HELLO (Watch Conference)

This week has been really great! Last week was a little bit rough... we didn't see much success, but this week was much better! We had our zone meeting this week and we got to watch a sneak preview of the movie, Meet the Mormons! it was so good! You all need to take a friend (who is not a member) to go see it! It is awesome :) We were able to find 4 new investigators this week! So a few weeks ago we met a man named Dwight. He is really interested in the church because he isn't happy with his church and he is looking for somewhere new to go. We got to see him this week and teach him the restoration! He really liked it and was super interested. It was funny because this week me and sister clove got to teach our first lesson together to an investigator and so we hadn't really practiced and we didn't really know each others teaching styles but we taught and it went so good and after he just talked about how we were such good teachers together! haha he is so awesome! Also this week.. I had the feeling to go visit the Mays family on Saturday. We don't usually get in to see them but we decided to try anyway. The mom is a member but her husband and 2 sons are not members. The sons are 25 and 30. We met them a few weeks ago and they wanted us to start teaching them. When we went on Saturday Sister Mays was outside and when we walked up she said that her son died on Thursday of a drug overdose.. it was so sad! we were able to go in and talk to her and her husband. That was really sad! When we left we decided to knock some doors in her neighborhood so we did and on the 3rd house a man opened the door about 6 inches and said no im not interested! We tried to talk to him a little bit but he acted like he didn't have time. Well he had a sign on his door that said "a golfer and his best score live here" so I said "You like to golf?" and he opened the door a few more inches and said yes, do you? and I said yes I love golfing! and he swung the door right open and said well then come in I have something you would like to see... And he took me to the bathroom and it was all decorated in golf stuff hahah then he proceeded to give me some tips on golfing and where the best places are to golf in Tennessee. We got talking a little bit more and I mentioned that we were from Utah and he said "UTAH?" Then I have something else you would like to see hahahah and he showed us all of his skiing and snowboarding stuff and told us that he has always wanted to go to Utah because of the snow. We sat down with him and he let us teach him. He is a really awesome guy and he is so funny! I am so glad that he had that sign on his door because I know that If I wouldn't have said that we would have never gotten in to teach him. when we left I asked him why he let us in and he said that he could tell there was something different about us, and he wanted to know what it was. Im so glad we met him! We got to go to watch the general womens broadcast and it was so good! im so excited for general conference!! :) Im so grateful for this opportunity I have to be serving the Lord. I love my mission so much! Serving in the South is really hard and not what I was used to in the Philippines but i have learned so much being out here. I hope you all have a great week!Love Sister Leifson:)

Transfer week

This week was transfers and I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Clove and she is from St George. She goes home in 5 weeks... so then I will be getting another new companion! She is a really really good missionary! Sister Roundy went to a place about30 minutes from me called Chilhowee. I think she will really like it there! 2 of my past companions went home this transfer. Sister Sellers and Sister Gotchy. I will miss them so much :( Also our Sister training leaders area just got moved to Pellissippi ward so now when I go on exchanges there I will get to go to my old area and see all the people there :) im so excited for that! We also got two new elders. We got Elder Babbit and he goes home in Dec. and Elder Beard and he is brand new from the MTC! They are going to be really good to work with! This past week we have just been trying to organize our area.. it has had a lot of different missionaries so the area isn't organized in a good way so we have been working on that. We don't have a ton of people to teach right now, but we are working on finding new investigators! We are trying to work with the ward to get them excited about missionary work. Our new ward mission leader is awesome. This week we got to go to the Tennessee Valley Fair. Its pretty much like the county fair but its 13 days long. They had like a craft fair thing and our stake had a booth at it. We had a lot of success from it! It was really fun to go to that. Other than that its been a pretty slow week, but its been good. I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for all the love and support! :) Love Sister Leifson :) This is Sister Sellers she has been with Linzi since April. they have become good friends, they will miss each other. Sister Sellers had her Homecoming the same day as her brothers Farewell How Awesome.. Great Parents...

