Mga minamahal na Pamilya at mga kaibigan,

This past week has been a good one. My birthday and thanksgiving were both this past week but they were both just normal days of work. This past week I lots of good things happened and I learned a lot. One of the most important thing I learned was the importance of gratitude and a positive attitude. With all the changes and adjustments that have happened this last transfer I havn't always had the best attitude. I didn't always take the time to look for the positive and just be grateful. This past week I changed my attitude and it made a huge difference. It effected everything. I just feel so happy and so blessed. I am so thankful to be here in the Philippines and here in Cabanatuan. I am so thankful for the wonderful people here. The Filipino people are the nicest people in the world and if someone tells you otherwise their aren't telling to the truth. We have so many things to be thankful for and as find them and thank our Heavenly father for them you become happy. Also as we see our blessings we realized the need we have for the Lord in all that we do.

This past week we had great progress with one of our investigators named Joy. She is a young mother and is the sibling of one of our recent converts Jonathan. One of the things that has helped joy has been the Plan of Salvation. She has found peace in the knowledge that families can be together forever. That really is what the Gospel is about. Helping families return to our Father in Heaven. But back to Joy she is doing great and has a baptismal date of December 24. Even though I'm in a Tropical country I still might have a white Christmas! That's in my prayers right now. Right now one of the mottos for our mission is "Miracles will happen in December". Miracles occur everyday and they happen because of our faith. I know that by the faith we have that miracles will happen here in Angeles mission this upcoming month. As we go about setting goals right now it is a great time to test our faith and see what we can do with the help of the Lord.

This past week we also spent more time in the farthest part of our area. The area was awesome and the members there gave some great referrals. This week is going to be a great week and I am excited to see what is going to happen there in the next couple of weeks. The work here is improving. We have a lot of investigators struggling with commitments right now but they are starting to make progress and see the blessings that the Gospel brings.

This past week we also did a service project at a members house and they gave us referrals. It reminded me the importance of always serving others. Service. That's how we show our love.

As far as the pictures go. The first is a picture of me on my birthday. I made sushi and I even used the star wars lightsaber chopsticks that dad sent me from Japan. I made california rolls and we even had wasabi! I guess that is one of the advantages of being in the city is being able to buy food like that. On my birthday our branch relief society president also made us pancit which was masarap and very nice of her. Speaking of my birthday thank you so much for the package and letters. My house mates have loved the food. The alfredo sauce and chili were definatly the favorites for the Filipino Elders and Morris was a fan of the M&M's. My favorite item however was the Pillowcase. Thank you so much. The next two pictures are from earlier this morning. This past week they changed our p-day schedule so we no longer have district meeting on P-day! I am really happy about that because now we have more time on p-days and can actually do activities. This morning we went bowling.... Pinoy style! The bowling here is awesome. The balls are really small, and the pins are small to but they are spaced out more. You get 3 balls per frame and if you all 10 down in the first two balls they set them up again. It's pretty great. Definitely a good p-day.

This work is a wonderful one. I love being a missionary. Transfers are this week and I'll write you on monday to tell you what happens. I can't believe how fast this transfer went. Way to fast.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Cabanatuan 11/21

Dear Family and friends,

This past week has been another good week. The work is progressing in our area. Slowly but surely. This transfer we have found a lot of new investigators but with most of them after 2 or 3 teaching appointments, they move, or start hiding or we can't get a hold of them again. However we have found some wonderful people who are making progress. A lot of them have concerns but though finding their concerns we have been able to really focus our teaching and study on them. Missionary work is so wonderful when you are teaching people not lessons.

This past week we continued our efforts with some of the less active members in the ward and they are making awesome progress. Elder Burog and I have already seen the blessings of the Gospel return to their lives. We have also had some of start to attend church. One of them even worked with us one time this week and is now planning to go on a mission. Before we thought that he didn't have a chance of going on one. Working with and rescuing less active members is another great part of missionary work. It brings real joy and seeing a less active member come back is often like seeing a baptism It's great! One of the great parts of working with less active members is they almost always have family or friends who aren't members and that is how we find a large part of our investigators.

One of the important things I have learned this past week was the importance of faith in Missionary work. Not just on the part of investigators but on the part of the missionaries. Faith is our foundation and it's through faith that we are able to preach the Gospel. Without faith nothing will happen. It takes faith to go out everyday. I know that miracles happen everyday and they happen through faith. I love the example of the Brother of Jared. His faith was so strong he couldn't be kept from seeing the Lord. That's real faith. For me I am trying to strengthen my faith to the point where I can do anything the Lords needs me to do and to have the courage to do it.

