Alex's 92nd email from Chile 5/21/12

Awesome sunset at our chapel

Hola Familia!!!

Como Estan!!! This week was a good and sad one. One no one was home like no nobody the entire week. Our numbers were so low this week it was rediculous. All the contacts we did were not home, none of our investigators were home, and then on top of all of that none of the members were home either we were litterally just walking in the streets all day long. But its ok :) we still had a good week.

Lots of completo's

We found this one scientific dude that wanted to talk to us. He is the brother of a contact we were following up on. Well we had a pretty decent lesson with him. He asked a ton of questions about hell, Heaven, Miracles, The Scriptures, The Book of Mormon, If God really exsists and if he does why is their so much suffering if God is Love. It was pretty cool. He said he didn't like a couple of our answers cause their is no proof, and says faith is our fallback answer. Then I came in and was like "your into science right?" he says "yes." I said "faith is not just a thing only in religion but also in science. Like we may not know everything about something, or how it works but we have faith it exsists." How all the major and famous scientists didn't know excactly how to create the things they invented but it takes faith and work to make something happen to work a miracle like electricity, Televisions, motors. Everything we have today took alot of faith and failure, and diligence to create. So if we want to know if God exsists we need to do the same thing. Have faith, work (prayer scripture study), have failures probably (God will give us answers in his time), and be diligent to find the answer. It was an awesome lesson. Later his Mom and Sister showed up and we shared with them & it was legit.

Then on Friday we had a ward talent show. It was good. Nobody had prepared talents and nobody asked us to do anything we just showed up, so we got there no one was doing anything so I went up and sang and from there everything got going it was awesome. I won a gaviota or seagull. It's a trophy.

The seagull trophy is from the festival of Viña it is huge! And they give out seagull trophies there. I sang like a part of some Backstreet Boys song haha. 

On Sunday Cristobal Lucas brother came to church!! After sacrament meeting ended we stand up and he says "I know I already told you guys I would be willing to get baptized but now I know I will." IT WAS SOOOO AWESOME!!!! I love the mission. Also we have been working with this Japanese family in our ward that is inactive. Well yesterday we went in and started talking about eternal families, talked about the strength it gives us (because the parents are on the verge of a diviorce and have been seeing councelers), how it can heal family ties and everything. Well weirdly the dad just starts crying and how they need to go back to church. We invited them to come to church Sunday and they said yes :) Also we have appointments with them during the week. Also Sunday afternoon right after lunch we got a call from an hermana in the ward and a recent convert Marcos was in the hospital and it sounds like there isn't much hope for him to make it out. He has cancer. So we got special permission to leave the sector and go visit him in the hospital. It was my first time doing that. It was sad, he was soo weak. Well we shared with them they were happy to see us and surprised. They didn't know we were coming. We gave him a blessing and I actually feel like he will make it out of the hospital. It was cool. They are a poorer family so he was just thrown in a room with like 25 other pacients there were visitors and everything and we gave him a blessing in the middle of a noisy room but the spirit was so strong it was awesome.

On a happier note our Zone went Go-Karting today!! It was fun and I won so thats a bonus. It was what I needed to get a little more animo:) God Loves me.

Well seeing you didn't ask any questions this week I think thats all I got for ya. I love you all soo much and I am praying for you constantly.(We had company and I was in a rush to get his letter off and forgot to ask questions. He wrote a pretty good letter despite that :)

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Alex Leavitt

Alex's 91st email from Chile 5/14/12 & Mother's Day Call

I miss this face! I can't wait to kiss it!! :)

We had a wonderful call with Alex. We were able to get the majority of our family on the call which was nice. At Christmas we had everyone on the call. I still need to post that one!!!! At Christmas Alex talked a lot more than he did this time. This time there was more talking among all of the siblings. I think Alex was just enjoying listening to everyone.

Most of us on the call.

We were able to meet Alex's new companion. He is from Chile. I think Alex said Concepcion but I don't remember. His companion even spoke some English with us and it was pretty good. He said that Alex has been helping him with that. Then we talked with Elder Rios for a bit while Alex went and met Elder Rios' family and talked to them.

