Week #58 - "On a beach in Hawaii...."

I bet you're wondering why that is the title of my email this week.
Well it's because elder Holdaway and I have gone completely apostate
and took a week long trip to Hawaii (I'll send the pics)....haha jk.
It's only the lyrics to a reggae song. I wish I was there though with
how hot and humid it has been this past week. It's been miserable to
be outside. I've been sweaty for literally a week straight. Welcome to
the life 😪 but it really is the best. I've had a great week other
than the sweatiness. Elder Holdaway and I get along super well and we
have some awesome conversations about the gospel. Work wise, the week
was a little slower because we had a lot of meetings and switched pday
and transfers. So it's been a lot of logistics this week. It's been
good though.

Last Tuesday, we went to the zoo with a group of elders and had a lot
of fun. I'm not huge into walking around for hours on end looking at
animals but it was pretty cool and I had a good time being with all
the other elders. It's always nice to hang out with the homies around
the mission.

Then, Tuesday night, elder Holdaway and I found out that we were going
to be staying together for another transfer. I'm so pumped. We get to
stay in one of the best areas in the mission for another 6 weeks. It's
going to be awesome.

Thursday we had transfers and it was probably one of the saddest days
of my mission so far. A lot of missionaries that I looked up to a lot
were going home. A lot of the guys that have had a huge influence on
my mission are now at home. It was a sad day. We lost a lot of great
missionaries but that means there are great new missionaries that are
coming into the mission that need some good examples. It's motivation
for us to be those guys that the young bucks can look up too. Just
like we had awesome leaders, they need awesome leaders as well. But I
think the saddest part of the day was when my guy elder Merrill went
home. I don't know if you guys remember my companion from about 6
months ago but he went home this past week. It was super sad. I sure
do love that kid a lot. I'll send you the pictures I took with him
before he left. He's a stud. But, something cool from transfers. My
trainee, elder Hudson is training. Which means I am now a grandpa in
the mission. I'm pretty pumped about it. My grandsons name is elder
roper. Seems like a dope kid. He better be if he's in my posterity
hahaha.

On Saturday we had a pretty busy day. It started with correlation at
bishop dzarans house at 8am then we went and taught a couple lessons
before we left to go to a baptism in elder holdaways last area, the
tall cedars ward. It was an awesome service. Saturday evening we had
stake mission correlation. It's where we go and represent the zone in
front of all the bishops and ward mission leaders in the stake. We
talk about what we are doing as a zone and get things for the zone to
improve on. It's one of my favorite meetings to attend. This
particular meeting, president Dionne (centreville stake president)
asked us to share the story about how we found, taught, and baptized
the Bercian family. It was great. The spirit is always super strong.

Last night after church we were able to teach a couple lessons that
were just filled with the spirit. Not saying other lessons aren't full
of the spirit but I feel like somethings both the two lessons we
taught last night were different. Maybe it was the lord showing us his
hand in our lives or even just us noticing it more. Or it could be
Heavenly Father giving us a little hope after a slow week. Whatever it
was, it was nice. We taught our investigator named Kevin. The lessons
started off with him basically dropping us but then we talked him into
one more thing, we invited him to read and pray from the Book of
Mormon every night this week, 7 days. And if he doesn't think he has
an answer by the end of the week, we will stop visiting him. He
accepted. I'm going to be praying my heart out on behalf of him this
week. I have the faith that Heavenly Father will answer his prayers
and show him the truthfulness of the things we share. I just know he
will. He always seems to come in clutch when we need him.

I love you all. Have a great week!

- Elder Tanner Leishman

District selfie before transfers

On our way to transfers with the Fort Belvoir Elders, Elders Severe and Timothy

Me and Elder Severe. He went home. He was Elder Holdaways trainer.
One of those missionaries I looked up to a lot

The man, the myth, the legend. Elder Scott Merrill. What a stud.
I'm going to miss this kid. Yu-gi-oh, sponge bob and all.

My grandson, Elder Roper. With Elder Hudson(my son) and I. The
posterity lives on !!

Week #57 - The most eventful week EVER!

So, I'm sorry for not emailing everyone yesterday. We had to switch
our pday because president huntsman scheduled a meeting for all the
zone leaders and sister training leaders to meet with Senator Orrin
Hatch at the Capitol.🇺🇸 It was a once in a lifetime experience, I'll
talk about it in a little bit! Also, I'm sorry I'm sending this email
so early, we are going into DC for our actual pday today and going to
visit the zoo so I need to send off some emails before we get in
there!

Holy cow, where do I even start? This week has been filled with so
many miracles and great experiences. Elder Holdaway and I worked super
hard this week and got a lot of things done which was awesome. The
week days were pretty normal, taught a lot of people, did some serve
and helped someone paint, got blood drawn haha, went to the mission
office, and did a zone service project! It was such a great week.

There were so many highlights from this week, I don't even think I
could pick one. We can start with the baptism of Jose and Sandra on
Saturday! It was such a great service. You know that the adversary is
trying to do all he can to stop someone from getting baptized when the
whole baptismal program doesn't come together till about 5 mins after
it was scheduled to start. But it happened and it was awesome. Jose
and Sandra are so awesome. I love them and their family so much. I
baptized Jose and elder Holdaway baptized Sandra. After they were
baptized, Jose stood up and bore a powerful testimony about how the
gospel has blessed them and how he wants to share it with others. The
spirit was super strong! Then we went and got Mexican food with them
after and I about exploded with how full I was....🍴 Bishop Dzaran
confirmed them in church on Sunday and it was so sweet, they were
given the gift of the Holy Ghost and are now ready to battle the
storms of life. Then, on Sunday night, William and Brian spoke at
what's called a New and Returning Member Fireside. It's put on by the
mission and it's where recent converts or less active members who are
returning to activity come and bear their testimony and share their
story about how they came to know the gospel was true. So William and
Brian spoke at it. They were so funny and had the best story, they
both talked together which was pretty sweet too. They bore awesome
testimonies about the Book of Mormon. I'm so proud of those boys. They
are like my adopted little brothers! William is now at youth
conference this week 👍🏼

Yesterday, we went to DC to visit with Senator Hatch. It was actually
really sweet. We all met at the Centerville Stake Center and carpooled
to the district. Let me tell you, I'm so glad I don't have to drive in
DC normally. The traffic there SUCKS! People cutting you off left and
right. The struggle was definitely real. But we got to his office and
were in one of his board rooms and we got talking to one of his
interns, I think. He was a member as well and served a mission in the
Netherlands. He was a pretty sweet guy. He was also from Las Vegas
☝🏼️! But then senator hatch came in and talked with us. He was
running a couple minutes late because he was opening the floor for the
senate. Usually he is the one to open the floor because he is the most
senior senator, he is actually 3rd in line to be president of the
United States, he has been in the senate for 40 years!! That's a super
long time. So when they open the senate floor, they usually start with
a prayer which I think is super awesome. But he made it in to talk
with us and he shared some awesome stories. He really left the time
open for us to ask him questions. There were some great questions
asked about politics, life, the church, leadership, etc. but what was
really cool is he related everything back to his mission. All of the
stories he told were from his mission. He sounded like a great
missionary. He told us that he would trade his 40 years in the senate
for his 2 year mission. He said that his mission was more important
and better for his life than the 40 years in the senate. I thought
that was super cool. I mean, being a senator? That's a pretty dang
important job. But he said he would give it up for his mission. That
was such a testimony builder to me of the purpose the lord calls
missionaries. Not only does a mission bless the people we teach, but
it blesses our lives forever as well. We will learn things and have
all these great experiences that can shape us to be the people we are.
I'm so grateful I had the chance to go, really a once in a lifetime
experience. I'll send the pictures of our trip up there. It was so
sweet.

This week, with everything that's been going on, I've had the chance
to reflect on our purpose as missionaries. We are called to INVITE
other to come unto Christ. We aren't called to go out and just
baptized everyone or just teach everyone. We are called to bring them
closer to Jesus Christ. Look at this promised blessing from the Book
of Mormon if we just "seek to bring forth Zion."

"37 And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that
day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and
if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day,
and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso
shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the
mountains shall they be." (1 Nephi 13:37)

We are just called to invite, we are called to seek to bring forth
Zion and there are so many blessings that follow. Now, let's all seek
to bring forth Zion because I don't know about you, but I want to see
the view from the tops of those mountains. Much love everyone!!

Elder Leishman

All the Elders that taught Jose and Sandra

The whole gang back together again.

