Greetings from the Office! Aug 5

Dear Friends and Family, As you already know I am currently writing you from the mission office. Last monday night after a lesson I received a call from President Martino telling me to pack my back and bring them to our zldlc meeting the next day because I was going to be the new Assistant to the President. I was not expecting the call and it caught me off guard. After that I went and said goodbye to a couple of members then I went home and packed. After that things have just flown by. In my mission there are only two Assistants but this past week Elder Leedom(the Elder I am replacing) stayed and helped train me in all the things I need to learn. My new companion is Elder Garcia and I am soooo excited to have him as my companion. We were housemates in cabanatuan for 3 months so I already know Elder Garcia really well. He is from Manila and is an awesome Elder. It's also been really good to have Elder Leedom here. I have known him for a long time and we have gone on lot's of changes. This past week has been soooo busy. I don't think I have ever had a busier week of my entire mission. This past week we coordinated all the transfers for this week and there were some days that we spent 10 hours of the computers doing reports for President. What we do is a different kind of work than I am used to but it is work all same and it's a spiritual work as well. Even though I have only been here a little while I have learned so much in the office. This past week has been a very tiring humbling week, but I have loved it. I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity. It's going to be challenging but an amazing experience as well. This morning after Dropping the departing misisonaries off at their career workshop I went and got my Filipino drivers license! Yes that is right watch out Elder Leishman is on the road! It took about 3 hours of waiting to my liscent but I hear it went Driving here in the Philippines is way different! The traffic is crazy and there are pretty much no rules. Just try no to get in an accident. The new Office couple explained driving here as a big game of chicken. Needless to say it's funner in the Philippines! One cool thing that is happening is Elder Leedom still has 2 transfers in the mission and tomorrow morning I am going to go drop him off in Burgos! He is going to train a new misisonary in Burgos for his last area and he wants to have a day with the Elders before transfers to learn where some things are. I am so excited to go back to Burgos even if it's just a short drive through. I am so excited to have such a great missionary go to Burgos. Speaking of departing misisonaries my batch of sisters is going home this week. So it's been fun to have them in the mission home today. Yesterday night I was able to go on exchanges for a few hours with the zone leaders here in Angeles zone and we taught a man from India named Veer. It was an awesome lesson but something really cool happened while we were teaching him. I invited him to read a passage from the book of Mormon but me made sure he washed his hands before he touched the Book of Mormon because it was something sacred. That experience was really powerful for me because I better understood the power, importance and sacredness of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is the word of God and it can change our lives. We need to treat it with respect like Veer did. The spirit taught me a lot that lesson. This week is going to be super busy. Tomorrow we are sending missionaries home, then on Wed. and Thursday welcoming the new missionaries and giving orientation and worshops ect... then we are going to go and start some exchanges with Zone leaders in other zones. We have a lot on our plate and I am excited. I am expecting very little sleep this week but it will be great. I feel very humbled to be here right now. I love you all, Love Elder Leishman