Week #103 - America the Beautiful 🇺🇸❤

I'm sorry for writing this email so late in the day. We have had one
of the coolest pdays of my mission. Well, let me start by saying Happy
Memorial Day! I'm so grateful for the men and women of this country
who have paid the biggest price for our freedom. We thought it would
be a good idea to respect the spirit of Memorial Day and pay tribute
to those armed forces members who have passed on by going to the
Arlington National Cemetery. We knew going into it that it was going
to be pretty packed but we decided to go anyways. Little did we know
that the President of the United States was going to be giving a
speech at the cemetery today. I was able to see President Donald Trump
in person. 😎 I'll send some pics. It was one of the best pday
experiences. I've joked my whole mission about seeing the POTUS and it
finally happened on one of my last pdays. Definitely an experience I
won't forget anytime soon. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

Now, nobody spoil the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie for me. I
LOVE those movies. All you can say was whether it was good or not.
👍🏼 or 👎🏼

On Tuesday, I had the privilege of going on exchanges to my
first area, Falls Church. It was so crazy being back where it all
started. I got to see a lot of the members that I got close with while
I served there and even one of the nonmembers who we would meet with a
lot. I tried to snap a pic with the members but I didn't get pictures
with everyone, just a few. I also got to have some Jardine cookies
again...heavenly. I will always be grateful for my time in the Falls
Church Ward.

We had some awesome dinners this week with members. A lot of them came
up to me at church and asked what I wanted for dinner. I basically had
a whole week of some of the best meals. I'm really excited for these
next two weeks.

Friday we had interviews with President Huntsman. I've said it once
and I'll say it again, I love having interviews with our president. He
always finds a way to have me walking away super motivated and happy
for what lies ahead. Our interview was a little shorter because I'm
going to be having a departing interview with him next week where we
will talk more about the future but it was still great.

I got my flight itinerary in the mail this week 😳. Looks like I'll be
landing in Vegas on July 14th at 11:09am. Hope to see you all there.
✈️

Sadly we are learning about more hiccups and struggles with the people
we are teaching than we are actually resolving. I'm still confident
and faithful that things will get worked out soon. Just keep praying
for us and these investigators that we will get our stuff figured out.
🙏🏼

Turns out I've started to get another cold! Talk about bummer. I feel
like I was just sick yesterday. It was almost 6 weeks ago when I was
bedridden. Hopefully I don't get that bad again. I started feeling it
coming Friday night. Let's get this under control, I don't have
time to be sick. I've only got 2 more weeks to labor with all my
might... 💪🏼

I realized after I sent my weekly email last week that I had sent a
typo. I said that I only had 2 more pdays last week. Well, really, I
had 3. NOW i only have 2 more pdays left. Crazy crazy stuff. I don't
think I'm ready to leave Virginia yet, i love it so much.

Happy Memorial Day! Remember, if you see someone dressed in a military
uniform, stop, shake their hand, and thank them for their service. I
hope you all have a great week. I love and miss you all😘

Arlington Cemetary with my boi, Big Z

President Trump's speech at the cemetary

Week #102 - 👌🏼✌🏼Go

"What do you think of the Jets new football stadium.....? Let me
guess, disgusting?"
Quick, someone name that movie 😌

Just FYI, I'm still a huge fan of pday naps 😎😴

This week we did some service at the local Episcopal Church. They have
a food pantry there that is open often. We try to sign up for days
each week. I always love serving there. We talk to some of the most
humble people that come through. Also some of the people know a little
bit about the 'Mormons' so we have some funny conversations. Most of
it is clearing up misconceptions. A few weeks ago we had another woman
there helping with us. Her name is Kelsey. She's so sweet. This week,
we got to volunteer with her again. She knows a little bit about the
church and had a friend join in high school. I tried to invite her out
to one of our services but she kindly denied haha. Don't worry though,
she's too nice not to accept one of these next couple invites lol.
Hopefully we run into her again soon.

