Jan 30 Reactivating in Cabanatuan

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been another great one in Cabanatuan! Lot's of good things are happening here in Cabanatuan. In this month of January we have had 29 less active members return back to activity here in our zone. That means that the member has attended 4 consecutive sacrament meetings. Its awesome to see that our rescue efforts here are effective! This next month we have a goal of 38 members who have returned to activity. We are establishing the church here in Cabanatuan.

This past week we had interviews with President Martino. Interviews were awesome. I love talking with President Martino. He is such an amazing man. He is so full of spiritual power. He has taught me so much about leadership and about becoming a disciple of Christ. Whenever we have interviews, the zone leaders give a workshop so Elder Casilac and I were able to give a workshop. We thought about and talked about what we were going to teach for days but we weren't getting any inspiration. I decided to fast to know what to teach to our zone. I expected to receive some serious revelation in our companionship study but still nothing really came. I kept fasting and during our nightly planning session hours at about 9:15 pm the revelation came. It was like a lightbulb switched on. It's amazing how the Holy Ghost works. We ended up teaching a workshop about how to help our investigators attend church through effective planning and working through members but we put some twists on it that we had never thought about before. Yesterday we had more investigators attend sacrament meeting in the zone than I have seen in my three transfers here. I know that the Lord helped us know what to teach for our workshop. This experience taught me the importance of fasting, prayer, and waiting for the Lord's help. The Lord will always give us the help we need but sometimes we need to wait and be patient. While we wait we need to be diligent in striving to do our best, be obedient and show our faith to the Lord.

Things are still going well with our investigators and less actives. Vivian and Brian are still coming to church and are keeping all of their commitments. It's been a joy to teach them because they are so excited about everything! Teaching investigators like that is somethings every missionary wants. This week we have continued using our music in our teaching and have seen the powerful way it brings the spirit. Whenever we teach less-active members we sing an opening hymn. We have found that many less-active members have their own hymnbooks and a favorite hymn they want to sing. Music is something that can really united us. Hymns bring the spirit and memories of the joys of the Gospel. We all need to sing hymns more in our lives.

As far as the pictures go, the first is of Elder Casilac and I with our new zone jerseys. Let's be honest, they are pretty sharp! The next two are of our p-day activity last week. The sister of our branch clerk works at the Golf course in Cab. so we went to the Driving range as a district. I was the only one who had golfed before so I ended up giving a little golf lesson (Even though I'm not that good..) It was so much fun! We weren't that good but we had a great time. From what I saw the golf course was beautiful! The last picture is of a Filipino bathroom. That's the bathroom in the new appartment for a couple of Elders in the zone. That's actually a pretty nice bathroom! If you notice there is no shower, but that is because there is a faucet on the wall which you use to fill up a big bucket to use for bucket showers. You have to love the bucket showers.

Well I love being a missionary! I love these wonderful people here. I feel so blessed the be a missionary and I couldn't be happier to be here.


Fight the Good Fight of Faith!


Love Elder Leishman

Jan 23 Another week in Cabanatuan

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been another good one in Cabanatuan. We keep seeing improvements in the work. One thing we're struggling with is keeping our investigators progressing. I can't even tell you how many times we these past 2 transfers that we've had an investigator who will starts to progress and comes to church and out of the blue gets a job and works all day, or moves to a different city. We are praying that things will work out with our investigators now so they can accept the gospel and become active members of the church. Vivian and Brian are still doing great and are working towards their baptism date in February.

Yesterday we had a great moment at church. We have been teaching a less-active tatay for a couple of months now. He has an active daughter but after a surgery a few years ago he hasn't attended church. Yesterday he came to church and was welcomed so greatly by all the members. They were so happy to see him and he was so happy to at church. One of tatay Pineda's good friends is the stake president. When our stake president saw Tatay Pineda he came and sat next to him for the 15 minutes of sacrament meeting. Helping rescue less-active members is amazing. It's a very important part of the work and often leads to part-member families and referrals.

This past week we had 3 lessons interrupted by drunk people. We'll be teaching a spiritual lesson and then out of nowhere our investigators next door neighbor will come in drunk as can be and the spirit leaves. Once the spirit leaves it's hard to bring the lesson back even after the drunk person leaves. You can imagine the things they say and they don't ever want to leave. As you can imagine this was a little bit of a challenge but all things worked out ok.

I love this work, and I love being a missionary. I love my savior and I love the Philippines.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

p.s. sorry this letter is short. Next week I'll get a better letter in with some good pictures!

Jan 15 Another Transfer!

