CAB November 14

Dear Family, friends and loved ones,

Yet again it's been another good week in Cabanatuan. This week we had more appointments fall through than I have ever experienced before but we also received some great blessings. Sometimes its discouraging when you get all the way to your 4th or 5th back up plan and either the people you want to teach aren't home or have some reason for being able to be taught. However this past week I learned that God works in his own ways to lead you to the people that he prepared to hear the Gospel. This past week we had one of these experiences. We got "punted" 5 times and we decided to go and try to contact a former investigator we had talked to on the street a few days earlier. When we found the man's house there was nobody home but we started to talk to his neighbor Charlie. It turns out Charlie has been feeling lost and has been searching for direction in his life. After talking to him about the Gospel he invited us into his house and we taught an awesome lesson! He came to church the next day and loved it! Tonight we are going back to teach him again. I am so excited for Charlie. Yesterday we also had some less active members we have been working with come back to church. It is wonderful to see people come back to church. There are a lot of reasons for members to become inactive but I have found real joy in working with them and helping them resolve their concerns and come back to the Gospel.

This morning we had a ddm meeting about personal revelation and it made me think about the blessing of Revelation. Personal revelation is one of the greatest blessing! I love revelation! Revelation is so important for every aspect of missionary work. For me one of the greatest times to receive personal revelation is during personal study. However I have learned that personal revelation comes more freely when I have a specific question, or am thinking about a specific person. The Lord said "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" but it's harder to have the door of revelation opened if we don't ask. God wants to guide us but we need to seek his guidance and ponder to receive it. It's also important to write down the revelation we receive. I have started taking notes in my planner and in my study journal of revelation and it has made a huge difference in the Work. The great thing about revelation is it's available for all of us. Revelation is especially important for investigators too!

Cabanatuan is good. I'm blessed to be assigned here. I just really love being a missionary.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

ps. If the picture works, the picture is of Elder Andrus and I at a service project we did for a less active member. It turns out he has a giant harry potter poster at the back of his store. It really made me smile.

Cabanatuan! Oct 23

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been a little crazy, but still great at the same time. It was sad to leave Burgos. I cried on the Jeepney as I looked out at the fields, houses, and people that have become so familiar to me as I headed into Tarlac on Thursday morning. Transfers were a little stresfull because I procrastinated my packing but it all worked out ok. Cabanatuan is a lot different than Burgos! First it's a City. That in itself is big difference. I guess that Cabanatuan is the Tricycle capital of the Philippines and it's true because there are trikes everywhere! My new house is big and there are 4 of us living there. One of them is a brand new American from Kaysville named Elder Morris and it's been fun to have a greenie as a housemate. The only with problem with the new house is when I got there it was really dirty, mostly from the floods a couple weeks ago so we're working on getting it looking nice again. My new area is Cabanatuan 8 Branch. They are a Branch right now but they have a goal to become a ward so right now that is goal too. I am really excited to work in this area. Our branch president here is great and is excited about missionary work. He also knows how missionary work works and the responsibilites of the members which is a big help. Before the zone leaders had two areas and they didn't really focus in Branch 8 so it's almost like we are reopening an area. Our area is pretty small with the exception with the exception of Aliaga which is a 30 or 40 minute Jeep ride. Even though it's far there are active members there and we have 2 referrals we are going to contact there this week. We are doing a lot of finding right now but we have 2 awesome investigators who have baptismal dates for November 5. One is named Jonathan (age 19) the other is Joshua (age 12). They are both excited about the Gospel, have awesome fellowshippers and have testimonies. Because we are doing to so much finding we spend a lot of time pretty much going house to house or walking around taking to people. On my first day Elder Burog asked we where I wanted to go and I had know idea so we just started walking down random streets. We eventually ended up lost and found ourselves talking to a less active member. It had been a long time since she had seen the missionaries. When we returned to her house we contacted her neighbors who were taught all the lessons 8 years ago and that we are now teaching again. These experiences have taught me that the Lord will lead us to those that are prepared to hear the Gospel. Not everyone we talk to will listen to us but there are many of God's children who are prepared. However we usually don't know who these Children are. The important thing is that we talk to as many people as we can so we can find everyone that it prepared. We can't be afraid to open our mouth.

My zone leader responsibilities started the first day and have had no stop. In my first week I have conducted companionship exchanges, helped the sisters move apartments, done lots of paperwork, worked on call in reports, started preparing a workshop for zone interviews etc.... It has been very busy and I haven't even had time to unpack my suitcase. It's busy and I love it. To tell you the truth I feel a little inadequate to be a zone leader, especially since most of my zone has been in the mission a lot longer than I have. However I know that I have this calling for a reason so I'm doing my best to magnify it. Speaking of my new Zone, Elder Andrus is one of my new zonemates! It is awesome to finally be with some of my batch again. Elder Burog is great and I'm excited to be his companion. He is also really short:) But really he's great.

One of the things that I am constantly reminded of here is the need to be obedient and to have a love for the Lord, the work and the people. For me these things will make such a big difference in the work. Even though I'm new here I already love the new branch, the members and my investigators. I'm struggling with learning all their names but I love them. I also love being a missionary. I have no doubts that this is the Lord's work. His hand is in his work. As a missionary I'm not alone.

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

p.s. the pictures are from our branch family home evening last saturday and of the Burgos t-shirts we made. Elder tating and I made them for us and our 3 branch missionaries.