For Brynley...

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Most of you know that I have 3 younger brothers and one sister who is the youngest child in our family. Her name is Brynley. She is all girl; she loves to have her hair and nails done and she has a genuine talent for dance. She has taken ballet since she was 3. Its been a real switch too having a little sister after my 3 brothers. We have Barbies and Hannah Montana in the house after years of Mutant Ninja Turtles and Legos. She loves our family. EVERYONE in our large family with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Besides all of the pink and glitter she has brought to our family a deeper sense of love and the reality of Heavenly Father's love for all of His children. She has a lot of faith in the power of the Priesthood and never hesitates to ask for a blessing when she feels sick or sad. She loves to sing the "gospel songs" as she calls them, especially "I Am A Child of God" and "Called to Serve" She also likes the music that her big brothers like, especially Death Cab For Cutie and ColdPlay. Brynley has brought a lot of "extras" with her, you see she was born with Trisomy 21, more commonly called Down Syndrome. This means that she has an extra chromosome on her 21st chromosome.

Sometimes it is hard knowing that Brynley will grow up in a world that is not always accepting of differences or kind to people who have disabilities. If people would take the time to get to know someone who has a disability they would find out that they are some of the greatest people they will ever meet. Being around Brynley changes your perception on life, you see how she lives each day to its fullest, laughing and being care free. Then I realize that this is how we should all live our lives. I don’t think my sister will ever realize the impact she has had on my life, but I know I would not be the person I am today without her.

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and I hope that when you might meet or see someone with Down Syndrome don't be afraid to say hi. You can never have too many friends!!

Thanks Brynley, you are such a wonderful and inspiring little sister.
I love you Brynley!!

Happy Autumn!!

Dear Family,
I got transferred!! I am now in Eden. This is where Elder Brown trained Elder Terry. So my first two companions have been here before. I had to speak this past Sunday. I shared my story of how I got here on my mission, and how the Lord has prepared a way for me to get here. It was crazy  after I gave my talk. The 2nd speaker began and he was talking away and all of the sudden a little kid pulled the Fire Alarm. Everything started to go crazy, and the spirit just zipped out of the room. It was funny, but it kind of disrupted everything. I'm glad that it didn't happen when I spoke because I felt like I needed to share my story with the ward. It was funny that I had to speak. They had prepared for the Elder I replaced to speak. He thought he wasn't going to be transferred, but he was. Elder Severson (my new companion) was kind enough to tell me on the drive up to Eden, that I was going to speak on Sunday.  On Saturday went to the Ward mission leader's home and did some service for him by burning a bunch of stuff. Then we went that evening with them to Riverfest. Its a yearly event here. It was a lot of fun and I really am liking this new area. We haven't had a chance to teach a lot yet, but I'm sure that we will this week. We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates and the work seems to be growing here. I really like Elder Severson. He has it set up where we go to the YMCA each day to work out in the morning. That will be awesome so I can stay in shape since this area is full car! WOO! I love that. I might actually get to drive later on this transfer too, so that is just awesome! I have a feeling that I'll be teaching a lot more in this area than we did in Tanglewood. Hopefully I'll start to get the feel of what it really is like to be a missionary teaching and that sort of thing. And not spend so much time just waiting to see if anyone is home and being disapointed to not find anyone there.
I know that the Lord loves me and that he really does care about me. He isn't giving up on me. I just sometimes give up on myself. I feel that things are starting to get better. I'm seeing myself start to really grow in just the few days that I have been here. We have some awesome members here and I espeically have come to love the Dawsons. Sister Dawson said that she might be giving y'all a call. She loves to stay in contact with missionaries families. Really good people here. Its a very small ward. I think only 150 people or so and they are very close knit. I think that it'll be way good. Well I have to get going . Thanks so much for everything. I love you

Elder Colton.

September 15 2008

Hi Family!
We still haven't had a chance to get into the really rural areas just because we are limited in our miles. But we did get to go to some places that usually don't get to go. We met with a less active member. He said that we could come in and watch what he was watching or leave. He said it was about how religion came about and that it would be interesting for us to see. We declined his offer to come in. He said he would write down the name of the show and we could look it up later. We could hear the show explaining how The Apostles are like the 12 Zodiak signs and that Christ is the ultimate Zodiak and on and on. He came back and gave us the name and we said that we would see him later. It was weird! I don't even remember what it was called now. That was probably the most eventful thing we did this past week. We both had a stomach flu that we were getting over so we didn't get to accomplish a lot. We were in Courtney, North Carolina this week. That is a part of our area and we had a Media Refferal out there. Sadly she isn't receptive at the moment, I'm sure missionaries can try her again later. We as well are praying for a miracle in this area. Our investigator is still doing great. She called us on Sunday and said that she is ok. She wanted to know if I was getting transfered or not. I told her to call on Wednesday and that is when we would know. We find out tomorrow night if I do or not. Thanks for praying for her. It really has been amazing to see her change in such a short time. Her personality has started to show and that she is really feeling happier about herself and how her life is going. We pray that she stays committed. Things are still rolling along here in the mission. We are on bikes this week and I hope that things won't be too hot. It is starting to get cooler, but not as cool as I would like. Probably by then it will start getting too cold. I hear that it chills you to the bone out here when it gets to winter time. We will have to see when that happens. Well I have to get going. Thanks so much for all that you do, I love you.
Love Elder Colton

