I had a dream once!

Sister Leavitt sure makes life FUN.  Wouldn't you just love to be her companion?  Enjoy!

Holy moly!!! What a week! I have to say that this week was pretty amazing! Yep, it sure was. I loved it. We taught a lot of lessons this week, and as a missionary, teaching lessons is what I love doing the most, so that means it was a good week! We have been working with the cutest Grandma of one of our members. I love her so much! Her name is Zoya. She has been through so much in her life and has had so many tragedies, but she is just so spry and as lively as ever. Her husband died a while ago as well as her two children. She always just says, "I am alone." But she does have one fantastic granddaughter who has been helping her and giving her hope. We taught her the plan of salvation this week and she told us about a cool experience she had once when she saw her husband after he died and he was young and he didn't say anything to her, he just looked at her and she has never been able to forget that. She loves him so much still and she was so happy to hear about our lives after this one and what will happen to us. Oh, I just love her so much. As for the other family we have been teaching, well, they are still so wonderful! We change their baptisimal date to be in three weeks. This probably means that I won't be here, but I'm still holding out. We will find out transfers on Friday. But yeah, besides those two investigators, I don't have much to tell you all about. We have been working hard and doing the Lord's work the best that we can. We just try to make people happier than we found them, and if we can do that, then at least we're helping in some small way, even if they don't want to hear more about our church.

I do have one funny story for you all. So this week we were walking home for lunch and there was this tree with really really red leaves on it and I wanted one, so I went to go pick one off and this guy walking by says, "don't partake of the fruit." It was so funny, we just all started laughing... he was only a little drunk. And God loves me. So that's good. Also we made brownies today, so that's something else. And... that's all. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Leavitt

GO or Don't GO, But Don't GO Slow.

I almost forgot to post Sister Leavitt's email, we got a missionary home on Wednesday.  She let me know in my email that a member brought her a pumpkin and she is so EXCITED!  She was going to bake it and make pumpkin cookies this week.  The little things mean soo much!  ~ Mamma K

Well, this week was pretty uneventful. Although Sister LeBaron and I have now organized a revolution in missionary work. You see these past couple of weeks have been pretty lame as far as lessons go, so this brought us to the conclusion that we should organize a revolution to get the missionary work... well working here. We have set up and devised a plan to have our members help us. Because our members here are so amazing, but I don't think that they realize just how much we rely on them for help in doing missionary work. Basically without the help of the members there wouldn't be missionary work. So the plan is to teach all of our members with in the next two weeks about testimony and how they received their testimonies and how it all started from someone telling them about our church... There's more to it than that, but in short after that we wave our magic missionary wands and sprinkle a little pixie dust and do a voodoo dance and magically we will have more members here in Russia! Isn't this a great plan!! We have started sharing this lesson with members and so far so good. In three weeks, for the next fast meeting our branch is all going to fast together that they will all have the opprotunity to share their testimony, or serve, or invite one of their family members or friends to meet with the missionaries. So that's the revolution, and don't be surprised if you hear about it on the news soon.

This week I was also sick for a day and I slept so much! It was so amazing. Then at about 5 pm I couldn't sleep any more so I made Sister LeBaron take me on a walk because I couldn't stay inside anymore!!!! Sister LeBaron also taught me how to knock again! I forgot how to do it because when it's warm outside we just contact all the time and don't really knock, but it has been getting pretty cold here, so we decided to start knocking again. It was  a pretty interesting experience. We started in one old builing and we knocked the whole thing. Then, when we were knocking the very last door this guy walked into the builing and walked up the stairs and when he did that part of the ceiling fell right off and almost landed on me and Sister LeBaron... It was pretty sketchy, but pretty predictalbe for a Russian building. Do you want to know something weird? Well, I'll tell you. All Russian buildings are made out of concrete forms.... yep, they don't even use one spec of wood. They just build them out of concrete and put them together like you would build legos or something.... it's quite strange to me. Anyways, back to knocking. Later we went knocking in another building where we soon found ourselves being attacked by a naked dog!!!! He was about the size of a large rat and had a little ball of fur at the end of his tail. It made me laugh so much that I could barely get out who we were and why we were there. Needless to say, I forgot how much I really love knocking and that will now become the highlight of my life. 

