New transfer! Barbados!

We'll after six months Colton is moving off the island of Puerto Rico. As you can see, he is over the top excited. One thing to note, but at this time do not send anything to the mission office as he directed as we received a letter from the office telling us not to send packages there as they can no longer deliver them to the Elders on the islands due to the increase in baggage cost on the airlines. If we learn anything different, we will let you know. Thanks to all for your support of him. Kathlyn(Colton's MOM)


Hola!!

So i will start out with what everybody wants to know.. What is going on this transfer with Elder Baines???... I am going to Barbados!!!!!! O man i am so super stoked i cant wait to get down there!! I might as well be going to a different mission. It is english speaking and like a totally different country!! So sweet i am super excited!!!! I will be companions with elder johnson who came into Puerto Rico with me last september and i am way exctied to work with him because he is awesome! So there is one down fall of this information. Mail is going to be really bad. It will be foreign rates and it will probably take forever, Barbaods is kind of off on its own from all the other islands. So no packages will be worth sending at all. Its really expensive to do so. SO this is what will need to happen. Send any packages to the MISSION OFFICE at this address..

Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamón, Puerto Rico 00959

So mom, please still send the package to the mission office, eventually it will make it down to me. The only other thing i can think of that you may need to include is another pair of shoe inserts from grandma and grandpa gogarty. I dont know how long i will be there for. I know i should be there for at LEast 6 months so i may need some more... I still have one more pair that i havent used and they seem to be lasting anywhere from about 4-6 months so we will see. But i am going to be in a walking area down there so shoes/inserts will stay at about the same rate of decay as they have been. But letters will still be able to come to me, however like i said it will be international rates and they could take a while. But if you want to send me some to barbados my address there is..

Lazare Residence Clapham Heights
Christ Church, Barbados.

I think that is the full address but i will let you know...



But i had a good thought to share with you all and i didnt write it down so i forgot it becasue i am just too excited that i am going to barbados!! So i will try to have one for you all next week!!! Thanks for all the support, have a great week!!

Love
Elder Baines

Please do not send packages to Colton via the mission office, however, you can send letters to the office if you would like to and they will eventually find there way down to Colton on Barbados. The address is:

SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO EAST MISSION

Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamón, Puerto Rico 00959

Thanks to all. Kathlyn

New Pictures! And last weeks letter!

Tons of new pictures from Colton this week! Take a look http://coltonbaines.shutterfly.com/
Also here is his letter from last week, sorry I have been so bad about putting them up. He is doing great we talked to him last week and he sounds fantastic. I am so proud of him, what an amazing thing that he is doing and I am grateful for the wonderful message he is spreading to those people. What a great brother I have, I am glad he is such a great example to so many. Have a wonderful week!




Hola!

Well this week is just racing by! I am sure that i say something to that extent every week but its true and it always amazes me how fast it goes. Elder Dye and i just say that the only days in the mission are Sunday and Wednesday (P-day) because it seems like we have always just passed one of them when the other is tomorrow. That might not make sense but oh well. But i had an awesome phone call with the family on sunday it was great to here from all of you!! I think i pretty much covered everything there is so there isnt much more. But for those that couldnt be at the phone call here is a quick update.

We have some really good investigators right now. One, Glorimar, has lupis and is going in to get a hip replacement becasue the disease ate her hip away. She came to church on sunday (even though she wasnt suppose to go anywhere under doctors orders) and sat through church in pain. She absolutley loved it and refused to leave early. Needless to say she wants to come back to church as soon as possible and get baptized. Problem is it could very well be up to 6 months (max) before she could get baptized due to the surgery. But she is awesome! Then on sunday we found a guy named Pablo. He has a baptismal date for June 6th! The lesson we had with him started out HORRIBLE. He told us the only reason he inveited us over was to be friendly and he cant read so he wanted us to read the pamphlet we gave him to him. So we started reading and it was just going nowhere. So we gave up on reading and did a really simple example and the light just flipped on. He said it felt as if god was talking directly to him when we shared the example with him. We moved on to the Joseph Smith story and asked him if he understood and he was like "yeah! i am looking for the right church just like he was!!" so he is coming to church this sunday and is preparing to get baptized! Awesome!!! Our other investigators are also progressing, slowly but surely.

