How would we show that for a tensor of any rank we can replace the partial derivatives by co-variant (Levi-Civita) derivatives, I was reading this is a GR text where it was left to the reader as an exercise.
As in
$L_{\xi}T^{a}_{b} = \xi^{c}\nabla_{c}T^{a}_{b} -T^{c}_{b}\nabla_{c}\xi^{a} + T^{a}_{c}\nabla_{b}\xi^{c}\ $
Hint Expand each term on the right-hand side in terms of Christoffel symbols. For example, $$\xi^c \nabla_c T^a{}_b = \xi^c (\partial_c T^a{}_b + \Gamma_{d c}^a T^d{}_b - \Gamma^d_{bc} T^a{}_d) .$$
After expanding all three terms, exactly the terms that contain Christoffel symbols cancel, leaving precisely the coordinate derivative formula for the Lie derivative $\mathcal{L}_\xi T$.
NB this computation uses that $\Gamma_{pq}^r$ is symmetric in $p, q$ but makes no reference to the metric, so in fact the statement is true for any torsion-free connection on a smooth manifold, not just the Levi-Civita connection on a Riemannian manifold.