Sunday, December 18, 2016

District Date - hahaha!  Ice Cream!

First smore in 17 months!

Pasig Palengke!!!

"I asked Santa for baptisms this year." :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Hello everyone,


I am such a failure! :/ ive been in pasig for the last 5 weeks and this is my first weekly email since ive been here. im SO sorry everyone! forgive me? :)

Pasig is great! theres so much work to be done here and thats probably why i havent had any time to write about all of it. i have had and still do have my work cut out for me for my last 7 weeks. can you believe it guys?! i go home in 7 weeks! :( i guess im a little excited to go home. im definitely excited to share everything ive learned with my little brothers and family :) but leaving my "family" here is by far going to be the hardest good-bye of my life. good thing ive still got 7 weeks, huh? ;)

Speaking of going home and all that, our office secretary, sister judd, emailed me my flight itinerary today. haha! for all of you who are interested : Manila to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to LAX, and LAX to good ol' SLC :) im scheduled to get in around 6:40pm on Feb. 8 :)

After 4 months, we were finally able to get back to our regular mission "temple day" schedule earlier today. the manila temple is sooo beautiful! i love temple day! and i LOVE temples! im so grateful for them and the blessings they have brought to my life. when i think about going home, really, the only thing that ever comes to mind is the day when i will kneel at the altar with my husband, in the house of the Lord, make covenants with him and my heavenly father, and start our journey to the eternities :) i love this gospel and testify that the plan of happiness is real and is available for all of God's children.

I love you all soooo much and hope you all have a great week!

Hugs and kisses from the pines! :)


Sis. Leausa

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Exchanges with Sister Villegas from Canada.

MTC Exchanges with Sister Swainston from Idaho assigned to the Baguio Mission.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

"Saw this cutie last week, Sister Mendez. I missss her!!!"

"Two of my favorite Sisters, Peralta (anak ko) and Sarto."

Sister Leausa and Sister Ramirez

Exchanges with Sister Petallar...love her!

Family Home Evening with the Esguera Family

"My favorite investigators at the moment."

Monday, November 15, 2016

Heeeyyyy everyone :)


It's traaaansfer week! aaand im not excited. haha! i didnt think i would be transferring..i was actually really hoping i wouldnt transfer so that i could spend christmas with sister collins and our antipolo 2nd ward. BUT the lord has different plans...and of course, we all know his plans are better than any plans we ever have for ourselves, right?? RIGHT! :)

I will be transferring to Pasig Zone; still as an STL. cool thing about Pasig, my old mission president and his family are in the ward ill be serving in. it will be cool to see them. my new companion is sister Ramirez. don't know too much about her so that will have to wait till next weeks email. all i know is that she dies (goes home) at the end of this transfer so ill kill her then get a new companion for my last transfer. 12 weeks left :) 

We had 2 baptisms this last Saturday; one of them being, by far, being one of our favorites :) brother jhon rick emberga. the first day we met him we knew he was a "golden investigator" and Saturday just so happened to prove that :) I am definitely gonna miss that knuckle head kid! Sunday was even better! kuya jhon rick showed up to church in slacks, a white shirt, and a tie that bishop gave him. he looked so cute :) he looked juuuust like a missionary! elder emberga, it fits him perfectly! sister shiela mae rodriguez was our other baptism. such a cute girl with such a strong, strong testimony.

ne thing i love about missionary work is watching peoples conversion stories unfold. jhon ricks conversion story has been one of my favorites. it has helped me to strengthen my own testimony :) I am so extremely grateful that our heavenly father continues to prepare hearts and minds like jhon ricks and sheila maes. 

I am  so extremely grateful that he has allowed me to be a part of their lives. i testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and only by living its principles and following the commandments of God will we be able to return to our heavenly father. i love missionary work! :) 

I hope and pray you all have a good week. add me and my new area to your prayers, okay? haha! 

Love from the pines!

Sis Leausa

Sunday, November 6, 2016

"Araw Ng Mga Patay, (day of the dead). People here light candles in memory of their loved ones who have died."

"Sunday we killed rat #4 in our house! (gag!) The rats are huuge!"

Exchanges with Sister Torio.

"Love me some Province."

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Hello!

I havent sent pics for awhile so i figured my pics can highligh this week :)

Saturday, brother romulo sumalas and his cute son, adrian were baptized. whoohoo! the following day, they were confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. such a sweet experience for this family. sister collins and i have been teaching this man and his 3 boys for a couple months now and to finally see them make sacred covenants with our heavenly father brought us sooo much joy :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! the philippines doesnt really celebrate halloween, but its one of my favorite holidays, so we just had to "dress up." [Maori]

Trunky letter number 2 :( this one is a ton more detailed and mentions my "last night in Manila." such a heart breaker..going home is becoming sooo real. boooo!

Heavenly father continues to shower his blessing on me and sister collins :) he never forgets about his children in our are. i love this work sooo sooo much and am so blessed to be apart of it! i love you all tons and hope you have the best week ever! :) hugs and kisses from the pines!


Sis. Leausa

Bittersweet day on Friday..."trunky letter" number 2.

Sister Leausa and Sister Collins

Filming at the MTC.

Exchanges with Sister Manfoste. She is so cute. She is from good ol' Cottonwood Heights.
 She is a Brighton High graduate....boooo!

These emoji pillows pretty much sum up me and Sister Collin's companionship. LOL!!

"Free KFC because our apartment was "celestial" (suuuuuper clean!)

