3 more months in Burgos!

Dear family and Friends,

Drumroll please....... we just had transfer announcements and I will be staying in Burgos, training a new missionary and will be a district leader! There is a new program for trainers because the curriculum changed at the mtc so I will have 2 transfers with my new companion. This means that I will be in Burgos for three more months! When we got a text telling us to call President Martino I had no idea what it could be about. I was very, very surprised when he told me I would be a trainer. I feel a little inadequate for training a new missionary but at the same time I'm really excited. It's going to be a great experience! Tomorrow I go to the mission home early in the morning for training and meetings and then sometime in the afternoon I'll meet my new companion and we'll head to Burgos. I really am so exctied that I'm not transfering! I love my area so much and there is lots of work to be done! I am so excited that I get 3 more months with all the people that I love!

This past week has been another great one! Great things are happening in the work. I see the Lord's hand in my life and the life of my investigators everyday. Miracles happen everyday. This past week I we found a LOT of new investigators! Among them are 4 families! I really couldn't be more excited. I have been praying to be able to teach a family and now we have 4 of them to teach and they all are very interested and most of them have already committed to go to church, read and pray. We found all of them through members, investigators and recent converts. One of the things we have been trying to do these past couple weeks is help all the people we teach recognize the blessings they have received from the Gospel and how they can help share these blessings with others. By doing this everyone has become more excited about missionary work (especially our recent converts) and we have received many more referrals. It's so great because members are so important in fellowshipping and supporting investigators and converts. Almost all the lessons we have taught this past week have been with a member present and it makes a big difference! Right now our next scheduled baptism is on August 13. We have three investigators who I pray will be baptized on that day. One of them is Mayann the cousin of the Dupitas family. Charlie and Jaymart Dupitas are two recent converts. Mayann is 15 and is being taught with her cousin Richieann who is the Daughter of Charlie. Mayann was blind for 5 years due to a cataract and doesn't know how to read so Richieanne reads to her. They both have had their prayers answered and have a testimony that this is the true church. The one problem is Mayann is very very shy! This is a problem because she needs to have a baptismal interview next week and she will hardly talk. I pray that she will be will able to overcome her shyness for her interview. It would be great if you could pray for her as well.

One of the things I love about church in the Philippines is the music. The people here love music and love to sing hymns. They can't always pronounce all the words right things, the notes are often very off pitch but they sing from their heart with all they got and you can feel their love for their Savior in their hymns. I have really grown to love hymns and they way that they invite the spirit!

This past week the scriptures that stood out most to me in my personal study are Mosiah 14:3-4 about Jesus Christ. I really want to talk about these scritpures but my two hour email time is up. It goes too fast! I tried to send pictures but the computer crashed.

I love the Work, I love the Lord, I love Philippines, I just love being a missionary!

Fight the Fight of Faith

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Hot and Happy :)

Dear Family and Friends,

I am pleased to announce, that I will be staying in Burgos this transfer will Elder Pioquinto. That means that I will stay in Burgos till at the the end of July because I will have my follow up trainer in Burgos too. What a blessing it will be to spend at least 4 1/2 months here! It's hard to believe that I've already done with my first transfer! It went so fast. I have a feeling that things will only get faster. This past transfer definitely wasn't an easy experience for me but it was a great one. Some of the important things I learned this past transer have been to trust the Lord. If we do our part the Lord will do his in his own time. For me I was really impatient with myself and my progress with the language and with my teaching skills through most of the transfer. I went through periods of being overwhelmed with all the things I need to learn. However through it all I learned that becoming an effective missionary is a process that doesn't happen all at once. The important thing is taking things one at time and striving to get better everyday. Having a smile through it all helps significantly! It has been a real humbling experience. The journey is more important than the destination. Even though this transfer was very difficult at first, I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had for anything.

This past week was a good week in Burgos. Elder Pioquinto let me lead the area in case he was to be transfered and it was actually way fun. We have 4 investigators that are waited to be baptized and we gained some great investigators. We found the Dupitas family who was taught by the missionaries back in 2001 but were never baptized. Despite not being baptized many family members have continued to read the Book of Mormon through all the years and already have a strong testimony of it and of Jospeh Smith. Jojo is 19 years old and his knowledge of the Book of Mormon is amazing. He wants to be baptized and is a potential missionary. The teaching experience very different with this family. Elder Pioquinto and I are striving to teach to their needs in this unique situation to help them come unto Christ. I am so excited to teach the Dupitas!!! Tatay Tanedo, Nico and Joshua Haro, and Rolando continue to progress at a fast rate and are very prepared for their upcoming baptisms. I love teaching Tatay Tanedo. Everytime we teach Tatay Tanedo he ends up teaching me something. He states the truths of the Gospel that he learns in ways that I have never thought of before. Watching others come unto Christ is a great experience! This past week we also were able to teach some great less active member lessons. Many of the less actives here have a strong testimony of the Gospel. Most of the time sharing a spiritual thought with them helps them feel the spirit and reminds them of the joys the Gospel brings to their lives.

So I love Preach my Gospel. It is the best. If you don't have a copy in your home I recommend getting one! It is an awesome reference for so many gospel things and the principles in it don't just apply to missionaries. Also I will probablly reference a few times in emails. Also mom and dad, I need a copy of my mission call letter. A note for the Davies- don't worry, there are lots of crackers in the Philippines!

Mahal Kita

Elder Leishman

Fight the fight of Faith