tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72410672556471413732024-03-14T11:17:04.902-07:00Elder RinerEntered MTC January 6, 2010Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-49002229124284169892012-01-13T10:22:00.000-08:002012-01-13T10:28:45.331-08:00GOOD-BYE CAUAYAN<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpyX5bzt3puBPQW1L7VeUD5NolpHNEppzvM_43nTnQaOjnRl2S9zBvAT5UBBZzN7W6mbFpOQp7mzog9RRpcwZYLz3o2veQ-WHuIYDTU6wggfOURbQv8I51cGgcGbkTa3QQuSJ3Upr-U-W/s1600/DSC00663.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpyX5bzt3puBPQW1L7VeUD5NolpHNEppzvM_43nTnQaOjnRl2S9zBvAT5UBBZzN7W6mbFpOQp7mzog9RRpcwZYLz3o2veQ-WHuIYDTU6wggfOURbQv8I51cGgcGbkTa3QQuSJ3Upr-U-W/s320/DSC00663.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697184892893295090" /></a><br />There was a huge crowd at the farewell fireside<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkYuhhjfltutQ4it0sxOqZJElnPq8NFkF5_MFqTMFAfiegklbUKuvxCuuRnHMV2SpL-u8lme3gZGPCvuG_VN0WJPsoCere5JlWU2WKeklaFP2chs5TK49QJHf7k8fw6wPGY67C3hseq-SB/s1600/DSC00658.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkYuhhjfltutQ4it0sxOqZJElnPq8NFkF5_MFqTMFAfiegklbUKuvxCuuRnHMV2SpL-u8lme3gZGPCvuG_VN0WJPsoCere5JlWU2WKeklaFP2chs5TK49QJHf7k8fw6wPGY67C3hseq-SB/s320/DSC00658.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697184444899644146" /></a><br />This was a very talented batch of missionaries and the evening was filled with great music all performed by these departing missionaries.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzckcQVA66mvzQVMqQstqcAVd3OfVhWK_JX4fJhf6B26SX_dlMa8q1jlY3TjADwX6pgOFUxsVl_i7LaRGwJEVdOIKT6xVfmY9dF7a1rMeEb74davu99zqCwxL40kajHsdlRKF2moSnc3Rs/s1600/DSC00655.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzckcQVA66mvzQVMqQstqcAVd3OfVhWK_JX4fJhf6B26SX_dlMa8q1jlY3TjADwX6pgOFUxsVl_i7LaRGwJEVdOIKT6xVfmY9dF7a1rMeEb74davu99zqCwxL40kajHsdlRKF2moSnc3Rs/s320/DSC00655.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697184034382048994" /></a><br />The day started off early as departing missionaries arrived at the Mission Offices with all their luggage. Here Elder Riner greeted some of the wonderful sisters he taught from Alicia 4. They came all the way to Cauayan to say thank you to their favorite elder!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-nXZhsMZT1kY6urnY9kJ7bz9uGcwCv14MD7aD5RUoJucJxRCK6nBBZef6u0Zh_Jc9zddRiIpCLsUeGGeboSKUrOHxtXvqm4gGiZhlSH7s_JJL7yWinkfMYscD1U0H7Nnbb_p16B6UNOO/s1600/DSC00668.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-nXZhsMZT1kY6urnY9kJ7bz9uGcwCv14MD7aD5RUoJucJxRCK6nBBZef6u0Zh_Jc9zddRiIpCLsUeGGeboSKUrOHxtXvqm4gGiZhlSH7s_JJL7yWinkfMYscD1U0H7Nnbb_p16B6UNOO/s320/DSC00668.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697183715418275874" /></a><br /><br />Elder Bangal and Elder Riner (co-trainers of Elder Landeen in the middle)<br /><br /><br /><br />Thursday, January 12, 2012<br />Whoever said "Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow" is Nuts <br />There's nothing sweet about parting with our beloved missionaries. In Mid-December we sent our January batch home in time to spend the holidays with their families and return to school at the start of the Winter Semester. This batch was some of our dearest, most diligent missionaries. We truly mourned their departure. We are so proud of their accomplishments.<br />We had our usual farewell fireside and were thrilled to see members from all over our mission who came out on a rainy, cold night (many traveling for hours) to say goodbye to these dear missionaries. All in attendance got to hear and feel their final testimonies as they shared a few words about their missions. <br /><br />After our farewell banquet we went to the bus station where we parted with many tears. I love every one of those missionaries and pray that they will continue to live a life filled with faithful serviceElder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-4725658170858844932011-12-12T13:49:00.000-08:002011-12-12T13:50:55.609-08:00COMING HOMEIll just tell you about my last week in person mom. I have a huge farewell party tonight. Im going to ball haha i already know it. Im leaving my family for the 4th time....<br />Well mom i better get going. I love you and i cant wait to see you! im soooo excited to go to the temple too!!!! see ya in a few days. Thats weird to say!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-25399945946930057632011-12-05T11:38:00.000-08:002011-12-05T11:44:40.333-08:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9szhMrIghOFw3HN31JUCTHViUfqdx9yI-kCrLVvFet_plIl4SAG_bwHUn8pWhT6q0wwQQqjbrsrIwqsoCusRHOzsdhjv7h4YJ5w3jtuOtp599DLVHbTT5C2852L0XS9TvRuHj7_ZHvZcS/s1600/colts+inv+12.4.11"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9szhMrIghOFw3HN31JUCTHViUfqdx9yI-kCrLVvFet_plIl4SAG_bwHUn8pWhT6q0wwQQqjbrsrIwqsoCusRHOzsdhjv7h4YJ5w3jtuOtp599DLVHbTT5C2852L0XS9TvRuHj7_ZHvZcS/s320/colts+inv+12.4.11" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682731731797952242" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLeKMyjMjwghEPaPQDYiBQTuu-V0SouCG3e5iteqX0Eu6ZaI8yX4X0UmbYcZrV883Ou59aJsA68HLWF9lohz-dOPDYaxSYz-oOg_R6Bvb8aDP_JjhlkfTfCADtNZjcqPLiOzT3aXS9Cbq/s1600/coltons+inv+12.4.11.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLeKMyjMjwghEPaPQDYiBQTuu-V0SouCG3e5iteqX0Eu6ZaI8yX4X0UmbYcZrV883Ou59aJsA68HLWF9lohz-dOPDYaxSYz-oOg_R6Bvb8aDP_JjhlkfTfCADtNZjcqPLiOzT3aXS9Cbq/s320/coltons+inv+12.4.11.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682731498076220450" /></a><br />man your guy's week seems like it was FUN! that is so sweet. Man im glad jord will be there to see me. I just want to see fam and friends! Man, im not going to say im not excited to see you all, but MAN mom, our work is going SO good. We had our transfer meeting this week and that was fun. Got to see a lot of old friends and comps and stuff. But for the most part everyone is noobs man. Everyone i know has pretty much went home; its not like it use to be... This picture is one sick thing that happened though. I have a great grand child in the field now. That is Pretty dang rare, but that is that picture i just sent you. Me, Jackson, jackson's kid and jackson's kids kid. It was pretty cool. Then the other people was the class of our investigators. thats only a few of them. One family had to leave after Sacrament meeting and then the kids were in there own classes. There was too many of us for the room. Next week we are moving into a bigger one. I kid you not mom. Our investigators, plus all their kids, made of over 1/3rd the people in our ward right now. It was SOOOO sick. Just really humbling to see so much progress. I bore my testimony in both ward yesterday. It was good. I loved the chance to leave that last testimony of mine with everyone. All my investigators were shocked. A lot of them didnt know i was going home. Its so sad cause they all talk about it now and tell me how much they're going to miss me and stuff. Its so hard! i Love these people mom. Im just not ready to go home. All in all the week was just awesome. All our key indicators were way high and our work was just full. Its awesome!!! Im just going to keep it up. No slowing down. Im going to try to even do better if at all posible this week. Last one, why not right :). Alright mom i love you. Hope everything continues to go well. Have fun picking daniel up.