Uncle Merlin

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

This morning Kira sent me a link to a story about Uncle Merlin. Of all my aunts and uncles, Uncle Merlin and Aunt Nola were always closest to me. After my parents passed away I kind of adopted them as my surrogate parents and they were happy to accept the job. They were like grandparents to my kids but unfortunately, only my older kids got to know Uncle Merlin well before he passed.

This was posted on Instagram

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Have you heard the story of when Elder Packer told another General Authority he needed more faith?

Elder Lybbert of the Seventy was serving as Area President of Asia. Back-to-back emergencies—a mission president imprisoned, missionaries lost in Korea—had left him running on empty.

Elder Lybbert showed up at a stake conference in Taiwan completely exhausted. Then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks took one look at him and sent him back to the hotel to rest.

When Elder Oaks later shared the experience with Elder Boyd K. Packer, Elder Packer said: “The next time you see Elder Lybbert, tell him he needs to have more faith.” And then Elder Packer told Elder Oaks what he meant by that.

At the next General Conference, Elder Oaks pulled Elder Lybbert aside and delivered the message: “You need to have more faith.”

Elder Lybbert was astonished. “How can I work any harder than I already am?” “Exactly,” said Elder Oaks.

Then he explained what Elder Packer meant.
Elder Packer wasn’t saying to do more. True faith is understanding that the Lord expects a reasonable effort and then we trust that He will get His work done.

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” — D&C 123:17

This is what Jethro taught Moses. Moses was doing righteous work but carrying it all alone. Jethro’s counsel wasn’t to work harder. It was to trust God enough to share the load.

True faith isn’t always doing more. Sometimes the way to have more faith is to do less and trust God more.

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To give credit where it is due, I have since learned the background behind this story. While this story is known within Uncle Merlin’s family, it is not recorded anywhere outside his family. Dale Renland (Uncle Merlin’s son-law) shared the story at a couple of training meetings he was involved in and John Hilton III (a popular blogger) attended one of those meetings. With Dales’ permission he shared it on Instagram.

The Pillar Letter

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Last weekend I finally got the house and the pillar in our front yard ready to stucco. As I was screwing down the boards on the pillar I thought how this space has not seen daylight for nearly forty years and it will probably be another forty years (or more) before it sees daylight again. That is when I decided that I had to leave something in that space. I couldn’t think of anything meaningful to put in there so I decided to write a letter. I put in a hard copy of the letter along with a USB drive with a copy of the letter and a bunch of pictures of our yard showing how it has changed over the years and how much fun we’ve had in our yard during that time. Here is a copy of the letter.

April 6, 2016
Fred & Lisa Leavitt
13445 Thunderhead St
San Diego, CA 92129

858-761-1990

Re: The Pillar

Hi,

My name is Fred Leavitt and my wife is Lisa Leavitt. The stucco on this pillar has been flaking off for ten years or more. I’ve repaired it myself and I have had it professionally repaired but it keeps flaking off. A few weeks ago, I was repairing the sprinkler valves near the front of the house and at one point I leaned onto the house, and my shoulder went right through the stucco. That is when I decided it was time to take care of this. I repaired the house first and got it ready for stucco because I didn’t want any wildlife to make a home in the wall and now, I’m preparing the pillar for stucco.

As I was closing up the pillar it occurred to me that this cavity hasn’t seen daylight for nearly forty years, and it might not see daylight for another forty years. I thought I should put something inside the pillar for when the pillar is opened again. Kind of like a time capsule. As I was trying to think of what to put in here, I decided that I would like to share with you how much this home has meant to our family. If you’re reading this, it either means that I did a lousy job of repairing the pillar and you are redoing it, or our home has lived its life and is now being demolished. That would make me sad.

Our family moved to San Diego from Alberta, Canada in July of 1992. We rented in the area until we bought this house in February 1995. As far as I know, this house was built in 1988 and whoever lived here must have loved it as much as we do because the yard and home were immaculate and beautiful when we bought it. We moved our young family into this home, and it is the home that they grew up in. When we moved in, our youngest child was only a year and a half old and our oldest was twelve. Here is a list of our family at that time.

Frederick Arlen Leavitt born Aug 12, 1958
Lisa Gay Leavitt (Shaw) born Jul 5, 1963

Kira Anne Leavitt, born Sep 2, 1982
Brandon James Leavitt born Jun 2, 1984
Benjamin Scott Leavitt born Feb 25, 1986
Alycia Grayce Leavitt born Feb 3, 1989
Alexander Thomas Leavitt born Mar 12, 1991
Sarah Christine Leavitt born Aug 24, 1993

Sarah is the only child born here in the US. The older five kids were born in Canada. We all have dual citizenship. Here is a picture of our family when the kids were still young. We are sitting on the steps leading to our deck.

Our yard was a big part of our family’s life. We played out there all the time and, in the canyon, as well. I always said that with the canyon, we had the largest backyard in the city. We had parties out there, weddings, family gatherings, sleepovers, we ate several meals in the yard, the yard was simply another room in our home.

Inevitably our family grew, it wasn’t long before Kira headed off to college. On the previous page is a family picture taken around that time. You can see the big fig tree behind us.

We loved that fig tree, but it is what eventually led to a dramatic change in our yard. As our kids grew, the yard grew as well. I wasn’t good at keeping the bushes trimmed and the tree completely overtook our yard. The trees shallow roots cracked our patio and became trip hazards in the grass. I say grass but the grass was dead because it never saw the sun. The huge canopy of the tree covered our entire yard. The tree had to go. Ben helped me take it down in 2016.

Our deck was also a victim of time. The beautiful cedar began to rot, and termites made the deck boards dangerous to the point that I wouldn’t let anyone on the deck. While quarantined during covid I tore down the old deck leaving only the foundation and rebuilt it. It is quite beautiful if I do say so myself.

With a new deck, we also had to redo the yard. The yard still isn’t finished but, in this picture, you can see what we’re going for. 

The hill on this side of the yard kept slumping down. In fact, it slumped so much that our lemon tree is now tilted. It looks funny, but that lemon tree is amazing.

When we moved into the house the previous owners had a lemon tree, an orange tree, a grapefruit tree and a lime tree all along that side of the yard. I was too busy and distracted to take care of them properly so before I got my act together, the trees were all dead except the lemon tree. The lemon is a Meyer lemon, and it is an amazing tree. It bears the most delicious lemons all year round. We have come to love lemonade.

This leads to why I am now repairing my pillar. I want to extend that wall you see all the way to the front sidewalk. To do that I had to do a little bit of work in the front yard. Without getting into the details, that required me to move the sprinkler valves in the front yard and at one point when I leaned against the house, my shoulder went right through the wall. That was quite alarming.

As I said earlier, the stucco on the pillar started failing shortly after we moved into the house back in 1995. Every picture I can find of the pillar shows the stucco flaking off. Repairs didn’t fix it and it was now so bad that there were holes in it. I knew I had to peel the stucco all off and fix whatever the problem was. With a hole in the house as well as a hole in the pillar it was time to do just that. We fixed the house first and it is ready for stucco and I am now preparing the pillar for stucco. We fixed the house first because I didn’t want the wildlife to make a home in my walls. I haven’t put the stucco on yet, but it is ready for it. I am now preparing the pillar for stucco.

I think the stucco failed early for two reasons. First, whoever applied this stucco didn’t have any backing board. They applied the stucco directly onto the wire and tar paper with nothing behind it. Secondly, the sprinklers must have been hitting both spots causing the wire to rust over time. As the wire rusts, it expands causing the stucco to spall off. There was no wire and only about 1/8” of stucco left.

We took out the bushes growing up against the house and I adjusted the sprinklers shortly after we moved in but the previous owners must have allowed the walls to get wet for years and by the time I fixed it, the damage was done. I now have the pillar closed up and I will leave this letter and a USB drive with lots of pictures in here for you to find.

It is not likely that Lisa and I are going to be around when this letter is found but maybe you can track down some of my kids and share this letter with them. I have no idea where they will be when you read this, but here is our contact information as of today.

(because this blog is public the contact information has been removed)

Fred 
Lisa 
Kira
Brandon
Ben
Alycia
Alex
Sarah

It seems unlikely that any of my kids will be at the same address, but there is a good chance that their email addresses will not change.

Our family has now grown to the point that we have six kids who are all married, and twenty seven grandchildren.

Kira & Justin Palmer have two boys and two girls.
Brandon & Ally Leavitt have nine kids. Six of Brandons and three of Ally’s.
Ben and Sharley Leavitt have two boys and a girl and three foster girls.
Alycia & Trevor Crowley have two boys and two girls
Alex & Lisa Leavitt have a boy and a girl.
Sarah & Sam Taylor have a boy and a girl.

I would love to include a family picture of all these people, but so far, we can’t get them all in the same place at the same time. Instead, I will include this picture of our six kids as young adults.

So, there you have it. This home has created many wonderful memories.

Fred & Lisa Leavitt

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The average lifespan of a modern American home is generally 70–100 years,

though many can last much longer with consistent maintenance.

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Missionary Journal - 28 June 1978 Wednesday

28 June 1978 Wednesday

We spent most of this morning answering questions which Lizion sent us from Morroco. She has some Amercan friends who have an antimormon book. Afer we got tired of that we went out. We had appts. with Blommaerts and Delanges. The one with Blommaerts didn’t go through so we hit up a few doors tracting and made an appointment for tonight and then went to Delanges. Mw Delanges daughter in law was there with her baby so we couldn’t teach. All of their daughters friends were there also so there was quite a bit of confusion going on.

Hilde was also in a bad mood. Elder Reber and I have made a mistake I think because we have gotten to[o] close to those girls in a way that is inappropriate for missionaries. They more or less expect it from us now and also I think the father has the wrong ideas about us now. I think he has the idea that we came to see his daughters instead of him. Elder Anderson did a good job of getting us back on the right track today.

After the daughter in law left, He and Mw Delange started talking about a ster [I think this was Dutch name for the Ensign, it means “star”] that we had left behind. She really has a lot of interest. We really have to work on getting the image of missionarys from the Church of Jesus Christ in their home. After dinner we taught Mr. Delaby with whom we had made that appointment. Him and his wife are older people but are real nice. Jan Sneyers appt. didn’t go through but we did teach a policeman, his wife and daughter. He was real friendy. He & his daughter don’t believe in God but his wife does. His wife did really want us to come back but he did[n’t]. His name is Mr Pir and we have seen him quite a bit in Vivloorde. I look forward to teaching them.

Artemis

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Yesterday the Artemis rocket launched, and human beings headed back to the moon for the first time in 54 years. The last time we went to the moon was Dec 11, 1972. I was fourteen years old. Today’s flight is a big deal.

We won’t be landing on the moon on this trip, but we will be going further from earth than anyone has gone before. The trip will take ten days, and the crew includes a woman, a black man, a Canadian and an American man. They did their best to make this a multicultural and multinational event. I think that is good.

Yesterday the Artemis’s main engines along with two solid rocket boosters got the crew into orbit and then the boosters dropped off. The main engines boosted the capsule into a low earth orbit and then it dropped off. The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), basically the second stage, then boosted the capsule into a high earth orbit and then it dropped off. This burn is called the perigee burn because it is done at the perigee of the low earth orbit. The perigee is the lowest point of the orbit. Once the ship reaches the apogee of the orbit (the highest point) an apogee burn is made to keep it there. They will then wait a day to check everything out. This afternoon the European service module will do a translunar injection (TLI) burn to send the crew towards the moon.

No more burns are needed to get to the moon and back. The Orion will now “fall” to the moon. This will take about four days. It will then circle around the far side of the moon passing a little over 4,000 miles above the moon’s surface. The moon’s gravity will have increased the velocity of the Orion so much that it can’t stay in orbit around the moon but will now fling back towards earth. On the way back to earth some burns will be made to adjust the course of the Orion.

The Orion capsule will then separate from the service module and splash down about fifty miles from my house. I missed it when the last SpaceX capsule with the sick astronaut from the space station landed here but you can bet I’ll be watching for the Orion. Splash Down is expected to be next Tuesday, April 10. No one is mentioning a time yet but I’ll be watching.

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The astonaught will be an inch or two taller 

when they get home than they were when they left. 

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Palm Sunday

Monday, March 30, 2026

A few months ago, Lisa decided to join the stake choir. At the time she thought they were just practicing for an upcoming stake conference which is always low key. About a month ago things started getting intense and she realized this wasn’t going to be singing a few songs in stake conference; this was going to be a big production for a music performance on Palm Sunday. That was yesterday. Even when Lisa told me what it was going to be big, I didn’t get the full magnitude of it until I walked into the Chapel Sunday morning to get ready for conducting the meeting.

They were still setting up the final details but there were lights and microphones all over the place. They had risers forming a little stage in from of the rostrum and flowers everywhere. They also had a bunch of crates behind the little wall. I never did figure their purpose, but I knew right away that they would interfere with the primary kids singing so I suggested to Lisa that she have her primary kids stand on the risers when they sing.

It was fun to watch that. In our sacrament meeting we had three wonderful speakers and three beautiful songs. The first song was the primary kids and then the choir sang two songs. I don’t know if I mentioned it but just a few weeks ago Lisa was called to be the primary chorister. This was also her very first calling when we were newlyweds and it terrified her then and it terrified her this time as well. The only reason she can do this is because she is gifted when it comes to music. She had a beautiful voice, and she can memorize a melody after hearing it once. She can’t read music and does everything by ear.

When she was asked to have the kids sing in Sacrament meeting, she could have taken the easy route and picked a song the kids all knew but Lisa has never taken the easy way. She picked a song she’d never heard before and she put together a string quartet to go with it.

To make a long story short, she was so nervous Sunday morning that she was almost in tears, but it went perfectly. They sang loud and on key and Lisa brought the string quartet in at just the right moment. The choir sang “That Easter Morn” and “Behold the Wounds”.

We had no second hour classes and from Sacrament meeting we went straight into a Linger Longer. It is always fun when the ward gets together just to visit. I always try and get to know new people. As things were wrapping up I heard a bunch of plastic cups making a horrible noise. I looked around to see which of my Deacons were smashing plastic cups only to find Mandy and a bunch of girls sitting at a table playing some game where they are passing cups to each other. She has turned out to be an amazing young woman’s president, and she has obviously formed a great relationship with those young women.

I don’t know what I can say about the concert last night. It was amazing and so good I didn’t want it to end. I rarely feel that way at any musical event. At some point I’m checking my watch to see how much longer.

I never checked my watch once and I have no idea when it ended. They had hand bells, a little orchestra, a children’s choir, a few amazing solo’s and they kicked the whole performance off with a couple of buglers accompanied with a small brass band, including a tuba. For me the highlight may have been when a piper walked in with the entire room backing her up laying “Amazing Grace”.

They also had a slide show going the entire time that just gave the evening an added touch. What a show.

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Sunday - Jesus enters Jerusalem in glory

Monday - Jesus cleanses the temple and evicts the money changers

Tuesday - Love they neighbour

Wednesday - A woman (probably Mary) annoints Jesus with costly spikenard

Thursday - The Last Supper & Gethsemane

Friday - Our Lord is crucified

Saturday - A troubled Sabbath

Sunday - He is Risen!

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