Ryan's Entire Mission

Ryan's Entire Mission
ryan is in the far right corner

Ryan at a Zone Conference...

Ryan at a Zone Conference...

Ryan and President Brubaker

Ryan and President Brubaker

eating raw fish -- eeewww

eating raw fish -- eeewww

Ryan at temple - day before MTC drop off

Ryan at temple - day before MTC drop off
handsome guy!

Ryan and President Smith

Ryan and President Smith
getting set apart as a missionary

Welkom all friends and family of Elder Ryan Leash

We welcome you to the first edition of Elder Ryan Leashs' missionary blog. We hope that you will find the information included fun, informative and memorable. Please make comments and show Ryan your support by writing him often!







Saturday, June 19, 2010

testimony of companioship unity~!

6-7-2010


Dear Family and friends,

I decided to start copying some things out of my journal and sending that with a little note – this will save me on time and I can still let you know what is going on. One of the missionaries told me about this. On Sunday we brought the sacrament to two members, then we went finding for the rest of the day – it was a terrible day for finding. I have no idea why. We did, at least plant some seeds. Some odd things happened: a lady who lost her teeth, but wears a metal bar device fell off her chair and stumbled out of church as if she had been drinking. She has many physically challenging limitations, but she is often so very happy! Later, toward the end of Sacrament meeting an autistic boy in the ward got up and after mumbling a few words, very quietly, and then yelled “BBBBOOOOO” very loudly into the microphone, leaving us all temporarily deaf.
Guedo Arts, the elder in the ward who practically owns the wards invited us for dinner! That was exciting. He teaches gospel doctrine and I am intimidated. Well, that was a wrap for that day.

The following Sunday was solid in that we had stake conference and we went to Belgium and listened to Brother Bednar and Brother Packer speak to us. Brother Bednar addressed us with thought, or rather council, from the Lord on how we often don’t know how much something we do can affects those around us and then he told a story that involved Brother Packer. Brother Packer then finished the story and had some similar thoughts. It was a great stake conference! Haary, the old Dutch man who helps us so much, took us to the conference and we were packed in with two others, but we made it. We had a member referral to follow up on and had a very friendly conversation with this person.

My comp and I have been going to the centrum – shopping center- to find people. We don’t always have a lot of success, but we are still trying. We also went to the older sisters’ houses, and the one sister who never comes to church. She actually is the lady who gave us the old juice the other day. Holy Cow! She is a character. She really is just a bully – bottom line. She called us asking to have us over to answer some questions she had while studying the scriptures and she is essentially inactive so we went. We knock on the door and she then tells Haary (our member helper) that she needs to go grocery shopping and that he will take her and that we need to break this pile of sticks she had in the backyard while they are shopping. I am not suicidal, but I did question her and asked her about the scripture study and she flipped out! She got right up in my face – eyes ablaze, spit flying everywhere – I don’t even remember what she said………………………….we broke sticks. She ended up buying us some food and we did (bible bash almost) talk over the scriptures, very interesting appointment!! I am very scared of her!!!!!

We did go over Stephan’s house and he has a 1 year old. He is begging for religion for his family. He is pretty promising, we will see. We shared the Book of Mormon and taught the Plan of Salvation as his father just died. A great day!!!

I will have more for you soon, but I will share with you that I know the Lord loves us I have such a strong testimony of companionship unity. My current comp and I were not on the same page for some reason and our day was not clicking. So right there in the town square I told him that I felt that we needed to have a ‘heart to heart’ so that we could get the Spirit back together with us. We did and it completely turned our day around. It was amazing!!
I love you all,
Elder Leash

Saturday, June 12, 2010

June 3, 2010

June 3, 2010

To everyone who loves me~!

I love it when you tell me about the talks at church mom! It sounds like you get a ton out of them. And two sacrament meetings; mom must really miss Cottage Park ward!


Notes of interest:

I can’t get used to the raw fish here…I could only get one bite down – the texture is just too slimy!

Our bishop is from Australia and he is a really nice guy! He served a mission in Indonesia, so he is a big help as far as missionary work. We are over at his place for dinner this upcoming Monday. Yes, our investigator from Kenya DOES want to get baptized…yippee!

Let me say again that I love my area, Eindhoven. The longer I get to stay here the better! My companion that is leaving the mission will soon come by with his parents and I look forward to that!

We have worked really hard this week! This area is doing o.k. work wise but we are trying to turn it wound. It’s actually the 5th largest city in Holland, I had no idea! A random fact you want to save mom from; Eindhoven has the most crime out of any other city in Holland, more than Amsterdam – go figure. Anyhow we love working hard her and I love being a missionary and simply helping people, it’s an amazing call!

I love you lots!

Elder Leash

Sunday, June 6, 2010

drinking mold spore/juice concoction

5-19-10

Dear everybody,

Things are very good. Yesterday was our district meeting, after which we went on exchanges – I stayed in Eindhoven with a new comp. and it went really well; I felt like I was about to get a confidence boost out of it because I was the one calling the shots and taking charge. It was really fun!

We went and did some service for an older lady in the ward. This went great right up until I saw the expiration date on some juice that Elder Brockbank had just drank. He felt kind of sick for a while as we finished up the project she had us on but soon felt fine. As we had finished we were about to leave and she stopped us and insisted that we come in and have some “tootjes” – sweets l.o.l. We went back in and Elder B., Henry, myself and the elderly lady all pilled into her tiny kitchen, at which point she pulled out ‘you know what’. I figured “no problem”, I’d just have to shake some down, but then she served us our three big glasses of juice and I noticed bits and chunks of mold floating in mine…eeewww I couldn’t fo it, so I motioned for Elder B to dump ‘em while I distracted her, so I told Zuster Lusdt that I needed to use the bathroom but that I thought she was out of toilet paper. Upon arriving in the bathroom we saw a whole role – at which point, for some reason, she got really upset.

It all worked out though when we got back into the kitchen our glasses were empty and I suddenly remembered an appointment we were almost late for before she could refill our glasses or pull something else out of her ancient food storage. Luckily none of us had to get our stomache pumped and we made it in one place.

Later that day we had an amazing day on the doors of the college campus. We knocked at maybe 15 doors or so and we had some great talks and then some numbers and follow ups. I felt so blessed. The work is good; I LOVE my mission!


5-22-10
The day before yesterday I gave my first blessing. An investigator of ours from Kenya named Caroline told us during an appointment that she needs surgery – though we did not get details about that, but she was very emotional about that. In any case, we sang some African hymns to try to confort her and shared some scriptures and then gave her a blessing. It was a last minute and I didn’t expect it at all so I know that the words I spoke come from Heavenly Father; I certainly didn’t have any time to think of words before hand, which was good. It was a warm experience for both of us, Caroline and I, because obviously she was receiving a blessing and I was exercising my priesthood. I felt the Spirit strongly and I know she did too because she was crying when we had finished. I just thought I would share that with you. I’m still good, fat and happy preaching the good word.

5-24-10
This morning was transfers. It was a big surprise and neither my companion or I expected; Elder Stringham is going to Amertart and I have a really young elder that noone knows about. I hear he has red hair and is very skinny – this is the big news. I received a wonderful letter from Grandma Thack yesterday. It was great to hear from her.
Here are some random factoids about life in Holland/Belgium:
-butter is spread on everything!
-lots of fatty foods.
-drink juice with everything and get offended if you don’t drink it.
-insane drivers
-hair styles are crazy.
-if your house stands alone without being attached to another, you are well off.
-everybody talks and thinks in a literal way.
-nobody is afraid to hurt somebody’s feelings.
-racial diversity
-small cars
-love their sweets
-beautiful architecture
-million ways to say goodbye and go through them each time you say goodbye
-lots of tulips
-rabbits in place of squirrels

5-27-10
Great news!!!! Yesterday was the first day with my new companion. We went to say hi to Caroline the investigator – our lady from Kenya. We shared the story of Paul and receiving those baptisms and then we felt the Spirit and asked Caroline to get baptized. She agreed! Words cannot describe how estatic we were. We actually got the first baptism date of the mission for this transfer. This was a real gift!
We are going to get a lot done here, and I will have more good news for you really soon.

To all, I love you very much! Same address, don’t be afraid to write!
Or email:

Love,
Elder Ryan Leash
Kluizenstraat 13
5641 HE Eindhoven
Netherlands