No Brown out! March 19

Dear Family and Friends,


Today there is now brown-out! We had one all last friday instead! This past week has been another great one! We have had some great successes! This past week we have had more oym's (open your mouth) than I have ever experienced before in my mission. We are working hard and are starting to see some of the fruits of our labors. The greatest joy of being a missionary is seeing people change and become happy because of the Gospel like Alma talks about in Alma 29. This week I went on exchanges with the assistants which was great as usual. I learned so much from the assistants and have a lot of new ideas to help the Zone! We also had a zone conference about Faith. It's still amazing how much to understand about a principle like faith.


Last week I felt prompted to talk to man who was building a tindahan and it turns out he is a less-active member who was the old Ward mission leader before we went and worked in Saudi Arabia for 8 years. We taught Ricardo a quick lesson on the spot and while we taught I felt his love for the Gospel. He just got lost for a little while. When we came back to teach him a second time he had referrals and he even came with us to teach some of our investigators. He kind of got lost for a few years but the Gospel flame has been rekindled in him. I love the rescue program here in the Philippines and I love all of the Less-actives! They are so wonderful.


Things are still going great with the Bade Family that I have talked about in Previous emails. Their 17 year old daughter who used to want nothing to do with us or the Church, has had a mighty change of heart. One day over night everything changed. You could see it in her face. When we followed up her commitments she told us that she decided to pray about Jospeh Smith and she received an answer. She is now attending church and has made a few friends in the young womens. Brother and Sister's Bade's oldest son still isn't interested but It's so great to see them grown as a family in the Gospel!


This week I have better come to understand how the spirit works. Every day I seek the spirits guidance many times for many different reasons. I seek the guidance of the spirit to know what to say to the people we teach, to know what scriptures to use, who to talk to, to find answers to my personal questions and in other ways as well. I have learned that the Lord will guide me as I'm worthy and seek guidance for a righteous purpose. The answer will always come. But more important than recieving an answer is acting upon the revelation you receive. If you have a prompting and brush it aside, the Lord won't be as fast to answer you the next time. We need to show him we value the revelation he gives us by acting with courage on the promptings we receive. We need to have courage like Nephi did when he was led by the spirit into Jerusalem, not know before had what he should do. This past week there were a couple times where I brushed off little promptings for valid reasons, but because I did so it was harder to receive revelation afterwords. I am thankful for this lesson I learned, and the patience the Lord has with each of us as we strive to learn and grow.

The pictures are of a zone activity we had last week on P-day! We went to a waterful. One is a picture of the zone the other is a picture of Elder Adao and I. The third picture is of my new favorite tricycle! It's the tricycle of our bishop and everytime I see it I smile!


I really, really, really love being a missionary! I love the wonderful Philipino people. I love my Savior. I love you all too!


mahal ko kayo


Love Elder Leishman

Transfers! A Farewell to Burgos! Oct. 19

Dear family and friends,

We just had transfer announcements this morning and .......... Tomorrow I will be transfering to Cabanatuan Zone in Cabanatuan 8 Ward! I will be a Zone Leader and my new companion will be Elder Burog. Elder Tating will be training a new missionary in Burgos. I have really mixed feelings about this transfer. I have loved my companionship with Elder Tating. I'm going to miss him but I know he's ready to train. I don't have to say it but I love Burgos! Burgos is my new home. I love all the people there so much. I was a speaker in sacrament meeting this past week and I teared up as thought about probablly speaking for the last time in Burgos. It will be sad to leave tomorrow but I'm also excited for a this new experience. I'm a little nervous to be a zone leader but I know it will all be good.

This past week has been a great one as usually and one of the Highlights of the week and of my mission was the Baptism of Adonis. We had it at 6:30 am (due to his work schedule) at the river and it was so beautiful. It was so peaceful and spirit was so strong. I baptized Adonis and it was a great moment I won't ever forget. Adonis is a father of 6 and is the last member of his family to become a member. It was so amazing to see the Benosa Family together. On sunday night we taught about temples and eternal families and now the Benosa family has a goal to be sealed as a family in the temple in a year. They are all so excited. Especially the children who have been waiting for years for their father to accept the Gospel. I just felt such a joy and excitement for them. Helping families return to their Heavenly Father; that is what missionary work is about!

This past week Fidel was also baptized. Fidel lives with his Grandmother who is a member. Fidel has been great and really loves church. I hope that he can help support this grandmother in the gospel. One of the things we focused on this past week as a mission was increasing out oym's or (open your mouth). Elder Tating and I reached a number of oym's that I have never been close to before on my mission. By doing so we have found a lot of potential investigators that will be contacted this week. This experience helped me realize that there have been finding opportunities that I have missed. I need to always be finding, even when my day is full of appointments. We don't know who the Lord has prepared so we need to do all we can to talk to everyone and not ever be afraid to open our mouths.

This past week I have also done a lot of reading in 3 Nephi and have loved it. I love the words of Christ in his ministry to the Nephites. I never realized how special 3 nephi was before. I especially love chapter 11. I love the way that Chirst came to the Nephites and how he invited them all to "thrust your handsinto my saide, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and feet". 3 Nephi is just great!

Well I havn't packed yet and We need to leave the house tomorrow at 6:00am so I need to end my email. I attatched from pictures from the baptisms. I hope you enjoy them.

Mahal ko kayo,

Love Elder Leishman