"Gotta Love the Heat" 3/24/13

well thank you so much for your great emails! its always nice hearing from you guys i really liked that video! Well this was a exciting week! haha it was a blazer too! it reached 122 this week and we were feeling it haha! it was crazy hot nevertheless we got the work done and had fun doing it! we had been struggling lately with finding new investigators and so this week we got to work and found a lot! it was great and we really saw things start to fall into place, after our two baptisms that we had we were kind of in a rut! but we are doing are best to climb back on top. we saw some progression with our less actives which had been a struggle of our here! things were just going well and of course we had our ups and downs but thats normal. haha i sure do love it out here and am grateful to the opportunity! well i cant think if any thing else happened this week, basta it was a good one haha. i love you guys and pray you are on the right track and doing whats expected! love you guys! Elder Machen ( I have left some of Keg's writing mistakes... it's been fun to see how his english is not so good) What an adventure, love our missionary and his example to our family! The Lord truly does have his hand it everything!)

"High Spirits and Lots of Laughs" 3/17/13

What a week! this one was another rough one but one filled with high spirits and lots of laughs! As far as work went we just got rejected! man its was brutal sometimes when you walk and talk all day and nothing ends up falling through, it was disappointing only to the fact that these people are rejecting our Savior and essential Eternal life, its a heart breaker but when you know you are doing your best you can keep the head high! On saturday we had a baptism! Bro celso got baptized and i was touched he asked me to baptize him, it was one of the neatest experiences ive ever been apart of. The lord has really prepared him and im happy to be apart of that! i cant believe how time is flying! haha were almost done with march! thats great brody is going to brazil, speaking of the wrights, i got breydan's letter! he's great, it really made my day! haha i couldnt help but laugh reading it, if you could let him know or tell his family i got it, i think ill just wait to write again cause i doubt it will get there before he heads home, well i love ya family and am thankful for your love and support! nagmamahal, Elder Machen

"Just Keep Going" 3/10/13

Well im glad to hear you guys are doing great and it was a normal week haha! This week was a great one and man one that really pushed me! one great thing is we had a baptism! it was a great service and she has truly been prepared, i tell ya what its the coolest thing to see some one take the steps of baptism. haha im just smiling writing this. some other great news, our investigator bro. celso passed his interview and he will be baptized this saturday! he even asked me to do it and so im really excited for him cause we have seen him progress so well and so fast, we actually moved his baptism ahead because he was doing so well! so that was the good stuff. this week really challenged elder and i because no one wanted to listen to us or let us teach! it was almost amusing the excuses they would come up with or the things they would do to get away from us, yeah it was dissapointing but when you know your doing your best you cant get down on your self and we felt that through the spirit. This week we had times where we just felt down cause we were punted from everyone and here in this area because its pretty rural once 8 comes and your not in a lesson its super hard to find anybody. but we just keep pushing foward and did the best we could. the lord really wanted us to learn something this week and im still trying to figure that out. thats one great blessing about the mission or just life in general, Heavenly Father gives us things to learn and grow and whats better than that? we had to help our recent convert realize that cause she was kind of down because shes been experiencing some trials lately but is still a rock in the church and its great to see! well this week was a good one and we are just pushing forward! i love you guys and hope you also keep pushing forward through the hard times! mahal ko po kayo! ingat palagi! Elder Machen

"Rollin, Rollin, Rollin" March 3,2013

Well sounds like you had an interesting week! As for us over here things are still going great! its just been a great last couple weeks! we are are just having a great time getting the work done! we are having a baptism this saturday and another march 16 so things are really going good! We have really seen the hand of the lord in our work and its been such a blessing! our area is progressing and i think elder and i are progressing as well! haha oh yeah i almost forgot, this week we noticed it was hotter then normal, so we put our little alarm clock with a tempture thing on it and it reached 116 degrees! haha it was a scorcher this week! We really saw some of our other investigators grow and the power of the book of mormon in this work is so amazing! our one investigator bore a powerful testimony of the book of mormon and how it has already blessed her life! well thats just the start! we are getting the big batch of missionaries this month i think the 29th. well as we say here, i just entered the 4th quarter. it honestly feels like a dream. well things are continue to go great here! love you guys and remember HIM in all things! mahal kita Elder Machen

"Happy Birthday Pops!" Feb 24,2013

Well i just love reading how great you guys are doing over there! Happy Birthday Pops! im glad you got my letter! i hope you have a great day and enjoy getting a little older hahaha but with age comes experience, and with experience, theres no better substitute! keep pushing hard pops and reach the expectation! love ya, mahal kita! Other week down here in santa maria! wow it was one filled with great blessing from the lord and one i am truly grateful for! we have been seeing great things in our area and its been just amazing to see things fall into place and people make some serious steps towards our Heavenly Father! this week i truly felt we were instruments in the hand of the lord, can i just tell ya that the coolest and best experience ever is sitting in a lesson and filling the spirit work through you and seeing these people fill it and make a descision to change, its the greatest! i love being a missionary! we had some good lessons with our investigators and with our less actives. we have been having lots of investigators come to church! this last week we had 6, and out of them about 3 are really close to getting baptized! time is really cruzing by! transfer day is this friday but i know im not getting transfered. Well just know that i am doing good and loving being a missionary right now, the philippines are great and its getting hot! thanks again for the support, karter next week you better write! love ya guys! Elder Machen

"Work, Work, Work" Feb 17,2013

Hey! oh man it was sure good to see those photos! karter your hair is way pangit! haha your a stud, glad you had fun! your emails were great and inspiring! Well your about as surprised as i am with how fast this week went by! Elder and I really hit the pavement this week and lets just say we had fun and got the work done! We have to give it all to the spirit. i was blown away, we taught with the power of the spirit and things happened! i want to testify of the divinty and role of the holy ghost in missionary work. i have seen the glory of this work radiate from bamboo shacks, the spirit creates a climate that bears testimony and we get to see the effect. its the most amazing feeling ever. we had 7 investigators come to church yesterday! and 4 of them are really progressing and so we will do our best to keep them on the straight and narrow! the less active work is going well! we found this one guy earlier in the week taught him twice and he came to church! haha thats a miracle in itself because that never happens! This week was incredible, ive never taught this many lessons in my whole mission, we were guided and blessed! haha im at a loss of words right now for what to say! of course we have some investigators with some problems that we need to figure out before they can take the plunge, but we have already seen some small but good progress. our area is really doing good and elder and i are doing good, hes a hardworker and never complains about all the walking we do! well family i love you and thank you again for the great support! send my love to everybody. mahal ko po kayo! Elder Machen

"RUN!" Feb 10,2013

well you guys contiue to be awesome and i love you for all you do to and for me! the title i choose today came from a experience we had just last p-day. so we were walking down this dark street and we were turning right and i know there was this dog at this house that sometimes chased us so i pushed elder mortel to the side of the road and good thing i did cause this big dog came b-lining for us, so i did what i usually do when dogs run at us, i turned and ran at it, trying to chase it away, well this big puppy was not buying it! it hesitated for a sec and they came at me full speed! i pushed elder again and said run!!!!! haha we took off and i felt the dog nip my shoe, i dont want you to worry cause this is the cool part of the story, so as we were running down this street another dog thought it would be fun to join the chase, so imagine this, to missionaries, one american and filipino booking it down this street with two big dogs behind them hahaha, i was just waiting to feel one bite into my calf, but just as i felt it nick my shoe its like someone pushed us or something cause both elder and i took off! we left these two dogs in the dust and they stopped chasing us. i know it was guidance from our heavenly father cause i have never ran so fast in my life hahah. it left us thankful and laughing at what just happened. good times good times. other than that this week was amazing, filled with many blessings from the lord! we had zone interviews with president and it was so great! he gave me a lot of advice and we had a good talk! he was asking me what my plans where for when i get home and stuff and gave me some great advice. it was great. we had some great things happen with our investigators that is really exciting. we have one brother jr. he is 22 and is a stud! he bore a powerful testimony about reading and praying about the book of mormon. we asked him if he had read it and prayed bout it. he said yes and so i asked him, how do you feel about it? he looks at me straight in the eye and says its true, its true. the church is true, it was such a powerful moment and i couldnt help but smile and say yes it is true! We were supposed to have a baptism this saturday but it got postponed because she has no support at home, he dad is a la and mom is a member of a different church here called iglesia ni cristo. they arent allowed to listen to other religions so its kind of frusturating but we will do our best. so much happened this week and it was really neat to be a part of it! i love you guys. mahal kita Elder Machen

"The Little Things" Feb 3,2013

Well family this week was a exciting one and a busy one woo! well we started off with zone gathering on tuesday, thursday we moved into our new appartment! its dang nice and actually feels like home! haha im so out of shape, moving all that stuff kicked my trash! i was so sore haha but we still did some good work! then friday we booked it over to urdaneta for some new missionary training and that was really good to get some training from president, he's way good! we were chasing our work this week but still had fun and of course got the work done, we have this investigator sister aipi, she is 14 and is really progressing! it so exciting seeing people come unto christ and seeing the excitment in their lives! truly inspiring! haha i just smile just thinking about it! her baptism is february 16! so next week she will make the important steps to eternal life! we also have some other people that are really progressing and its really excitment! things are looking good. this week we did struggle in finding new people and so i took tried to do another evaluation on myself and stuff that we have been doing, well it came down to i just need to do better at doing the little things! its amazing how easily it is to look over and if we take the time to notice them, it makes all the difference! i love the mission and all the stuff we learn out here! I like what dad said in how the lord is in all things. Always remember that one! i love you so much family, i know i say it all the time but i really love you all a ton and know that i am happy and doing great! Mahal kita Elder Machen