Mendoza grandkids :) my favorite!

Brother Romulo Sumalas and his cute son Adrian

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Hey everyone!


Ahhh man :) this last week has been such a great week! and i have to add that its such a beautiful day here in the Philippines. i dont know if you all have heard, but we have had 2 typhoons come through in the last couple weeks. neither of them did much damage, it was just suuuper gloomy and rained a ton. id say the past 2 weeks has been nothing, really, but gray, cloudy skies. BUT TODAY! the sky is super blue, the clouds are super fluffy (like in paintings), the sun is shinning and theres a perfect breeze :) such a great way to bring in this upcoming week :)

Okay, so lemme just tell you all about this past Saturday. well, it actually started Tuesday night at the mendoza families house :) so, because the temple has been closed for a little bit, of course, no one has been able to go to the temple. statistics show that recent converts who enter/or go to the temple within 60 days of their baptism are more likely to remain active in the church, in years to come. we have 18 recent converts in our area. recent convert means baptized within the past year. sister collins and i have been focusing super hard on preparing our recent converts for their "temple trip." not only will we tour temple grounds, but a lot of them are of the appropriate age to do baptisms for the dead (12 and older). so we have been helping them with their family history and stuff like that.

Tuesday night, we invited the mendoza family to start their family history "search." we set a date for Saturday morning at the chapel. there are computers, a family history consultant, everything would be provided in order for them to start their family history. so, Saturday we meet them at the chapel and everything went great! They've made profiles on familysearch.org and it was just a super cool experience for them to be able to find their family members :) sister collins and i watched with huge smiles on our faces as they added their family names to their family trees. it was such a cool experience!

After the mendoza family was done with what they could find and do, i wanted to check my own family tree. i logged in, did some research..and BOOM! found family names who haven't had their temple work done for them yet :) 8 names to be exact! yaaaasssss! hahah! i was soooo excited :) not only will we get to take our recent converts to the temple to help them do the temple work for their family, but ill get to help my own family and do names of my own :)

Not only did heavenly father help the mendoza family to find the names of their family members, but he also opened up a way for me to help my own family. its a testimony to me that he hears my prayers about my family. i have to admit, i haven't ever prayed about my family on the other side...but every night i pray that my family (not generalized) will be taken care of and provided for. Saturday morning, he definitely made sure my family on the other side was taken care of and provided for :) i am sooo excited to be able to do their temple work for them :)

I love, love, love missionary work and i loooove family history! :) i know that God and Jesus Christ live. heavenly father knows each one of his children; hear on earth and on the other side of the veil. im sooo excited for the temple to re-open! :) i love you all sooo much and hope and pray you all have an amazing week :)

Sis. Leausa

ps: sorry i have no pics, the computer cant read my memory card :/ next time na lang :)

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Magandang umaga po sa inyong LAHAT!


I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! :) i sure hope you all got to watch it. if not, you missed out BIG TIME! this past general conference was such a wake up call and invitation to the WORLD! an invitation to come unto Christ and learn HIS gospel for yourselves. i really wish all our investigators had come to listen to the missionary discussion be perfectly explained. haha! of course, everything we share and teach, as missionaries, is important, but to me, the most important and "heart-catching" lessons we teach are, "the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ," and "the plan of salvation," or the plan of happiness. these lessons were executed PERFECTLY during conference.

One of my favorite talks this last weekend was given by elder craig c. christensen, member or the presidency of the quorum of the 70. towards the end of his talk, he stated and facts and things we enjoy today "because Joseph was a prophet." Joseph smith, the prophet of the restoration, in the spring of 1820 was visited by two heavenly messengers; god the father and Jesus Christ. heavenly father and Jesus Christ used Joseph smith as an instrument to restore the true church of Christ on the earth after its fall and preceding the crucifixion of Christ and death of his 12 apostles. after centuries of being lost, a restoration of the fullness of the gospel was necessary in order for us to, one day, return home to our heavenly father. because of one 14 year old boy's faithful prayer in seeking the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, in its fullness, was restored to the earth :)

A lot of times, when we teach about the restoration and Joseph smith for the first time, we get questions like, "si Joseph smith, siya ba yung founder ng simbahan ninyo? siya yung founder ng mormons?" (is Joseph smith the founder of your church?) Joseph smith IS NOT the founder of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints and he is not a god that we worship :) he was simply a prophet, an instrument used in the hands of the lord to restore the fullness of the lords gospel here on the earth :) 

I am so extremely grateful for joseph smith and his faith in Jesus Christ. i am grateful that he heeded the call of god and went through as much as he did so that i could have the knowledge that i do about the restored gosel of Jesus Christ.

"Because Joseph was a prophet" i am able to read from the book of mormon (my favorite book ever!) and deepen and strengthen my testimony every day.

"Because Joseph was a prophet" i now that some day, my family will be together FOREVER :)

"Because Joseph was a prophet" i am able to share the JOY of the gospel with my brothers and sisters here in the Philippines :) and by now you should all know, nothing makes me happier :)

I am so in love with this gospel. i hope and pray, just as the invitation from our church leaders was given this past weekend, that you come and find our for yourselves just how "delicious" and "desirable" the gospel truly is. there are missionaries all around the world waiting to share the good word of god with you and your family :) and you can expect when i get home, ill be continuing my missionary service by inviting you MYSELF :) haha! so be ready ;)

I love, love, LOVE you all so much and hope you all have an amazing week! :) hugs and kisses from the pines!


Sis. Leausa