This past week I also learned the importance of attitude. We usually can't chose our situations, but we choose how we react to them. Our attitude makes all the difference in life. I learned taht I need to choose to love things. Whether they be hard or easy I need to have a positive attitude and look for the good. There is good that comes from all things, we just need to find it! It's about enjoying the little things. The little things make all the difference. Espescially in living the Gospel.

I love you all and I love being a missionary! This is the Lord's work.

Tomorrow I'm 20 That's kind of crazy

Well,
mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

CAB November 14

Dear Family, friends and loved ones,

Yet again it's been another good week in Cabanatuan. This week we had more appointments fall through than I have ever experienced before but we also received some great blessings. Sometimes its discouraging when you get all the way to your 4th or 5th back up plan and either the people you want to teach aren't home or have some reason for being able to be taught. However this past week I learned that God works in his own ways to lead you to the people that he prepared to hear the Gospel. This past week we had one of these experiences. We got "punted" 5 times and we decided to go and try to contact a former investigator we had talked to on the street a few days earlier. When we found the man's house there was nobody home but we started to talk to his neighbor Charlie. It turns out Charlie has been feeling lost and has been searching for direction in his life. After talking to him about the Gospel he invited us into his house and we taught an awesome lesson! He came to church the next day and loved it! Tonight we are going back to teach him again. I am so excited for Charlie. Yesterday we also had some less active members we have been working with come back to church. It is wonderful to see people come back to church. There are a lot of reasons for members to become inactive but I have found real joy in working with them and helping them resolve their concerns and come back to the Gospel.

This morning we had a ddm meeting about personal revelation and it made me think about the blessing of Revelation. Personal revelation is one of the greatest blessing! I love revelation! Revelation is so important for every aspect of missionary work. For me one of the greatest times to receive personal revelation is during personal study. However I have learned that personal revelation comes more freely when I have a specific question, or am thinking about a specific person. The Lord said "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" but it's harder to have the door of revelation opened if we don't ask. God wants to guide us but we need to seek his guidance and ponder to receive it. It's also important to write down the revelation we receive. I have started taking notes in my planner and in my study journal of revelation and it has made a huge difference in the Work. The great thing about revelation is it's available for all of us. Revelation is especially important for investigators too!

Cabanatuan is good. I'm blessed to be assigned here. I just really love being a missionary.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

ps. If the picture works, the picture is of Elder Andrus and I at a service project we did for a less active member. It turns out he has a giant harry potter poster at the back of his store. It really made me smile.

Two Baptisms and Lots of Finding!

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been a great one! We had two baptisms which were wonderful. Jonathan and Joshua were baptized and confirmed members the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What a glorious thing. In our branch right now we have a very active branch mission leader who made a program, contacted and the members and even arranged for a musical number. It was pretty nice to not have to worry about those things. The baptismal service was great and my favorite part was hearing the testimonies of Jonathan and Joshua. Jonathan talked about how for his whole life he has gone to church was there was always something missing. He said that the first time he attended church here he felt something different and he found what he was missing. Even though Joshua is young he still has a strong testimony too.

This past week we had appointment after appointment fall through. However we didn't get discouraged we just tried to find new people to teach. Through our efforts this past week we found 11 new investigators! That's a lot of new investigators for one week. We found all of them in different ways. It helped strengthen my testimony that God prepares his children to hear and accept his Gospel. I just really pray that they will all continue to listen, to keep commitments and to come unto Christ.

This past week I have a great experience. One night during nightly planning we felt like we should visit a less active member. She is a mother of 5 children and we had taught a couple of her children but had never actually taught her. When we went to her house we had no idea what we were going to teach. I started to ask her some questions and I listened for the spirit to know her needs. I shared a verse from 3 Nephi and then she opened up to us. She has been inactive for years because she committed a sin and didn't know how to repent to how to go to the Lord for comfort. It turns out that this sin has been a heavy burden in her life a long time. Elder Burog and I were then able to teach a powerful lesson about the atonement and about repentance. The spirit was so strong. We taught purely to this sister's needs and the Holy Ghost gave us the words to say. We were able to give this sister a hope that she hasn't had for years. That's one the beauties of the Gospel. It gives us hope. During this experience I can say that I honestly felt like an instrument of the Lord.

I also had the opportunity to go to the mission home this past week for zone leaders council. It was a wonderful day and a half. I learned so much more about the mission and how everything works and I was able to get a fuller vision of missionary work. We talked about a lot of things at this conference but one of the things that really impacted me was the assistants workshop about leadership. I realized that I need to be a leader not a manager. It's not about managing numbers and people, but about inspiring hearts and making a difference. The way to lead is by example. Through thoughts, words and deeds. I learned about the importance of love. Without love a leader is nothing.

I really love being a misisonary. I say this every week but it's so true. I just love the Gospel. I love the Savior. I love the wonderful Filipino people. It's all about love.

Mahal ko kayo.

Love Elder Leishman