Happy Birthday America, From the Philippines!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy fourth of July!!!! As you can probably guess I won't be doing anything to celebrate this holiday! This past week has yet again been a great one! Our baptisms were a great success! This week the weather was perfect! We had to move to a different place in the river but it was still soooo beautiful. Everytime we have a baptism I feel such a great feeling of joy! It really is such a different feeling. Seeing the investigators you love exercise faith, change and accept the gospel this amazing. On the other hand it's difficult to see the investigators you love tell you not to come back, or fall back into an old addiction. The four investigators that were baptized have all had to overcome their own trials and challenges on their path to becoming a member. One of our investigators who was baptized is named Allen. He has great faith. He is sixteen, has only completed 1st grade and doesn't know how to read. Inspite of these things he has strong faith and a strong testimony. His mom used is a member but was inactive when we first started teaching Allen. Allen's mom reads the Book of Mormon to Allen and now they are all active and closer as a family. They live really far away from the church and a couple of weeks they didn't have any transportation so they walked 3 hours each way to church. That is such a great example of faith. Before President Puzey left, I expressed a concern with how things are going to change when the new chapel is done because it will be more difficult for many members to go to church to do location. President Puzey said "Instill Faith in the members. If they have strong enough faith they will walk for days to go to church". This principle is true and I have seen in in Allen Anchetta and his family. When our faith is strong enough and we trust in the Lord, we can do all things!

Another one of our investigators who was baptized is Cesar Andojar. I think I wrote about him last week. Cesar is an awesome recent convert and is our only potential missionary in the Branch right now. He really wants to serve a mission and share his testimony and is already starting to become a missionary in our branch. With his help we are now teaching his sister Jennifer who is really progressing!

Family. Thank you for everything that you all do for me. Thank you for your emails. I love them! They make my week. Sorry that I don't respond to everyone's emails personally. I really don't have that much time. Thank you for your prayers. I feel them when I'm down or when things are hard. I want you to know that you are in my prayers everyday. I love you all soooo much! We are so blessed in everyway. Whenever things are hard, know that our trials are for our good. It is through our trials that we are able to learn, grow and become more like our savior.

As far as the pictures go. They are pretty self explanatory. Sorry that three of them are widescreen... I gave my camera to another missionary and he thought it would be cool to put it in widescreen... Oh well. The butterfly is real and alive!

And my patriotic thought for the day in honor of the fourth of July. Being here in the Philippines has made me realize how blessed we are in America. I love the Philippines and it really is my new home, but we are so blessed in America. America is a chosen land, and God's hand was in the creation of the nation of America. I'm thankful for our founding fathers and the good old USA. Enjoy the fireworks and BBQ and all that good stuff.

Mahal Kita. Sorry my email is short. I promise to try and make it longer next week. P.s. I'll meet president Martino on Wednesday. I'm really excited.

Love Elder Leishman

A Wonderful, Rainy Week in the Philippines!

Dear family and friends,

As always it's been another great week in Burgos. There was a Baguio and it rained for 4 days without stopping and almost all my clothes are wet. We got punted a few times because our investigators were out in the fields planting rice becuase of the rain but despite the rain it was still a good week. We had our last zone conference with President and Sister Puzey. It was awesome! It was such a spiritual, uplifting conference. President Puzey focused on the the need to be Christlike, and Love. Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel (Christlike attributes) is my favorite chapter. As missionaries it's not just about what we do but it's about who we are. I have mentioned this chapter a few times but I really love it. As missionaries it's all about love. We need to gain charity and love for all people; Our Savior, our families, our investigators, our companions, the members, the people you sit next to on jeeps and even the drunkard who swears at you as you pass by. When we have charity we are different people. People also need to know that we love them. There is a saying that I hear a lot from other missionaries "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" It's really true. It's like the Example of Ammon. King Lamoni probably wouldn't have been converted if Ammon and marched in and said "I'm here to baptize you!" . He first served the King and showed his loyalty of love.

Saturday was a crazy day. I woke up to the sound of pouring rain and my first thoughts were about Pepito's Baptism. I knew that we probably couldn't hold his baptism at the river. I spent a most of the morning praying that we could find a way to have a baptism for Pepito. When we went to the meeting house no one was there. Our branch presidency had gone out into the fields to work because they thought we wouldn't have the baptism because the river was dirty and overflowing. The wife of our branch president was home so she was able to get a hold of the Branch Presidency. We then were able to contact the Zone leaders who happened to be having a baptism an hour later at the stake center. We hopped on a couple of trikes and headed into the city. There were only six of us, because there was no other transportation for the members but things worked out great. The trip to the city took 1 hour each direction in the pouring rain. When we got the stake center the font was filled and Pipito was baptized. I am so grateful that the Lord provided a way for Pepito to the baptized. When there is faith and will, there is a way. Yesterday the rain was still coming down. I knew that Pepito would have a hard time getting to church. Pepito is very poor and he usually barely has the money to go to church. Since he used all his money for his pamensahe to his baptism, the Tanedo's gave him some money so he could go to church and be confirmed. Pepito was able to get a ride with a private jeep (which never happens) and was able to attend church and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Pepito said that he had been praying for a way to be baptized and to be confirmed. He said he knew that because of his faith and prayers the Lord provided a way. This was a testimony building experience for Pepito and for me. The Lord does answers our prayers. However faith needs to be the essence of our prayers. I am so grateful that everything worked out and that the Lord answered our prayers. When we have faith nothing is impossible.


