Monday, May 30, 2016

Weeks #65, #66 and #67

This photo actually came a few weeks ago, picture proof that he FINALLY received his Easter package (unlike our other packages, this one got stuck in customs for a few weeks). I just realized I hadn't ever put it up on the blog ... Now for Landon's Letters ... three weeks, combined into one blog post.

ANOTHER change has come and gone.. Too fast!

And as for the changes, I will remain here in Teotlaltzingo for another 6 weeks at least. But my companion Elder Trillo will not. He already left for his new area, and I am here with Elder Villaseñor!  He his my first companion from the capitol of Mexico, know as "Chilango" jajaja.. It is a Mexican joke...  Anyway, just wanted to let you all know briefly of the changes! 

We had quite the busy first week for my companion and I... In the beginning of the week, the both of us were really excited to experience miracles together in Teotlaltzingo. We were finding many new people to teach, visiting them often, working together with the members of the ward, and all that fun jazz. But then the second half of the week, we got sick. :( Fevers, aches.. That kind of fun stuff. That slowed week incredibly.. My company and I feel this has been one of the longest weeks of our missions.  Waking up was the worst part for us being sick. Having such a busy schedule as a missionary doesn't help, but that is why we are here! We continued working for the rest of the week with a lot of help from the Lord. Although on Sunday we were expecting at least 3 investigators that said they would come, none of them came.. But there was a mircale.. We had the expectation for 3 investigators, although the 3 we were expecting to go, didn't go, A brother from the ward brought 3 of his nephews to church! Bam, miracle of the week!

Also on Sunday, we had the chance to give a little training to all the adults in the ward. We decided we needed to work better along side the members of the ward to find investigators that will eventually be baptized. So we had in mind to help the members invite their friends/ family/ work/ neighbors... EVERYONE. Needs the Gospel! So that is my invitation to all of you, to invite someone to church, or whatever church activity this week! If you invite people already, well good for you and keep doing it. 


So the seasonal rain has officially started. Meaning around 3-4 o'clock in the afternoon, if you look to the west, you'd see a clear beautiful and blue summer sky. But if you look to the east... You see the darkest clouds covering the sky, coming your way! Then those clouds usually get to you within the next hour or so. Like right now. It starts so fast! It will sprinkle for about 30 seconds as a warning to seek shelter. Then it is just downpours. We got caught out in the several times this week, getting SOAKED.  

(Cooper and I have put "Puebla" on our weather app, just another small connection to Landon, seeing what the forecast is there on his mission. Cooper happened to glance at this coming week and said "I'm sure glad I'm not there!" (He is doing SO much better with his weather phobia, but that's a lot of lightening!)

So I know... I haven't written a lot lately.. Sorry for that. Hopefully this week's writing was better . I tried to write in my journal again too... but that worked for about a day... Yikes. It is just that there is so much to write about the day, but by the time we arrive to the house, we are exhausted. 

It's been fun to hear about the ducklings at home, and Maga's new kittens.  One of the families we are teaching, one of their dogs had a litter a few days ago. They also look like rats, but I still love to play with them. 
*** Step Stats ***
Monday, May 9 - 19171
Tuesday, May 10 - 11216
Wednesday, May 11 - 9075
Thursday, May 12 - 17199
Friday, May 13 - 18494
Saturday, May 14 - 19830
Sunday, May 15 - 11911
Monday, May 16 - 10117
Tuesday, May 17 - 11232
Wednesday, May 18 - 22921
Thursday, May 19 - 18846
Friday, May 20 - 18125
Saturday, May 21 - 22595
Sunday, May 22 - 10449
Monday, May 23 - 21345
Tuesday, May 24 - 22792
Wednesday, May 25 - 14924
Thursday, May 26 - 21414
Friday, May 27 - 12384
Saturday, May 28 - 13557
Sunday, May 29 - 11561

Cooper is back on top! Our good friends and neighbors, the Maxfields (Terrilynne and Curt) moved this week. We will really miss them! But I'm sure we'll still be seeing them here on Landon's Fitbit Friends list. Uncle Derek may be forgoing his Fitbit for a Pebble .... in which case we will lose him from the Fitbit Friend list too. No Uncle Derek, don't go! Even when Keaton switched to an Apple Watch, we also switched him from a Flex (wrist) to a One (clip on) JUST to keep his step stats here on the list!

