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!







Tuesday, November 30, 2010

October and November Letters

10-20-10

Dear family,

I liked your reference to Psalms 82:6. I can definitely see how it gives you comfort; if you look at the subtext for this reference it puts it even more simply, ‘a spirit child of Heavenly Father’. What a comfort having a Heavenly Father is. A Father who wants the best for us, who has an eternal plan for us!~ The next part of that sub-text, ‘potential to become like Heavenly Father; that certainly is a standard for us!

I think that second part is not only a standard but I also find comfort and relief through that 1st word, ‘potential’, yes, we have Godly Heritage and as a result we have seeds of that Godliness within each and every one of us, but at this point we are just seeds, a ‘potential’. Luckily we aren’t held to that standard just yet l.o.l. and we have plenty of time to reach that potential! Fortunately!

Thanks for sharing that one with me – awesome little ‘treasures’ from the scriptures! I think something True to the Faith says really ‘walks hand in hand with this scripture and the thoughts it provokes. It reads, “You are a literal child of God, spiritually begotten in the pre mortal life. As his child, you can be assured that you have divine, eternal potential and that He will help you in your sincere efforts to reach that potential. I think this statement adds another facet to your scripture, ‘sincere efforts’ – this adds a little more to that standard found from that particular scripture.

Danielle, keep bring friends to church. This brings another scripture to mind – D&C 18:15! Check it out~!

For Ian, I have some advice on relationships. Elder Ballard gives us some simple council on that matter “we have young people say that they will postpone marriage of having children until they can afford them. Let me tell you as a father of seven children, you will never be able to afford them. Just trust in the Lord as Sister Ballard and I have. Somehow it works, with His help. Elder Hales says about “some debt incurred for a modest home, an education, a basic car may be necessary to provide for a family.


The work here is pretty touch n go, I love Elder Johnson, he is a very funny guy, a great friend, and the best companion – sadly he will be transferred in three weeks. But we do have a baptism this week, an 11 year old girl, that daughter of a woman who wrote herself out of the church. We do have some other possible baptisms, including a former Muslim that will be postponed for awhile. We will see what happens with the others.

10-17-10

O.k. I did not have a very diligent companion, but you were right, this next one is a real go-getter!

Things here in Belgium are good; we just had a baptism last Sunday and should have another pretty quick.

We had a little bit of a miracle and I will tell you about it while the memory is still fresh. We had an appointment in Ieper yesterday with an inactive member from the Congo. He wants to be active now and will be at church this coming Sunday. He name is Henry. Well, after the appointment with him we had another appointment with another member immediately following and seeing a great opportunity for Henry to meet some members we invited him along. We had a GREAT appointment, the Spirit was present, and we all had a good time!

Time comes for us to leave and Henry decides to walk to the bus station, upon arriving Henry ends up seeing an acquaintance of his and introduces us. After a short chit-chat we find that she needs the same bus we do and that she is taking it all the way back to Kortrijk as well. During our hour long trip with her we learn a few things; normally she always takes the train home, it’s less crowded and stinky and she gets home in less than half the time. Coincidence? I don’t think so, she just said for some reason she ended up on the bus this evening. For some reason, she just ended up on the bus. We learned about her religious background and history, she is Christian but hasn’t been to church in several years, but she recently got a new job and has a close co-worker there that is very strong in her faith and has been encouraging our friend to get involved and find a church again. In any case, we got her contact info of course. The Lord is guiding us as missionaries, but also those around us. And He pumps them up for us to share our unique and urgent message.


Mom, I love the fact that you are studying the life of the Savior in the scriptures right now! I’m doing much of the same, mostly because of something Pres. Uchdorf said in conference, “Balance and stability come through developing and cultivation a relationship with your Heavenly Father”, it’s a pretty general statement or promise but I think accurately so; balance and stability in all avenues of life come from developing a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Bill Crans sent me a letter about his wife passing on; I sure do feel for him. How is Grandma Thackeray doing? Please keep me posted.



I love you all so much,

Elder Leash



p.s. We are doing a lot of member work; over half the branch is inactive. The weather is very cold here! It is not supposed to be above 5 degrees this coming week. Chance of snow

Friday, November 12, 2010

Belgium or bust

November 6, 2010

Dear Family!,


It was, as always, WONDERFUL to hear from you :)! It sounds like things are both good and bad, good because it sounds like all there in Sac is well and that you and Danielle are being able to have some quality time together but tough with grandma - please send some love to dad and also to grandma!

Send congrats to Lauri, that is great!

As far as things here – they are good and bad, Elder Johnson is leaving Kortrijk, Belgium, :( i love him! We had a great run, but anyhow I will be staying here and I will be companions with Elder Kramer, I’ve heard a lot of good things about him so it will be great!!! The work, well, we will probably have three baptisms this transfer so that is awesome. Adrianna is coming this Sunday for sure! And then Sabrina will come very soon - she is having some stress with whether or not she will be able to stay here in Belgium with immigration and all so she should be baptized shortly, but we will see; then last, but not least Audrienna an old french lady about 70 or so, and she is very sweet, a little tough to communicate with, but she wants to be baptized so we should get her in the water this transfer as well! Great stuff! I love you very much, you too Danielle! BTW I’m waiting on a response boo boo :) i hope you have a great week and I’ll probably write some time this week! Until then,

Love Always,
Elder Leash