. So I'm going to buy some today so that I can look cute! I'm excited! Well I love you all and I hope that you know that the gospel is true and that through Christ we truly can do anything. And if you don't know it, then find out. Pray, talk to Heavenly Father about it. He'll let you know that it's true... That's all. I'll talk to you next week!

Sister Leavitt

It's a GREAT Day to be ALIVE!!

And here is this weeks email.  This made me really want t see some pictures of where she is!  Hopefully soon we will see pictures!

Holy Moly!!! I LOVE RUSSIA! I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!  I love it here! REALLY!

This week was kind of an interesting week. We had exchanges this week. So that was fun to see how other missionaries teach and get new ideas. And my companion got sick, so we had to stay home on Wednesday and half of the day on Thursday. We went out to one of the villages on Friday. So they call small towns, not by big cities villages. They have farms and little houses all over and they are really cute! Bummer though, I forgot my camera!! But We're going out there again on Saturday to teach this new family, so I'll remember my camera and take some pictures for sure. So this village we went to is right on the sea and it is so beautiful. I think if I ever lived in Russia I would want to live in a small village like that.

OH MY! I forgot to tell you the most imortant news of the whole WEEK! Our investigators that I told you about last week, Marina and Natasha, They're getting baptized!!! Bah! I'm so excited! We set a date for Febuary 27, but they have to come to sacrament four times before the can be baptized and so far they haven't been able to come because of work, but they are working so hard to get work taken care of and they both said that they would be able to come startig this Sunday, so that's good. I really love them. They are so amazing!  They are just so... Down to earth and that is exactly what would help our branch, so I hope and pray that it will all just be fantastic and that Satan will stop working so hard to bring them down! That Satan, who does he think he is anyway?

So in Russia they always drink tea, and I never really liked tea before, but I am begining to love it! They have this really good apple spice one that tastes, and smells like apple pie and they have a really good one that tastes like strawberries. Also they have "super snickers" They are just like snickers, but they're huge! and also they say "snickers" "sneakers", so it makes me laugh everytime, but they don't really have the "i" sound in russian, so that's why......... Well I can't think of anything else. Oh, yep, one more thing.

I love it here!!! I just love that the gospel helps people become the best version of themselves and helps them be so stinkin happy!!! I read this in the talk by Elder Holland from this past conference: "The personal value, the sacred splendor of every one of you, is the very reason there is a plan for salvation and exaltation. Contrary to the parlace of the day, this IS about YOU!"  I love that! I have seen that here, how the gospel IS about these people and how it helps their lives in ways that only the true gospel could. It gives them the strenght to quit smoking and the desire to read the scriptures. I love this gospel so much and I love that it is helping these people! I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!!

Well, now that's all.

Sister Leavitt

Hello World!

I am a slacker again...I went to post this week's email and noticed I forgot to post last weeks.  We loved how she is just Courtney when people are upset with her.  Enjoy!

Hello world!!!

This week was another great week. I have a few stories to tell you. Number one: we met this really cool lady on the street this week whose son just died. She says that she prays everynight that she will see him in her dreams because she misses him so much. It was so cool to teach her about the plan of salvation and the gospel. We haven't been able to meet with her more because she has a crazy work schedule, but we have talked to her and we had her read chapter 40 in Alma and she said that it helped her so much! I'm really happy that we could just give her a little bit of hope. We are also teaching this lady that is so amazing! We are going to commit her to baptism tonight when we go over for family home evening, so... Cross your fingers and I'll let you know how it goes next week. I hope she prayed about the book of mormon this weekend and got her answer so bad!!!! She is just so cool and the spirit is so strong when we teach her!

Alright, Numer two: This week we got the police called on us 4 times when we were knocking. So that was interesting. They don't really do anything, they just tell you to go somewhere else. So that's fine, but some people just get so mad at us. I can never understand when people are saying rude things to us, so i just smile and nod and then later I find out all of the horrible things they say, but I think it's good that I can't understand them. And I have to go now, but my week was so great! And I have a feeling that this next week is going to be even better!! I hope you are all doing well and that you know that I love you all! And I'll try to send you all some pictures next week!!

Love always,

Siste Leavitt