Well, this is it! The last email from Elder Leishman!

Tanner's Homecoming will be on Dec. 16, 11am at the Stake Center on 12101 South 700 West, Draper, Utah.  We will be having treats at our house afterward.  We would love to have you there!


Hi Everyone.

Well, I guess this is the last letter of my mission.  I'd like to give a last testimony for anyone who reads these.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth.  I know that God loves every single one of us, and even though we don't know why things happen, He does know.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I know that because the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I know that because I read the book, and I prayed about it, and God himself, through his Holy Spirit answered me.  I know that I was called by a Prophet to serve a mission.  I know that the Lord needed me in Colombia in this moment.   I know that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God.  I know that he receives revelation for all of us.  If you have any doubt about any of these things, please just read the Book of Mormon and ask God in prayer if it is true.  You won't need to know anything else.  I love you guys, I love the gospel, and I love Colombia.

I honestly am going to miss Colombia with all of my heart.  I've had a lot of incredible experiences that have made me grow to love this country more than I can express.  I can't wait until I can come back here and be able to enjoy more of the wonderful creations that God has made here. 

   

I want to thank everyone for your support.  I love all of you and can't wait to see you all soon.

Love - Elder Leishman

Week 100!

Hey mom!  Yeah it's pretty freaky.  WEEK 100!!! What the heck???  Haha I'm kind of sad, because I'll be pretty much travelling all over the place this week, and then next week is just like 3 days in my area and then I go to back to Bogota for trainings. This week is a little weird, I'll probably explain more next week but we are pretty much spending the next 2 or 3 days in Bogota, then we need to go to Ibagué (my last area) for a training with Elder Falabella and then we go back to Neiva (current area) so I guess I have a few days left in the mish to work. CARAMBAS. 

But yeah I really don't have much to talk about, not a lot going on.  Just trying to get some last good work in.  Also, I got super cheap all the sudden and haven't bought any clothes yet with the money I pulled out but we'll see, haha. Love you guys!  See you soon!

Week 99!

Hey mom! Its pretty weird.  I probably only have this week and next week to work and the rest is just trainings for real life.  Also, weird fact, the oldest missionary in the field just ended his mission this week...so I am officially the missionary with the most time in the mission right now (even more than the president, haha) so that's a weird feeling.

Today we went back to the Desert of the Tatacoa.  It was pretty cool, this time we brought the whole zone too so that was fun.  It was pretty much the same thing we did the last time, but with more people.  So this pic is super cool though.  There was this HUUGE concert here this week called "mago de oz" to neiva.  We obviously didn't get to see them, but I definitely got a t-shirt.  So I was sporting my dope new mago de oz shirt, and all the sudden some of the band members showed up.  So you KNOW we snapped a pic with them :) hahaha, it was pretty cool.  They're pretty famous it was wack, haha. I honestly have the best luck in the world.

The other pic is the zone (at least those that went). If you cant see me, I'm the one holding Elder Barrett.  Good times. 

Love you guys! Sorry the letter isn't very interesting...I can literally just tell you the details later. 

PEACE AND LOVE.

Week 98!

Hey, Mom! Sadly, not much to talk about here either.  Just trying to finish up well.  We played some soccer and frisbee today.  I was sweating like crazy.  Then we went to the mall and ate some food.  Pretty average Pday.  

This week we didn't really have a lot go down.  We have been trying to visit more member to try and get references.  And, well, we got references. But we just didn't get the chance to teach them so we didn't find a lot of news.  The area has been going through a tough spot, so we are trying to pull it out of this funk.  It's honestly a really killer area, I don't know what's wrong.  

  

Things are good though! I'm dying of heat, and probably going to continue dying for the next few weeks.  LOVING LIFE.

Sorry for the short letter, we got to the internet place a little late. Love you guys! Talk to you next week.

Week 97!

Hey, Mom! So far so good!  Jorge did indeed end up getting baptized.  It was a super cool spiritual experience.  

Yesterday being fast and testimony meeting was really cool.  Pretty much Jorge's entire family got up and bore testimony and talked about how happy they were.  Then Jorge's son got up and bore a killer testimony.  He got real emotional (he's like 12, but he's kind of an old 12 year old) and it was just a really cool experience.  Everyone felt the spirit and was real happy. I have pics, but this computer doesn't have a place for me to send pictures so yeah that sucks.

Other than that, I've just been workin' my butt off to try and make sure I end the mish well. It still hasn't really settled in so I'm  just trying to make sure I end on a good note.  We've been  contacting like crazy, and haven't really been seeing the results that we want, but we are still working.  

Thanks for the letter mom! You're the best. Sorry it's so short...I'm low on things to talk about.  Hahaha

Week 96!

Hey, Mom! Good news! My last comp´s name is Elder Gamez.  We were Semi-comps for like 2 weeks last transfer so its all good we already know each other.  He is from Washington (the last name comes from Salvador).

This week was a lot better.  We had leadership counsel which is always hard because it is so long, but I survived.  We had a real good time too.  The mission is getting changed quite a bit these days so it's kind of weird to see everything change as I'm ending.  