That is about it as far as what has been going on. the work is moving forward and elder dye and i are having a blast! Something that i was thinking about while reading an email today, is how we always have a fresh slate, so to speak, at the the start of a new day. I have come to realize on my mission that by the end of the day i could be feeling really good, wanting to work hard, wanting to be obedient, just wanting to do everything right. Sadly, i wake up the next day and feel as if i have to start from ground zero and once again build myself up to that point again. WE can make the best of our day, but we have to find the things that will turn it from not so good to how we want it. For example; I have found that i start my day on a low. Waking up. This is not my favorite part of the day. So how do i make it better. Exercise. I love to work out it makes me fell better and i feel alert and awake after wards. When i dont work out i the morning, for me it is the start of a not so great day. Im sure we are all wondering where i am going with this. Well here is my point. Lets say we end the day with a grand desire to follow Jesus Christ and do all we can to live the commandments and be better than the natural man. This is our disposition at the end of a fantastic day. We say our nightly prayer and go to bed thinking of how great the next day is going to be. The problem enters here. Sleep. Sleep is something that we, as the natural man, fallen, and imperfect, need. So we wake up the next day having perhaps lost a little of our fire from the night before. Maybe we still have our desire, but how do we start the day? Do we jump out of bed shower, eat, race out the door to our daily duties? Or do we wake up say our prayers, read the scriptures, spend a few minutes with the family when possible and then execute our day according to the desire we have to follow Christ? It is easy to see the turning point in a day if i am having a bad one. It is when we find someone that is willing to talk to us. But what if i could be the turning point in someone else's day and be the one willing to talk to them? That was a lot of randomness all at once im not quite sure why i even wrote it, but enjoy the glimpse of what goes on periodically when my mind actually is turned on. Have a great week everyone!!

Love
Elder Baines

Colton meets Johnny Depp

So.... I have been bad about keeping Colton's letters updated on here..... sorry I will be better. He actually didnt send us one for about two weeks but we got one yesterday! AND he met Johnny Depp, he actually gave him a little pass a long card about the church haha. Oh Colton we love and miss you!



Hello Everyone!

Wow i am sorry that it has been so long since i have sent anything out! Last wednesday we had the coolest thing ever!!! SUPER P-DAY!!!! It was so sick! It was a whole mission activity where all the missionaries in puerto rico and president and sister dewsnup went to caguas and had a BBQ and played sports all day!! It was so awesome! So that is why i couldnt email last week because i had to help set up and clean up so i was running the entire day lifting tables and chairs and playing sports. Needless to say i was tired the next day. But that was probably the biggest highlight of this past week. The highlight of this week is that today we went to old san juan for p-day. They happen to be filming a movie there called The Rum Diary and guess who the main actor is... Johnny Depp! I have a pcture of him and we gave him a pass a long card!!!! We have a picture of him with the card in hand its so cool!!!!! So that was awesome, pictures of that will be coming for sure!
As far as people we are working with, we have one lady who is really cool named Milagros. We havent had a sit down lesson with her yet, that is coming on saturday, but her sister is a member in the Dominican Republic and she has been to church before! SO that is really what is going down in me and elder dye's world here. I dont have a lot to say... Actually i do, but it just doesnt work as far as typing it all.. Dont worry i get to call home again on mothers day which is coming SUPER fast so you can all get the low down from my family when i talk their ears off! But i guess my spiritual thought for this email is kind of stolen from a previous quote that is quite famous. It goes a little something like this.. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I thought it needed a little more to it so i added to it to say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but oh how much more is the beauty, when the beholder's eye is eternal." We are living in some very difficult times. Trials are coming from every front and as was the tone of conference, we have to be faithful and persevere. Although however difficult the world may become, what it contains and what lies within it doesn't have to become ugly. God has given us this life to have Joy. Everything that He has given us is so that we can "find joy in the journey" and the beauty that lies before our very eyes. We have the true and RESTORED church of Jesus Christ on the earth today, which only adds to our joy as it guides us through the journey. How many more families would not be broken apart, lives shattered and the cycle repeated, if within the family we understood the importance of the relationships we create with those we love? If we had an eternal perspective, how much harder would we work to resolve concerns before they become conflicts, knowing that it is NOT "til death do us part"? The thing i find amazing is that we have been given the things to help us gain this understanding all we have to do is be willing to receive them. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints truly is THE church of Jesus Christ. He guides us through a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson. There is no denying that He truly is the prophet of God on the earth today. I hope that we can all BEGIN to understand these simple concepts so we can come to an understanding of the beauty of the things that we have been given, in this life and forever. Thank you for all of your support i love you all i got letters from the markham family, elder langston, and grandpa baines, packages from home, emails from mom, dad, victoria, and grandpa gogarty. Thanks you so much for your words of encouragement, support and prayers. I pray that the Lord will continue to bless all of you and that everything will continue to go well.

Love
Elder Baines

New pictures!

Here are some pictures Colton sent from the past month or so and his first baptism!

http://coltonbaines.shutterfly.com

He is doing great, should be a letter tomorrow! Enjoy!

New letter.. sorry this has not been updated in a few weeks!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I need to be better about it! I have just been so busy!


Hola!

