Week #90 - 🔛🔝🌎

Doesn't it feel like it was just Monday about 2 days ago? That's what
it feels like for me. Time just goes by faster and faster as the weeks
progress. You know what the say, "time flies when you're having fun."

I had a good week this week. Tuesday  we had Zone Conference with both
the Centreville and Gainesville Zones. I always love getting to
receive instruction from President Huntsman. This round of Zone
Conferences, he trained us on how we can continue to strengthen OUR
testimonies of the Book of Mormon. Most of the time we focus on
helping investigators receive an answer that it's true and we just
leave our testimonies on the back burner, but we can always strive to
strengthen out testimonies. We also had a training on "Promise
Blessings". It was another highlight of the day and had an impression
that I need to go back through Preach My Gospel and study all of the
"Promised Blessings". So that's been a main topic of study the past 3
or 4 days.

Thursday was the 'Endure to the End' meeting. I wish I could have
recorded the whole meeting so I could go back and listen to it over
again. President and Sister Huntsman really motivated us to push the
limits and do a "$5 job" for the rest of our missions. I left the
meeting feeling inspired and motivated to grind to the end. Everyone
at the meeting set goals on what they would do to finish their mission
strong. I'm excited to achieve mine 😊 After the meeting I had the
blessing to go on an exchange back to one of my previous areas,
Manassas 1st Ward. It was such a great blessing to be back. It
basically felt like I was back home. I love that place. I got to see
sister Dzaran (M1 bishops wife) before we exchanged back. She's
awesome!

With regards to the missionary work in Fair Oaks, it is going
fantastic. We put another investigator on date to be baptized this
week for April 1st! She is going to work towards that day and we are
more than happy to help her with that. Her name is Anna, she's in high
school right now and is friends with one of the young women in our
ward. She has been soaking up everything we've been teaching her and
is just a honest seeker of truth. Im sure here will be more to report
on with her in the future.

Recently I was reading in 3 Nephi 11 where the Savior visits the
people in the Americas. That chapter alone is a testimony builder and
helps me know that Heavenly Father loves all of his children. Just as
he loves you and me. He would be willing to give his gospel not only
to the people in ancient Jerusalem but to the people in the ancient
Americas as well. So much love.

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL in the D.C. area recently so Elder
Williams and I decided to break out the bikes and enjoy the warmth.
Well, let's just say that we may or may not have made a stupid
decision. See the video attached. No Polynesians were seriously
injured in the making of this video. 🚲🚳

I love and miss you all. I hope you have a great week!

- Elder Leishman🕴

Week #89 - "I ❤ Cafe Rio"

ell, it is February 20th and its going to be a perfect 65
degrees today in the D.C. area. AND it's a pday. What more could you
ask for? .... well, I definitely miss the 115 degree dry heat. So I
guess I could ask for that. 🤣😅

We had a very eventful week this week. On Tuesday,, I got to go on an
exchange with Elder Simpson. One of our dear family friends from Las
Vegas that moved out here to Virginia about a year or so ago took us
out to lunch. Nicole bought one of my brother Mckay's cookbooks that
he was selling for HEFY so I was lucky enough to deliver it and grab
some lunch with her as well. If she moved about 300 yds. west of where
she lives right now, she would be in the Fair Oaks Ward with us. Close
but not close enough haha. I'm so grateful to have awesome family and
friends for support. (And by the title of the email and the picture at
the bottom, you can guess where we ate😉)

We had an AWESOME week teaching investigators. We taught our
investigator, Tuckie, and helped her learn a little more English. She
is going to be out of town this week so I will keep you posted on the
deets. We got a member referral from a young woman in our ward this
week. She really felt like her friend was prepared to hear the gospel.
So we set up an appointment at her house for a lesson. The lesson was
great and the Members friend was awesome! The spirit was super strong
as we taught her the restoration. It was probably one of the best
restoration lessons I've taught in a while. I'm super excited for
things to come. She agreed for a return appointment this Tuesday.
President Hinckley was right, missionary work is so much more
effective when done through the members.

