Well, this week was pretty busy! We had transfers this week which made
a little addition to our companionship. Elder Burleson and I are now
in a tri-panionship haha. So our new companion is Elder Flowers. He's
from St. George, UT as well. He actually went to DHills with me but I
didn't ever meet him till we got out here on the mission. He's been
out a little bit less than me, he's been out 7 months I think. So it's
pretty crazy to be with someone who knows most the people you know
haha. He's a sweet guy though and I'm glad I get a chance to be
companions with him in our trio. He will bring a lot of new ideas to
the table.
On Thursday this week, we ran into one of the guys we play basketball
with. His name is Meech. He was telling us that some other street ball
guys had been smack talking to them about how their team would beat
Meech's team. And Meech told them that he wouldn't lose because he had
a secret weapon, the Mormons. So then the next day Keith texted us
(our potential investigator that we usually play ball with) and said
they were going to be playing on Saturday afternoon at the Manassas
Park rec center, and that he wanted us to come play with them. So we
thought about it and decided we thought it would be a good proselyting
tool, as long as we played in proselyting clothes. So we did. We took
our basketball shoes, wore our white shirts, ties, and slacks and went
and played pick up ball at the rec center. Boy....you should have seen
the looks one everyone's faces when we walked in and started to lace
up our shoes. And then even better, you should have seen the looks we
got when we started whooping up on everyone. It's was hands down the
funnest part of the week. Every time we would score or make a play,
everyone would yell. It was awesome. It reminded me of high school
basketball. Elder Flowers didn't play and he got a couple videos so I
will attach them in the email. Man, it was so awesome. And the best
part about it was after we got done playing we were talking to Keith
about what we do as missionaries and he agreed to let us teach him a
lesson next time we go play ball. Over all, it was an awesome day!!
I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve our Heavenly
Father. He's been working miracles on the people I'm teach, but as
well as working miracles on me. #Blessed I love and miss you guys!
- Elder Tanner Leishman
Monday, April 25, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Week #45
Well, this week was pretty good. We found a couple of new
investigators this week which was good. We had a bunch of meetings
to go to this week which was good. I like going to meetings. Haha said
nobody ever. But some of the meetings were actually pretty good, they
were some very revelatory experiences. That's one thing I love about being a missionary, I feel like I have really come to pay attention in
to go to this week which was good. I like going to meetings. Haha said
nobody ever. But some of the meetings were actually pretty good, they
were some very revelatory experiences. That's one thing I love about being a missionary, I feel like I have really come to pay attention in
meetings a lot more and really take and do the things that they are
saying. It's pretty awesome.
We played basketball again this week with our homies at the park. We
actually got beat this time. They had this one Hispanic guy on their
team that was raining threes. He hit a couple in Elder Burlesons face
haha. It was some good fun though and we are making progress with
teaching a few of those guys.
Not too much more to talk about from this week, we have transfers
coming up and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be staying in Manassas. I'm
pretty excited. I love being in Manassas and I'm excited to see which
missionaries come to our zone this transfer. It's going to be pretty
exciting. One thing I have learned on my mission is to brush things
off. Like whenever someone yells at you, brush it off. When you've
been tracting and someone wants to bible bash with you, brush it off.
If you are getting annoyed by people, brush it off. There are
somethings out there that just aren't worth arguing about. Contentions
drives away the spirit and we should always be striving to have the
spirit with us. I hope you all have a great week!
- Elder Tanner Leishman
saying. It's pretty awesome.
We played basketball again this week with our homies at the park. We
actually got beat this time. They had this one Hispanic guy on their
team that was raining threes. He hit a couple in Elder Burlesons face
haha. It was some good fun though and we are making progress with
teaching a few of those guys.
Not too much more to talk about from this week, we have transfers
coming up and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be staying in Manassas. I'm
pretty excited. I love being in Manassas and I'm excited to see which
missionaries come to our zone this transfer. It's going to be pretty
exciting. One thing I have learned on my mission is to brush things
off. Like whenever someone yells at you, brush it off. When you've
been tracting and someone wants to bible bash with you, brush it off.
If you are getting annoyed by people, brush it off. There are
somethings out there that just aren't worth arguing about. Contentions
drives away the spirit and we should always be striving to have the
spirit with us. I hope you all have a great week!
