A New Week and A New Companion 12/4

Dear family and friends,

It has been another good week here in Cabanatuan. This past week was transfers and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Casilac and he is awesome! We were zone mates when I first went to Tarlac and I was very excited to hear that we would be companions. This is his first transfer as a zone leader so we are both pretty new but we are both really excited. This past week has been a great start to our companionship. Elder Casilac is Obedient, hardworking and we are just on the same page about a lot of things.

This month the motto for our mission is "Miracles will happen in December". This is a wonderful motto or a wonderful time of year and the miracles are happening. This past month we havn't seen a lot of progress in most of our investigators but the spirit is working in their lives and things are starting to happen. Yesterday we taught a young family that we have been teaching for about a month. They haven't been keeping a lot of commitments and havn't yet attended church. Yesterday we taught them about eternal families and the spirit touched their hearts. It was almost like a seeing a light switch on in their heads. They finally realized that the truth of what we had been teaching them and that we need to live the gospel to be able to return to Heavenly Father. The father who hasn't accepted a lot of the teaching because of his Catholic beliefs said that he wanted to live with his family forever and that he was going to quit smoking and start coming to church. It was a very spiritual lesson and I am so excited for this family. This past week we also made good progress with another young family we just started teaching. They said that after the first time they listened to us they started receiving blessings and they want to know more. I love teaching families and I love the Gospel.

Because it is December right now Christmas is starting in the Philippines. The people hear love Christmas. One of the things that I love is all the caroling. People go house to house and usually bring instruments and something even speakers in trikes and they Christmas songs. They do it at all times of the day and it's awesome. Usually people will give them a little money if they want more songs. I have loved listening to the carolers. The Filipino people love Jesus Christ and Christmas is a season which they show that love. One of the way they show their love is through their singing. The hymns here are the greatest! They bring the spirit so strongly. It is just a happy time here and I love it

One of the important things I have learned here is the need to be happy. Our purpose in this life is to prepare to meet God and to have joy. We all have trials and difficulties. Life can be really hard. No matter how hard things can be we can't forget to be happy. We need to find ways to have joy. We need to find times to laugh. Any person can be happy if they choose to be. Living the Gospel is one of the greatest sources of happiness.

As far as the Christmas call goes, I do not yet know if I'll be calling on Christmas eve or Christmas day. However we can either use a cell phone, or skype. If we use skype president says we can use webcam if we want. Let me know what you think about that. We'll get it figured out in the next couple weeks.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Mga minamahal na Pamilya at mga kaibigan,

This past week has been a good one. My birthday and thanksgiving were both this past week but they were both just normal days of work. This past week I lots of good things happened and I learned a lot. One of the most important thing I learned was the importance of gratitude and a positive attitude. With all the changes and adjustments that have happened this last transfer I havn't always had the best attitude. I didn't always take the time to look for the positive and just be grateful. This past week I changed my attitude and it made a huge difference. It effected everything. I just feel so happy and so blessed. I am so thankful to be here in the Philippines and here in Cabanatuan. I am so thankful for the wonderful people here. The Filipino people are the nicest people in the world and if someone tells you otherwise their aren't telling to the truth. We have so many things to be thankful for and as find them and thank our Heavenly father for them you become happy. Also as we see our blessings we realized the need we have for the Lord in all that we do.

This past week we had great progress with one of our investigators named Joy. She is a young mother and is the sibling of one of our recent converts Jonathan. One of the things that has helped joy has been the Plan of Salvation. She has found peace in the knowledge that families can be together forever. That really is what the Gospel is about. Helping families return to our Father in Heaven. But back to Joy she is doing great and has a baptismal date of December 24. Even though I'm in a Tropical country I still might have a white Christmas! That's in my prayers right now. Right now one of the mottos for our mission is "Miracles will happen in December". Miracles occur everyday and they happen because of our faith. I know that by the faith we have that miracles will happen here in Angeles mission this upcoming month. As we go about setting goals right now it is a great time to test our faith and see what we can do with the help of the Lord.

This past week we also spent more time in the farthest part of our area. The area was awesome and the members there gave some great referrals. This week is going to be a great week and I am excited to see what is going to happen there in the next couple of weeks. The work here is improving. We have a lot of investigators struggling with commitments right now but they are starting to make progress and see the blessings that the Gospel brings.

This past week we also did a service project at a members house and they gave us referrals. It reminded me the importance of always serving others. Service. That's how we show our love.

As far as the pictures go. The first is a picture of me on my birthday. I made sushi and I even used the star wars lightsaber chopsticks that dad sent me from Japan. I made california rolls and we even had wasabi! I guess that is one of the advantages of being in the city is being able to buy food like that. On my birthday our branch relief society president also made us pancit which was masarap and very nice of her. Speaking of my birthday thank you so much for the package and letters. My house mates have loved the food. The alfredo sauce and chili were definatly the favorites for the Filipino Elders and Morris was a fan of the M&M's. My favorite item however was the Pillowcase. Thank you so much. The next two pictures are from earlier this morning. This past week they changed our p-day schedule so we no longer have district meeting on P-day! I am really happy about that because now we have more time on p-days and can actually do activities. This morning we went bowling.... Pinoy style! The bowling here is awesome. The balls are really small, and the pins are small to but they are spaced out more. You get 3 balls per frame and if you all 10 down in the first two balls they set them up again. It's pretty great. Definitely a good p-day.

This work is a wonderful one. I love being a missionary. Transfers are this week and I'll write you on monday to tell you what happens. I can't believe how fast this transfer went. Way to fast.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman