"Humbling...Eye Opener"

Howdy there pamilia! how's everything going back in the good ole US? Things here in my new area are interesting but good! the branch is super nice and welcoming! oh man so being here my first full week here was a eye opener! oh man i thought it was humbling in baguio but its nothing compared to here! one cool experience though is come to find out my area is right next to the beach! we went and taught this guy and i looked down and everything was sand and i said elder "malapit ba tayo sa dagat?" or "are we close to the ocean?" and he was like oh yeah it's just right there i looked and there was the ocean! oh man it was awesome! so we teach a guy that's like right on the ocean it's way cool we went back there on wednesday and did a little service for a older man in the ward. we helped water all his plants and he has a lot so it was good to help him. he lives way close to the ocean so it's like my favorite place so far haha. but i can't tell you how humbled i was this week. it really hit me hard. on wednesday when we helped that guy water his plants we went to his house...well lets just say it's like a few walls and the floors are just sand with some bamboo. i don't really know how to explain it but it was the sadest thing i have ever seen. my heart just ached for this guy. he's pretty old and lives by himself. and he's probably one of the nicest people i've ever met. i can't even begin to explain to you how humbling the circumstances here are. everyday i just was in awe sometimes when i saw how people live here. but like i said last week despite the harsh conditions they are so happy all the time and always give thanks for everything they have! its such a testimony builder to me! so my comp elder apduhan has been having me lead out in teaching in most of the lessons and i have to say i love it! i love being able to share scriptures and things to try and help people. it's the greatest feeling in the world. sometimes my tagalog starts to "nose bleed" "expresion they use here meaning start to run out of things to say or something like that haha" but then he comes in and starts connecting it to something and its awesome the way we have been teaching our lessons. living with 3 filipinos is tough sometimes but it's good for the language. this was good and went by quick. we have a lot of work to do in this area. i'm happy here in the philipines. at one point i thought i would never learn to love this place but it's growing to be a special place in my heart! all because of help the lord has given me and answered so many of my prayers! i came across a way cool scripture this week during personal study! Mosiah 7:33! read it! it helped me a ton this week and i shared it with a lot of the people and it was cool! i love you guys and hope everything is going well! Elder Machen