3 more months in Burgos!

Dear family and Friends,

Drumroll please....... we just had transfer announcements and I will be staying in Burgos, training a new missionary and will be a district leader! There is a new program for trainers because the curriculum changed at the mtc so I will have 2 transfers with my new companion. This means that I will be in Burgos for three more months! When we got a text telling us to call President Martino I had no idea what it could be about. I was very, very surprised when he told me I would be a trainer. I feel a little inadequate for training a new missionary but at the same time I'm really excited. It's going to be a great experience! Tomorrow I go to the mission home early in the morning for training and meetings and then sometime in the afternoon I'll meet my new companion and we'll head to Burgos. I really am so exctied that I'm not transfering! I love my area so much and there is lots of work to be done! I am so excited that I get 3 more months with all the people that I love!

This past week has been another great one! Great things are happening in the work. I see the Lord's hand in my life and the life of my investigators everyday. Miracles happen everyday. This past week I we found a LOT of new investigators! Among them are 4 families! I really couldn't be more excited. I have been praying to be able to teach a family and now we have 4 of them to teach and they all are very interested and most of them have already committed to go to church, read and pray. We found all of them through members, investigators and recent converts. One of the things we have been trying to do these past couple weeks is help all the people we teach recognize the blessings they have received from the Gospel and how they can help share these blessings with others. By doing this everyone has become more excited about missionary work (especially our recent converts) and we have received many more referrals. It's so great because members are so important in fellowshipping and supporting investigators and converts. Almost all the lessons we have taught this past week have been with a member present and it makes a big difference! Right now our next scheduled baptism is on August 13. We have three investigators who I pray will be baptized on that day. One of them is Mayann the cousin of the Dupitas family. Charlie and Jaymart Dupitas are two recent converts. Mayann is 15 and is being taught with her cousin Richieann who is the Daughter of Charlie. Mayann was blind for 5 years due to a cataract and doesn't know how to read so Richieanne reads to her. They both have had their prayers answered and have a testimony that this is the true church. The one problem is Mayann is very very shy! This is a problem because she needs to have a baptismal interview next week and she will hardly talk. I pray that she will be will able to overcome her shyness for her interview. It would be great if you could pray for her as well.

One of the things I love about church in the Philippines is the music. The people here love music and love to sing hymns. They can't always pronounce all the words right things, the notes are often very off pitch but they sing from their heart with all they got and you can feel their love for their Savior in their hymns. I have really grown to love hymns and they way that they invite the spirit!

This past week the scriptures that stood out most to me in my personal study are Mosiah 14:3-4 about Jesus Christ. I really want to talk about these scritpures but my two hour email time is up. It goes too fast! I tried to send pictures but the computer crashed.

I love the Work, I love the Lord, I love Philippines, I just love being a missionary!

Fight the Fight of Faith

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

6 months today!

Dear Family, Friends and anyone who may read this,

As you can guess it has been another great week her is Burgos. Tomorrow is the 6 month mark of my mission which is hard to believe! It's really hard to describe time in the mission. It's fast... soooo fast. This past week we taught the most lessons I have a taught in a week and most of them were to investigators that are progressing! One of the highlights of the week was an experience with one of our investigators named Jennifer Macapulay. Jennifer is the sister of Cesar Andujar (a recent convert). When we asked Jennifer about her prayer about Jospeh Smith her response was awesome. She said that she has prayed her whole life but since we started teaching her she has felt a different spirit. She said that she feels it when she prays, reads the Book of Mormon, and when we teach her. She said that when she asked if Joseph Smith was a prophet she felt this different spirit really strongly. She then said I know that this spirit is from God and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. When she said this the spirit filled the room. We were then able to explain that this feeling she felt was the Holy Ghost. The rest of the lesson was very powerful and she attended church yesterday for the first time! She has a Baptismal Goal date of August 13. Yesterday Charlie Dupitas Blessed the Sacrament and Pepito passed the sacrament. It was amazing to see these new priesthood holders in their new white shirts participate in the Sacrament for the first time. It brought me real joy.

I think one of the most important lessons I learned this past week was the importance of love in your companionship. One day this past week I was really frustrated with my companion. I'm pretty sure he was mad at me as well. The spirit wasn't with us and I realized that when there is contention is your companionship the spirit leaves, and you really can't do any missionary work without the spirit. I realized that I needed to find more ways to serve Elder Calianga and just Love him. I started to do something I like to call gratitude post its. Once a day I write a post it to Elder Calianga expressing my gratitude to him in someway. Elder Calianga was really surprised at first, but I have seen a real change in our companionship. I can honestly say I love my companion. Though these sticky notes I have been able to look for the good in my companion instead of his faults and I have gained a greater desire to serve and love him. When there is love in a companionship, there is unity, and when there is unity there is power. Really it all comes back to Love.

Mom, dad and family, I would also like to thank you for the package! It made my day to say the least. The Yoda Shirt is number 1, the tape was awesome, and the comments on the pictures were oh so excellent! It was so nice to hear everyone's voices. Also jeff is way better at talking and his voice is already changing! I promise I'll make you a tape and send it to you. If you have any questions that you want me to answer on the tape let me know! Really though, thank you so much for the package! Last week I also recieved the Leishman line, so please give my thanks to grandpa. The Leishman line is awesome! I also recieved letters from the primary which were awesome as well. I'm glad to hear that trek went well for everyone!

Next week is transfers so p-day is on Wednesday not monday. There is a good chance I could transfer but you never really know. I'll give you the news next week.

