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

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

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

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

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 :)

View of the Philippines

Photo1: typical rural street in the Philippines Photo 2: on the way to an appointment Photo 3: first pday at a Tarlac Zone activity

Week 2

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