Now time for three weeks worth of ...
*** Between Brothers ***

05152016  #65
Dear Landon, I forgot to tell you about a new app that came out that everyone plays. I didn't bother telling you because I thought that you didn't play Clash, but then I remembered that you and Cal Clashed and played Boom Beach. The Clash of Clans people came out with a game called Clash Royale and EVERYONE plays it. I convinced Colton to and while we were waiting at Red Robin a week ago, we heard some people talking about their Clash Royale and I just said to Colton that I wasn't kidding when I said EVERYONE plays it. It's nothing like the gameplay of Clash of Clans though. It has all of the characters as playable troops that you can send in against another player. Each player has 3 towers. If you get all 3 you win. If the timer runs out and it's tied, it heads into 1-3 minutes of overtime. It can still end a draw if you end overtime with a tie. There's an elixir bar at the bottom that can store 10 elixir. The elixir is constantly being filled 1 elixir every 2.8 seconds. Every troop has an elixir cost. Usually, when the timer runs under 1 minute, it will go into double elixir. Cal plays it too, but not Coop. Yo vi Captain America Civil War ayer con mis amigos de basquetbol. It was way awesome! Ant-Man was easily the funniest character. My favorite Marvel character is Spider-Man. He was pretty funny, but it was weird just to see him my age as a superhero and everything. No one died in the movie. Black Panther was way cool. So yeah... the duckies are getting bigger too. Wuv, Keat

Dear Landon, now the 2nd round of the Playoffs are over. It was fun to watch, and now the conference finals are going to be sick. So... OKC wins SAS 4-2, GSW wins POR 4-1, TOR wins MIA 4-3, and CLE swept ATL. I'm VERY surprised the OKC won the Spurs, because I thought that they were going to take the title. Toronto is known for choking in the Playoffs, but Miami were the ones who choked in Game 7. The Raptors got away with like 15 offensive rebounds in the 4th quarter. So the match-ups for the Conference Finals are good, with OKC against GSW and TOR against CLE. I can't wait for the Western Conference Finals, because in the regular season, it was an epic matchup. Although OKC got swept in the season series, they are looking for some payback, and I hope they get it. Some more awards for the NBA have been announced. Steve Kerr won Coach of the Year, Stephen Curry got MVP, and Karl Anthony-Towns got Rookie of the Year. The Fun Run for school was this week, and it was pretty fun. We practiced for it everyday, and I beat everyone in my class... every time. I'm definitely not the fastest in my class, I just have the most stamina, I never stop jogging/running. Then it came to the real Fun Run, and I still beat everyone. This included everyone in the grade, and there is a lot of fast people in 6th grade. Captain America Civil War came out a few days ago, and we finally got to see it. It is an amazing movie that includes basically every Marvel superhero. Ant-Man and Spider-Man were the funniest, but it seemed like they were only in it for the big fight-scene. I also got a new haircut that I have been wanting for weeks. It is good, but my hair might grow back just next week. Ha ha, just kidding, but my hair does grow really fast, so I won't have this haircut for awhile.   Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, just a few hours ago, Dad, Cooper and I went to go see the new avengers movie, Captain America Civil War. Let's just say that iron man and captain america don't get along. Spider man and Ant-Man were both in it. The fun run at school was this week. We had to run a mile and I tied first with my best friend Mason. The ducks have gotten so much bigger already. We let them outside for most of the day and we found like 50 worms for them today. OKC ended up winning the series 4-2 against SAS which is really surprising. Toronto won Miami in game 7 today because Miami really choked. OKC against Golden State is happening tomorrow and I cannot wait! I had three games this week and my last pair of Tuesday games. In the first Tuesday game I did really good in the start. I had 7 of our first nine points. I got a fastbreak layup, left handed layup, and a three pointer! So that is about all of the stuff that I have for this week. Love ya!  ColtBolt
  • Dear Cooper: Haha wow.. you never disappoint! Filling me in with the news of the Playoffs.. Sounds like it is going to be pretty tight! Wow.. The Spurs are already out? Well, makes sense, all of them are pretty old. Haha I remember doing Fun Runs like that. But is it a specific distance that you are running like a mile or something? Or just running until you are exhausted? Haha Captain America Civil War?! Ugh! Dying to see that.. But I will have to wait.
  • Dear Colton: Wow, three games?! Haha that is a lot of playing! Last Monday, we played some basketball (finally) with some other missionaries, and during the game, I made 3 back-to-back 3´s! It was prettys awesome.. Haha I tried for the fourth, but I had already lost the fire.. Hahah
  • (... and the internet wifi went out before he got a letter off to Keaton) 
05222016 #66
Dear Landon, Friday morning I was brushing my teeth and I here Mom yell at the freaking top of her voice, "OH MY GOSH!!!" I was scared for a second as she was stomp-running to the back-yard door and I run out there because I thought that our duckies were out there and that kitten had like killed and eaten every single one of them because , SERIOUSLY, she sounded pissed at something. I booked it out with her only to find Pedra with 13 little moving puff balls. It was really cool, but I was actually mad at Mom for seeming angry because it about gave me a heart attack. She could've been like, "WHOA! LITTLE DUCKIES!"I was tardy to 1st period that day because kitten had knocked over the bucket of worms that Dad had left on the table and I had to clean it up. All 20 ducks are still living in our backyard. Colt and I were playing on the tramp earlier and I did a dunk that kind of moved the hoop, so I tried to fix it but instead I just tipped the whole thing over. We put it back up, but there was this huge hole in the back of the net where the ball kept falling through and off the trampoline, but I fixed it up with paracord. So yeah... Wuv, Keat

