Family and friends,
To begin I want to share a quick story. This past week we had plans to go out past Burgos in the morning and to do so we would need to take a Jeepney. If we walked it would take to long and we would have anytime to teach. So Elder Pioquinto and I waited.... and waited.... and waited for a Jeep. None came. Elder Pioquinto said he had never seen this happen in our area before not on a Sunday. So after an hour and 15 minutes of waiting and having no one to oym to we headed off in the opposite direction to contact a less active member. When we went to her home we met Christian who is 14. Christian is a referral that I guess the missionaries have been trying to contact for a long time but havn't been able to. Christian was very interested in our message and is excited to read and to meet with us again. The timing is perfect because school ends here on Tuesday so we will be able to teach him in the morning before we head out to other ends of our area. I felt like the Lord led us to Christian. It has been amazing to see how things work out on the mission. If an appointment falls through, if there are no Jeeps , or whatever the situation is I have always found that there is someone else we need to talk to or share a message with. Everything always works out if you are doing your best to follow the spirit and work hard. I also learned that instead of being discouraged when something doesn't work out we need to look for great opportunities that will arise. In between teaching appointments with investigators we do a lot with less active members. We have already seen the fruits of our efforts as some of them have started coming to church and we even have some new investigators in part member families. Part member families are great to teach!
My first few days in the mission were kind of rough. There really was nothing that could have fully prepared me for being in a new land where everything seemed new and foreign. However the thing that has helped me the most has been sincere prayer and reading the Book of Mormon. These two things have helped me get to know my savior better and have been a great source of peace and happiness for me. The Lord can and will help us in our times of difficulty if we first come to him.
Ok so now for some fun stuff. A few nights ago I was riding a Jeepney and I thought to myself I feel like Indian Jones right now. Yes I lacked Nazi's Chasing after me, a whip and the overall demeanor of Harrison Ford but the sense of excitement was there as we rumbled down a rural road with trikes passing us and Tagalog going a million miles a hour in the background. Also instead of looking for a treasure I am trying to share it. Sorry for that random story but it was really funny to me when I thought about it. Also the food here is really good. I have eaten all sorts of things some of which I have no idea what they were but all of it has been pretty tasty. The fruit is amazing! I also eat a lot of rice. I repeat a lot of rice. It's good though. The showers here are invigorating. They wake you up that's for sure. In the Philippines i sweat alot. The only time I don't sweat is when we have air con which is about once a week on p-day and when I'm in the shower. Right after the shower the sweat comes again. It's great though. I am actually starting to really like the heat. The longer I'm here the most I love all the things around me and the work that I am doing. Of also conference has a week delay here so I we will watch it at the stake center next week.
I am truly blessed to be among such great people and to have to opportunity to serve the lord. I love being a missionary.
love
Elder Leishman
Showing posts with label Tarlac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarlac. Show all posts
Monday, April 4, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Welcome to the Philippines!
We woke up this morning to our first email from Elder Joe in the Philippines!
Dear family and friends,
I finally made it to the Philippines! I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Tarlac City. The Philippines are AWESOME!. I am Sooo excited to be here. So I'll try to tell you about my travels here and about a couple experiences I have had. So the flight from San Francisco to Manila was long and I slept almost the entire time. However I was able to give away two BOM to some Pilipino on our flight. From Hong Kong we flew to Manila. On that flight I was sitting next to an old nanay, who was very very kind. So we finally arrived to the Manila airport on Wednesday morning. The missionaries going to Angeles put our luggage in one van and all packed into another. We were picked up by some members from Angeles City. On our way to the mission home we stopped by Burger King which was number one! The roads in the Philippines are crazy!!! There really are no rules. Cars, trikes, people, cars, Jeepneys all share the road and it's pretty amazing how there isn't an accident every 2 seconds! We finally arrived at the mission home in the afternoon and we met President and Sister Puzey. They are amazing and so kind. we spent the night at mission home and went through some mission orientation. On Thursday at 12 our trainers came to the mission home to pick us up. My trainer is Elder Pioquinto from someplace in the Bacolod mission. He is awesome! I am very lucky to have him as my trainer. We then headed out to our area. Our area is called Burgos. As President Puzey says we are "out in the wilderness." Our area is a very humble place. I am out in the fields with the carribou(however you spell it). To get to our area we took a bus for an hour and a half, followed by a ride on a trike then we took a Jeep for 50 minutes to our apartment. Our area is very big. Our apartment is in the middle of our area and most of our investigators are a 50 minute walk in either direction. Most of the people in our area are very poor and humble. It's been very humbling to walk into their small houses made of bamboo or cement and see how empty they are and realize that you are looking at all their belongings. Many people here have hardly anything. However they are so friendly and so kind. The people here are amazing. Right now we are teaching about 5 lessons a day to investigators and a few recent converts. We stay pretty busy.