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-49785642818216652802011-11-28T10:43:00.000-08:002011-11-28T10:48:26.850-08:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-X-uoi4HlIpVTzL5rXdXvoZuB9VT4uzU9SkFxiXpfd4bYHM-5lSGpAQFHhDlfILRy-UwUucwE3yaPCHL-jhdu24BRS6kQhB1zZum5XZvaizN4HsFiBY2DZKxtJ1FllAKyrjkomJsP8y7/s1600/COlton+home+in+two+weeks.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-X-uoi4HlIpVTzL5rXdXvoZuB9VT4uzU9SkFxiXpfd4bYHM-5lSGpAQFHhDlfILRy-UwUucwE3yaPCHL-jhdu24BRS6kQhB1zZum5XZvaizN4HsFiBY2DZKxtJ1FllAKyrjkomJsP8y7/s320/COlton+home+in+two+weeks.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680120455022941042" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLhIJZyQJsZf2aCHn1C_UQt9rJagSqwmWpuLu0zxv_kZ0mL_IHNbFWpHpZxqoYu42mrfbwX80o5sDOWhyFUJ00jadb5ymz2zwSvt3TUGbxN68o4ZrrQ8ZlhcWoB9bbtl3IboUh6DtBTO2/s1600/Colton+Home+in+2+weeks.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLhIJZyQJsZf2aCHn1C_UQt9rJagSqwmWpuLu0zxv_kZ0mL_IHNbFWpHpZxqoYu42mrfbwX80o5sDOWhyFUJ00jadb5ymz2zwSvt3TUGbxN68o4ZrrQ8ZlhcWoB9bbtl3IboUh6DtBTO2/s320/Colton+Home+in+2+weeks.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680120289698464626" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSyQVoBZAbd3TY8yfRUEogHn0dz0gLdyMIfz4okU-1QwZ9Kry7XPUCqfR5SLvyMX96v2heSsJa4O6OqWnXv9jiXJ7usQnaNVGoqXy4rKXsaLv8R1wV4tNh-dylWjN_MynHWd7TB-DHlV1y/s1600/Colton+home+2+weeks.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSyQVoBZAbd3TY8yfRUEogHn0dz0gLdyMIfz4okU-1QwZ9Kry7XPUCqfR5SLvyMX96v2heSsJa4O6OqWnXv9jiXJ7usQnaNVGoqXy4rKXsaLv8R1wV4tNh-dylWjN_MynHWd7TB-DHlV1y/s320/Colton+home+2+weeks.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680120130634325986" /></a><br />Well mom i dont even know where to start with my week. Its been so awesome/ its flown!!!! its crazy how fast it is going. We are teaching a bunch of awesome families right now and they are all starting to progress! we had atleast one member from each family at church yesterday and in every case it was the father. Its just been a ton of blessings mom its so crazy. Man i love all the people we are teaching right now so much. Its going to be SOOOO hard leaving them mom its going to stink. Just yesterday we were going around and it had to be the biggest anti-trunky day ever! it was crazy. We had some awesome lessons, and the best one was with the father and his daughter; that, at first, i was sure were never going to progress. Then after a series of some of the best and most clear lessons i have ever taught to anyone, they started to soften their hearts, and now, they are starting to develop some really strong testimonies. Yesterday we taught the plan of salvation and where we go after this life. The lesson was incredible. Everything just went aweosme and they understood it all which brought a lot of questions up, that we were able to answer. So the whole thing just made complete sense. At the close of the lesson we had the father say the prayer, and it was one of the most humble but spiritually led prayers i have heard on my mission. Just really sincere. Im not read to come home mom. Im going to miss those moments soooo much. I dont know if ive ever felt the spirit so strong. It was just awesome. The whole week has just been like that. THe week FLEW by man i couldnt believe it. We continue to build up our teaching pool but all hours of our day are pretty much full at this point so its awesome. Man i couldnt express to you how happy i am to be wehre i am right now. I love ya mom. Im excited to see you in a few week, but for now, i have a TON more work to still do. Take care and good luck with state.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-41542095060568005512011-11-20T22:18:00.000-08:002011-11-20T22:20:28.533-08:00Four More WeeksDude that is SOOOO sick! 34 yards??? that is awesome dad. Sounds like you defiantly did your homework this week. Matt sounds like he is still tearing it up too. Man im jacked. i hope you guys go all the way, I thought about this game a lot this week haha, <br />kinda hard to stay concentrated on the work lately. Im doing my best though. We added two more dates this week and we now have 11 investigators with dates and 13 went to church yesterday. God has been blessing us with a ton of success. The weeks have just been FLYING by too i cant believe it! Man im not ready to come home though. im loving it out here.<br /> We had to go to this career workshop last wednesday and i got to talk and visit a little with all my batch. They are studs man. Its going to be hard saying by to everyone. Good thing thats still a few weeks away.<br /> Well i dont know what else to tell ya. The work is going AMAZING and i couldnt ask for more.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-85113366108704094522011-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:002011-11-14T08:44:27.954-08:00Man let me tell you i am NOT ready to go home haha. We'll see how it goes but for now its like the farthest thing from my mind. I know its unavoidable but its really not registering to me right now that its getting closer and closer. Im pretty sure its just going to sneak up on me and just going to happen. But im not to worried about it right now. We have so much awesome work right now mom its SICK!!! im so excited for our work. We have like 6 awesome families we are teaching right now which makes up about 25 investigators that are all starting to progress. We'll see as we start to get a little farther into it but for now things are looking good. We have 9 with dates and should be able to give quite a few more in these coming weeks. Im so excited. Its really keeping us busy and we only plan on adding to all this success! Im loving the work right now. Im on the last chapter of Jesus the Christ and the book has been one my favorites ever. Its such a sick book and ive learned SOOOO much from reading it and its caused me to ask a lot more questions, and, consequently, learn a lot more about this gospel. Man i love it! i love how it all makes so much sense and how as i keep studying it, i just come to love it more and more. It really gets me pumped about the work, and by time our studies are done, im so ready to get back out and work again! we had some really really cool lessons this week with some investigators. We are starting to use a lot of analogies in our lessons to make it more interesting and make it easier to understand. Its been effective. Its pretty sick and its been way fun and successful. As you can see the work is going aseosme. Id love to tell you all about it but i only ahve a limited amount of time. Basta the work is going awesome, my own testimony is growing so much, and im not at all ready for this to be over :). Love you mom. THanks again for all your support and for the awesome letters!!!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-47225408783676607442011-11-06T21:05:00.000-08:002011-11-10T08:39:47.910-08:00THE 24TH IS A POPULAR BIRTHDAY!