MARTIN'S COVE 5/9/10

Hi family and friends,

This has been a busy week, but a lot of fun, training the new missionaries. We remember last year when we arrived that we were very apprehensive about what would lie ahead of us. There weren't many veteran missionaries last year so we couldn't receive the intensive training that we were able to give the new missionaries this year. I really feel they have appreciated it, because they have expressed their sincere thanks for our help, and how much more at ease they have felt after receiving it. I know I personally received zero training in the beginning because they were desperate to have a sprinkling system installed and so I was immediately asked to take on that project. But, I gradually learned the ropes and the rest is history. The last few days of this week I have been down with some kind of bug and so I have been out of commission, so to speak. Hopefully I will be back in shape for next week because we have a lot to accomplish. We love you all and appreciate your love and interest in our mission and our welfare. May the Lord be with all of you is our constant prayer.

Elder Leavitt

Hi everyone -- this will probably be our shortest email ever as we just wrote to you a few days ago.

I remember that I told you that snow was predicted for the day we were taking our new missionaries out on post to train them -- well, we woke up to snow so it was a very cold day to be out all day. I think between trekking in the high winds the day or so before transporting the missionaries around is what has Elder Leavitt sick. He's feeling a little better today, so hopefully he'll be back to normal before long.

Not much else to report -- we're becoming more acquainted with the new missionaries and are really enjoying that. We have more exciting things planned this week but it may have to be postponed because of rainy/snowy weather. I remember last year being cold in the Spring, but this year seems to be even colder.

Our love and prayers to you all,

Sister Leavitt

P.S. Sister Freeman reported today that Kaylee (her granddaughter) was allowed to leave the hospital to be home for Mother's Day. She'll have to go back, but this was a very positive step. Thank you to those of you who are praying for her.

MARJORIE JOHANSEN'S FUNERAL

I have written about Marjorie Johansen’s funeral on my blog and have a few pictures. If anyone is interested, my link is below.
Hugs,

Pete
http://www.misspete.blogspot.com

CAMERONS LETTER---THAT'S ME!!

well this week has been pretty sweet. I did something i have been dreading since the day i found out i had to do this in tagalog. I OYM ed. which means i just talked to some one then invited them to hear a message. It stands for Opening Your Mouth. This was the first time i have done it with assitance of my companion. I just found an old lady who was in her yard and walked up to her and started talking. I nearly peed my pants but i did it. It was pretty good. although she didnt want to hear our message. she invited us to her church though. Iglesia ni cristo. If you get a chance to hear about them it is an interesting story. their founder is a convert to the church. any ways i wont go into a lot of detail. Me and my companion have been working really hard on trying to find new investigators lately. If you know anybody that might be interested in hearing about the church and you see the missionaries tell them. It saves us a lot of energy. This area is a harder one for baptisms. Mostly because there are a lot of inactive members here. so we teach our less active members. I have probably told you all of this before so i will tell you something fun. This morning for our p day activity we went out to a river. It was way cool. and it was a way far drive. We went as a zone. we couldnt swim since that isnt allowed but we got our feet wet and watched some kids jump in. I think all of us were pretty jealous. I know i was. But it was still really pretty. I didnt get a lot of pictures but i will send them on down the line. OH another cool experience. we were trying to find someone to teach earlier this week. and we stopped by some less active members house to teach to them but they werent home. So we were just about to walk away when i felt something say we needed to try another member that lived really close to that area. they werent home either but while we were there i saw a young woman. and something told me we needed to talk to her. we waited to see if the member was home for about another minute and lost sight of her. We then went and talked to this one older lady. she said she was busy at the moment but told us to try her daughters house. it was about 10 feet from where we were standing. so we tried there and there was this girl that i had seen earlier. She let us in. We were able to teach her and her husband. They had a new baby and we talked about how families can be together forever. it was a great lesson. well i think there might some big things in store for that family. i will be really excited to see what happens. well my challenge for the week is simple read alma 7:11-13 then ask yourselves what christ did for you. then ask why. If you dont have a book of mormon then there is one online at lds.org well i hope all of you are well. loooooove Elder Leavitt

CAMERON --- YAY SM!!!

Well it was transfers this week for me. I got my first opportunity in four and a half months to go to Angels and do some shopping at every one's favorite mall SM. The inside is cold and looks just like an american mall. It even has a mcdonalds and a pizza hut. oh and a sbarro cause they are everywhere.We get like two hours there to shop and eat lunch but for us it is a pretty big treat. i was not transfering this time but just getting a new companion to take back to my area. My new companion is Elder Penuela. He is from the south island of the philippines which is where all the terrorists live. So people like to talk to him about that. So far things are going great with him. Well. Besides that I was able to be at another baptism this saturday. His name was bro.Sherwin. He is only 14 but he has a good testimony about the truth. I was really happy to see him baptized. I am in a low baptizing area right now because there are so many inactive members here. We split our time about half teaching investigators and about half teaching inactive members. There are over 500 members in the boundaries of my ward and just about 100 are active. Thats pretty hard. But we try our hardest to do the lords work here. there are so many inactive members here because in past years they did not have very strict standards for people to be baptized. One even described it as " we taught them one day and baptized them the next." Well im not saying they were always wrong but they would have made my work alot easier if they had waited. all well i love the members here. They are always nice to us. I am doing really great lately. I have apparently lost a lot of weight. I was talking to a brand new missionary and he said that if ihad not told him he never would have thought that i was fat. I have lost over 6 inches off my waistline. I never knew how much that was. I had a pair of pants made in my first area and she did not finish them before i left there. so two weeks ago i finally got them from another missionary. They were so big that i could not keep them on. I felt like a little kid trying to put on dads pants. i buttoned them and they fell off. Luckilythere is a lady in my ward who can fix them and she was able to get them to a wearable size for me.Thats kinda crazy for me. well I hope all of you guys are doing well. hopefully you guys recognize me when i get back. well This week i would challenge all of you to find some one that needs help and then do it. It can be as small oras big as you want but find someone that you could give a little service for. LOVE YOU!!!!!Elder Leavitt

MARJORIE JOHANSEN PASSED AWAY

Mom (Marjorie) passed away Saturday, April 17, in the early afternoon. Although it is always hard, it's also a blessing because she had been going slowly downhill this last year. She had been doing pretty well until she fell and broke her wrist in July. Then she had lots of recuperation with that, do okay for a while, have an infection, do okay, have an infection or slight fall and then be petrified that she would fall again. Around September we put her in an adult foster care home. A caregive with a maximum of 5 people to take care of. She continued pretty much the same way, and with every setback the dementia (which they called mental impairment) would get worse.

She did pretty well for a while over Christmas but right after acted like she had an infection and just couldn't get up out of bed. When it was evident she was going to be bedridden, we knew she needed more care. So we started looking and they put her on hospice at that time. Just decline -- no disease involved. We moved her to a care home with 4 people that specialized in hospice care.

So we knew we were near the end just not when. Her passing was quiet and peaceful.

I had promised she would be buried next to Dad in Las Vegas so we have been trying to work out the particulars. It will be:

Saturday, May 1st, 2010
12 noon-funeral
10a.m. to Noon -- visitation and viewing.
Bunker Brothers Mortuary, 925 Las Vegas Boulevard North.
burial will following about 1:30 or so at Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park (previously Paradise Memorial Garden) on South Eastern).

Thank you so much for letting the family know.

Love you, Karen Powell

OUT OF AFRICA APRIL 18 - 24, 2010

(CLICK EACH PAGE TO ENLARGE)

MARTIN'S COVE 4/25/10

Hello again family, friends and in particular our beautiful grandchildren,

First we would like to say Happy Birthday to our special long-time friend Susan Johnson, who with her husband Ross, is serving a World Class CES Mission in Ohio. Susan we love love you and will be looking forward to seeing you soon. We had the opportunity to see their son Mark last week, as he came to the Cove to possibly bid on paving our entrance road.

This has been another hectic week here at the Martin Site, and also the Willie Site. Early in the week I had to go to the Willie Center and repair a couple of broken waterlines. This had to be accomplished with the river overflowing it's banks. This meant digging down 7' with ground water pouring in. It also meant pumping water as fast as we could to get down and repair the broken lines. It turned into a wet, muddy, three day challenge.

Friday and Saturday we welcomed the arrival of about 170 more trek leaders who had come to be trained before bringing their youth here for the pioneer experience. We will have two more Trek Seminars over the next two weeks. Sister Leavitt and I had the privilege of leading about 75 of these leaders on a trek up through the Cove and being able to relate the Veil Bridge, and Martin Handcart story to them. What a spiritual and authentic experience. It was authentic because the wind blew and the rain poured down the whole time, (needless to say I had a wet week) but our enthusiastic group handled it very well. My old legs felt a little weary by the time we returned from the six mile round trip journey marching up and down the hills, while being soaked. But we survived the elements and the trek leaders felt they had gotten a little taste of what the Martin Handcart Pioneers went through. (very little, considering those pioneers trekked 1300 miles through wind, rain, snow, with the last 350 miles being through below zero blizzards.) But, I think the experience certainly made them appreciate our handcart pioneers a little more. Another special treat was that our former Bishop and his wife, Earl and Leslie Leavitt (distant relatives and good friends) from Boulder City were with the group. They along with the Hafens and Larsens, who we knew from Henderson were here to be trained for their Stake trek this summer.