September 8th Snippet

I caught a virus this week and have been sick the past 4 days, and it has sucked. Elder Terry has not able to do much because I've mostly slept. I'll be trying to use the counsel dad gave me in his letter about praying for a miracle in this area. We need one and I'd love to see this area explode before I get transferred. The Lord can work through us to make amazing things happen. We've been teaching one young lady a lot lately. She is an investigator that has (had) a boyfriend who was a member and in the military. She has now ended that relationship. She found out that he wanted to marry her just so he could get extra money while he is in Iraq. The good news is she still wants to meet with us and have us teach her. She says that we have made things so much better for her. This past week we taught her the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and she has committed to live both of them. She has surprised us because at first we felt she was just doing this to please her boyfriend, But when she came to church a week or so ago, she said that she felt at home. She wants to come back as much as possible. Also she told her friend that she chose the Mormon faith because it just makes sense to her. She has been a Christian since she was 5 and only now feels she has found what she needs. We hope she wants to continue with the discussions. They will be opening up a new area and changing the district a little bit. We probably won't be having the Zone leaders in our district anymore, but will have Winston 1st Ward with their Elders and Sisters. Its hard to not think about transfers. I just have to remember I have the Lord to help me and that things will be fine.
I love you all,
Elder Colton

Memories of my First Area

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August 11, 2000

Dear Family,
Happy birthday Christian, now you are an official adult ready or not. Its crazy that you are 18 and I am 21. Time passes so quickly. I hope by now you received your birthday card. Eat some of mom's banana cream pie for me!
This week has been a little crazy. We spent the first few days seeing people in the ward to say goodbye in case one of us got transferred. We were able to get some pictures for you so you can see some of the people that we associate with. Tuesday night we were at a member's home for dinner. We were eating their special family burgers that are super huge; like almost a pound and a half of meat on a bun. While we were there President Hobbs called and Elder Brown said he would call him back once we got home. We finished eating, shared a message and then we left. We called the President and Elder Brown has been called to be a Zone Leader! He wasn't expecting it at all. He has only 4 and a half months left on his mission and thought that he would be done with responsibility after training me, but the Lord had other ideas. Elder Brown packed up Wednesday and then we left for transfers on Thursday, We got to Statesville and saw that Elder Brown would be Zone Leader with Elder McKee. That means that he is Zone leader for our Zone, and he will still be in my District. It's great that he will still be close b. Sister Astle and Sister Wolfensberger (we share the car with them)are still are in the same place. We all get along great. Elder Terry is my new companion, he is from Cedar City. He was also trained by Elder Brown. He has been out a year and seems to have things going all right. I hope that we both can do well in this area and serve the Lord. Nothing else really has happened. We will be helping a family move into their new home tomorrow. That is about the biggest thing that will happen. I'll keep you posted on anything else and look forward to your next letters. I love you guys. Thanks for everything!
Love Elder Colton

First Letter for August 2008

One thing I wanted to share was an experience this past week. It was a big morale boost! We went up to Lewisville to go on a team with Bro W. and his son. We had planned to go see Bro B. who is a very shy, very kind and loving person. Earlier that day we had tried to see a woman who had ordered a "Lamb of God" DVD. We were trying to see how she liked it and if she would be interested in us teaching her. When we went over she said that she didn't have time. We could smell alcohol on her breath and felt like we shouldn't go back. When we found out that Bro W. was bringing his son, (his son is 19, might possibly go on a mission don't know for sure) we decided that we should go on splits. We decided that I would go with the son and Elder Brown would go with Bro W. I said we might as well give the potential investigator another try. We had told her that we would try and make it back that night if we could. So I would take our car to go meet her, and then Elder Brown would go to see Bro B. with Bro W. Once they got there we split up. His son is a cool kid. He is into video games and that sort of thing, so we were able to talk about it as we drove to the appointment. Once we got there I told him what we knew about the investigator. She lives with her boyfriend and had a father who was a minister. She says she wants to get back to church. We got there and she was anxiously waiting for us. She had been expecting us earlier and was worried that we wouldn't show up. I had to run the visit since I was the missionary, that was nerve wracking! It was seriously the first time I had done that. We started with prayer and it didn't go like a typical lesson because we talked for a little bit first. We found out that she had 3 brothers in prison, 1 brother that had passed away from from cancer, and both her parents were dead. She felt like she had no where to go. Her relationship with her boyfriend had gone downhill. She didn't know why she was still here on Earth and she admitted to us that she has a drinking problem; she had been drinking before we got there. I don't remember all of what I said, I taught her about the Atonement. I told her that Christ knew what she was going through. I admitted that I never had been in her situation like hers, but that I have had struggles of my own. I know I have gift of the Atonement and I can turn all of my worries and problems to him and he can take them away. I bore testimony of that and told her that Christ had not and will not give up on her, because he loves her so much. What was said brought her to tears. I was in awe of what had just happened, and still am. I asked her to read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet that we have and to pray to know if what is in there is true. The pamphlet talks about eternal families. She said that she would and was very insistent that we come back to see her. She walked us to our car and then we left. I hope that Bro. W's son was touched by the visit and maybe give him a little bit more of a desire to serve. Since then we have called her once, and she couldn't see us that day. She hadn't read the pamphlet, so we reminded her to read it. We told her that we would call her again later to set up a time again to see her. More may come from her if she will follow that commitment to read the pamphlet. If she does that will tell us that she is willing to change her life for the better. So that was a good experience one of the few that I have had so far on my mission. I have a feeling that its going to be like this. Most missionary work is not going to be a ton of success stories. There is a chance that more will happen with her, but that isn't up to me. And it may be awhile before I have another experience like that.
Thanks for you letters, they mean so much to me. I love you-Elder Colton