Zone Conference, CSP, and Baptisms, Oh My! June 11

Dear Family and Friends, This past week has been amazing!! It was a very busy productive week with lot's of events and lessons. This past week we had a zone conference, 2 exchanges, a service project with the ward, a baptism and the highest sacrament meeting attendance we have had in San Jose for a long time! It was an awesome week! The Vergel De Dios baptism was great! Brother Dexter baptized his two son's Jeremy and Ezekiel. Brother Vergel De Dios only got ordained last week so it was so cool that he could use his priesthood to bless his family. It has been such a joy to see this family come into activity and to re-embrace the Gospel in their lives. J.P. and Kiel's grandma came all the way from Manilla for the Baptism. She is a temple worker there and was overjoyed to see her son's family back in the church. She even bought all of them new sunday clothes that they wore for their confirmation yesterday. The spirit was so strong during the baptism. It was a special thing. One of my favorite parts of the baptism was when J.P (9 years old) enter the font and then look at his family and wave at them with a beaming face. It was a really cool experience. I love the Vergel De Dios Family! This past week we also were able to help two members in our ward with a service project. They are both teachers a little elementary school. On satruday morning we joined a bunch of members and help them clean out the school grounds and painted their tables and desks bright green! All the Elementary schools here are painted in bright neon colors. I love service. It was especially great to work hand in hand with the members. This past week we had two exchanges. One with a companionship in the zone and one with the assistants. The assistants came and surprised us with exchanges Saturday morning. They then attended the baptism with us, worked all day, slept at our house and attended our ward. It was great to work with the assistants again! I learned so much from that exchange. The assistant who worked in our area was Elder Leedom from McCall Idaho. He is an awesome missionary and he teaches by example. It was so fun to teach and find with him and Elder Revillo. When you do misisonary work right it's so much fun! Exchanges are always a great opportunity to learn and grow and I am thankful I get to take part in so many of them. Right now San Jose Zone is doing good. Almost every area is having great success in the work right now! We have set some high goals this month as a zone but the missionaries here are working hard and we are seeing some amazing miracles. In San Jose Zone we have the highest oym's (open your mouths) in the mission right now. We are talking to everyone and because of that are finding the people that God is preparing to receive the Gospel. In our area we have been struggling to find new investigators the past few weeks but this last week we found some awesome investigators and one of them even came to church the day after we taught him! I know that the Lord is preparing people for us. We don't always know who they are but if we open our mouths we will find them. I love being a missionary! Mahal ko kayo, Love Elder Leishman p.s. I started reading the Bible more in my personal study and It has been incredible. I am learning so much through using the Bible and Book of Mormon together. I recommend that!

Tag Ulan Na! June 4

Dear Family and Friends, This past week has been a good week! The Vergel De Dios family is doing awesome as usual! Yesterday Brother Vergel De Dios was ordained to the office of priest, because was only a deacon before. That means that he will be baptized his two son's this saturday! I am so excited for their baptisms. Ezekiel and J.P. and doing great and are very ready for their baptism. The passed their baptismal interview with flying colors. Our district leader was surprised about their understanding of Gospel. This saturday Kiel and J.P.'s grandma is probablly going to up for their baptism. She is a temple worker at the Manila Temple and know she is thrilled that her son and his family has finally come back into activity. This past week we made some good progress with Von who's wife is a member. Teaching him is really different because he knows so much about the church and church doctrine. He know's it better than a lot of members to tell you truth. We have really had to adjust our teaching to teach to his needs it's been a challenge but through revelation and the spirit we have had some great lessons. His main concern with Joining the church is with the word of wisdom but we are workign with him and i know that with his faith and the support of his wife he can overcome his word of wisdom addiction. Faith is so important in everything we do! This past week while studying Ether 12 I was better able to understand how humility, faith and love are connected. With out faith be can't have love for God and without Love and faith we can't be humble. But if we are humble God will show us our weaknesses Ether 12:27 and then we can rely on the Lord with faith and humility to grow and become strong. This week was also the start of Tag-ulan or rainy season. When It's tag-ulan you are lucky to get 1 day where is doesn't rain. Even if you have an umbrella you still get wet so I have tried to take advantage of rain to serve people by offering my umbrella to people who get caught without one. It's been a really good way to serve others in a simple way and take the opportunity to talk to them and introduce the Gospel. It's sometimes hard to find people to talk to when it's raining but it makes finding more a challenge. It's actually really fun and i've been loving it! Funny story of the week: This past week I was on exchanges with one of my housemates in his area and we were walking through a field where a Kalabaw (Caribao) was eating grass. The path we were going to was pretty close to the Kalabaw and I didn't think anything of it because the Kalabaw are usally friendly and are actually scared of people. When we walked past the Kalabaw it looked up at us and wasn't to happy and started after us. Elder Servancia and i took of running with the Kalabaw on our heels! I had never seen a kalabaw move so fast in my life. Thankfully it was tied up so nothing happened. His rope however was about 70 feet long so we still got a nice sprint in. After that we laughed a ton! It was really funny. It was a good moment. It's been a good week. We are working with so many amazing people and I feel so blessed to be assigned here. I know that this is the Lord's work. I love being a misisonary. I feel like we have been working so hard these past couple of weeks but I know that we can work harder. Hardwork, Obedience and Love are the keys to missionary work. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Mission Tour with Elder Nelson! May 27

Dear Friends and Family, This week has been quite the week, the highlight of the week by far was our Mission tour with Elder Russell M. Nelson! This was the first time that the entire mission has met for a conference so I was able to see all of my batch and old missionary friends. However the best part of the conference of Course was hearing from Elder Nelson. We were all seated in our seats reading the scriptures when we came in and then we were all able to shake his hand. He was on a really tight schedule so our conference wasn't very long. We first heard from a member of the Area preisdency Elder Neilson and his wife who talks were both amazing but my favorite was Elder Nelson's talk. The spirit was so strong in that room and I listened in awe so the things he said. He gave us some opportunites to ask him questions and the way he answered the questions and his Gospel Knowledge is just on a whole other plane. Right now I want to share some of my favorite things that he shared with us. He talked about the way we look at people and this what he said, "We see what we see, but beyond what you see, see what they can be". He talked about how we need see people for their potential not just as who they are at that moment. He also talked about how the future potential of people is contingent on their encounters with us. He shared a story about meeting a chinese man in china and seeing him in white baptismal clothes. Many years later that man was baptized. This has helped me change the way I now look at people. When I see them I picture them at baptism or in the temple. This has also helped me a lot as I have worked with members of my zone. I seeing the great potential they ahve and it just makes me excited. I feel a greater love for people and am that much more excited about missionary work. Elder Nelso also talked about how it's important to find common ground while teaching people like Ammon did with kind lamoni in Alma 18. That has helped me a lot to. He said so many things that I want to share you. He talked about what a prophet of God see's when he looks in our eyes and he also talked about our families while we are on missions and the blessings they will recieve (D&C31). It was just an amazing experience. I feel truely changed because of the spirit I felt, the promptings I felt, the things I heard and the revelation I recieved. The spirit is just a wonderful thing and I am so thankful for it. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be a part of our misison tour I hope that one day I can share more of what I learned with you. This past week we also saw some great success in our work. Our church attendance yesterday was 104 which is the highest I have ever seen it and it's all because of our rescue efforts with the less-actives. I really feel like we are establishing the church in San Jose by helping priesthood holders come back and by helping families get to the temple. This past week we taught a lot of very spiritual lessons but some of my favorite were to the De Dios family, who I have talked about in Previous weeks. We taught them about tithing and it while we were teaching it they talked about how most of the time money is really tight for them. Brother Dexter then told us that he realized that things were hard financially because he hadn't payed his tithing in 10 years. It was really cool to see the spirit testify to him that if he paid his tithing the Lord will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings on their family. Right now Brother Dexter is getting ready to be ordained as a priest so he can baptize his two boys this upcoming june 9! I love this family so much and love seeing them live the Gospel. Things are going really good here in San Jose. Elder Revillo and I are working well together and I know that this is going to be a great transfer. The zone is also really excited and we have a lot of good missionaries here serving in San Jose right now. June is going to be a month of Miracles! The pictures I attached are all from the conference. The first picture is of my MTC Batch. The sisters in my batch go home the first week of August which is weird to think about! The second picture is of Elder Tomasi and I. It was so good to see and be with Elder Tomasi. The first time I saw the entire mission was at transfer announcements so it was good to see him again! I really really love Elder Tomasi! The last picture is the Burgos family tree. All of us there besides Elder Pioquinto got trained and trained in Burgos. The Elder With the Red hair is my great, great, grandson in the mission! It was also really good to see Elder Pioquinto again. This is his last transfer and I probablly won't see him again before he goes home. I love being a missionary! I love San Jose! Mahal ko kayo Love Elder LEishman Fight the Good Fight of Faith!

Transfers! May 21

Dear Friends and Family, THis past week has been another good week! This letter is going to be a little bit short so I apologize. This past week we had transfers and Elder Adao transffered. It's always hard to have your companion leave. Elder Adao and I worked really well as a team and were on the same page about a lot of things. Over the past two transfers we became like best friends. Elder Adao was sad to leave but that's the life of a missionary. My new companion is Elder Revillo from General Santos Mindanao. He is the nephew of Charlie and Carlos Revillo, two of Grandpa Lolo's missionaries. This is his first transfer as a zone leader and I can already tell he is a good missionary. Whenever you get a new companion is the mission there is always a lot of little adjustments you ahve to make in order to be unified with your companion and to invite the Holy Ghost into your companionship. These past few days have been good and we are off to a good start. I am really really excited for this transfer. We have a lot of really progressing investigators, and families we are working with right now. We also ahve some families preparing for the temple which is very exciting! THis past week we had 6 investigators at church again and the De Dios family is making awesome progress! I am loving my area right now. This past week we still got punted a lot but we have put a lot of effort in to our finding and am having some good success with our new investigators. I am thankful for revelation in this work. The holy Ghost is key! Well my email time is up. Sorry my email was so short! Next week I'll make it longer! I love this work and I love being a missionary! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Happy Mother's Day~ May 14

Dear Family and Friends, It was awesome to talk to this morning on the phone! I really enjoyed it! It was fun to hear everyone's voices! I hope that I wasn't awkward at all. It's amazing how fast those 40 minutes go on the Phone. Anyways I am glad that everyone is doing well and that things are good at home! This past week has been a really good week. We had a lot of good things happen! For the past couple weeks we have kind of seen our teaching pool fall apart. However this past week we found a lot of new people to teach and saw some miracles happen with our investigators and less-active members. We found a less-active member who went inactive right after his baptism 12 years ago and he doesn't really remember anything about the church. He experienced an accident in the ricemill where he works and broke his leg. He isn't working while he is waiting for his leg to heal and this has given us the chance to teach him the Gospel. I know that God has a plan for all of us and he puts people in our path that are ready to receive or re-recieve the Gospel. Last sunday we also had a less-active member come to church with her husband. They moved here to San Jose from Paniqui a year ago and they just found the Church. We went and taught them last saturday in a place called palasapas. It's beautiful there! up in the Mountains but the road is paved there. The area and the people there actually remind me a lot of Burgos! They came to church again yesterday and so happy that they finally found the LDS church in San Jose. One of the highlights of this past was having the De Dios Family attend church as a family and attend all 3 hours of church. Right now one of the big struggles we have with our less-active members is getting them to attend church for 3 hours. Most of them leave right after sacrament meeting. We try and get out into the foyer quickly to help them stay, and we have fellowshippers to help take people to classes but somehow they end up sneaking out and going home. I talked a little bit about the De Dios Family last week. They are awesome! They are a less active family who in the process of coming back to church. They two oldest children aren't yet members and they loved church. I really love teaching them because every single one of them is excited about the Gospel. We really have had to adjust our teaching to meets the needs of Brother and Sister De Dios and they children. Brother De Dios's mother is actually a temple worker in Manilla and I know is very excited for her son and family to come back to the Church. I really just love teaching families. Seeing a family accept and live the gospel is about one of the most rewarding things a person can do! For the past two months we have teaching an investigator named Crison. He is super smart and really wants to know the truth. He is aready in Alma in the Book of Mormon but is having a hard time recognizing the spirit. Part of his concerns come from his family members who are devoted Catholics and don't want Crison to Join another a religion. This past week Elder Adao and I fasted for Crison and we taught him about fasting and how through fasting we can receive answers to our prayers. We havn't been able to follow up on his fast yet put I am praying that he will have received a witness through the Spirit about the Truthfu

lness of the Gospel. Lately I have been better able to understand the Power of Fasting in our lives. Through fasting we come closer to our Heavenly Father and We show him that we are willing to sacrifice and humble ourselves to gain spiritual power. I know that fasting brings spiritual power and sensitivity into our lives that helps us help others and receive answers to prayers. Well, I love being a missionary! What a Blessing! I love San Jose and I love my Savior. This wed. Is transfers. I'll let you know what happens next week! mahal ko kayo nagmamahal Elder Leishman

Tag-ulan, na?

Dear Family and Friends, I hope that you are doing great! This past week has been a very busy and awesome week! THis past Tuesday and Wednesday we had our zone leader's council meeting at the mission home again and it was awesome. To go to ZLC we woke up at 1:30am walked to bus station (because all the trike diver's are sleeping), took a bus to Cabanatuan, then took bus to San Fernando, Pampanga then, we took a jeep to a bus terminal where the assistants picked us up. Needless to say it's always an adventure traveling to ZLC. Especially because we almost missed one of the bus's we were supposed take... This transfer Elder Tating became a zone leader so it was really fun to see him! It was also good to see a lot of my batch, and other missionaries who I love a lot. ZLC is my favorite meeting in the mission. We talk about mission business, our mission training plan, have an open forum, receive training and have a testimony meeting. This month our mission will be focusing on the atonement. I love the Atonement and I am so excited to study this as a mission. President Martino gave training about the atonement and it was amazing. He talked about so many things I have never understood about the atonement before. It was almost mind-blowing. The atonement is one of my favorite things to study and I am so excited to study this as a mission. For the past month we have really been struggling to get investigators to church. We have been doing all me could to invite them, commit them, involve members, and pick them up to go to church. However we havn't had very much success until yesterday! Yesterday we had many investigators at church and we also lots of less-actives attend who we have been working with. Yesterday our attendance was 100! That is the highest by far I have ever seen it. It's all because of the rescue program. It is such a joy to see the people you work with come to church! It's hard to describe the feeling as you see a less-active family who you have been fasting and praying for walk into the chapel for the first time in 9 years. It's a feeling of true joy. This family I am talking about is the De Dios family. Brother and Sister De Dios are both members and have 4 children none of which who are members. They were a referral from our Bishop and when we went to visit them the first time they weren't that excited to see us. The first thing they asked when they opened their door was "Sino ang nagsabi sa inyo na pumunta dito?", or "who told you to come here" They weren't that excited at first but after talking on the doorstep for a couple of minutes they invited us in and we shared a message about family prayer. By the end of our lesson they had lots of questions and were excited to set a return appointment. It has been wonderful to see the Gospel flame reignited in their hearts. Right now their two oldest son's ages 12 and 10 are preparing for baptism. They should hopefully be baptized on the last week of may! Things are going well here in San Jose. I love Elder Adao. I'm am so thankful he is my companion. I learn a lot from him everyday! Next week is transfers already and I have no idea what's going to happen. I'll let you know when I find out! Fight the Good Fight of Faith mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman ps. the pictures are 1 me and Elder Andrus at ZLC. Love Elder Andrus 2- Me in Front our the Church after our P.E.C. meeting yesterday and 3- A picture of my district. We played basketball this morning with some members.

April 29, 2012

Dear Family, This past week has been another great week. We had a lot of unexpected things happen. Our zone interviews this past week went great. Elder Adao and I felt like our workshop went great and that it really helped the zone. At our interviews the Assistants gave a workshop on companionship unity. It was a great workshop and it gave Elder Adao and I new ideas to help us be more unified. Because of this workshop we changed the way we do companionship study to focus more on specific lesson plans for investigators. This change has made a large improvement in the work. We still end up adjusting a lot of our plans according to the needs of our investigators and to the spirit but we are teaching with even more unity and the spirit is stronger in the Lessons. We experienced this, last wednesday with one of our investigators named Crison. Crison is 21 years old and we met him through his cousin, who is one of our investigators. Crison is searching for the truth and is super smart. He has lot's a questions and is slowly gaining a testimony. We made a plan to teach him about the word of wisdom and we planned specifically for the questions we thought he might have and gave extra time to making the lesson plan fit him. When it came time to teach him he ended up asking a lot of the questions we had planned for and because of our planing we were able to answer in unity and the spirit magnified what we said. It was a wonderful lesson and it helped teach me the importance of unity. This past week there were some members who went to the temple and the Bade family was able to go and to baptisms for the dead. They even prepared 5 names which they took to the temple with them! It was wonderful to have our converts visit the temple and to hear about their experiences there! What a blessing temples are! For the past 2 weeks a few of the wards in San Jose stake started a little basketball league. About a quarter of the team for ward 1 is made up a less-active members who our bishop invited to come and play. Through this activity these less-active members have renewed friendships with active church members and yesterday we had one come to church. It has been such a blessing because this past week we found 3 part-member families just from Less-actives playing basketball! They are all awesome and some really have a testimony about the church. I'm excited to work with them this month and I pray that we can help their families come back. One of the crazy things that happened this past week happened to an Elder In our zone. We were at our house eating our lunch when one of the Elders in our zone burst through the Door and said his companion was in the trike outside. We ran out to the trike and the Elder's foot was covered in a bloody bandage and blood was dripping on the the floor of the Tricycle side car. Elder and Adao and I hopped in the trike and we headed off to the hospital. It turns out the Elder was drinking soda out of a glass bottle and it slipped while he was drinking it. When it hit the ground if broke right next to his foot and his heel got sliced open pretty good! I'll attach a picture so you can see it. Anyways long story short, he got it stitched up and is all good now. This past week has been awesome! I wish I could tell you about every lessons we taught and all of the wonderful people I work with everyday! The zone is full of awesome missionaries and is on fire right now! I love being a missionary! I just love it! I love the Gospel. Last week I read a talk about the Atonement by David A. Bednar in the Liahona and I recommend it to all of you. He talked about how the atonement isn't just power for bad people to become good people. It's also the way for good people to become better people and how we can use this power in our lives everyday. I am thankful for the atonement in my life and the role it plays in everything I do. We are hopeless without the atonement, but thankfully we all have hope. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman ps. Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 is going to visit our mission in May!