I walked, and walked, and walked some more this week. I think I walked
20,000 steps on 3 different days this week (thank you Fitbit⌚️). Elder
Williams and I were pounding the pavement hard. It should be another
exciting week. This coming Thursday, I have my Endure to the nd
Meeting. It's basically a meeting with all the missionaries that go
home in the next couple months where President and Sister Huntsman
help motivate us to finish strong. I've heard from other missionaries
that it has been their favorite meeting of their whole mission so I'm
pretty thrilled. I'll let you know how it goes next week! I love and
miss you all.

Quote : "Be where you ought to be, when you ought to be there, doing
what you ought to be doing." - Grandpa Leishman

- Elder Leishman🕴

Elder Simpson and I with Nicole Hunt at Cafe Rio

Week #88 - Float like a 🦋, sting like a 🐝

Another transfer is upon us. I'm so glad I'm still here in the Fair
Oaks Ward. This place is amazing.  On Thursday we had our transfer and
just like that everyone was off to their new areas. Not elder Williams
and I though, we get another transfer together. It should be an
exciting one. We have one baptism set for this transfer and hopefully
we can get some more.

We had a number of exchanges with members this week. One in particular
really stood out to me. While serving in Manassas, I become pretty
good friends with some of the young men in the wWarrentonwards. One of
them texted me the other day and asked if he could come out on an
exchange with us because his ward only has sisters and he's preparing
for his mission is Guatemala. So Friday night, Sawyer came out with
us. It was great to be back with him. He is a stud and will be an
awesome missionary. We basically struck out on everyone appointment
that night but it was still a great time.

There was a number of lessons with our investigator named Tuckie. She
is the one that's in date for this transfer. We taught her English
half of the lesson and then taught her the gospel for the rest of it.
She's awesome. Her baptism is scheduled for March 18th but could
possibly be moved up if she keeps progressing the way she is. She also
came to church this Sunday which was awesome. She really enjoyed it
and made a couple new friends.

I've been reading a TON in the Book of Mormon lately as I've been
trying to hit my goal of finishing it 2 more times while on my
mission. I'm currently at the end of Alma with the 2000 stripling
warriors. It's hands down my favorite part of the Book of Mormon. I
marked my calendar all the days that I have to read and the chapters
in order for me to achieve my goal. I'm so pumped. I've decided that
on my last time reading the Book of Mormon, I'm going to get a blank
copy and highlight all the things I've learned while on my mission. I
know I've learned so many great things so don't be surprised if the
whole book is highlighted.

Well, it was an awesome week. I'm happy about what's in store for the
next couple weeks/months. I hope you all have a great week!

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole
staircase, just take the first step." - Dr. MLK Jr.

- Elder Leishman🕴

#87 - Happy February!

Hello, hello, hello!! It's so excited to have pday start at 8am now. I
feel like I have so much more time for activities haha. We were
already at the field this morning putting in some work. Hitting the
agility ladder and running some routes. We have been hitting the field
3x a week. Hmm... maybe it's a sign for things to come? #DontSleep

Elder Williams and I had another great week. We had 4 investigators at
Sacrament meeting this week. We had two part member families come and
another investigator couple. It was awesome. And even with the wild
card of a fast and testimony meeting, they all loved it! The
testimonies that were shared were perfect for our investigators, I'm
so excited for things to come. Also, elder Williams and I found out
that we are going to be together for another transfer, so we are
pretty excited. We should have a couple baptisms this transfer.

We were blessed to come across a coupon for cafe Rio this week that
was buy one get one free burritos and salads. AND it was electronic so
we had it on our iPads and it didn't say "one time use" on it. So we
were graced to go to cafe Rio 3 days in a row this week for lunch. We
probably only spent a total of 5 dollars each this week on our lunch.
It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. Hey, the people at
cafe Rio were down with it and so were we. And we now no longer have
to tell them what we like, they just know to throw that tortilla on
the grill for a pork salad. 😏

We found some new investigators this week that seem pretty promising.
One guy is named Ryan. He is a stud. He was cleaning his car when we
street contacted him. In our lesson he talked about how his faith in
Jesus Christ helped him quit doing drugs and that he has been clean
for about 8 months. It was a spirit-filled conversation. I'll keep you
all posted on what happens with him.

