Dear Family and Friends,
This past week was a great one! Everything went perfectly with our four baptisms and confirmations! It was an awesome experience. As you can see our baptismal font is a river and it's beautiful. The spirit was so strong and there was a smile on every face there. You couldn't hold back the joy. It really was a different feeling but it was so great. It was especially touching to see the gratitude and happiness of Sister Tanedo. She spoke at the baptism and her remarks were perfect. For her it isn't just about the baptism of her husband. It's about becoming an eternal family. Tatay and Sister Tanedo have already started their family history and are now counting the time till they can go to the temple to become sealed as a family and perform ordinances for their ancestors. It helped me realize just how blessed I am to have the family that I have and to have been born into the church. This experienced also helped me realize how important it is to focus our missionary work on families. We need to try and find and teach families. The gospel blesses families in so many ways and only through the gospel can we live with our loved ones again.
This week I had another great experience. One of the things I have struggled with these past few weeks have been trying to recognize and follow the promptings of the spirit. The spirit is absolutely essential in every phase of missionary work. This past week I realized that I had been relying to much on myself, my own skills and what I thought should be done rather than seeking the Lord's guidance through the spirit for the things I should say and do. One morning we were on our way to our first appointment (Hinckly, who is the farthest from our apartment) and I decided to pray. I was sitting on the back of a noisy bumpy trike it wasn't quite peaceful or reverent but I prayed really really really hard to have the spirit with me that day as I taught so I would know what to say and do. Our next teaching experience was great. I taught the restoration and as I shared the story of Joseph Smith and bore my testimony about him I felt the spirit like I hadn't felt teaching for a while. The words came to my mouth. I taught the restoration a little differently than I usually do but it was what my investigators needed to here. I felt the spirit and I know that my investigators felt the spirit too. This experience taught me that to have the spirit as my companion I need to plead with the Lord for guidance. I also need to be humble enough to recognize the promptings of the spirit and follow them even if they don't make sense. I have a feeling that this is something I'm going to have to work hard for throughout my mission.
This week I came across a scripture in Mathew that really stood out to me. mathew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". This scripture applies all people. When we are focused on ourselves and our own personal needs we can't can't become true disciples of Christ. When we loose ourselves in the service of others we find out more about ourselves and about our Savior. When we serve others we are happy and we can really get to know our Savior.
I don't know what things were like this past week in the states but here there were tons of people that said the world was going to end on May 21 and 6:00. The world didn't end but it was actually really funny because at about 5:30 a big storm rolled in. I laughed.
As far as the pictures go. The first three are from our baptisms and the last one was taken last night. When it rains in the Philippines it really rains! It actually feels really good! Last night it started to rain right after we started the hour and a half walk home. Thankfully a nice man on a trike picked us up halfway home so we didn't have to walk the full way in the rain. However we were already as wet as wet could be! I actually love the rain here so no complaints on my part!
Fight the Fight Faith
Mahal Kita
Love Elder Leishman
Showing posts with label Tatay Tanedo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tatay Tanedo. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Jubilee!
Dear family and friends,
This past week has been a good one! This upcoming week we have 4 baptisms and I am sooooooo excited! Tatay Tanedo, Nicko and Joshua Haro, and Rolando Organista will all be baptized on may 19. It's going to be a great day. They are all very prepared to be baptised. Besides these four investigators we have a lot of other investigators. The problem is most of them aren't progressing or are having a difficult time following commitments. One of these investigators is named Arturo Lenuza. He is awesome and pays a lot of attention during the lessons and has great comments. The problem right now is I think he is being more converted to us(Elder Pioquinto and I) rather than the gospel. He has expressed his concern that when we leave he doesn't know if he'll have the desire to go to church. Right now our focus with him is helping him gain a stronger testimony in the gospel and find effective fellowshippers in the ward to give him support. This past saturday there were Jubilee Celebrations all around the Philippines celebrating the 50 year aniversery of missionary work in the Philippines. President Puzey encouraged us all to attend. It was a great experience to go to the Tarlac Stake Jubilee and watch the primary, youth and young adults participate in cultural songs, dances, clothes, special numbers and watch some slide shows about the growth of the church in the Philippines since the first missionaries started their work. It was an awesome experience. Throughout the Jubilee thought about lucky I am to be here among these great wonderful people continuing the great work of the Lord here in the Philippines. I also had a very strong feeling about how great my responsibility as a missionary is here. I have seen how much of a difference the missionaries make here. In my area where there isn't a big church foundation the members look to the missionaries for everything. It has been very humbling to see how much of an impact we make and makes you realize that members and nonmembers see everything you do (so everything you do needs to me in done in obedience and diligence to the Lord)
This past week I had an exchange with one of our zone leaders which was a great experience. It was great to see another missionary's style of teaching and get good feedback about how I can improve as a missionary. One thing I learned was the importance of asking questions in effective teaching. For me I find my self talking too much and teaching too little. Talking isn't teaching. As we ask effective questions it helps investigators think about the principles we teach and find answers to their questions. It also helps me as a missionary be able to better discern their needs, concerns and understanding. I still have a lot of progression to make with my teaching skills but I have seen some great things happen as I have tried to teach more and talk less.