All of us on the call & meeting Elder Rios

(note the picture of Brandon shaving)

Alex told us about another song he likes that he hears in the streets. Ben is going to look it up and tell me what it is. He told us about one other one that I posted on the blog awhile ago. That song is one that Alycia dances to in Zumba class and Ben now loves that song also :)

The first thing I noticed was that Alex's hair was buzzed short!! He didn't think it was but then when Alycia came on she commented on his hair as well. I think he realized then that it really was short. We both told him that he shouldn't get his hair cut before coming home. We'll see if he does or not. He was telling us that that's how they cut hair in Chile and that it wasn't the shortest you could go. If he had gone any shorter he would be bald! He did say that his haircuts only cost about $4.00.

This was our first call that he did from an internet cafe. There were Chilean's watching us and hanging out in the background. Alex said he was the only gringo in the cafe and then of course there were 4 other groups of gringo's across the screen so I'm sure it was a novelty - hence them watching us the entire call.

Alex looked well and sounded good. His email for the week is below :)

Hola Familia!!

So talking to you guys yesterday was awesome!! It was cool to see you guys again. Between the Walton's story and Mackenzie being pregnant I am just blown away and I have totally forgotten everything I had planned to write. Well not like I had much more to write I feel like I told you everything.

But to start off I forgot to tell you guys we set 2 more baptismal dates this week! 1 with Cristobal the brother of Lucas! So that is good. After his baptism he got interested in listening to us. The other is a girl named Yainina she is the daughter of an inactive lady in our ward. They are pretty new and need to be taught alot but we have faith and both are super receptive. Also this week we celebrated Mothers day with an awesome family in our ward the familia Manquian. We had an Asado in your honor mom :) it was really good. I will send pictures next week but ya yummy.

Mother's Day Dinner - Asado with the Familia Manquian

(I know he said he'd send these next week & he did. I'm a week behind in posting)

Basically I was introducing Elder Rios to everyone this week. When I talked to Elder Rios familia I told them that he is a hard worker, has a ton of enthusiam and is doing a good job. Teaching the iniciative went over really well its awesome how solid the stake is the bishop is so excited to put the plan in accion. The guy in the wheelchair, didn't come this week probably because it is so hard to get him down the stairs, they need to change apartments. The familia Castro was visiting her Mom for mothers day so no they didn't come to church this week. Cristofer is still having problems but we are working with him.

Well family sorry that was soo short I really didn't have much news for this week. Next weeks will have more promise. I love you all and I will talk to you all later!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Alex Leavitt

Alex's 90th email from Chile 5/7/12

I love this dog. It's the beagle of my ward mission leader.

Hola Familia!!

This week has been awesome but sad at the same time. One, numbers wise we didn't have a very effective week but we have had meetings like crazy so that gives an excuse a little.First off Elder Wardell has changes :(  I am going to be training a new ZL the ropes before I end the mission this change, Pres. says he is awesome so lets see, I will get him tomorrow.

Elder Grow, Elder Leavitt & Elder Champion 

- Saying good bye to Elder Grow & Elder Champion they ended their missions today.

This week I got to see Davis alot I dont know if I told you about him. I interviewed him for his baptism when I was in Republica. Well his girlfriends family lives in my ward and we work alot with them and he is always around the house and what not it is pretty neat. We got him to leave with us one day to make a visit. Thursday we had concilio where all the Zone Leaders go to Presidents house talk about numbers baptisms and new ideas for the mission. They are cool but super long. We wake up at 6:30 a.m.to get there and got home at like 7:30 p.m. Wednesday I got an easter package from you guys THANKS! Friday we made a visa run for Elder Wardell. It went super quickly because I am now a master visa runner. I know all the short cuts and some people who work there and will attend me before other people hahaha.

