Sunday, June 26, 2016

Week #70 - Meetings, Rain and Father's Day

This week wasn't quite as productive as the last, maybe because we lost quite a bit of time to meetings. I had an interview with the mission president at the stake center on Tuesday, Wednesday was our weekly planning, Thursday was Zone Conference ... nothing on Friday, so that was our best day. 

Tuesday after my interview, it was a downpour! It was NUTS. We wanted to wait it out, but we didn't have that option. Within seconds of leaving the stake center, we were soaking wet. So that was super fun ;)  The Zone Conference was probably the highlight of the week. One of the topics was marriage. Not for US missionaries of course, but for investigators, as living in a "free union" is common here in Mexico. If we can help investigators who are living together get married, baptisms would easily double! Especially for us (as I'll outline below). Sunday, we were only expecting two investigators to come, but we had a surprise of two others. That was pretty awesome.

To give a little update on the people we are working with. Gabriela is doing great. She is excited, we are excited and the whole ward is excited for her baptism coming up on Saturday. Evsevia accepted a baptismal date for the 23rd of July. We didn't get to see her this week, and she didn't make it to church though. Omar and Marisol are also doing well. We are hoping the 23 of July will also be a date they get married! As soon as that happens, Omar can be baptized. Another person to mention is Elizabeth, a young mother of two adorable little girls (ages 6 and 4). Right now she and her "husband" (they aren't married either) are living with her in-laws who are members. Elizabeth is desperately seeking, but scared to come to church. 

Happy Father's Day back home! Feliz dra de Padre! Here in Mexico we've seen too many families and children with no father present. I know I have been blessed to have my father in my life. He is one of the greatest teachers and mentors I have ever known. I know I wouldn't be who I am today without my father.




*** Between Brothers ***

Dear Landon, this week Cal and I are gonna be in Dixie! We leave tomorrow at 6:30 in the morning. It's going to be really hot all week long too. Like 110! Yesterday Shane and Alicia and the Jensen family came over to see the duckies, and today we're going to the annual Father's Day party at Scott and Amy's. This morning I drove on the roads for the first time. It was really easy because no one was out. It was like a 30 minute drive and I went on 3 freeways. The freeways weren't hard at all. The only thing that I still kinda struggle with is overturning. I usually turn too fast and everything in the car gets yanked. So yeah... Wuv, Keat

Dear Landon, The Finals has taken an unexpected turn and it is going into Game 7 at Oakland. The Cavs were facing elimination, and they did what they had to do and won two straight. And in both of those games, LeBron stepped up and got 41 points, not just one game, but two. He is leading every player in every stat in The Finals right now which means even if they lose, he still deserves Finals MVP. And a lot more basketball at the church. I'm wanting to learn more drills to do there,because it is fun to do them. I learned something in which you hold a tennis ball/racquetball in one hand and bounce a basketball in the other. While dropping the small ball, you do a dribble move and catch the small one before touching the ground, because you don't want it to bounce more than once. It's kind of complicated, but I caught on quickly. And I have been doing more drills involving dribbling two balls, which I think is fun to do, and helps with your ball-handling. Colton and I have been playing on the tramp a lot lately doing the ten-second game. It's basically like the five-second game in the living room that I've told you about, but on the tramp. It's so much more fun too, because we can dunk and block so much more. And I always posterize him and give him a dirty look after because it's funny. And he always trash talks me like he owns the game, but I will just swat him and he will forget about what he said and be scared of me.      Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, well we just finished watching the Game 7 of the finals and surprisingly Cavs pulled it off. They came back from a 3-1 lead and won game 7 by four points! Cooper keeps on joking that all of the Golden State fans are going to turn into Cleveland fans. Kyrie hit a clutch three with a minute left for the lead. When they got ball back, Kyrie fed Lebron for a dunk that he got fouled hard and hurt his shooting hand. He made only one of the free throws but still won the biggest game of his life. Cooper and I have been playing a lot on the tramp and doing fun things. Today I blocked him a lot but he is still much better than me. I really don't have much to say this week because nothing big happened besides the finals and that is the thing I really wanted to tell you about. Anyway, love you man!            ColtBolt

  • Dear Keaton: Ah, Dixie, I'm sure basketball camp will be fun, but 110°? Be careful! You guys can be cooked alive at that temperature! I can't believe Dad took you driving on roads already. It's pretty cool behind the wheel huh? It will be weird for me to drive again when I get back, as I haven't driven for two years! Maybe I'll be as bad as you!
  • Dear Cooper: Wow, I had completely forgotten the status of the finals! I just remember when it was 3-1 and thinking "Oh yea, Golden State's gonna take it" but boy was I wrong! Sounds like LeBron REALLY wanted another ring. Mom has mentioned all your practicing and drills, you are going to be a wicked-sick dribbler with mad skills! You guys and your games, they're sure silly, just don't let it get too intense!
  • Dear Colton: I've heard a lot about the finals! Pretty crazy right? You know, I'd almost forgotten we even had a trampoline at home. It's good that you boys are using it.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Weeks #68 and #69

Sorry no letter last week, we were super sick but we finally got better and back to work. This last week was a lot better for us. I thought I'd share a little bit about who we are working with ...

Evsevia is about 30 years old with three kids. She has already talked to the missionaries a while back, but they only talked that one time. She came to church with us on Sunday.  Oman and Marisol ... Marisol is a member, reactivating in her old ward, Oamr, her husband is investigating the church. They moved here about three weeks ago. They are a very young couple, but they are living together, not married (common in Mexico). They came to church Sunday too. Then there is Alvario, a young man, 21 years old. We've known him for a while but just had the first lesson with him on Wednesday. He told us he's had an addiction problem since he was 10 years old.

Sunday almost the entire stake presidency and leaders of every organization showed up to our services. There were good talks the first two meetings, but then in priesthood, the stake president chewed out the priesthood holders of Teotlaltziana. It is a little surprising it is a ward, not a branch, but the stake president basically said that if attendance doesn't go up, if there aren't more full tithe payers and more people going to the temple that they will close the ward and divide the area into the neighboring wards. Yikes! I was a little worried about Omar, it being his first time and him not even a member, but he seemed okay. 

We had a district activity which was pretty fun. My companion and I took charge and made a quite successful "Minute to Win It" type activity. And just a quick shoutout to my Mom ... in the latest package I received, there was a little plastic frog game. When I saw them, I honestly thought "Ha, when sill I ever use these?"  But now I think that they are awesome. How we played, was everyone had their own frog and one by one they would try to make it into a little dish. We've now played with members, investigators and other missionaries. It is a hit! Who knew?

I guess that's it for this week.
Love you all. 






*** From the Brothers ***

06052016 #68

Dear Landon, now school is out. This week I had two really cool games. One was the championship against a team called Mayhem. They were are only loss throughout the whole season and we were their only loss. They started out the game with a 15-0 lead. We came back at the half still losing by 7, 21-28. At the end of the game, we lost by four points. 30-34. We almost won the title but we played good. One of Princess's kittens died. It is really sad. now there are only four little kittens. I got to hold one though. The Mamma duck and the babies left too, but we still have our six ducks. The warriors beat the Thunder to go to the Finals. Golden State took game one against the cavs and are probably going to go all the way for two years straight. That is all I got for this week so Love ya!          ColtBolt