Well i am moving onto my third transfer already! HOly cow! I am staying here in Rio Piedras which i am very excited about because we have three baptisms for this next month, two of which are for the 14 and 15th of february so they are coming up soon, i cant wait!! This past week was a really good one, we got a lot of work done and finished off the last transfer well. I forgot to say in last week;s email that i got a little taste of puerto rico last week. One of our investigators fed and us a certain "delicacy" from the island... PIG FOOT! It was interesting, not gonna lie, i almost threw up. The rest of the food was good, but that was pretty hard to choke down. Apparently some people here really like it. Others dont so i dont feel too bad for not enjoying it. But as far as that, we didnt have to much happen this week. Just chuggin along, bien rapido-- very fast! This transfer i swear felt like a week or so, i cant believe i am already starting another one, and becuase im not moving i think its going to go even faster since i am already all settled in and know the area and people and everything! Ahh!
Since i dont have a lot to talk about, here is my fun little thought of the week. THis was actually from a talk from someone at church and i dont know where it came from but i really like this saying. In spanish it is "dolor es inevitable, sufrimiento es opcional"-- and in english this means, "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." There is no doubt that we are going to encounter some kind of pain daily for all of our time here on earth. Whether it be physical or spiritual, it is going to happen and we cant really do anything about it. What we do have a choice over is whether we suffer from the pains we experience. Simply put, we can either look at the scenario as an opportunity to grow or we can wallow in our sorrows. Wallowing is not very fun for ourselves and those around us. There is naturally an "opposition in all things" and were it not so we would never be able to taste of the sweet, if we havent ever experienced the bitter. HOw can we know what is good if we dont know what is bad? We cant because without the knowledge of both, we would be forever governed by one and never have an understanding of what we can acheive through the talents we have been given. But we cant "polish our talents" if we dont put them into use. You never know what talents you possess that may turn somebody's day, week or even life around. "When ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God." If you are serving our Father in Heaven by helping another of His children carry on through their struggles, why would He not carry us through our struggles? Turhn your frown upside down, give thanks for the things that teach us how to better ourselves, and then go help someone acheive their best.
Thanks for all of your support, you can all for sure write real letters if you want to at this address, ill be here for another 6 weeks at least..

Elder Baines
Extensión Villa Capri
Calle Turin #H-4
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00924

Hope to hear from you!

Elder Baines

Sorry for the Delay in Posting!

I apologize for my lack of posting recently, I was in Colorado for the holidays and school just started back up. Also we actually didn't hear from Colton last week because of the holiday, however we did get a letter this week.....AND.............. PICTURES!!!!! I have created a shutterfly account for everyone to view his pictures on, its much easier then posting them on here because there are so many. He is doing great! We talked to him for about 2 hours on the phone on Christmas day which was awesome! He has a funny accent thing going on because he has been speaking Spanish since he left, he informed us that sometimes he forgets how to say words in English. Sort of funny :) Goes to show the power which the lord has in guiding these missionaries... pretty impressive that he is fluent enough in a language after four months that he is forgetting how to speak English. Enjoy the letter, we will update when we have a new address but for now it sounds like everyone should stick to emails....Oh and below is his link to see pictures!

http://coltonbaines.shutterfly.com/


Happy NEw Year a Week late!

Well to start off i apologize for not writing last week. In my new area (Rio Piedras) we have to do email at the university and it was closed due to the holidays. I am actually lucky that i can email today because yesterday was yet another holiday here in Puerto Rico. THree Kings DAy. And for the next 8 days it is some other holiday and then another one right after that. They like to have holidays here. I believe they celebrate every holiday from the U.S., Brasil, Argentina, Venezuela and there own. (I may be wrong but thats what a member said.) So needless to say, they are always having holidays.
My new area is pretty awesome. It is a little less urban in areas compared to Guaynabo. It also has a lot of hills which is no fun considering i am on a bike now. Elder Markham i feel your pain. Also there are a lot of "Casa Rios" around my area. Generally speaking they are pretty much ghettos. Its a little bit sketchy because the fences and walls of the buildings have bullet holes all over and my companion has a fired bullet that he found on the ground near one. The weather has been quite cool here for the past couple weeks which has been great. The ward here is awesome, it has very strong members and it is easy to get members to help us which is a huge benefit. My spanish is improving imensely as my companion cannot speak or understand very well at all. He has only been out for two more transfers than me. It is wierd to think that i am already halfway through my third week of this transfer. The first week i was in my new area was very slow but it is flying by now and the next transfer is on February 4th. I honestly only feel like i have only been here for a few days. We have an investigator right now that has a baptismal date for the 25 of this month. Its a very wierd situation but basically she is waiting for divorce papers from the Dominican Republic so she can marry a member who she has a kid with. Kind of wierd but they are awesome. Other than that we are teaching a lot of lessons and talking to a lot of people but really dont have solid investigators right now.
Sorry i still dont have a house address to give you for letters so dont mail anything for a while until you hear from me because they will just keep going to my old area. I think we are moving soo so that is why i dont have an address. Our owner is a little crazy, for too many reasons than i can put and are worth writing about.
This email isnt the best i know i am racking my brain trying to think of something of spirtual value that i have read or studied in the past week or so but im not getting anything. It sounds like all of you are doing fantastic and im glad that you had a good holiday season. I got word that the colombian kid, Alvaro, that Elder Contreras and i were teaching went to church last week which is awesome!! I have been kinda really up and down these past couple weeks i think just adjusting to the new environment, but i have truly come to know the effect the mission is going to have on my life and how much the Savior guides us in every thing we do. I have concluded that no matter what the outcome of my mission is, whether i have one baptism or none, the "joy of saving but one soul" will come from saving my own. It is amaing the changes we will make in our lives when we truly have come to the knowledge and outlook of an eternal perspective. The changes we make might bring us outstanding grief and sorrow before we can experience the fullness of joy that truly comes from coming unto Christ. "Our disappointments are the straight and narrow path back to our Heavenly Father." I would rather pass through grief or shame in the short time we have here than have to bear the burden of grief or shame in the eternities to come, wouldn't you?
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lives and He as the power to carry us back to Him if we are willing to let him drive our lives. We all know that nobaody likes a backseat driver and i cant imagine He does either. He knows what is next in our lives and He will guide us through it. Nothing we experience here is too much to bear when we accept His outstretched hand.
Thank you for all of your love, prayers, and support. I pray that the Lord may continue to enrich all of our lives.

