We Have 2 Ears and One Mouth for a Reason

Dear family and friends,

It's hard to believe that I am writing my 6th email from the MTC and that in three short weeks I will be on my way to the Philippines! The time flies here! The weeks go by faster than I ever thought they would. This past week my district taught at the TRC for the first time in 100% Tagalog. I don't think I have ever studied as hard as I did in the days preceding the TRC. I was a little nervous going about teaching but it went really well. When I walked into my assigned room I was pleased to see that I would be teaching Ty Foster again. It really has been awesome being able to teach someone you know. Elder Tomasi and I taught the entire first lesson with about 10-12 words of taglish between the two of us. I was amazing with how well we did. It really helped me gain a stronger testimony of our ability as missionaries to do amazing things if we are working hard and living worthy of the spirit. However there was one thing that we did terrible at during our teaching and that was listening. focusing on what I was going to say in Tagalog I know that during the entire lesson I was We have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason. Listening to your investigators is sooooo important. Without really listening to the investigator you cannot teach to their needs. In contrast to the TRC, on friday we taught our progressive investigator John a lesson about faith and exercising it through prayer. I tried so hard to listen to John and have him repeat something if I didn't understand it. I also had a prayer in my heart whenever Elder Tomasi was teaching. The difference was amazing. The spirit was strong, the Tagalog words came to my mouth and we were able to really teach to John's needs like we had not done before. It's such a great experience to teach and feel the spirit. I cannot wait to see what it's like to teach the gospel to a real investigator.

Elder Tomasi is doing great! I am so blessed to ahve him as my kasama. I really do learn important things from him everyday. Since day one at the mtc I have had a feeling that a lot of my important learning at the MTC would have a lot to do with my companionship with Elder Tomasi. I know that this is true and I know that we are companions for a reason. Again thank you to all who have sent him a letter. Letters mean more to him than any package or gift could so thank you so much.

On a slightly random note, about a week ago I had gained almost 10 lbs since I had entered the mtc.... gotta love the mtc food! But however I am currently on my way back down and am only 5-6 lbs above where I came in. Just thought I would share that fun fact with you.

Yesterday at the Sunday night fireside, Steven B Allen (the director of the missionary department?) gave us a great talk about how the turbulance and trials and how they are here to help us grow stronger. I know that every missionary experiences a least a little turbulance at the mtc. I know I have. There have been many times where I have felt discouraged about the language and feelings of inadequacy about being a missionary and being able to help be the companion Elder Tomasi needs. However I have learned that after these feelings leave I feel more able to do the things that the Lord wants me to do. The only way to grow stronger and become a faithful servant of the lord is to experience some trials and turbulance in your life. I know that the lord will do what's best for us if we trust in him.

Well my time is almost up! If anyone has any questions for me don't be afraid to write. Things are great here. I love being a missionary.

Love

Elder Leishman

Ps. our zone gets 2 new districts on wed. I'm so excited!

Sacrament Meeting, part 2

If you know the Leishman family, you know we take A LOT of photos! There were too many to upload round 1, so enjoy round 2! Thanks again for you wonderful friends and family who came out to support Elder Leishman.

End of the Week

Elder Leishman sent a letter to each person in the family this week and finished our letter (Nate and Lar's) with this paragraph and PS:

I love you so much! Thanks for everything! Don't even worry about me! the Lord takes good care of his missionaries. Just be happy I am where I am supposed to be.
Mahal kita
Elder Leishman
(P.S. four in one color pen = Amazing)

Will post pictures when his most recent pics are scanned ;)

Quick note from Elder Seamons

Elder Keller Seamons was born a day after Joe and the two of them hung out in the nursery at LDS hospital together. We found out today that 19 years later, they are ALMOST roomies again. Words from Elder Seamons (NM Albequerque Spanish Speaking missionary, departing to NM next week):

So I'm sure you've heard, but Elder Leishman and I are in the same building! I live on the 4th floor and he lives on the 1st, but that doesn't stop us from seeing each other now and then. It's so good to see him and he is always looking good. If there's anything you need me to do (like sing him to sleep or just look out for him) please let me know!

We couldn't help but chuckle imagining Keller serenading Joe to sleep in their missionary jammies... visions of Jimmy Neutrons friend singing "nonny nonny nonny" come to mind :)
Happy Tuesday.

MTC Week 5 already?

Goodbye photo with Joe and Elder Tyson Green

We can't believe Elder Leishman has gone for over a month. Time isn't quite flying, but it is coming along nicely! Here's the latest. We love the Monday emails!

Dear family and friends,

It has been a great week at the mtc! I first need to say thank you for valentines and letters. They put many smiles on my face to say the least! So like everyweek so far at the mtc, this past week has been a week of learning. I think that the most important thing that I learned came from the tuesday night devotional. Kevin W. Pearson of the 70 spoke to us and what he told us what just what I needed to hear. For the week leading up to the devotional I really had been feeling like there was something missing in my missionary work. Elder Pearson words helped me find what I was missing through the spirit. Elder Pearson started out his talk by really putting us in our place a little bit. The first thing I thought of was "wow. This is like a spiritual smack in face." It really was. He told us that most of us are boys that are acting like missionaries. We havn't yet become missionaries. He focused on how we could become disciples of Christ. This comes through exact obedience, faith and hard work. The thing that stood out to me the most was exact obedience. Before this fireside I thought myself to be an obedient missionary, but while he talked I realized all the little things I don't do. The thing that I was missing was exact obedience. After this talk I made a promise to myself to be exactly obedient for my entire mission and to never be a missionary that my mission president would ever worry about. I learned that in many ways I havn't become a missionary yet, I am only a boy acting like a missionary. I learned that becoming a disciple of Chirst and the missionary I want to be I need to stop focusing on myself and start looking for ways to serve and love others. I also learned that I choose whether or not I become that missionary. I think I am finally starting to understand the phrase " if it is to be it is up to me". No matter our circumstances we choose our attitude and what we do. We really can do anything with faith, obedience and the help of the lord. On the subject of obedience, I love Alma 57. What a great story of obedience and the blessings that come from it.

This past week at the TRC I walked into to the language task to see Ty Foster standing in my assigned room. Talk about a small world! It was awesome being able to teach someone I knew in Tagalog. I could tell that Ty was getting a kick out of my poor Tagalog but who wouldn't. We also taught our last lesson in English last week. From here on it's all Tagalog! I'll admit it's not amazing teaching but we can do it. It's hard to belive that after four and 1/2 weeks we are teaching in all Tagalog. In fact everything is in Tagalog now: Our teachers speak Tagalog, we read PMG and the scripture in Tagalog in class, we teach in Tagalog and we are supposed to SYL(speak your language) as much as possible. Lots of Tagalog but we need all of the Tagalog we can get.

Thank you to everyone who sent else Tomasi and not or a card or package. It really means so much to him! Seeing him receive letters is on of the best parts of my day. I know the love and the support means so much to him. Elder Tomasi is an amazing person. I am so blessed to have him as Kasama ko.

Mahal kita

Elder Leishman

A Little Sarcasm for the Weekend

From Elder Matthew Howard Clegg:

I have seen Joe a lot and he seems to be doing very well. He and his companion look like brothers! It's absolutely crazy! They are built the exact same, same skin tone, and most surprising is they both have the exact same voice. Despite the fact that he has found his twin, he looks good and is as chipper as ever!

Thanks, Matt.

Business as Usual

Today was a great day for us because we got a letter from Elder Joe, Elder Tomasi, and from cousin Rach. And a quick note from Elder Holmgren Monday too! It is amazing how much a letter does to make us all happy. Elder Joe's letter was our first "mom and dad, I need this and this" kind of letter, so he must be adjusting. Here are a couple of quick words (you'll notice the common theme of loving letters... great minds think alike):

Thank you so much for the letters. They mean a lot. It really makes my day everytime I get a note. I am glad to hear that everything is going well. I hope you know how much I love you! I pray for every one of you every day (sa Tagolog of course)!

From Elder Tomasi:

Last week is a very happy week for me but on last Saturday I heard that my sister die on last week. I was crying and feel poring because that I love my family and I respect and love my sister. I know they don't wanna let me to be there son but I love a lots to them. Thanks for all your help and kindness for me. I'm very happy to come to this church and everyone friendly to me. I don't have something to give for your kindness and be example and helpful to me. Your son is a very good companion to me and I love a lot to him. He knows my love because I want him to be happy and I do what we want me to do.

What a sweetheart. We all love him... send him mail! His address was included two posts ago :)
Happy Wednesday!

Happy Valentines Day!

(Valentine love poem by Joe)

We received a wonderful letter today from Elder Leishman, but it was heart wrenching. Here is what he had to say:

