March 17th 2014 "New Companion....Elder Mullenix"

March 17^th, 2014

This week was transfers and I got a new companion, someone I didn't

know anything about before. His name is Elder Blake Mullenix and he is
originally from St. Helens, Oregon and was called to the Farmington
New Mexico Mission. During his stay there the boundaries of the
mission were being changed and some of the missionaries were going to
be cut off and added to our mission. He was one of them. He has a
lot of stories from on the reservation. They have had to do things such as
chase horses out of their front yard each morning, chop wood and other
very interesting things. Elder O'Neal didn't move far, actually just down
the hall so I still get to live with him.

Since I wasn't transferred I am starting to get lots of comments from

everyone that I am just going to move in here. And we drive a mini van
so we always get the weird comments from people because they are
expecting someone else to hop out of the van when we pull up. They
call us the soccer mom missionaries. It's really nice thought to be
able to talk with them and know they on a more personal level and know
more of their needs. Even with all of the joking from people I can
still see the love from them. There are definitely a lot of people
here that I could call friends and can see myself keeping
communications with them down the road.

We are teaching Alexa Flouris right now and her family for the past

few weeks and she is ready for baptism. We talked to her about her
nerves and the things she is concerned about and wants to learn. Since
the last lesson we had she is really excited about Saturday with all
of the family and friends that are coming. She describes the feelings she
has is such a cool way as a spiritual connection with God. When we
teach her she looks back to see if her spiritual connection is getting
stronger or not and then asks why. She is awesome!

On Sunday we were asked to come into the young men's room and teach

them about preparing for a mission and learning to live up to the
standards that we do. As a missionary we have a lot of rules to
protect us and keep us focused. It's kind of like taking the 10
commandments and living them to the max. It's sometimes frustrating
but after living them you can see all of the blessing that come from
them. A number of them were not sure if they were going to go on a
mission like I am on so we talked about what benefits they think they
would get or like to get out of it and what they would be willing to
sacrifice for it. It is a large commitment and you feel like it is
setting you behind in many ways but it really isn't. It actually makes
you so much more aware of things to help you out with everything else
for the rest of our life's. We then talked about girls and some of the
things we need to do to stay away from unchaste situations. It was a
really good conversation.

The conversation with the young men was easy to do not because I
esteem myself to be perfect but for the reason that I have been
focusing on virtue lately. Another missionary I was near brought up
the topic and was trying to learn more about it and I thought is was
cool because I couldn't really define what virtue is. Ever since I
have had that focus I have seen so many more ways in my life that that
I could become more virtuous in, and I feel great! I feel so much more
confident with things and sure on actions. It has been fueled by the
thought of repentance. Not in the aspect of myself becoming clean but
when we repent we obtain a new view on things and fresh perspective. I
had applied that to others I know and people I see. Rather than
thinking about the negative or sin that one may commit I am trying to
truly see just the good. It's not a one and done kind of thing but
rather a process. Since I have had that focus as well I have been so
much more happy. Try it out!

Love Elder Leonhardt