Colton's First Letter!!!!!!!!!!

Here is his first letter! He is wanting for people to not email him anymore because he does not have enough time to read them all, so instead write him letters and put them in the mail... like what the did back in the olden days before technology..... we dont really know what it was like, I guess try and recreate it for yourselves.....



Hey Everyone!!
Sorry it took so long to contact you, i only got a letter to write last week when i got here (whch im not sure you got)... And i can only email on Wednesdays and i only have 30 minutes on the computer. So PLEASE write me LETTERS and mail them to me!!! I do not have enough time to read all the eamils and respond to each but if you write me a letter i will answer your question in the followin weeks email.
My Address is...
..unfortunatley i cant think of it right now. But mom i am mialing you a letter today as well (it will be a long one so brace yourself) so i am going to ask you to please forward my mailing address onto everyone so they can write me.
To start, i cant believe that i have already been here for a week!! I arrived last wednesday at 11:30 after having spent two days with my sister Victoria and her husband Jordan. That was awesome, but kind of dull as i couldn't do ANYTHING. I resorted to coloroing a wooden drawing figure that Jordan and i bought for Victoria. I bet there are pics on my blog (elderbaines.blogspot.com) It was a pretty easy goodbye because we were all on the same page with how fast it would go so no tears was good. Everyone else was acting, as Jordan would say, that "their sons were leaving to go die". I had to get a flu shot (mom check my account i think it was $16) and i got my name tag and everything. I actually got two name tags, i was pretty stoked about that. I met my companion and roomates who are all awesome. My companion is Elder Crawford. He is from Provo and we have way too many things in common. He best described it as us both being really cool movie/video gamer nerds that love Seinfeld (yes mom my first companion loves Seinfeld as much as i do) hahaha! That first night we met all of our district and the Branch presidency who are awesome. I was called to serve as the District leader for the duration i am here in Provo. Which reminds me!!! I leave Provo on October 2nd!! two weeks from tomorrow!!! I will be heading down to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to finish out my training at the MTC there. I am way stoked for that. I cant believe how far my learning has come since last Sunday it is incredible how accelerated everything is here. Spending an average of 12 hours a day will so that though. The MTC is an amazing place and i am loving it so far. I joined the MTC choir as well. It didnt take much all i had to do was show up with the other 200 missionaries that wanted to sing. I am loving that as well though. From last wednesday to this last sunday, the MTC was brutal and the days were long and it was a VERY hard adjusment. up at 6:30 (i usually get up at about 6 though so i can get a good shower, they fill up fast and get cold even faster.) and i am in bed at 10:30 if not earlier if i have everything done. My teachers are great, i have Brother Chandler who served in the Tampico Mexico mission and Hermana Bott, who served in i think Bolivia. The MTC presidency is amazing!! Matt you are in for a real treat when you get to have that welcome devotional on the first sunday you are here where he speaks. He is getting released in january so i am glad that you will get to be here with him. Unfortunately i wont see you here though, but i have seen PAt mattheson a few times and he is doing great. Also i saw one of my friends i played lacrosse with my senior year at the BYU camp. The day you come in isnt too big of deal you just check in and get your name tag and have a little meeting with the fam (which i hope you are just flying out here it is not worth driving for) and then you go through medical records, meet roomates and companion and you have a couple meeting things where you meet your district. I will tell you that you HAVE to have as optimistic attitude as you possibly can, especuially since you will only ahve three weeks here you have a ton to learn. Teaching is really hard we just started the first lesson on monday and today was the frist day that i felt a little comfortable with what i was doing. Remember just make it to the first sunday and then everything gets SOOO So so much better. The first days are falt out hard, so be ready for some rough times. The food is actually still pretty good, i am still gettting different meals each day so there havent been any repeats so far. Its my preparation day on wednesday so look for my emails then. If you want to here more in depth stuff write me a letter and i will give you some pretty deep stuff. Once agian it is amzing here and i am doing great. I hope all of you are well and i will keep you in my prayers. I hope you will do the same for me i need all the help i can get this is HARD, HARD work. i cant stress how hard it is. I gotta go im out of time, ill write next week and again mom please send my address to all of my contacts and forward this onto them as well.

LoveElder Baines