Dear Landon, well the last week of school is over, and summer is finally here. I will miss school because I got to hang out with my friends everyday and play basketball. But in summer, I won't be doing it everyday. The school talent show was cool, and field day was really fun, and the hot weather is just amazing. We got our report cards, and I got all 4's once again in this term. So throughout the entire year, I only got two 3's, which I'm proud of. GSW won OKC in Game of the Conference Finals, which I'm ticked off about. You're up 3-1, but still manage to lose 3 straight, losing another trip to the Finals. And KD is a free agent this year, so this could mean he could go next year to a team that is worthy of going to the Finals. GSW won Game 1 of the Finals against CLE, but I don't really care who wins it. Memorial Day was fun, and I was out of the house for most of it. We went to Maga's house first to see the kittens. They are opening their eyes a little bit more, and we are now allowed to hold them. But Maga told us that one of them died and I didn't know about it, which is really sad. It was the yellowish one, and Maga thought it was just not laying down by them, but it was cold. She tried to start her up again, but it didn't work. R.I.P. little fella. After visiting them, we got Jamba Juice. I got the pineapple flavored on, and it was delicious. They are kind of like the smoothies we make from time to time here at home. Then we went to the Memorial Day cemetery. It was huge, and we got to find our great grandpa's name on one of the WWII signs. And that basically summed up this week.     Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, Dad got the new iPhone SE. It's pretty much just the quality of an iPhone 6S inside of an iPhone 5 body. When he was waiting for it to come release he was using the Samsung Note 5. Now that he's got the SE, I got his old iPhone 6. It's so much better than my old phone. I finally got the Touch ID for my phone, but it doesn't always work for me. Still, a much better phone than the 5. School is over and I got a 4.0 the entire year! For some of the 9th graders, we went to the Presidential Achievement Award ceremony. They gave out awards to one boy and one girl in each category, but not everyone got one. I actually got the PE award for most athletic and good sportsmanship nominated by my teacher. Thursday was Lagoon day for the 9th graders, but I didn't want to go. Instead, I just got a month pass to Gene Fullmer. So yeah... Summer! Wuv, Keat



06122016 #69

Dear Landon, I didn't have much to write this week cause nothing really happened. Right now, Warriors have a 3-1 lead against Cavs and will win. But for the Warriors in Game 5 they are not going to have Draymond Green with them. Cooper and I have been going to the church a lot to play basketball because Mom's Zumba instructor is going to be gone and she gave mom a key. There is this fun game I got called MYNBA2K16. It is really fun but I played it so much that it started to get boring. My basketball season isn't going to start up again for four weeks. As I said, I didn't have really anything to write this week anyway, Love ya!            ColtBolt

Dear Landon, The Finals are almost done as Golden State has a 3-1 lead on Cleveland. Everybody expected a rematch and Cleveland having a chance, because last year they had no Irving or Love. But now they have no excuses, and they have to win or go home. One thing I can't wait about this year is the free agency. A lot of big names are standing out like: KD, Lebron, Drummond, DeRozan, Whiteside, Howard, Wade, and Rondo. It will be weird to see some of them next season in different jerseys. I got back into a game called MyNBA2k16, and it is really addicting. You get all of these different cards of NBA players from the past or the present, and go against other people. There are common, uncommon, rare, super rare, ultra rare, epic, legendary, star, and playoffs cards. It's always so fun to draft cards and get the good ones. Mom's Zumba instructor will not be at the church all of this summer, so she gave the keys to the church to her, so we could go there and play basketball from time to time. So now we won't have to go to Gene Fullmer that is always packed and no room for us to play. It was a basketball packed week this week, and it might be that way every week. And I'm fine with that.      Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, we went to see the kittens today at Maga's and all of them have finally opened their eyes. They're so cute and light and one of them crawled into my shirt. My team at the U of U tournament made it to the semi-finals and ended up having our first loss during single-elimination. We had beat 5 other teams before Highland, but all of their players were 6' and either black or bearded. So what do you expect lqtm. This week we got the CH training camp to get ready for Dixie next week. It's not really fun because it's pretty much practice with JV and Varsity. I'm excited for Dixie next week except that the weather said that it should be about 110 degrees everyday we're there. The new update for Battlefront is coming close. It'll release on the 5th of July, so I just barely played it today for the first time in a while. It's still way fun! So yeah... Wuv, Keat