Love
Elder Baines

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

Update!

Colton leaves for Puerto Rico on Tuesday! He is super excited and has been doing very well! He told me that he is sending me his memory card to his camera soon, so hopefully in the next few weeks it will be an even greater post because there will be pictures! Below is his letter, as well as an excerpt from a talk that was given in 1979 by an apostle of our church. I find it very amazing because it addresses a lot of the issues that are currently going on in our world, just thought that it would be nice to share with everyone! Hope your all doing very well and are looking forward to a little break with the upcoming holidays.

Hola!!

As excited as i am to be writing this final email from the MTC, i really do not have a lot of things to say. This week went by faster than the laws of physics should allow. But im not complaining because i will be in the field in 4 and a half days! I actually started this email about 20 minutes ago, but had to go get my haircut. There is a barber that comes every thursday and cuts all the elders' hair (or those that want it cut) its pretty awesome. Anyway, like i said this week was pretty uneventful. That will change very quickly here and this should be the last email that i ever say the words "this week was pretty uneventful." I am very grateful for that, because my entries in my journal are becoming awful. Believe me i am putting some serious effort into my letters to you all so that you may be somewhat interested in what is happening here.
Last saturday we had another great experience teaching at the university. We talked to two guys that were very, very interested in learning about the church and the gospel and we talked to them nearly the entire time. We set an appointment with them to meet again this saturday and talk more. I am definitely looking forward to that. Also one of the elders in my district will be serving in the mission here that the two guys live in, so we gave that elder their contact info and he will be teaching them soon hopefully. It was pretty cool. Other than that, this week i have been working very hard to try to get everything done that i can before i leave. I am pretty comfortable with my spanish and when i am teaching i can say mostly what i want to. I am still having trouble understanding though, the people here talk so fast it is absolutely ridiculous. But i have heard that it is a little easier to understand in Puerto Rico because the annunciate better. But Puerto Ricans also cut of endings to there words so that they can speak even faster. So its a little bit of a double edged sword. Here they mumble and slur things together, there they just talk super fast. I heard about the election, it ruined my day yesterday but was glad to hear that the preposition 8 passed in california.
I am running out of things to say and i apologize for this week not being a very good letter. It was great to hear from all of you and there will be pictures coming soon. Keep an eye out for updates on my blog. Thanks for all of your support and i hope that you will all continue to write. You are all in my prayers.

Love Elder Baines


" Sugar on top" (we got two emails :) )

The general email was a pretty quick overview of the uneventfulness of this week. But here are some pretty cool details none the less...

As i said concerning the two my companion and i taught last week, they were very interested in learning about the gospel. We had just finished talking to a guy that was very nice and listened to us and acutally had a book of mormon and had attended church. Our conversation was cut short because he had to go to class, but right after we finished talking to him, two guys came up to us and said in english "we want to learn the things of God." They told us that they were studying english and would like if we taught them in english. I was both excited and not so exctied about teaching in english. The thing about teaching in spanish is that i can only say things in which i have learned and i cant get off track because i only know so much. In english, i have the tendency to get too in depth about things to the point were it is hard to understand. Anyway, we started to teach them and the had a TON of questions. So many in fact that the conversation really did not flow very well and we were switching principles left and right. It was a great experience though because both of them were religious and one of them, Franklin, had been praying daily for strength and help in learning english. The other, Henry, had known members of the church for a while and had some qustions that we were able to clear up. It was very cool talking about Joseph Smith and personal revelation because it related directly to Franklin and his prayers. I asked him if he felt that he had received answers to his prayers and he said that he felt like he had been. He was able to understand the fact that the heavens are not close in these last days and that God will answer those who ask. From this he was able to understand that we have a living prophet today who receives revelation directly from God and guides and directs the member of the church. We talked to them for about 40 mins and it was probaly the best experience thus far. We have an appointment with them this saturday which i am very excited for.
After this conversation we talked with one more person, an older lady who had been a member of the church for about 15 years but was no longer active. Aparently there was contention among some of the members of the ward and she didnt feel comfortable. It was sad to hear her story and as hard as we tried she did not want the missionaries to visit her.
I am running out of time and still have one more emial to send so i will have to cut this one short, but again tahnks for all the support from everyone and your prayers. I hope that things dont get too crazy beacause of the election. That kind of ruined my day yesterday hearing about it but Dad i also have faith in God's promise of conserving this country as long as there are righteous people with in it. I pray that the Lord will bless you all as you strive to live lives worthy of being able to return to Him.

