"Go The Extra Mile"

Well family it's great to hear things are going well for you over there and i love reading your emails and seeing the growth! Oh man this week was absolutley amazing! where do i even begin! well lets just say i really think Heavenly father was testing our diligence this week because nothing came easy! oh let me tell ya the rain has stopped, temperature rising, and the blazing philippines sun did not let up this week. Everyday we were just out there and i remember thinking holy cow i've never felt anything like this is my life! but it's also amazing to see the lord helping us along the way and you end up not even really noticing how hot it really is. but this week was the definition of "have fun and get the work done" because we were blessed and got work done! i've never had a week like it! usually the days are good, we get a good amount of lessons in and nothing is to difficult, but this week we had to work extra hard for our lessons. we got punted, people weren't home or either super busy and had no time, somedays i just looked around and thought what should we do know. WORK! and that's exactly what we did, but it's just like the success aaron and ammon have in the book of mormon, it is all because of the blessings of heavenly father, i realized it's really him doing most the work, we our just the instruments that bring the spirit. so we show up to church yesterday and i was shocked! we had 19 Less actives at church and 2 investigators! WOW, truly tender mercies of the lord. my heart beemed with joy when i saw some LA's show up for the 1st time in my 5 month stay here. this week i learned lots of life lessons and just goes to show hard work pays off, i couldn't do this mission without the help and love of our Heavenly Father, because this week i gained the testimony of when your tired, sweat dripping from you face, legs hurt way bad cause you've walked about 5 miles and you just want to sit down and give up, and if you "Go the Extra Mile, you will get the Extra Blessings" it's the greatest feeling ever knowing everyday we get to wake up and do missionary work, it's truly life changing and something i love! this week was truly one to remember and just one that i am so grateful for! i love you guys and hope you are all doing well, it's amazing 11 months already down, wow. i've still got a lot of work to do and truly looking forward to it! I love you guys and just remember "Pray Hard, Study Hard, Work Hard" and reap the blessings. Mahal Kita Elder Machen