Dear family and friends,
This past week has been great!!!! It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in his work. Yesterday President and Sister Puzey attended our branch for church. Our attendance was 93 which is way more than our average of 65. We also had 10 investigators attend sacrament meeting which is by far the most we've had. It was such a powerful fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong as the members bore their testimonies about our savior Jesus Christ. It was also great to hear President and sister Puzey bear their testimonies. The first time they attended Burgos branch was a year and a half ago and the attendance was 15. The area got reopened to missionary work a year ago and the growth in the strength of the Branch has been great! Everyday I realize more and more how blessed I am to be a missionary and to be assigned in Burgos. This week we have a baptism for Hinckly, the investigator who is 14 and is the only non-member in his family. He has a strong testimony and is ready to be baptized. His dad will be the one performing the baptism which will be so great! I really excited for his baptism and pray that things will work out this week. We found a new investigator this week named Jackielynn. Jackielynn is 17 and she really wants to know the truth. She reads all of her reading assignments and more. She also takes notes and writes down questions she has when she reads. Her cousins are members and have already helped her stop drinking coffee. We also have one investigator named Pipito who is from Bisayas. He struggles with Tagalog but is studying it so he can better understand the gospel. Right now his baptismal goal date is June 25. This past week really was a very successful week and it was largely due to the help of the members. Now with the help of the members we are teaching twice as many lessons as we were in my first few weeks. The lessons are also better because more than half of them have been with a member present. I have seen so much better misisonary work is when members are involved. I now have a strong testimony of the importance of members in missionary work. Being members of this church we all have a responsibility to be missionaries. It isn't always easy but it's always worth it. Right now two our our recent converts are struggling. Nicko and Joshua Haro. These two brothers are awesome. The problem is their mom is discouraging them from going to church. School started again today and now with their studies their mother wants them to think about school. It's a hard situation. Their mother is a former investigator and we are trying to gain her trust and teach her again but she doesn't want to. They have good support from the members but their parents are the main problem. I pray that we can find a way to help Nicko and Joshua.
This past week I spent some time studying faith. Ether 12:6 really stood out to me, "for ye receive no witness until after the trail of your faith". Faith is our foundation, our first building block. However it can't be strengthened until it is used, tried and tested. We all have trials, obsticals and barriers which try our faith. As we follow god's commandments when it's the hardest, when we use our faith when the trials are the most difficult that's when testimonies are strengthen and we feel the blessings of the Lord in our life. For a lot of our investigators they have real trials of their faith. However I have seen that as they try their faith they gain their testimonies and see blessings in their lives.
The work in Burgos is great. The field is white. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. This upcoming week is transfers so I will be emailing on Wednesday not Monday. Elder Pioquinto is going to transfer for sure. Next week I'll get my followup trainer but I have no idea who he is, but I'm sure he'll be great.
Fight the Fight of Faith
Mahal Kita
Love Elder Leishman
ps. the pictures are from a CSP. The brother is our branch president President Valdez.
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