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