Elder Florez (hijo), Elder Leavitt & his newly born grandson

This week we have also been super tired. We have been waking up early and working hard this last week. Saturday we left early again to meet with the Stake President so we could plan together how the missionaries were going to apply the new mission vision to their wards. It was good and came to a sweet conclusion and I am going to be presenting it to the missionaries this Thursday. Also the rules of baptism have changed in our mission again. Now a youth cannot get baptized unless he assists the church for a straight 2 months, kids cannot get baptized unless they are someone firm in the church that will bring them and support them, and part member families cannot baptize unless someone else in the family is active. Pretty strict but we don't want people getting baptized unless they stay in the church and endure to the end.

Elder Leavitt & Elder Wilcox - both from San Diego :)

Speaking of baptism Lucas was baptized this Sunday. Elder Wardell did it which is cool because now he has changes and I will confirm him next Sunday legit!! Also Sunday was way cool we had stake conference right and I got their an hour late! Elder Wardell brought Macarena to church and I left to go pick up an old guy in a wheel chair. I carried him down with the Bishop and two other youth frickin 3 flights of stair from his appartment building to the car and then to the chapel. It was intense but worth it. He was happy. First time in 5 years he could go to church. Also we are starting to reactivate a super family! The Familia Castro came to church for the first time in 4 years. Before they went inactive he was the stake secretary and she was the stake young womans president. They went inactive because they felt they were really the only ones doing stuff and got tired of working so much while everyone else did nothing. Well we have been sharing with them and their words not mine and I don't believe them. They said that we were the most powerful and spiritual missionaries they have met and felt the spirit so strong in our appointments they new it was time for them to come back and that God specifically sent us to them at this time. Now we know that's not true because nobody who knows me would use those words. I told Elder Wardell they were talking about him jaja. but it was truly humbling and cool they felt that way.

 Elder Leavitt, Lucas, & Elder Wardell

It was cool to see Rocio and she assured me everything was fine and her mom said that since I left she saw what impact I had made in her family and is working to come back to the church cool huh? Fabio and Jennifer are fine they are literally the cutest couple ever such nerds :) We are going by Cristopher tomorrow so we shall see whats up there.

Elder Leavitt & Elder Sosa

And Sunday I will call at 8 Oclock Chilean time ok? So you guys see what you need to do to be on at that time and from prior experience a little before.

Ok guys I love you all so much and will talk to you Sunday. I am super excited to talk to you guys!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Alex Leavitt

Alex's 89th email from Chile 4/30/12

Entering my apartment.

Hola familia!!!

This week was but fantastic. It was really just amazing. So we have really been trying super hard to apply the vision of our mission to our sector. I don't know if I told you but about 2 weeks ago President King came out with the vision of our mission which is to change our mind set to that which is based on the memebrs. That we cannot work or do the missionary work without the support of our ward and the members in it.  So since then we have been based and focused on less actives and active members more than anything else. And this week we just had but such amazing success. Basically our goal as a compañionship is to reach our goal of new investigators everyweek not through or own ways like contacting and what not, but through the members like references or part member families things like that. Well this week we only did 7 contacts (like the least I have done in my mission) but we had 7 News!! It was awesome.

We have been teaching a ton as a companionship. We are having more than 20 lessons everyweek 20 lessons is the standard of excellence for the mission and we are doing better than that everyweek. We are really trying to work hard and finish strong Elder Wardell goes home 2 changes after I do.  Have I mentioned Fabio before? He is an inactive kid we have been working with and now his girlfriend Jennifer is listening to us! SHE IS AMAZING!!! He had an amazingly spiritual lesson with her yesterday where she thanked us at the end of the lesson, because she said she has come to the point in her life where is looking for the truth and she feels like she is doing that through meeting with us, she is just awesome. But it is also helping Fabio re-find his testimony and he is doing awesome and now has the enthusiasm to come back through our visits. Also we are working with an inactive lady named Cicilia. She has been inactive for like 4 years and she came to church on sunday with her 8 yr old grandson Cristofer. We are teaching him as well! That is actually a sad story, Cristofer's mom abandoned him and his dad doesn't have time to really care for him, so now he is clinically depressed and has tried commiting suicide, an 8 yr old I was just shocked. Well the Hermana has been down doesn't know what to do, so we told her come back to church. It's excactly what you and he needs to feel the spirit have that direction in your life and get your strength back. Well she agreed with us and she came and brought Cristofer it was soo cool to see them there.

