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

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