Another pretty cool experience, we had a pass off lesson with the
Chinese elders this week. They have been teaching a Thai investigator
that lives in our area. So we met up with them this week and helped
teach Tuckie English and then taught her a message about the gospel
afterwards. She is on date for march 18th. So I'm pretty stoked to be
teacher her. The only thing is we need to find someone that speaks
Thai to come to our lessons with her. That might be a little tough...

I hope you all have a great week!

Quote : "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to
live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi

- Elder Leishman🕴

Week #86 - "Is the pudding ready?"

So many great things have happened since last Monday, I don't even
know where to begin. We saw a ton of success working with members of
the ward this week. We had a double spilt Tuesday,Wednesday, and Thursday 
nights. That means that we got 2 priesthood holders from the
ward to come out with us and I went with one and Elder Williams went
with another. It helps when you are double booked on appointments. So
we were able to get twice the amount of work done those nights. We had
a couple lessons with the recent convert twins, Adrianna and
Gabrielle. They are awesome. Probably the cutest little 9 year olds
ever and they know a lot about the gospel which is good. We didn't get
too many appointments in with our investigators which was kind of a
bummer but we will get 'em next week. But we did have a family come to
church this week that has been investigator for about the length of my
mission. So I was super pumped about that!! 💪🏼⛪️

Wednesday we had a Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. It was awesome. We
were trained on how we can better "teach repentance and baptize
converts". I really enjoyed it. It was very informative and answered
some of my questions on how I can finish my mission strong and be
effective while doing so. At the end of the broadcast they introduced
to us some changes to our missionary schedule. I'm really excited for
this. It's giving us a lot more ability to choose how we spend our
time. I'm excited. It also means that pday started at 8am, and who
wouldn't want a longer pday?? 🕺🏻I'm super excited for the changes
they made to our schedule. I feel like it will be a lot more
effective.

We also had interviews with our mission president this week. It's
always great to sit down with President Huntsman. He's so awesome. The
topic of our interview was on repentance and president had asked all
the missionaries, prior to their interview, to come with their
favorite scripture on repentance. So I came with Isaiah1:18.. If you
don't know what it is, go look it up.👀 It's great!

All in all, it was an exciting week. I'm so grateful for the awesome
experiences I've had so far. As a little side note from this week, I
started the Doctrine and Covenants challenge. I'm not sure if other
missions or missionaries do it. But basically, you start the challenge
when you have 138 days left on your mission and you read a section
every day so you will finish it on the last day of your mission. So I
started that this week. I'm through the first two sections. I'm
excited to dive into the Doctrine and Covenants!!

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you ❤

Quote: "There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will
have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again
before we reach the mountaintop of our desires." - Nelson Mandela

- Elder Leishman🕴

Ps. I'll give someone a quarter if they can guess the movie quote in
the subject of this email. 😌


- Elder Leishman🕴

Week #85 - Another day, another dollar

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week. Mine was very
eventful. We had a little stoppage of progression with our
investigators that are on date to be baptized. But no worries, we will
get them back rollin here in no time. Just gotta trust the process!

I had the opportunity of going on exchanges in the Manassas 1st Ward
this week, my old area. It's funny because one of the missionaries
that was in my zone when I was ZL there is now my ZL. It's funny how
the roles have reversed lol. But it was so nice to be back. I miss
that place so much. It was great to see some of the members I used to
visit with as well. Shout out to Sister McIllece for having us over
for dinner that night! In the evening, I was able to go visit the
bercians. The family that got baptized while I was there. Man, I miss
William and Brian bercian. They are like my little brothers. But we
had a good lesson about serving in the church. In the middle of the
lesson, William told me that he made the decision that he is going to
serve a mission when he turns 18. Nothing made me more happy!!

On Saturday night around 10:15pm, one of the members of the bishopric
texted us and said that one of the speakers for Sacrament meeting had
called in sick. So they wanted to ask me if I could give a talk the
next day. It was a blessing to be able to speak in the fair oaks ward
again. I love it here. I'm so grateful to have the support of our ward
and I am glad I got the chance for them to hear and know that I have a
testimony.

I heard there was something big that happened in DC on Friday? Haha
jk, there was so much commotion about the inauguration this week.
People were coming out of the woodworks, but I heard it went well. I
can always say I was in the DC area when Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Pretty cool.

