Pray and an answer will come

Well actually mother this monday was presidents day so the library was closed and we couldn't email so that is why I am doing it today. Next week however we are having the P-Day on tuesday and will see if I am moving location or not, we'll see. As to your questions. Yes I got the money and letters, thank you so much. We spent the money on cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries that a recent convert made. She makes them and sets up a stand for people to come by and buy for their sweetheart. She makes the best cheesecake I think I have ever had, not sure though because I haven't made yours in too long. I also really appreciated the jokes and stories I miss hearing jokes from the outside world.

This week I had the privilege to partake in a team baptism. Since the wards that we cover got changed we got to teach a lady named Jimi Hunt and helped her towards baptism. She had 2 or more sets that were teaching her right before she was baptized. This has been such a great step in the right direction in her life for many reasons. She used to be into alot of drugs and had many problems with that as well as she is a single mother of two girls (7,14) at home and a son somewhere else. Her struggles have taken her across the country in many directions and make it very difficult to raise her kids, to the point of braking down in need of help. Missionaries knocked on her door in a small 5 min window of her being home and sat down with her the next day. She has stopped everything she used to do and has started to rely on the Lord for strength. We have taught her kids for some time now and they love to learn and to hear more about Prophets and Apostles and Jesus Christ. We are preparing the older one for baptism and the younger one is preparing the family to live the gospel. She has a countdown on her ipod for the day that she can be baptized, not her birthday. She is so cool.

As I have been able to teach the Chapmans, the husband knowing Arabic ans has read the Koran, I have really learned alot more about other religions and the beliefs of many people. But because of the many different beliefs of people it is very hard for someone just hopping in to know which is right. There are lots of nice people out there and there are also lots of bad people, both of many different religions so looking at people wont cut it. We can then look at the material that religions read and try to know from that but then again by reading the Bible itself there has been over 20,000 Christan churchs develop in the U.S alone and most then translate there own Bible to conform to there own thought or just the way they perceive to material wont work either. That leaves us to ourselves and our thoughts alone. That is how we can know. Pray and an answer will come through our thoughts and feelings.

Love you all

Sincerely, Elder Leonhardt

sweet is the work.

CSI

Yup I found it, CSI PEORIA TV show starts soon with me as the star.

The Power of Kneeling in Prayer

Dear Home,

This week has been amazing because we had a baptism for a Lady named Rosa Chapman. She has a pretty cool story. She was taught by the missionaries about a year and a half ago and wanted to get baptized but couldn't because she wasn't married and had kids as well as expecting one more on the way. So she got put on the side till her situation was fixed and Elder Wardle and Elder Wood always tried to go back and see her but could never meet up with her. When I came Elder Wardle had stopped trying to knock on the door because he has never been able to meet with her. On an exchange with Elder Nield and I in our area I tried to knock on her door and got in to pray with a young man that was leaving soon but his father lived there and he only spoke Spanish. I gave the referral to the Spanish and later that week they went by and there was Rosa picking up her kids from being at there dads house. Met with her later that night and set a baptismal date with her and handed her back to us because she wanted her kids to be taught in English. She was then married to a military man and was being set in the right direction. Husband is interested in the Church as well and found out from his mom that he might have been baptized when he was 8 but he doesn't remember. Now she is baptized and her kids are on date and well as the husband if the records don't come. We have been waiting for over a week now for them. I love her family and am very excited to see what kind of stuff she will accomplish, God really wanted/wants her to be apart of his church.

We have another baptism lined up for next week as well for a lady named Jimmi Hunt. She is a single mother with two daughter in the home ages 15 and 7. The 7 yr old, Rosy, is the glue of that family. She is so spiritual and wants to be baptized so bad. She has a countdown on her ipod for her baptism rather than her birthday. They have gone through alot as a family and the mother struggled with alot of the things in the Word of Wisdom speaking about refraining from Coffee, Harmful drugs, Alcohol, Tea , and Tobacco (CHATT) but now that she has been able to over come alot of those problems with the help of God she and all of those around her have seen a dramatic change in her. There is less tension in the home and everyone gives her more respect and appreciation for doing so. In fact we were able to help them realize the blessing of prayer in their life. We talked about the days that they get to sit down as a family and offer a kneeling prayer together and the days that they don't and the day before they forgot to do so. They had an argument and the day after they did pray together and there was not tension in the home. When they connected the dotes they were like Oh my goodness, WOW, I never noticed that but I totally understand now. Now they are going to pray every night and every morning because they realize that the power of prayer is real and is amazing.

So my challenge to all that read this is to commit themselves to offer every night and every morning a kneeling prayer as a family. And I PROMISE YOU that things in your life WILL GO BETTER.

And now as I am writing this email we just got notice that someone that we just ate dinner with 17 hrs ago just died. We are teaching his daughter in whom he just got back after 18 yrs of searching for her from a divorce. The purposes of God will be shown forth only after the trial and effort of our faith are presented before the Lord our All Might God Matt 15: 22-28. May God bless his family and the works that he has done for them.

I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Sincerely Elder Leonhardt

He was already baptized.

Dear Home,

 

The Chapman family continues to get more and more interesting ever time I meet with them. We were talking with him and his family the other day and he told us, hesitantly, that he talked to his mother the other day on the phone. His was telling her that they started going to church again, she asked what church, he said the LDS church, she laughed a little and didn't say why. Then he said that his wife Rosa is getting baptized on the 9th of Feb., she began to laugh even harder and he wondered what was going on. She told him that he was baptized when he has 8 but doesn't remember it. So he might be a member and never knew. So we are looking for his records. He told us that he had never heard of the LDS church until about 2 yrs ago when he was in a translator thing in Iran speaking with some Arab's and someone that he had to translate for said he was Mormon. God really wants him and his wife Rosa in the church and has been working for a long time trying to bring them to it. They exclaimed to us that they love having us come over because every time life is going hard or something goes bad we somehow end up on their doorstep. Once it was right after Rosa's Dad died and another when there was speculation on his death. Once when their car broke down and didn't know what to do, we knew a member that could fix it. They were sick and didn't have any food, we showed up and contacted the Relief Society and they brought them food. Every time we leave they say they have a good feeling in them and feel that everything seems to stop and relax for a while and go smoother. Things and going great with them.

 

Also something crazy that happened yesterday was while we were at church a lady came off the street into the church building and asked for people to pray for her. A man sat her down in one of the rooms and called for the Bishop to come help him. He came to a lady that was completely naked asking for them to pray for her. A little awkward I would say. They called the cops and they came and got her after the Bishop gave her some cloths.

 

 I  moved too so send everything to the Mission Office in Glendale please and Thank you.

 

In the picture is a letter give to my companion and I from the daughters of the Chapman family, they are around 9, 11, and 12. This is the best letter I have ever gotten from anyone down here. They're the best.

 

I will try and write my siblings more and others less. Tell them the freight train is a coming. Also a suggestion for people is something that I have really fallen in love with. They are the videos for the youth on Moromnchannel.org they are really good. Some of my favorites are by Elder Holland, which I now know where lives. Near my companions home in Midway.

 

Love you all and hope that inspiration may come from within.

 

Love from the Hardt, Elder Leonhardt

To the Mormans

Spanish Elders Elder Tanner Condie and Caleb Areve