Things with Elder Calianga are good. His style of work is almost exactly opposite of Elder Pioquinto's so we are working on adjusting to be able to teach and work together in Unity. He is really quiet and very serious but slowly he is opening up to me. The work is good right now and it's continuing to improve. This week we have four baptisms and again I pray that everything will work out. It seems that right before baptisms crazy random things happen in the lives of investigators. This is Satan's way of trying to prevent them from following the Gospel. However with faith, effective follow up and the support of members things work out.

Here is a little funny story. Last night we had a member drive us home on his trike. It's a 1 hour and 45 minute walk from his house to our apartment so we pay for his gas and he drives us home. Last night the store where we usually buy gas was closed so we were going to get gas closer to our apartment Halfway home we ran out of gas.... We then pushed the trike with the member's son steering for 30 minutes in the rain. We were using a flashlight to see. I loved every second of it and we laughed a most of the time. When we were about 10 minutes away from our apartment we finally were able to get some gas and we were able to make it home before 9.

Well I love the Gospel, I love the Work, I love the Lord, I love my investigators, I love the members, I love my family. It's all about love

Love Elder Leishman


Note from mamalar:I thought Joe looked terrible in this pic compared to the pics he has sent the last two weeks. He assured me that he is healthy and feeling great, he just looked like that because of the rain. Hmmmmmm

Another Lunes sa Burgos

Dear family and friends,


This past week has been great!!!! It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in his work. Yesterday President and Sister Puzey attended our branch for church. Our attendance was 93 which is way more than our average of 65. We also had 10 investigators attend sacrament meeting which is by far the most we've had. It was such a powerful fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong as the members bore their testimonies about our savior Jesus Christ. It was also great to hear President and sister Puzey bear their testimonies. The first time they attended Burgos branch was a year and a half ago and the attendance was 15. The area got reopened to missionary work a year ago and the growth in the strength of the Branch has been great! Everyday I realize more and more how blessed I am to be a missionary and to be assigned in Burgos. This week we have a baptism for Hinckly, the investigator who is 14 and is the only non-member in his family. He has a strong testimony and is ready to be baptized. His dad will be the one performing the baptism which will be so great! I really excited for his baptism and pray that things will work out this week. We found a new investigator this week named Jackielynn. Jackielynn is 17 and she really wants to know the truth. She reads all of her reading assignments and more. She also takes notes and writes down questions she has when she reads. Her cousins are members and have already helped her stop drinking coffee. We also have one investigator named Pipito who is from Bisayas. He struggles with Tagalog but is studying it so he can better understand the gospel. Right now his baptismal goal date is June 25. This past week really was a very successful week and it was largely due to the help of the members. Now with the help of the members we are teaching twice as many lessons as we were in my first few weeks. The lessons are also better because more than half of them have been with a member present. I have seen so much better misisonary work is when members are involved. I now have a strong testimony of the importance of members in missionary work. Being members of this church we all have a responsibility to be missionaries. It isn't always easy but it's always worth it. Right now two our our recent converts are struggling. Nicko and Joshua Haro. These two brothers are awesome. The problem is their mom is discouraging them from going to church. School started again today and now with their studies their mother wants them to think about school. It's a hard situation. Their mother is a former investigator and we are trying to gain her trust and teach her again but she doesn't want to. They have good support from the members but their parents are the main problem. I pray that we can find a way to help Nicko and Joshua.


This past week I spent some time studying faith. Ether 12:6 really stood out to me, "for ye receive no witness until after the trail of your faith". Faith is our foundation, our first building block. However it can't be strengthened until it is used, tried and tested. We all have trials, obsticals and barriers which try our faith. As we follow god's commandments when it's the hardest, when we use our faith when the trials are the most difficult that's when testimonies are strengthen and we feel the blessings of the Lord in our life. For a lot of our investigators they have real trials of their faith. However I have seen that as they try their faith they gain their testimonies and see blessings in their lives.


The work in Burgos is great. The field is white. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. This upcoming week is transfers so I will be emailing on Wednesday not Monday. Elder Pioquinto is going to transfer for sure. Next week I'll get my followup trainer but I have no idea who he is, but I'm sure he'll be great.


Fight the Fight of Faith


Mahal Kita


Love Elder Leishman


ps. the pictures are from a CSP. The brother is our branch president President Valdez.