Elder Bradd is going to Brazil

Mattie's Baptism

I love my Mission

This week was so great!! So this Wednesday is transfers. Sister Roundy will be getting transferred and I will be getting a new companion. So right now I am in West Hills ward and there is a companionship of Sisters and Elders in the ward, Well the the Elders area is getting whitewashed (meaning 2 brand new missionaries in the area) The elder that was here before was in this area for 9 months!! He was waiting for his Visa to go to Brazil and he has been in our mission for 14 months. He got his visa a few weeks ago and he leaves tomorrow. So my ward will be getting 3 new missionaries and I have only been here for one transfer so im pretty much new too haha so it will be interesting! Also when I got here our ward mission leader had just got a calling in the stake so he was doing two callings until they could get a new one, so this past transfer we haven't really had a ward mission leader but we just got a new one yesterday! His name is Brother Devore, they are a young couple from California. He will be great :) MADDIE GOT BAPTIZED!!! She was so excited! So she had to get interviewed by our district leader and she was so scared.. well she went in and he left the door open and I wanted to listen to it! So he started asking the questions and he was like what do you remember about the Word of Wisdom? he said its a list of things that we shouldn't put into our bodies and she was like "Oh! Tylenol!" hahaha he tried not to laugh and said no... Tylenol is okay for us then a minute later she said "oh... I mean to say Alcohol" it was so cute!! She remembered everything we taught I was so proud of her :) The baptism went really good! Her aunt who was less active before was re activated since she has been bringing Maddie to church and she pretty much planned the whole program so that was nice! After Maddie came out of the water and got dressed she came up to us and said "that was fun! can I do it again?" haha I love her so much! So this week since it was fast Sunday President Griffin told us that he wanted to have all the missionaries do a mission wide fast! So Saturday night every missionary in my mission got onto a conference call and president griffin shared a spiritual message then started out fast with a prayer. He wanted us to fast for a couple things. First, for all of the investigators/ people in our mission that have not received the gospel and second, for all of the members in our wards. that we will be able to work with them and that they will trust the missionaries with their friends and family. It was so awesome to feel the spirit as an entire mission. Also he encouraged every missionary to bare their testimony and tell the ward what we were fasting for. It was such an amazing fast Sunday! I love President Griffin so much! He is such an amazing mission president! Im so grateful I was able to come to this mission! :) I hope you all have a good week! Love Sister Leifson :)

I do this sweet ladies hair

A great Week

Hey Everyone! This week was really good. So last Monday we went and saw a less active, her name is Sister Phillips and she is in her late 70s. she was telling us how she washes her hair in the kitchen sink and how hard it is and how much it hurts her back. So I told her that my mom does hair so I could help her wash it and she was so happy so I helped her wash her hair in the kitchen sink! haha She was so happy! She asked me if I could come over once a week and help her with her hair :) She is so cute I love her so much! Never thought I would wash an old ladys hair on my mission! But I was happy to serve her :) This week we had to go to the mission home for some stuff so Sister Griffin (mission presidents wife) took us out to lunch! it was so much fun :) So here in Tennessee football is super big so for labor day and football season starting they have this big celebration called Booms Day! Its in Downtown Knoxville and there is a lake with a huge bridge over it. A couple of the missionaries in the area got permission to go and there was about 50,000 people there. There was like booths and games and stuff then at night they had a huge firework show off the Henley Street bridge! It was so much fun :) we were able to talk to a lot of people and we met lots of members from other states. I was so glad we got to go! Yesterday our ward had a big Labor day BBQ at the park. We spent a couple hours there it was really fun. West Hills is a great ward! We are having a baptism on Saturday for Maddie :) She is so excited! The work is going really good. We are just working on finding new investigators! My mission has taught me so much and has helped me grow more than I ever thought possible! My testimony of this gospel has grown so much! Its really hard when people put down your beliefs and tell you that your wrong, but I have been able to be strong enough in my testimony that those things don't weaken my testimony or my knowledge of this gospel. I love seeing peoples lives change because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Its amazing to see how far people can come with His help. We are never too far off the path to receive the blessing that the Atonement has to offer. Im so grateful for my mission and or all it has taught me! I hope you all have a great week! :) Love Sister Leifson :