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Valentine’s Day! This past week was another great week at the MTC. It still continues to amaze me just how much we do in a week. Things move so fast that when I get back to the residence hall at night, I have to look at my planner to remember everything I did that day. The first thing I need to say is thank you to everyone who sent Elder Tomasi a note or package. It really means a lot to him. He reads and rereads every letter many times and treats them like they are a treasure. Elder Tomasi is doing pretty well right now, but the past few days have been really rough for him. On Saturday morning at breakfast, one of the Tongan Elders he know from Tonga came and told Elder Tomasi that the night before he received a letter from his family telling him to tell Elder Tomasi that his10 year old sister had passed away. It was very difficult to see someone like Elder Tomasi get news like this. Elder Tomasi serves everyone around him in every way he can, he works very hard to be a good missionary, and is one of the greatest people I have ever met. The news hit him hard as it would anyone. It was especially hard not coming from his own family. His family still hasn’t communicated with him since he has come here regardless of the letters he has sent to them. It really did break my heart to see him so sad and devastated. I wanted to help him but I didn’t know the best thing I should do. I think I prayed more that day than I ever have in my life and my prayers were all for Elder Tomasi and his family. I did my best to comfort him, keep him busy, and share my testimony with him. Later that night about 10 Tongan and Samoan elders came while we were studying and gave Elder Tomasi some money to send to his family. These elders gave Elder Tomasi incredible words of testimony about his mission and the plan of salvation. They told him things so perfect and encouraging that I know couldn’t have been said without the spirit. This display of support, brotherhood, and love was a very spiritual experience that taught me a lot. It helped me gain a stronger testimony of God’s plan and eternal family and taught me that we all are our brother’s keeper and it is our responsibility to comfort those in need of comfort and to pick-up those who have fallen down. Later that night I think we had at least 25 Tongans and Samoans in our room. We definitely missed the 10:30 lights out rule, but I’m pretty sure the Lord was ok with it. Elder Tomasi doesn’t want to make a huge deal out of this but a little note would mean a lot to him. A few of you have asked what he would like as far as a package is concerned – the truth is he is a human vacuum. I don’t think I have met anyone who can eat as much as him and he isn’t picky about anything. Elder Tomasi is the best!!

One experience this past week that really stands out to me happened at the TRC. Missionaries go to the TRC one a week to have a role play with an investigator. You have a task at the beginning where you either contact them or just talk to them in your language for 15 minutes, then after a quick planning session, you teach them a lesson. The rooms are supposed to look like a like a living room but there are cameras and microphones so your teachers can observe your teaching. This past week at the TRC, Elder Tomasi and I taught lesson two or the Plan of Salvation. For the first while we were teaching, I didn’t think thoughts like I wish Elder Tomasi would have said this or why didn’t he say that and I put 100% of my focus into listening to the investigator and what Elder Tomasi was saying. The Spirit was so strong. Elder Tomasi and I both said things that neither of us had thought of before and I know it was promptings from the Spirit. The best part of this was being able to tell that our investigator was feeling the spirit too. She was trying to hold back tears. It was an amazing experience and I learned something important from it. I learned that when you have feelings of frustration or contention with your companion, the spirit won’t be there. It really taught me how to have the spirit with you constantly; you need to avoid feelings of frustration and anger. You need to love those around you to have the spirit at its strongest.

Every day I learn just how important obedience and hard work are. They make all the difference. I love the MTC and I can´t wait to get to the Philippines. This week the older district left and my desire to go teach the people in the Philippines grew tremendously.

We are grateful Joe is loving the MTC and his sweet companion. Keep Elder Tomasi in your prayers! Send him letters and packages! Let's give him lots of love :)
His address is in the previous post.

Mid-week MTC~ February 8-9

We love getting email on Mondays and letters on Wednesdays, but what a surprise to receive pictures on Tuesday! In his Wednesday letter, he related that he broke out with the worst hives he has ever had (rivaling Hitch and his allergic reaction to seafood) and the next day, his feet were still swollen. Benadryl didn't touch it... he ran into Elder Keller Seamons who LAUGHED! (Who wouldn't?)
Here are his first MTC photos with District 3 and Elder Tomasi:



left to right: E Comish, Elder Gagnon, E Leishman, E Andrus, E Morris, E Tomasi, E Tuitama

Best Week So Far

Every Monday, I try to go to yoga. Now I am finding myself in downdog, looking at the clock, and wondering if I have received an email yet! Time to get my concentration back. Here are a few words from this week's letter:

This past week has been my best week at the mtc so far. The tagalog is coming slowly and with a lot of hard work and my knowlege of gospel of Jesus Christ is increasing. Some of the important things that I have learned this past week from class, study and meetings have about dilligence and obedience. First speaking of dilligence. dilligence is essential every day of your mission. I have learned that there is no time for coasting in any aspect of your mission. To be the best missionary you can be you always need to be working on improving yourself. One way that I have learned this is from Tagalog and teaching. Right when you start to get comfortable with a part of the language or with a certain lesson there is going to be a curveball thrown at you to make you humble and realize how much you need to work to improve. The second thing that I have learned a lot about is obedience. Obedience to rules will make or break a missionary. There are some little rules that might not make sense but they are there for a reason. It makes me really sad to see a large number of elder's break the "little, or unimportant rules". Every rule is important and as we follow them we will be blessed. One way that I have learned this is through quiet time at night. Every night 10:15 is quiet time. A lot of elder's disregard this rule, but as I have been trying to follow it I have been able to have thoughts of inspiration on impressions from the spirit as I write in my journal, read a letter or just sit and think. If I hadn't had been trying to follow the rules I wouldn't have been able to recieve these thoughts from the spirit.

The longer I am in the mtc the more i am begining to realize how much I am learning from my companionship with Elder Tomasi. I feel that we are companions for a reason and we both have many things learn from one another. A day doesn't go by that I am not amazed that Elder Tomasi is on a mission. He has only been a member of the church for a year, most of his family hates him for joining the church and going on a mission. Still he has an incredible testimony and works hard to always serve and love others. It has made me realize what's important and how blessed I am to have the family that I have. A fun fact about elder Tomasi - He boxed in the olympics in China! I love Elder Tomasi.

Speaking of Elder Tomasi, He needs mail really bad! If any of you could send him a little note I know it would mean the world to him! This week a letter to him is more important than a letter to me. Well my time is almost up. I will write you another letter and send it today with some pictures, some fun stories, and with some good tagalog phrases. I wish I could write you more than one time a week.

I love you, Mahal Kita

Elder Leishman

Elder Tomasi
MTC Mailbox #148
PHI-ANG 0321

Letter 2 Week 2

On Monday (pday) Joe wrote a quick note which arrived TODAY! :) Here's a few words from Broseph:

After I wrote the email, I thought to myself I hope you don't think that I'm playing too much and working too little. Well I promise I'm working hard! I am trying to study very hard and learn all that I can. Sometimes I get frustrated because I am trying very hard and am seeing little results. I know that these things take time and the Lord will hlep me when I need it. I just need to have faith, keep working hard and be obedient. The hardest part is learning Tagolog, but you just keep working at it.

If there is one word of advice I can give to you it would be to pray often and try to have the Spirit with you always. It makes all the difference.

MTC Week 2

Preface by mamalar:
I am amused watching Joe's spelling decline as he focuses on Tagolog. Will it ever come back? doubtful..... thank goodness for word processing.


I have to say that the second week at the mtc has definately been better than the first. The first week wasn't bad, but once you get into the flow of things they days fly by, you have fun, and class is a little easier. I'll take you through my week at the mtc: Monday is P day and what a wonderful day it is. The first thing we do is go to the temple for the 7 or 7:20 am session. I am so glad we get to start our p day off with the temple. It's amazing being in the temple with 30 or 40 missionaries in a session. After the temple we come back and do laundry. The laundry room if quite the happening place. When you show up you hope that there is an empty machine for you. There are computers in the laundry room so while we wait, we get to check and write our email. After we're done with laundry we go back to our residence hall to study and to write letters. After dinner we go back to class and p day is over. Tuesday-Saturday are about the same every day just with times mixed up. Every day we have two 2-3 hour classes, an hour of personal study, an hour of companionship study, and hour or two of MDT (missionary directed time), an hour of MDLS (missionary directed language study) and an hour of gym. The best way to describe gym time is glorified recess! (sorry if recess is spelled wrong... the lack of spell check is cleary shown in my writing) During gym time you can play vollyball, 4 square, basketball, run of hte track or lift weights on machines. My personal favorite activity is vollyball. We have a lot of Tongan and Samoan missionaries going to the Philippines and they are incredible at vollyball and not going to lie, I've got a mean jump serve! Tuesday is the only day that is a little different. We have a tuesday night devotional. The Tuesday night devotional is a big deal at hte mtc. Missionaries start lining up an hour early to get a good seat just in case an apostle is speaking. My zone was at the front of the line this past week and when they opened the doors I was reminded of disneyland at opening time. Missionaries literally run (despite the usher's efforts to keep elder's at a walking pace) to get seats in the front. The devotionals and firesides here are incredible. The spirit is incredibly strong while the speaker's speak but especially while we sing. Sunday's are probablly my favorite day of the week. We have personal study before breakfast, and then we have priesthood meeting. Following priesthood meeting we have district meeting and lunch. After lunch we have sacrament meeting. Our sacrament meeting is just for our branch of 3 districts of 31 missionaries. During our sacrament meeting we pray in Tagalog, sing hymns in Tagalog and 2 lucky Elder's or Sisters get to give a short talk in tagalog. We don't find out who is speaking untill the branch president announces it at the beginning of the meeting! Because of this every missinoary prepares a talk every week. After sacrament we have study time and then a fireside. Sunday's really are amazing.

I don't have very much time but I would ilke to share a quick story with you. Elder Tomasi and I taught the first lesson all the way through for the first time on monday. Despite lack of experience and Elder Tomasi's poor English the spirit was so strong while we taught. I felt guided by the holy ghost as we taught and tesified. I have never felt this way before. I could tell the two sister's we were teaching felt the spirit too. It was amazing! It taught me that you don't have to be perfect in your words, but if you have a prayer in your heart, are worthy of hte holy ghost and are in unity with your companion the spirit can be the true teacher.


Mahal Kita
Elder Leishman