"We Are Just The Instruments"

well howdy fam! oh man what a great week here in the philippines! truly one that i will never forget! still i can't believe how fast these weeks are flying by! it blows me away! so first off i'll give you details about the call next week because i can tell your a little excited! and i can't lie im way pumped! so we haven't gotten any news about the call but im planning on calling monday morning here so it will be sunday afternoon for you there. i think i'll call probably around 6,7,8 there haha im not completly sure but just be ready for it! and i'll probably call the house phone so hopefully we get things all worked out this time. Alright so on to this great week we had here. so first off we had exchanges with the zone leaders and that was a good experience and i learned a lot of good things there. then the next day back in our area and we went out to help water the old mans plants brother valle, i have come to love that man and it always puts a smile on my face when we go out there but this time he was having a little bit of a bad trip. i guess his TV broke this week and so he has been extremely bored and feeling bad for himself. he was a little upset but we did our best to comfort him and the coolest thing his he came to church like he does every week. every time we go out to his house he always says elders i don't know if i can come to church this week because i have no money, my wife died, i have no food, and my tv broke, but every week he comes and has been a great help fellowshipping one of our investigators that has really been progressing. So he is great and we do our best keeping his plants alive in this extreme heat. so on to our investigator brother willie. oh man what a amazing experience there! we went and saw him last week and asked how church was for him and he said he really enjoyed it and felt really welcome which was a great thing to hear. he said he didnt know if he would be able come to church because he had a appointment....but he came! i really hope he keeps progressing so he can get baptized! so on to the coolest part of my whole week! we had exchanges on friday and i was with another american. while we were planning the night before my comp told me to go to this area that i have only been to like once and start our work there because it is like a whole compound full of less actives. i was a little nervous because i only like 2 families there but i was excited for the challenge because it was going to test me and push me. so we started out there and it started out terrible i went to the family i knew and started asking if they knew these peoplet that we had planned for, they told us that none of these people where home and so i was a little worried. what are we supposed to do now? so i just started talking to people and finding new less actives and teaching, then some of the people ended up coming home and we ended up have great success over in that area. the spirit truly made me capable to do and say the things i needed to. it was amazing! then on to the coolest part of the whole week! we have these investigators and they are born again christians but are super nice to us and are willing to listen to what we have to say, well when we go there i don't say to much because it's all out of the bible and that's one of my weaknesses so when we had planned to go there i was nervous and kind of apprehensive to go but i prepared scriptures from the bible about the apostasy and sutff like that. They were confused about joseph smith and why he isn't in the bible, so we started off the lesson and the other american with me was kinda of struggling with tagalog and i was a little nervous of how this was going to turn out, so while he was talking i said a quick prayer in my heart that the spirit would take over and help us speak! Family, i want to bear testimony with all my heart that what happened in that lesson was 100% by the spirit. i couldn't believe what was happening when i started speaking, things that i have never thought of came out, things that i have never said before or been able to say before came out. i understood there questions and answered them with conviction, i was able to share scriptures from the bible that i never knew before but prepared earlier that day. the spirit took over and it was surreal. We walked out of that lesson and i looked at my comp and said so elder how was our lesson in there? he looked at me with wide eyes and said where did that come from? we were both shocked and surprised at what had just happened. it was the most neat experience sitting there and speaking and knowing deep inside that at that very moment i was an effective instrument in the hands of the lord. Family this work is amazing and unlike anything else. i've come to learn one of the great experiences here is feeling a prompting from the spirit and acting on it. i love this work and i love you guys! have a great week and i will talk to you guys next week!!!!! Mahal kita Elder Machen