Plaza de Armas - The Plaza de Armas (Plaza of Arms) is the name for the main square in many Latin American cities. Most cities constructed by the Spanish Conquistadores were designed on a standard military fashion based on a grid pattern, taken from the Roman Castrum, of which one of the blocks would be left vacant to form the Plaza de Armas. It is often surrounded by governmental buildings, churches, and other structures of cultural or political significance. The name derives from the fact that this would be a refuge in case of an attack upon the city, from which arms would be supplied to the defenders.

One of the coolest things that happened this week was that Rocio and her Mom came to my ward to suprise me! Her mom didn't have the chance to say goodbye to me and wanted that closure jajaja she said I really marked a difference in her life and the life of her family and wanted to thank me and said she is working hard to come back to church now to support Rocio. It was soo cool to see them.

I heard David Archuleta is going to Concepcion, but I don't really know. The masks from my birthday are not typical they just had random masked jaja. We haven't done anything different for p-day just soccer I want to go to the zoo so we will see what happens. The parrots are seasonal birds they come like at the end of summer time and leave when winter kicks in full force. Luckas is good doing great, and Macarena and Heraldo are good the same she is awesome! Something new it rained last week but like crazy we got soaked it was way fun but today its hot Chile just needs to choose already whats it's going to do.

This beautiful plaza traces back to Pedro de Valdivia and the year 1541, constitutes the center of Santiago. In that era there was a protected area in the middle for guarding the arms. Its name was taken from the military and has been called that ever since. All distances in the country are measured from this spot today. The beautiful surroundings of the park hold the history of the country, represented by important buildings such as the Real Audiencia and the Home of the Governors of Chile. The city's Cathedral is located on one of the sides. 

 The equestrian statue of Pedro de Valdivia, founder of Santiago.

Well Family I am doing great! I am happy, working hard and really trying to focus in on the stuff I can do to make a difference before my time runs out. Elder Wardell is funny and is always like guess what you are going to be in your house in 7 weeks and stuff like that, but really we are focused and working really hard because we both want to end this the right way. I love you and will talk to you next week.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Alex Leavitt

Alex's 88th email from Chile 4/23/12

Alex in front of more of the awesome graffiti they have there. 

It's such an art that that he even found a postcard to send to Sarah awhile ago that had only pictures of graffiti on it!

Hola Familia!!

What an amazing week. So last monday I got to go on division with the assistans. It was cool and I was in their sector. That same night I was woken up at like 1 in the morning to an earthquake! But no worries. It was fun and when it ended I just went back to bed.

Something cool is that I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the third time. I love that book more and more each time I read it amazing now I am reading Doctrine and Covenants which is awesome! My goal is to finish it before I end the mission, and I am making really good progress. This week Elder Wardell and I decided we are going to go visit every companionship in our zone and go on 2 hour splits with them and work in their sector. The zone has been down in animo and numbers since I have been here and it payed off. The zone in every sector just bumped up like crazy it was way cool and we are keep doing our visits like that besides doing our normal divisions we have to do. This week we did really good. It's just funny, it's not like everyday we do amazing but every Sunday when we sit down and look we are like "Wow, we had a good week." It's more like we are consistent and I like it. We have been visiting a ton of inactives and active members trying to get everyone excited in the missionary work and it has payed off as well. We had like 7 references this week for people we can teach. The ward is overall little by little is getting excited. And then on Sunday we had a cosechon or harvest, where the other missionaries come over to a sector and all work for like 2 hours. Well this week it was our turn and we wanted to show everyone how a cosechon should be done. It was awesome. We had a member for every elder and they all went on divisions and did visits contacts and so forth. We actually had more members than missionaries which we were not expecting.

