May 26 2014 "Life is like running a marathon."

Hello and Happy Memorial Day! May 26 2014

This will be a short one but I plan on sending some pictures home to inform you a little of where I am at and where my brother Ben lives as I think I was able to see where he lives...

This morning we decided to change up our morning exercise. Where I am at there are a number of large hills, they're not mountains, and all have a hiking path to the top. From the top of each hill you can see for miles and miles in all directions because they are in this huge valley. As we hiked up as an apartment, 4 total missionaries, we talked about the surrounding area because we are on the edge of the mission boundaries. The mission that borders us is the Scottsdale Mission, the mission that Ben lives in and when we got to the top of the hill we could see almost all of Scottsdale. At the bottom of the hill I believe was the apartment complex that Morgan lived in at one time. So Ben if there was a time you wanted to meet me while I am still out here, that was it. Now you will have to wait a little longer, sorry

Elder Wainwright and I were asked to come to a baptism and present a message during the time the baptizer and the one being baptized were getting changed. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith Repentance Baptism The Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End, to everyone and as we shared it an experience came to mind about endure. It was when I was training for a marathon that I learned more about enduring, of course because if you don't then you never will finish a race. As I was training I learned that running takes a lot of mental strength as we are constantly fighting back in forth in our mind between physical fatigue and desire to accomplish the goal placed before us. Sometimes we feel like we may not be able to make it all the way by looking at the big picture so we cut our perspective down to what we see or the next turn. We make bench marks to help us along the way and to remind us that we are accomplishing some distance and getting closer to the end. After awhile we get hit by a large feeling of fatigue and quitting becomes more and more desirable, questioning why do I need to keep running or why is this goal here in the first place. Then, out of nowhere and never known as to when, we receive a boast of energy to go forward called a 2nd wind. These points can be applied to life. We are tested constantly with difficult times and when we feel we are about to be pushed further an we can handle, God helps us. We often need to take the big goals we have in life and cut them down to smaller tasks asking "What do I need to do right now?" Taking things one step at a time. There are more lessons learned from this but these are just a few.

On Sunday we had 2 people that came to church that hadn't come before. Niki was being taught in another area and just moved into the area and came for the first time, she is awesome! Then we had another one named David who looked up the church using google and just showed up to see what is was like and stay for the whole time. Love Elder Leonhardt!

May 19, 2014 "Using the gifts and talents God gave me."

Hey ya'll! Today we are playing some games as a young adult congregation and the games on the menu today are themed Fruit Olympics. So far what I understand of what we are doing is we will be playing ultimate Frisbee, bowling, basketball, and baseball but instead of the regular things your play with we will be replacing them with fruit. For a baseball, an apple. For a Frisbee, a banana. For bowling the bowling ball will be replaced with a watermelon. It sounds like it will be fun so we are pumped to see how it all turns out, hopefully I can get a picture of it and send one home, if not we will just have to play it!

On the subject of games we are also having a Zone Activity, meaning all the missionaries in this part of the mission will gather together to play some games. Today we are trying to play milk-jug La Cross again. Well it will be the first time any of them have played but the second time I will. It is so simple but yet so fun!

We had two lessons with Kyle this week and both of them were unique and fun. I was only at one of them though so I will only talk about that one. A little of his background is that he is dating a lady in the ward that just joined the Church about 2 yrs ago. He has now been meeting with missionaries for about a month. Lately he has been having a number of questions about the church and not just regular ones but specific and good truth seeking questions. Some have been about temples, priesthood, the importance of why we need the Book of Mormon, marriage, family sealing, pre-mortal life and about after life. This time we focused on the Book of Mormon. He himself is a quite guy when he asks a question and ponders a lot while you talk, sometimes we're not sure if he is connecting the principles taught, but in the end he understood and the excitement to learn filled the room, aka the Spirit. He wanted to search the scriptures more and seek what knowledge was inside.

Had an exchange with Elder Weiler this week. I have served near him before so being with each other again was awesome. As we were out working we knocked on a door and no answer. We then see this lady on the second floor of the complex, smoking in her pajamas and looking like joy wasn't in her vocabulary. While walking by we wanted to talk with her and starting asking her how she was doing, if we could say a pray with her and her family. She responded with a short no but said she wasn't feeling good. We asked if there was anything we could do for her to help her feel better and she said we shouldn't come up because she has the nova virus or flu, something with a nova. As we talked for a little bit more we got to understand her a little and her situation we offered to get her a can of soup. She smiled! Though she said she was OK she smiled and we were able to brighten her day, that's all I asked for :) We later got a phone call for some people that were moving into our area and wanted some help. Their names were Niki and Lee. Lee is a member and Niki is not but is interested. They are both going to the motorcycle school here and seemed very nice and interested in getting involved more. We are excited to see what comes from it.