Dear Landon, the Conference Finals have started, and it is awesome right now. So the OKC and GSW series is tied at 1-1, and CLE has a 2-1 lead on TOR. I thought that Cleveland was going to go undefeated in the Eastern Conference part of the Playoffs, but Toronto pulled it off in Game 3. OKC won the first game, and GSW won the second one. This is definitely the best rivalry in the NBA right now, and that's why it is always cool to see them in match-ups. After GSW-OKC games. there is something called, "The Dunk King," and it is awesome! They gather 32 of the best dunkers in the world, and they do amazing dunks. They eliminate half of the contestants every night, who have the worst score. Right now the best dunkers are Guy Dupuy and Porter Maberry, and they both have something insane about them. Guy has a 59' inch vertical, 11' inches higher than MJ, the highest vertical leaper in NBA history! And Porter is only 5'5', and he got insane hops. It is coming on later tonight, so that is cool. I got 3 new basketballs, but mom isn't allowing me to use them, unless something happens to them. Like if it has NO grip, or it has a hole in it, but I have already used one of them. We have 13 more ducklings that we were not expecting. So Pedro has been coming back, and right after Colton and I went to school, mom spotted them. They must have been like less than a day old, and they are just little fluff balls. But that has made Pedro overprotective, so if our duckies go near her, she'll yank them by the neck until we stop them.      Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, the Thunder, Warriors series is tied at 1-1 and the Cavs, Raptors series has a lead taken by Cleveland 2-1. Pedro the duck is in our yard with 13 new ducklings! Pedro is really overprotective and will grab our ducks by the neck if they get to close. Pedro wont eat worms from my hand anymore. She also sits on the duckies so they can go to sleep and she looks funny when she does it. Today, one of our duckies Uno, fell in the window well and I had to get him out. There is a cool show going on called the dunk king and it has got some of the best dunkers in the globe. They have been doing some nasty dunks so far and is going to do more tonight! Im playing this game called Clash Royale a lot. Keaton and Callahan play it to but they have much better stuff than me. I don't have anything else to write this week so Love ya!          ColtBolt

