Monday, May 12, 2014

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

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