History For Mission In The Philippines!

Well what a week! we had a tri-zone conference this week and president jensen came and told us some crazy news. They had mission president training this last weekend and the area president had some big news. It seems my mission has completly changed for the next two years. in the mtc our purpose was to invite others to come unto Christ and be baptized. well things have changed around here! im quoting President Jensen who quoted the area president. "baptism is no longer our highest priority" when we heard that you could hear a pin drop. dont get me wrong its still a high priority but not our highest. in the philippines only 20% of recent converts are still active. so the other 80% are not. so starting this last week our mission is to rescue and reclaim the lost. a 100% of our time is spent teaching and bringing back the less active members. holy cow it was a shocker. president said this is history for missions in the philippines because it will probably be like this for the next 40 years he said or until we start making some big improvements! haha so its going to be a lot tougher job now. but we just have to buckle down and go to work. it was a good week lots of stuff going on and trying to get things organized for this new thing. my comp is district leader so were pretty busy most of the time getting things done for the district and interviews for baptism. we have 6 investigators that have baptismal dates but the 5 are the koreans and its hard to get things figured out for them because their parents aren't here and we need this form signed because their minors. so its kind of frusturating but its good there super excited about their baptism. the other one is this girl shes dating an rm so things look promising for her. she's really intersted and even came to church again this week so it was really good! dont worry about me im doing fine. haha this work is just physically, emotionally and spiritually draining sometimes. but its amazing cause the lord is always there to pick us up when we are down. haha i'm getting skinny!!!! this guy in the ward saw my BYU-I card and said i was fat before haha. thats almost like a compliment here but i looked at him like he was crazy haha. but lots of people that see pictures of me before say that hahaha i just have to laugh cause i was defiantly not fat before. oh well i cant believe i've been here for one transfer. time hasn't really gone by that fast but its starting to. we find out whos getting transfered on wednesday so i might have a new comp because he's been in this area for 3 already and they rarely keep them in for more than that but since its his last transfer who knows. but yeah its crazy that my mission is totally changed now. its crazy but we just have to bring back those less actives and be bold. our mission pres told us to be bold but loving. i just can't wait tell i can speak the language so i can help these people out more. it will come though. are zone leader elder frandsen is american and has been out as long as kody morgan and he's way good at tagalog so he's been helping me out a ton cause we see them alot. so it just takes time. i'm truly learning the meaning of patience out here let me tell ya haha. this place has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. i've learned more out here than i could anywhere else. its crazy. i went on exchanges with elder frandsen and we were talking about how much this place has opened our eyes to how blessed we are to live where we do. haha about thanksgiving they dont have that here. to be honest i couldnt even remember what day it was on. One guy asked me and i couldn't even remember. haha. hopefully christmas will be good. Baguio is alot different than the low lands and they say that Christmas here is better so im hoping it will be good its kind of weird not seeing snow and being cold but im not missing the wind! haha. the lords blesses us so much out here its amazing. he truly looks after his missionaries. we're just trying to work hard and get things done. its a great feeling to know we are helping people out in the best way possible. i'm starting to realize how important the church is and all the things we do in it. i think i took it to lightly before and i feel kind of bad about that. this is important stuff were doing here. this is people's eternal salvation and im trying to get that engravin in my head so i can be more driven and effective. but i love this gospel and i know its true with all my heart. i've learned to love the book of mormon and have realized that whenever we need answers to questions and we search dilegently we can find them in the book of mormon and that has been a great blessing in my life. i just want you guys to know how much i love and appreciate all you do for me and the sacrifices you have made for me in my life. i'm really humbled when i think back in my life and realized the sacrifices and the things you have done for me to get me where i am today. i can't tell you how grateful i am for you guys. you have no idea! just know i love you and to have faith in our Savior. always remember him! Mahal Kita Elder Machen

Humbling Week!

