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