March na in San Jose

Dear friends and family,

This past week has been amazing! First we had our Zone leaders council meeting at the mission home. It was such a spiritual experience. ZLC is definately my favorite meeting in the mission. In this meeting we discuss mission buisness, have zone accountablity, talk about the mission training plan for the month, get trained by the Assistants and by President and Sister Martino and we have a testimony meeting. At this past ZLC the focus was faith. I have always thought that faith was very simple principle of the Gospel but this past week I learned so much about Faith! I don't have enough or the english skills to say everything I want to about faith. However one of the favorite things that I learned is the importance of Faith in connection with obedience. In order to be obedient we need to have faith. Obedience is impossible without faith. However when we are obedient our faith in Jesus Christ grows and we gain spiritual power. Faith really is a principle of power! We also talked about the importance of leading by example. As a leader you can't expect anyone to do anything that you are unable to do or aren't doing. Jesus set the example "Come follow me". He is the perfect leader. One reason is because he led by example. Because of ZLC my faith has increased so much. THe quality of my study, prayers, and all aspects of the work have increased. I feel like this is all because of faith. I still have so much to improve on but I know that with faith and the help of the Lord I can do it. At ZLC it was also fun to have some of my batchmates there like Elder Andrus and Elder Tuitama who were also my roomates in the MTC. I still havn't seen Elder Tomasi yet in the field but it has to happen eventually.

This past week was a good week in the work. We are working with a lot of less-actives with the Rescue program. Here in our area we also have a lot of new investigators and hardly any of them are progressing. Right now we are focusing of basic commitments to help them start their progress towards conversion, but with how big our area is we have having trouble with frequent contact to all of our investigators. It's a challenge but we have some great things happening everyday. Brother and Sister Bade (the new recent converts from the Baptism last week) Are doing great and really want their children to listen to the Gospel. They have 2 children who are ages 17 and 22. They aren't that excited to listen to us but came to church yesterday and we have an appointment with them tonight. I am praying that it will be a good appointment and that they will be receptive to our teaching. Teaching families is one of the best parts of being a misisonary and I know the Bade family can embrace the Gospel as a family. Keep them in your prayers.

Things here in San Jose and doing good. Our zone is awesome! We have some awesome hard working missionaries! Right now we are really trying to help our zone be 100% That is what will allow us to reach our full potential. This transfer is off to a good start. I'm still adjusting to the area but things are going good. I am also really enjoying being companions with Elder Adao. We are on the same page about misisonary work and are having a lot of fun together. Missionary work is fun!

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

ps. I took the first picture while walking to an appointment through a rice field. The Second picture is of Elder and Adao with an investigator(the brother in the orange shirt) and with his next door neighbor who has a pretty great bullcut!

Cabanatuan 11/21

Dear Family and friends,

This past week has been another good week. The work is progressing in our area. Slowly but surely. This transfer we have found a lot of new investigators but with most of them after 2 or 3 teaching appointments, they move, or start hiding or we can't get a hold of them again. However we have found some wonderful people who are making progress. A lot of them have concerns but though finding their concerns we have been able to really focus our teaching and study on them. Missionary work is so wonderful when you are teaching people not lessons.

This past week we continued our efforts with some of the less active members in the ward and they are making awesome progress. Elder Burog and I have already seen the blessings of the Gospel return to their lives. We have also had some of start to attend church. One of them even worked with us one time this week and is now planning to go on a mission. Before we thought that he didn't have a chance of going on one. Working with and rescuing less active members is another great part of missionary work. It brings real joy and seeing a less active member come back is often like seeing a baptism It's great! One of the great parts of working with less active members is they almost always have family or friends who aren't members and that is how we find a large part of our investigators.

One of the important things I have learned this past week was the importance of faith in Missionary work. Not just on the part of investigators but on the part of the missionaries. Faith is our foundation and it's through faith that we are able to preach the Gospel. Without faith nothing will happen. It takes faith to go out everyday. I know that miracles happen everyday and they happen through faith. I love the example of the Brother of Jared. His faith was so strong he couldn't be kept from seeing the Lord. That's real faith. For me I am trying to strengthen my faith to the point where I can do anything the Lords needs me to do and to have the courage to do it.

This past week I also learned the importance of attitude. We usually can't chose our situations, but we choose how we react to them. Our attitude makes all the difference in life. I learned taht I need to choose to love things. Whether they be hard or easy I need to have a positive attitude and look for the good. There is good that comes from all things, we just need to find it! It's about enjoying the little things. The little things make all the difference. Espescially in living the Gospel.

I love you all and I love being a missionary! This is the Lord's work.

Tomorrow I'm 20 That's kind of crazy

Well,
mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Another Lunes sa Burgos

Dear family and friends,


This past week has been great!!!! It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in his work. Yesterday President and Sister Puzey attended our branch for church. Our attendance was 93 which is way more than our average of 65. We also had 10 investigators attend sacrament meeting which is by far the most we've had. It was such a powerful fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong as the members bore their testimonies about our savior Jesus Christ. It was also great to hear President and sister Puzey bear their testimonies. The first time they attended Burgos branch was a year and a half ago and the attendance was 15. The area got reopened to missionary work a year ago and the growth in the strength of the Branch has been great! Everyday I realize more and more how blessed I am to be a missionary and to be assigned in Burgos. This week we have a baptism for Hinckly, the investigator who is 14 and is the only non-member in his family. He has a strong testimony and is ready to be baptized. His dad will be the one performing the baptism which will be so great! I really excited for his baptism and pray that things will work out this week. We found a new investigator this week named Jackielynn. Jackielynn is 17 and she really wants to know the truth. She reads all of her reading assignments and more. She also takes notes and writes down questions she has when she reads. Her cousins are members and have already helped her stop drinking coffee. We also have one investigator named Pipito who is from Bisayas. He struggles with Tagalog but is studying it so he can better understand the gospel. Right now his baptismal goal date is June 25. This past week really was a very successful week and it was largely due to the help of the members. Now with the help of the members we are teaching twice as many lessons as we were in my first few weeks. The lessons are also better because more than half of them have been with a member present. I have seen so much better misisonary work is when members are involved. I now have a strong testimony of the importance of members in missionary work. Being members of this church we all have a responsibility to be missionaries. It isn't always easy but it's always worth it. Right now two our our recent converts are struggling. Nicko and Joshua Haro. These two brothers are awesome. The problem is their mom is discouraging them from going to church. School started again today and now with their studies their mother wants them to think about school. It's a hard situation. Their mother is a former investigator and we are trying to gain her trust and teach her again but she doesn't want to. They have good support from the members but their parents are the main problem. I pray that we can find a way to help Nicko and Joshua.


This past week I spent some time studying faith. Ether 12:6 really stood out to me, "for ye receive no witness until after the trail of your faith". Faith is our foundation, our first building block. However it can't be strengthened until it is used, tried and tested. We all have trials, obsticals and barriers which try our faith. As we follow god's commandments when it's the hardest, when we use our faith when the trials are the most difficult that's when testimonies are strengthen and we feel the blessings of the Lord in our life. For a lot of our investigators they have real trials of their faith. However I have seen that as they try their faith they gain their testimonies and see blessings in their lives.


The work in Burgos is great. The field is white. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. This upcoming week is transfers so I will be emailing on Wednesday not Monday. Elder Pioquinto is going to transfer for sure. Next week I'll get my followup trainer but I have no idea who he is, but I'm sure he'll be great.


Fight the Fight of Faith


Mahal Kita


Love Elder Leishman


ps. the pictures are from a CSP. The brother is our branch president President Valdez.