wow what a humbling week it was! holy dude man it was crazy i started feeling better and so that was good, but it was just one of those weeks where things just weren't falling into place. i dont know i really feel the Lord wanted us to learn something from this week and i haven't figured out what that is yet. it's good though can't complain. i was truly humbled this week with a lot of things. where to begin, 1st off i realized how important it is to have the spirit with you and to recieve guidence from the spirit. without it we are just lost 2nd, i realized that we are so blessed to live in the US and to have the things we do. we taught this kid he's 18 and we went to his house and there's 3 of them that live there and honestly it about humbled me to tears cause this house was probably 6 by 8 room straight concrete and and small bed in the corner. and he had to sleep on the floor. i looked around for a pillow or blanket but nothing. it was really sad but he seems interested in the gospel and i know it will help his life. 3rd, i realized how blessed we are to go to our pantry or fridge and eat whatever we want. haha you dont have that luxury on the mission. i've never gone to bed hungry before and i can tell you that's how people live here. i was truly humbled when we go home at night and realize we have no food and end up eating like a pack of raman noodles. it just really makes me realize how blessed we are. this week was tough though it really tried my patience and faith. im not going to lie i got frusturated this week cause so badly i want to learn the language so i know what people are saying. it drives me nuts not knowing what people say. it was tough but i had to remember it takes time and i have to have the right attitude about it. it will come. but nobody seemed to want to listen to us this week haha. man every investigator or former investigator or less active either didn't have time, didn't want to, or wasn't home. man it was tough but the lord sees perfectly and so we just have to have faith and know things always get better. one good thing is we had a some promising investigators come to church this sunday! we were way excited! so that was good. haha im still working on the christlike attribute of patience and charity. i can truly feel the love from the Lord for us missionaries and it drives me to try harder. the mission is the hardest thing i have ever done but i've already learned so much i couldn't have learned without it. so its been really good. haha yeah i've lost a lot of weight haha i still can't believe it when i put my slacks on in the morning im like holy crap what happened haha. its all the walking and not eating we do haha. its not bad though. sounds like im going to have to watch out for karter when i get home! that's good he's working hard and getting stronger! Way to be Broski! haha that's awesome. Mom you workaholic! take it easy would ya haha. your awesome and i love getting your emails everyweek. Dad haha i totally forgot about that letter i sent off when we first got here and had to laugh cause i remembered that experiance. haha im glad you got a kick out of it. hmm what else. haha i dont know it was a tough week for work. were waiting to hear back from our mp about if the Koreans can get baptized. there a special case so we have to get approval. they're great though and show a lot of faith. two of the boys didn't come to church yesturday and said they don't like the church meetings so we have to work on that. my companion only has about 1 month left haha he's getting excited about going home and i have to give him a hard time telling him he better be married by the time i come home so i can go to his wedding haha. it's funny the philipino humor is really different. sometimes i dont think he understands what im saying cause they don't really get american humor. haha i know this week will be a better one just got to keep working. it's weird looking at the calander and seeing that its november and its hot outside haha can't say i miss that cold wind. haha no they dont celebrate thanksgiving here. but it's been christmas here for about 3 months now, any month that ends in "ber" its christmas haha. its funny. haha i got a letter from kathy and tyler this week and it was like christmas morning! haha tyler sounds pumped about his mission call! that's awesome he's turning his papers in soon. well family be safe out there and don't have to much fun without me haha. i love you tons and hope you have a great thanksgiving. Mahal Kita Elder Machen

Holy Cow!!!!

Well the inevitable happened this week. i thought i was going to be an exception! oh boy was i wrong. i got the "mimis" this week and they struck like a freight train. "hope you laugh at that" oh man i dont think i have ever been this sick in my entire life! it started up saturday morning and i can't remember the last time i have been this sick haha it was rough. i have been just gettting some rest and trying to get better. i tried to go as long as i could on sunday but couldn't quite make it through the day. i hate not being able to work it really bothers me but the mimis got the best of me this time. i managed to make it here to the computer shop to write you guys a email but im really not feeling good i have the flu or something really gnarly haha. oh well i'll be fine. no worries. im thinking it was from the "isaw" my companion made me eat hahaha. isaw is chicken intestine!!! yummy! haha no it was disgusting and tasted like straight blood. that may be why im so sick but who knows haha. this week was a good week. i felt some improvement on my tagalog. i was able to understand a little bit more which i knew was completly from the Lord cause it was pretty neat. i was able to teach a little bit more. we went on exchanges this week! my first real exchange and i was kind of nervous but i was with Elder Demis he's from Canada, hes from ottowa. haha i can't spell. but he's a stud and helped me with my tagalog. so we went to his area in la trinidad. its a way cool area. so we went around and started teaching and he would just be like ok elder machen your giving the scripture and the thought. and i was way nervous but he helped me and it ended up being better then i thought. he said my accent was pretty good and that i have good sentence stucture and i just need to work on vocab and congigations. so that made me feel good and on the exchanges we ended up giving 3 priesthood blessings! i was surprised when one of the guys asked me to give him one because we were on exchanges and he didnt know me but i just had to put trust in the spirit that i would know what to say and boy did the spirit help me out a ton! it was a neat experiance. the mission is amazing. its the hardest thing i have ever done and i have had to learn patience like never before. and you guys knew me before i wasn't the most patient person hahaha. oh one thing i wanted to share with you is for personal study i was studing moroni 7. i came across what i thought was one of the coolest things. after reading it i came up with my reciepe for recieving the lords blessings and for me learning this language.1. Having Faith that Jesus is the Christ and our Savior. 2. having Hope that he can do whatsoever thing is expediant of Him. 3.Being meek and lowly of heart or humble. 4. Having Charity the pure love of Christ, thats one ive really been striving for, and 5. Obediance. read verses 33-48 and you'll be able to see more of what i'm talking about but i thought it was cool and wanted to share that with you. but then we had a teaching appointment with elder demis and we thought it was going to be just like 2 people but it ended up being like 8 people! haha oh man i was super nervous but we had a rm there to help us and it was good we taught the restoration and i was just trying to understand what they were saying but the natives speak so fast haha. anyways the rm was teaching this one part and elder demis leaned over to me and said ok you got prophets. i just looked at him like are you serious! haha. he just smiled and said you got this. well i did my best and managed to get a few sentences out and he filled in but it was pretty cool. just trying to improve everyday. the lord really helps us alot out here. it was good though! it was a great week besides me getting sick but all is well. haha i have to say the girls here i kind of ridiculous sometimes, i cant go anywhere with out people yelling out guapo. which means handsome. haha i have had people tell me to take them back to the US. haha its pretty ridiculous sometimes. haha when we were teaching that group of like 8 with elder demis they were mostly girls around the age of 20-23 and they asked if i had a girlfriend and i had to just lie and said "yep sure do, shes waiting for me" i figured telling a little white lie would be better then.... well who knows haha. but yeah something kind of funny for yeah. haha sorry this email is kind of all over the place im just trying to write fast! but it was a good week. yesturday was kind of frusturating cause we still couldn't get our investigators to come to church except the koreans. they still all want to be baptized which is good but turns out they might be a special case baptizm so we have to talk to president about that. oh well as long as they get baptized sometime thats all that matters. well i hope everything is going well for you guys sounds like your doing great! hopefully winter turns out to be a good one! im going to miss not having a white christmas haha. but everybody says christmas in baguio is pretty cool so im excited about that. oh yead dad i tried my card and it worked i dont know if the bank is going to be shutting it down soon cause they will see its been used in the philippines but if so just tell them the situation and it will be fine. oh kim asked about the food, well the food is pretty good just lots of rice and meat. the meats a little different but i like it. haha i like being in baguio cause theres lots of mcdonalds and kfc haha so we eat there alot. but i have already lost a lot of weight especially from being sick. haha today i put my slacks on and was like holy cow what happened. the waste was way loose haha. oh well. i've been working out everyday so ill get that six pack back haha. oh yeah christmas package mom. just send american candy ive been really craving it lately and oh if there is a extra ipod laying around like karters gray one or his touch you could send that to me because i pods here are ridicoulous expensive so maybe do that if possible and i would apprecitae it thanks a ton for everthing glad things are going well for you! Mahal kita Elder Machen

Some pics from the Philippines

The Mission is Awesome!

