Tuesday, July 8, 2014

July 2, 2014 "Independence Fun, Rain, New Mission President"

This week was great with the 4th of July and rain storms, cooler weather and going on an exchange with my 2nd companion Elder Empey. Things almost couldn't get any better!

Thursday evening after we had an appointment ending at 9pm we walked outside and it started to rain. The last time it rained here was probably at least 2 months ago, I could be wrong but it seems like it has been forever since it rained. We were so overfilled with joy that we decided to ride around in the rain talking to people till we had to go in at 9:30pm. It was amazing and we got soaked! We live in an apartment complex where there are a lot of people from India so we got to talk with them, say a few prayers with them and learn a little bit of their language. So far I still only know one word, language isn't exactly my cup of tea.

This is the beginning of the last week Elder Wardle, my first companion, has on his mission along with many other missionaries that I respect and love. It's a interesting feeling to know that almost your whole mission you have been around these people and now they are being shipped off. They must feel even weirder. I am glad to have gotten to know a number of them and to cultivate friendships that will last and will be waiting for me when I am done.

We had our first interviews with President Griffin Wednesday. President and Sister Griffin are awesome people, nervous but dealing with it way better than I was at the beginning of my mission. They shared with us a little about their past and the family, businesses and what not. We are all excited to be here with them and to learn from them. He paid me a nice complement and then said he wanted to teach the mission 3 things which I was excited to learn about. 1.) Time Management 2.) Planning 3.) Teaching doctrine effectively. So hopefully I can learn as much as possible!

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Empey into his area and he has only been there for 5 weeks, the same amount of time I have been in my area. It was a great day as we hustled around and saw a lot of people. Taught a lot of interesting people but the one that stuck out to me the most was the Honnanno family, I think that's how you spell their name. The father is from Bethlehem and is Greek Orthodox. What was also awesome was that he did sculpturing from olive wood and has done many religious sculptures. He has even done ones of people in the Book of Mormon such as Lehi, Moroni, Nephi and others.

On the 4th of July we were directed to be in during the evening from 6pm through the night so we used this time to relax and have fun, which we did. We first started off by playing monopoly as an apartment and played for almost the whole evening. Midway we decided to do something else as well, we put this Masque stuff on our face that was left by former missionaries. So you know how, I think all women probably have. There are those people that put on the green facial stuff and then when someone comes to the door they get all embarrassed. Yup that was us. We all put it on and took funny pictures with it. The. We ordered pizza and well you guessed it, they arrived while the masque was still on and I was the one to go answer the door. I got some funny looks to say the least. All in all it was a great evening and we had a lot of good memories, no fireworks unfortunately.


Hope you all had a Great Independence Day! Love you all!


Love Elder Leonhardt
 


 

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