A Baptism in the Philippines

Cameron was able to perform his first baptism in the Philippines a couple of weeks ago. His mission president recently changed the rules that only members could perform the baptisms to now missionaries can do baptism's. So here is Elder Leavitt and his recent convert. We always love to see pictures of Elder Leavitt, and we are always surprised by how much taller he is than everyone else.
What a beautiful family. In order to be baptized this couple first had to get married. I guess this is a big problem in this country, and the missionaries worked hard to make the marriage happen. Who knew that it would be so hard to find someone to marry this couple. The missionaries had the town mayor perform the marriage it took several weeks of hard work, but they made it happen.

Elder Leavitt in his baptismal clothes. Another little problem is that the ward did not have any clothes long enough for a six foot person, so after cleaning out the font the missionaries had to track down baptismal clothes that would fit this TALL missionary. He was so glad they found some that fit, thank goodness there was another american missionary close by.

And this is the result of all the hard work of the missionaries. This beautiful family now has the gospel in their lives and can someday be sealed together for eternity!

This is who the missionaries are teaching now. This gas station attendant. They found out that the other attendant is an inactive member, so they kinda got a 2 for 1 deal. We love our missionaries and all the hard work they do so that others can have the blessings of the gospel.

Hangin out with the FAM in St. George

After my TRI everyone wanted to go out to breakfast. So we decided to head over to the "Bear Paw". There were about 16 in our group with all the kiddies, so we had to wait for a while for our table to be ready. While we were waiting, I took a walk with my niece's son Luke. The town square was across the street from the restruant, so we wandered around for awhile looking at all the interesting sites. Luke really liked this statue on the bench, he wanted to site by "Papa". What a cutie, I wish I lived closer so I could hang out with these cute kids.

This is Kandace and Ashely, waiting patiently for our table. Ashley had a touch of the flu, but wanted to hang out with us, so she toughed it out. What a sweetheart. Steve had his motorcycle in St. George and had his "Duo" rag on. Luke wanted to try on the "Duo" rag. I think he almost has the signal that the bikers give each other down. He would make a great biker someday! After breakfast we all headed out to Grandpa Leavitt's house in Diamond Valley to do some 4-wheeling. So this next picture is Elynn saying to Kandace "Kanzest you got holes in your pants". Elynn was quite worried for Kandace having holey pants. We did go shopping, but we didn't find any new pants for Kandace, maybe next time. So the day was perfect for a ride in the mountains. We took off from Grandpa's house and headed straight for our favorite spot in the hills. My cousin Sandy and her husband Jeff had a 4-wheeler too and we really enjoyed our afternoon of riding around.

Sandy and Jeff enjoying the beauty of the mountains.

Steve and me. I forgot I had my hat flipped backwards, it almost flew off my head. Steve had me do all the driving so he could stretch out his bad knee. so we both look like biker here.

Steve and Jeff. They learned while we were doing our TRI that they will both be having knee replacement within a few weeks of each other, They really were having some great chats the whole trip. Here is Sandy and me in our beautiful "Secret Spot". Sandy and Jeff enjoying the sunny day. Little did we know that why we were enjoying the sunshine Salt Lake was being hammered by a snow storm. Glad we missed it!

See how blue the sky was, we just kept going. We did finally have to turn around to head back in order for the guys to get ready to go to the preisthood session and the girls were having a "Girls Night Out" Austin arranged for a babysitter so we could all go to dinner and shopping.

This is where we ate dinner, "25 Main". It was delicous food, the price was great and the best part was there was a little Jazz band playing for us live, what a treat. After dinner we went out shopping and then because we had done a "Sugar Fast" for 3 weeks, we went to Cold Stone for Ice Cream. We really had such a wonderful time with our family, we only wish it could have lasted longer. We will have to plan another family outting soon. but at least we will have all the Leavitt's for Thanksgiving this year, so we can spend more quality time together and they can all do the "Human Race" with us on Thanksgiving Morning!!

My First TRI-SHAC Tri 2011

Once again I was challenged to a race, and you know me, I have to take on a good challenge. So in January I signed up for my first ever TRI. For my birthday in January Steve got me 10-weeks of TRI training, so I went faithfully to my TRI class every Saturday. And faster than I knew it the BIG day arrived. So here are the crazy pictures from the exciting event. I know, this is a terrible picture, but Kandace was so proud of her "INK" job that she got to do to me and my cousin to put our race numbers on our right arm and left leg. Sandy and me showing off our new "INK" arms. We set out all our race gear the night before because we had to be up and ready by 6:15 AM to head out to the race. I didn't get much sleep, I was pretty nervous, and had just couldn't sleep. Last night I slept like a baby!

We "Staged" our bikes and gear for a quick transition area then we found someone to take our pictures. Austin wasn't there yet, so we didn't get a picture before with her. All three of us got to swim at the same time, sorry I don't have any swimming pictures, my support team missed the swimmimg portion which was okay with me, my swimming is my weakest event. After the swim we ran out to our area, I slapped on my biking/running gear and we were off to the races!

Although I never actually saw Austin on the bike, Kandace did snap some great pictures of her biking. She did great on the bike portion.

Here I am on the biking, not a fancy fast bike, but hey it worked for me. Although there were plenty of hills on the bike portion, I didn't really have to hard of a time. Guess it pays to go to TRI training classes.

Sandy on the bike portion. We started out together, but I passed her and we waved everytime we saw each other.

Next was the running. I started out a little wobbly. It was weird to hop off a bike and start running. Even though I had spent months practicing I had never actually gone directly into running from biking, it was a weird start, but after a few minutes I was fine. The weather was perfect and I felt pretty good.

Kandace caught Sandy on her run too.

And this is Austin, finishing the run as we were starting the run. She finished way before me! She did soo good!

I promised my sister Linda I would run the last mile for her, so the last mile I kicked it up a little so she could have a good run. I told Cameron I would finish HARD for him, so once I saw the finish line I sprinted to the finish line for him.

I did it! I could hardly believe it was over and I was feeling so good. This is me waiting for Sandy to come in. I had everyone cheering me in at the finish, Thanks Austin, Cody, Ashley, Jon, Debbie Steve, Kandace, Jeff and all the kiddies! It really helped me to finish HARD!

Here are Sandy and me at the finish line. Everyone else had left so we didn't get a picture with Austin. We went and checked our offical time of the race, I finished in 1 hour 44 minutes and Sandy finished 1 hour 55 minutes. We were 6th and 7th for our age division. Not bad for a couple of 29ish year old cousins . After the race we ate, changed and took off on the 4-wheelers for the afternoon. I will try and get all those great pictures posted for next week. Thanks to my wonderful family and friends for your great support that carried me through this crazy adventure. Sandy and I already have our next crazy adventure signed up for, in August we will do the "Great Urban Race"! We are looking forward to another challenge!