Wow this last week flew by! haha which is good cause it means we were working hard! This week was a alot of people didn't want to listen to us and we got shut out a couple of times but its all apart of the work! we taught some good lessons and the people seem to be intersted. i was able to contribute a little more in the lessons and i feel the lord blessing me, its coming slowly but surely. haha the philippines are still crazy though but im learning to like and make a good time out of it. this week we got alot of rain, my 1st experiacne with rain and ill tell you idaho has never seen rain like this haha we were soaked one night and we had to hurry to a dinner appointment. haha theres so much that goes on during the week its hard to remember all of it and write it all down haha. but you have been asking about church.. well church here in baguio isn't too different from home well haha ok it is but i guess compared to the low lands its really good. they do their sacrament meetings in english but its broken but i can still understand it. you can tell the church is still young here but its coming along. i like going to church the members are real nice and they always help me with my tagalog. haha thats awesome Sister Divine added you on facebook haha i was at their house and she kept telling me she wanted to add you on facebook so thats neat. she's really nice and always helps the missionaries out. she has a great family and their kids are funny cause they won't speak tagalog they only speak english haha. but she's great. we got to go back to urdenta this week for new missionary training and i got to see elders dalton and tapusoa. it was awesome to see them again and we couldnt stop laughing about all our experiances already haha. Elder tapusoa is like a big brother to me out here, he's such a stud! love that elder. but yeah its my companions 21st birthday today haha! he's funny and i was trying to get him excited about it and he was just laughing. he goes home in two months. but he's a great elder and has really been helping me out. the lord really does bless us out here alot and its amazing how much closer i've come to my heavenly father since being here. i have grown to love reading the scriptures and the stories they hold. the book of mormon is central to everything and what a blessing we have to have it. some of my favorite time during the day is personal study in the morning cause i get to spend time reading and studying and applying the scriptures. one big thing i learned this week was with out faith and trusting in the lord we can't do anything. i've realized how important faith is and to never be slow in remembering our many blessing we recieve each day. the mission is awesome! when we teach lessons and i usually dont know what they're saying it doesn't really matter cause i can deffiantly feel the spirit and its incredible. i was able to contribute a little more and i know heavenly father is helping me say the things i need to say every lesson. haha it just makes me smile all the time haha. but i'm getting into the swing of things and am staying positive and learning to laugh at certain situations that i have no control over. another thing this week i had to focus on was patience. oh man let me tell you i was getting frusturated when we would go from lesson to lesson and i couldnt really understand what they were saying. i want to help but i couldn't understand haha so i really had to have patience this week and just know that it will come. theres a guy in our ward that went to the naga mission and knows clay reed! haha it was cool cause we talked about that for a little bit! he also new my roommate dan from byui. haha it was cool but yeah things are good here and im just pushing foward every day. haha can't complain. i love getting everybodies emails every week. its good to hear how everybody is doing and things. mom sounds like you have been quite the busy bee haha, settle down! haha joke lang. means just joking, but seriously haha. thats good to hear you like what your doing i know that makes things alot more enjoyable! Dad i love getting you emails everyweek and hearing about how your doing and everything. such a stud! haha i think about all the stories from your mission you told me and just to work hard and forget yourself in the work. it really gives me motivation to follow your example. Karter my man! thats good to hear physical therapy is helping you and your excited about ski season. i have to admit im going to miss that and sledding alot. haha its kind of weird to look at my watch and see that its novemeber 7 and its hot outside. im used to the wind and snow haha. just keep doing work bro! love yeah. thanks for all the emails i get from everybody. i feel bad i cant email back but i really do appreciate gettting them from everybody! im going to try and upload some pictures so hopefully it works and gives you a little idea about what its like here. haha up and down all day long haha my legs are going to be in shape ill tell ya! haha ive already lost weight, you can see it in my face my comp was looking at some pictures from the mtc and was like oh man your already skinnier! haha then i looked and was like oh man your right haha. all the little kids ask why i have dark circles under my eyes haha. hope everything is going well for you and you have a good winter!