I'm happy and I just love my mission!

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Well...

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been a busy one! One of my highlights of the week was meeting President and Sister Martino! I attached a picture of Elder Martino and I. I honestly couldn't be more excited that President Martino is my mission president. He is awesome. He is humble, very spiritual, is good at Tagalog, has a great Texas accent, and I love his attitude about the work! He has already started to make some changes and I am excited about them all. This week I'll have my first interview with him and I'm really excited for it. Sister Martino is great too! Sister Martino has a said we need to be sparkling missionaries. Meaning that when we teach, we sparkle. When we teach we speak from our hearts with the spirit not just with our mouths. When we are sparkling missionaries we have the Light of Christ in our countenances. I hope that I can be a sparkling missionary! This past week I saw the hand of the Lord in the work in so many ways. I see miracles everyday. This past week I had a feeling to visit a member Sister Macapulay after one of our appointments fell through. We went to her house and it didn't take long to figure out that she has been having a lot of personal struggles. We were able to share a very spiritual message with her and when we were leaving she expressed her gratitude to us and told us that the Lord had sent us to her. Two days later we when to visit the Sister Macapulay again and we were able to teach her husband for the first time. We have been trying to teach him for months but this was the first time that he was wanted to listen. If we wouldn't have followed the promptings of the spirit to visit Sister Macapulay the first time we wouldn't have returned and been able to teach her husband. I know that the spirit prompted us and I am very grateful that we followed that prompting. Also right now we are teaching Johmer Diaz who was a former investigator. He is 19 and is really interested. He stop the lessons because he moved away for a couple months and the missionaries were transfered when he returned. This past week we taught a lesson to him , and everything we said was good but we didn't teach with the spirit and Johmer didn't understand our message. When we taught him again we asked questions, focused on his needs and the experience was completely different. I felt the spirit and I know he did too. This taught me how important the spirit is in teaching. Conversion won't take place without the spirit, no matter how beautiful or convincing your words are.

One thing that I have better learned on my misison is the importance of the family. Family is Central to God's plan for us. This past week I read Jacob chapters 2 and 3 in my personal study and It helped me understand the importance of finding and teaching Families. The Gospel blesses families is so many ways and in the world today there are so many forces in opposition to the family. Through the gospel people can find peace and happiness and strengthen their families. Our efforts in missionary work need to be centered on families.

Well the Work continues in Burgos. I attached a picture of a rather large spider in our appartment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I love the Work and I LOVE the people here! I'm so grateful to me a missionary. I love you all.

Mahal Kita,

Love Elder Leishman

Happy Birthday America, From the Philippines!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy fourth of July!!!! As you can probably guess I won't be doing anything to celebrate this holiday! This past week has yet again been a great one! Our baptisms were a great success! This week the weather was perfect! We had to move to a different place in the river but it was still soooo beautiful. Everytime we have a baptism I feel such a great feeling of joy! It really is such a different feeling. Seeing the investigators you love exercise faith, change and accept the gospel this amazing. On the other hand it's difficult to see the investigators you love tell you not to come back, or fall back into an old addiction. The four investigators that were baptized have all had to overcome their own trials and challenges on their path to becoming a member. One of our investigators who was baptized is named Allen. He has great faith. He is sixteen, has only completed 1st grade and doesn't know how to read. Inspite of these things he has strong faith and a strong testimony. His mom used is a member but was inactive when we first started teaching Allen. Allen's mom reads the Book of Mormon to Allen and now they are all active and closer as a family. They live really far away from the church and a couple of weeks they didn't have any transportation so they walked 3 hours each way to church. That is such a great example of faith. Before President Puzey left, I expressed a concern with how things are going to change when the new chapel is done because it will be more difficult for many members to go to church to do location. President Puzey said "Instill Faith in the members. If they have strong enough faith they will walk for days to go to church". This principle is true and I have seen in in Allen Anchetta and his family. When our faith is strong enough and we trust in the Lord, we can do all things!

Another one of our investigators who was baptized is Cesar Andojar. I think I wrote about him last week. Cesar is an awesome recent convert and is our only potential missionary in the Branch right now. He really wants to serve a mission and share his testimony and is already starting to become a missionary in our branch. With his help we are now teaching his sister Jennifer who is really progressing!

Family. Thank you for everything that you all do for me. Thank you for your emails. I love them! They make my week. Sorry that I don't respond to everyone's emails personally. I really don't have that much time. Thank you for your prayers. I feel them when I'm down or when things are hard. I want you to know that you are in my prayers everyday. I love you all soooo much! We are so blessed in everyway. Whenever things are hard, know that our trials are for our good. It is through our trials that we are able to learn, grow and become more like our savior.

As far as the pictures go. They are pretty self explanatory. Sorry that three of them are widescreen... I gave my camera to another missionary and he thought it would be cool to put it in widescreen... Oh well. The butterfly is real and alive!

And my patriotic thought for the day in honor of the fourth of July. Being here in the Philippines has made me realize how blessed we are in America. I love the Philippines and it really is my new home, but we are so blessed in America. America is a chosen land, and God's hand was in the creation of the nation of America. I'm thankful for our founding fathers and the good old USA. Enjoy the fireworks and BBQ and all that good stuff.

Mahal Kita. Sorry my email is short. I promise to try and make it longer next week. P.s. I'll meet president Martino on Wednesday. I'm really excited.

Love Elder Leishman