A New Week and A New Companion 12/4

Dear family and friends,

It has been another good week here in Cabanatuan. This past week was transfers and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Casilac and he is awesome! We were zone mates when I first went to Tarlac and I was very excited to hear that we would be companions. This is his first transfer as a zone leader so we are both pretty new but we are both really excited. This past week has been a great start to our companionship. Elder Casilac is Obedient, hardworking and we are just on the same page about a lot of things.

This month the motto for our mission is "Miracles will happen in December". This is a wonderful motto or a wonderful time of year and the miracles are happening. This past month we havn't seen a lot of progress in most of our investigators but the spirit is working in their lives and things are starting to happen. Yesterday we taught a young family that we have been teaching for about a month. They haven't been keeping a lot of commitments and havn't yet attended church. Yesterday we taught them about eternal families and the spirit touched their hearts. It was almost like a seeing a light switch on in their heads. They finally realized that the truth of what we had been teaching them and that we need to live the gospel to be able to return to Heavenly Father. The father who hasn't accepted a lot of the teaching because of his Catholic beliefs said that he wanted to live with his family forever and that he was going to quit smoking and start coming to church. It was a very spiritual lesson and I am so excited for this family. This past week we also made good progress with another young family we just started teaching. They said that after the first time they listened to us they started receiving blessings and they want to know more. I love teaching families and I love the Gospel.

Because it is December right now Christmas is starting in the Philippines. The people hear love Christmas. One of the things that I love is all the caroling. People go house to house and usually bring instruments and something even speakers in trikes and they Christmas songs. They do it at all times of the day and it's awesome. Usually people will give them a little money if they want more songs. I have loved listening to the carolers. The Filipino people love Jesus Christ and Christmas is a season which they show that love. One of the way they show their love is through their singing. The hymns here are the greatest! They bring the spirit so strongly. It is just a happy time here and I love it

One of the important things I have learned here is the need to be happy. Our purpose in this life is to prepare to meet God and to have joy. We all have trials and difficulties. Life can be really hard. No matter how hard things can be we can't forget to be happy. We need to find ways to have joy. We need to find times to laugh. Any person can be happy if they choose to be. Living the Gospel is one of the greatest sources of happiness.

As far as the Christmas call goes, I do not yet know if I'll be calling on Christmas eve or Christmas day. However we can either use a cell phone, or skype. If we use skype president says we can use webcam if we want. Let me know what you think about that. We'll get it figured out in the next couple weeks.

mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman

Cabanatuan 11/21

Dear Family and friends,

This past week has been another good week. The work is progressing in our area. Slowly but surely. This transfer we have found a lot of new investigators but with most of them after 2 or 3 teaching appointments, they move, or start hiding or we can't get a hold of them again. However we have found some wonderful people who are making progress. A lot of them have concerns but though finding their concerns we have been able to really focus our teaching and study on them. Missionary work is so wonderful when you are teaching people not lessons.

This past week we continued our efforts with some of the less active members in the ward and they are making awesome progress. Elder Burog and I have already seen the blessings of the Gospel return to their lives. We have also had some of start to attend church. One of them even worked with us one time this week and is now planning to go on a mission. Before we thought that he didn't have a chance of going on one. Working with and rescuing less active members is another great part of missionary work. It brings real joy and seeing a less active member come back is often like seeing a baptism It's great! One of the great parts of working with less active members is they almost always have family or friends who aren't members and that is how we find a large part of our investigators.

One of the important things I have learned this past week was the importance of faith in Missionary work. Not just on the part of investigators but on the part of the missionaries. Faith is our foundation and it's through faith that we are able to preach the Gospel. Without faith nothing will happen. It takes faith to go out everyday. I know that miracles happen everyday and they happen through faith. I love the example of the Brother of Jared. His faith was so strong he couldn't be kept from seeing the Lord. That's real faith. For me I am trying to strengthen my faith to the point where I can do anything the Lords needs me to do and to have the courage to do it.

This past week I also learned the importance of attitude. We usually can't chose our situations, but we choose how we react to them. Our attitude makes all the difference in life. I learned taht I need to choose to love things. Whether they be hard or easy I need to have a positive attitude and look for the good. There is good that comes from all things, we just need to find it! It's about enjoying the little things. The little things make all the difference. Espescially in living the Gospel.

I love you all and I love being a missionary! This is the Lord's work.

Tomorrow I'm 20 That's kind of crazy

Well,
mahal ko kayo

Love Elder Leishman