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7rlD2fisbJvpjxf0PXplfRlIecpyTAYwNZWYShkyAEuVP2zyomVkrjun-ozifWSPw2gaT8VmaJbVzn6rWMGSCBA44UMS7Jq4xMCnCy54ct_abE6dfE9gryDkmsedACQSy3iaSyr8-Cn-V/s1600/training+elder+landeen"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7rlD2fisbJvpjxf0PXplfRlIecpyTAYwNZWYShkyAEuVP2zyomVkrjun-ozifWSPw2gaT8VmaJbVzn6rWMGSCBA44UMS7Jq4xMCnCy54ct_abE6dfE9gryDkmsedACQSy3iaSyr8-Cn-V/s320/training+elder+landeen" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673407676069810818" /></a><br />TRAINING ELDER LANDEEN<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagLXBdWi5cGa_JR38x9x0tmAOXkmK2EUCZGK09ejs31YKrWrMX8Um35iMGZaF5HfjzH4ae3JTD3LykPCko0x3OVbJp8ps5MbaRj_NMuDyYAUR-HenDBGRK4GaawNbiom2k5OavOo2FCop/s1600/COLTONS+B+DAY+DINNER+2011"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagLXBdWi5cGa_JR38x9x0tmAOXkmK2EUCZGK09ejs31YKrWrMX8Um35iMGZaF5HfjzH4ae3JTD3LykPCko0x3OVbJp8ps5MbaRj_NMuDyYAUR-HenDBGRK4GaawNbiom2k5OavOo2FCop/s320/COLTONS+B+DAY+DINNER+2011" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672116186300104450" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMUdw-WjuBXgMLOxLp_i6MA9yi_B7SlyvlZZnhAdTEShp0gwYa8XPGv0HlUUrt-iNUZ1VsIWDSkcxTZ3Fm9Bq08DB0B3OvcNZQt-B57mYOBaBe96cW2R79gIPAEumXUvdxNycR9iy6hU9/s1600/COLTONS+B+DAY+2011"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMUdw-WjuBXgMLOxLp_i6MA9yi_B7SlyvlZZnhAdTEShp0gwYa8XPGv0HlUUrt-iNUZ1VsIWDSkcxTZ3Fm9Bq08DB0B3OvcNZQt-B57mYOBaBe96cW2R79gIPAEumXUvdxNycR9iy6hU9/s320/COLTONS+B+DAY+2011" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672116078743906930" /></a><br />Sunday, November 6, 2011<br />The 24th was a Very Popular Birth Date <br />We had four missionaries who celebrated their birthdays on October 24. One was serving far away and the other three happen to be serving within an hour of the mission home. Elder Riner approached President about the possibility of the birthday elders coming in for a special birthday lunch. Since their birthday was on P-Day, President thought that was a great idea. He asked the elders what they'd like to eat and they quickly said enchiladas. Now making enchiladas in the Philippines is no easy task. First it's very difficult to find tortillas (but we did) next there is no enchilada sauce for sale (but we found Emerils favorite on the Internet) next its hard to find good cheese (but we had recently been to Manila and brought back a suitcase full) and nobody sells refried beans (but Sister Shaner brought some dehydrated ones from home). So we didn't have any excuse to say no. President made his famous Mexican rice and I made the enchiladas. I made my mom's famous applesauce chocolate chip cake for dessert. Each birthday elder brought his companion with him so we had 6 for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I can honestly say they all left stuffed to the brim!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-9951346838627369992011-11-06T20:47:00.000-08:002011-11-06T20:52:24.890-08:00Anyways, our week was pretty sweet. We have been working as hard as we can but it has rained everyday this week i think. Literally its been pouring all week and we come home soaked to the bone just freezing. Its just kinda annoying cause no one that doesnt know you wants to let you in, and everyone that you do makes you come in, but your soaked so you feel bad. The people here are so nice though. If you dont have a umbrella they make you take theirs, even if you dont want it or you just met them for the first time and there is a good chance that we might night be able to bring it back. Its so cool, theyre just the nicest people ever. My comp and I have defiantly been blessed with some progress this week, and we got a lot of new people to church for the first time and we have a lot of people progressing right now. It sucks cause im not going to be able to see any of them get baptized but that doesnt really matter to me, basta they get baptized! We've been trying really hard to get our ward active in missionary work too. ... We've been having a ton of fun with the work and i cant BELIEVE how fast this last week FLEW! Well thats about it for my week. Lots of progress, loving it and it continues to jsut fly by. Love ya all and hope you have an awesome week!!!<br />we went back to the same group of people we taught last week, and they want us to teach them, but due to the rain we weren't able to all do it again, so we'll see if we can do it this next week. We did happen to find another HUGE group of people though haha. There are probably about 20 of them. They listen intently and ask good questions but we'll see what really happens with them. Its just so hard trying to get them all to understand it when you can't really focus on their particular needs. but i have faith that good things will come out of it and they want to go to church, so if we can really get all 20 of them there it will be the coolest thing ever!!! did i tell you about the kid im living with? he studied at Harvard before his mission and is smart. We went on splits this week and i got to know a little bit about him so that was cool. He doesnt like to be known as that kid that studied at harvard but he cant seem to escape it.... But we got a lot of new families to church this week and its sweet. I hope we can get them all baptismal dates this week.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-90825554092873253012011-10-31T19:41:00.000-07:002011-10-31T19:50:09.244-07:00TRICK OR TREAT<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSQrC36xjl-7jRzYQlkWdoatY780nB7XMNiKxGIs82bxgaoRsjkQBDZvIy0Dkr53UG51SZ9YxwNCNfwIW4MJNrXdAcKNYsEsehTSeZhy5rfkzw1ZflMorvfePw6S_7qyF6xR9waDCSorfU/s1600/teaching+40.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSQrC36xjl-7jRzYQlkWdoatY780nB7XMNiKxGIs82bxgaoRsjkQBDZvIy0Dkr53UG51SZ9YxwNCNfwIW4MJNrXdAcKNYsEsehTSeZhy5rfkzw1ZflMorvfePw6S_7qyF6xR9waDCSorfU/s320/teaching+40.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669854198602520386" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh86fX3xkJkhmVcEv8p3wtgu2nPiaXWfImVkosUiTPiFrMkpIKsO8HBysCImM9AyiTJpwbQLBAi5eAaLV1pmmZ5IGJl1gs3HyXkXbOqvOqANhqhzvNxJ4hgdtW_fgK_liP-FQh93hjgHQ8/s1600/colton+on+a+rock.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh86fX3xkJkhmVcEv8p3wtgu2nPiaXWfImVkosUiTPiFrMkpIKsO8HBysCImM9AyiTJpwbQLBAi5eAaLV1pmmZ5IGJl1gs3HyXkXbOqvOqANhqhzvNxJ4hgdtW_fgK_liP-FQh93hjgHQ8/s320/colton+on+a+rock.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669853705668111186" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_SRJmAJxPSyyzFIjOL-wRUWNmXAn1IVmApOcLiTxxlDYyM-qolJnwsryGzxL3yD6mwu7AUNtXF75RWEX1ASURJh01l1jPgRK75GhjBgTL7NiPS_7V8SOUThYj6gYLrzv1Bg1kYuSlX73/s1600/colton+and+some+kids.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_SRJmAJxPSyyzFIjOL-wRUWNmXAn1IVmApOcLiTxxlDYyM-qolJnwsryGzxL3yD6mwu7AUNtXF75RWEX1ASURJh01l1jPgRK75GhjBgTL7NiPS_7V8SOUThYj6gYLrzv1Bg1kYuSlX73/s320/colton+and+some+kids.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669853270720196450" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37sAYknX2jUvtCvEUDdCkSFec9E_jqxQGxFPABNot9R2MWwRulH8vC9gq89yL_DF2Qdt9R5g3rqSz-renrv0I0wMsapnbfJMAGZn0jlxqSxrHPMaH_Vo1Ih69_2mWoO3w8Jajj4fc0UmQ/s1600/colton+and+his+last+comp.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37sAYknX2jUvtCvEUDdCkSFec9E_jqxQGxFPABNot9R2MWwRulH8vC9gq89yL_DF2Qdt9R5g3rqSz-renrv0I0wMsapnbfJMAGZn0jlxqSxrHPMaH_Vo1Ih69_2mWoO3w8Jajj4fc0UmQ/s320/colton+and+his+last+comp.