first week in field

Sorry for the delay in getting this letter up. I thought that I had posted it and must have forgot. Happy Holidays everyone!

Hola Todos (all)!
Okay this is going to be crazy i have so much to say and not enough time(as usual). I apologize for taking so long to write but i didnt get a p day last week when i arrived because of travel. I am in the mission office right now typing this and the first thing sister archuletta said when i walked through the door was "elder baines you need to write your mom because she called last night." Mom i am okay, just doing the Lord's work, it is a little time consuming. Puerto Rico is gorgeous! I love it here. It is hot and i have never sweat so much in my life but it is great. My companion and i are in Guaynabo and we have to walk everywhere. My feet and knees and just about everything has never been so tired and never hurt so much. But i love being here doing this work, so i dont really care. My first night here i was given a brand new bike by a missionary who was leaving which was way awesome. I live in a house with my companion and Elder Black and Elder Kelly who are the president's assistants.
Anyway i arrived in Puerto Rico last tuesday and went to the mission office with all the other Puerto Rico East Missionaries. We met the mission president and had interviews. He plays the guitar and is way awesome. Dad he wants to meet you, i told him you were an artist and thats what he said haha After we were all done with that we met our trainers. Mine is elder Contreras. He is from Colombia and does not really speak english, so my spanish is becoming very good very fast. I still cant understand the people here very well but i can talk very good and the understanding is coming along very well. We have 5 investigators right now. One of which we just set a baptismal date with yesterday!!! We have the date set for Nov. 30 which is awesome!!! Probably one of the coolest things that couldve ever happened, aside from baptising, happened on Sunday. WE got to take one of our investigators to a fire side at which Elder David A. Bednar of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke at. There were also 4 of the Quorum of the seventy there as well!! It was so cool, he didnt really give a talk. It was kind of just like a discussion with him because he just had us ask questions and he answered them. All the questions were great and he gave us amazing answers. I wish i could share the whole thing with all of you but here is my favorite thing that came up.
One guy had just recently returned from a mission and asked what he could do to avoid temptation because now that he is off his mission he feels like it is coming from every which way. Elder Bednar said this.."First i am gald that you recognize that it is possible for you to fall into temptation. The members of the church that scare me the most are those that say 'i will never deny my testimony.'' He then wnet on to talk about truly what temptation is, and this is my favorite part. He opened up to Matthew when Jesus is being tempted by Satan after 40 days of fasting. He read each of the three temptations. Then proceeded to teach.. "These three temptations are not actually different temptations. They are all the same temptation that is presented in three different FORMS. The temptation is, that Satan is trying to get Jesus to DENY WHO HE IS." He told us that the same is true in all of our lives. Any time we are faced with temptation, it is the same temptation just in a different form. Being that Satan is trying to get us to deny who we are. We are sons and daughters of God. If we understand who we are being children of God then we will not give into that temptation of DENYING who we are as children of our Heavenly Father. He showed us that the same temptation arose in Jesus' life at the end of His ministry as well/ When he was on the cross one of the people there said "IF thou art the son of God" come down off the cross. The same temptation but in a different from. In all the cases that Satan tempted Jesus he said "IF thou art the son of God". It is so important that we understand that we are sons and daughters of God and that He loves us and He wants to bless us and if we do not DENY who we are as His children by following His commandments and fulfilling His will, He will bless us greatly.
This truly was an amazing experience, i wish i could share more of what he said but i am running shy on time. I am so happy right now, to be doing the Lord's work and bringing people unto that same understanding of who they are as children of our Heavenly Father and what we need to do to return to Him. I will be sending pictures home soon (hopefully today) and it was great to hear from all of you!! I am only allowed to email family members so all of my friends, please write me and family i would actually prefer letters over email! My address is
Elder Colton BainesCalle Crisalida #61Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00971
Mail here is the same as in the U.S. which totally rocks so please send stuff it would be much apprecated!!
Thanks you all for your support, you are all in my prayers!
LoveElder Baines