This past week I recieved a letter from Elder Tomasi which was great!! Elder Tomasi has to be one of the greatest people ever! He didn't have a church email when he came so his new email is eldertomasi@gmail.com. If any of you have a spare minute or two to drop him an email I'm sure it would mean a lot to him. In his letter he expressed his gratitude for all the support he recieved from all you while we were in the mtc. He is doing great!
This week is the 4 month mark of my mission..... It's crazy how fast these four months have gone by. It makes me realize how much I need to make everyday count.
Mahal Kita
Elder Leishman
Fight the Fight of Faith
This past week has been a good one! This upcoming week we have 4 baptisms and I am sooooooo excited! Tatay Tanedo, Nicko and Joshua Haro, and Rolando Organista will all be baptized on may 19. It's going to be a great day. They are all very prepared to be baptised. Besides these four investigators we have a lot of other investigators. The problem is most of them aren't progressing or are having a difficult time following commitments. One of these investigators is named Arturo Lenuza. He is awesome and pays a lot of attention during the lessons and has great comments. The problem right now is I think he is being more converted to us(Elder Pioquinto and I) rather than the gospel. He has expressed his concern that when we leave he doesn't know if he'll have the desire to go to church. Right now our focus with him is helping him gain a stronger testimony in the gospel and find effective fellowshippers in the ward to give him support. This past saturday there were Jubilee Celebrations all around the Philippines celebrating the 50 year aniversery of missionary work in the Philippines. President Puzey encouraged us all to attend. It was a great experience to go to the Tarlac Stake Jubilee and watch the primary, youth and young adults participate in cultural songs, dances, clothes, special numbers and watch some slide shows about the growth of the church in the Philippines since the first missionaries started their work. It was an awesome experience. Throughout the Jubilee thought about lucky I am to be here among these great wonderful people continuing the great work of the Lord here in the Philippines. I also had a very strong feeling about how great my responsibility as a missionary is here. I have seen how much of a difference the missionaries make here. In my area where there isn't a big church foundation the members look to the missionaries for everything. It has been very humbling to see how much of an impact we make and makes you realize that members and nonmembers see everything you do (so everything you do needs to me in done in obedience and diligence to the Lord)
This past week I had an exchange with one of our zone leaders which was a great experience. It was great to see another missionary's style of teaching and get good feedback about how I can improve as a missionary. One thing I learned was the importance of asking questions in effective teaching. For me I find my self talking too much and teaching too little. Talking isn't teaching. As we ask effective questions it helps investigators think about the principles we teach and find answers to their questions. It also helps me as a missionary be able to better discern their needs, concerns and understanding. I still have a lot of progression to make with my teaching skills but I have seen some great things happen as I have tried to teach more and talk less.
This past week I recieved a letter from Elder Tomasi which was great!! Elder Tomasi has to be one of the greatest people ever! He didn't have a church email when he came so his new email is eldertomasi@gmail.com. If any of you have a spare minute or two to drop him an email I'm sure it would mean a lot to him. In his letter he expressed his gratitude for all the support he recieved from all you while we were in the mtc. He is doing great!
This week is the 4 month mark of my mission..... It's crazy how fast these four months have gone by. It makes me realize how much I need to make everyday count.
Mahal Kita
Elder Leishman
Fight the Fight of Faith
Monday, May 9, 2011
Happy Mother's Day!