This week got super hot out of nowhere. It was almost a 180 degree
turn around. It had been cold and wet lately but then this week
someone lit a match on hades head he poured out his wrath on the D.C.
area. 🔥 Lucky for my comp and I, we don't have a car so we got to
spend the days sweating bullets. 😅 I enjoyed it to be honest. Got to
get a nice farmers to tan before a go home.

We got a call from a member of our bishopric on Friday  afternoon asked
us if we would give talks in Sacrament meeting on sunday. I gladly
accepted. My topic was on 'The Work of Salvation' which is basically a
free pass to motivate the members of the ward to do missionary work.
Haha. I wasn't really phased by the late notice and I am definitely
not a fan of when people announce to the congregation that they were
given late notice to talk and to "bear with them" because they just
threw something together. So I didn't say anything about it. That's
definitely something I learned from my dad, you could be in the
toughest situation imaginable but don't show it. You could have gotten
a call Sunday  morning to speak that afternoon, no need to announce
it to everyone. I don't know. Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine.
What do you all think? Anyways, I enjoyed being able to speak to the
members are share experiences with them. I told stories about the
Bercian Family and the ward council in Fair Oaks. I had planned to
talk about the "government" of a ward mission (Bishopric, WML, Ward
Council, Members, etc.) but I only had time to hit Ward Council and
Members. Hopefully someone took something motivating away.

Speaking of learning things from my dad. I feel like I've learned so
many great things from him. One of which is to not care what people
think about you. I could be biking through downtown Arlington, wearing
a white shirt and tie, a name tag, and a goofy looking helmet and not
care what any of the people i ride past think of me. I mean we stick
out like a sore thumb, I see the people staring at us or giving us the
"I'm hardcore judging you" look. I don't mind though. if anything, I
enjoy it. I like to be different. I like to be the odd man out. So
thanks to my pops for teaching me that valuable lesson. Love ya big
mike!

We weren't able to meet with our buddy Eric this week. There have been
a couple members in the ward following up with him on his smoking. May
25th is the quit Day. Keep him in your prayers. Kevin and his family
are still solid. Just need to get this dang paperwork figured out.
Once we do that, baptism is a-go. Pray for Kevin's paper work to get
worked out please! 🙏🏼

Saturday our zone participated in what's called McLean Day. It's
similar to a county fair or a carnival. The missionaries were asked to
help volunteer at the event. We spent time unloading and loading cars
as well as walking around and asking people to take a survey about
their experience. Hmm.. who would have thought to send the
missionaries out to talk to all the people? You'd think they thought
we never do that or something... it was a fun event. There was
probably 6,000-8,000 people that came to the event. We were there from 6:30am- 7:30pm
 Let's just say I got a good nights sleep that
night... 😴

Also, anyone that is in Vegas, go to Fiiz! The grand opening was this
past week. I know the owners and they are awesome. Someone get a 32oz.
Dr. Pepper with vanilla cream and drink it just for me 🙌🏼

Over all, it was a great week. I loved being about to get out and
serve in different capacities this week. It made it interesting! I
can't believe I only have two more pdays after today... so crazy!
Someone pray for me that I can get everything done that I need to
before I go home. Thanks for the love and support! Have a great week!

Elder Leishman 💙

Week #101 - "Happy Mother's Day"

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome mothers out there,
especially my momma. I'm so glad I got to talk to her yesterday. Don't
get me wrong, I love talking to dad and the boys, but it's always no
nice talking to Momma Leish. She definitely brightens my day.
 "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." - Abraham Lincoln

Talking to the family was much needed yesterday. It was so good to see
them again! I can't believe that was my last time Skyping with them as
a missionary. The next time I'll see them will be face-to-face! So
many exciting things are going on in the Leishman Fam. If any of you
are in Vegas this weekend and want to get a nice, cool drink. Stop by
Fiiz Drinks. My parents store is opening up on May 19th, this week!!
Everyone go check it out!

