Week #93 - "Isaiah 52:7"

If you would have told me on Monday that I'm going to be in the
scenario that I am in now, I would have told you that there's better
odds of the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead..... well....shoot. That
basically sums up my week. Anything bad you can think of in missionary
work, probably happened to us this week. If I had to put it into
perspective, this week was about as disappointing as when we lost the
state semifinal in quadruple overtime and I got punched downstairs
TWICE! Yup, exactly. 👊🏼

It started with our investigator, Tuckie (who was supposed to be
baptized this week), dropping us via the Chinese elders. Apparently
she got pretty offended when we invited her out to church? I'm not
sure there was much else I could do there since coming to church is
one of the most important things we invite people to do. She told the
Chinese elders that she didn't want to meet with us anymore. Hopefully
someday she meets some missionaries again and is welcoming to them.
Then, we found out from a young woman in our ward that our most solid,
progressing investigator had started going back to church with her
mom. She had a Baptismal date as well for the middle of April. Talk
about a jab to the mouth, or two! Hopefully one day, they both can
remember when Elder Williams and Elder Leishman taught them about the
gospel of Jesus Christ and it will ring familiar to them. But for now,
sounds like it's just going to be back to square 1.

In all the chaos and negative of the week, there was some positive. We
had Harry and Delaine at church this Sunday as well as Elisabeth and
Basillio with the twins. Even crazier, we didn't think either of them
were coming. We thought we weren't going to have anyone at church but
there was a miracle and we had 4 investigators there! I asked Bishop
Burciaga if I could bare a brief testimony in Sacrament Meeting as my
"goodbye." I'm so glad i did because all 4 of them were able to hear
my final testimony in the ward. I told them that when they all get
baptized, I'm coming back for it 😊

We found out our transfer doctrine this past Saturday. Tomorrow I will
be leaving and going to the Arlington 2nd Ward. Even with as rough of
a week as Elder Williams and I had in Fair Oaks, I am devastated to
leave. I have been able to learn so many great lessons from Elder
Williams. He is one of the most loving guys I've ever met in my life.
I think back on all the talks during walks, movie quotes, and even
just pillow talk and it makes me so grateful we had those experiences.
He's definitely an uso for life. 🙏🏼 I'm going to miss the Fair Oaks
Ward. Isn't it surreal that you can be in an area for as little as 4-5
months, yet feel like you've known the members you've served for a
lifetime? I'm gonna miss this area, I'm definitely leaving a piece of
my heart in Fair Oaks. The Members in the the ward have been the
biggest blessing to my mission. They probably had a long stronger
impact on me than I had on them and for that I am eternally grateful.
I am excited to go to Arlington 2nd Ward though. I've heard great
things and it's right across the river from D.C. My new companion is
Elder Nielsen. I don't know much about him except for the fact he's
been out for about 6 months. We are going to be grinding my last two
transfers. Here we go💪🏼

You'd think as a mission goes on, this stuff would get easier and
easier. Well, it doesn't. Getting dropped still hurts your heart.
Getting transferred is like leaving home again. And getting a new
companion is always a little nerve-racking. But I wouldn't trade any
of this for the world. I love it so much, I have learned to experience
what "true joy" is over the past 21 months. I will forever be grateful
that I served a mission.

I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Elder Leishman

I got a pic with Elisabeth, Basillio, and the twins at church
yesterday. Love these guys!

Week #92 - March Madness 🌨❄️🏀

It's that time of year. My favorite month-long holiday, March
Madness😎. So first off, let's get to the important stuff, can someone
send me a copy of the bracket? I mean, I have about the same odds as
everyone else when picking the games and I haven't even watched all
season!! 😜

You know what else is "mad" about march? The fact that we are supposed
to get a foot of snow over the next 3 days... what the? It hasn't
snowed all winter and now, when it's supposed to start warming up, it
snows? I'm so conflicted. Do I put the winter clothes away or not?
Someone help!

Well, Elder Williams and I had a better week. We pounded the pavement
HARD! After our week prior, we knew we needed to find some more people
so we decided to just go out and start knocking. We set a goal to
knock 100 doors a day for the rest of the transfer. On our first day
of 100 doors, we found 3 new investigators. It was awesome! The Lord
blessed us extremely. I'm convinced that because we showed Heavenly
Father our dedication to finding new people, and what we were willing
to sacrifice to find them, he put prepared people in our path. Another
miracle of our 'finding week' was that we got a call from this random
guy named Michael. He said that he had met with missionaries before
and wanted to meet up and talk with us. We met him later that day at
Dunkin Donuts and taught him the restoration. He is really interesting
in changing religions. We committed him to be baptized and invited him
to church. And guess what? HE CAME! He was an hour late because he
forgot to turn his clock up with day light savings but he still came!
It was amazing, a huge tender mercy from the Lord to us. More to come
on our new friend, Michael.

We had some good lessons with our current investigators this week. We
met with Anna again, she is AWESOME!! She has already read through 1
Nephi 14. The lesson we had was perfect. We read through one of my
favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, Alma 32. We moved her
baptismal date back just a couple weeks so she can make it out to
church 3 times before then. She is now working for April 15th! I'm so
excited, she's one of a kind!

I've been learning so many great things lately in my studies. I'm
almost finished with the Book of Mormon. I play to start it again on
Friday for my 90-day challenge! Great things to come! I love and miss
you all!

Peace and Blessin's,
Elder Leishman

Ps. Last pday we were playing basketball with the zone. Needless to
say, I still got it. 🤑 Well, somewhat... my 👌🏼 ball was on point.
That's about it haha. ⛹🏻🏀

Week #91 - Luke 23:26

What does a buffalo say to his son that's leaving for college? ..... "Bison"🏼 

There were a ton of tender mercies and miracles that happened this week. But I want to share one in particular. Elder Williams and I had a pretty slow week with teaching and finding so I got to Sunday a little down in the dumps. In Sacrament meeting I was thinking about our week and how it hadn't been the most successful. Then, in walked a man with his kids that sat right in front of us. He had a baby that was in a stroller that kept looking at me, smiling and giggling. So I spent a good couple minutes making faces at this baby to make him smile and giggle. And for some odd reason, that was a huge tender mercy to me. I was completely down on myself and this baby turned my attitude 180-degrees. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father knew what I was going through and he put this little guy in my path to lift my spirits. I'll attach a pic of the view I had in Sacrament meeting. I'm convinced next week will be better! 🏼

We had a little stoppage in progression of most of our investigators this week. We have some appointments scheduled this week so I'm sure things are on the up and up!  

Every Sunday night we have a correlation meeting with our bishop. We usually talk about the work in our area and how we can help our investigators or less active members. But this week we just had a good talk about how we can "bear his cross." Bishop Burciaga shared some scriptures with us from the New Testament, including the one in the title of my email, about the Savior on his path to Golgotha, carrying his cross. We talked about Simon who was "compelled to bear his cross." He really gave me a lot of motivation and asked me how I am going to help bear the cross of the Savior for the rest of my mission. It was probably the highlight of my week. I'm thankful for experiences like that that have helped me over my mission. I don't know where I would be without them. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

- Elder Leishman 

Ps. If you haven't emailed me my whole mission, now would be a great time to reconnect with me and fire me a quick message. 🤣  

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🕴