I have had a focus of urgency lately. Wondering about what gifts we all have been given and the talents we have that God has given us makes me often reflect on the question of "What am I doing with the talents and gifts God has given me?" It reminds me of a story from when I was younger and in my skating years. My family bought me a pair of really nice and expensive roller blades because that was what I wanted for so long. While looking at them I dared not take them out because they looked so nice, cost a lot, and I didn't want to be "that guy" that when he gets something good he destroys it. As I grew up my feet grew larger, some may ask how because I am still short but I promise you I grew and so did my feet. I out grew them and could no longer use them. I think of the end of being able to wear my roller blades as the end of life where I have run out of the time given to me to use my talents(roller blades). I know that God has blessed me and you with different and extraordinary gift that make us all unique and grand. Why wait to do your best in all the opportunities God gives you, to excel, to embrace, to master. Life is short, but can be amazing if we make it so, but it is a choice.

Love Elder Leonhardt

May 12 2014 "Small World....Finding Someone from Baraboo in AZ"

May 12 2014

So I was thinking about sharing a funny story first as a nice breaker then get into the spiritual experiences later...with maybe some more humorous things

For about 11 days the A/C in our truck was out and we were driving in what we call 460 air conditioning, 4 windows going 60. So we scheduled a time to go down to the car dealership to get it fixed, it took a lot longer than we were expecting. Almost all day! We found someone to take us out so we could make some more visits while it was getting worked on but we still had a few hours that we had to wait at the dealership. While waiting we had a man from All State insurance come up to us and ask us some questions. We quickly learned that he just had some relatives move down here to Arizona from Wisconsin. I asked him what parts because I knew the state pretty well He answered “Baraboo area but you probably don't know where that is.” He was surprised when I said “I'M FROM THERE!” He said Nancy Elliegood moved down here and he was her son. Funny thing is I know exactly who that is and in fact I mowed her lawn for a summer! Small world.

Well yesterday was Mothers Day and I wanted to throw a small tribute in to all of the mothers that may read this. First off I want to mention that I don't believe that just because we talk about mothers we exclude other women. It's a day devoted to the wonderful role women play in this world. Thank you all so much for everything you do because without you women, men would have no purpose. Women in society is what keeps it from falling off the cliff when it should have fell long ago. They nurture and calm a destructive home. And you all may at times feel low and insignificant but please please cast that though out because God has given you your amazing gifts for a reason and a reason that cannot be replicated by man or machinery. Your Amazing!

Every 3 months down here we have something called a zone conference where we have 2 or more zones of missionaries. Zones having about 20 some missionaries. We get together to receive instruction from our leaders. In one of the topics discussed we read about Alma the younger in the Book of Mormon and his experience that changed his riotous living to being a disciple of Christ. We talked about it as an awakening. We then got a chance to share awakenings that we have experiences in our lives.

One awakening that I have had was I had the opportunity to interview Dominic Therrien in one of the

surrounding areas for baptism. In the interview I got to learn more of his story. It started with him going from atheism in 2008 to being baptized last Saturday. He said he started on the path on coming to believe in God when his dad died in a motocross accident. His dad was his coach as he traveled the world competing in motocross. He said a preacher told him that his dad was in heaven. He got biter about it because he thought religion was only there to comfort someone with happy thoughts when someone would die and that there really was nothing behind it to support it. He went on to tell me that while comparing evidence to evidence on science to religion one topic came up about Adam and Eve and how it began. He explained that there is no evidence in science to explain how no living life became living but that religion had a plan and explanation with recordings of people telling that they know from God that is the way it is. He continued with many other topics of all sorts explaining his change and it was amazing to see such a large change in a man in such a short period of time.

Throughout my mission I have learned many different principles that I am applying to my life now and plan to throughout my life and one I want to talk about today is celebrating successes. Our mission president has explained that when we often find ourselves with a difficult situation on having to correct someone we often just look at what is wrong disregarding that there is anything good with this situation or child of God. We can constructively tell them that they can work better in a curtain topic but forgetting to make known what someone does well. Don't we want to hear what we do well in? What strengths we have? Others aren't usually as bad off as what we first think of in our minds but rather mentally imagine the worst possible scenario when it isn't so. Look for the positives. Look at life in the positives. I promise you that the chains of negativity will be lifted and life will be more enjoyed.

Thank you again for taking some time to listen to me and check in on how I am doing Life is going great and I am enjoying every moment I have to be here. I love you all so much!