A view of Alex's area

On Sunday Luckas passed his baptismal interview! He is crazy. He reminds me alot of me and now I can see why I drove my teachers crazy. He acts up has a ton of energy but remembers everything! It's insane. But he passed and will be baptized May 5th. His family is going out of town this weekened for the holiday and so May 5th is the day. Heraldo is good I never want to go inactive. This guy is having a tough time getting back. Macarena is doing amazing! The only problem is that they need to wait for their contract to expire to seperate so she can get baptized and thats in June. So I may not even be here to see her get baptized :(  I guess what's important is that she does get baptized I am praying for her and her situation.

I never got Tori´s letter,  in fact I have not gotten a letter from anyone in awhile haha. Hopefully it will get here this week maybe its just slow, but no I have not gotten a letter from Tori yet. I have not heard anything from Rocio yet have you? There is no news yet on the stolen items.

Alex has been trying for a long time to get me some pictures of the parrots. He either doesn't have his camera or can't get one. This time he said "I FINALLY caught the parrots"

We are having a ton of success with the inactives! This last week 5 of the inactive people we have been sharing with came to church!! It was awesome to see them all there. But also one kid we are working with Fabio, his girlfriend is showing that she may be interested and has actually asked about what it would take for her to get baptized!!

Well familia I love you and I am working hard. All I want to do is end this thing strong and right. I love the mission, I love chile and I love what I am doing :)

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Alexander Thomas Leavitt

It's hard to see the parrots because they blend in with the trees. I have counted 6. How many can you see?

Alex's 87th email from Chile 4/16/12

Elder Wardell & Elder Leavitt

Hola familia!!

I am sitting here not very sure about how I should feel about Sarah´s engagement. I feel very strange and have mixed emotions the main thing keeping me together is what you said mom about Dad´s feelings. I always wanted to interview the guy first and when I get back he is still going to have my blessing first. Also it's weirding me out I am going to be the only single in the family.

 A place in my sector

But besides that I am doing Great!! So this week has been just awesome. It's weird,  we feel like we are working so hard and nothing is coming out of it and just when we are getting tired God just shows us just how much he really is watching over and caring for us and we see blessing galore. Macarena Is doing awesome, we taught her the last lesson she needs tithing this week and then the next day she calls us and says, "Elders I am ready for baptism, I have a testimony I know it's all true now please just focus on Heraldo." He is her ex-communicated boyfriend. He is coming back to the church but is having problems smoking etc. Also they live together and he is scared of marriage for past reasons and so Macarena wants to be baptized so bad they are seperating!! She is awesome.

The Chilean weather is starting to go bi polar on me. It can be cold one day and just blazing hot the next. It's rediculous. I just want the cold to come already. Also Elder Wardell and I are trying something new. Well we have been trying to work super hard with the ward and it is going over well. We printed off a list of the converts over the last 10 years, 150 in total, and we have been hunting them down this entire week. We have actually have seen some pretty good success from it as well. We have been talking with people who have been inactive for years. And we have found like 3 new investigators in families who have been inactive for awhile. The cool thing is is that all are converts and you can remind them of the feelings they once had. That or they never had a testimony and it just makes you super sad to see how far someone can fall after baptism.

It's funny, remember how I told you how this sector is super wealthy in comparison to my past sectors? Well aparently the people notice I have a flaite background. Everyone says the way I talk and my mannerisms are ghetto or flaite jaja I thought it was funny.

and this family was just stunned because this cat doesn't like anybody and attacks everyone but it just came in jumped on me and fell asleep jajaja

Well awesomeness! On Friday we had a zone conference but a special one. We all went to the temple to do a session with President and Hermana King. It was awesome!!!!! I love the temple. We also had a guess speaker from the temple presidency talk to us and was given the theme from President and guess what it was? Marraige. This guy and Hermana King were all pounding marraige on us. Holy smokes between them and the general authorities it sounds like if I don't get married soon I am sinning. But dont worry i am not marriage crazy yet jajaja. But it was tight. Something weird hit me the while I was there it was my last zone conference! And I was asked to say my goodbye testimony!! I got up there and just blanked. I was like "oh no I am going home", and was just rushed with things to say. It probably sounded weird. ahhh

Elder Leavitt in front of the Santiago Temple

Zone Conference

In the picture the other lady is Hermana Denisse she is awesome and helped us alot. Yes mom it was Carolina and part of her family from la Islita and Marcos is from Carlos Valdovinos Elder Tognetti and I baptized his wife Caroline. Luckas is doing awesome he came to church last Sunday and if everything goes well should be having his baptismal interview next Sunday!!! We have been doing well with our contacts and news we found another 5 this week! The zone overall is a little down don't know what's up. We plan on visiting every sector before the change ends to talk to them all and see how we can help. Pdays normal we play soccer jaja and hymns if you can hi to kolob, be still my soul, and how great thou art. awesome!!

