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

Nabanyigan na si Emil! July 16

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been a good Week. The highlight of the week was definitely Emil's baptism. I have talked about Emil in a few of my emails but he is a man who's life has completely changed because of the Gospel. He was baptized 12 years ago but we was never confirmed and didn't go to church after his baptism. Because of the Gospel he has found a new hope for life and is always happy. He says that his family is much happier as well. It rained all day before Emil's baptism but the rain let up about 30 minutes before it started so people were able to attend. The spirit was so strong throughout the entire baptism program but especially during the ordinance itself and during Emil's short testimony. During his testimony Emil talked about how he felt like an entire new person and that he didn't know how to explain what he was feeling. We all know that what he was trying to describe was the spirit and we could all feel it so we knew exactly what he was trying to say. One of the great things about the baptism was that Emil's wife attended. We have been trying to teach her for months but she hasn't really wanted anything to do with us. She looked really happy at the baptism and she even attended church yesterday as well for the first time. At church she told us she wanted us to teach her that afternoon so we went and talk her the restoration. She has seen the change in her husband and she told us that from what she has seen and felt she already believe that this church is true. Emil added his simple powerful testimony in the lesson about the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith and it made the lesson amazing. She commited to a baptismal date of August 11. I love bringing families the Gospel. It's what it's all about. This past week we had a lot of punted days, where none of our appointments worked out. At times it can be a little frustrating but I have been trying to think about how Heavenly Father has a plan for everything and will guide us to the people we need to meet and need to teach. Thinking positively makes a big difference. This past week the Lord led us to some wonderful people. One of them is Ronald. Ronald's Father joined the church a couple of years ago in nueva Viscaya and he met the missionaries there. After moving here to San Jose we were the first missinoaires he has met. When we knocked on his door he quickly told us to come in and told us his Story. He wanted to know more about Joseph Smith and we taught him a great lesson. We are going back tomorrow to teach him and his wife. I know that the Lord led us to him. If our schedule had worked out the way we wanted it to we wouldn't have met him. This past week has been a week of learning. I learned a lot. I learned that the Lord will bless us, but not always in the way we want or the way we think he will. For example yesterday most of the investigators that commited to attend church didn't, but as two investigators who we didn't expect at all to attend church did. They were a little bit late to so it was even a little bit more of a surprise. We just need to trust in the Lord and trust that things will work out for the best. But that doesn't mean just waiting. We need to be consistently working and do our part as we wait for the blessing of the Lord to be fulfilled. I love Being a missionary. I love the Lord. San Jose is awesome. I my area and the people here. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman pictures: 2 our from the baptism. 1 is with Elder Revillo and i with Emil and his wife and son.

Rescue! July 9

Dear family and friends, This past week has been amazing! We are seeing so many good things happening in our area. This past week on of our big success has been with the rescue program for less-actives. We have seen really the church be established here in San Jose over the last few months. Yesterday at church we still had high attendance and we had so many less-active members attend church that there was no room for anymore people in our Sunday School class. It was so full. This week we also have temple preparation class starting this week for all the former less-active members and recent converts namin that are preparing to go to the temple. It has been so amazing to see less-active members come back to activity. It brings true joy. One of our success this past week in with the rescue has been with Vincent. Vincent is 21 and belongs to a strong active family. He is the only inactive member and hasn't wanted anything to do with the church. The first time we went to his house to meet him he wouldn't come into the room to talk to us. Our following visits to the family resulted the same way but finally we were able to teach him and started to teach him about the very basics of the Gospel. Prayer, the Book of Mormon, the Restoration and plan of salvation. Over the past few weeks he has rediscoverd his testimony and finally attended church yesterday! His father (a former Bishop) was shocked when we saw his Vincent getting dressed in the morning to go the church with the family and expressed his joy and gratitude after church. He told us he has been praying and fasting for his son and is so excited to see him come back. It made me think of Alma and Mosiah praying for their Sons. Vincent was was warmly welcomed back yesterday and it filled me with joy. This past week we have been struggling to find new investigators. We have been talking to so many people and most people don't want to listen to us because their busy, but we aren't getting down about it. We are still opening our mouths and know we will find the people the Lord is preparing for us. Last friday I went on exchanges with Elder Blackham a trainee in our zone. He is in his second transfer in the field and we worked in Lupao (his area). It was a great exchange. It reminded me a lot of my first exchanges with the zone leaders in Burgos. Working with new misisonaries is always fun becuase they are just so excited about missionary work. They are just filled with excitement and want to work and learn. While working with Elder Blackham I felt his love and sincerity in everything he said as he found and taught. Since he is new he is still really working on Tagalog. Even though his Tagalog wasn't perfect i know the people we taught felt the spirit and the truth of what Elder Blackham said. It made me realize how important it is that we as missionaries speak from our hearts. We need to be sincere and love all people. It's sometimes easy to go though the motions especially when talkilng with people on the street or in your finding but if we love all people we will tough lives. I also told mom a funny story early about the exchanges. You can ask her about it! I love love love this work! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman