Hi all,

The 4th was super regular, as usual. Nothing new! We came in at 9, planned, went to bed.

We have something really cool here though! REAL FIREFLIES! I have never seen them before, but they actually DO light up! It's sweet!!

This week I can't really remember what happened to be honest. All the weeks kind of merge into one big one but I'll do the best I can to remember what's been going on.

Well, Mariela has been defending the Book of Mormon at work in front of her co-workers so I think we're ok on the aspect of her getting baptized for correct reasons so that is good. And then she has been coming to church so her baptismal date is still looking good! We're pretty excited for her and doing the best we can to make sure the members are helping her out (which is super easy in our branch!)

We have another baptismal date with a part member family, the mom's name is Veronica. She is from argentina so she speaks with a Sh. Like ?Como se Shama? and Mira ashi. It's interesting. But she has also a very puerto rican accent because her husband is from the P.R. She has been meeting with us every day for the last week and she is catching on really well. They are doing the best they can to find a job though ecause that seems to be the hardest thing for them right now.

We hav a new investigator named Jose, from the P.R. as well. Jose was driving on the road the other day and slammed on his brakes to stop to talk to the English elders. Elder MacLennan and Salazar have been teaching him for about a week but I think realized last night he just doesn't know enough English for this to work, so we all went over to his house last night to meet him. He's really great, he has a bachelors degree in communications, too! He's very educated and his spanish is actually very clear. He understands things as they come to him and his daughter actually has had open heart surgery (she lives in P.R.) So he's been counting his blessings. He said after the surgery, the Jehovas Witness' told him not to do a blood transfusion and that's what made him realize that religion is balogna. He watched the Restoration DVD and said "Wow, I feel really peaceful and good." And he says he feels that while he reads the BoM, too. We're pretty sure he's prepared! We're going to set a date with him soon.

Elsy Prado from Honduras is a part member family and we're working with her to get her in the water. Her husband Luis served a mission in Sacramento Calif. and he is from Guatemala. They ahve a 5 year old daughter. They are a great family though and Elsy, after months, just told us that she feels good when she reads the BoM and is starting to realize it really IS scripture. She also loves the Doctrine and Covenants! Awesome! Their daughter though was, we're pretty sure, a victim of sexual abuse at her day care, so she is in our prayers. They are taking her to a psychologist etc this week. She's such a cutie, some people are terrible.

We had a really cool experience while tracting last week. We were walking down the street and a man was basically just telling us to take a hike but I asked him "Sir, can we at least give you a card?" and he agreed. He saw the picture of Christ descending into the Americas and asked "well, what's that?" So we explained it to him. Now, Hector is taknig the lessons and loves the Book of Mormon thus far! We're worried because he is a little shaky as far as keeping appointments, but we're pretty sure he's ready. He just got out of prison a few months ago, he was locked up for 21 years. Lucky for us, he's free and clear now so he will actually be able to get baptized! I'll fill you in as we continue to teach him.

I have come up with a new tactic, when people ask me "why are you here?" or "what do you do?" I'm going to share with them the last verses of the book of John. "if ye love me, feed my sheep." I love the Lord, his atonement for us is amazing. Look up a great talk by Brother Skousen "A Personal Search for a Meaning of the Atonement." I spent all last week in studies translating it into Spanish for a ward member. It was hard work, but good practice. You will be amazed at the things you can learn, for example: The Atonement is not So much suffering for so much sinning. He doesn't suffer more if we sin more -- He suffered enough pain and torment that the principle of the atonement is INFINITE. My favorite part of the talk is "He suffered so much that when we get to Heavens gate he will say 'Father, let them enter or I will be robbed of the reward of my labor.' and God will say 'If you really love them that much, I will do it, but not because of their righteousness, it wasn't good enough, but because of your sacrifice; I will do it." He also tells a story to help outline how this works, because Amulek tells us no one can take someone elses justice away, in that I can't die for someone else. If I commit a crime, and my companion dies for me because he thinks I still have something to do here, that doesn't meet the demands of justice. So what the atonement does for us is it meets the demands of justice in the following way. "There was a boy of about 19 years old who fell asleep in the civil war, many of his friends were killed and when he was found he was court marshalled and sentanced to die. This young man thought it was only just that he die, but as Abraham Lincoln was going to sign his death warrant a little mother came to him and said "Mr Lincoln, I am this boys mother -- when this war started I had a husband and 6 sons. First I lost my husband and then one by one I lost 5 sons. President, he knows he should die, he accepts his fate, but for my own sake save this boy. He's all I have left. Not for his sake, but for his mothers sake. And Abraham Lincoln said "For you, little mother, I'll let him live."

This is how the atonement meets the demands of justice. That is how we will be saved into the kingdom again. Not because of our righteousness, because we're still short of the glory of God. But we will be saved because Jesus Christ watches us do good things, and do the best we can to repent, and then he will be our advocate and beg with the Father that we may be saved... Because he loves us that much. I love Jesus Christ. My prayer is that he knows that I'm just trying to do the best I can. Sincerely.

Some more music would be a great gift if you can! Come Thou Fount would be great. Mo-Tab, Solos, whatever you can find. and then also a really good song by Sally Deford, Whole Again.(there's an extended verson as well) I'd love that on a CD.

Bridgeport is great! We're having a lot of fun and doing a lot of good things. I'll try to get more pictures this week! Love you!