Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon 12/30

Dear Family and Friends, Maligayang Pasko and Manigong Bagong Taon! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This past week was a good week. As most weeks it definatly had it's ups and downs. One of the highlights of the week was Christmas. Christmas was awesome. It was a very unique Christmas for me. We spent the entire day visiting members, Less-active, active and recent converts, and we shared messages about with Jesus Christ and Christmas. The spirit in those lessons was so special. Throughout the entireday my heart was filled with gratidude for my Savior. Many of the people that we visited are poor famers. When we asked them how their Christmas was many of them said it was sad because they had no special meal or gifts. As we taught these families about Christ's birth and about his life it was wonderful to see the spirit touch their hearts and to see their countenances change. Their sadness turned to gladness! That's what the Savior does for us. Because of his atonement he can turn our saddness into gladness. His atonement allows us to change to become more like our Heavenly Father. He brings us peace and hope. I am so thankful for my Saivor. This last Christmas was a Christmas I will never forget. This past week there was a Fiesta in Portal. It was four days long. When there is a Fiesta work is normal during the day but once it starts to get dark everyone goes to the barangay plasa for an event of somekind. A Dance, a pagent, barangay night, ect... These usually go from 7 or 8pm to 4-5am. When it's Fiesta there are marching bands that march up and down the streets playing music and everyone seems to be busy. This was a little bit of challenge for our work. It was hard to teach lessons and to find. The biggest Distraction was the marching band. There were multiple times where we were teaching a spiritual lesson and then out of nowhere the marching band would come down the street and you could hardly hear your self think. It was hard to keep the spirit in those lessons. We were teaching one less-active family when the marching band came down the street. The 19 year old son stood up and said wait a minute I got to go watch the band, as he ran out of the house. He came back about 5 minutes later and we finished the lesson. There is always something new that happens everyday. Despite the Fiesta we had soem awesome progress with many of our investigator. We found Jason and Shami guevarra a couple weeks ago and they are really progressing. They are 20 and 21 years old. Last week Shami had a question about where a person go when they die and last night we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to their whole family. It was the first time that their parents and grandmother wanted to listen but htey listened and had lots of good qeustiosn. They are all members of different religions and are searching souls. Last night we also found and taught 2 new families. I feel so blessed to be teaching families. Last saturday all of our plans fell through in the morning in an area that the missionaires didn't really work in before. We said a prayer that hte Lord would lead us to someone he wanted us to teach. We started talking to people and while we were walking down a street we heard some yell " Elders! Hali kayo Dito!" Or Elders come here. We turned around and saw a very excited looking nanay. Nanay Rosita led us to here house where she pulled out her baptismal certificate scirptures and pictures of her at churched. She was baptized in Quezon City a long time ago and was really active there but when she moved to Nueva Ecija she didn't know where the church was and became less-active. She was so happy to see us and already has an assignment in the Branch. The Lord led us to her and I feel like she is going to be the key to getting hte work going in that area. I lvoe the Work. There is lots of work to do here. Everyday I feel so blessed to serve. I love you all. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman the picture is of me cooking Tinola. One of my favorite foods. I am sporting the new mission apron that sister Martino gave us for Christmas:)

PASKO NA!

Dear Friends and Family, Maligayang Pasko! First I hope you all have an awesome Christmas. I love Christmas here in the Philippines. Filipinos are the nicest people in the world and get even nicer when it's Christmas. Everyone just has this good spirit about htem. This past week has been a great week. We had our christmas zone conference and our branch christmas party. Both awesome. We don't have a lot of plans for Christmas this year. Because we live in a very rural area the people are really poor and humble. There's not a lot of presents at their Christmas but what makes Christmas special for them is being with their families. Because it's planting time right now a lot of people will still be in their fields even on Christmas day. Later today we are going to our branch president's house to cook Biko. I'm excited about that! Tomorrow we will spend most of our time visiting people and sharing messages about Jesus Christ. The simpleness of Christmas here has helped me better understand what Christmas is about. This week our work went a lot better. It's been hard to schedule our work because from 6:00am until 5:00pm everyone and their Kalabaw is in the bukid planting rice or onions. The only people in their houses are babies and older women who take care of the children and cook while their family is in the field. Right now even the elementary school and high school students plant. I was a little bit frustrated at first with this but planting season has been a blessing because after 5pm, everyone is tired and in their houses with their families. This makes for great teaching opportunities. This past week we have found three investigator families! Not indivuals but families. Teaching families is the greatest! Even all the less-actives we are teaching are all families. The spirit has been powerful as we have taught families about the restoration of the Gospel. Yesterday, we went back to a house that we had contacted early this week and the person we contacted wasn't there. However her two children ages 20-21 were. They asked us what was the difference between mormons and Catholic. We then taught them about the restoration. The questoins taht they had were awesome. They have grown up in the Catholic church but are searching for more. They are excited to learn. I feel like the Lord has prepared many people here in Portal. Many people here have never seen or met the missionaries before which makes finding fun. Yesterday there was no sunday School teacher for the youth so I taught them a lesson. To start the lesson I wrote "Pasko" (Christmas) on the chalkboard. I then asked them what they think about when it's christmas. I listed their responses on the board and after about 12 responses a 12 year old young woman said "Jesu Cristo". Then I asked them why Jesus Christ is so low on the list. For our lesson we talked about the true meaning of Christmas and read Luke 2. It ended up being a good lesson and I think all the youth learned from it. It's been a really humbling experience to be in a branch like this. Everyday my love for the area, the people here and for my companion grow. I love it here. I feel so honored to be a missionary. It's hard to think about I only have 1 month left. Elder Soberano and I aren't wasting any time. I love Elder Soberano he is a good, harding working, Humble Elder. He is in the 2nd picture I sent. He is on the left hand side in the Pink and blue tie. Thank you so much for writing him a quick email. It meant a lot to him. I love you all so much! I know that this is the Lord's work. I love my Savior. This is his Church. Maligayang Pasko! Love Elder Leishman the pictures are 1- me in a field walking to an appointment. 2 - my new district here in San Jose. 3- my batch on this side of the mission at our christmas zone conference.

PORTAL! 12/16

Dear Family and Friends, This past week has been a very interesting week. It has been an adjustment being back in the field especially being in an area that is having it's own set of missionaries for the first time. There have been Elders working in Portal for a long time but they only go out there about 1 or 2 times a week so the missoinary work is really slow there. Transfer day was this past Thursday. It was a busy day. I had a lot of travel and when we got to our new area we spent most of the day figuring out our new house because we are the first missionaries to live in the area. Friday our work really started and it was weird being in a place where you or your companion have know idea who anyone is or where anything is. The old missionaries left there area book but there was absolutely nothing in it so we were mostly on our own. On friday we started at are house and from there we just started talking to everyone and looking for members. It was a day with little results but we did meet david who was a searching soul. He is 17 is a high school graduate and doesn't really have any plans in life. We asked him if we could teach him and we said we could. He said he was catholic and his first question to us was "Meron bang talagang Diyos?" ("Is there really a God"). We then taught about our loving Heavenly Father and about prayer and it was an amazing lesson. We are going back to teach him tomorrow. Saturday went really similarly. Luckily when I was assigned in San Jose I went on exchanges in Portal one time and I remembered the houses of 2 members which was a help. We were able to teach a recent convert that i interviewed for baptism. That was a cool experience. But overall Saturday was another hard day. When Sunday Morning rolled around I was feeling a little bit down and little bit sorry for myself because things were hard an nothing was happening. While I was sitting at my desk the song "Count Your Many Blessings" popped into my head and i immediately sang it and then knelt in prayer to express my gratitude for all the blessings that I have received and to ask forgiveness for my ingratitude. From that moment I starting thinking more about other and things just started going better. Church was a lot like church in Burgos. We met in our small meeting house and our attendance was 42. I was our branch keyboardist and was an on the spot speaker. It really took me back to my first couple weeks in Burgos. Our 3 hours of church were so humbling and the spirit was wonderful. The members were all really excited to finally have their own set of missionaries. After Chruch our branch president told us he wanted to work with us and the first thing we did was look at the ward directory with him. He talked about indivuals we should focus on, his goals for the branch, and his vision for Portal. It was awesome. Our branch president, President Sarmiento, had Grandpa Lolo as a mission president for a month when we entered into his mission in Bacolod. President Sarmiento was excited to figure that out. After our meeting with president he took us around our area on his trike and introduced us to less-active and active members and showed us where some former investigators live. We didn't teach a lot of lessons but we were able to set return appointments and get to know the members. The few lessons that we did teach were to potential missionaries in our branch that President Sarmiento is working with. Yesterday was an amazing day! The members are so important to missionary work. Because of the help of our branch president we now have a good starting place for the work. This week is going to be an amazing week! President Sarmiento gave us a lot of assignments and things to do and we take this that we have gained his trust. We are excited to do these things and report back to him quickly. Information about Portal. It's very bukid. Everyone who lives in our area is a farmer. Right now is planting season which makes teaching challenging. The people here are very humble and there are some awesome members. I love this area already and there is lot of potential. I am so excited to see the growth that will come. I am just excited about this transfer. My new companion is Elder Soberano from Iloilo. He is only in his 4th transfer in the mission. He is quite and very serious but he really likes to work. I love having a companion who loves to work. We're going to have a good transfer together. All I can think about is our area and the few people we have met. I love this time of year. Christmas time is such a great time. I love thinking about Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for his atonement. While we celebrate his birth I love thinking also about his atonement and Resurrection. I feel like I have been able to get to know him so much better on my mission. This week we have Christmas zone conference and our branch Christmas party. I'm excited. I love you all so much. I love this work. I love the people in my area. I love Portal and I love my Savior. Maligayang Pasko! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman The first 2 pictures I attached were from my last night in Sta. Ignacia with Elder Bellen. The 3rd picture I took while waiting for a trike this morning. The cow turned around right when I took the picture but I still think it's scenic non the less. It's what most of my area looks like.