Love Elder Baines


"A more Determined Decipleship" 1979

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.' "This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.


"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as un-trendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
"A More Determined Discipleship", Ensign, Feb. 1979

New letter!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it has taken a few days to put this letter up, I have had my mom and sister at our house so we were a bit busy this weekend!



Hola Again!

This letter may be brief, today snuck up on me and this past week is a total blur.. I will try to recount some of the events that stick out.

Last thursday we did end up going to the Museum. It was pretty interesting to learn about the culture and history of the people here. They had some really neat artifacts, but the building was swealtering hot and stuffy and i think they dont believe in lights because none of the rooms had any on... Saturday we went to the university to teach again. It was an incredible experience and went way better than the first time. We were lucky that we were able to go though. A day before we went, last friday, someone was shot and killed near the university because of riots pertaining to an election here. Fortunately when we went, the riots had stopped and there wasnt any contention. Again the people were very nice and listened to us. We talked to about 6 people this time i think. On tuesday of this week the HAitian Missionaries left go into the field in Haiti. It was an emotional day for we had all become quite close to them. I think it was because we could not communicate very well with words, so we had to communicate the best we could with actions and feelings. This made me think of how important it is that we keep our actions and emotions in check as we go throughout our days. The power with which we can communicate without the use of words is incredible and the connection is more than that of just flapping lips and listening to sounds. The effect our actions and emotions have towards those we interact with truly can penetrate to the very core of our soul.
The past two days have been relatively quiet without the Haitians here, but today we got a new group of missionaries, brand new to the mtc. They are all Latino which will be great because it will help our spanish immensely since we all speak the same language. I was sick again this week, not as bad as last time, but i have had a really bad cough and stuffy nose. I am getting better though and yes mom i have been taking all of my vitamins every day. Thanks for all of the emails i received it was great to see and read about all of you. Keep the news about your lives coming, its all the reading material i have other than my scriptures and teaching manual. Keep an eye out for my next email, i only have to more that i will send from the mtc!

Love Elder Baines

Mission Update!

Another week, another letter! I cant believe that he has already been out for so long! Time is flying by and I absolutely love hearing from him. Before we know it, he will be in Puerto Rico!


Hola!

As i predicted in my last update, this week has been outstanding! I couldnt have asked for better and there is still more to come! Today we very well might be going to the museum! Just to go and learn more about the culture here in the Carribean. Our mission president's wife feels it very important that we learn more about the people we will be teaching very soon. And when i say very soon, i mean it. I have already been here for two weeks and only have roughly three more to go! I cant believe it i am really really excited but super nervous at the same time because i do not fell ready at all. Last saturday we went to the University and talked to students there. It was so cool! But extremely taxing. The people here speak ridiculously fast spanish and tend to not speak very clearly. ITs really hard to follow what they are saying. But it was such a cool experience to get out and actually teach people the Gospel. We witnessed a little bit of a tropical storm while we were there. It ripeped some banners off the builing and rained like CRAZY. Also any umbrella didnt stand a chance. It was funny though because it made finding people to talk to a lot easier for us. Everyone was huddled under the overhang in front of the main building. Teh people here are extremely nice and helpful and are very patient and even help us with our spanish as we are talking. My spanish just keeps getting better and better. I can teach the entire first lesson in Spanish now and have done so a few times already.
AS far as my companion, we are doing much much better this week. We had a companionship inventory on friday night. Basically you just talk about strengths, goals, obedience, and conflicts of the companionship and set goals to try to accomplish what you want in the companionship. It went very well and are teaching has improved ten fold. He still bugs me at times but my patience continues to increase (fortunately).
The Haitian missionaries leave on tuesday and on wednesday or thursday we group of Latino missionaries come which is going to help us even more since we can talk with them and practice speaking. I will miss the Haitians though they have been great to be around. This week one of the American Elders decided to show them a magic trick. Something that i dont think any of them have really witnessed before. It was the stuff the hanckerchief in the hand and make it dissapear one, Dad. It was hilarious because whenever he did it they would scream and laugh. Eventually they figured it out becuase he did it so many times, but it made me think about how we tend to take the little things for granted so often in our lives. This was a simple little magic trick, but the fun and joy they felt when witnessing it was extremely large. It made me think how great it is to really be doing what it is i am here for and that i get to witness the immense joy that people will feel as i share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Something that i have had my entire life and taken for granted many times. I think we should all take some time to contemplate and ponder just how much we have been blessed with in our lives. It truly will humble you when you realize all that you have been given and rarely ever acknowledge.
I am no longer sick, it was a quick thing which i am extremely grateful for because it was awful. I am doing extremely well and everything keeps getting better. I leave on November 11 to Puerto Rico for those that did not know. Mom and Josh, i know its late but Happy Birthday!! The weeks are a blur, i have already been here for more than half the time i was in Provo, i cant even fathom how fast it is going and i am not very happy about that because it will be over way to quickly. I hope you all are doing well and i will keep you in my prayers. Thanks for all the support that i have received!!!

