Dear Mom, Dad, and Cole Family,

This past week was a week where a lot of patience was needed due to the extreme heat, sick companions, and no member presents.  On Tuesday Elder Key got gout in his foot so we couldn't work then.  But thankfully by the next morning he was up and ready to go.  But despite the fact of how hard we tried, we just struggled with almost all aspects of our work.  Most of our appointments fell through and tracting/finding was pretty difficult due to the heat and because the kids have school now.  I find it pretty funny that these things are happening right at the end of my mission.  Maybe it's just Heavenly Fathers way of helping me keep focused on the work.... not that I'm saying that it is hard.  Most days it doesn't even feel like I"m at the last part of my mission.  But anyways, the highlight of this past week was with Marbie and Jenny.  We weren't able to teach them this past week because every time we went to their house they were busy.  Despite the fact that we didn't share with them; they still came to church yesterday!  Why couldn't every investigator be as diligent in attending church as these two girls?  If the Pasiona family would attend church they could have been baptized already; but I guess that's a sign that they're not quite ready for the commitment of baptism.  

The other day I was looking through my luggage and I found the talk "The Fourth Missionary" that was given to me by a sister in my district before we went to the Philippines.  I decided that we would read that talk as part of our companionship study because of the power and the influence that that talk has had on me. (if you haven't read in I highly recommend that you do).  Anyways, while we were reading it I had a few thoughts that came to my mind.  "Have I become the missionary that I set out to be?"  "Have I become the man that Heavenly Father needs me to be?"  And "Is Heavenly Father proud of what I've done".  Looking back in my mission I look at who I was then and now, and I really have changed.  Not just physically, but spiritually as well.  Things that I thought were funny before the mission aren't that funny now.  Things that I wanted to do in life don't seem as important.  I have come to really now that life is about change.  If we don't change what we do, the way we think, and the way we act than we will get the same result.  But I have also learned that we can decide of how we change or we can let world kind of shape us with the trials and events that occur.  But if we do that than we won't nearly reach the full potential that we have in life.  We have the potential to literally become like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ; but it's up to us to decide if we're up to the challenge.  

Thank you all so much for the support and the love that each one of you has shown me in these past two years.  Mahal na mahal ko po kayo.  May God be with you till we meet again.

                                                       -Elder Cole