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