05292016 #67
Dear Landon, LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!! We don't have school tomorrow (Memorial Day) and my last two finals are Tuesday for Biology and Geography. I have a 4.0 right now, so I'm not too worried, but still a little scared if I missed anything for any classes. This morning I had gotten up before everybody and I looked out for all 20 ducks. Ours were in the pen by the shed, but I couldn't find Momma duck and her 13. I looked out front and heard her quacking in the neighbors yard that the Hyers used to live in. I found her by the well. I looked down the well and two of her duckies were down there. I was about to jump in to get them out, but she had flown right into my face not allowing me to get anywhere near her babies. I got Mom to block her so I could get down and get the ducklings. When I got them back up, they walked back to our backyard, but Mom and I both counted 12. We looked for the last one, but couldn't find it. It was actually a surprise that we'd finally lost one after a week. Dad told us it was actually a surprise that there were still 12. That's probably why you can't find Momma ducks with more than 10 babies in the canal, because many get killed or lost. Yesterday, Cal wanted to play Mario Kart Wii. He just mentioned that out of the blue. The Wii was in the little boys' room, and that made Cal suddenly not to play. (But it was reasonable because the mixture of cat poop, spoiled litter, and sweaty socks didn't make it the most appealing place.) Mom and I had gotten the Wii out of that room and into the main basement room with the three other consoles. I'm still caught in between Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash. They're both fun. So yeah... Wuv, Keat

Dear Landon, there is one week of school left until summer, and it just seems this year has gone by so fast. I'm definitely going to miss school, because it is my last year of elementary until middle school. I will miss having one teacher, recess, and less kids in the school, but it will still be fun to experience it. The last week is always fun, and since I'm in 6th grade, it is going to be teachers vs students, right after field day. The Dunk King was shorter than I had expected, with only 4 parts, but it was still awesome. They narrowed it down to 4 dunkers to get the $100,000 prize: Jordan Kilganon, Porter Maberry, Kenny Dobbs, and Guy Dupuy. I thought Kenny was going to win it, but I wanted Jordan to win it (b/c my favorite, Gary Smith, was eliminated). They all had INSANE dunks, but Porter at 5'5'' was crowned the champ after he jumped over Shaq, 7'2'', and did a reverse dunk. OKC pulled of a 3-1 lead on GSW, and only 9 teams in NBA history have come back from such a deficit, so I thought they were going to the Finals. GSW pulled away in Game 5 in Oakland, so I was not surprised. But Game 6... was a disappointment for OKC. They were keeping it neck-and-neck the whole time, until the final 5 minutes. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry just went off and went on a 14-4 run to end the game to force a decisive Game 7. Thompson had 11 threes, 1 away from the NBA history record of most threes in a game (Steph tied it earlier in the season against OKC)! And CLE shut TOR down 4-2 as they get their second consecutive Finals appearance. Joy is now 1 year old, as we celebrate her birthday on the same date of Grandpa's at May 28. She is also in heat again and can't stop meowing. But I do like her being in heat 'cause she tends to be more snuggly. Speaking of kittens, Princess, Maga's cat, had kittens! There are 5, and they are tiny and cute. We are now down to 12 ducklings after this week. They had been escaping the house and falling into wells, so someone had to get them. So after a little bit, one probably just got lost or died, but it is pretty sad.  Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, it is now the last week of school and we also have no school tomorrow. I can't believe it's already the near end of school! One of the 13 ducklings has gone missing or have died and we are all kind of surprised that we didn't lose one earlier. We know that the Cavs are going to the finals and OKC started out on a 3-1 lead against the Warriors but they came back and forced game 7 which is happening tomorrow and I can't wait to watch it. Joy is (we think) a year old now! We celebrated her birthday on the same date as Grandpa's birthday. She is also in heat again and WON'T stop meowing and rolling around. But it is really cute and funny. Keaton, Callahan and I have now started playing Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash. In the dunk king, surprisingly Porter Maberry won the whole thing when Cooper and I really thought that Kenny Dobbs was going to win. So that is about all I have this week so Love ya! ColtBolt

Friday, May 13, 2016

Weeks #63 and #64


The District Crew

Well, these last couple weeks, there hasn't been much in the way of Landon's letters. As I got a small (and I mean tiny) note Monday May 2, I realized Landon hadn't mentioned anything about the Mother's Day call. He did send a quick email a couple days later asking if Sunday was better, or if Tuesday (which is Mother's Day in Mexico) would work. I told him Sunday would be best, and so he made arrangements with a family to use an iphone and their wifi (which is pretty rare in his area he said) and we had a Skype session on Sunday.

