Last Letter Home 28 September 2014

September 28 2014

Well everyone this is the last time I will write while on my mission because in 8 days I will be home. I arrive home Tuesday October 7th around 6:30pm. For this last email I would like to first thank everyone that has written me and listened to me write. The past 2 years have brought a lot of experiences that are both seen and unseen. I would like to express some of the things that I have learned over my mission. My family is great and I love them all, I am so grateful for all the support they have given me. 

Over the past 2 years my learning has taken a pattern, with each companion I have had, and each area has brought new things to the table. It is hard to express everything that I have learned along with people I have cherished while teaching. Most of you will just have to interact with me to see what I have learned, so feel free to call me, email me, or meet with me in person. The companions I have had during my mission are: Harrison Wardle, Ethan Jones, Brent Empey, Curtis Nokes, Scott Moore, Caleb Brown, Austin Wade, Harrison Wardle, Michael O'Neal, Blake Mullenix, Nathan Wainwright, Clayton Murdock, Cody Jackson, Brent Empey, Trazer Sutcliffe and Alex Burbank from all parts of the USA. I served in 4 main areas of Peoria Stake, Glendale North Stake, Phoenix North Young Single Adult Ward, Deer Valley Ward/Stake. Above all I was able to serve along with 100's of missionaries both young and old to share the good news of Christ. By counting the people and places I just mentioned I have learned over 20 different life lessons. I can't write about all of them at once but instead I am going to try and live them. 

Above all that I have learned while being on my mission I have grown most importantly in my testimony of Jesus Christ. I know He lives and is the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints directing us through the Prophet Thomas S Monson. I know that Christ's Atonement was perfect and through Him salvation is found, it is only through Him. He is Good and wants us to act in this life upon Holiness and righteous acts. And I love Him.

I love you all as well!

Love Elder Leonhardt

PS. See you all soon!!!

Sent from The Lord's iPad

Picture with Elder Cook

                     Elder Sutcliffe, Elder Leonhardt, Elder Cook, Elder Farnsworth, Elder Burbank

September 24 2014 " I met Elder Cook"

September 24 2014,

Well I better start off with the exciting stuff and express how happy I was because of it. First a little background to why this is so exciting. My whole life I had gone to church events and have never seen an Apostle up close and seeing an Apostle could be likened to seeing the Beetles for those of you that are Beetles fans. Very exciting and cool. Well the week before I went to the MTC (missionary training center), Elder Holland was there and spoke but while I was there, no Apostle. Then the week after I left the MTC Elder Bednar went to the MTC. 4 days before going to Arizona Elder Anderson was visiting specifically this mission but I missed him. Then we had a special tri-mission conference and Elder Holland was going to be there but then the night before he had been called somewhere else because of family. Then this past Saturday Elder Perry was going to come here for a Priesthood Leadership meeting but couldn't because of family and health so I was getting pretty sad but then they announced that Elder Cook was coming in place of Elder Perry. We had stake conference (stakes are a group of 7-10 wards/congregations) with Elder Cook and it was great! Even got a picture with him and I will sent that next week.

The other day we were biking down this road at night and ran into Michael with this giant mastiff. It was right across the road from a church and so he started asking us questions about our church. We explained things and then he wanted to keep talking over at a table at the church grounds. He was the grounds keeper for the church. We
continued on. The mosquitoes were bad so he invited us into the recreation center and we continued talking. He had some great question and we had a good conversation. We hope that this will go somewhere, but it was a little weird teaching in a different church building.

Does anyone know what is a Brown Recluse Spider is? Well you guessed it...we have them. We have been finding them everywhere, hopefully they will stop biting us in the night when we are defenseless. Well hopefully you can enjoy your days of not being bitten!

Love Elder Caleb Leonhardt

September 15, 2014 "Elder Cook is coming."

Alright so the exciting information is that Elder Cook is coming to the Stake for Stake Conference but that he wont be staying for the mission tour but that someone from the 70 will be staying with us. It will be exciting to hear the counsel that they both will bring in lifting us and directing us in the matters of the Gospel. 