We have to move the baptisimal date for Katya and Alexander because they aren't quite ready.... This probably means that I won't get to see them get baptized because i suspect that I only have two weeks left in this area and then I will get transfered, but we never know. I am kind of sad about this though because it has been such an amazing opprotunity to be able to teach them. I have loved every minute of it. But I think that as long as they get baptized and stay active that that will be all that I need to know that I have helped them, and that their lives truly have been changed through Christ.

Well, that's all of the news for now. I know that you are all probably getting really excited because Cam comes home in two short days! I bet that feels better to say that two short years, huh mom? I wish I could be there with you all when he gets home, but I still have work to do. So, have fun and party without me for now... I love you all so much!!!!

Love,

Sister Leavitt

Short People

Well, I guess since Sister Leavitt just emailed us last Friday, she made this week's email short and sweet.  She sure loves all of you and really LOVES hearing from you.  Her Birthday is only a month away, and Christmas is soon after.  She would love a card or letter to know how you are doing.  Here is her address if you want to write.  I put Jesus stickers on her packages and they get there fine.

Sister Courtney Leavitt

Russia Rostov Mission

Bolshaya Sadovaya 39/4

344082

Rostove-na Donu, Russia

Well, let me tell you how much has happened since last friday..... Well, actually not much has happened. We had general conference this weekend and it was sooooo good. Our investigator came, so that made me happy. Also on Sunday night we got to teach our family and help them get ready for baptism. They are doing well and we love them so much! Oh, on Saturday night we had music night again. It was so much fun. There was a good turn out because they just did it right after general conference. I got to sing I know that my redeemer lives... I love that song. Well, that's it. Pretty uneventful. Well I guess I will just say, Have a great week. And I love you. Don't worry, next week I will have stories for you again. It was just a boring weekend. But honestly, boring was exactly what I wanted. Okay, I love you all. Talk to you later.

Love,

Sister Leavitt

Like the sands in an hour glass....so our the days of our lives!

Holy Cow!  Never a dull moment with Sister Leavitt thats for sure!  We are so glad we don't know anything until it is over.  The Lord is watching over her every minute!

Well, today is Friday. So better late than never I guess. This has been such a crazy week in my Russian life, but I have great news! Heavenly Father Loves Me! And he loves you! Isn't that wonderful? So this past week was, well, like I said, crazy. I finally got my Sister LaBaron back! I love her so much and we are having so much fun serving together. I love teaching with her so much because we just teach so well together. I love doing all missionary work with her, so that's good. We are still getting our family ready to be baptized. So far, so good. If all keeps going well, then their baptism should be in two weeks. We're pretty stoked about that. They are so wonderful, it's been an adventure teaching them, but I love it. Everytime we teach them I feel so happy, it hasn't always been easy, but who ever said missionary work was easy? Yep, that's right, no one said that. So all is well. This Monday I had to go to Ukraine to get a new visa... it was an interesting experience... To make a long story short, we got to the border at 11 am and I got in trouble because of everything with my passport, and so I got to sit in a little room with all of these Russian officers until 4 pm. One of the Elders almost got arrested... that was interesting, but another one of the elders came in to sit with me while they were working on paper work for me and we had such a good conversation about the gospel and so at least that was a plus of the day. For family night on Monday we were at the mission home so we got to have family night with our mission president. It was hilarious. We heard a Flemish Fairy tale and played a game called Bunny bunny. Wednesday and Thursday were so good. We taught some lessons and just did missionary work. Yesterday we taught such a good lesson to this man on the street who was walking with his son, we taught about the plan of salvation, and the spirit was so strong, we are praying and hoping that he will want to know more. Let's see, today was zone conference, which is always so good and tomorrow and Sunday we get to watch general conference!!!!! I'm triple excited for this. I feel like I have been teaching so much lately and I am so excited to just have two days to sit and listen and learn and be filled with the spirit of the Lord. Nothin better. So, that's the news. That's the 411. Life is wonderful. I am loving everything about it. I hope you all have a wonderful 3 days until I get to email you again.

Love,

Sister Leavitt