Last pday, I found a hidden gem.💎 I don't know why I never found this
earlier in my mission. So much unused potential. It's called "pday
naps." 🙌🏼 Holy cow. I can't tell you how amazing it really was. If
you can think of your most favorite hobby, times it by 10, and you
have what it feels like to take a pday nap. Such a blessing. We took a
two hour nap last week. You best believe I'm making that happen again
this week. 😌

We played some more street ball this week. I wasn't as on fire as I
was last week but I still had all the guys wanting me on their team.
It was super fun. And it's a great time filler for the 8:30pm - 9:30pm 
time frame. Usually nobody wants you knocking on their door at that
time, so why not go play some ball. I got talking to a couple of the
guys afterwards and they knew a lot about Mormons. Hopefully we can
see some success.

Pretty cool experience this week. My uncle that lives in Tucson, AZ
sent me an email last week about one of his buddies that lives in my
area. He knew him from school at Michigan State. He set it up and we
were able to grab dinner with his nonmember buddy, Andrew. He was a
great guy. Knew a lot about the church and even played on my uncles
church ball team. Small world!!

There were so many exciting things that happened this week with our
investigators. I'll give you the condensed version.
We had a referral from some Spanish elders that we went to check up
on. Turns out the guy is super solid but his girlfriend
is...interesting. When we first calls him, she was freaking out and
cussing us out. By the time we showed up to her house, she had calmed
down and was in love with us... I think she might have been a tad
intoxicated. We went back a couple days later for our follow up
appointment and she opened the door with nothing but a blanket draped
over her. I was like, "Uh.... yeah we are going to come back later,
much later." Luckily her boyfriend closed the door and let her throw
some clothes on and we had a good lesson with them afterwards. Thank
goodness...
Kevin is still doing awesome! We met with him almost everyday this
week. We are struggling to get him to church though. Every weekend
something new comes up. It's either one of his kids are sick, he has
to work, his wife has to work, etc. etc... we are also still trying to
locate some paperwork so we can get them married!! So much to do and
only 4 weeks to do it!!
Our buddy, Eric, is still on date for June 10th. (My last weekend in
the mission) He has been making leaps and bounds trying to kick
smoking. He's down to about 1 cigarette a day which is fabulous.
Hopefully we can get him over this last hump.

It was a crazy busy week. I loved every minute of it. Even the hard
ones. I hope you all had a great weekend and have an even better week!
I love and miss you all!

Elder Leishman

Skyping with the fam on Mother's Day

Dinner with Uncle Ryan's friend from Michigan State, Andrew

Week #100 - "No Car, No Problem"

Holy. Cow. What a week it has been. I feel like I have accomplished so
much this week. It feels great. Transfer weeks are always very busy.

Quick, someone give me an update on the NBA playoffs....

Elder Nielsen and I got a call from the Assistants last Monday night
informing us that we would have to give up our car for the next
transfer since they had to open up some new sister areas. No worries
though. That gives me a good opportunity to bust out the 10-speed for
this last transfer. And boy, let me tell you, it's been a blessing. I
FINALLY PLAYED SOME STREET BALL AGAIN. So we were walking home one
night (our bikes hadn't been dropped off yet) and we came across this
park that had a basketball court with some homies playing. And of
course, by this time my spidy senses were tingling. Anyways, we decide
we were going to go watch for a minute or two since we had a couple
extra minutes before we had to be home. Well, as we are siting there,
they end up needing one more guy and one of the homies on the court
yells up to me to come down and jump in. So in my head I'm thinking,
"oh yeah baby, here's my chance. Don't mess it up." Well, I get down
there and all the guys were laughing and asking if I was really going
to play in dress shoes, slack, and a white shirt and tie. I humbly
told them yes and the game got started. There's nothing I love more
than when you make a sick move on someone dressed in missionary
clothes and everyone watching starts to freak out and yell. It is so
cool. By the time we were done playing, a small crowd had come to
watch the games. It was so cool. We played two games and my team won
one and lost one. After we finished, all the guys came up to me and
told me to come back and play again. My favorite comment of the night
though went as follows, "thanks for hoopin man, surprisingly you were
pretty good. Come back again and bring some sneakers. I don't even
know what you will do then." Its times like this that I will miss so
much when my mission is over.