Back to the Field Dec 9/2012

Dear family and mga kaibigan, This past week has been another busy week. Last monday night President Martino called Elder Adao and I into his office and showed us the transfer board. I saw my picture up in San Jose Zone. I'll be opening a new area called Portal. My new companion there will be Elder Soberano who is still really new in the mission. Last tuesday Elder Adao and I picked up Elder Cohen, the new assistant, and brought him back to the office to get train him on his new resposiblities. After two days a training and 8 hours in the Land Transportation Office we got him all trained up and were able to convert his liscence to a Filipino drivers liscence. Getting his license was quite the process! Lot's of sitting, waiting and sweating but we were able to meeting some cool people and introduce the Gospel while we were waiting. On thurdsay we had our meeting with the trainers and trainees and then I got dropped off in Santa Ignacia to be companions with Elder Bellen (Elder Cohen's old companion). Elder Bellen and I are only companions for a week but It's a been an great week so far. Our trainer and Trainees meeting this past week went awesome. It was my third time to give training at this type of a meeting but this was by far the best. Elder Adao and I ended up changing a lot of what we had planned in order to fit the needs of the new missionaries and it ended up being an extremely spiritual meeting. Leaving the office was hard. I had a lot of mixed feelings. It's hard to leave something you have but so much time and effort into and have loved so much. At the same time I'm really excited to go back to the field for my last transfer to open a new area and be able to focus every second of my time on my area and on the people of I'm teaching. It will be awesmoe to just work. It also was hard to leave Elder Adao. I am so blessed to have had him as my companion for 6 months of my mission. He's like my brother and I have learned soooo many things from him. I love Elder Adao. The past few days have been an adjustment as well. However things are good. I know that this is what hte Lord wants for me. One of the cool things about being in the office was seeing how transfers work and how the Lord directs the transfers through President Martino. I know that the Lord has a part in all transfers that happen. I am so thankful for thetime i had to serve in the office. I feel so blessed for hte opportunity. I learned so many things that I don't think I could have learned anywhere else. I feel blessed to havebeen able to spend so much timewith President Martino. What an amazing man! These past few days in Santa Ignacia have been great! The bishop here in the ward actually spent a night at Grandpa Lolo's house when he entered the mtc to serve his mission in California. His name is bishop Eugenio. Over the past few days we have had some really cool expereinces. one of my favorites was lastnight when we decided to tao po the next door neighbor of an appointment that fell through. A women opened the door and after a few seconds of talking we found out she was a less-active member. We were able to teach her a lesson and I was shocked with her knowledge of the scritpures and the Gospel. She told us that when she started college she started getting busy and stopped going to church in order to study. She also told us she really wants to come back because she misses the spirit in her life. We taught about the sacrament and atonement and you could see the spirit work on her. She told us she was coming to church on Sunday before we could give her a commitment. The Lord led us to her house. This past week I have been reading the war chapters in Alma and have been getting a lot out of them Especially what I have read about hte strippling warriors. They thought more about hte liberty of their fathers than of their own lives and had incredible courage. The ability to think about others more than ourselves is a gift from God. It's a fruit of Charity. I was asked to gived a last minute talk yesterday in sacrament meeting when the assigned speaker didn't show up and the bishop told me to talk about a Christ like attribute I chose Charity and love and related it to Christmas and Christ example to us. I love this time of year and hte brotherly love it brings. It helps us live the Gospel better in our daily lives as we think about serving others, just like the strippling warriors did. Speaking of Christmast We have been singing Christmas songs in Church and it has been awesome! The FIlipino Saints really know how to sing. They sing with their heart and it brings the spirit. Also speaking of Christmas, We recieved our guidlines about Christmas calls and we can call during the week of Christmas at a time that works for us. We will have up to 40 minutes for our phone call. I was thinking I will call the day after Christmas in the morning so it will be Christmas night for you. I'm really good to do whatever. Let me know what you thinkand we can get it coordinated. Also this is the address for the new mission office. Philippines Angeles Mission F. Tanedo Street Tarlac, Tarlac 2300 Philippines That's where stuff should be sent if it will arrive after Christmas. If you have sent something already it isn't a problem, I'll still get it but from now on please use this address. Salamat \ I love you all so much. I love this work and i am excited for this next week. Keep fighting the fight of Faith. Mahal ko kayo nagmamahal Elder Leishman

ZLDLC December 2

Dear friends and Family, This past week has been an awesome week. As usual it has been another busy week. One of the highlights of the day for me was ZLDLC. They were both awesome days full of the spirit. Elder Adao and I gave our workshop and developing Christlike attributes with a focus on charity. President gave his training on Christ's Character. It was amazing. He talked aobut all hte titles of Jesus Christ in the scriptures and then we went into the scriptures and focused on Christ's character. It's amazing how in everything he did he was always focused on the concerns and needs of others. No matter how hard things were for Christ he never complained he just loved and served others. Even up to his death on the cross, the Savior was always concerned about others. It was humbling to realized how much the Savior loves all of us and to get to understand his character a little better. I love my Savior and I am thankful for the my testimony of him. He is the real head of hte church and he is the one who is running our mission. Last night on an exchange I was working with an Elder that is fairly new in his area. He didn't really know how to get around his area very well and we ended up getting lost a few times. It was a funny interesting experience. We were looking for a barangay called Sitio Pader and we asked a man directions how to get there. He gave us directions and we started walking hte way he told us to. After walking for 5-10 minutes the Elder I was working with thought we were more lost so we asked another lady for directions and the lady was actually a less-active woman who the missionaries hadn't met before. She told us all about here baptism and about how she lost her book of Mormon and wanted a new one. The Elders are going back to teach her on Wednesday. The funny part of the story in the less-active sister gave us directions to Sitio Pader and they were exactly opposite of the the directions that the man had given us earlier. I feel like the Lord led us to that less-active sister through the man who had no idea how to get to Sitio Pader. The Lord really does guide us to his children who are ready to recieve the Gospel. Yesterday we went to church in Gerona an area that I worked in a couple months ago. At church I saw 5 recent converts who I taught as investigators a couple of months ago. It was awesome to see them again as members of the Church. One of them even blessed the sacrament. Even though I only taught them once i still felt the connection I had with them. It's amazing how the Gospel can unite people. One of the recent converts is 17 years old and really liked my tie so we switched ties after church in the CR. The best part of yesterday was the sacrament meeting. The testimony meeting was almost full of just pure testimonies. Not thank-amonies or kuwentomonies, or story telling, just pure testimony. The spirit was so strong in htat room. I felt so uplifted and so many people were excited to get up and share their testimonies. That's waht fast and testimony meeting is about. Uplifting each other through our testimonies. It was a great day. I love this work so much. It's such a blessing to serve others. My scritpure for the week is Mathew 20:27. It's so important to serve others like the Savior did. I'll let you know next week if I transfer or not. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman.