Going to church on Sunday was a powerful experience. It was powerful to see these humble people come to church in whatever way they good, in the nicest clothes they could(many in jeans and a polo) to worship the lord. We had 66 people at church which is above average in our branch. On of my favorite parts of church was feeling the spirit as we sang hymns. Many of the words were sang wrong and there were many pitches at times but the spirit was very powerful. Speaking of hymns I am now the branch pianist. If that isn't a scary thought I don't know what is. Oh yeah and I play on a keyboard which is pretty great. One of the most difficult things here with our investigators is getting them to come to church. It's not because they lack desire. It's because of distance and a lack of transportation. This has made me realize how blessed I have been to be in a place with church so accessible to me.
So the food so far in the Philippines has been masarap! My companion is a good cook and he is teaching me the ways of cooking Filipino food. The mangoes here are the best! Since my area is far away from the city we have to do most of our shopping on p-day. On p-day we come into Tarlac (which is the name of our zone) and we either to district development meeting or do a zone activity. Today we played basketball and some other game I don't know the name of. After that we made mango banana shakes at the zone leader's apartment. Our zone is currently the biggest in the mission with 24 or 22 missionaries. There is one sister from my batch in my zone so it was nice to see a familiar face today. After our activity we went to the SM. Yes we have an SM in our zone which is great! An SM is a huge mall with most things you could want in it. We ate at pizza hut which was great!
So far I have had some moments when I have felt very overwhelmed whether it is with the language, with being in a new place where nothing is familiar or just the fact that I am now really a missionary. However they don't last long and I have learned that I just need to focus on the work and stop thinking about myself. I am so blessed to be here in the Philippines. I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to serve the lord. I really do love it here – even the cold showers that sure wake you up in the morning!
Next week I'll send some pictures of my area, companion and apartment.
Love,
Elder Leishman
Dear family and friends,
I finally made it to the Philippines! I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Tarlac City. The Philippines are AWESOME!. I am Sooo excited to be here. So I'll try to tell you about my travels here and about a couple experiences I have had. So the flight from San Francisco to Manila was long and I slept almost the entire time. However I was able to give away two BOM to some Pilipino on our flight. From Hong Kong we flew to Manila. On that flight I was sitting next to an old nanay, who was very very kind. So we finally arrived to the Manila airport on Wednesday morning. The missionaries going to Angeles put our luggage in one van and all packed into another. We were picked up by some members from Angeles City. On our way to the mission home we stopped by Burger King which was number one! The roads in the Philippines are crazy!!! There really are no rules. Cars, trikes, people, cars, Jeepneys all share the road and it's pretty amazing how there isn't an accident every 2 seconds! We finally arrived at the mission home in the afternoon and we met President and Sister Puzey. They are amazing and so kind. we spent the night at mission home and went through some mission orientation. On Thursday at 12 our trainers came to the mission home to pick us up. My trainer is Elder Pioquinto from someplace in the Bacolod mission. He is awesome! I am very lucky to have him as my trainer. We then headed out to our area. Our area is called Burgos. As President Puzey says we are "out in the wilderness." Our area is a very humble place. I am out in the fields with the carribou(however you spell it). To get to our area we took a bus for an hour and a half, followed by a ride on a trike then we took a Jeep for 50 minutes to our apartment. Our area is very big. Our apartment is in the middle of our area and most of our investigators are a 50 minute walk in either direction. Most of the people in our area are very poor and humble. It's been very humbling to walk into their small houses made of bamboo or cement and see how empty they are and realize that you are looking at all their belongings. Many people here have hardly anything. However they are so friendly and so kind. The people here are amazing. Right now we are teaching about 5 lessons a day to investigators and a few recent converts. We stay pretty busy.
Going to church on Sunday was a powerful experience. It was powerful to see these humble people come to church in whatever way they good, in the nicest clothes they could(many in jeans and a polo) to worship the lord. We had 66 people at church which is above average in our branch. On of my favorite parts of church was feeling the spirit as we sang hymns. Many of the words were sang wrong and there were many pitches at times but the spirit was very powerful. Speaking of hymns I am now the branch pianist. If that isn't a scary thought I don't know what is. Oh yeah and I play on a keyboard which is pretty great. One of the most difficult things here with our investigators is getting them to come to church. It's not because they lack desire. It's because of distance and a lack of transportation. This has made me realize how blessed I have been to be in a place with church so accessible to me.
So the food so far in the Philippines has been masarap! My companion is a good cook and he is teaching me the ways of cooking Filipino food. The mangoes here are the best! Since my area is far away from the city we have to do most of our shopping on p-day. On p-day we come into Tarlac (which is the name of our zone) and we either to district development meeting or do a zone activity. Today we played basketball and some other game I don't know the name of. After that we made mango banana shakes at the zone leader's apartment. Our zone is currently the biggest in the mission with 24 or 22 missionaries. There is one sister from my batch in my zone so it was nice to see a familiar face today. After our activity we went to the SM. Yes we have an SM in our zone which is great! An SM is a huge mall with most things you could want in it. We ate at pizza hut which was great!
So far I have had some moments when I have felt very overwhelmed whether it is with the language, with being in a new place where nothing is familiar or just the fact that I am now really a missionary. However they don't last long and I have learned that I just need to focus on the work and stop thinking about myself. I am so blessed to be here in the Philippines. I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to serve the lord. I really do love it here – even the cold showers that sure wake you up in the morning!
Next week I'll send some pictures of my area, companion and apartment.
Love,
Elder Leishman
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