"Can You Say 8 Months!"

well family i can't help but just smile while reading your emails! they're great! you guys are a inspiration to me! Well usually when you train a new missionary the program lasts 12 weeks and then the trainer gets transferred. well i got a unusually call from the AP's. and my training period just went from 12 weeks to 24. yep i'm training again and staying here. i was shocked i honestly couldn't believe it! so the 1st thing that pops in my head was no way am i going 8 months in bauang. i'll probably get transferred and open an area. well i went down to urdenata to the mission home this week for the train the trainers meeting and president made it pretty clear that i wasn't going anywhere till october. so at 1st i was like sayang! i was pumped to get transferred and i'm not going anywhere. but then heavenly father made things pretty clear that i was still supposed to be in this area. we had a neat experience this last week that just got me really exciting. so it was late about 8pm and pouring rain but i thought we would try and get in another lesson, so as we were walking past this car wash place this guy yelled at me and said something in really broken english that i couldn't understand and so i walk over to him and told him i know how to speak tagalog and he just started going off. he started telling us that he really wanted to change his life around and come closer to christ. he was drunk at this time so i was like this is just another drunk guy and wasn't about to really listen but the spirit told me to just hear him out so he's just doing off and saying sorry i'm drunk right now. and then he started asking us questions and his big question which was perfect was he wants to know why he's here and what's his purpose. i was like YES! plan of salvation and we gave him a book of mormon and scheduled an appointment with him when he's not drunk and will answer all his questions. it was just a experience that heavenly father has been preparing this kid (he's 21) for His message and it was just so awesome! this week was good. we had a good turn out for LA's at church and i was excited, we just need to work more with investigators and that's been the hard part in our area but we just keep working hard! i love you guys and next week i'll send pics home of my new comp and all that jazz haha. thanks so much for bearing your testimonies to me, i love hearing others because it strengthens mine so much. Until next week i love you and remember, "stay pogi" haha have fun and get the work done! Mahal kita Elder Machen