Family and Friends,
It has been another great week here in Burgos. It was so great to be able to call my family on mother's day. It felt really short but it was great to hear everyone's voices and know that everything is going well. This past week we gained a new investigator named Adonis Benosa. Adonis is in his late 30's and his wife and children are members. His 6 year old daughter passed away from leukemia last week and I actually dedicated her grave. That was definately a experience were I felt very inadequate and unqualified. While the death of his daughter is very sad it has been a great experience to teach him about how the Gospel blesses families and the plan of Salvation. I have seen the gospel bring him comfort already and he has a strong desire to be united as a family. Right now his baptismal goal date is 6/11/11 and with the support of his family and his desire to know the truth I have a really good feeling that he will continue to progress. Tatay Remegio, Nicko, Joshua and Rolando are doing great with their preparation for baptism. Tatay Tanedo is great as always. This past week while visiting him he talked about his experiences with other churches and there was always something that he didn't like about them. He said that things feel right in the lds church. The things we do and teach follow the teachings of Christ. Right now all of my investigators have had some experience with religion in their life. The thing that is true of all of our progressing investigators is that as they follow commitments and learn about the gospel things feel "right". It's sometimes hard for investigators to recognize these feelings of things being right as the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost doesn't always bring powerful strong feelings but when we feel the spirit and recieve answers to our prayers things feel "right". Right now one of the biggest challenges for our investigators is church attendance. Most of them read the Book of Mormon, pray and follow most of their commitments but when Sunday comes they don't attend church. This week we are focusing on helping our investigators learn the importance of church attendance and helping them make their own plans to attend church.
One thing I have learned to value so far on mission is planning! Before my mission I wasn't a big planner but it is so effective and necessary. Our missionary days are crammed full! There is always something we need to do and it feels like there is never enough time to do it all. Effective planning leads to more efficient work and more efficient days. When you plan well you are able to work smarter and work harder. This past week we made some extra efforts with back up plans because we had had some appointments fall through and due to these efforts we taught thirty lessons in one week. This is the most lessons in a week Elder Pioquinto has taught his whole mission! They were meaningful lessons too! It was a good week. I pray that we can continue to progress in the work.
As far as the pictures go the first is of the famous Tatay Tanedo! The second is a group of brothers that we are teaching (two of them are getting baptized on may 19). The third is my zone this morning in Capas.
Mahal Kita
Elder Leishman
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Happy Easter!
Dear Family and Friends,
LDSmail was down so sorry this is short. This past week has been a good one. It was Banal na Araw or Holy Week. Holy Week is a big deal here. Biernes Santos or Good Friday is the big day not easter. It slowed down the work a little with days without any Jeeps and some of our investigators leaving but it was good. Right now we have four investigators with a set baptismal date of may 14 and 7 others with Baptismal goal dates next transfer. One of our investigators with the BD of may 14 is Tatay Tanedo. I have talked about him a couple times. This past week when following up about his prayers he said that he "prayers for a fighting spirit to resist temptation". He emphasized fighting spirit a few times. He helped me realize that we all need a fighting spirit to resist temptation. In the hymn put your shoulder to the wheel it says "the fight with sin is real". It's true. However how do we get a fighting spirit and fight sin. Like tatay Tanedo we need to have faith to overcome sin and exercise our faith through prayer and obeying the commandments. As we constantly exercise our faith and ask for help we can all have a "fighting spirit".
A few quick words of business. Firstly next week is transfer week so P-day is on Wednesday. So don't worry when you don't get an email on monday! Also, if you by any chance send a package don't itemize it. On the description be general, for example "birthday present".
This past week I spent a lot of my personal study in the Book of Mormon studying the atonement. What a blessing it was to study the atonement and get to know my Savior better. In my five weeks in the field I have really come to love the Savior like I never have before. He knows all our trials, difficulites and pains. He felt them all. He was the only person to ever walk to the Earth who could atone for our sins. He wants to help us and give us comfort but first we must have faith in him and go to him. As I have been able to get to know my Savior I have found comfort in the trials I have had big or small. Now it's my resposibility to help bring others unto Christ so they can find that same comfort and joy. This past week I have realized more fully what it means to invite others to come unto Christ. It's more than teaching lessons. It's helping them go to their Savior and find joy and peace as they feel his love by living his Gospel Everyday as study I realized how I am nothing without the Lord. As I study preach my gospel and interact with other missionaries I feel in many ways like a child in the mission. I'm new and I have so much to learn and so many skills I need to develop. The only way I will be able to learn and grow will be through the help of the Lord. I know that as I trust in the Lord, have faith, work hard and am obedient I'll be able to do all things I need to do and become an effective missionary.
Mahal Kita
Love Elder Leishman
LDSmail was down so sorry this is short. This past week has been a good one. It was Banal na Araw or Holy Week. Holy Week is a big deal here. Biernes Santos or Good Friday is the big day not easter. It slowed down the work a little with days without any Jeeps and some of our investigators leaving but it was good. Right now we have four investigators with a set baptismal date of may 14 and 7 others with Baptismal goal dates next transfer. One of our investigators with the BD of may 14 is Tatay Tanedo. I have talked about him a couple times. This past week when following up about his prayers he said that he "prayers for a fighting spirit to resist temptation". He emphasized fighting spirit a few times. He helped me realize that we all need a fighting spirit to resist temptation. In the hymn put your shoulder to the wheel it says "the fight with sin is real". It's true. However how do we get a fighting spirit and fight sin. Like tatay Tanedo we need to have faith to overcome sin and exercise our faith through prayer and obeying the commandments. As we constantly exercise our faith and ask for help we can all have a "fighting spirit".
A few quick words of business. Firstly next week is transfer week so P-day is on Wednesday. So don't worry when you don't get an email on monday! Also, if you by any chance send a package don't itemize it. On the description be general, for example "birthday present".
This past week I spent a lot of my personal study in the Book of Mormon studying the atonement. What a blessing it was to study the atonement and get to know my Savior better. In my five weeks in the field I have really come to love the Savior like I never have before. He knows all our trials, difficulites and pains. He felt them all. He was the only person to ever walk to the Earth who could atone for our sins. He wants to help us and give us comfort but first we must have faith in him and go to him. As I have been able to get to know my Savior I have found comfort in the trials I have had big or small. Now it's my resposibility to help bring others unto Christ so they can find that same comfort and joy. This past week I have realized more fully what it means to invite others to come unto Christ. It's more than teaching lessons. It's helping them go to their Savior and find joy and peace as they feel his love by living his Gospel Everyday as study I realized how I am nothing without the Lord. As I study preach my gospel and interact with other missionaries I feel in many ways like a child in the mission. I'm new and I have so much to learn and so many skills I need to develop. The only way I will be able to learn and grow will be through the help of the Lord. I know that as I trust in the Lord, have faith, work hard and am obedient I'll be able to do all things I need to do and become an effective missionary.
Mahal Kita
Love Elder Leishman
Monday, April 18, 2011
Ribbbit
Dear Family and Friends,
This past week has been great! I want to begin my letter with something I am learned this past week. This past week I have realized more than ever the importance of members in missionary work. This past week many of Elder Pioquinto and I's efforts with the members have brought forth great opportunities. Since the first day I came into the field Elder Pioquinto has stressed the importance of your relationships with members. This doesn't mean spend four hours at their house eating dinner and talking, it means building relationships of trust as you are friendly, try to serve them, try and help strengthen their testimony's and share your excitement about missionary work. This past week I really tried to increase my efforts with the members active and inactive. Through the great members in our branch this past weeek we recieved many referrals, got 7 new investigators through members and increased attendance in our branch through effective fellowshippers and our efforts with inactive members. When members help with missionary work they are an automatic support system for the investigators and it helps the members be excited about the gospel. It has been awesome to see how missionary work can flourish with the help of the members.
This transfer we won't have any baptisms but we have many investigators that are really progressing right now. May has soooo much potential to be a month of harvest. I mentioned one of these investigators last week. Tatay Tanedo is amazing. I love this 67 year old man. His desire to follow Christ and faith are a great example to me. He has been drinking Coffee everyday for years and he quit drinking it the day we taught his the Word of Wisdom. He read out of the Book of Mormon and restoration poleyeto everyday. He went to the church for the first time and he prayed for us in a lesson for the first time. His progress is awesome. One of the best parts about teaching tatay is seeing how happy it makes sister Tanedo to see tatay change and accept the gospel. The gospel blesses families and is blessing the Tanedo Family.
There are four pictures attached and I'll explain them to you. The first one is me at the baptism of a member girl in the Burgos Branch. The third picture is of the group of us from the branch at the Baptism. Here in Burgos our baptismal font is a river and it's beautiful! Elder Pioquinto and I were speakers at the baptism. The second picture is Elder Pioquinto and I at our weekly CSP (community service project). Most weeks we are out with a machete clearing out yards of members or similar work. I love a good csp. They are a great opportunity to serve and get to know members and investigators better. The last picture was taken at our apartment. After we finished our nightly planning session I went into the kitchen to turn on the water and something moved. It turned out to be my buddy the frog. He was super dry and had someone gotten into our apartment while we were gone. I still don't know how but it was pretty funny.
I really am beginning to love it here. I love the food, I love the people, I love the cold showers(not really.... but they are getting a lot better!), I love the work, I love the members and I just love it all. I would love Tagalog a lot more if I could speak it well but slowly but surely I'm making progress.
The lastly I want to share my favorite verse from this past weeks personal study Alma 57:21 "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them". We all need to strive to be like the strippling warriors. Be exactly obedient, rely on our faith and remember who we are the teaching of our parents. I love the last part about what their mothers have taught them. Our mothers play such a big influence in on our lives and the people we become. We need to honor them, love them, and like the armies of Helaman remember and trust in their teachings so we can become strong disciples of Christ.
Love
Elder Leishman
This past week has been great! I want to begin my letter with something I am learned this past week. This past week I have realized more than ever the importance of members in missionary work. This past week many of Elder Pioquinto and I's efforts with the members have brought forth great opportunities. Since the first day I came into the field Elder Pioquinto has stressed the importance of your relationships with members. This doesn't mean spend four hours at their house eating dinner and talking, it means building relationships of trust as you are friendly, try to serve them, try and help strengthen their testimony's and share your excitement about missionary work. This past week I really tried to increase my efforts with the members active and inactive. Through the great members in our branch this past weeek we recieved many referrals, got 7 new investigators through members and increased attendance in our branch through effective fellowshippers and our efforts with inactive members. When members help with missionary work they are an automatic support system for the investigators and it helps the members be excited about the gospel. It has been awesome to see how missionary work can flourish with the help of the members.
This transfer we won't have any baptisms but we have many investigators that are really progressing right now. May has soooo much potential to be a month of harvest. I mentioned one of these investigators last week. Tatay Tanedo is amazing. I love this 67 year old man. His desire to follow Christ and faith are a great example to me. He has been drinking Coffee everyday for years and he quit drinking it the day we taught his the Word of Wisdom. He read out of the Book of Mormon and restoration poleyeto everyday. He went to the church for the first time and he prayed for us in a lesson for the first time. His progress is awesome. One of the best parts about teaching tatay is seeing how happy it makes sister Tanedo to see tatay change and accept the gospel. The gospel blesses families and is blessing the Tanedo Family.
There are four pictures attached and I'll explain them to you. The first one is me at the baptism of a member girl in the Burgos Branch. The third picture is of the group of us from the branch at the Baptism. Here in Burgos our baptismal font is a river and it's beautiful! Elder Pioquinto and I were speakers at the baptism. The second picture is Elder Pioquinto and I at our weekly CSP (community service project). Most weeks we are out with a machete clearing out yards of members or similar work. I love a good csp. They are a great opportunity to serve and get to know members and investigators better. The last picture was taken at our apartment. After we finished our nightly planning session I went into the kitchen to turn on the water and something moved. It turned out to be my buddy the frog. He was super dry and had someone gotten into our apartment while we were gone. I still don't know how but it was pretty funny.
I really am beginning to love it here. I love the food, I love the people, I love the cold showers(not really.... but they are getting a lot better!), I love the work, I love the members and I just love it all. I would love Tagalog a lot more if I could speak it well but slowly but surely I'm making progress.
The lastly I want to share my favorite verse from this past weeks personal study Alma 57:21 "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them". We all need to strive to be like the strippling warriors. Be exactly obedient, rely on our faith and remember who we are the teaching of our parents. I love the last part about what their mothers have taught them. Our mothers play such a big influence in on our lives and the people we become. We need to honor them, love them, and like the armies of Helaman remember and trust in their teachings so we can become strong disciples of Christ.
Love
Elder Leishman
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Pumping Time
Well this past week has been a great one! Some of our investigators have made some great progress. Currently we have 5 investigators with a Baptismal goal date of May 14. I hope and pray that they can continue their progress in coming unto Christ. We also have a lot of other investigators but the speed of learning an progress if different for all.
I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in the language. I am doing many things to learn and study the language but I have learned that the most helpful thing for me so far has simply been talking. Talking to members, talking to investigators, talking to someone sitting next to you on a jeep talking to anyone. It still is hard sometime to just open my mouth because I know my Tagalog isn't perfect and people often times laugh at the things I say because of my Tagalog, however I never regret talking to someone after it's done. I am trying to speak to as many people as I can.
This past week we had a great experience with a new investigator. His name is Tatay Remegio Tanedo. He is 67 years old and his children and wife are members. After 12 years of his wife being a member he finally decided to listen to the missionaries for the first time. The second time we taught him we asked why he decided to listen to our message. 12 years of seeing how the gospel had had blessed the life of his family finally softened his heart. He realized the mistakes he had made and he now has a strong desire to change. The change we saw in a week with Tatay Tanedo was a miracle. In a matter of days he went from avoiding us like the plague when we tried to visit him and now having a baptismal goal date of may 14. Seeing the change in him was an amazing the experience. One of my most powerful teaching experiences so far on my mission was teaching Tatay Tanedo about eternal families. Speaking of families I loved all of the messages about families in general conference. On my mission I have realized more how important families are and how blessed I am to have the best family. It's been amazing to see the changes that the gospel has made in families lives in the short time I am here.
I also loved the many talks from conference about welfare, service and just doing good. I have learned that you are happier and your work is better when you are looking for opportunities to serve and are thinking about the welfare of others. I forgot who said this in conference but "when you give a crust to the Lord you get a loaf in return" This principal is true as we serve others. As we seek to serve we actually end up getting so much back. Elder Bednar's talk was another one of my favorites. I loved the analogy of receiving revelation like turning on a light in a dark room or like a sunrise. In my life my testimony has come like the sunrise, one little bit as a time. As a missionary it's important to have patience as you learn the language, seek for inspiration, try to strengthen your testimony and try to become a better missionary. So often the change seems like a sunrise where there a little bits of light at a time but as sure as the sun rises and night turns into day these changes occur in us as we strive to be obedient and strive to become like Christ.
Oh yeah quick side note. Something with our water system in our house broke and now we have to pump everything by hand and either use our filter water bottles or boil our water for drinking. It's been pretty fun in a way and has made me gain a greater respect for the people here who pump their water into buckets and carry it to their houses everyday. The people here are amazing and I am begining to really love them.
Fight the Fight of Faith
Love Elder Leishman
PS: Tatay means Father :)
I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in the language. I am doing many things to learn and study the language but I have learned that the most helpful thing for me so far has simply been talking. Talking to members, talking to investigators, talking to someone sitting next to you on a jeep talking to anyone. It still is hard sometime to just open my mouth because I know my Tagalog isn't perfect and people often times laugh at the things I say because of my Tagalog, however I never regret talking to someone after it's done. I am trying to speak to as many people as I can.
This past week we had a great experience with a new investigator. His name is Tatay Remegio Tanedo. He is 67 years old and his children and wife are members. After 12 years of his wife being a member he finally decided to listen to the missionaries for the first time. The second time we taught him we asked why he decided to listen to our message. 12 years of seeing how the gospel had had blessed the life of his family finally softened his heart. He realized the mistakes he had made and he now has a strong desire to change. The change we saw in a week with Tatay Tanedo was a miracle. In a matter of days he went from avoiding us like the plague when we tried to visit him and now having a baptismal goal date of may 14. Seeing the change in him was an amazing the experience. One of my most powerful teaching experiences so far on my mission was teaching Tatay Tanedo about eternal families. Speaking of families I loved all of the messages about families in general conference. On my mission I have realized more how important families are and how blessed I am to have the best family. It's been amazing to see the changes that the gospel has made in families lives in the short time I am here.
I also loved the many talks from conference about welfare, service and just doing good. I have learned that you are happier and your work is better when you are looking for opportunities to serve and are thinking about the welfare of others. I forgot who said this in conference but "when you give a crust to the Lord you get a loaf in return" This principal is true as we serve others. As we seek to serve we actually end up getting so much back. Elder Bednar's talk was another one of my favorites. I loved the analogy of receiving revelation like turning on a light in a dark room or like a sunrise. In my life my testimony has come like the sunrise, one little bit as a time. As a missionary it's important to have patience as you learn the language, seek for inspiration, try to strengthen your testimony and try to become a better missionary. So often the change seems like a sunrise where there a little bits of light at a time but as sure as the sun rises and night turns into day these changes occur in us as we strive to be obedient and strive to become like Christ.
Oh yeah quick side note. Something with our water system in our house broke and now we have to pump everything by hand and either use our filter water bottles or boil our water for drinking. It's been pretty fun in a way and has made me gain a greater respect for the people here who pump their water into buckets and carry it to their houses everyday. The people here are amazing and I am begining to really love them.
Fight the Fight of Faith
Love Elder Leishman
PS: Tatay means Father :)
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