Pabo Sa Clark 11/26 2012

This past week has been another great week. We went on lots of exchanges. Since the mission president's seminar a couple weeks ago president has encouraged us to go on more exchanges even if it's just for a couple hours after our office work. We have tried to follow president's council and have been out working almost every night. It's been such a joy to work with all the Elders here in Angeles zone and throughout the misssion. I learn so much on exchanges. Everyone has their own style of teaching and there are so many ways to always improve. One of my favorite lessons I taught this week was in San Jose. I was lucky enough to go back and work in my old area and I was able to teach 2 of my old investigators who ahve since been baptized. I also taught hte Vergel De Dios family again! Brother Vergel De Dios is now the ward executive secretary and he finished hte Book of Mormon for the first time the night before I tuaght him. They are preparing to be sealed as a temple this december 20. Everytime I see them I see how the Gospel continues to bless and change their lives. I saw many miracles this week in the work. A couple of you asked about my birthday. My birthday was on thanksgiving and every thanksgiving all the senior couples in our mission have a meeting and a thanksgiving dinner at the mission home. We usually don't get to eat at those kind of meetings but President invited us this time which was nice. Our office couple also had a couple of their children visiting who attended our little thanksgiving dinner as well. We had Turkey stuffing and all the fixins. It was a delicious meal. We had a exchanges the day before my birthday and we slept at those Elder's house. One of the Elders was elder Garcia. They ended up secretly buying ice cream for me so that would be my birthday breakfast. We ate it on pandesal (warm little Filipino bread). Ice cream on bread for breakfast. The best. That night Elder Adao and I went out and worked with some Elders in Angeles. It ended up being an awesome exchange. I worked with an Elder who is training right now and he is one bold teacher. He teaches the Gospel boldly but with love. You can tell he means everything he says. It was awesome to work with him. I learned a lot from that exchange. Over the last month we have been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and marking all references to Christ and Christ's words. It has been amazing to see all the titles of Jesus Christ and how he is in every page of the Book of Mormon. By doing this activity I have been better able to understand the mission of Jesus Christ & who he really. In Connection with our Savior we are focusing on Christlike attributes this month in our mission. This week we have ZLDLC and Elder Adao and I are so excited to give a workshop on this tomorrow on Christlike attributes. I feel like the more Christlike a missionary becomes the better missionary he is. Your teaching and finding improve greatly as you improve your Christ-like attributes. I feel like once you master ch. 6 of preach my Gospel the rest of it becomes a lot easier. Personally I most definately have not mastered my Christlike attributes but I'm striving to improve everyday. I love what Jesus Christ says in 3 Nephi 27:27 about what manner of men we ought to be. We should be just like Jesus Christ. It's a process that's only possible because of the atonement and it happens a day at a time. I love this work. It's weird to think I only have a couple more months. These last two months are going to be the best 2 months! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Buhay Parang Tsinelas Nov 19

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been a great week. We traveled a lot this week with a exchanges and had a some transfers happen with the 2 new misisonaries that came in from India. It was awesome to have the 2 new missionaries come in. We talked about hte work in India and how much different it is from the work here. It's amazing how the Gospel in the same wherever you go but missionary work is different everywhere you go. There are some things that are hte same everywhere but every mission has unique locations, people, culture and situations. This week I was able to work Elder Andrus and Elder Ambao on an exchange and It was awesome! That day we didn't teach any lessons but we taught a lot of people! It was such a good spiritual day. I could feel the strong love and concern the Elders had for every person we talked to and met and it made all the difference in how we taught and it helped create a great spiritual atmosphere. During that exchange we oym-ed a man on the side of the road who actually was the father of one of the recent converts in that area. He also told us from the minute that we met him that he wasn't interested in listening us and came up with many excuses. However we persisted in talking with him and asked him questions about his family and his belief in family after this life. After a few minutes he decided to listen to us but didn't really seemed that excited about it. We taught him about eternal families and hte plan of Salvation and by the end of that lesson there was a great big smile and Tatay's face. The spirit and the Plan of Salvation touched his heart. He told us to come and teach him again and I can't wait to hear how the next visits go. This past week I came upon a quote by President Thomas S. Monson that says " Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved". I really love this quote. It made me think of Ammon's love for King Lamoni and Christ love for all of us. In Moroni 7 It talks about how important Charity is for all of us and how without Charity we are nothing. Charity is more of a lifestyle rather than a rare occurance The more we love hte people we teach the harder we work to help them accept hte Gospel. I love the Phlipino people. They are a charitable people who know how to love on another. I am so thankful for the examples in my life how have true charity to all and aren't afraid to show it. I have loved working with missionaries who love all people. I absolutely love missionary work! Things are going really good right now. I don't know if I have every been more busy and more tired in my life but I love it. I am so thankful for hte opportunity to share the Gospel and to help others recieve the blessings of the atonement in their lives. I am thankful for hte atonement and how it gives us the strength to grow and improve everyday to become true disciples of Christ. I love the Philippines, I love these pepole. I love my companion. I love the Work. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman As far as pictures go. The first picture is a picture of me at an eating appointment last night. A member fed us sushi that he made(it even had mango in it!). The next coule pictures are from our p-day activity this morning. We hiked a mount Arayat this morning for a zone activity. It was beautiful. We have 3 new misisonaries here in our zone.

Exchanges Na Naman 11/12/12

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been another great week! We we went on three exchanges and got a lot of really important things accomplished. It has been a great week. During this week I was able to work with some incredible Elders. One of them has only been out for a week! It was fun to work a new greenie. He is really struggling with Tagalog but he really knows how to follow the spirit. It was cool to see how the Lord uses his right now to bless others lives. On one of the exchanges I went on we taught 11 refferals from one member for the first time. All of them were men ages 20-25 and all were married and many of them had children. This was the first time I have ever tuaght a group like this . It was an amazing expereince. We taught about the how the Gospel blesses families and the restoration. At the end of hte lesson I felt prompted to bring up baptism so I did. The spirit was so strong as we talked about the importance of baptism and read some scriptures about it. It was awesome to see the desire of these men to come closer to Jesus Christ and to improve the lives of their families. We gave the invitation to baptism and I'm glad we did. That was a great spiritual lesson. This week we will be getting two missionaries! They have both been out for a year and are currently serving in India but due to visa problems they need to leave the country and it looks like they will be coming to Angeles for 2 transfers. I am really excited to get more missionaries It's going to be difficult because neither of them speak a lick of tagalog... However I know the Lord has a purpose for all things and it will end up being an awesome experience. This past week Elder Adao have been trying to really focus on opening our mouths or OYM as we call it in our mission. In the office we don't have as many chances to oym as other missionaries because we don't have our own proselyting area but we really wanted to achieve the Standard of excellence in this key indicator and find the people that the Lord has prepared to receive the Gospel. As we have done this we found out that there are soooo many opportunities to talk to people about the Gospel. The more I talk to people about hte Gospel the happier I am. I have also felt the influence of the spirit greater throughout each day. In Angeles there are a lot of busy people who really aren't interested in the Gospel but there are people out there waiting for us. I think that all of us have opportunities to share the Gospel and we can never loose that opportunity. It's such a joy to serve as a missionary. Nothing can compare to the Joy you feel as you preach the Gospel. Missionary work is only rewarding if you do things because you really care about the people the you interact with everyday. Without love for the Savior and love for your investigators and the people you meet on the street missionary work isn't fun at all. In D&C 4 it talks about the need to have charity and brotherly kindness as a missionary. I feel like charity is one of the big keys to becoming a successful missionary. I feel like my love has been increasing lately which is good news. I have been working on that but I still have lot's of progress to make pa. Mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman (Pictures) In the Philippines Christmas season starts once you hit the "ber" months, so once it's september you'll hear Christmas music in all the stores and see Christmas decorations start coming up. So yes I have been hearing Christmas music for a little over2 months now. Dad please forgive me. This past week our guard put up our Christmas lights here at hte mission office. The first picture is of me in front of the office and the second is me with kuya Jose (our guard). Kuya Jose is one of my favorite people ever!)