I left the meeting with a cool new motivation to work harder.   It's been good.  It's helped quite a bit. We had a super powerful lesson with an investigator named Jorge.  He's been going to church for over a year now, but just wouldn't get baptized.  We had a little talk with him, and he decided to get baptized this weekend.  He really is awesome.  It was a good testimony for me because the Lord understands everyone's situation and will humble his children in any way that he wants to secure the salvation of his children.

Yeah, transfers were tough.  It was weird to say by to Elder Stearns since I may or may not see him again in the mish.  WACK.  It was sad to say by to some other friends from the zone too.  It's all good though, transfers always come around.

Love you guys a ton!  I hope you have a good week. See you soon!

Week 95!

Hey mom! Things have been cool here.  I have to confess.  I pulled a BUNCH of money out today.  Some of it, the church will pay me back for...but a lot of it...I bought some cool clothes with.  The clothes are cheap here so I was kind of just buying my Christmas clothes here.  Like, a real nice pair of jeans or khaks for like 15 bucks, or t-shirts for like 8-10 bucks.  So if I take it too far, just tell me.  I'll have to send some pics, because I got some pretty cool stuff. :)  Preparing myself to be a "YSA," hahaha.

This week was tough, we had very little time in our own  are to work because we were all over the zone doing interviews and exchanges and stuff but it was okay.  

Out of nowhere on Saturday, President Nelson had a surprise transmission for all the missionaries from our area, South America Northwest  (Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela). We all thought he was gonna rip us a new one or something, but he and and Elder Stevensen and some of the area presidency just gave some really cool talks.  Pres Nelson analyzed a bit about Christ´s ministry in the Americas and compared it with the Bible. Super cool.  Lots of interesting stuff.

Sunday we were super worried that no one was going to come to church, but God saw our efforts and helped some miracle investigators come to church, and even some members brought friends to church that we got to teach. LOVIN' THE BLESSINGS.  I'm really hopin' that this week (AFTER the 6 hour bus ride back to Neiva) we get some time to work.  I need to really just take advantage of the time I have left.  

Love you guys like crazy! Keep it real.

1. Clothes hunting, trying to help Elder Stearns find his style

2. I didn't have a baptism, but the sisters´ convert asked me to baptize her, haha

3. I don't know if I already sent this one, but the other day we walked by a house and the lady had a big ol' turtle, so we asked if we could take a pic with it and she said yea.  Classic.

Week 94!

Hey guys! Sounds like pretty good week for you guys!  This week was pretty good too.  We had our interviews with president and a training with the presidente which was pretty cool.  The interview was pretty wack.  He thanked me for my hard work in my mission.   It felt pretty weird because the next interview I have with him will be in my last transfer.  FREEAK.

We had kind of a surprise baptism.  A member's stepson hadn't been baptized yet because he doesn't really live at home until Saturday night (he lives in a little city outside of Neiva) but he had a week off of school so he got baptized.  It was pretty cool.  Now the goal is to help the parents get married so that they can all come to church together.  It'll be good I hope. :)

We went to this place called the Tatacoa Desert today.  It was fun.  Real hot but what's new.  There was a big techno concert this weekend so there were a lot of foreign people.  Pretty fun to see people from all over the place.  We also ate goat meat...weird as weird, but actually pretty good, haha.

We are about to head down to a place called Pitalito to do exchanges with some missionaries from the zone.  They say the weather there is perfect so I'm pretty pumped. :) I'll let you know how it goes!

Love you guys! Hope you have a good week <3

Week 93!

Hey mom!  Things are pretty good around here.  Not really much going on really...it wasn't a very good week in the mission work in our area this week, haha, so I really don't have much to say.  

Some kind of cool things though:

1.  We went and taught the colonel of the national police here is Neiva.  I'm sure you saw the photo. It was pretty funny because we had to get special permission to go into his office, and then a policeman escorted us to the office, and two goofy gringos, and a sister from the ward, walkin' around like we freaking own the place. So they show us to the office, and we walk in and he is in a conference with  a bunch of other people, and he sees us and goes, "Alright, lets take five," and everyone left while he listened to our message, haha. I'm surprised he took the time to listen because they were planning a meeting with the president of Colombia for the next day.  CRAY.  

2.  Today we found Dr Pepper.  They also had cherry flavored. #blessings

Yep.  That's about it really.  The tims are grat, and the grats are tims.  Love you guys, have a good week.

P.S.  I'm sorrry, I forgot to take pics this week and well the last time I plugged my camera in I got a virus and I think I permanently lost like 2 or 3 months of photos. So I'm not too motivated to plug anything into anything these days.

(thanks to Darrelyn Stearns for this pic!)

Week 92!

Hey mom! This week was cool.  I've been dying the whole week of the heat (It's been about 98-99 degrees during our workin' hours all week) so I'm literally exhausted.  Hopefully I'll get home nice and skinny, hahaha.  It's like living in a sauna and never being able to leave.  Even our room is this tiny little thing with no windows so we just sweat all night. Greaat.  

We had a fun week with the work too.  The members here are really strong so we get a lot of referrals. It's real nice.  Last night we had a member invite us over to teach a friend and he had another buddy there that he invited to join the lesson.  We invited them to be baptized if they found out that these things were true and they were like "Of course!" So it was cool.  I was pumped.  

Time is doing the opposite of flying.  Its walking...very slowly.  Haha, I can tell this last stretch is gonna be a long one.  Ya casi.

Love you guys!  I hope you have a good week.  Keep it real!

Week 91!

Hey mom! All is well, I'm sorry, we kind of went shopping today in downtown Bogota and ran out of time.  That's why I pulled out some cash.  I was thinking it would be good to buy myself some clothes because they are cheap here, and I'm less fat than when I left.  So  figured we could count it as hristmas stuff. 

This week was weird.  SUUPER hot, but I'll be alright. I'm hopin' it sweats a few pounds off, haha.  Not really a lot went down this week. I'm still figuring out the area.  The ward is really strong which is awesome.  Members give a lot of references which is great.  Lovin' life. Things with Elder Stearns are going real well.  Haha, we just talk about nerd crap all day.  He is even willing to listen to me talk magic for a bit so its all good.  

Sorry, not a very interesting week. I'm hoping next week is better.  PS.  This photo is from my bday- it's the bday lunch Grammy bought us.

Week 90!

Hey mom! Transfers:  I'm in a new zone called Neiva, my new comp is Elder Stearns from Idaho.  The area is Granjas.  Pretty cool transfer.  So I actually used to make fun of Neiva.  It's considered one of the most successful zones in the mission so I'm happy to be finishing up the mish here.  I'm still a zone leader, which I'm slightly sad about, but Jeran says that means that I'm a good zone leader, because I don't want to be one. I was just kind of hoping to rest in peace as junior comp, haha.  It's gonna be fun though. I've known Elder Stearns for a while now so I know we are gonna have fun.  

Saying bye to Ibague was pretty sad.  I made a lot of friends there and had a lot of fun.  It was bitter sweet leaving, because I wasn't there for very long, but I didn't really want to end my mission there, so yeah. 

 Good times, and the tims are even grahter {Tanner lingo, for those of you who don't speak "Tanner"}. 

Love you guys, have a killer week.

#last12weeks

Week 89!

Hey mom! This was a good week! We got 3 baptisms which was rad.  They are a semi active family.  They were all real active in the church like 10 years ago but for some reason just quit going, but they all got pretty motivated when we invited the kids to get baptized.  So slowly but surely they are all coming back to church. :) It was cool though.  They were a reference from another family that we baptized one of their kids a few weeks back (Santiago) so we're getting a lot of work done.  Good stuff.  Also, I  would send pics, but the computer gave my camera a virus #dope.

Today we made tacos for lunch.  Real good.  Thanks for the taco packets.  It made for a real good pday.  

Sorry for the uninteresting letter, I don't really have much to say these days.  I think the mission coming to an end has just made everything look so normal.  YAY.

Love you guys, thanks for the letter.  Have a good week.

Week 87!

Hey mom!

Really not much to talk about on my end.  We didn't have a ton of time to work this week.  The president asked us to go to every house in our zone and take pictures of the mattresses (I know, weird. He just wants to make sure everyone is living okay).  So that took a bunch of time, haha.  Also, we had to go empty out a house, and then help some sisters in our zone move houses, so that was another day lost.  But hey, I can't be mad, we found 13 new investigators haha.  It was pretty cool.  A lot of them came from our 100 contacts. 

Also, a cool thing, we had some appointments fall through this week and so we sat down, and were thinking about what to do, when I saw a lady poke her head out of her house, look around, and walk back in.  I went "hey guys, let's go teach that lady" and we went up to the door, and she let us in to teach her and her family.  Pretty cool.  It was a real nice miracle that happened to us.  Gotta love it.

Again mom, I'm sorry I keep pulling money out.  I don't know what to do...the mission keeps requiring me to spend big money....and they're just not paying me back so I'm kinda screwed. I promise I'm not just blowing cash left and right.  I had to pay for the moving truck the other day, and I had to pay to get to Bogota today and then a bunch of taxis to help people move and stuff.  Sorry...I'm a bass.

Love you a ton mom, have a good week! #ihit20monthstoday.

Week 86!

Hey mom!  Thanks for the music you sent.  You're keeping my comp and me alive right now, haha. :)

-An AP challenged us and some other companionships to get 100 contacts in 2 days. It was pretty hard and exhausting but I'm sure we´ll get a ton of new investigators for it this week.

-My comp and I have become chefs. Which is pretty good.  We've been trying to good better in the house to waste less money and eat healthier. So far so good.

-We had 8 investigators come to church yesterdee which was pretty cool.  Can't go wrong there.

-There was a fireside here with the mission president, and he invited 2 investigators there (one of which doesn't feel like he is ready to get baptized) and president had an interview with him, and then called him out in front of the entire fireside and goes "Benito, I know you can change." And gave him a whole "just freaking get baptized man" in front of a ton of members.  So we're hoping to get some results soon.  

-Don't worry about calling, if you gotta, you gotta.  Especially if Collin needs to talk.

-That's about it.

Love you mom.  Thanks for everything. You're the best.  Have a good week.