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......