Transfers and ZLC 11/5

Mga minamahal ko sa buhay, This this has been another busy week! We had transfers and our zone leaders council meeting which kept us very busy. Last, last week we got stuck in Baler due to some small landslides blocking the highway and some flooding because of heavy rains. Our schedule got really delayed and that is why my email was so short last week. It was quite the weekend driving through floods to pick up a couple missionaries and a senior couple who were stranded in a remote area, cleaning up the house of some elders who were flooded, and picking up departing missionaries. We also were able to work in 3 different proselyting areas in Baler because we were stuck there for a while. The only down side was we weren't planning on staying very long so we didn't pack a lot of clothes. Elder Adao and I ended up washing our clothes in a bucket at night, hanging them up to dry while we slept and then we ironed them in the morning to finish getting them dry. It actually worked out ok! The best part of the weekend was being to do service. The Lord gave us so many opportunities to serve others. We were in the right time at the right place and I know it was all because of the Lord. Even though it seemed like a lot of things went wrong something happened everyday which was evidence that the Lord wanted us where we were doing what we were doing. It was like he put a little signature of everyday through something little that had real significance to me. This past week transfers went really well. We had 15 departing missionaries and 16 arivals. It was sad to see the departing missionaries go. I know a lot of them really well. They were a very solid batch. They all served really well. Things went really smooth, especially considering that transfers were on all saints day. A huge holiday in the Philippines were everyone goes to the cemetery and visits the graves of their family members. It always is fun to be with new missionaries. They just have this excitement that is contagious. This was a big group how came in and they will do a lot of good things for the mission. There were 2 missionaries who didn't go home until saturday because there were 2 families who didn't This past week we had our zlc meeting again and it was my favorite zone leaders council I have attended yet. The spirit was so strong. Especially in our testimony meeting. I don't think I have ever been in a more powerful testimony meeting than that one. There were no thank-amoies, or long stories just pure beautiful testimony. Elder Adao and I gave a workshop about Leadership and light. We talked about light in a scriptural sense and then we talk about how we as leaders need to be a light to others and to help increase the light in others. It was awesome. Elder Adao and I had a less-preparation time than we have in the past to make our workshop but because of that I felt like we were guided more by the spirit. The Spirit is the real teacher. When the spirit is with us darkness leaves and light can fill our minds and lives. Our zlc meeting was a great time for revelation and to be spiritually fed. This past week we finally got the rescue book done. We had the cover handpainted and it is beautiful! I am very happy with it. It's worthy to go to the prophet! I am so thankful for my testimony. I keeps me going everyday. I love my Savior and I know him. He loves us all. This is his work. I know that the Lord guides us to the places we need to be if we listen to the promptings of the holy ghost. If we look closely at everyday, we will the Lord's hand orchestrating our lives. It's such an amazing thing to see that happen. Next week I want to write about some of the experiences I have been having with the Book of Mormon lately. Lots of good stuff. Also this week we will start our traveling and I am excited to do a lot of teaching. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Trapped in Baler Oct 29

Dear loved ones, This past weekend has been a week to remember to say the least. It has been soooo busy! I am really sorry this is sooooo extremely short. Today we had the departing missionaries in with us and it was so busy. THis past week was good and It's now time to leave the office. President will probably let me write you a little longer email tomorrow after the missionaires go home so I can fill you in on the week and how things are going. mahal ko kayo I love the work Love Elder Leishman

Malapit na ang transfers muli/ Oct 22

Dear Family, This past week has been another wonderful week. Lots of stuff happened. We had interviews in 4 zones, went on exchanges, finished the rescue book and did some other awesome stuff. This past week I had a couple cool experiences. One of them happened in San Jose. This past week we had interviews in San Jose in the morning but that afternoon we had interviews at the neighboring zone. When we left San Jose we accidently took the key to the stake center with us and we didn't have time to take the key back until that evening. When we went back to take the key we called the sisters who borrowed it to meet them in their area. They were in a lesson so we parked and bought a little bit of food because we hadn't eaten since that morning. The sisters then came and met us and when we went back to the car we saw a man looking oddly at the car. We decided to talk to him and we found out he was a less-active member who wanted to come back to church. We quickly called the sisters to come back and were really happy to meet this less-active man. We had a wonderful conversation and the man is excited to listen to the missionaries again and to come back to church. After this happened I felt really glad that we forget to give the key back that morning. I feel like there was a reason behind it. Another one of the great expereinces that happened happened yesterday here in Angeles. Every Sunday we work with the Zone leaders here but yesterday they had a meeting with President Martino and the Stake president so Elder Adao and I didn't have anyone to work with. There was one appointment that we went to but the man we were going to visit wasn't home. We really knew of no where else to go so we started walking down unfamiliar streets knocking on doors. It felt like we were opening an area. Elder Adao and I felt like we were opening up a new area. After talked to many people who weren't interested we decided to go down an ally and we tao-poed the first house we saw. A woman came out with her 18 year old son who welcomed us into their home. We all sat down on their cool cement floor and Elder Adao and I shared a lesson with them about the restoration. We found out that she had seen missionaries walk past her house for years but no one had ever tried to talk to her. She also told us how for a long time she had forgotten about God in her life and had recently started praying again. We tuaght a wonderful lesson with their family and the spirit was amazing. The house seemed to light up as we taught. We are going to go back and teach again this week. This week my testimony has really grown that the Lord will lead us to his children we can bless and help. The Lord's timing really is always perfect. Transfers are already next week. Nothing is sure yet but my guess is I'll be staying with Elder Adao for another transfer. I love working with Elder Adao. He is an amazing missionary and we work well together. Another piece of good news is we finally got our rescue book out to the printers! It has been so wonderful to work on this book. I have absolutely loved working on a gift for the prophet. This week we will get hte finished product and I am so excited to see how it turns out. We have put many, many hours into this project. I always say this but I really love being a missionary. It just is such a happy work. It's jsut great being to focus on the Gospel all day everyday. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Conference 10/15

Dear family and friends, This past week was a wonderful week! I absolutely loved conference. That by far was a highlight of the week! What a spiritual feast. some of my favorite talks from the work were from Elder Bednar, President Uchdorf, Elder Nelson and President Monson. They were such wonderful talks and I feel like there were some awesome themes throughout conference. I loved the focus of family, missionary work, discipleship and conversion. I have to say that I am so excited for the announcement about the new age that young men and young women can leave on missions. The Lord truly is hastening his work. I think there will be many, many more sisters going on mission and well and an increase of Elders. This will be a blessing for every mission. The Sisters in our mission do awesome work and getting more of them would be a huge blessing. I feel like so many things from general conference were said just for me. I wish I had lots of time to write lots on this subject, but I don't. But if you have questions "Ask the missionaries. They can help you". I loved that talk. It really is so true. If you know anyone who needs the Gospel. Help them ask the missionaries! This week we had one really cool experience with the Book of Mormon Activity we have been doing. When we decided that we were going to do the finding Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon activity, we ordered English Book of Mormons' to distribute to the missionaries because we don't have a lot of English Book of Mormon. We usually only use Tagalog in proselyting. We ordered them a few weeks of. We were waiting for our Book of Mormon's to come in and they didn't come so we called to follow our order up and it turned out that the PBO was out of stock as well. We were able to get Book of Mormon's out to 8 out of our 11 zones but we still needed more. After a couple more days we got news that the order came into manila and they shipped them out on a truck, but they said it could take days before they came. Elder Adao and I prayed and prayed and they didn't end up coming. Then last Monday night. The night before we left to travel for interviews (the last possible chance we could get Book of Mormon's out to the missionaries in time for them to finish in time) Elder Adao and I knelt in prayer and asked for the Lord's help with the Book of Mormons. After the prayer we both felt a calm assurance that it would be o.k. and we knew that we could get the Book of Mormon's in the next day. The following morning we left at 7:00 am and they hadn't come yet but our interviews that morning were in Angeles which is only 30 minutes away from the mission home. Angeles was was one of the zone's without Books of Mormon. As the interviews started and as workshops were going own Elder Tischner (One of the senior office Missionaries) showed up with 3 boxes of English BOM! The timing was amazing. It couldn't have been more last minute. It was an experience that taught me that if the Lord wants you to do something he'll make a way for you to do it. It also taught me about the power of prayer. Just like President Monson's talk I know that the Lord answers our prayers. He always does it in a really unique way and his timing is always perfect. It's not usually the timing you expect but it's the time the Lord needs. That was one of our miracles this past week. Yesterday while working with Elder Tating I felt prompted to aproach a young man texting on his cell phone in a subdivision we were in. As we started to talk to him I immediately knew why. It turns out he is a graduate from college with no job, and doesnt' really have a direction for his life. We started to talk to him about the Plan of Salvation and how Heavenly father has a plan for us while we are here on this earth. He invited us to go into his house and we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation he had lots of questions and he readily accepted commitements. Elder Tating and his companion and going back on tuesday and I am really excited to hear about how it goes. I love being a missionary. I love the Gospel. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