We had some great lessons with our investigators. Still working on
getting Kevin and his family baptized. I feel like it's just one
hiccup after another. But it will all workout. We also found two new
investigators this week. Another Mongolian family!! They are awesome.
I'd tell you their name but I can't even pronounce it, let alone spell
it. It looks like our efforts to find are starting to pay off. This
new family was a referral from another Mongolian member family. Turn
up!

We have been doing a lot of missionary work with the members lately.
Gotta get them to help us find some new investigators. The members in
the Arlington 2nd Ward are awesome. Now they just need to show their
friends how awesome they are at church haha. Hopefully we can get some
new people to work with form it.

Elder Simpsons mom took my companion and i out to dinner this week. It
was crazy how it happened. It was super last minute, I'm glad i got to
meet Momma Simpson though. She was awesome and she brought her son,
McKay. That's my brothers name too! 😎 no need to fear though, we kept
our dinner pretty short because we had an appointment so I'll be
excited to get to know the Simpson fam more after the mission.  I'm
super excited for Mothers Day next week. Can't wait to talk to my Fam.
It's one of the two best days of the year!

All in all, it was a great week. I love being a full-time missionary.
There's nothing better. I hope you all have a swell week. I love and
miss you all💙

Elder Leishman

With Elder Simpson's Mom

Playing a little street ball

Shout out to McKay

Week #99 - "The Last Melonnnn..."

On Saturday night, Elder Nielsen and I found out we are going to be
staying together in Arlington for my last transfer. It's so crazy to
think that i only have 1 transfer (6 weeks) left to serve as a
full-time missionary. I'm going to try and make it my best transfer
yet. I'm excited to finish my mission in Arlington. It's a great area
with a lot of work to do. We have a couple people we need to get
baptized before I go home.

This past Tuesday was pretty crazy. We got asked to help out with some
service in the morning. We were helping some family members of a man
who had passed away, clean out his house. The only thing is, he was a
hoarder. Boy oh boy. You know you're in for a treat when you show up
and the lady in charge says, "alright, lets get you guys suited up and
you can head in." Umm.. excuse me? Suited up? Yeah, we had to wear
hazmat suits to go in and help. They took a pic of us after we
finished, I'll attach it. Let me tell you, those hazmat suits are like
sauna suits. I was dripping sweat. It was great to be able to help
them out though because they definitely had a huge task ahead of them.

We had some good visits with Kevin and his family this week. We met
them at the park a couple afternoons during the week and played some
ball with them. (Just an additional note, I still have yet to lose to
Kevin in H.O.R.S.E. we have probably played 10 games) Kevin has been
on fire lately, he's been reading and praying daily. It's so awesome
to see the great example he is to his family. We have also been
working with our friend, Eric. He is AWESOME! He's been meeting with
missionaries since 2014 but this week he agreed to a baptismal date of
June 10th. Which just happens to be his mothers birthday. Not only
does that day have significance to him, but that is the exact day I
will have been a missionary for 2 whole years. It's also my last
weekend in the mission. You know how cool it would be to have Eric's
baptism my last weekend here? So cool!! I'll keep you posted.

Well, with it being my last transfer, does that mean people will come
out of the woodworks and email me? I've always heard that you get
emails and letters for your first couple transfers, then everyone
takes an 18-month break, and writes you your last transfer.😂 I guess
we will put it to the test. HMU🤙🏼

I hope you have a great week. Always remember D&C 122:7

Warmest regards,
Elder Leishman

Ps. Shout out to my bro, Mckay, for looking like a stud at prom! 🕺🏻