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669853007227748594" /></a><br />. Man this week has been a pretty successful one. God just all the sudden blessed us with a ton of success and we are now teaching a LOT of people that are really interested in learning the truth. And the best part is that they are all families. We just gave a family of 5 all dates to be baptised Dec 10. My last Saturday in the mission :). We should have a bunch more to add to that list pretty soon. This week we had some aweosme lessons too. In That one picture with all those people, we actually had taught all them at once. And that is only about 3/4 of them too a lot of the grown-ups arent even in the picture haha it was seriously more then 40 people. And the lesson went so good and they were so into it that we gave them a baptismal commitment that when they knew that this message was true, if they would get baptised? and they all said yes haha and were way interested and wanted us to come back. So tomorrow we are going back again to teach them all :). We've actually had a lot of success like tht this week. We would have had a TON of investigators come to church too if it wasnt POURING rain. So next week we are counting on getting a lot of more peope to start progressing and to go to church. I have been really excited about our work lately and even though i dont think ill get to end up harvesting most of this, im just interested in being able to be a part of it. I want to help as MANY people as i still can while i still ahve the time. Ive just been having a blast. We have still been finding a lot but mostly its just getting back to people and getting them progressing. We just barely got back from cauayan cause we went trick-or-treating up there and it was awesome. I love president. He is SOOO good to us!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-6378840342528554912011-10-28T11:55:00.000-07:002011-10-28T11:56:05.140-07:00SANTIAGO STAKE IS SPLIT!SantWhat a wonderful experience, to witness the division of Santiago Stake. Elder Nielson and Elder Ardern came to attend the conference. We were fortunate to be asked to pick them up from Tuguegarao and drive them to Cauayan where they spent the night before the conference started on Saturday. With a few extra hours on Friday afternoon, they graciously accepted President Carlos' invitation to meet with some of our missionaries. Those who were serving in areas nearby were invited to come spend a couple hours. It was the most uplifting and enlightening meeting. <br /> <br />Elder Ardern with the New Santiago North Stake Presidency, next is the Santiago Stake Presidency and Elder Nielson <br /><br /> <br />In the mission home <br />The Conference was held on Saturday and Sunday and it was awesome! There is now a Santiago North Stake and a Santiago Stake. After the Sunday session the Stake Relief Society President prepared a wonderful meal before there was a special meeting with the youth. Later that night we drove the elders back to Cauayan and they had dinner at the Mission Home with our senior couples. It was a wonderful evening full of great lessons and laughter!<br /><br />On Monday morning we invited the Assistants to come to breakfast and enjoy spending at little time with the brethren before we drove them to the airport. This was truly a wonderful weekend. It's so thrilling to see the church grow in this part of the Philippines.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-18737659051377729092011-10-24T11:52:00.000-07:002011-10-24T11:56:18.870-07:00HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!Well we had a Awesome week full of great work! And it payed off this sunday. We were able to get a bunch of investigators to church> I was so excited and so was my comp. We have had some of my most spiritual lessons too. It just has been really good. We have had investigators just explain to us how the holy ghost made it manifest to them the truth of this message and its just such an amazing process to see happen as they explain it too you. We have this one guy who is just crazy. He yells like all the time and all he really really wants it to feel peace in a world full of turmoil and troubles. Then we asked him if he had tried to read the book of Mormon to escape from his problems and he then explained to us how he actually had, he had himself forgotten until we asked, then he told us how he felt and how aweosme it was and he described exactly what he himself was looking for from our lessons with him. It was so awesome and humbling to have him tell us these things. Man just being apart of this everyday is so awesome. Its been rough having to study for 4 hours every morning with this new training program but its been awesome and some how ive been able to stay awake and have really successful sessions even with it being that long. We have a lot of families we are teaching and to see full families accept this gospel is awesome. It reminds me how LUCKY we really are. Which i know i still dont fully comprehend how lucky we really are but im so thankful, until this point, we have all been strong. Thats so awesome. Everything has just been going really good. We had to go to the doctor to get my chest xray for going home. I also got one of my last interviews with president this week and that went amazing.<br />... Man my birthday today was the best mom. We played some sick football. You should have seen the present they gave me Ill send it next week or somthing... U will laugh so hard. After football president fed us mexican food. Sister carlos is a really good cook and it was SOOOO awesome. It was a way sick birthday. I love president sooo much he is so good to me. He spoils me way more then i deserve....Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-45582154055069271732011-10-20T13:41:00.000-07:002011-10-20T13:42:40.691-07:00CARABAOOnly in the Philippines... <br />Sister Shaner was teaching a woman recently whose husband is a rice farmer. Sister Shaner mentioned something about the carabao and this lady said, "You mean you don't have carabao's in the U.S.?" She was so shocked to hear that Sister Shaner had never seen a carabao. She asked "Well, how do you get any work done?" Sister Shaner explained that we use John Deere--a tractor.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-21495269291390259362011-10-20T10:39:00.000-07:002011-10-20T10:44:22.656-07:00HE'S COMING HOME!I received Elder Riner's flight plans today! It's official! He will be flying into the Pasco airport at 11:00am on December 16th, 2011. We all have had experience with these long flights so you know that sometimes that means 11:00pm or maybe the next day. HAHA But that is the plan for now. You are all invited to the airport to welcome him home and to his Homecoming talk on the 18th. I will keep you posted on any changes.<br />Daniel will be coming home the 9th of December so we are also excited for that too! What a month.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-80653304579858009812011-10-17T09:34:00.000-07:002011-10-17T09:40:10.455-07:00A VISIT FROM GENERAL AUTHORITIES... This week we had 2 general authorities come here to our stake conference to divide our stake into 2 and to speak. It was awesome. U remember that one guy that had a thick accent that talked in conference the other week. He was here haha and i got to meet him. He was from like new Zealand or somthing and the other was Elder Nelson from Twin falls idaho. It was aweosme to see them. It was also way awesome to see our stake split. My old bishop was teasing me cause i was here for the branch when it split to 2 wards and then for the division of the stake too. He told the new stake president i shoudl have to speak. I told him haha i dont want to speak that would not be cool. Especially if there are general authoritys there. It was pretty dang cool though. We had some sweet teaching appointments this week. One person we found tried to pay us for our study with them haha. I told my comp he should of took it but he just shook his head haha i was just messing with him. We were able to give some sweet blessings this week too and had some awesome lessons with some people! i love being here apart of this work. Its been really hot though man. It drains you and you just get all sweaty!<br />That is sick chelsea came home. Who did she hitch a ride with??? YA! its nuts that i have only had 3 areas haha i dont know of anyone else in my mission that has ever been like that. 4 is not very many at all and i only had 3! But im way cool with that. I hate moving areas and i love it this way. Its just an answered prayer for me... My comp is doing pretty good with the language... He is defiantly getting better and we;re having a lot of fun and getting a lot of work done. We are really starting to build up our teaching record and should be getting a LOT of people to church pretty soon. All we are teaching are families so that is AWESOME and we are starting to get the ward pumped about our work too :). Man that is crazy that chelsea already is getting into dating... I mean i think all that free food will be nice for her but i remember reading that she wasnt going to date the first year??? Sounds like everything is going pretty good at home.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-33450104091302397342011-10-11T08:05:00.000-07:002011-10-11T08:06:50.739-07:00THE MTC BATCH<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpSt7sBly_A33JKjxYpdkh5Uw1OP0Te2_GFNuoEUACHV1XqHb81i59iuVULBWP5GRzimS9-upg6nBiRs9kKEegL7dtBCUSKrvmJXHdlh2KoqbRzsuIfS68mrUghFnyithzMtKUAqpd38S2/s1600/the+batch+10.11"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpSt7sBly_A33JKjxYpdkh5Uw1OP0Te2_GFNuoEUACHV1XqHb81i59iuVULBWP5GRzimS9-upg6nBiRs9kKEegL7dtBCUSKrvmJXHdlh2KoqbRzsuIfS68mrUghFnyithzMtKUAqpd38S2/s320/the+batch+10.11" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662251171938012994" /></a>Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-46495015736793640192011-10-09T22:20:00.001-07:002011-10-09T22:20:33.530-07:00POWER!YA we were the onse sister Carlos was taking about we just barley got power like last friday night after having a brown out for 10 days... Everything in our fridge just went horrible and there was mold all up in it so we just didnt open it tell the other day and then it got GROSS!!! we cleaned it earlier. It was not a fun job. My comp is cool. We get along great and we've been working hard. This week we got like 16 new investigators and a few of them are really starting to progress. We are really building up a nice teaching pool again and im so excited to see what kind of things we are going to be able to do with these next 7 weeks we have together. So everything is going really good! Having 4 peopl in a apartment is hecktic of course but it is WAY fun. Everything has been going really good as far as the work and im excited to see waht we can get started for us in this next week. We are working hard right now trying to fill all hours of our day with productive work and seem to be doing a pretty good job with that thus far. Everything is going great!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-18112482813346069992011-10-07T09:49:00.000-07:002011-10-07T09:52:51.046-07:00AN UPDATE FROM THE MISSION HOME<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjcMfwk1huZczZJkgbIJPjRW7YvvG4k74b5obCX2T5_wcYy14a-3dZE7blBZhoY96rjxR5tKeBJHJN6MMM1vvqYaQDgCz2JmsAvn4nXSfWG61SJdIiKigMpjGe2JnQZYd4jw3pu2fUbf6/s1600/PEDRING+FLOOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjcMfwk1huZczZJkgbIJPjRW7YvvG4k74b5obCX2T5_wcYy14a-3dZE7blBZhoY96rjxR5tKeBJHJN6MMM1vvqYaQDgCz2JmsAvn4nXSfWG61SJdIiKigMpjGe2JnQZYd4jw3pu2fUbf6/s320/PEDRING+FLOOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660794109466759954" /></a><br />RIVER FLOODED BY TYPHOON PEDRING<br /><br />Two typhoons in one week, but third one was diverted <br />We did suffer through two typhoons last week. Another one was predicted for this Wednesday but it's course changed and it went south. We actually had few rain clouds that day but nothing much. Some of our missionaries are still without power, but most have it back now. It seems like the worst hit areas were around Santiago. We were there on Tuesday and surprised to see so many huge trees uprooted and the river so swollen. All of our missionaries are now back in their apartments. We are very grateful that the third typhoon missed us!!! We Feel Our Savior's Love. <br />This weekend is General Conference. We view it a week late since we are a day earlier than the US. We are all excited to be spiritually feed this weekend!<br />I'm way behind on blog updates and will try to rectify that in the next few days! It's been a very busy couple of weeks. A new wonderful batch of missionaries, zone leader council and lots more. Thanks to all for their love and concern for this mission.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-72873477894937062142011-10-02T20:03:00.001-07:002011-10-04T16:47:36.547-07:00A TWO TYPHOON WEEK<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWtv5teUl_9KHNLs8GuvniAgZeH1Nm4AuhMK64Ttz_f3yH9VdkQCT81Oh9oQm2lfkRft_1UgDobxaiBB1sPclZtr84sCn1BXlVREReoF4wVZxWdjO0qs4J9jirNCzQEAI2ngp-LdqVYF0/s1600/STORMPIC5+10.11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWtv5teUl_9KHNLs8GuvniAgZeH1Nm4AuhMK64Ttz_f3yH9VdkQCT81Oh9oQm2lfkRft_1UgDobxaiBB1sPclZtr84sCn1BXlVREReoF4wVZxWdjO0qs4J9jirNCzQEAI2ngp-LdqVYF0/s320/STORMPIC5+10.11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659114917306173330" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTms758p2t8HoBfNW3tVvMpspO7CmwwI8btttsnqdkZEjbdMi538exXn2Of66vAj6XwkfoHywTCetCITLszxN3JaRxB33P6uDz3EzqoBgr2LJLe_YeVItnpF7Uh8RPH9dvKlrc8dm3lu3M/s1600/STORM+PIC5+10.11.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTms758p2t8HoBfNW3tVvMpspO7CmwwI8btttsnqdkZEjbdMi538exXn2Of66vAj6XwkfoHywTCetCITLszxN3JaRxB33P6uDz3EzqoBgr2LJLe_YeVItnpF7Uh8RPH9dvKlrc8dm3lu3M/s320/STORM+PIC5+10.11.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659114480199165810" /></a><br />GETTING A NUMBER FOR AN INVESTIGATOR <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSThKYuEc6ggvxqVGGcMLCsxg32zxeRhzNgbTZDJ_nXn5T_U0iPBdP9secF3TR9vq9pNbQ0NbJTEqVGYnSnpwU7-JzrlSoGq3wqBZZIDSpbb5qPqD60SEl3d05DIc9F1PkCAo0PUgD5MV/s1600/STORM+PIC4+10.11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSThKYuEc6ggvxqVGGcMLCsxg32zxeRhzNgbTZDJ_nXn5T_U0iPBdP9secF3TR9vq9pNbQ0NbJTEqVGYnSnpwU7-JzrlSoGq3wqBZZIDSpbb5qPqD60SEl3d05DIc9F1PkCAo0PUgD5MV/s320/STORM+PIC4+10.11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659114193607516226" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQ9-34z6wZEqj2qxos_emPzfEr2T9gsVgLB-DelraY8ccw5myfMl6P3JviAYYk02qCbjDGpIVfKkoauBS5Xf6cgIbsdfWx2vtgD92HD0SVWIYoltb-lZmkzrDsI12Df5TNwLwLLex4OI_/s1600/STORM+PIC3+10.11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQ9-34z6wZEqj2qxos_emPzfEr2T9gsVgLB-DelraY8ccw5myfMl6P3JviAYYk02qCbjDGpIVfKkoauBS5Xf6cgIbsdfWx2vtgD92HD0SVWIYoltb-lZmkzrDsI12Df5TNwLwLLex4OI_/s320/STORM+PIC3+10.11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659113863188300930" /></a><br />A RECENT CONVERT'S HOME AFTER THE STORM<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9yf12WXGqd7IKC3G4GbJNCQB5vgNdb_U8OpZKci47TE1yGLmIKuT597smOVwvl_V4zqwdWAXu8odrKYjEFvxIbUYsq7-axS3fycAA2CFCCMZcnYFvzbeQlZ-alN8AkqmqCbhWFVuS1ull/s1600/STORM+PIC2+10.11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9yf12WXGqd7IKC3G4GbJNCQB5vgNdb_U8OpZKci47TE1yGLmIKuT597smOVwvl_V4zqwdWAXu8odrKYjEFvxIbUYsq7-axS3fycAA2CFCCMZcnYFvzbeQlZ-alN8AkqmqCbhWFVuS1ull/s320/STORM+PIC2+10.11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659113483277170242" /></a><br />THE CHURCH WAS A MESS BUT SURVIVED. MANY PEOPLE SLEPT THERE AFTER THE STORM BLEW THEIR HOUSES AWAY<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FtEPKTmzcrSLfxPIJSugr4wR-5FAzGip0rq2GfvFy3xi15eSRtKHjls8I-E32Iin8NG8lhs8zgrAv_7zUDY5ow2Cm8aI_0hQsbPLIDD0E4nat6eILDCiU2AUwc2ShAl0-E0CeIOlt3vP/s1600/STORM+PIC+10.11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FtEPKTmzcrSLfxPIJSugr4wR-5FAzGip0rq2GfvFy3xi15eSRtKHjls8I-E32Iin8NG8lhs8zgrAv_7zUDY5ow2Cm8aI_0hQsbPLIDD0E4nat6eILDCiU2AUwc2ShAl0-E0CeIOlt3vP/s320/STORM+PIC+10.11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659112875444233330" /></a><br />HITCHING A RIDE TO SAVE SOME PEOPLE FROM THE STORM<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaIJvWCQhTrHCmBt842qbcjf1wwEyteAHj3xCydMhgRd9Q8BkOEdGA1kOJ2W4_lLSaqYsPETECfE6eTl3ornws78AytACuD24_41Sh722wdUCEpr4ITmkr9KLSleIimKL6tHljv-elqvJ/s1600/Comps+going+home.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaIJvWCQhTrHCmBt842qbcjf1wwEyteAHj3xCydMhgRd9Q8BkOEdGA1kOJ2W4_lLSaqYsPETECfE6eTl3ornws78AytACuD24_41Sh722wdUCEpr4ITmkr9KLSleIimKL6tHljv-elqvJ/s320/Comps+going+home.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659097594196304498" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGwpikLC_6goN1mldpWgTyonQdJ7YGLBA_FxjIRkLHJDVb_QzaYpUt9isvV8kQe1jSAA3fkvcbz0L_zRgk3ZQGTjXIri6FRKJkDxTY-R2fkJaXggHh-hWsy51ZkrJOaxjSbFozowShJ9l/s1600/Comps+going+home+3.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGwpikLC_6goN1mldpWgTyonQdJ7YGLBA_FxjIRkLHJDVb_QzaYpUt9isvV8kQe1jSAA3fkvcbz0L_zRgk3ZQGTjXIri6FRKJkDxTY-R2fkJaXggHh-hWsy51ZkrJOaxjSbFozowShJ9l/s320/Comps+going+home+3.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659096616313646354" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtEsYDiXPXx_LNcQIOb-lbm7z1xU2uHxrkav3MKj0YxSWjx6zhOphpzprBVEpkiOmURx3UCX7_kS9zH7I6IZ2GfsYClPP1MC42gP4FDEg1TfOLWhTDkM2eleUswvOafCOfRujJOv2fS5G/s1600/Comps+going+home+2.dat"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtEsYDiXPXx_LNcQIOb-lbm7z1xU2uHxrkav3MKj0YxSWjx6zhOphpzprBVEpkiOmURx3UCX7_kS9zH7I6IZ2GfsYClPP1MC42gP4FDEg1TfOLWhTDkM2eleUswvOafCOfRujJOv2fS5G/s320/Comps+going+home+2.dat" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659096401867546514" /></a><br />Alright, so this week was a CRAZY one. So last tuesday we woke up to a really loud noise that turned out to be sheet metal getting blown all over by the wind. So i got up to check it out and it was pouring rain and the wind was strong. So we went out and fastened everything down we didnt want to fly away, then we went inside and started studying. After Personal study we couldnt stand it anymore, and even though the storm was raging full boar we went out to save some lives :). we never got a text we werent suppose to and i couldnt stand the thought that our investigators houses were just getting mobbed in the storm, so we put on some clothes and went out to see what damaged had already taken place. As soon as we left the gate it was BAD. there was telephone lines flying everywhere and a HUGE tree had fallen on our neighbors truck and just smached it and destroyed the telephone wires. It was bad. So we climed through all that and went to one of our investigators house we had knew would have gotten destroyed by such a storm. We were right. When we got there it was completely gone. I have some pics ill send to u later but it was BAD> i felt so bad. So we went to the front and found them. Dad was happy as ever just laughing and asking how we were doing. We told him we were just worried about him and how he was. As soon as we found out he was fine we went to the church to see how we could help. We found a few bishops and the gave us a little update. Then we went back out to our other investigators. Almost everyones house was completely destroyed. Sheet metal was flying everywhere and cords were too. While all this is going down we, as Zls, are getting all kinda of calls about everything, trying to get everyone safe and what not. Plus that was the day we had to announce transfers and so we had to get that list and send it to everyone while we were under this little shack, it was the only place we found service. It was all Nuts. Eventually the storm died down and we werent sure were to start with everything. We went and checked on a few other people who also just got destroyed and it was crazy. One of our recent converts house had completely gotten wiped away, as in there was no more house. I think we have a pic of that too. At the same time everyone was getting flooded like crazy. So me and my comp went and bought machetes to help get trees out of the way and houses all cleaned up. It is like the most effective tool after a storm haha its funny. eventually we got home and we soaked to the bone, freezing, and exhausted from it all. We took like a Hour rest then went back out. That was just tuesday. Wednesday we continued to clean and help people but at 2 o'clock we went to a fireside for the Departing Missionaries. Thats the pictures i included in this email. It was so sad to see these guys go. I love them and 2 or the 3 were my comps that i had become tight with and the other i was his DL for a while and we got close too. It was all pretty sad to see them go but it was awesome at the same time. THen thursday we just worked and got a few lessons in after doing osme more service. Friday we had transfer day and thats when i got my knew comp, elder Landeen. He is a stud and is brand new. Im really excited for our cycle together., He is from West Jordan, Utah. He seems really excited for the work and kinda has the same point of view of what he want to get out of his mission which makes everything aweosme!!! Transfer day was aweosme. I got to talk to pres and he almost made me cry. He was praising me way to much, more then i could ever deserve. I was so excited to get stepped down and just become a regular missionary again with no callings. Its the best feeling ever! Just being a regular missionay and training is the best calling i think there is in this world. I love it so much and im so excited for the work we are going to get done this cycle. I got to sit and talk with some of my old comps too. My son, Elder Jackson