Cabanatuan! Oct 23

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been a little crazy, but still great at the same time. It was sad to leave Burgos. I cried on the Jeepney as I looked out at the fields, houses, and people that have become so familiar to me as I headed into Tarlac on Thursday morning. Transfers were a little stresfull because I procrastinated my packing but it all worked out ok. Cabanatuan is a lot different than Burgos! First it's a City. That in itself is big difference. I guess that Cabanatuan is the Tricycle capital of the Philippines and it's true because there are trikes everywhere! My new house is big and there are 4 of us living there. One of them is a brand new American from Kaysville named Elder Morris and it's been fun to have a greenie as a housemate. The only with problem with the new house is when I got there it was really dirty, mostly from the floods a couple weeks ago so we're working on getting it looking nice again. My new area is Cabanatuan 8 Branch. They are a Branch right now but they have a goal to become a ward so right now that is goal too. I am really excited to work in this area. Our branch president here is great and is excited about missionary work. He also knows how missionary work works and the responsibilites of the members which is a big help. Before the zone leaders had two areas and they didn't really focus in Branch 8 so it's almost like we are reopening an area. Our area is pretty small with the exception with the exception of Aliaga which is a 30 or 40 minute Jeep ride. Even though it's far there are active members there and we have 2 referrals we are going to contact there this week. We are doing a lot of finding right now but we have 2 awesome investigators who have baptismal dates for November 5. One is named Jonathan (age 19) the other is Joshua (age 12). They are both excited about the Gospel, have awesome fellowshippers and have testimonies. Because we are doing to so much finding we spend a lot of time pretty much going house to house or walking around taking to people. On my first day Elder Burog asked we where I wanted to go and I had know idea so we just started walking down random streets. We eventually ended up lost and found ourselves talking to a less active member. It had been a long time since she had seen the missionaries. When we returned to her house we contacted her neighbors who were taught all the lessons 8 years ago and that we are now teaching again. These experiences have taught me that the Lord will lead us to those that are prepared to hear the Gospel. Not everyone we talk to will listen to us but there are many of God's children who are prepared. However we usually don't know who these Children are. The important thing is that we talk to as many people as we can so we can find everyone that it prepared. We can't be afraid to open our mouth.

My zone leader responsibilities started the first day and have had no stop. In my first week I have conducted companionship exchanges, helped the sisters move apartments, done lots of paperwork, worked on call in reports, started preparing a workshop for zone interviews etc.... It has been very busy and I haven't even had time to unpack my suitcase. It's busy and I love it. To tell you the truth I feel a little inadequate to be a zone leader, especially since most of my zone has been in the mission a lot longer than I have. However I know that I have this calling for a reason so I'm doing my best to magnify it. Speaking of my new Zone, Elder Andrus is one of my new zonemates! It is awesome to finally be with some of my batch again. Elder Burog is great and I'm excited to be his companion. He is also really short:) But really he's great.

One of the things that I am constantly reminded of here is the need to be obedient and to have a love for the Lord, the work and the people. For me these things will make such a big difference in the work. Even though I'm new here I already love the new branch, the members and my investigators. I'm struggling with learning all their names but I love them. I also love being a missionary. I have no doubts that this is the Lord's work. His hand is in his work. As a missionary I'm not alone.

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

p.s. the pictures are from our branch family home evening last saturday and of the Burgos t-shirts we made. Elder tating and I made them for us and our 3 branch missionaries.