And another letter from Colton.....

We received an email as well as a handwritten letter yesterday, here is the handwritten letter!

September 10, 2008

Dear Family,

Please write a brief e-mail on my behalf regarding this letter, for I cannot email until next week. Today was a pretty long day, but I am glad that I am finally starting to get into the thick of things. Victoria & Jordan dropped me off. They sat through the video and introduction thing with me, then when the movie was over I went through the "Missionary" door and they went through "Family". Throughout the whole presentation and everything you would expect that all their sons were dying. It was a little over the top. I am glad that you guys didn’t come with me. It was not that big of deal at all. I had to get my Flu shot, which was $21 (I think). I used my Debit card so Mom you can see that. We got a Blue card, which is kind of like an MTC credit card. Every Wednesday we get $6 put on it to use in the bookstore or for vending machines. Otherwise all other things that cost money don’t. I get free Laundry and Free Haircuts and all of my meals are free. (but not really considering the monthly payment I guess). After the welcome meeting and I got my shot and all of my MTC materials, I went to my room and unpacked and met my companion. His name is Elder Crawford. He is the Senior companion for the time being, apparently it switches. Also, regarding all of the stuff I got here, I got another set of Spanish Scriptures so you will probably be receiving a package from me at some point. After a couple hours of writing and getting situated in our room, we had an orientation meeting in which the MTC Presidency spoke to us for a while. They went over basic things and basically welcomed us to the MTC. 390 Missionaries entered the MTC today. We went to dinner after that and had roast beef and mashed potatoes. It was pretty good and was much needed; all I had for breakfast was yogurt. I saw an old Lacrosse friend of mine at dinner. He and I played at the BYU camp my senior year and he was Kenny Mize’s roommate out at SVU. After dinner we went to our orientation class and met the other Elders of our District and the Presidency. There are 10 Elders in our District. Four of us, myself included, are off to Puerto Rico and the others are going to New Jersey. The other two Puerto Rico Elders are going to the Puerto Rico West Mission. Those two, myself, and my companion Elder Crawford, are leaving in 3 weeks from today to go to the MTC in the Dominican Republic. We will be there for the remaining 6 weeks of our training. I was pretty happy to see that we are only in Provo for three weeks. In the orientation, I learned all about the MTC, including the fact that pink ties are not allowed here or in the mission field!! So there is another something coming back to you. Oh and I just realized I will also be sending you my temple clothes. I discovered that missionaries can rent clothes for free at the temple. As the meeting was continuing we all met for an interview with one of the Branch Presidency. I met with the 2^nd Counselor (I think…?) Brother Larson. He is awesome. I loved talking with him. After meeting with him, the Presidency met to determine a District Leader, which turned out to be me. So I will be the District Leader for the next 3 weeks until I leave for the Dominican Republic. There are some great Elders in our District from what I can tell so far. I am excited to get to know them better. Being called as a District Leader was an amazing feeling as well. I could feel the spirit so strongly and I felt very confident in my calling. I wasn’t expecting that part of my blessing to be fulfilled so quickly, but I knew when we were meeting to call a District Leader that it would be me. It was kind of weird, but it was totally awesome. As boring, as today was, it was still an incredible feeling to finally be here and be engaged in Gods work and I can’t wait until I start learning the language and the lessons. I will email next week. My P-day is Wednesday so expect on then. Everyone keeps telling the new missionaries that we just have to make it to Sunday and then it gets easier from there. I am so excited to start learning that I don’t care how hard it is these next couple days. I just want to get started. My mailing address is…

Elder Colton Gogarty Baines

MTC Mailbox #335

PUR-SJUE 1002

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604-1793

The estimated departure date to the Dominican Republic is October 2. I will keep you informed on my address. Again, please type this and forward it on to my contacts I gave you. (Especially so VB can put it on the Blog)

Love,

Elder Baines