We also had the Directors of the Farmland Reserve, Elder and Sister Bretzing, who are over our Mission, come from Salt Lake to visit and critique us. And we also had the pleasure of having a General Authority, Elder Bachman, from the Quorum of the 70 "emeritus", he stated that "when they retire you to emeritus status, it's like going from rooster to feather duster". He was from Church Headquarters, and had come to observe our training techniques. He and his wife spoke to us in church today. They both spoke about the great Mormon Pioneer movement in which 70 to 80 thousand Mormon immigrants crossed the plains to the Salt Lake valley to escape religious persecution and to be able to experience religious freedom. From that hardy core group of saints the church now numbers nearly 14 million. Many of those early Saints came from England, Europe, and Scandinavia. We as present members of the church owe these people a great debt of gratitude for their being willing to leave their Countries, their homes and sometimes families, to travel across the sea, and then across the Country, under the most trying circumstances, for the opportunity to freely practice their beliefs and answer the Lord's call to gather in Zion.

We love you all, and may you have health and prosperity.

Elder Leavitt

An open letter to my children and grandchildren:

I would like each of you to be aware that you have a great pioneer heritage. I would ask you to research and study it. Your ancestors were not only instrumental in helping to settle the west, but this great Country. One of our first ancestors to arrive in America was Captain John Leavitt, who brought his family, along with other immigrants, to help settle the New World in the early 1600's. Our ancestors were instrumental in helping to settle New England, ( many are still there) and some of our ancestors were part of the Plymouth Colony. When our family heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while in Hatley, Quebec, Canada, they were touched by it's scripturally correct principles and, very soon, accepted its teachings. As soon as they were able they joined the main body of the saints in Kirtland, Ohio. Our ancestors were among the first major group of the Saints who came west on an arduous journey which took the life of a several of their immediate family. In spite of these trials they were able to be very instrumental in settling the then primitive Utah territory.

Our direct ancestor, Dudley Leavitt, was instrumental in establishing peace with the various Indian tribes which allowed for settlement of the many valleys in Southern Utah and Southern Nevada. These early efforts helped allow for the thousand of immigrants coming after him to have a place to build settlements and raise crops to support their families. This pioneering spirit by early members of the Church also opened the way for people of other faiths the opportunity to come west and settle. Las Vegas was first able to be settled due to the early efforts of our ancestors and other hardy pioneers like them paving the way.

Dudley Leavitt's brothers also help settle parts of Northern Utah, Idaho, and even Alberta, Canada. One of the trek leaders who came last week was from Leavitt, Canada, settled by Thomas R. Leavitt. This man, from Leavitt, named Jaime Quinton, said he was acquainted with many of our relatives up there. ( He is also the cousin of Sandra Bevans, one of our missionary friends from Cardston, Canada.)

The point I am trying to make, is that you, my beautiful family, have a great heritage and that it is one of my greatest desires that you should try to live your lives as to honor those great ancestors who sacrificed so much so that we might have these wonderful freedoms and opportunities. Our family is from royal linage and has been traced to royalty in England, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. I have personally traced our genealogy, in one line, back to a "King Claudie of Germany", born 6 years after the birth of Christ. It is said that one of our lines through Scandinavia has been traced back to Adam and Eve. But, my dearest loved ones, our linage is of no consequence if we don't try our best to honor our name, our County, and our religion which our ancestors gave their all for, and try to do our best to perpetuate our great legacy. " I know I can't change my past, I can only learn from it, but I can have control over my future".

Dad and Grandpa

Hi Everyone -- I'll add just a few words as "Grandpa" has covered everything very well.

I, too, want to add my birthday greetings to my dear friend, Susan. I love and miss you !! She and Ross will stop by "The Cove" on their way home to Boulder City. Can't wait to see you.

I had hoped to attach a picture of us trekking w/ the Trek Leaders but it was raining so hard I was afraid to take my camera out of case. It was also very cold, so I was proud of both of us that we made it. Charlie did a great job of telling the stories and keeping us moving.

Spring is taking a long time to arrive in this part of Wyoming. It snowed last weekend and parts of I-80 were closed. Today I saw a daffodil just starting to bud outside the Visitor's Center -- so I'm encouraged that Spring is around the corner.

The new Missionaries will be here Tuesday so we're really excited. Lots of work and fun ahead of us.

My love and prayers to you all,

Sister Leavitt aka Peggy