My sector 

Well family I love you guys and I can't wait to talk to you next week. Hope you are all good and I am praying for you daily :)

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Alex Leavitt

Alex's 86th email from Chile 4/9/12

I LOVE this picture of Elder Leavitt & Elder Wardell

Hola Familia!!

First things first, I am so tired jajaja but a good one we had an awesome week. So we started off strong this week. We set another baptismal date with a kid named Luckas. His mom is reactivating and we have been working withem alot. He is pretty solid and I am excited about it so we now have 2 fechas. Elder Wardell and I have been taking out the trash and are on the go always. We are working really well with the ward. We have alot of people always leavinbg with us to go on visits and what not and we have been making some cool plans and what not for the sector. We have the goal to baptize 5 people while we are together and so we just need to work and make it happen. This week we have been focusing alot on finding news so our teaching pool can grow and we had some good success we found 6 news and some are actually really good. So we are now having alot more people to teach which is way neat. Also while doing a ton of contacts we have found 3 inactive members and have been sharing with them and the 3 came to church this week!!! how cool is that! Also while doing a contact I had an awesome binding the tongues of anti christ moment. Well maybe not anti christ but anti mormon at least. I just started testifying to this guy attacking the church and he just goes silent. Then starts trying to say something else and I testify again litterally just ran out of things to say went quiet and walked away IT WAS SOO COOOL!!!  I totally didn't give the story justice but it was pretty awesome.

Elder Leavitt & his new companion Elder Wardell

All of Thursday I was in Concilio where the Zone Leaders go in and give a report of the zone and then talk about issues in the mission and try to resolve them. It is an all day affair and it was pretty cool. Also we recieve new incitaives and then later present them to the zone in zone meeting. It was way cool.

Zone meetings

Ok so remember when I told you I thought I had seen it all when I saw some chick peeing in the park?  Well now I have seen it all literally. The other day I saw a dude just pooping on the side of the street. Just bent over not even trying to hide out in the open pooping on the sidewalk it was sooo gross.

The ward is way cool and I got to meet alot of them this week. They all support the missionaries really well and I am excited to be here. I just have a ton of animo to work.

Alex saw Elder Garcia & Carolina & her family at transfers

 Some goodbyes before transfers. Here is Alex with Rocio.

Another goodbye

I don't know why there are no sister missionaries in my zone, and easter day was just normal nothing, special we had dinner with an inactive son and shared with him a little bit. The only different thing about this ward is that it is really wealthy area buena.. just compared to my other sectors I guess and it's not soo city it's more like suburb just pure houses and nothing else so alot to contact. Like in Republica there were lots of factories and what not in the sector. Here it's just pure houses. The picture of me on the map yes was a pday and we were at the mall and I saw it for the first time. Don't know why I hadn't seen it before. I was like "that is way cool. I want a picture." I have not been to the zoo :( I got your easter package last Wednesday mom thank you :) it arrived just in time. No the pension is nice, it is smaller but it is a nice apartment I like it. Elder wardell and I are doing some killer workout in the night and morning, jaja we want to look good for when we go home jaja so my abs hurt right now.

I think this is a cool picture

Well Family, I hope you are all doing awesome. I am doing Great happy, working hard and tired, but I am still glad to be here and have a little more time to do what I am suppose to do when I am suppose to be doing it :) Thanks for everything and all of your love and prayers.

Con Muchisimo Amor,

Elder Alexander Thomas Leavitt

Alex's companion has a voice recorder and Alex sent us a fun little message. 

To hear it click here: