Elder Tanner Leishman Serving in the Washington DC South Mission: Week #9

Last Monday we went to the Arlington Cemetery which was amazing. We
were able to walk around for a little and just see all the tombs and
graves of buried service men and women. It was such a peaceful place
and you could definitely feel the Spirit of our Father in Heaven
there. Especially when we were at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The
tomb of the unknown soldier ALWAYS has a guard there no matter what
time of day it is or the weather conditions. We were able to see the
changing of the guard which was pretty cool to watch. While I was
there I was reflecting on the fact that the side of the tomb says
"Here lies an American Soldier known but to God". I'm not sure if that
was the correct words or not but it was something close to that or
along those lines. But it made me realize that God loves us and he
knows us each personally. He knows all of us individually, he knows
our name, he knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our
struggles and our triumphs, and he is there along side us during both
of them. He weeps with is when we struggle and he rejoices with us
when we succeed. Gods ultimate plan is to have us return to live with
him and the only way we can do that is through our Savior Jesus
Christ. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he sent his Son to atone
for our sins. That is the greatest form of love. Sacrificing for
another. I'm so grateful that I have a personal relationship with our
Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and that through there marvelous
plan I can be with my family for eternity and return to live with
them. I would be so lost without the knowledge of the Plan of
Happiness that our Father in Heaven has for each of us.

This week has been good. I was able to find a new investigator while
we were shopping in the mall last Pday and we had a lesson with him on
Thursday. He is awesome. His name is Kenny and I was just walking
around the under armor store and he works there and he came up to me
and just started talking to me about religion and what not and we were
able to discuss some of society's views on specific things and what we
believe as members of the church. He is awesome. He just wants to
learn more and gain a greater knowledge which I think is awesome. He
plays basketball too so we can use him as an excuse to go play some
ball on a week night hahaha.

We are also teaching another man named Michael Jackson (yes that is
his name. He goes by mike though). And he lives off of Hollywood road
in falls church hahahaha. How crazy is that? It's pretty cool! He is
awesome. He is probably 6'5 330lbs. He used to play college
basketball. We are trying to get him to come out and play with us
sometime also. He is great. Just a guy that is trying to push through
the struggles of life and provide for his family. We are trying to
work with him as much as we can because he might be "temporarily
heading off" for a little while if you know what I mean. So yeah. I
was talking to him this week about AAU basketball and high school
basketball and what not and after we left the lesson I just felt the
greatest feeling ever. That I loved mike as a dear friend that I would
do anything to help him and his family. I feel like he's been my buddy
forever but I've only known him for a couple weeks.

On Thursday night we decided to drop by one of our recent converts
houses and check in on them and see how things are going. Well, we get
there and one thing leads to another and we end up being there for
like an hour and a half. We helped them put the spare tire to their
van back up under the car. Oh and they didn't have any tools so we did
it all by hand. Oh and did I mention that it was pouring rain? And we
were in proselyting clothes. So I think I ruined my first shirt of the
mission hahahaha. But we got it done and we're all soaking wet when we
went home and it felt good because I was able to provide service. I
don't mind the dirt and grease and soaking wet clothes if I'm serving
others.

On Sunday night we had a Stake Fireside because they are creating a
new ward within our stake boundaries and it was going to affect our
ward. So they created a new Tysons Ward. They took part of our Ward
and we lost a lot of good members. We will no longer be able to teach
Neeta the new member lessons because her and her husband are in the
new Tysons Ward. But the Tysons Ward also doesn't have any
missionaries yet so they could assign us to cover that Ward as well
but we will see. It brought a lot of change and a lot of unhappy
members here in our stake but we will get through it. It was inspired
and that's all we need to worry about.

I hope everyone had a good week! Love you all!

Elder Leishman