Skype Selfie

It was good to chat with him for a bit. He mentioned that there have been very few new Elders, that Sister missionaries have been more prominent recently. That the number of missionaries had dropped from about 220 to 130. Not sure if that had to do with the influx of mission applications after the new age announcement tapering off or something else. Landon said both he and his companion had been a bit under the weather (thus lower steps reported) and that everyone has their own family remedies they swear by, but that nothing had been helping really.  At least he didn't leave us having an allergic reaction (as he did during the Christmas call) *Ü*

After talking for an hour, the little boys didn't feel like they had much to write about, so there is no "Between Brothers" week #64, but as I hadn't updated the blog last week, their letters from then are posted below. But first ... catching up on step stats!

 *** Step Stats ***

Monday,April 25 - 18727
Tuesday, April 26 - 16846
Wednesday, April 27 - 18797
Thursday, April 28 - 10519
Friday, April 29 - 22127
Saturday, April 30 - 18840
Sunday, May 1 - 9010
Monday, May 2 - 8681
Tuesday, May 3 - 18111
Wednesday May 4 - 21896
Thursday, May 5 - 9110
Friday, May 6 - 12606
Saturday, May 7 - 19683
Sunday, May 8 - 12949

Finally ... Mommy is at the top of the Fitbit Family list. Although I must admit, it didn't last long. Cooper has surpassed me as of this post, but it was nice while it lasted (for about a day). 






*** From the Brothers ***
May 1, 2016  Letter #63


Dear Landon, ONE OF THE DUCKIES HATCHED! It is so small. It is one of the cutest things on earth! It can already chirp really loud though. It gets really annoying, believe me. One of the other eggs has a pretty good chance on hatching tomorrow. The others are looking fine, but not fine enough. Hopefully more than two eggs will hatch this year. We held a surprise party for Maga's 70th birthday. It was really fun. In the parking lot there was a GOOD basketball hoop and Cooper and I took shots that were really far the only way we can make them was chucking them up one handed. I made 4 of those shots while Cooper only made three, so I "won." Princess, Maga's cat is now pregnant! Anyway, that is what I got for this week. Love ya! ColtBolt

Dear Landon, the 1st round of the Playoffs is officially over, and some things came my way, some others left me kind of upset. So here we go: GSW wins HOU 4-1, SAS wins MEM 4-0, OKC wins DAL 4-1, and POR wins LAC 4-2. The Oklahoma-Dallas series was the one I really cared about, the others not so much. That was the Western Conference, but let's take a look at the Eastern: CLE wins DET 4-0, TOR wins IND 4-3, MIA wins CHA 4-3, and ATL wins BOS 4-2. I am not disappointed in Charlotte, they fought back from not even being in the Playoffs last year, and also forced the Game 7. I think that is all of the Playoff talk for now. So what else has happened this week, oh yeah, DUCKY! One of them has hatched, but we are still waiting for his/her brothers and sisters. The duck is so cute and tiny. SAGE Language Arts is now done because I have finished it. It is probably the hardest for me, because I do struggle in reading, unlike all of my friends. Only four more weeks of SAGE, and five more weeks of school until summer. There was a lot of "Family Stuff" this week. First of all, Maga's 70th birthday. We held a surprise party for her at a church close to her old, old house. Lots of food and people were there along with a slideshow of her life. There was a hoop in the parking lot where Colton and I shot long shots with one hand. I made three, and he made four. We ended up going to their house to have the cake that was at the party, and to find out that Princess (their cat) was pregnant. It would be amazing to see that in a couple of months to see all these little kittens. Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, the first ducky hatched while we were at Chris's house for Waffles and Westwa Welatives (Westra Relatives). I had seen it move the most before we had left. I was sad though because I wanted to see it come out because that is so cool. Maybe we'll get a few more to and I get to them. One of the eggs, we concluded, died about three weeks in. We candled it and it had stopped maturing after the halfway mark. We could possibly get five more duckies! Yesterday was really fun. We had a Birthday Bash for Maga's 70th at the church that she went to when they were living in her first home! I wish we'd had gone to see that house. Cal and I both ate so many pulled pork. We also had the chocolate fountain. My favorite was the bananas. The Washington Blackham's even flew in for Maga! We all had breakfast here this morning. It was really fun. So yeah... Wuv, Keat