Elder Tanner Leishman Serving in the Washington DC South Mission: Week #13

Well, it was transfer week this week and I'm training a new
missionary!! I got the call on Tuesday afternoon saying that President
wants me to train and it was pretty cool to hear that. My main man
Elder McInerny went home this week. I'm happy to see him finish his
mission and I feel privileged to have killed him (be his last
companion when he goes home). It was pretty tough leaving him which I
guess is normal since he's the only companion I've known since being
in the mission field. Falls Church feels weird without him. But, my
new companion is pretty cool. His name is Elder Havens. He is from
Rexburg, Idaho. He's a sweet dude. Loves marching band and yearbook
stuff. Oh and he was on a ballroom dance team. Pretty sweeeeet.

So since I'm the senior companion now, I have to "lead out" the area.
And it's a lot tougher than I thought. Usually we have stuff to do but
it's hard to fill in the gaps during like the afternoon when nobody is
home and you always just resort to tracting. We are trying to find a
lot more people to teach so hopefully we can find some people that
have been prepared to hear our message and are receptive.

Before Elder McInerny left we were able to play some basketball on
Tuesday night with our investigator, Mike. It was super fun! We had
been trying to get him to come out for about a month now and he
finally came. We got to play some good ball and there were a lot of
good fellowshippers there for mike as well. On Wednesday, we spent a
lot of time visiting members so Elder McInerny could say goodbye to
them. Then Thursday was when I got my new companion!

On Thursday morning, we had to be at the Centreville Stake center at
9am for the trainers meeting. Then I got my new trainee, dropped elder
McInerny off and went back to falls church and got to work! It was a
pretty good day. We went tracting for a couple hours. We knocked on
this one door and this guy let us in and as soon as we sat down in his
house I got the strongest feeling that we needed to leave but we had
no way out. So the guy sits down and proceeds to rip us a new one and
tell us our whole religion is false. He then proceeds to pull out his
bible and just bible bash with us and I never get it why he did that.
Like I'm a MORMON MISSIONARY. I came out here for a reason and I have
a testimony of everything I'm sharing with people. You aren't going to
shake me or rock me. Im like a vault baby. Lock down. Hahaha people
are weird. He even tried to tell us we don't believe in Jesus Christ
and that's where I was like completely zoned out because this guy is
on crack. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." But hey,
that's none of my business though. Hahaha welcome to Virginia.

There were a lot of spiritual impressions that I received this week.
I'm going to tell you about a couple of them. One was in our elders
quorum lesson this week on Pride. I'm can't really remember which
specific part of the lesson stuck out to me but, it all really just
hit home with me that when we are lofted up in our pride, we are not
able to feel the spirit or detect the impressions or promptings that
are being sent our way. The other time was when we were in a meeting
with our Ward mission leader on Sunday night and he asked us, "Why do
you get up every morning?" This one really hit me in the spot and made
me take a step back and spender the question he was asking. I came to
the conclusion that besides my love for the savior and for his gospel,
the reason I get up in the morning and do what I do is because of my
family. Not just my family right now, but also my future family. My
family and I have been blessed with the great privilege of having the
restored gospel in our lives and it brings us so much joy and
happiness that we want to share it with everyone. He then proceeded to
ask us, "What is one thing you would give up for 12 weeks or 2
transfers, to help move the work along?" I think this question can be
applied to any aspect of our lives. It's such a great principle of
sacrifice for our father in heaven. I mean maybe we should take the
example of the Catholics and how they give up something for Lent each
year. I think that's awesome that you learn to master your appetites
and learn self control and show Heavenly Father your utmost
discipleship.

Well I hope everyone has a great week!!

Elder Leishman