Magandang Araw!

Dear Family and Friends,


This past week was a great one! Everything went perfectly with our four baptisms and confirmations! It was an awesome experience. As you can see our baptismal font is a river and it's beautiful. The spirit was so strong and there was a smile on every face there. You couldn't hold back the joy. It really was a different feeling but it was so great. It was especially touching to see the gratitude and happiness of Sister Tanedo. She spoke at the baptism and her remarks were perfect. For her it isn't just about the baptism of her husband. It's about becoming an eternal family. Tatay and Sister Tanedo have already started their family history and are now counting the time till they can go to the temple to become sealed as a family and perform ordinances for their ancestors. It helped me realize just how blessed I am to have the family that I have and to have been born into the church. This experienced also helped me realize how important it is to focus our missionary work on families. We need to try and find and teach families. The gospel blesses families in so many ways and only through the gospel can we live with our loved ones again.


This week I had another great experience. One of the things I have struggled with these past few weeks have been trying to recognize and follow the promptings of the spirit. The spirit is absolutely essential in every phase of missionary work. This past week I realized that I had been relying to much on myself, my own skills and what I thought should be done rather than seeking the Lord's guidance through the spirit for the things I should say and do. One morning we were on our way to our first appointment (Hinckly, who is the farthest from our apartment) and I decided to pray. I was sitting on the back of a noisy bumpy trike it wasn't quite peaceful or reverent but I prayed really really really hard to have the spirit with me that day as I taught so I would know what to say and do. Our next teaching experience was great. I taught the restoration and as I shared the story of Joseph Smith and bore my testimony about him I felt the spirit like I hadn't felt teaching for a while. The words came to my mouth. I taught the restoration a little differently than I usually do but it was what my investigators needed to here. I felt the spirit and I know that my investigators felt the spirit too. This experience taught me that to have the spirit as my companion I need to plead with the Lord for guidance. I also need to be humble enough to recognize the promptings of the spirit and follow them even if they don't make sense. I have a feeling that this is something I'm going to have to work hard for throughout my mission.


This week I came across a scripture in Mathew that really stood out to me. mathew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". This scripture applies all people. When we are focused on ourselves and our own personal needs we can't can't become true disciples of Christ. When we loose ourselves in the service of others we find out more about ourselves and about our Savior. When we serve others we are happy and we can really get to know our Savior.


I don't know what things were like this past week in the states but here there were tons of people that said the world was going to end on May 21 and 6:00. The world didn't end but it was actually really funny because at about 5:30 a big storm rolled in. I laughed.


As far as the pictures go. The first three are from our baptisms and the last one was taken last night. When it rains in the Philippines it really rains! It actually feels really good! Last night it started to rain right after we started the hour and a half walk home. Thankfully a nice man on a trike picked us up halfway home so we didn't have to walk the full way in the rain. However we were already as wet as wet could be! I actually love the rain here so no complaints on my part!


Fight the Fight Faith


Mahal Kita


Love Elder Leishman