is now a zone leader and comps with Elder Hardman and they are going to tear it up. Pres loves Jackson and thats why he gave me my comp he said, cause my last kid came out so good and he knows this one has great potential too. Im so excited. Then... Saturday we woke up again to ANOTHER crazy storm. People just got torn apart again! We went out and helped everyone we could again and it was just horrible. I have HATED not being able to teach but loving that we have been able to help so many people out. Sunday we had a good work day. Its hard though cause we have to teach with candle light only due to the block out we have had for almost a week now. It kinda stinks but is kinda cool at the same time. So there is my week in a nut shell. So many other things happened too i just cant really write them all cause its just too much. The lord has been really protecting his missionaries and none have gotten too hurt. I Love being out here and i hope we can get everything back to normal so we can acctually start working again. But the news is we have atleast one more coming in a few days. We'll see... Well i love you all and im thankful for all your prayers. Know that god is watching over all of us. THANK YOU!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-65254054040688492402011-09-30T08:19:00.001-07:002011-09-30T08:19:21.234-07:00Another Typhoon is Heading Our Way <br />We just got word that another typhoon is due to hit our area pre-dawn tomorrow morning and is now categorized as a Level 3. Level 3 will bring high winds and lots of rain, but nothing that should keep us down too long. We have evacuated a number of our missionaries to higher ground as lots of rain is expected. All other companionships have been instructed to have several days of water, food and candles on hand. We are prepared!<br />Most of us just got back power since the typhoon on Tuesday. We will update this blog if we have power as soon as it passes. Please join with us in prayer that these storms will be tempered and somehow diverted.<br /><br />Thanks to all for your concern.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-63392873127661887372011-09-28T08:52:00.001-07:002011-09-28T08:52:35.592-07:00TYPHOON PEDRINGTyphoon Pedring <br />We received word that a typhoon was headed our way but it was categorized as a Level 2, which means lots of rain and wind but nothing too crazy. In the middle of the night it was elevated to a Level 3, still nothing compared to the huge Typhoon Juan we had in October 2010. The worst part of this typhoon actually bypassed us and swerved more towards Manila. So there is lots of flooding and problems in Manila. Throughout our mission we have had massive tree damage and lots of brown outs (no electricity) there are a few areas where missionaries have been moved because of flooding, but all in all we are in great shape. We feel very fortunate! (The mission home and office has been without electricity since yesterday morning 32 hours so far. We have a generator so we have a few lights, refrigeration, fans and the Internet! Many of our missionaries are using candles for the next few days. Luckily the temperatures are cooler than normal so the heat isn't too bad.<br />Our sources in Manila told us that we could go ahead and send our departing missionaries on the bus this evening. They say the problems in Manila are more in the side roads and that the major highway to Manila is passable. So with a prayer in our hearts for a safe journey we put our 11 belved departing missionaries on the bus. Tomorrow they will go to the Manila temple and then catch flights, buses and boats to their homes on Friday.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-27849742713643489422011-09-26T08:27:00.001-07:002011-09-26T08:27:45.153-07:00Well my week went ok. We did have some training stuff that happened. We had our zone conference this week and it was awesome. Makes me want to become better. I really love our president he is so good to us missionaries. You can really tell that all he wants is for us to be successful. For the rest of our week our work was super slow. We have been finding a ton these past few weeks and nothing is coming about it, but we cant really control that. We're just going to keep doing it until our teaching pool is full again. But due to those kind of problems we weren't able to teach as much this week. We have a ton of good things still happening though. We have some awesome investigators that are really ready for baptism, they just have little problems we still have to work out first. But they are awesome and once we can get over these problems they really will make some great members. Its just kinda frustrating. Sometimes it just seems like were stuck with them and there isnt thing else we can do. But almost always God provides and it ends up ok. I love being out here. The work is going great and even though we arnt getting as many lessons and stuff, we are still working as hard as ever. THanks for all the love and support. Its so important in this work, i really need it. LOve YOU!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-7189918363710534372011-09-19T09:05:00.001-07:002011-09-19T09:07:36.615-07:00PARADE IN SANTIAGO<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncki0quPm8i5JY5GiwiGX_G-59YS3AMxFhIFdcHs1bGqC6f3vnzoSQWEUtimgqN-Otoq5BBMlXN_gsYOcm1UE_PoPpDK_xHtWuZKQ563oRYnrCP8gQsyXBImVext9bN2mnX2y54pFy4SD/s1600/DSCF9218.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncki0quPm8i5JY5GiwiGX_G-59YS3AMxFhIFdcHs1bGqC6f3vnzoSQWEUtimgqN-Otoq5BBMlXN_gsYOcm1UE_PoPpDK_xHtWuZKQ563oRYnrCP8gQsyXBImVext9bN2mnX2y54pFy4SD/s320/DSCF9218.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654102922595441410" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUXMkjxxHNl9j-8EU_L3aLdCsmCCaOfK0QoUN9fmST91SMA25abryEF88om5bOg4RHbPqyZInWVjgj_aqZujNDPuW8Mh-IWmNvlX64T9xwn_I_aWmmBJJs8EBXpGGBFxBwPa0TwQS83hmc/s1600/DSCF9223.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUXMkjxxHNl9j-8EU_L3aLdCsmCCaOfK0QoUN9fmST91SMA25abryEF88om5bOg4RHbPqyZInWVjgj_aqZujNDPuW8Mh-IWmNvlX64T9xwn_I_aWmmBJJs8EBXpGGBFxBwPa0TwQS83hmc/s320/DSCF9223.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654102761688011970" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3m-tnGyF4O5FLhovoHZypXcjiHj559RO8ahELghzKxSRraZ1QlBvfPO8PfITQGIJd7hi7Ss7U3xjsRcLQ3uTeqlChPOFnybSXiKPqFN0kBLT0CpPBueotIUiGiZeV42eZ0i5WTBZgzk3M/s1600/DSCF9214.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3m-tnGyF4O5FLhovoHZypXcjiHj559RO8ahELghzKxSRraZ1QlBvfPO8PfITQGIJd7hi7Ss7U3xjsRcLQ3uTeqlChPOFnybSXiKPqFN0kBLT0CpPBueotIUiGiZeV42eZ0i5WTBZgzk3M/s320/DSCF9214.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654102616617828290" /></a><br /> this week was a pretty sick one. We had a lot of good things go down. As far as our work goes, we are still doing a pretty good job. We continue to do all we can to help our investigators and stuff and its going really goo. We have some sick investigators. The only problem is, they all have hard problems to overcome and stuff. Like stopping there bad smoking habits. And getting their papers ready to get married. Just a bunch of things that are pretty dificult to do. Its frustrating but ok at the same time cause they all will be amazing members when they do become members and pretty much all of them are families. Last wednesday we went to our leadership meeting and it went great. Learned a ton and i got to talk with president. He is a stud. I always love being around him. I got to talk to a bunch of old comps and stuff. It was legit. I relised that all my old comps that are still in the field are leaders and were at that meeting. It was sick. So for these pictures. THe first one is of a baptism we had. Her name was gracia and she was a part member. She had a strong testimony and chose me to baptize her. It was good. She will be a good member too. The o9ther pictures were all taken that same day. The once where we are with all those police were sweet. We ran in a parade full of over 200 police and then 2 american missionaries. We ended up jogging 11/2 Kilos and it was perfect cause it lad straight to our next appointment. Then later that night we met this guy in this other picture. He is the funniest guy ever. He lived in american since he was 13 and has traveled the entire world. He was way nice and fead us lamb that night. We really dont even know him but it was fun talking to him and getting to meet him. Then the other is just us and a few members. Our fellowshipper, Jeff, is going on his mission now in Indonesia and is leaving this saturday sp we took some last minute pics with him. Im going to miss that punk, ive really gotten to know him good over these last several months.<br />Well as you can tell everything is going awesome. THe work continues to role forward and we are having fun in the process. Love ya all and wish ya the best. Take care!!!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-71447352397868061752011-09-12T08:58:00.000-07:002011-09-12T09:03:21.804-07:00WET, WET, WET<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKT0bcSo9kTTG7B2nFgpzgWXPogm6c5ZsYqKk8mWnpNDozIlk4AqNriddnFUni1JcpAEPvEyc-BPLgJejl760W7Fezti9dWBMC65S0Flzo4zKldSp_XXrxGQiFAJln5chY3v_x8jxSJyl/s1600/sapatos+ko+po+-marc+006.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKT0bcSo9kTTG7B2nFgpzgWXPogm6c5ZsYqKk8mWnpNDozIlk4AqNriddnFUni1JcpAEPvEyc-BPLgJejl760W7Fezti9dWBMC65S0Flzo4zKldSp_XXrxGQiFAJln5chY3v_x8jxSJyl/s320/sapatos+ko+po+-marc+006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651503605602046098" /></a><br />Well this week has been another full one. We had a lot go on and it just made the week fly! Last Monday we had a pretty sweet p-day playing football and stuff, but when it came to the work that evening we got poured on! I think about 4 out of the 7 night we just got rained on like crazy. Its not fun. Tuesday we had our district meeting and found out who was being transferred. I was SOOOO happy when I found out I was still staying here. The rest of the day I was just way excited I didn’t have to say goodbye to everyone and pack and stuff. Everyone has been giving me a ton of grief cause ive been here so long but I love it… Thursday was transfer meeting and I got to see and talk with everyone. It was weird seeing some people for the last time! At the meeting all my batch moved up and there are now 5 of us zone leaders and 1 A.P. haha. That’s pretty cool. Visiting with them all was way worthwhile. We also got instructions from president to find a new house to move into ASAP cause he is going to put 1 more set of missionaries in and our house right now is not big enough for 4. So that was one thing we really focused on this week and we actually did find one. It was be nice to move into it. Im not sure how long ill be there but im hoping the rest of my time here. Saturday was one of the busiest days of my mission. In morning we had 2 serve projects. A house we had to check out, and a interview we had to go too. One of the service projects we did was just my comp and I and we moved this HUGE pipe thing of cement from one place to another. It was by pure tactic we were able to maneuver it and it was SOOOOO HEAVY!! It was fun though. The inverter view went well and she will be baptized this coming Saturday. We also met up with president and he took us out for McDonalds. It was SWEET. Its funny how mcdonalds is the biggest treat here haha. Then right after that we attended a baptism that went pretty good. The whole week just seemed pretty dang busy. It made it fly, and it was fun, but I’m cool with things kind of slowing down a little bit. Our work is still going awesome and we still have a lot of great investigators. The work is just moving on. Im so glad I didn’t get transferred and am already nervous for this coming transfer. I hope I get to just end here!!!Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-20777188418847084472011-09-04T22:04:00.000-07:002011-09-04T22:05:48.483-07:00 I just want to make the best out of my time, and untill now i can say i have done that. I dont want to ruin it here at the end and i have not plans too. I want to actually become way better. i love it here. Its kinda getting hard just cause we've been finding a lot lately and people just aren't letting us in like usually. I feel like its just a test, and we are finding some people sweet people so no time is wasted.
<br />This week was pretty sweet. Tuesday we had a good district meeting, then went and got a lot of good work in. Wednesday was equally successful and we got to the house right at 9:30 we worked all day. The entire week was pretty much like that. Just exhausting. We fell asleep without eating again the other night we were so tired. Within 20 min of us getting in the house we were out haha. Sunday went good cause we got a lot of work done and all our investigators are going awesome. Im still just loving it up here. Lot of work has been going on and i love being a part of this. My testimony about this church and its teaching is constantly growing and i love how its changing point of view on life. Its awesome.
<br />Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7241067255647141373.post-54400299398081487302011-08-29T10:14:00.000-07:002011-08-29T10:15:49.110-07:00Well the week has been going awesome. We did get a lot of good lessons in and it made the week fly. This week we had splits, i ending up going with the new kid and it was hilarious. It made me remeber being new and stuff and brought back a lot of memories. It seems like i was just there and at the same time like that was a LONG time ago. Hard to explain but it was a good day. We got rained on quite a bit this week. Wednesday we woke up to a text that there was a huge typhoon on its way and we needed to make sure everyone is safe. We were suppose to get nailed but all the sudden the storm just took another direction. But it was still really really rainy and we got soaked everyday. They yell at us for not using unbrellas but we hate them and when its as rainy as it had been they dont even do anything. But besides that the week went pretty dang smoothly. Lots of teaching and finding new people to teach. We have a lot of potential right now we just need to get them all progressing! im still loving it though. We are getting a lot of families to accept it and its just making it really really awesome. Families are the best.Elder Colton James Rinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01440063423108170477noreply@blogger.com0