Love
Elder Baines

First letter from Dominican Republic!

Hi everyone! We got Colton's first letter from the MTC in the Dominican Republic today. His P-day or preparation day (basically when he has time to write emails) is now on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Mail to and from the Dominican Republic is kind of slow so email for right now is probably best. Either send it to his email which is cgbaines@myldsmail.net or you can sign in to dear elder and write him through that ( I included instructions in a previous post, email me at victoriaharrisphotography@gmail.com if you need help!) Just make sure you check that your sending it to his email as well as in the mail, there will be a checkbox on there that asks if you want to send your letter to the missionary's email account. Anyways great to hear from him like always! He is doing great!


Hola!

Well somehow i wrote the entire email i was going to send and it deleted, so i am trying this again...

Well this week has been extremely hard. I was sick the past two days, wednesday and tuesday. Im better now but those were extremely exhausting days and i am just happy that today is preparation day. I got a new companion which i was pretty bummed about because elder Crawford and i are now really good friends and we taught very well together. My new companion i am not too fond of. He acts like he is the "coolest kid in school" and says some really dumb things that should just not be said. ON a mission or as a human being in general. He is really hard to teach with because he has no confidence in his speaking ability. I have been praying alot to say the least.. I am hopefull that tafter today everything will get moving again because i will be back in the swing of things.
It is amazing that i am finishing week 5 of the MTC and i have been out on my mission for a month!! I cant believe how fast it all goes. Matt you only have two more weeks!! I cant give you much more advice other than work on being patient. There are a lot of elders that are going to drive you crazy. Count on it.
AS far as writing me, go ahead and email me whenever and make it as long as you want. The MTC president lets us print them out in the morning and then write later in the day. Or you can use Dear Elder. Go onto my blog (elderbaines.blogspot.com) for instructions. (Victoria please put instructions on how to use it on my blog, thanks) When i get to Puerto Rico mail will be just like in the US so that will be a lot nicer.
It is good to hear from you and what has been going on. I hope that those that havent yet writtne me will do so i want to hear from you please!!
Stu and Matt Frank thats aweomse that you made it to state, congratulations and good luck!! Lance i hope that your face gets better. Dont worry the girls only stay bigger than you until 8th grade. Unfortunately i havent climbed a coconut tree yet, but i do remebemer how to make fish out of the leaves still! Rachel, it sounds like you are doing really well, the whole cadaver thing is just plain gross though. Keep working hard and dont let anything get you down! Give Lauren my best, i have been keeping her in my prayers. Victoria i will send pictures when i get to Puerto Rico, it is way to expensive here and i still have a lot to take. But all of you can send me pictures that would be great!! I especially want to see what dad has been working on :) Good luck in all your shows!! Give the Dogs some love for me.
The MTC here is tiny its all on one floor of an apartment buliding kind of thing . The other floors are used for people traveling to go to the temple, which is like 50 feet away. The temple here is gorgeous i went today and it is my favorite one, it is absolutely amazing. The food is really really good. We dont get much at dinner and at breakfast but lunch is ridiculous how much we get. It is always rice and beans with some kind of meat, usually chicken, and we get fresh fruit, pineapple and papaya. IT rocks i love it. It has rained a couple times and i can legitamately say that you have not seen rain untill you have been somewhere down here. Its nuts. I gotta go but i hope you all have a great week i know i will! Keep in touch i really enjoy reading from all of you and i apologize i cant write more personally to each of you at this point. I also apologize for how short this one is, like i said before i tried sending a REALLY long one before and it deleted it so i had to write this one quick, sorry. When i get to Puerto Rico in a few weeks, write me and i will be sure to send you a handwritten letter back! Ill give you my address dont worry..

Adios!

Love Elder Baines

Week Three! I love getting letters!

Letter from Colton! He sounds like he is doing so well! I am so proud of him and all that he is doing and I am very excited for him to head out to the next part of his mission.


Hola!

First off i would like to say, WOW i cannot believe that in like 14 hours i will be off to the Dominican Republic!!! The next email or news you get from me will be from there! Which brings me to an important aspect of this email... My new mailing address! As i understand it there are actually two addresses..

To send letters send them to...

Elder Colton Gogarty Baines
Dominican Republic MTC
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Apparently letters have to be sent to Salt Lake and then forwarded onto me down in the DR. I know its goig to take FOREVER to get letters but that shouldnt discourage any of you for writing me.