Me and my man Jose

After we met Senator Hatch

Senator Hatch's office

The man himself - rockin' the Nike's

Handsome crew!

At the Zoo in DC

Week #56 - Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! What an amazing time to be alive. This is
always my favorite time of the year. Not necessarily as a missionary
but definitely at home. My companion said this last night and it
really hit home...."this is our last 4th of July as a
missionary"....what the heck. Might as well make it a fun one then
right?

Well this week was awesome. We went up to the temple visitors center
with Sandra and Jose and their family. See the pics.... Sandra and
Jose are super excited for their baptism! Jose asked me to baptize
him. I'm really excited. So stay tuned for this coming Saturday and
their baptism. But they loved the visitors center. We were able to
have some of the sister missionaries up there that speak Spanish show
us around. So it was good for all of us! Also, their son, William, was
called to be the second counselor in the teachers quorum! What what!!
This family is so solid.

Well, today we are going to try and find some fireworks to watch.
Apparently, the city of Manassas puts on some great firework shows.
I'll have to see what I can find! I hope everyone has a great week! I
love and miss you guys!

- Elder Tanner Leishman

Zone activity last week

At the temple with Sandra and Jose's family

Week #55 - New mission record!!

So, this week elder Holdaway and i decided we would try to beat the
mission record for copies of the Book of Mormon handed out in a week!
The previous record was 93, held by the one and only Elder "Big Z"
Simpson (shouts out to my fam. Sorry I had to do it to ya...😉). But
here's how we did it.... 💯

So we planned a bunch of member splits and exchanges with other
missionaries to concentrate as many "hands on deck" as possible for
procelyting in our area this week. We decided to make our goal 150
copies of the book of
Mormon and in order to do that we would have to hand out 22 a day!
With miracles, tons of planning, lots of accountability and
hard work we passed out 154! We were SO exhausted every night but it paid
off immensely! We LITERALLY handed out copies of the book of Mormon to
every person we
saw, whether it was at a gas station while we're filling up gas, chasing
someone down from across the street or trying to squeeze in a couple Book
of Mormon in our "in between times" we made it work!

There was a lot of funny experiences this week with all the people we
talked to. One guy swung the door open after we knocked and said "NO
SOLICITING! Can
you even read?!" He pointed to a sign at the bottom of the stairs. He then
angrily put up an argument then shut the door. We went to the sign at the
bottom of the stairs and..... It said no smoking or littering... Hahaha
that was pretty funny.

One day this week we visited a less active part member family and
tried teaching the kids, but there was also Jehovah witness
missionaries there at the same time. So we taught the son in one room
while the Jehovah's Witness missionaries taught the daughter in the
other room. Went on an exchange with the elders in the Chinese program
this week. I definitely don't understand a lick of Chinese. I felt
like a dear in the headlights most of the night! It's such a cool
language to listen to though! We got some great work in.

I'm running tight on time today cuz we've got zone activity to put
together. We're going to a park off of bull run river that's right around a
bend so it's like a park with a river bordering most of it. It looks so
cool! We're setting up a volleyball net, soccer, baseball and football. We
also assigned every companionship a food group. It should be a blast! We
just have a lot of set up to do for the activity.

This week was hands down one of the best weeks of mission because I
came home last night just completely exhausted. After all the hard
work elder Holdaway and I put in, we were so excited to get a little
time off for pday. This week taught me such a great lesson on
perseverance and diligence. It also confirmed and helped me strengthen
my testimony of setting goals. We worked our tails off to reach our
goal of 150 copies of the Book of Mormon and for the other key
indicator goals we set. There is so much satisfaction that comes from
just checking something off. It was an awesome week! I'm excited to
see where everything goes this week with all our new investigators!

Love you all!

- Elder Tanner Leishman

Pic - as we were out grinding this week, we ran into some hippies that
have been traveling across America. And boy, let me tell you, they
need to shower ASAP!!! Also, they were all high off something, who
knows what it was but they were literally just like your stereotypical
hippies. But it was pretty stinking funny. Oh, and all 6 of them fit
into that small back car....😷

Week #54 - Dot it for the GAINES

So, I'll start this email off with some sweet news. Woodbridge, VA will be added into our mission starting July 1st! We'll be taking in all 24 missionaries from that stake as well. My fingers are crossed I get to serve there! They decided to move Woodbridge into our mission because the demographics are more similar to our mission than it is to Richmond mission, Woodbridge used to be a part of our mission about 4 years ago but it's finally coming back. I'm actually really pumped about this because if you guys remember Mike and Tamika and their family (recent converts from when I was in Falls Church), they moved to Woodbridge right after they got baptized. So now I will be able to go see them more often! 