Mga minamahal kong pamilya at kaibigan,

This past week has been an interesting week. It was transfers this past week, and as you guessed I didn't get transfered! This means I get another 6 weeks in Cabanatuan! We had a lot of transfers in the zone this transfer our zone is going to be awesome! Elder Tating got transferred into Cabanatuan Zone and is a new district leader. I am so excited to be zone mates with him. In the Philippines when you train a new missionary you become a tatay, which means dad. Your trainee is your anak, or your child. Elder Tating is my anak in the mission. Elder Tating trained after me in Burgos, and his trainee is now training. This means that I am now a great grandpa in the Philippines Angeles mission! It's pretty exciting I know. This means that there are five generations in my mission family who are still in the Field. That's a lot! Anyways, back to the new zone... Sister Young from Bountiful got transferred to Cabanatuan and we have two new missionaries from Bacolod. One's name is Elder Lozano. He told me that His father knows Grandpa Lolo. I'm very excited for this transfer and for the new zone.

This past week we made zone great progress with some of our investigators. Vivian and Bryan are a mother and son that we found on a bus. We left them our number on a pamphlet and they text-ed us and said that they wanted us to come and teach them. We went and taught them and they as close to golden as I have found in my misison. They came to church, they read, pray, are now following the word of wisdom and are just awesome. Yesterday we taught them after church and when we visited them Vivian told us about all the churches she has attended in her search for the truth. She said that she always felt that something was missing and she wasn't comfortable in any of the churches she had entered. Yesterday she said that she finally felt comfortable and that nothing was missing. It just felt right. That's the spirit. Bryan and Vivian have a baptism date for the second week of February.

This week we also had more appointments fall through than I have every experienced in my mission... However things are still going to. The work of God is still progressing. No unhallowed hand can stop the work! This week we had a broadcast from the Area Presidency about establishing the Church in the Philippines. It was so amazing. I am so excited for our goals this year in the Philippines we have real work to here in Establishing the Church. We as missionaries are going to play a big role in this. The key in doing this is going to be the misisonaries and the members working together in unity and having everyone catch the vision! My favorite quotes from the Conference were "without a vision the people perish", "If not now, when? If not us, who?" "They is us" (In reference in thinking that other people will do things) and "We havn't seen anything yet. The best is yet to come!" I hope that everyone, especially the members get as excited about this as I am!

This past week my favorite scripture come from D&C 6:36. "Look to me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not." This was an important reminder to me of always thinking about Jesus Christ. Everyweek we covenant to remember our Savior always, and as we do we will have the Spirit to be with us. When the spirit is with us we have no reason to doubt or to fear. When our confidence is in the Lord, not in ourselves, we become instruments of God.

I really love this work! I love my companion. I just love it.

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

ps. The first picture is of the old zone at transfer announcements. The second picture is us eating adobo after a service project.

Success!

Dear friends and Family,

This week was awesome! We have been working so hard for the past 2 transfers and we are starting to see some of the fruits of our work. It's hard to chose a highlight of the week because so many good things happened. One of the best was our sacrament meeting yesterday. Every week this whole transfer we have set a goal having 6 investigators in sacrament meeting and yesterday we finally achieved goal. The best part was that most of our investigators are members of part-member less-active families. Yesterday not only the investigators came to church, but their less active families came too! One of the families who attended is the Patiag family whom I love so much. I have been teaching them since my first week here and they came to church for the first time yesterday. They are a young family and the husband is a non-member. The mother is less active and hasn't been to church for years. Yesterday they attended church with their two children and loved it! We also had 2 other part member families come. The tatay in one of the families hasn't been to church in over 10 years and yesterday he attended all classes and taught his children how to read the hymn book. Yesterday we had almost 2 whole rows full of just investigators and less actives. It was just great. One of the things that made such a big difference this week was teaching the importance of temples and eternal families. When we have the temple as our goal, everything changes. When we are focusing on the temple we are more willing to do the things it takes to be worthy of a temple recommend, and as we are worthy of a temple recommend we are strengthened are our lives are improved. This week I saw this change in a many people. It's amazing how the Spirit and the Gospel change lives. One of the great things we did in our teaching this week was we used music in teaching. This was a challenge that Sister Martino Gave us. My favorite experience was singing "Families Can be Together Forever" with the Patiag family. When we told them that we were going to sing this hymn sister Patiag excitedly turned to her husband and exclaimed"This is what I used to sing to A.J. and Kate to get them to sleep!" (but she said it in Tagalog of course. ha) The spirit was so strong and I thing that, that was the moment when the spirit helped them decided to go to church and the read the Book of Mormon. It just was a good week!