- Elder Tanner Leishman
 |
| The zone activity last week was to make tie dye shirts. |
 |
| Elder Leishman visited Pablo at his Great Harvest Bread Co in Warrenton, VA |
 |
| We met Pablo in 2009 when we were in training together in Dillon, MT to talk over our Great Harvest store. He took great care of the boys!! |
Monday, April 11, 2016
Week #44 - Snow in April
Hey! Well, this week was probably one of the slower weeks this
transfer. We had a lot of meetings to go to and stuff so we weren't
really about to get out a whole lot. And we dropped a lot of our
non-progressing investigators, the ones that hadn't kept one
commitment since we started meeting with them. So our teaching pool
was really big but now it's slowly dimming down. Which isn't a bad
thing. We don't want to waste our time planning on people that aren't
really interested in progressing. That just means we are going to have
to spend some time going out and finding some new investigators. I'm
pretty excited for it. Also, the family we are working with, took
themselves off date. They felt like everything was rushed and want
some more time to learn and read the scriptures. That was a bummer but
I guess we will live.
This week we had our MLC (mission leadership council). It was pretty
fun. President Huntsman and the assistants trained us on how to better
have a model area. I really liked it. I love having president teach us
new things and ways we can improve. And also, one of my favorite
things about MLC is the food. They feed us lunch and sister huntsman
makes a pasta salad and it's to die for. I could eat a whole plate of
it.
For some odd reason, it's been super cold here the past week. One of
the days it even snowed. We got little rally everything this week:
rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It was madness. When do I get my 120
degree heat back? I miss that right now.
This week has been an internal struggle. It's been hard with regards
to a couple things. Some of those things are; our investigators taking
themselves off of date, having to play out a zone teaching for next
week, saving money because we scarcely get fed in this ward, and just
the everyday struggles of missionary work. I feel like Satan has been
working hard trying to discourage us in the work. It takes a lot of
effort to maintain a positive outlook on things but it comes. This
week has brought to my remembrance a verse of scripture from 2 Nephi
2. It says, "11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in
all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness
could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor
misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a
compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs
remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor
incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility."
This is so true. I like to look at is as a spring. The farther down
you go, the high you will get shot up. As long as we trust in the
lord. He will provide. I love and miss you all!
Much love,
Elder Leishman
transfer. We had a lot of meetings to go to and stuff so we weren't
really about to get out a whole lot. And we dropped a lot of our
non-progressing investigators, the ones that hadn't kept one
commitment since we started meeting with them. So our teaching pool
was really big but now it's slowly dimming down. Which isn't a bad
thing. We don't want to waste our time planning on people that aren't
really interested in progressing. That just means we are going to have
to spend some time going out and finding some new investigators. I'm
pretty excited for it. Also, the family we are working with, took
themselves off date. They felt like everything was rushed and want
some more time to learn and read the scriptures. That was a bummer but
I guess we will live.
This week we had our MLC (mission leadership council). It was pretty
fun. President Huntsman and the assistants trained us on how to better
have a model area. I really liked it. I love having president teach us
new things and ways we can improve. And also, one of my favorite
things about MLC is the food. They feed us lunch and sister huntsman
makes a pasta salad and it's to die for. I could eat a whole plate of
it.
For some odd reason, it's been super cold here the past week. One of
the days it even snowed. We got little rally everything this week:
rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It was madness. When do I get my 120
degree heat back? I miss that right now.
This week has been an internal struggle. It's been hard with regards
to a couple things. Some of those things are; our investigators taking
themselves off of date, having to play out a zone teaching for next
week, saving money because we scarcely get fed in this ward, and just
the everyday struggles of missionary work. I feel like Satan has been
working hard trying to discourage us in the work. It takes a lot of
effort to maintain a positive outlook on things but it comes. This
week has brought to my remembrance a verse of scripture from 2 Nephi
2. It says, "11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in
all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness
could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor
misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a
compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs
remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor
incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility."
This is so true. I like to look at is as a spring. The farther down
you go, the high you will get shot up. As long as we trust in the
lord. He will provide. I love and miss you all!
Much love,
Elder Leishman
 |
| Tanner was able to visit the Warrenton, VA Great Harvest. We went attend our Owners training with Pablo, the owner of that bakery. |
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Week #43 - General Conference Weekend
This week was an interesting but fun one to say the least haha. It
started out on Monday when we went into DC to see all the cherry
blossoms. There were a TON of missionaries in the district that day
and we all basically congregated at one of the monuments. That was
pretty fun. There were a lot of DC North missionaries there as well
which was pretty cool. It's always nice to see our friends on across
the river. After DC we went back to our area and tried to muster up
some energy to finish the night off because those DC days really wipe
you out.
On Tuesday, we had district meetings which was pretty fun. Our
district leader is elder McCray. He's a stud. He's from Snowflake, AZ.
He taught us a good lesson on listening to the spirit. Then we went to
the mission office to get some supplies and headed back to our area.
