nanakawan and baptism! April 16

Dear Friends and Family, This last week started off as a really rough week! I'm not going to lie the first half of the week was not at all, however the second half of the week was wonderful. As many of you already know our house got broken into Tuesday while we were sleeping. Elder Adao were the first to get up and when I was walking into our kitchen Elder Adao exclaimed "Elder, nanakawan tayo!" Which means we get robbed. I was shocked. One of the doors in our house had been opened from the inside and our bags were outisde with the contents scattered on the ground. What heppended is the thief climbed into house through a small gap between our roof and ceiling. He then opened up one of the boards in the ceiling of our house and grabbed our bags and other items off our desks. He also grabbed a pair of pants that had a lanyard with a key to the house tied onto the belt buckle. He used that to unlock our door from the inside. He empited our bags outside and took what the wanted. When we went outside our gate was open and the lock was opened, and the key attached to the pants was in the lock. I'lll send you a picture of that. The items that were stolen were my camera, money, our two cell phones, and our dvd player. None of us woke up while the robbery occured which we feel is a blessing. The odds are if we woke up we would have been injurned the the theif in some way. Over all it was not a fun expereince. The saddest party about getting robbed was loosing my pictures. I still have my first member card from the mission, but this was my second card which had all my ipctures from cabanatuan and San Jose. However I copied a few of my pictures onto Elder Adao's usb so I was able to recover some of what was lost. After the showered the morning our house got broken into we went to the sisters appartment to use their phone to call president. We then went to the Barangay, the police and to our land lord. The Barangay capitan and the police pretty much said there was nothing they could really do. They weren't really helpful in any way at all. Our land lord however was more helpful. ON saturday morning we helped our landlord install bars on our roof, for safety and this week we are putting up barbed wire on our fence. THe first half of the day we got robbed was rough. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I struggled to read my scriptures and to even pray. The spirit wasn't with me and my mind felt like it was going 100 miles an hour. I felt unsafe, and almost week. However when we went to our first appointment we decided to sing an opening hymn. We sang I am a child of God and the minute we started singing I felt the peace of the spirit. I felt God's love and I ok. I was able to focus my mind on the Gospel, and we taught a wonderful lesson. I am so thankful for hymns and they power they have to bring the spirit and to touch lives. This past week we also had sooooo many appointments fall through. However we didn't let that get us down. We kept goign and worked hard. We didn't teach as many lessons as we usually do but so many of our investigators made some big steps! I want to talk about everyone of them but I don't have time.. Sorry! The highlight of the week for me was Charlene's baptism. It was a very special baptism. Charlene was baptized by her recent convert father, Brother Bade. It was a very spiritual baptism and one of my favorite parts was Charlene's testimony after her baptism. She cried as did her parents and others in the room she talked about the blessings the Gospel has brought to her family, and how thankful she was that she is a member of the Church. It really is so so great to see families growing together in the gospel. Charlene's brother is the only member of their family who isn't yet a member. We will be teaching him next week and a pray that he will accept the Gospel with his other family members. Another great item of news for the Bade family is taht they are going to the temple in two weeks to do baptisms for the dead for their ancestors taht they have done family history for. They are so excited and I am too! There are a thousand more things that I want to say but I don't have enough time to do so so I will say this. I love this work! I know that it is true. I know that obedience, love and hard work are the keys to misisonary work. I love the philippines! I love being a misisonary. I know that the Lord knows each of us. I love my Savior and he loves all of us. Being a missionary is such a privilege. This past week was ward but the Lord showed us his tender mercies. Mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman Pictures: THe first picture is of the Bade Family, at the baptism. The second picture is of me at a fence that I saw. The lettering is P.M.G. which is the abbreviation we use for Preach My Gospel. I'm a P.M.G. Missionary! The Third picture is me picking mangoes at our house. Yes we have a mango tree at our apartment. It's not the sweet kind of mangoes but a different class that is sour. They are actually really good, especially with a little salt. ps. Sorry the story about being robbed was so long..... p.p.s. Let me know what you thought about the package. I hope it was ok. I know it was small but I tried to but a few good things in it.