This past week we started playing basketball in the mornings since there is a court pretty close to our house. In the Philippines there are basketball courts everywhere! Every Barangay has at least 1 basketball court. We wake up at 5:30am and go play for about 45 min. One day as we were walking over Elder Casilac saw a tricycle drive that we had talked to and invited him to play with us. He played with us and it was really fun. We havn't taught him yet but I think the day is coming. Since then some of the other tricycle drivers have asked us when we play because they want to play as well. I think this week we might be able to get a little 5 on 5 game with all the tricycle drivers who want to play!

Things are going great with Elder Casilac. He is awesome. We teach well together and get along really well. This week is transfers and I hope and pray that I still have another transfer here with Elder Casilac.

As far as the pictures go. One is at a family home evening we had with a less active family who also has started coming to church! the second one is of a Rotary sign I saw on the side of the road! I think brother simonsen would be proud! The third is of a rat I killed in our house with a broom!

I love being a missionary. I love this work! I love the Philippines

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Manigong Bagong Taon! 1/1/12

Dear Family,

Happy New Year! This past week has been pretty crazy! We had Zone leaders
Council, Joy was baptized, and it was new years! Pretty exciting I would
say. The highlight of the week defiantly was Joy's baptism. We have been
teaching joy for a little over two months now. Her brother Jonathan was
baptized this past november. Jonathan invited Joy to church with him one
week and introduced us to her. Since then she we have taught her and she
has experienced true conversion. One of the greatest part's of the baptism
was that Jonathan was the one who baptized Joy. It was a special baptism
and the spirit was felt strongly by everyone there. After Joy was baptized
she shared a short heartfelt testimony. She talked about how she had been
baptized into another church in her past but never found real happiness
there. She talked about how for the first time she feels complete and has
felt real happiness. She knows that this is the only true church. It was
a great way to end 2011.

New Years here was also really crazy! It's hard to explain unless you
have experienced it. There are fire crackers and fireworks
everywhere! It's actually kind of dangerous so we had a cerfew of
6:00pm. We bought a lechon manok for dinner and made lot's a rice.
From about 6:00pm-2:30am it sounded like a war zone! It was crazy.
It was really hard to sleep so at about 11:40 we went out onto the
balcony and watched the fireworks till midnight. It was a great and
very loud memory I won't forget.

Well Sorry that this email is so short. I had a lot of other things I
wanted to say but unfortunatley we had some reporting problems today
which took up alll our pd time. Mahal ko kayo
Fight the good fight of faith

Love Elder Leishman

Maligayang Pasko!

Dear Family & friends,

MALIGAYANG PASKO!

This past week has been quite the week. Nothing like Christmas in the Philippines. We had a Christmas zone conference, the branch Christmas Party and were fed well by the members. However one of my favorite parts of this week was watching the youth and young single adults come together to help an investigator family. We have been teaching the Peligro family for a couple months now and progress with them has been slow. two weeks ago we taught them a lesson on faith and how miracles happen through our faith. Two day after this lesson their baby got sick and then spent 5 days in the Hospital. When we were able to teach them again they told us about the miracles they experienced with their child those 5 days. They were so thankful for our lesson and the Miracles the Lord did for them. After all the hospital expenses they didn't have any money to buy the medicine that their baby needed so one of our branch missionaries organized the youth and ysa together and they went caroling for money until they had raised enough to buy the medicine. It was so great to see the members be so supportive of this family and do what they could to serve them. The Peligro family was so touched that they started to attended church, read church, and keep the rest of their commitments. They have felt the spirit and are very excited about the Gospel. They have a baptismal date of January 28. That was definitely one of the highlights of eh week.

This week I had many experiences to better understand the spirit of Christmas and how Christmas is not about material things. The people here are very humble. We probably get more in our stocking than they do Christmas. However they are so happy about all they recieve and for the Filipino people the most important thing about Christmas is simply being together and being happy. The best way the be happy is to make others so and I tried to do that this past week. It was a great week.

This past week Sister Martino talked about how we can all give Jesus Christ a present this Pasko. She encouraged us to all think about one thing that we can give up or improve to become more obeident better disciples of Christ. I think this is something we can all do we all have something we need to change. I wrote my down and put it in a little box. This is one of my presents to the Savior this year.

I love Christmas and love the spirit of brotherhood is brings. I love my Savior and I am so glad I can serve him right now. I love you all. It was great to be able to talk to you this morning on the Phone. I love you all and I hope you are doing well. One of the pictures is me on Christmas with the tree and stocking you sent me and the other is me with some of my batch at the Christmas zone conference and yes Elder Tomasi isn't there. I still haven't seen him here in the Philippines..... Elder Casilac is great and we are getting along. We are doing good work and things are starting to pick up a little bit.

Mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman