October 25, 2010
Dear Family!
Hey thanks for the emails! I really enjoyed them. I love being able to hear from you every week, so thank you. It was a pretty good week for me here. Let me think of what happened... So last P-Day we went to the zoo and it was a lot of fun! There was NO ONE there so we had the whole zoo to ourselves! They actually had a lot more animals than I thought they were going to have and they even had some that I had never seen before. It was a pretty small zoo, but it was a cute little place. We just had a lot of fun running around and taking pictures and making the most of it. I'll have to send some pictures. Haha, anyways, it was pretty fun. Then we went to the Morrells for FHE because they asked us to give the lesson. That was pretty good. They always have good food. You get kind of sick of your own cooking after a while... especially when you can't cook the greatest. :) So, on Tuesday we had our first English class of the transfer and we had to combine all of the classes because the other elders were in Riga for another training conference. So it was us and the sisters that taught the class, but it was mostly me that took charge. There were about 50 people in the class and most of them were first level students so they didn't speak any English. SO.... that was interesting and nerve wracking for me! I have to say that the Lord really blessed me to be able to say what I needed to say in the class. I prayed so hard for his help to be able to speak. I felt that it went pretty well, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without the Lord. The rest of the week there wasn't really anything new that happened. But on Friday night Elder Sanford and I were knocking on some doors and this one guy opened the door for a second then told us to hold on for a second and then closed the door and went back inside. Elder Sanford was like, "is he going to go get a gun so he can shoot us?" And I was said, "yeah probably," and I smiled. So he came back out and he didn't have a gun, but he tried to give us some money cause he thought we were collecting tithing for the Catholic church, but we told him that we didn't want his money! It was really funny. But we told him that we did want to talk to him about the Book of Mormon, which we showed him. He invited us in and we taught him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He was really receptive and the spirit was there. At the end I challenged him to be baptized (cause that is part of all of this new training, to invite people to repent and be baptized in the first or second lessons) and we sat there for what seemed like a really long time! He finally answered and said that he couldn't answer at that moment but that he would think about it. He was a really nice guy about 30 years old and has a wife and little daughter. We will hopefully meet with him again this week and I hope that it goes somewhere. I'm just grateful that we were led to him. Some of the things that you guys have said to me in recent letters have really made me think and ponder about being LEAD to those that are PREPARED. There really are people in this country that the Lord has prepared and we just need to find them. I know that this isn't Lamanite country like you said in your letter, Mom, so I will be more grateful for that and remember that it is easier here than it was for the sons of Mosiah. Thanks for the reminder. Anyways, that was a pretty cool thing that happened and I just wanted to share that. That was pretty much it for my week though. Pretty normal. :)
Remember that the Lord is with you. Remember not to get discouraged. Remember to count your blessings. And remember that the Lord has a plan for everything in our lives. He will prepare a way, just like Nephi talks about and continually testifies about in the Book of Mormon. I hope that you have a wonderful, Joy-filled week! Thank you for everything and for all of the support! I'll write next week!
Love, Elder Leishman
285 days down, 445 days to go!