The other address is for packages or anything other than just plain letters...

Elder Colton Gogarty Baines
Dominican Republic MTC
Av, Bolivar #825
Los Robles
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Dont worry about sending packages though, i have already said in a few previous letters that as much as i do enjoy the packages, it takes a really long time to eat everything and i have to share a ton because i cant eat it all. All i do is sit around and study and eat all day, food is not really an issue. If that changes i wil let you all know, so really just send me lots of letters.

Mom i am sending a package home with some things that i dont want to carry on to the next stage. It has all of my letters that i have received thus far in it. Its not that i dont love all the letters that you have all sent me, but i have gotten quite a few and they are taking up a lot of space. It will be a pain to carry them everywhere so if you would please just file them or whatever that would be great. I will probably do this a couple times depending on how much love everyone feels they need to send me. Thanks for the cookies and fifth avenue bars they were awesome!! I still have a whole box of cookies though... Like i said, food is not an issue in the MTC.

Which reminds me that the Gogarty family sent me some as well!! Thanks Kelly, Mike, Kaitlyn, Kiara, Meagan and Deven for the treats and the letters!! I really enjoyed reading about what is transpiring in the current chapter of all of your lives! Deven i took your advice about companionships to heart. It really helped haha

Victoria and Jordan i am glad you feel so loved that you hear from me so often. You can post anything i write to you on the blog, i really dont mind. If anyone is interested enough to actually go to my blog and find out what i am doing, then they are going to find out WHAT IT IS I AM DOING. There is no secret in the experiences that i will have and i hope everyone can read and feel of the joy and love i experience as i fulfill my service to the Lord and bring others unto Him. You can be my fellow missionary in spreading the gospel by sharing my news and experience. Then you dont have to feel like you are waiting forever to go on a mission with Jordan :) By the Way, Jordan i wouldnt mind seein a little of your writing in my letters from you guys either! OH and crazy story!! I cant share the whole thing but ling story short, i met a sister here who is from LITTLETON and was best friends with KAli!!!!! Her name was Camille Ocurin (O'kurin?) I believe...

Mrs. Frank i hope you received the thing i sent back to you, thanks for making it so easy to get done and i apologize for not getting it done before i left, i was having trouble getting anything done before i left.

Matt, there is no question that the advesary is trying his hardest to discourage you. You are in a prime position, alone, nervous, and unaware of what lies ahead. I experienced the exact same feelings before i left and i cant tell you how many times i questioned whether or not i should really be leaving on a mission. I promise that once you get set aprat, all that will falt out disappear and you will feel a peace like you never thought possible. being a servant of the Lord is one of the most spectacular things to experience. Keep in mind that once you are in the MTC, it doesnt mean that you are no longer subject to temptation. You will still feel feelings of nervousness and inadequacy at times, but when this happens just follow in the ways of the Lord and say "get thee behind me Satan. I know who you are and you know who i am" You are a servant of the Lord, and he will give you the strentgh necessary to accomplish any task that is set before you, if you put your whole trust and faith in Him. As far as what you should bring to the MTC.. Sweat pants to sleep in, the rooms are freezing and the blankets are awful haha Also when you get here go to the bookstore and buy the highlighters that kind of look like candy canes with verticle stripes. They are on the top left in the plastic bins where all the pens are. They ROCK!!! haha also dont bring temple clothes, you get them for free as a missionary.

Brother and Sister Hodson, thank you so much for your note and the extra "mission funds" i truly appreciate it and it is already going to use for supplies i have needed and such. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

I am out of time and i wish i could go on. Quickly i talked to a guy at the RC last week for 40 mins!! I got him to commit to go to church and watch conference this week.

Lov eelder baines

Photography Project.....

So I have this project in one of my classes that we are working on. It is a photo montage and had to include at least four images in it and have a "Theme" or reason why we were putting the images into it that we were. I was having a really hard time trying to figure out what I was going to do for it, and then I felt like I have been thinking a lot about Colton and what he is doing so I decided to do something related to him. Here is what I came up with, there will most likely be some adjustments done after my first critique, let me know what you think! We look forward to his next letter, he sounds like he's doing great and leaves on Thursday for the Dominican Republic.

New Letter from Colton!!!!

Here is a new email that we got from Colton today! He sounds like hes doing very well! If anyone is writing him letters there is a way for you to do it for free while hes in the MTC (both in Provo and the Dominican Republic). Go to www.dearelder.com and make a new account and then you write your letter on there and then they go and print it out and send it to him. While he is in the MTC its free and once he gets to the mission in Puerto Rico it is like $0.42 or something. Just a thought for those of you (students especially) that don't have stamps laying around all of the time.


Hey Everyone!

Thanks for the letters that i have received thus far it is great to hear what is going on back home. First off i will apolagize for the terrible punctuation in my last email and in all the emails to come. 30 mins is not enough time and i want to make sure i get everything down that i want to...

