Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon 12/30

Dear Family and Friends, Maligayang Pasko and Manigong Bagong Taon! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This past week was a good week. As most weeks it definatly had it's ups and downs. One of the highlights of the week was Christmas. Christmas was awesome. It was a very unique Christmas for me. We spent the entire day visiting members, Less-active, active and recent converts, and we shared messages about with Jesus Christ and Christmas. The spirit in those lessons was so special. Throughout the entireday my heart was filled with gratidude for my Savior. Many of the people that we visited are poor famers. When we asked them how their Christmas was many of them said it was sad because they had no special meal or gifts. As we taught these families about Christ's birth and about his life it was wonderful to see the spirit touch their hearts and to see their countenances change. Their sadness turned to gladness! That's what the Savior does for us. Because of his atonement he can turn our saddness into gladness. His atonement allows us to change to become more like our Heavenly Father. He brings us peace and hope. I am so thankful for my Saivor. This last Christmas was a Christmas I will never forget. This past week there was a Fiesta in Portal. It was four days long. When there is a Fiesta work is normal during the day but once it starts to get dark everyone goes to the barangay plasa for an event of somekind. A Dance, a pagent, barangay night, ect... These usually go from 7 or 8pm to 4-5am. When it's Fiesta there are marching bands that march up and down the streets playing music and everyone seems to be busy. This was a little bit of challenge for our work. It was hard to teach lessons and to find. The biggest Distraction was the marching band. There were multiple times where we were teaching a spiritual lesson and then out of nowhere the marching band would come down the street and you could hardly hear your self think. It was hard to keep the spirit in those lessons. We were teaching one less-active family when the marching band came down the street. The 19 year old son stood up and said wait a minute I got to go watch the band, as he ran out of the house. He came back about 5 minutes later and we finished the lesson. There is always something new that happens everyday. Despite the Fiesta we had soem awesome progress with many of our investigator. We found Jason and Shami guevarra a couple weeks ago and they are really progressing. They are 20 and 21 years old. Last week Shami had a question about where a person go when they die and last night we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to their whole family. It was the first time that their parents and grandmother wanted to listen but htey listened and had lots of good qeustiosn. They are all members of different religions and are searching souls. Last night we also found and taught 2 new families. I feel so blessed to be teaching families. Last saturday all of our plans fell through in the morning in an area that the missionaires didn't really work in before. We said a prayer that hte Lord would lead us to someone he wanted us to teach. We started talking to people and while we were walking down a street we heard some yell " Elders! Hali kayo Dito!" Or Elders come here. We turned around and saw a very excited looking nanay. Nanay Rosita led us to here house where she pulled out her baptismal certificate scirptures and pictures of her at churched. She was baptized in Quezon City a long time ago and was really active there but when she moved to Nueva Ecija she didn't know where the church was and became less-active. She was so happy to see us and already has an assignment in the Branch. The Lord led us to her and I feel like she is going to be the key to getting hte work going in that area. I lvoe the Work. There is lots of work to do here. Everyday I feel so blessed to serve. I love you all. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman the picture is of me cooking Tinola. One of my favorite foods. I am sporting the new mission apron that sister Martino gave us for Christmas:)