Saturday was adult session of stake conference with Elder L. Whitney Clayton, member of the presidency of the seventy and Elder S. Mark Palmer of the Seventy. So to build it up, there's upward of 700 people in the congregation, (11 bishops, the stake presidency, our mission president and wife, and two general authorities) and he calls my mission president up to share how he prepares missionaries to keep the sabbath day holy. President gets up and says "how about instead of hearing from me, you hear from our missionaries that are here." And as soon as he said that I was like, "that's it, I'm done, he's calling on me." But then he said "Elder Holdaway(my companion), will you come up please?" So I was like oh I'm off easy haha. No stress but then as Elder Holdaway is walking up, President proceeds to say, "Oh and his companion better come with him as well." I think I about had to change my slack. So I literally had to walk up in front of all those people, with about 0 times to prepare and talk about how I prepare for the sabbath as a missionary. It was probably one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my mission. You never really notice how many people are in a meeting till you are standing at a pulpit look out over them. But after the meeting, Elder Holdaway and myself went up to go and talk with Elder Clayton and Elder Palmer. They thanked us for our comments and said we both did a great job. Elder Clayton told us to tell our moms, and I quote, "you two did a great job." He made us both promise to mention that in our emails home this week. So there's that, you could say me, elder Holdaway, Elder Clayton, and Elder Palmer are all pretty tight now, basically homies 🏼

We had several awesome lessons this week. Jose and Sandra are still planning on getting baptized July 9! They are honestly so ready. They've been taught everything, have powerful testimonies on the gospel because they've already seen countless blessings in their home since their children have joined. They came to stake conference and the general authorities visited their homes and met with them personally to talk about their journey in the church. That helped them out a ton also. We went be a couple times this week to go more in depth on what heir understanding is on some of the laws and ordinances of the church. Julie's still planning on being baptized but we still need to figure out where to go with her on how to help her comprehend what we teach. 

We had a lot of things happen this week! For starters, on pday we went fishing off of bull run river. I sent some pics last week. We caught one fish! It was about the size of a toothbrush so.... That counts right? I'm really going to miss the beauty of Virginia. The luscious green is seriously second to nothing (except the Rocky Mountains ).

We had interviews this week so it was fun to spend time with president and sister huntsman (Pics). 

Zone training was this week. We talked about the importance of revelation in missionary work and one thing I want to share with all of you from zone training is the three things that keep us from having the spirit with us!

• Contention 
• Distractions 
• Disobedience

As we try to keep contention out of our hearts with love towards those around us, keep our priorities straight with staying focused on our righteous goals and by being obedient to the laws and commandments we know we're supposed to do then we'll have the spirit with us and the right to receive revelation in all things going on in our lives! 

Over the past two weeks, I've been able to reflect on how grateful I am to be serving a mission. I absolutely love his work, I love my area (Manassas 1st Ward), I love my mission president and his wife, I love my companion. In the words of the Mormon Pioneers and a well known hymn: 

"Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? 

’Tis not so; all is right.

Why should we think to earn a great reward

If we now shun the fight?

Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.

Our God will never us forsake;

And soon we’ll have this tale to tell--

All is well! All is well!" 

I love you all, have a great week! 

- Elder Tanner Leishman

Week #53 - One year baby!!

This week was awesome! I hit my year mark on Friday!! I can't believe
this time has come so fast....I feel like I'm still a brand new
missionary. But I'm so excited for what this next year has in store
for me. It's going to be a great year!

