Pete Tidwell

Dear Keri,

My name is Pete Tidwell and I served with your husband in the England Leeds Mission. I met you once briefly at a mission reunion. Anyway I work here in NYC and started a few days ago writing down some memories of Christian while on the subway to work the last few days. I looked up to him and admired him. See below:

Elder Rhineer Memories

I remember the day before leaving the MTC to head to the England Leeds Mission and being excited and incredibly nervous. The next morning we were picked up by our mission president, President Bowen and his two assistants, Elder Chell and Elder Rhineer. I can remember vividly Elder Rhineers smile and up beat attitude that made me feel welcome in an instant.  On the way we found out that we were both from the same home town and that we even knew some of the same people. That first evening in our mission it was customary that all brand new Elders and Sisters would go out on their first teaching experience with more experienced missionary. I got to go with Elder Rhineer, I was so excited. We had an appointment with a African man and I witnessed first hand how powerful of a teacher Elder Rhineer was. He taught and testified of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Restoration. After that experience I made the resolve in my mind to strive to be a missionary like Elder Rhineer. Throughout my mission at Zone Leader councils and Zone Conferences I always looked forward to Elder Rhineers break out sessions. I always was so inspired by his good and smart ideas to teach missionary teaching skills. The reason I was so inspired by him was the ease of which he spoke of the gospel. It was part of him and he was passionate about the work of the Lord. When I was out on my mission for about one year I received a call from my mission president telling me I was to be called to serve as an Assistant to the President and that I would be serving with Elder Rhineer for 3 weeks so I could be trained on all the duties and responsibilities I would be taking over. Three days later Elder Rhineer arrived at my flat to pick me up to bring me into the mission office to get started. On the drive back to the mission office I remember feeling so blessed to have a few weeks to serve with a missionary that I had looked up to so much throughout my mission. During those few weeks I learned so much and had some amazing teaching experiences with Elder Rhineer. I was so grateful that we had people to teach. You hear of Assistants in most missions being stuck on the office  and not getting an opportunity to teach. It was the perfect opportunity to learn from who I looked up to as the ideal missionary and a master at teaching the Gospel. All the missionaries looked up to Elder Rhineer and trusted and he was friends with every single person in the mission. I know he touched each one in one way or another and inspired each one to want to be a more effective servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Elder Rhineer for your example! You are greatly missed here! Keep up the hard work teaching the gospel in the spirit world, I bet you are a great asset to the missionary efforts!!

Sincerely, 

Pete Tidwell