Love Elder Leonhardt

May 5 2014 "Dreams"

Alright everyone I may throw some of you for a loop. The rest of you probably know this about me. I have Crazy dreams. Some may say ok yeah we all have crazy dreams here and there and sometimes I remember them and sometimes I don't. I always remember them and I have them often. Most times they come and I can then forget them again but lately they have been sticking around. Have you ever wondered why you have dreams and why certain things come up in the dreams? They always seem to be random. You can sometimes wonder if God speaks to you in your dreams or tells you of things to look for in life but most often I think he has a sense of humor when it comes to my dreams. I honestly think he enjoys seeing my reaction when I wake up and have a puzzled look on my face for the rest of the day wondering where that came from.

This past Sunday we had someone that lives near us bring a friend to church named Amin. When he first walked in he startled me because he was a BIG man with a deep voice. We introduced ourselves and sat down for the beginning part of Church, Sacrament Meeting. Afterwards we went by and talked to him asking him what he thought and he responded with a powerful,"I loved IT!" He then went into the feelings that he had while being there and the things he learned.

He got up and went to talk to a bunch of the other members that were there, including the females. It was actually quite interesting seeing how this ward/congregation is made up of younger single adults. He took advantage of that and was flirting it up.

In class he participated and made comments then shared a strong Spiritual experience he had while in Sacrament Meeting. He said while the teacher was up at the pulpit sharing his testimony he felt like he could see someone holding his shoulders and illuminating him. He thought is was angels that were there and said he has to come back next week.

At the end of each Sunday Meetings for the first Sunday of each month they have something called "Break the Fast." In the Church we as a congregation Fast each month for at least 2 meals or whatever you feel fit and donate the money you would have spent on that fast to the Churches Welfare. The money received in this service goes directly to helping those that are in need and lack food. None of it goes towards keeping the buildings running or paying anyone (we don't pay any of the leaders of the church). Anyways our congregation has a potluck after all of the meetings and I thought that was genius! It was the first time I have ever been to one of those and I guess they have them often here.

So are you up for a funny story? Last night we were in an apartment complex trying to stop by a member in the area. When we got closer to where the apartment was there was a bunch of young adults around my age partying above on the second floor. As we got near they saw us and they shouted to us asking if we were Mormons and to come up. They were so nice in offering us beer it reminded me of home! Haha. Then one of the ladies came down and personally invited us up putting her arm around my companion Elder Wainwright. It kind of freaked my companion out because they weren't the most modestly dressed. They were doing all of the normal party stuff that happens in Wisconsin and being themselves. We were nice back and asked them if they had a relationship with Jesus Christ. They wanted to sincerely hear about Jesus Christ so we are going back tonight! So now I can say I went to a party while on the mission. For those in tuned that was more of the PG version.

Now for the best part of the week! We are, as missionaries, becoming Family History Specialist! Elder Bednar, an Apostle, gave our region a charge to become Family History Specialists and to use it in sharing the gospel. I am so excited for this because the Church has just made a great deal with Ancestry.com where we get free access to their site. I am learning a lot and am excited to teach everyone I get the chance to share it with. We have been given council that just like reading the scriptures provides us with spiritual protection against temptation so does being involved with Family History because Ancestors on the other side help out as your are helping them. We learned that welding families together is a great and marvelous work in which is necessary for us to be doing for those that can't. It is missionary work in its finest! The tools and resources that the Church has is not limited to just members though, to everyone! I am so excited to learn more and to find my ancestors! I am planning on using this for the rest of my life!
Love you!
Love Elder Leonhardt

May 5, 2014 "Letter from Mike Proudfit"

Hello Leonhardt family.
My name is Mike Proudfit (1st counselor in the Bishopric). You don’t know me but I wanted to give you a report of your son or Elder. I know it is rare to get an email back to the family but I felt it was necessary. Elder Stud Leonhardt other wise known in our ward as elder Lion-hart was the most amazing missionary we have had. He served and worked so hard in our ward and did a great job as an Elder. He was humble but stayed on task and got the point. You should be very proud as parents and as a family to have representing your family and the lord out here on this two year mission. This is preparing him for a life long journey which is just beginning for him but he has laid an amazing foundation for him self and many around him. Another part of being a missionary is to not only preach the gospel and but to also sell those young men and be an example of what a good missionary is and why we should go serve as young men for two years. He did just that. We expect and need good missionaries in the field so when the kids and young men encounter and get to know the full-time missionaries the youth will walk away saying, “man, I can do this, I want to go serve and have the same experiences this elder had……” He did just that. He was in our home many times. I fed him and his companions many times and he was a great example of how a missionary should act and how one should be as they represent the Lord for two years with the name badge on. I suspect you did not have much trouble with him back home growing up. He seems like he has it all together and very well organized. I would not be surprised to see him called as a mission president someday.
Missionaries love getting hand written letters. Do all you can to continue to support him before it is too late and he arrives home!
Again, thanks for letting him serve here in Arizona. He is doing a great job.
Mike Proudfit