One of the members of our ward wasn't feeling the best so we drove to
the hospital and gave him a blessing. Our friend, Keith, texted us
again telling us they were playing ball so we went over to the park
and played with them for about and hour. Then in the evening we were
trying by a few of our investigators when we met this guy named
Charles. We started talking to him and asked him if we could share a
message with him and he accepted. It was probably the funniest lesson
I've been in my entire mission. He just kept asking us such random
questions. At the end, we invited him to say the closing prayer and he
said he would. So he starts and he says, "Dear Heavenly Father, I
don't feel nothin!!! But I'm sitting here talking to these 3 strangers
(we had a member with us) and if you put them in my path, well then I
guess that's something." I was holding back laughter with the way he
said it. It was super funny. Then at the end of the prayer he said "I
like George (the member we were with), George is a good man." It was
hilarious. I think he was a little inebriated but we will have to see
what happens with him in the future. Super funny though haha!
I really enjoyed general conference this weekend. As a missionary,
general conference weekend is like a refresher or a renewal. I so
thankful we have a modern day prophet to lead and guide us. I can't
even imagine what the world would be like without him. There would
definitely be a lot of confusion. I'm grateful for these men who are
inspired by God to lead and Gods people on the earth. My favorite talk
from Saturday was definitely Preisdent Henry B. Eyring, he spoke first
at conference. It was such a powerful talk about the Holy Ghost and
how we can use it to touch our hearts especially during conference
weekend. From Sunday, I loved Elder Jeffery R. Hollands talk to close
our conference. I feel like it was specifically for me. I always worry
about going back to everyday missionary work after a general
conference weekend. I want to keep the same spirit that I felt all
weekend and have it be with me all the time. That goes for when I go
home from my mission as well. I will want to continue to feel the same
spirit I felt as a missionary. It's so amazing to be truly transformed
by the spirit. I'm so glad we have a prophet on the earth today,
someone who can help us fight the plagues of the world. I invite
everyone to heed his and the other general authorities council from
this conference. I love this gospel and I love this church. I hope you
have a great week! Much love!
Elder Leishman
started out on Monday when we went into DC to see all the cherry
blossoms. There were a TON of missionaries in the district that day
and we all basically congregated at one of the monuments. That was
pretty fun. There were a lot of DC North missionaries there as well
which was pretty cool. It's always nice to see our friends on across
the river. After DC we went back to our area and tried to muster up
some energy to finish the night off because those DC days really wipe
you out.
On Tuesday, we had district meetings which was pretty fun. Our
district leader is elder McCray. He's a stud. He's from Snowflake, AZ.
He taught us a good lesson on listening to the spirit. Then we went to
the mission office to get some supplies and headed back to our area.
One of the members of our ward wasn't feeling the best so we drove to
the hospital and gave him a blessing. Our friend, Keith, texted us
again telling us they were playing ball so we went over to the park
and played with them for about and hour. Then in the evening we were
trying by a few of our investigators when we met this guy named
Charles. We started talking to him and asked him if we could share a
message with him and he accepted. It was probably the funniest lesson
I've been in my entire mission. He just kept asking us such random
questions. At the end, we invited him to say the closing prayer and he
said he would. So he starts and he says, "Dear Heavenly Father, I
don't feel nothin!!! But I'm sitting here talking to these 3 strangers
(we had a member with us) and if you put them in my path, well then I
guess that's something." I was holding back laughter with the way he
said it. It was super funny. Then at the end of the prayer he said "I
like George (the member we were with), George is a good man." It was
hilarious. I think he was a little inebriated but we will have to see
what happens with him in the future. Super funny though haha!
I really enjoyed general conference this weekend. As a missionary,
general conference weekend is like a refresher or a renewal. I so
thankful we have a modern day prophet to lead and guide us. I can't
even imagine what the world would be like without him. There would
definitely be a lot of confusion. I'm grateful for these men who are
inspired by God to lead and Gods people on the earth. My favorite talk
from Saturday was definitely Preisdent Henry B. Eyring, he spoke first
at conference. It was such a powerful talk about the Holy Ghost and
how we can use it to touch our hearts especially during conference
weekend. From Sunday, I loved Elder Jeffery R. Hollands talk to close
our conference. I feel like it was specifically for me. I always worry
about going back to everyday missionary work after a general
conference weekend. I want to keep the same spirit that I felt all
weekend and have it be with me all the time. That goes for when I go
home from my mission as well. I will want to continue to feel the same
spirit I felt as a missionary. It's so amazing to be truly transformed
by the spirit. I'm so glad we have a prophet on the earth today,
someone who can help us fight the plagues of the world. I invite
everyone to heed his and the other general authorities council from
this conference. I love this gospel and I love this church. I hope you
have a great week! Much love!
Elder Leishman
 |
| Hanging with the Easter Bunny |
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