General Conference! April 9

Dear Friends and Family, This past weekend has been marvelous to say the least! It was conference here in the Philippines and it has been the conference that I have enjoyed the most in my entire life. Before I talk about conference I want to talk a little bit about the week. This past week one of the Elders in my zone was informed that his grandmother had passed away. His grandmother raised him like a mother and one thing that makes it harder is that this is his last transfer in the mission. When I heard the news my heart broke. I love Elder Cabanisan and I love his attitude about misisonary work. When he heard the news he wanted to go home for the funerals due to comments from his non-member family members. However through prayer and the scritpures he decided to stay. Before our transfer announcments this past week he Elder Adao and I to give him a blessing. We went into an empty classroom in the church and gave him a blessing. It was an amazing experience! It's hard to describe the love in that room. We hugged after the blessing and the spirit was so strong. We didn't say a lot but we didn't have to becase the spirit said it all. Elder Cabanisan is an amazing example and an amazing missionary I won't ever forget. If you wouldn't mind keep him in your prayers. As far as general conference goes, I don't even know where to begin..... Every word that was said was inspired. There were periods during conference where my pen coulnd't keep up with the promptings of the sprit. Some of my favorite talks were from David A Bednar in Priesthood sesion,Deiter F. Uchdorf's talk in Priesthood, and especially on Sunday, Donald L Hallstrom from Satuday morning, President Eyring Talk about challenges, Jeffery R. Holland, M Russle Ballard, and David F. Evans. I know that's a long list and I would love to talk about every single talk, but I start talking about some of the things that stood out to me the most. Firstly Thomas S. Monsons the 12 Apostols and the General Authorities are inspired men called of God. One of the strongest themes of conference for me was about family."Happiness depends of hte family". In some way or another every talk related to family. The Church is for for Families. It's in families taht the church is established. Successful families live the Gospel. Gospel living includes being kind. "be kind. It's a happy way to live"-Jeffery. R. Holland., Gospel living also requries, not judging, holdling grudges, desire evil ect... We need to apply the following "Stop It". To live the Gospel we also need to serve others. Small acts of service changes lives and bring happiness. I felt like many things that were said were said just for me. I realized so many things I needed to change about my life and I am excited to change them. I will need the Lord's help as we all do as we try to change and become better people. After conference I left wanting to be a better person. I want to serve more, Love more, be a better missionary and better leader. I love teh many references to D&C 121. I am excited to study that this week. I also have to say I can't wait for hte My Liahona to come out! (sorry that this past paragraph was jumbled and not very organinzed and also that my english isn't good..... English is getting harder the longer I am here in the Philippines) This saturday we have a baptism! Charlene Will be baptized by her recent convert father. I am so happy that this family is embraces and enjoying gospel living. Everytime I am with them I am so happy. This past week while we prepared charlene for her baptismal interview, I was a little worried about the strength of her testimony. However 2 days before her inteview I asked her why she wanted to be baptized. In response she shared an incredible simple testimony. It wasn't borrowed from her parents but it came from her heart. She talked about how before she didn't want anything to do with the church. She still didn't want anything to do with the church when her parents invited us to teach her. However she decided to pray about Jospeh Smith and she felt somthing. She couldn't explain it well, she just said that I knew that it was true and that when I hear someone say something bad about the church I feel annoyned because I know that it's true. She has had a change of heart and is ready to enter the waters of baptism this week. I am so excited. The worth of every sould is great in the sight of God. THe work here in San Jose is awesome. WE are having some challenges and successes. We are working hard and striving for obedience. I love this work. I really do. I love the Philippines. I love the wonderful people. It's all about love! mahal ko kayo Love Elder LEishman THe Pictures are from transfer announcements, and of Martin Harris, the son of one of the members here!