The Book of Mormon 10/8

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been another super, super busy week! It was also an awesome week! One of the things I really enjoyed about this last week was our ZLDLC or the Zone Leader District Leader Council. These were the meetings where we introduced the the Book of Mormon as our topic for the month. President gave training and Elder Adao and I had the opportunity to give a workshop on the Book of Mormon as well. We taught about the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion and focused on how it is a testimony of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong as we taught that workshop. The more I study the Book of Mormon the more I realize how amazing it is. We also started off zone interviews this week and at every zone interviews Elder Adao and I do some training as well. After much prayer and study we decided to do our workshop on using the scriptures in teaching. This is such an important part of becoming and effective teacher. We noticed on our exchanges that this is one thing that we can improve on as a mission so we chose this topic as our workshop. We have noticed that a lot of less-active members and investigators we teach don't read the Book of Mormon because they don't understand how much it will bless their life. Part of our workshop was teaching missionaries how to use the book of Mormon in teaching to help others see how it can bless their lives. Elder Adao and I prepared really well for this workshop but while we were on our way out there we had a couple impressions come to our mind about changing a couple things in our workshop that morning. We both felt good about it so when we changed our workshop when the time came. It was amazing how well the missionaries reacted the the little part we changed. It was like something clicked in their heads immediately and they understood what we were trying to teach them. I am so glad that we followed the prompting we had to change what we had already prepared. I know that if we prepare the Lord will guide us in all we do. Preparation is crucial guidance in the moment you need it. You can't prepare once your there. We weren't able to watch general conference this past week because it's re-broadcast here the week after. That means I will have the opportunity to watch conference this upcoming weekend. I am so excited for conference! I don't know if I have every looked forward to a conference this much in my life! It's always amazing how I feel like so many things that the speakers say are said just for me and how I receive answers to so many questions I have already prepared a lists of questions I have right now for conference and I am excited for the answers I receive through the holy ghost and through the words of living prophets. Lately things have been really busy with lots of unexpected things happening. I have learned to love this quote that president says, "Everyday brings problems to solve and relationships to savor". He says it's from Gordon B. Hinckley. It is such a wonderful way to look at things. There are always problems to solve and we should look at everyday as an opportunity to serve and enjoy our relationships with others. When you look at things that way problems don't seem as heavy and you enjoy life rather than endure it. I love this work. It's so true! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

October! 10/1

Dear family, friends, and loved ones, I'm excited to be writing you an email again today. This past week has been another good week. This past week we were able to do some exchanges again with the zone leaders in a few zones. I was able to work in Cabanatuan again and also in San Jose. However Elder Adao worked in our old area and i worked in the other ward. I really love doing exchanges. There are just so many good missionaries in our mission. While working in Cabanatuan I saw some of the investigators I found while I was there. One of them is named Arjay. I taught him my last night in cabanatuan and in that lesson he talked about the experience he had praying to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. That was the first time he stted to make progress in the Gospel. The next day I was transfered but since then he was baptized and has become very active in the church. He is preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the second time. It was so wonderful to see him again and see the changes that have happened in his life since I taught him. It was a great experience. At that same exchange we taught Shirly who is a recent convert. She is struggling right now becuase her husband is not very supportive of her being an active member of hte church and discourages he from attend church and other activities. While she expressed these thoughts to us a story popped into my mind from the Book of Mormon about Nephi trying to get the plates and having Laman and Lemuel discourage Nephi from going back to get the plates even to the point of beating him with a rod until an angle came and spoke to Laman and Lemuel. We read these verses with her and then talked about how the Lord will help us in our times of need and that sometimes even the people we are close to and love will discourage us to do the right things. then went on and talked about how Nephi ended up being successful and didn't loose his love for his brothers. Sister shirle y was touched by this message and she really realated to Nephi. Through the Book of Mormon and the spirit she gained a new strength and sense of peace about the future and following the Lord's commandments. Right now we are getting ready for our zldlc meeting for the next to days. We are going introduce the topic for our zone training this month which is about hte Book of Mormon. I am so excited about this month! One of the things we are going to do these next couple months is give every missionary a copy of the Book of Mormon and we wil read it as a misison. We are going to mark every reference to the savior and the things he said. this is something I have wanted to for a long time and I am so excited to do this as a mission. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful instrument that the Lord uses to bless his children. This past week I have been spending a lot of time studying about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ. Once I started to focus on this it's amazing to see how he is in everypage! We havn't even started the Book of Mormon activity as a mission and my testimony of hte power of hte Book of Mormon has already increased. Without the Book of Mormon a person can't have a lasting conversion to the restored Gospel. I have seen the book touch life after life and am excited to focus on it this month. Things are going well right now. I feel so blessed to be a missoinary and to serve right now. I love this work with all my heart. mahal ko kayo Love elder Leishman

Transfers down! 9/24

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been another awesome week. This past week was transfers and things went so much smother than last time! It really helps when there are no floods! We had 6 missionaries go home, and had 13 new missionaires come in. We also have 2 short term missionaries working in our mission right now. It's always different to be with missionaries for their last day in the Philippines. Because of all the new missionaries we had 4 areas re-open this transfer. Exciting stuff! Next transfer we have even more missionaries coming in which will allow us to open more areas! I'm excited about it! One of my favorite parts of transfers is being with the new missionaries. There is nothing like a missionary straight from they mtc. They are usually nervous but really excited and can't wait to share the Gospel. They just have this energy they bring which is wonderful! Elder Adao and I were able to do a little bit of Training with the new missionaries and their trainers at the mission home. We talked about some of the keys to success. Two of the points we really focused on were on obedience and being eagerly engaged in the work. Obedience is so crucial to the work! You just can't see the mircales you need to if you aren't obedient. We are really trying to help these new misisonaries start off on a good foot and striving for exact obedience. Right now one of the big projects that Elder Adao and I are working on is putting together a put to send to Thomas S. Monson as a Christmas present. As you know our mission and hte whole Philippines area is really focusing on rescuing less-active members of of the church. The rescue program is amazing and it is doing wonderful things for the Philippines. President and Sister Martino came up with the idea to have the missionaries in our mission write their own experiences about rescuing less-actives and putting together a book for to send to the Area Presidency and the Prophet. We have recieved tons of stories and are now putting them all together. It is such a joy to read all the stories and see all the pictures that everyone has! This book is a huge project but it's been so much fun to start laying out and putting together. I don't know if we could give a better Christmas Present to the Prophet than this Book. This past week I also met a couple people who stopped by the mission home. I finally met Andy Larsen and I also met Elder and Sister Bird. All wonderful people! It was nice to meet people I've heard about! Thank you again for the package you sent. I loved it and so did Elder Adao. I ended up pouching half of it to Elder Garcia who also really enjoyed it. This past week we went on an exchange with the zone leaders here in Angeles and on the exchange we were able to teach a young less-active couple about the plan of salvation. As the lesson was coming to a close I felt prompted to sing I am a Child of God with our this family. In the Philippines almost all places sing in English not Tagalog but I felt impressed to sing I am a child of God in Tagalog because it's in one of the pamphlets we use when we teach. When I said this the couple we were teaching said they knew the song but they had never heard it in Tagalog. When we sang it the spirit was powerful and the family was touched by the spirit. Because it was in Tagalog they understood it better and the words really seemed to sink into their hearts. It was a joy to see this happen. The hymns are such powerful tools in bearing testimony and inviting the spirit. They are so effective in teaching less-active members. This family that we taught went to church yesterday and we are starting to see them change as they accept the Gospel again into their lives. Sorry that my email is so short right now. Today was another really busy day and we are just finishing up here at the office. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

A New Companion! 9/17

Dear friends and family, This past week I got a new companion and drumroll please.................... It's........ Elder Adao!!! I am so excited to be companions with Elder Adao again! I have really loved being with Elder Garcia and I have learned so much from him. I miss him. At the same time It's been awesome to be back with Elder Adao. When President called us into his office and showed us the transfer board. The First place I looked was the assistants slots and I was please to see Elder Adao's name next to mine. We picked him up last Wednesday and he was a little nervous at first but is doing awesome! I love working with Elder Adao because we focus on the work and work in unity really well. This week has been another busy week and most of it has been spent in the office. One of my favorite parts of the week was attending a meeting with all the trainers and trainees who are about to finish up their 1st transfer. In all the missions the trainers and trainees go through whats called "The first 12 weeks". It's the program that we use to train new missionaires. We have this meeting with the Trainers and trainees to follow up on how they are doing with the 12 week course and progress in other areas. This was such a fun meeting to be at and it was so amazing to teach them. I felt like they did most of the teaching. New missionaires just have a fire inside of them to do work. They are so excited to learn and to teach and to just be a missionary. I hope that they can keep that up with them throughout their whole missions. I hope that I still have the fire that a new missionary has. This week Elder Adao and I had a cool experience when we were coming up with ideas for our mission training plan this upcoming month. Usually we come up with ideas and then we go and share them with President. President also comes up with ideas and they are almost always very similar or hte same as the assistants. I did my personal study and I didn't really feel like I had any inspiration. It was an ok study but I didn't have any strong feelings. Then we went into our companionship study and it was pretty much the same way. After about 30 minutes we decided to kneel and say another prayer. After that things started to come untill we realized that we need to have our mission training plan be about the Book of Mormon. This expereince taught me a lot. I realized that during my personal study and the first part of my companionship study I was focusing on what I wanted to do not what the Lord wanted. I realized that in order to recieve revelation we need to first seek to do God's will. I love revelation and I am so thankful for it in my life. I love what it says in D&C 8:2-3 about revelation. "I will tell you in your mind and in your hear by the holy ghost..." The Lord will give us the inspiriation in our feelings and thoughts as we seek to be obedient and serve others. Sometimes hte feelings are small but he really does guide us everyday. This week is transfers. It's a busy week but I love it! I know I always say this but I love this work! I love serving the Lord. Love Elder Leishman

Zone Conference! 9/10

Dear family and friends, Kamusta na kayo? This week has been a another busy week! We went on two exchanges, had three zone conferences and had lots of other things come up that we weren't expecting. Needless to say it has been an amazing week! One of the highlights from this past week was zone conference. We had 3 different zone conferences to cover the whole mission. It was really interesting to see that even though the workshops and hte messages were pretty much the same for the 3 zone conferences missionaries got different things out of each zone con. It was interesting to see that. I don't know if I told you about our workshop for this zone conference but our main topic for zone conference was about becoming a visionary man. President's Workshop was incredible. I didn't get sick of hearing it even after 3 times! I felt so spiritually enlightened after the three zone conferences. I am so excited to strive to become a more visionary man in my life and especially as a missionaries. The Lord will give us a vision of the things we need to do as we qualify through obedience. In our workshop we talked about visions and then we talked about how to obtain a vision and how to accomplish your vision. Some people wanted to replace the word of vision with goal which can happen but if it's a vision its and inspirited goal or objected received through revelation. We talked out the area goals here in the Philipppines about rescue the one and we talked a lot about nephi, when he was told by the Lord to build a ship. It was a really good workshop and we received a lot of good feedback about it. It's so important that we have a vision for our areas and people that we teach. Without it it's hard to really make things happen. This past week I worked with an Elder name Elder Gaddi. I learned a lot from him on our exchanges. He teaches doctrine simply, boldly and with love. We taught some awesome lessons. It was a good reminder to me that simplicity is power in teaching to investigators. I'm sorry that this email is so short. Today we had a lot of unexpected things come up, including our computer network failing 2 times due to brownouts. In the end we got everything fixed. and now we are just finishing up our reporting. I love a quote from President Hinckley that President Martino always says, "Today there are problems to fix and relationships to savor". How true is that. There are no end to problems. We should look at them with a positive attidue and find solutions for the things that come up. This week I have seen many little miracles in my life and in the lives of others. God's timing is always perfect. It's amazing how he orchestrates our lives to accomplish his work and purposes. This week my testimony has been strenghtned of hte Love our heavenly Father has for each and everyone of us. He knows everysingle one of us and knows what is best for us. He performs miracles in our life based on our faith (Ether 12) I am so thankful for this knowledge to know of the reality of miracles in our lives everyday. I want to share some of these experiences with you after my mission. Some of them are sacred to me so I hesitate to put them in an email like this. I love you all and I love being a missionary! This work is amazing. Tomorrow will be my 6 week mark in the office which means I've been here for a transfer already! It's amazing how fast time goes! I love this work with all my heart. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

ZLC and a trip to the Mayor 9/3

Dear Family, This past week has been another awesome week! We had another Zone leader's council meeting which was awesome. I always love ZLC's. It was different this time to give a workshop at ZLC. Before we started the afternoon section I was a little nervous about the workshop so I went into our appartment and I knelt and said a little prayer. As I prayed I just felt a great warm peace. I just felt really sure about everything. Our workshop ended up going really well and it was a very spiritual expereince. It's amazing how much you end up learning when you are in the Teacher's position rather than the Learning position. Everyone actually ends up learning and growing from each other. I better understand what it means in D&C 50 :22 "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." One of the Cool Experiences this past week was going to meet the Angeles City Mayor with President Martino and Preisdent Briones (the stake president here). We met with the mayor Eguardo Pamintohan and expressed our gratitude for all he is doing here in Angeles. We also presented him with a wooden Liahona. We talked about the Liahona and what it means to us. He was really interested and had some really good questions. We shared some verses with him from the Book of Mormon about the Liahona and how it's like a compass that God used to guide his people. We then talked about it's important that God guides us in all we do. It was a really spiritual short lesson. We went in with the approach of trying to follow the example of Ammon when he served king Lamoni. Last year the missionaries here in Angeles zone acutally did a service project for Mayor Pamintohan which was a good start. This week we are going back to give him a picture that we took with him. It just was a cool experience. This week is zone conference! Which means Elder Garcia and I will be traveling again. We will be giving a workshop at all of the zone conferences and I am really looking forward to it. Our workshop this week is about vision. We are talking about how we all need to have a vision for our zone and our area. Where there is no vision the people perish. We are then going to connect how we need to use time wisely to achieve our goals and visions. One thing we are also going to talk about is becoming a "visionary man" (1 Nephi 5:4). We are also going to use the story from 1 Nephi 17-18 about nephi being commanded to built a boat. It's going to be a good workshop. It was President Martino's idea for this to be the topic of our zone conference and this past week I have learned so much about revelation and about having a vision. It's been such a great week of study and a week of revelation. I know that this is what the Lord wants to teach these next few days and I couldn't be more excited. Right now things are going really well. Everyday is different and we are really busy. Our schedule is never the same so we have to adjust lots of things like personal study. One of the most important lessons that I have learned this past week is how important it is to study in the morning rather than in the afternoon or night. When you read in the morning it gives you spiritual power and gets you going on the right step. When I read in the morning even if it's super early in the morning I am more intune to the spirit throughout the day and am just happier. When I read at night it's just not the same. I hope we all take the time we need to everyday to feast in the Words of Christ because the words of Christ tell us everything we need to do. I love this work and I love being a part of it. mahal ko kayong lahat! Love Elder Leishman