We are teaching this guy named E. E's a stud. He was chilling outside
on the steps smoking and we started talking to him and he accepted to
hearing our spiritual thought. He's been shot and stabbed 10 times! He
feels like Gods protected him so far for a higher purpose and we
shared to restoration with him and said that we are part of the reason
why he's been protected and the message were sharing with him. He said
he'd be up for meeting with us next time we're in the neighborhood and
hugged us afterwards. Thug life✌🏻️

We were trying to go to a follow up appointment with someone we street
contacted into. He had given us the wrong address and we really had to
go to the bathroom so the person who answered let us use his bathroom
and then we started teaching him the restoration and he was up for it!
He accepted to read the Book of Mormon and to let us come back.it was
so dope. Also, Shirley is one of our investigators who's on date to be
baptized in July! She wasn't able to make it to church this week but
is still passionate about getting baptized and her scriptures are
super marked up with sticky notes. She's so solid. She just works
hardcore right now and isn't able to get work off on Sunday's yet.
She's been taught most the lessons and is just trying to get to that
point.

We work really closely with the Bercians still.  This week was the
little daughters birthday so we went over and they made us carne
asada. SO DELICIOUS. We taught them several times this week to
continue preparing them for baptism. The two boys are going on high
adventure and scout camp in a couple weeks so they're getting
fellowshipped very well by the ward. Did you guys see the tweets
William sent out of us? Haha

We helped in a community service project this week. "Clean prince
William county". We had several trailers driving around and picking up
people's trash they left at the corner (previously arranged) and the
county garbage organization provided several huge dumpsters. We filled
up 4 of those bad boys by the time we left! A huge turn out.

I'm loving the area. It's seriously so much fun And me and elder
Holdaway have a blast. Our area is probably one of the most busy in
the mission too so we're working hard! Have a great week everyone.
Love you all!

- Elder Tanner Leishman

Ps. We went fishing this morning!

Week #52 - Eat. Sleep. Grind. Repeat.

Holy cow, it was a busy week for us here in Manassas. This coming week
will be even busier and I'll hit my year mark! What, what!!!

Every week we teach an English class and this week we had 5 people
come, 3 of which were non members! The funny thing is about teaching
English to Spanish people is that neither me or elder Holdaway know
any Spanish! Well, I guess I know enough to Do a door approach or
order some tacos. But what we do is read a paragraph from the ensign,
have them underline words they don't know how to pronounce or what the
definition is, we write them on the board then google translate them
and teach them how to pronounce it, then read another paragraph and do
the same. At the end we do a church tour! It was really fun, it was my
first time doing the English class when people actually showed up!

We're teaching a bunch of really great people!

Julie: She's from the less fortunate part of the area where every
other person has a pit bull and everywhere you look there's a
shirtless African American walking around all tatted up and EVERYONEs
pants are closer to their knees then they are to their waist! Hahaha
but Julie is great. She's a 50 year old woman who's very kind and very
simple. She's been getting taught for three weeks and is shooting for
June 25 for her baptism! She came to church this week and had a
wonderful experience.

Jose and Sandra: their two kids William and Brian were just baptized 3
weeks ago. They are shooting for July 9. They are from El Salvador and
are great! Sandra invited her friends to the English class and is the
reason we had more people show up! They both came to church this week
and we met with them to teach the gospel, law of chastity and word of
wisdom. They are solid and have definitely seen the blessings from
their kids getting baptized.

Angel and Isaiah: Homies from the hood! Angel met with us twice this
week and we talked about the Book of Mormon and plan of salvation, his
friend Isaiah (one of the "African Americans walking around all tatted
up with his pants closer to his knees") listened to bits of plan of
salvation too and they both said they'd be down to come to church
BUT... They bailed. Angel said he'll pray about baptism though. He's
definitely more solid then Isaiah and has told us he's felt the spirit
on asking if the Book of Mormon is true.

Another sweet experience, so remember all those guys we played ball
with all the time? Yeah, well we were talking to them this week
outside their apartment and there was probably 4 or 5 of them out
there when one of them finally agreed to a lesson (since we've been
asking him if we could teach him since the first day we met him like 4
months ago). So they all put out their cigarettes and put their beers
down and listened to a lesson. It was awesome. A couple of them were
more egged than the others but it was still awesome to finally see the
fruits of dunking on people come to fruition.

All in all, it was a great week! I'm super excited for this coming
week because on Friday I hit my year mark! I'm going to celebrate over
some cookie salad courtesy of my wonderful mother and family back
home! I love and miss you all! ☝🏼️ down, ☝🏼️ to go! John 4:36

- Elder Tanner Leishman

We sent Tanner the ingredients to make "cookie salad" in his hump day package.  He's celebrating 1 down - 1 to go!!