To start i would like to say that i cannot believe how fast my mission is going! I am already midway through my third week in the mtc and a week from today i will be leaving to go to the Dominican Republic to complete my MTC training!!! I cant wait! Last friday was the first time me and my companion taught the first lesson in the TRC (Training Resource Center) and it was to a person acting like an investigator. It went incredibly well!! My companion and i have great unity in our teaching and are always on the same page when we are going through all the principles. The first part was difficult, we had to "meet people in the park" and start teaching them. This part was all in spanish and we had to get to knoe them a little bit and then talk to them about our message and that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and then set an appointment with them to teach them the lesson. We did this three times for about 5 minutes each. The last person we "met" was the one we taught. We had 30 minutes to teach the lesson. At first i thought that it would be really hard to fill that much time with how general the first lesson is, but once we were closing in on the final aspects of it we were pressed to finish within that time. The most amazing part was teaching about the first vision. We have both memorized the account and even though it was a "fake investigator" when i recited that account i could feel the spirit so strongly it was ridiculous. I cant imagine what it is goig to be like when i teach that lesson to a real investigator. This week we teach the frist lesson again in the TRC but it is a different scenario and we have to adapt the lesson to what the investigator is needing.
The language is coming along incredibly well. I have kind of hit a lull this week but i still cant believe how well i have learned to speak it. With how well i can speak it, i am still worried about how the MTC in the Dominican Republic is going to go. Apparently they do not speak much english at all and if they can it is very poor. Although i am worried, i consider it a great blessing to have the opporunity to be immersed in that kind of an environment, i feel that i will be able to learn much better when i am not constantly switching back and forth between english and spanish. Also i hear that in that MTC we are going to get to go to a near by university and market place and actually teach people for real!!!
Grandpa thank you for the extra inserts for my shoes, they have been helping a TON. I also really enjoyed hearing about Deven's baptism and how mature of spirit he is. It seems like he has a sound understanding of he gospel and it will be great to watch him learn more and grow.
Matt thank you for the heroes update, unfortunately and amazingly im not very excited about it lol right now my mind doesnt function very well when trying to think about anything but the gospel. Also i just sent you a letter i dont know is you have it yet, but one thing i forgot to put on there is just try to prepare yourself mentally as good as you possibly can. All i do is study for twelve hours a day and eat and i have never been so exhausted in my entire life. Even in all the tournaments we have played or skiing or anything. This is the hardest thing you will EVER experience. But it is also the most amazing, i have never been so happy and excited to be doing something until i arrived here. Lose yourself in the work and you can be nothing but happy.
I am not sure what is going to happen as far as my mailing address for when i leave Provo next week, but i assume i will find out before i leave and i will drop an email letting all of you know. Again please write and mail me letters, or use dearelder.com I only get to check my email once a week and it takes too much time to read through any of them. I would love to hear from you all and i will keep everyone updated the best i can.

Love
Elder Baines

p.s. any sort of package is appreciated :)

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

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

Colton enters the MTC!

So today Jordan and I took Colton over to the missionary training center here in Provo, and dropped him off to begin his mission. It was a pretty neat experience seeing him off on his "journey" for the next two years. I think it was really good for him to go with us and not my parents because it was really relaxed, not emotional, no one even cried! We took him in, he got his name tag and then we sat through an introduction to the MTC and he was gone! They have families leave through one door and then all of the missionaries leave through another door, and I am pretty certain Colton was the first elder to walk out of the room. He was so ready to go, and we are so excited for him. He will do great! Also update on when he actually is leaving for Puerto Rico... usually it takes about 9 weeks in the MTC for missionaries to learn a language (if they are speaking another language on their mission) and then they leave for where ever they are going. Well Colton is leaving on October 2nd, which is only 3 weeks away! I think its because he had some experience speaking Spanish in high school, hopefully he was paying attention! He will learn so much while he is away, and even just in the first week he should be able to pick up a lot of the language. It was really neat to see so many people there who are willing to go out and serve for the church. Here are some pictures from the day, he would not let me take very many because he hates having his picture taken, but we got a few with him! Also his address while he is in the MTC is in one of the photos below! Feel free to write him! He would love the mail!

Welcome to Elder Baines' mission blog!

Hello everyone!

This will be a blog that everyone can use to keep up with everything that is going on with Colton's mission. As most of you know he will not be able to have any contact by phone, texting, or facebook! He will be able to email, I think once a week, however I am not sure how much time he will be given to respond to emails so don't feel bad if it takes him some time to reply to you. I will try and update this once a week with any news, letters, or pictures that he sends us! Keep checking back so that you can keep track of everything that he is doing! Good luck to Colton these next two years! He is going to do absolutely great and I am sure will touch the lives of a lot of people! We love you!


Victoria

P.S. For those of you who did not know Colton when he was a little kid.... his room looked a lot like this background, there were fish painted everywhere on his walls so I figured this would be a good theme for his blog..and he LOVES fish, and fishing.. and he is going to Puerto Rico......