We had a lesson this week where someone is completely ready for baptism and wants to but he can't come to church because he works. We role played how he could talk to his boss about getting it off but then we ran into a problem, we both have never been a boss or in the hotel business of which he works in. His wife on the other hand is a manager in the hotel business so we had the both of them role play with each other about it and we hope that he will now get off. To add to that we have been finding a couple of people that seem to be very interested in meeting with us. In fact we had this one family just show up to church and the husband wants to learn more about the church. Things are exciting!

Love Elder Caleb Leonhardt

September 8 2014 "Good-bye bed bugs...hello bed"

Well it was about time that we got moved back into our apartment after living out of our suitcases for the past month. It has been crazy the past month living far out of our area and having 6 missionaries in on apartment. Trying to work out our food and hygiene was the toughest. I think my greatest relief is that I can once again sleep on a bed. This whole time it has either been the floor or on a small couch. To my great surprise I now wake up with no pain in my back or neck! Having a home feels much better. For those that don't know why we moved somewhere else for awhile the reason was that we got bed bugs.

We have been teaching this family where the man of the house, Ben, is a member but hasn't come for a long time, Greggi who isn't a member. The two aren't married, and her son Devon. They came to this BBQ and loved it so they came to church the next day. She comes from a Lutheran background and is a very nice individual, in fact nicer than most people I have meet my whole time down here. We talked with her this past Friday night, while it was raining.Man I love the rain.
She said she watched the Restoration Video a couple times and says she believes in Joseph Smith in being a prophet.

Elan Wilder came to church again on fast and testimony meeting. He is our Jewish 19 year old friend. He wanted to go up to the podium and talk during the meeting and asked us if he could and what the purpose was. We explained it and said he could go up if he had a testimony of something. He asked if he could go up even if he didn't have a testimony of something and we explained the reason of the meeting. He understood and then came to the conclusion that he needs to gain a
testimony of something. Later in a class he sat next to a man who showed up for the first time, his name was Lehi and he was a former member of the church. They had a conversation that I swear could have been a Friday Night skit. Elan tried making conversation with him and asked him what his name was. The simple and not interested reply was "Lehi". A spark of curiosity came and Elan was scrambling in his mind where that name came from. After a minute, while Lehi was giving an
attitude of come on you can do it come on not knowing Elan wasn't a member, Elan said ok I've got nothing. Lehi said its from Jerusalem. "No way I'm Jewish!" Elan's reply. Lehi said with sarcasm "Yeah I know." Elan then said "How could you tell, was it my nose?" Lehi just looks forward with no response. I am still laughing over it.

This was possibly the very last fast and testimony meeting of my mission and ironically I felt prompted to share it the same way I shared it in my very first fast and testimony meeting, which was the first Sunday in my mission. I talked about families. Over my mission I have grown to understand the importance of families and what the gospel can do for any family. We say that "Families are ordained of God" while looking that up I learned that ordained also mean decree and make sense that God is saying that as a decree or proclamation that he wants families. For that the gospel will bring people together and provide an environment for a family to come together and grow. I love my family and am forever grateful for all that they do and don't do. And I know that families can be together forever as we desire to make that sealing promise with God through His Holy Ordinances.

The next most exciting thing down here is that it was just announced that one of the Apostle's is coming to this Stake on the 21st for a Stake Conference and the next 2 days after that is doing a mission wide meeting for our mission. This will be the first time I will get to be in a close quarters meeting with an Apostle of The Lord! What could be even cooler is if Elder Bednar comes because my family could visit with him for part of a day when Ben and Morgan get married on the 20th, then come down here the next day and I could spend 2 days with him! But who knows. I am just so excited for this month and all
that is happening!

Love Elder Caleb Leonhardt

August 26, 2014 "Last Transfer"

August 26 2014

Hey everyone just wanted to bring you all up to speed on my neck of the woods. This is transfer week and we are still living in the apartment with 4 other Elders and by tomorrow there will be 6 Elders living in the one apartment all living out of their suitcase. Talk about cramped! I will be getting a new companion tomorrow which will help out a lot with the stress of the situation. It is also weird to think that this is my last transfer and the last time I will be going to this meeting.

Elan Wilder is a 19 year old Jewish kid and we have been teaching him a lot lately. Amazing guy! We went to a baptismal service of someone else and he felt the Spirit very strongly but had a hard time making the connection that the feeling he was having was an answer from God.

The other morning on our way out the door for morning exercise we caught a Camel spider trying to enter in. This was the first time I have seen and heard of a Camel Spider and I guess they get to be very big. Try looking one up and telling me more about them. The one we caught was pretty scary looking.

Temple excitement fills the air down here with the Phoenix Arizona Temple Open House beginning October 10th and being dedicated November 16th. To put things into perspective I am working to the beginning of
the Open House because that is when I go home. It really takes away the thoughts of being so called "Trunky" because I have a goal of preparing people for. It makes things fun.

Love Elder Leonhardt

August 18, 2014 "Learning to Forgive"

I didn't get to send you a letter last week because i was running out
of time, life over here has been pretty hectic. I got to talk with Ben for a little bit
when he was in the hosptial I will see if I can reach out to him again,
thank you for letting me know.

I would like to first apologize for not sending an email out last
week. Hopefully by the end of this email you will have an
understanding as to why, haha my life has just been thrown around
lately. Even among the hectic swirls of life, peace and joy can still
be found so I would like to first start off talking about some of the
joys I have experienced lately. The first full week of August was my
companions last week in the mission and with that understanding he
wanted to work his tail off with the time he had. The greatest
blessing to that mind set was that it came with the understanding of
where he felt he needed to go so we were able to put our head down and
work hard. Within the first 2 days of that week we taught 12 lessons
and were cruising around like wild men. It was good to see at the end
of the day the smiles on the face from satisfaction of our works being
accepted of The Lord, it made it all worth while!

Elder Jackson went home August 9th from the Sky Harbor Airport in
Phoenix. Our mission President allowed me and and 2 other missionaries
to drive him down to the airport and see him through the gate. It was
good to be able to see him that far and to make it not just an easy
transition for him but also for me. He was the 3rd companion I have
sent home, it does get easier over time. Out here in the field someone
going home is almost like a death in the mission family, obviously not
as dramatic as a real death.

Went to a single moms home for a lesson and afterwards asked if there
was any service we could do and they accepted. We went back the next
day and helped with some yard work for about a hour and then right
before we left we used this money that a member gave us to buy them
pizza. We told the pizza guy to say it was a friend that bought them
and to not say it was us, because it wasn't our money. They were
having a depressing week and it was great to see the facial expression
change.

I have been in an interesting situation moving from one area to
another and living with a couple groups of missionaries. Kind of feel
like a rag doll with the many different things pulling me and trying
to work as hard as I can. My new companion should join me August 27th
and then everything should be back to normal and working as I used to.

 Lately I have been learning a lot about forgiveness. The challenges
and the success I have made over the years in forgiving. The reasons
why I feel that I have been learning this lately is because of a
couple situations where a missionary close to me has been verbally
attacked by an individual including a two faced interaction for the
individual. The missionary has tried to seek for understanding but the
other end refuses to do so but to rather judge them showing no love
towards them. I have tried to help with the situation but some very
rude things were said. I have learned that for a number of things one
can forgive someone quickly but for larger things that have no reason
to happen it takes time. Time is sometimes required to go through the
repentance process so forgiveness can be applied. So know that the
importance is to forgive, don't let an opportunity pass where
forgiveness is company.

Met with Elan, a 19 year old jewish man that goes to MMI, who we have
been teaching a lot lately. He said that he grew up believing in God
and having strong spiritual experiences but lost his belief in Him
because of the loss of loved ones and friends. We talked about his
parents situation and the deaths that had the largest impact on him.
Afterwards he taught how the atonement of Christ could heal him so
that he doesn't need to just barry it but can be relieved from the
sorrow. It was a very spiritual lesson and to add the cherry on top as
we were saying the closing prayer someone in the next room over in the
church started playing some spiritual music on the piano. It was theme
music to the prayer and really confirmed that the spirit was there. I
wish I had theme music to my life.

Thank you for listening in and sorry for not writing last week,
hopefully this will suffice.

Love Elder Caleb Leonhardt