Another week of Exchanges! 8/27

Dear family, This past week has been another wonderful week packed full of exchanges. This week I worked in 6 zones and had some amazing spiritual experiences. One of my favorite exchanges this past week was in Paniqui zone. We attended their district meeting, zone service project and I worked with Elder Adao! Elder Adao is such a solid misisonary and it was so much fun to teach with him again. We did amazing work and taught some really spiritual lessons. Elder Adao and I had a great discussion about love and charity in our exchanges and the role it plays in our work. It was so clear to me that. As I have worked in all 11 zones in the misison this past week and have been around many missionaries I have gained a greater love and appreciation for all the misisonaires here in Philippines Angeles Mission. It is a powerful thing to see and get to know all of the amazing missionaries here. Everyone is really unique and has something to give and when you put all of them together it makes an amazing missionary force force for hte Lord. I thought about the stripling warriors and how the force of good they were. We are the same way. We only have176 missionaries but it's amazing what 176 people can do. One one of the exchanges this past week I worked with Elder Cadizal. On the exchange he showed me his copy of Jesus the Christ which was given to him by a man in his home ward. On the inside cover It said that it was a gift from President and Sister Leishman, Bacolod mission 1989. It made me happy to see it. I guess Elder Cadizal's ka-ward was one of Grandpa's missionaries. My exchange with him was awesome He is new in his area and we had a ward missionary working with us so we taught a lcouple people for the very first time. We had lesson plans going in but we ended up changing almost every plan because of hte promptings that we felt and in order to teach to their needs. We had some incredible lessons but my favorite was about praying to know the truth. We asked an investigator if she knew the B.O.M is true and she said "yes". I then asked were how she knew that. She didn't have anything to say. We then taught her the role of prayer in coming to know the truth. It was a really powerful lesson and I am thankful that we followed hte spirit. The driving here is still as crazy as ever. I am actually getting really comfortable on the roads and starting to make good time when we go places. I sometimes feel like I am in a video game when I am overtaking trike s and jeeps on busy city streets or country roads going through the fields. It's really fun though! You have asked questions about Elder Garcia so here are the answers. Elder Garcia is awesome! He is Mantalban Rizal which is by Manila. He is younger than I am in hte mission and we were housemates in cabanatuan for 3 months. He loves to cook and such a positive person. Even when there are big problems he is always positive and up-beat! He is also a missionary who knows how to follow the spirit. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, he will drop anything to follow a prompting from the spirit. Elder Garcia doesn't receive a lot of mail from his family so it would be awesome if you could send him a quick note in an email or if you ever send anything for me send something for him too! His email is exurg@myldsmail.net I love this work. Today we are preparing for our Zone Leader Council meeting tomorrow. It's going to be an amazing meeting and I am so excited for it! We have been preparing for a few weeks and I know that the Lord has helped us in our preparation. mahal ko kayong lahat! Love elder Leishman p.s. quick funny story. Yesterday we worked with Elder Tating and Elder tuitama, the zone leaders in Angeles. On the way home I was asking Elder Tuitama about a video he made for a meeting a couple months ago and I asked him what software he used to edit. I asked him if he had ever used "adobo". He said yeah I've tried "adobe" Then he said did you really just say adobo? You have been in the Philippines for way to long. We all had a really good laugh about that one.

Lots of Exchanges! 8/20

Dear Friends and Family, This week past week we went on exchanges in five zones and it was awesome! It was so great to work with the Zone leaders in so many areas. We have some awesome missionaries serving as zone leaders and they know how to work! I ended up working with Elder Bellen in Palayan, (he's companion's with Elder Andrus), Elder Masterson and Elder Ambao in Cabanatuan, Elder Heidiman and Elder Talento in Munoz, Elder Biggs in San Jose, and Elder Larsen in Baler. They were all good exchanges. I love exchanges because it gives you an opportunity to learn how to improve as a missionary. Everyone has their own strengths and talents and their own style of teaching and through exchanges you get lots of new ideas. Like I told you last week I was able to work in Cabanatuan and in San Jose! It was awesome to work in my old areas. In Cabanatuan I was surprised when Shirly (an investigator I taught for 4 months) came to a teaching appointment with us. Since I left Cabanatuan She has been baptized and has started becoming active in the missionary work. Her testimony in the Lesson was soooo powerful! It was such a joy to see her again. She was really surprised to see me too. It was also good to see the progress of others I had previously taught. It was also a great blessing to work in San Jose even though it has only been a couple of months since I have been there. I saw Joseph Galam (the wife of one of our recent converts) and she is getting ready to be baptized this coming week! On that exchange we visited one less-active woman who never knew that I left. It was pretty funny when she asked about Elder Biggs (the elder you replaced me in San Jose). I have to admit however that it's not quite the same working in an old area as it was when you were there because it's not your assignment. It's not yours in a sense. It still brought me great joy to see the progress of the area and to see some of the people I love so much. This week I better understood the importance of obedience. Obedience is really the key to success in an area, zone or mission. It was really evident to me on exchanges when I talked with the zone leaders about their zones. Obedience needs to take a concious effort on our part. Everytime I teach a workshop or have a teaching opportunity with missionaries I use the white missionary handbook to teach principles. President Martino noticed this and suggested that we use it more in our meetings and every day as missionaries. Obedience because you love the Savior opens opportunities. This past week was wonderful! I had some great spiritual experiences. I wish I could share them all. I am happy. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman ps. pictures. The first is of a sign in front catholic church which says "who established your church?" Interesting to say the least.... One picture is of Elder Garcia and I by a very big tree and the last is of me in Baler. That's the zone in our mission which is by the ocean. The zone leaders area there includes the beach and they less-actives members who live right on the beach!

Transfers! (The rains came down and the floods came up) 8/13

Dear Friends and family, This past week was a very, very busy week. As I mentioned last week this past week was transfers and it was also a wet rainy week with many early early mornings. A lot of parts of Luzon were badly flooded! Manila was hit the worst and even though it's not in our mission, the departing missionaries all had to go through Manila to get home and the floods were so bad that many roads and highways heading into Manila were shut down. The van who was supposed to pick them up couldn't make it up to Angeles and most of the Bus lines stopped their buses to Manila. We thought we weren't going to get them home but thankfully we found one bus line still running and were able to get them on an old rickety bus without aircon and we got them to Manila. It was a little Miracle. That day was a very prayerful day and with the Lords' help everything ended up working out alright. The transfers in the mission and with our trainers also had some bumps in the Road because of the Floods but again it all worked out ok. It was pretty stressful but all in all was a good learning experience. It's funny to look back on it now that it's over. This past week we had 9 new missionaries come in and it was really awesome to be able to get to know them a little bit and to teach a little workshop in the Trainer and Trainees meeting. They are some really solid missionaries and all seem to be out here for the right reason. New missionaries are always fun to be around because they have such and excitement and fire about missionary work, even if they don't have all the language or teaching skills down. It's so important to keep that excitement up throughout your mission and not let up. It has been such a blessing to be around President. We don't have a lot of time with him because of everything he does, but he is such an amazing man. I have learned so much from him in my short time here. He such a spiritual, humble man that does more in a day than I knew was possible. He expects excellence and knows how to help others achieve it. I just feel really blessed Over the past couple of weeks Elder Garcia, President Martino and I have been discussing and praying about what will be our topic for our misison training plan in the month of September and what we are going to do for our workshops. We all agreed and felt like one of things we really need to improve on as a misison is CH. 8 of preach my Gospel about using time wisely and effective goal setting and planning. However President had a concern about making this a spiritual experience. The three of us spent our own personal study time and really prayed about this and we all recieved revelation about how to make this a spiritual experience. For Elder Garcia and I it came in companionship study one day and was amazing. The spirit told us what we needed to do and when we knew everything came together. I don't think I put my pen down for 15 minutes once the ideas and revelation came. Personal Revelation is such a blessing in our lives and can be a part of our lives everyday. One of the important things that I have learned is we are more likely to recieve revelation if we are trying to serve others. It's by following the promptings to help others that the Lord often gives us the answers to our own prayers and questions in life. I am thankful for this opportunity I have right now to serve as a misisonary and to be able to serve my fellow missionaries. Sorry that My email was short again. We have had a really busy day today because we had to finish up a couple projects before we travel. For the next to weeks we will be traveling and will be performing exchanges with all the zone leaders in the mission. It's going to be a great week. I'm excited to do a lot of exchanges this week! I am going to be able to work in my old area in Cabanatuan and in San Jose this week because they are both zone leaders areas! I am really looking forward to that as well! I love this work. It's the Lord's work and his hand is in what happens every minute of everyday. Fight the good fight of faith, mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman. ps. Next week I'll send you a couple pictures of the mission office and other things.

