May 7, 2012 Hey Family how is everyone? Sometimes I feel like I am the guy on Star Trek thats like.... ´´Captain´s log 42856.... today I blah blah blah,´´ because I am writing basically a journal entry for the last week. Anyway, this week has been pretty decent. We are trying to figure out how to work better with our ward. I will have been here a 1/4 of my mission in about a month and I hope that I have been able to do something to change this ward for the better. The gift of being able to look back and see errors and good things is something I am grateful for. I think God gave us repentence not only so that we could be clean from sin and eventually enter into His presence someday after relying wholly upon the merits of His Son, but also so we aren´t just paralyzed by mental and emotional anguish for the stupid things we have done. As a missionary, I have looked back on the first several months of the mission and sometimes I just wish I could hit the rewind button and go back to that point with what I have now. I will probably say the same thing in another year. But God doesn´t want us to be sad, neither does He want us to continually live in the past, but to instead look forward with faith. Its not really about where you are at, nor where you have been, but where you are headed. That is the miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through this atonement we have the ability to look at ourselves and pick out the things we don´t like about ourselves, and overcome them, either by having that particular characteristic removed, or learning how to be stronger than that part of your natural man. Anyway, I have just been thinking a lot about these things. I hope you are all doing well. We have a lot of really important lessons this week and I would appreciate an extra prayer or two our way. I know you are praying for us and I love you for it and I do feel them. I know that our Heavenly Father is hearing my prayers on your behalf. I love you guys. Can´t wait to have a little chit chat next week. chau chau.