I hope you all have a great week! ❤️

- Elder Leishman🕴

Brian, myself, and William Bercian

Week #84 - Best Week of the Mission (for real)

This week was probably the best week of my mission. I'll give a brief
run down of what happened with our investigators then I'll talk about
our mission Conference. So we still have our investigator, Yolanda, on
date for February 11th. She's still out of town but should be back
soon. We put our investigator Kristin on date for January 28th, which
is super soon but she's so ready to be baptized. I'm really excited
for the work that's been going on. We have had a lot of success
teaching the past couple weeks. I'm so glad Heavenly father is
blessing us with work to do! We also had zone Conference this week. I
love getting instruction from president huntsman. We have a lot of new
rules coming out in our mission. It should be exciting to turn our
mission into the "Washington DC South 2.0" mission. We gotta take it
to the next level with our work and our obedience!

Now let's get to the good stuff Saturday, we had a double mission
Conference. Our mission and the Washington DC North mission. We all
met at the Mt. Vernon Stake Center. We were joined by Elder Ronald A.
Rasband and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. There were some members of the Seventy there as well. All
together there were about 10 General Authorities if I had to guess.
They were all in town for a military fireside which was going to be
held Saturday night as well as a YSA Stake Conference which they
would preside at on Sunday. . And so while they were in town, the
requested to meet with the missionaries in the area. We started off
the morning taking a mission picture with both of the brethren. That
was awesome. It was like as soon as they came into the cultural hall
for the picture, it got silent. You could hear a pin drop. You could
tell as soon as you saw them that they were servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Elder Rasband talked to us about how we can invite our
investigators to repent and how that is the most important thing that
anyone can do in this life. Elder Ballard promised us that if each of
us talk to at least 10 people everyday, our mission will teach and
baptize more than we have before. I thought that was pretty awesome to
hear that promise come from one of the Apostles. The spirit was so
strong all morning. It was literally like a spiritual thanksgiving
where you keep going back for seconds and thirds and fourths. I'll
never forget that day for the rest of my life.

A pretty cool story, so prior to the visit with the brethren, the
weather forecast showed that we were going to have snow, rain, and
freezing rain. Well, Saturday morning rolled around and we had a
little rain but nothing else. I thought that was pretty cool. But
wait, it gets better. The next day at church, we were talking to our
bishop about the whole experience and how the weather calmed and what
not. Now, our bishop, who is a marine, went to the military fireside
on Sunday night with the Apostles. And while Elder Rasband was talking
to them, he told a story about how before all the events that were
supposed to happen this weekend, they saw the weather forecast and saw
that it was going to be horrible weather. Well, he said that him and
Elder Ballard both prayed together, out loud, and asked to Lord to
calm the elements so they could still meet with everyone. And what do
you know? The weather wasn't bad at all and we were able to meet with
them. How awesome is that? Miracles are real, that was one that I
witnessed this week.

While still riding our spiritual high from meeting with members of the
Quorum of the twelve, elder Williams and I prepared a presentation
that we would be giving at our wards Mission Prep. We had an
invitation from our bishop to preform the haka for all the youth that
were preparing for missions. And so if anyone of you are poly or know
what a haka is, you'll know how special it was for us. Well, all week,
elder Williams and I practice the haka in preparation for Sunday night.  
Sunday night, we talked to the youth and tried to motivate
them to be warriors, to enlist in the war that is going on right now
between good and evil. Then at the end, we did the haka for them. It
was such a spiritual experience and elder Williams definitely killed
it and I tried my best to be as "non-palangi" as I possibly could. We
went all out and you could tell the youth know what they needed to do,
they knew they needed to become the warriors that we were changing
about in the haka. I'm so glad I got to be a part of that tremendous
experience. Someone took a video of it that maybe will get sent out at
sometime haha. But if not, I'll attach the pics we took afterwards.

To top it all off, we went to the temple this morning. What a great
way to end off one of the best weeks of my mission. I'm so thankful to
have a temple that I can attend so close by. I'm so blessed to be a
part of this restored gospel. The gospel is true. This work is true. I
stand as a representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ and I know that he
lives and he has his hand in the tiny fragments of our lives. I love
and miss you all. Have a great week!

- Elder Leishman🕴

Elder Williams and I after our Haka at our ward Mission Prep class

- Elder Leishman🕴