Greetings from the Office! Aug 5

Dear Friends and Family, As you already know I am currently writing you from the mission office. Last monday night after a lesson I received a call from President Martino telling me to pack my back and bring them to our zldlc meeting the next day because I was going to be the new Assistant to the President. I was not expecting the call and it caught me off guard. After that I went and said goodbye to a couple of members then I went home and packed. After that things have just flown by. In my mission there are only two Assistants but this past week Elder Leedom(the Elder I am replacing) stayed and helped train me in all the things I need to learn. My new companion is Elder Garcia and I am soooo excited to have him as my companion. We were housemates in cabanatuan for 3 months so I already know Elder Garcia really well. He is from Manila and is an awesome Elder. It's also been really good to have Elder Leedom here. I have known him for a long time and we have gone on lot's of changes. This past week has been soooo busy. I don't think I have ever had a busier week of my entire mission. This past week we coordinated all the transfers for this week and there were some days that we spent 10 hours of the computers doing reports for President. What we do is a different kind of work than I am used to but it is work all same and it's a spiritual work as well. Even though I have only been here a little while I have learned so much in the office. This past week has been a very tiring humbling week, but I have loved it. I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity. It's going to be challenging but an amazing experience as well. This morning after Dropping the departing misisonaries off at their career workshop I went and got my Filipino drivers license! Yes that is right watch out Elder Leishman is on the road! It took about 3 hours of waiting to my liscent but I hear it went Driving here in the Philippines is way different! The traffic is crazy and there are pretty much no rules. Just try no to get in an accident. The new Office couple explained driving here as a big game of chicken. Needless to say it's funner in the Philippines! One cool thing that is happening is Elder Leedom still has 2 transfers in the mission and tomorrow morning I am going to go drop him off in Burgos! He is going to train a new misisonary in Burgos for his last area and he wants to have a day with the Elders before transfers to learn where some things are. I am so excited to go back to Burgos even if it's just a short drive through. I am so excited to have such a great missionary go to Burgos. Speaking of departing misisonaries my batch of sisters is going home this week. So it's been fun to have them in the mission home today. Yesterday night I was able to go on exchanges for a few hours with the zone leaders here in Angeles zone and we taught a man from India named Veer. It was an awesome lesson but something really cool happened while we were teaching him. I invited him to read a passage from the book of Mormon but me made sure he washed his hands before he touched the Book of Mormon because it was something sacred. That experience was really powerful for me because I better understood the power, importance and sacredness of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is the word of God and it can change our lives. We need to treat it with respect like Veer did. The spirit taught me a lot that lesson. This week is going to be super busy. Tomorrow we are sending missionaries home, then on Wed. and Thursday welcoming the new missionaries and giving orientation and worshops ect... then we are going to go and start some exchanges with Zone leaders in other zones. We have a lot on our plate and I am excited. I am expecting very little sleep this week but it will be great. I feel very humbled to be here right now. I love you all, Love Elder Leishman

Magaaugust na! July 29

Dear Family and Friends, As usual this past week has been another good week. Right now Tagulan or the rainy season is in full swing. It rains every day without fail. Usually we'll have hot mornings but by mid-afternoon the rain comes down and the floods come up. We have a couple places that flood really easily so sometimes we walk in knee highwater to our appointments. There was one appointment where we were teaching a family and it started to rain really hard. As we were teaching there house started to flood, but they acted like it was no deal. We ask them and they said that it happens all the time and told us to keep teaching, so we kept teaching. By the time we were done with the lesson the water was more than ankle deep. It definately was an interesting but still spiritual lesson. This past week we have knocked on more doors than I ever have in my mission and have found some awesome investigators and even some less-active members. It's so important that we don't skip a house. The spirit will guide you to those who are prepared if you are sanctified and worthy of his guidance. It's so important that you worthy of the spirit at every second of the day. You never know when the promptings will come. One of the great joys this past week has been seeing the Galam family grow in the Gospel. Brother Galam is a recent convert and his wife is one of our investigators. Since we started teaching Sister Galam a couple of weeks ago she has been making awesome progress! She is a now a different person that she was before. She has gotten so excited about the Gospel that almost everytime we come over for an appointment she has a new friend of hers there she wants us to teach. Recent Converts are such an effective way to find new investigators. The greatest thing has been seeing them grow as family. Yesterday as we taught them about the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was so strong. My testimony of eternal families and the importance of families grew as we taught. It's so important to have the spirit do the teaching not the missionary. As you know a couple months ago our house got robbed so President told us to look for a new appartment. We have been looking for a while now and we finally found a good new appartment in a safer area. The New appartment is a lot nicer but the rent is the same. I included a picture of the view from the outiside. Elder Revillo is our Model for the shot to give you the good missionary appartmnet effect. We'll probablly move in in a couple of weeks. I really love this area. I love the people we are teaching. I have learned so much in the past few weeks and I wish I could share it all with you right now. Today we have a lot of reporting we have to get done, (zone goals, zone weekly report, zone mcr) so I I'm going to keep my email short. I know that this is the true church. Jesus Christ is our Savior. I love this work with all my heart. I love being a missionary mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

A Good Week! July 22

Dear Family and Friends, This past week has been a wonderful (and very rainy) week! I know that last week I talked to you about how we have been really "punted" in our area lately and have had almost all our plans fall through. This week things were a little different. Elder Revillo and I taught 51 lessons which is more than I have ever taught in a week in my whole mission! They were quality lessons too. This past Tuesday our zone had interviews with President Martino and in my interview I told him a little bit about what has been happening in our area. He told me that times that those are humbling experiences and it's in those times that we learn to rely on the Lord. I took what president Martino said to heart and I did all I could to rely on the Lord. Our plans didn't work out perfectly but the Lord blessed us with many opportunities to teach. It was a very humbling week. I now understand more fully that this is the Lord's work. It's not my work it's his. We are simply instruments in his hands. It doesn't matter where we serve just how we serve. I now better understand what Ammon meant in Alma chapter 26 when he talks about the joy he felt in being an instrument in the Lord's hand and that as to his strength he was nothing but with the Strength of the Lord he could do all things. Humility is putting your trust in the Lord and then doing all you can to follow his will. There were a couple times with week when I know that we were the answers to peoples prayers. I don't know if there is a better feeling than knowing that the Lord has used you to bless someones life. This past week at our zone interviews Elder Revillo and I taught a workshop about teaching with your companionship in unity. At the beggining of our companionship Elder Revillo and I didn't teach in unity. We didn't have unity in many aspects of the work but we both worked hard and adjusted to be able to work , and teach in unity. When we did that our lives were blessed and we saw the difference in the way our investigators responded to our teaching. After many exchanges with our zone mates, fasting and praying we decided that this is what we needed to teach in our workshop. I feel like our workshop went really well and the members of the zone have already expressed how applying it has helped them teach better. In our workshop we talked about how companionship unity doesn't start when you leave the appartment but it starts when you wake up. That love, service, effective planning and companionship study are all necessary to teach with your companion in unity. To help our zone teach as a teach we had them do a role play where they had to teach and investigator but a missionary was limited to saying 3 sentences maximum before their companion had to speak. It was a really effective way to make companionship teach together and rely on each other to teach. Missionary work starts in the companionship and unity makes all the difference. Last week we taught the formly less-active Ramos family a lesson about the temple and about how families can be together forever. They all expressed their desire to have an eternal family but then explained that there father wasn't a member and didn't have any desire to join the Church. I had met the father briefly but he always met a big effort to hide or leave when we came over. We commited the family pray for their father to gain a desire to listen to us and to invite him to listen to the Gospel again. We went back to their house on Friday and i was shocked when tatay Ramos came and happily joined the lesson. He participated and had some great questions. I know that Heavenly Father answered the prayers of the that family. I am praying that he will accept the Gospel and that this Family can one day be sealed in the Temple. I love this work. I really really love being a missionary. Mahal ko kayo, Love Elder Leishman