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