Week #49 - Rough Week

I believe I was promised some pictures last letter ... alas, there were none. I figured I snap and share a quick pic of Elder Landon's plaque hanging up at the church (if you can catch me in the reflection, this was taken on a Tuesday after Zumba class, which is held in our building.) Just a small letter this week too ...

Today we were in a combi who was blasting his music, and the speakers gave me a butt massage. It made me miss me miss driving Dad's Tundra ...

This week was pretty rough for us. Very few lessons, a lot of fallen appointments, and other rough incidents (getting locked out of the house, the investigators not coming to church, the cold, and spraining my ankle). So yeah.. But we are getting through it. I miss Elder Acosta truthfully. Elder Cocom is great, super duper humble, but with Elder Acosta were an awesome team. I saw him on Tuesday, the day after the changes, he said that he missed me too... but of course, right?

Tomorrow we have to go to the mission offices in Puebla to get my visa renewed... which means the year mark is close! Ahh!! Haha don't know how to feel about it. Elder Cocom and I will hit the one year mark together! Him on the 3rd, and me on the 18th! So we will have a "party" .. :p

*** Step Stats ***

Monday, January 18 - 22534

Tuesday, January 19 - 21703

Wednesday, January 20 - 15211

Thursday, January 21 - 12847

Friday, January 22 - 18597

Saturday, January 23 25883

Cooper is still a step-monster. He's double everyone else! He gets up early and does some treadmill, then reading while riding the stationary bike. If he can watch a game downstairs (in the gym) he does, walking or jogging instead of just sitting.

I've also been able to raise my stats a bit (finally!) I'll take fourth, for now ... *Ü* Mr. Missionary continues to get pretty competitive steps in his area. The other brothers continue to make the top10. Good to Grandpa Westra in the Top10. He switched from a Fitbit One to a Surge after Christmas (that was a gift from Grandma). 

*** From the Brothers ***

Dear Landon, I don't have much to write this week, but, I'm going to get into the letter, well, Joy is in heat. She is just meowing and rolling around all the time. It snowed big time. It hurts my eyes to look outside because all the whiteness. Now for school, we have a new assignment. We have to do this thing in the IPad called "Raz-Kids." It takes a long time to do. We have to listen, read, and answer 10 questions each week about a long book. Also, I'm on the last level, so it has harder and longer books for me. I found a kind of funny thing that Siri says on the phone, so I ask her what 100 divided by 0 is. Here is exactly what she said, "Imagine you have 100 cookies and you are trying to split them evenly among 0 friends, how many cookies would each friend get? See, it doesn't make sense. So, Cookie monster gets all the cookies. Nom Nom Nom." That is what she says. It's pretty funny. So anyway, that is all I can remember for the week. Bye. Love ya. ColtBolt

Dear Landon, a short week of school this week, so I got a bit more active, like going to Gene Fullmer on Monday. And while I was there I got a new wristband, so I do not feel as bare on my arm anymore. I memorized all of my lines for Shakespeare, but I still don't want to do it because of the costumes and the fact that I have to do it 4 times, possibly 5. The weather was starting to get a lot better, like I was able to play wallball, basketball, and soccer. But the snow just wants to keep on falling, like today... snow sucks. We got a free trial for League Pass and I am really happy about it, but the trial ends today. There were 5 close games that I wouldn't of been able to see if it wasn't for League Pass, and it works downstairs as well, so I could get on the treadmill! I've been reading a lot, and I need to read some informational books for the challenge, so mom and I went to the library. We got, "The Arizona Cardinals, The LA Clippers, Cats, Birds," and, "Jupiter." I only have about 16 books to go on the challenge. I have been playing 2K16 more often, and I play as the Charlotte Hornets. So it has been a fun week, and it has been a year of having Oreo! One more thing, Joy is in heat, so she is meowing so much and rolling around everywhere, it is so cute and funny. Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, I had a double header yesterday in the district league against Copper Mountain and West Jordan. We won both teams by 20+ points. I did particularly good in the West Jordan game. Their two guards were so small, and I kind of felt bad because I got like four steals in a row! One of them lead to an and-one and another one I did an awesome flashy pass to one of our bigs for the bucket. It was fun. One of the refs was garbage and didn't like me at all. I got a 4.0. Maintained it the whole quarter, got A's on all my tests, and got 100% on my essay (because of mom). I still have to continue on my math benchmark that I started on Thursday however. I don't have computer tech anymore. Instead I have gym, and a few periods got switched around. This Thursday and Saturday I play Sunset! They're pretty good. I don't know if you know, but the Adams have now officially moved out and into their new home. I've heard that it's huge, but I haven't seen it. Jake gets back in March! It's barely even seemed like a year for him. Hope it'll be the same with you;) So yeah... Wuv, Keat

• Dear Colton: Hmmm, I can imagine that kitty is a fun situation to deal with.. HEAT.. Science is interesting. Ha! I hate snow, so I am glad that I am not there right now! Wow, that is cool, working on iPad for school! I would love to have an iPad here on the mission, but we don't have such luck.. Haha that is actually pretty funny of Siri! I like that joke!
• Dear Cooper: Another short week? Dang... But here in Tlaxcala, the students of the high school have been off since Christmas! They get a ton of vacation! Haha still rocking it up at Gene Fullmer huh? We played basketball today at the church and I rolled my ankle bad. It hurts. But got to keep working! Ah what fun stuff... Plays... And a Shakespeare play! Horrible! Haha here I have not touched any snow whatsoever.. But we can see some on the mountains near us. But that doesn't mean it isn't cold! It is very cold! Until the afternoon, then you are sweating and have to take off your sweater. Man.. Reading like a best! That is good. I wish I started reading at an earlier age.And of course you are reading sports books too! Sounds like everything is well, so that is good!
• Dear Keaton: Whooping them hard! We played a little basketball today, and it is the same. Because here in Mexico, they don't play a lot of basketball. But they whoop me when we play soccer.. Wow, good job! I think I only got a 4.0 once during my entire high school years. Haha good that you at least admit the help of Mom! Ah gym.. The funnest and easiest class of them all.. I miss it. New house? Hot dang! It will just suck that they are not in the ward anymore.. Boo. But Sister Adams told me that we are still invited to have our Scookie parties! So it is all good! Well.. I am coming up on the one-year mark.. So half way! And they all say after the one year mark, time flies even faster! So.. See you soon!

Week #48 - Big Changes

Gran cambios...Big changes

Well this week was the last week of the change, and with the normal changes that we usually have, we also had some awfully big changes with it! As you may have seen in some photos of the changes posted in the past, we have a big meeting where all the missionaries of the mission who have changes all go to one of the chapels in the mission. It is always a blast, to gather together with your old compañeros and others that you know. BUT... we had an interesting zone conference this Wednesday where it was announced that we would no longer have the changes meeting. That was a big shock for everyone. But we have to remember that it really is inspiration of God, to improve that effectiveness of the mission.

With that, we already know of our changes. I am staying here in Apizaco, but Elder Acosta is finally leaving.  It was been a little bit hard on him after 6 months here. And my new companion is named Elder Cocom. The changes aren't until tomorrow, when Elder Acosta leaves and Elder Cocom will arrive. So I will be sure to get some pictures!  Thanks for everything! Love you all And I will talk to you next week!

*** Step Stats ***

Monday, January 11 - 18716

Tuesday, January 12 - 19966

Wednesday, January 13 - 10473

Thursday, January 14 - 19947

Friday, January 15 - 14510

Saturday, January 16 -22065

Sunday, January 17 - 12788

Well, the step competition has been pretty consistent lately. Cooper has been the king of steps for a while now. Mr. Missionary is walking a lot here in this bigger area, but his brothers stay pretty active with their basketball. Callahan pulled ahead of Landon this week. Neither Colton nor Keaton wear their Fitbits during games, so that does skew their results a bit. 

... I still haven't regained my motivation.

*** From the  Brothers ***

Dear Landon, it's been awhile since I wrote last so a lot has happened, I'll probably miss some things. So first the quarter is almost ending and Language Arts is probably at it's final grade which is a B+, which I'm going to have to live with because that class is so hard to get your grade up. We have taken 25 tests just in that class this semester. We got a PS4 with Battlefront and 2K16 which has been fun, I mean I haven't played it a lot but when I can, I play it quite a lot.  We lost to Bingham the other day off of a buzzer beating dunk by this 6' 10" lanky white kid. Which is rough you know, but what are you gonna do? At KFC we had a meeting the other day about releasing our new, "Nashville Hot" chicken. Which I mean it was okay, it was just spicy crispy chicken. I got the "Most Valuable Employee" over the past 3 months, so I got a pin for my hat and a bow tie. I have been running the shift as manager which was scary the first couple times but now isn't that bad. I have to run the shift this Monday as well. It;s just nerve racking when my deposit is under by a lot or over by a lot.Nashville hot releases today and I'm not sure how that is gonna go either. Anyway, miss you bro, times flying by, the one year marker is just coming up. -Callahan

Dear Landon, everybody wants the space battles, but it doesn't have them. There's just a mode where everybody is in a starship X-wings and A-wings vs. Tie fighters and Tie interceptors with hero power ups as the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1. You can't land or anything. You just spawn as a ship. It's never been laggy on the PS4, it has just exited out of the game due to our network, so it's pretty good. In my district game yesterday we played Fort Herriman. They are kind of like our nemesis because it's gone back and forth throughout the years. I hadn't played too good offensively throughout the game, but I shut down their point guard pretty good. It was a tie game 41-41 with one minutes left and they have the ball. They come down and pass it to my guy and I intercept it and get fouled. It should have been a clear-path foul because I was well ahead of everyone when they fouled me. It was double bonus, so I wasn't that nervous. I go to the line and drain both free throws and we win the game. So yeah... call him Mr. Clutch. Wuv, Keaton

Dear Landon, we had another game in Jr. Jazz and we won the game, but it was definitely tougher. In Jr. Jazz, we are not allowed to full court press, but for some reason they let the other team do, really "blind" refs. It was a really competitive game, 'cause each of us were 5-0, but these players actually argued with the refs, it is just Jr. Jazz! You wanted to know what my favorite team is, it is the Arizona Cardinals. They just won a crazy game in OT last night where there was an insane Hail Mary, but I do like Pittsburgh as well. I'm getting ready for the Shakespeare plays at school, which isn't as bad as I thought it was. I only have 3 lines, which I really like, but one is about a paragraph long. We finally got 2K16 for the PS4 and it is pretty fun. The only thing that is hard to do is the controls. Since I have been used to playing 2K14 on the Xbox, it's a lot harder to control. Other than that, I can't really remember what else had happened this week.    Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, so I did not have a game yesterday which was stupid, but I had one on Wednesday and Thursday, both of those games I got most points. In the first one we lost by 6, the score was 20-14. I got 6 points, One of them I tried to draw the foul, but I made the shot and They did not call the foul. In the second game, we lost, 32-6. We got whooped. But I got 4 of those 6 points. On the PS4 we got NBA 2K16. I haven't played it quite yet though. So the Warriors have lost four times now, to, Bucks, Maveriks, Nuggets, and Pistons. Jazz are 18 and 22. Cooper and I had to go to the dentist to see if we have any cavities. Turns out that neither of us have one so.... yyaaayy! No numb cheeks for me!  So I have like nothing to say because this was a lazy week besides school, but, that mean that is the end of this letter, so......... Love ya!     ColtBolt

Week #47 - Fallen Appointments

Fallen appointments.. Everywhere.. Last week, we had managed to find 15 new investigators, which is super duper awesome. We were psyched to go with all these new people that we have found, but... No one was home. We had a good bunch of appointments already planned for the week, but instead of falling into our hands, they were falling out..Kinda of bummed about it. Anyway that is the update for this week!  Also, it is the last week of the change... will Elder Acosta leave the area, or end up staying in Apizaco for 7 months? Or will Elder Blackham and Elder Acosta have the task of closing the area?  Find out next week!

*** Step Stats ***

Monday, January 4  - 17807

Tuesday, January 5 - 24146

Wednesday, January 6 - 23566

Thursday, January 7 - 22882

Friday, January 8 - 23474

Saturday, January 9 - 16930

Sunday, January 10 - 19337

Mr. Missionary is getting in a lot of steps! I guess that goes hand in hand with a bigger area. Even though his average of 22k a day is impressive, he can't beat 12-year old Cooper! Coop get up every morning and gets in some treadmill and stationary bike before school. He's very active at recess, and then is always quite active at home too. Crazy kid!

I'm still really struggling to get my motivation ...

and my steps up.
Weight seems to stay up without any issue!

*** Between Brothers ***

Dear Landon, Battlefront is also for Xbox 1 and PC, but the bundle that we got was only for PS4. I like the PS4 a lot better than the Xbox though. Travis said that we wasted our money and should have got the Xbox 1 lqtm. Jacob also got the same bundle as well. I don't know if you'll "DOMINATE" because Cal and I are pretty rad at it. It is soooooooo much better than the Battlefront 2 on the PSP lqtm. There are only six heroes though. There's Luke (with his green lightsaber), Han Solo, Leia, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious (doesn't even have his lightsaber; he can just shock), and Boba Fett. They will come with, said to be, four DLC release and with each release will come with one hero and one villain. I hope they do either Episodes 1-3 or 7 because they have better heroes and villains than the original trilogy. Back to school was just as boring as I thought. The quarter ends next week on Thursday, so I hope I can keep up my A's till then. Dad put a new lock and doorknob on the front door because it was hard to open since it was all sticky and stuff. Now it's way easy to open, and we could put in a code to lock it from the outside and unlock it. Dad said we could also do it with our phone. So yeah... Wuv, Keat

Dear Landon, this week of school pretty fun, besides all of the snow and tests and stuff. I am doing the science fair and I'm doing and underwater volcano, and I'm almost done. Jr. Jazz is also back, we got the win, and I had a good game with 4 points, 3 assists, 3 offensive rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block. Now the teams are based upon their records, and we are still undefeated so we will be facing other undefeated teams in the near future. They finally made me take off my bracelet in the game. We are not allowed to play with them on, but I had this one on for 4 month. 4 MONTHS! I'm getting a lot more active again and hitting the treadmill as much as I can, and I have been averaging nearly 28000 steps everyday. The Jazz are still in a Playoff position, and they lost 3 out of 4 games this week because of the most blind refs ever. Jeff Withey went inside for a dunk and missed to tie the game, but what the refs didn't see and everyone actually saw, he got hit by two people, totally clear to see, and missed the call. Derek and Danielle had their baby! Her name is Noelle and is 5 pounds and 6 ounces. We still haven't seen her yet, but we probably will sometime soon. The NFL Playoffs are going on right now, and yesterday there was an insane game of Bengals and Steelers, They are my 2nd and 3rd favorite team, and it looked like Steelers were going to take it home until the fourth quarter happened. It was 15-0, then Bengals were coming back. They ended up taking the lead at 15-16, and then the Steelers through an interception. I was really happy. But... Jeremy Hill ended up fumbling the ball giving Pittsburgh another chance to win the game. They weren't close enough for field goal range, then penalties, penalties, penalties. The penalties got them within field goal range, then they kicked and got the field goal to go. The final score was 18-16. There is another game on right now, so I should get back to watching it. Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, I had a basketball game this week, three to be exact. In the first one we won, but i forgot the score. I got two points and I think three assists. In the second, we lost 15-13 and I got two points and I don't remember how many assists. In the last one we won, 32-29. It was close. I made a three pointer but it only counted as two points because the refs seemed blind. But in the first minute of the game, I got 3 assists! Throughout the whole game, I got around five assists. A really good three point shooter on their team I think sprained his ankle. he had to get carried out. He got injured when there was only 11 seconds left so unlucky for that team. I have been playing Battlefront a lot lately, it is SO fun. However I still have a bit to tell you, I am looking forward to getting back to being lazy, so..... Love ya. Colt

• Dear Keaton: It is true that the PlayStation service is better than Xbox Live, because it is free! Right? That is how I remember it.. Heroes mode.. I remember it being pretty fun, but I love the space battles more! They have got that too, right? I hope so.. Haha I was wondering how long it would take for him to buy one of those.. Soon, everything in the house will be remote controlled! Wait.. almost everything is already remote controlled!
• Dear Cooper: Wow, quite impressive that you guys are undefeated! Good for you guys! Really you can't play with any kind of bands during a basketball game...other than sweatbands. But those are weird. So who is your favorite team? I really don't have a preference, unless someone asks me. I will say "Go Steelers" because Dad is from Pittsburgh, so I am not a ban wagon! Let me know who advances to the Super Bowl!
• Dear Colton: Three basketball games?! That is more than Callahan at this point, isn't it? At least you are having fun, right? That is what is most important! Here in my area, we play almost every Monday, and we have played quite a bit of baskeyball! I am horrible now.. But I still enjoy it. Lucky duckies you guys to have that game!

Week #46 - Good New Year

Well New Year's here, we went with a family for a little bit of dinner, but we had to be back home at 9 (we still got home a little late..). But the following day, there was nothing.. It was a ghost town! We really had nothing the whole day.. But since this week continued the school break, we found a lot of new investigators and had a lot of lessons! This week we found 15 new investigators, and the total for the other 3 weeks of the change is 6! So yeah.. Pretty good week for us! We are pretty excited for that, all the success that we have had! Pretty good week for us. And good to hear that you guys had a good new year as well! I will send you photos of journal entries later.. For there is no time. I have included the steps at least! Te amo!

*** Step Stats ***

Monday, December 28 - 12809

Tuesday, December 29 - 22577

Wednesday, December 30 - 16813

Thursday, December 31 - 16773

Friday, January 1 - 16518

Saturday, January 2 - 20798

Sunday, January 3 - 9929

Cooper definitely got back to stepping this week, averaging almost 25k a day! Landon's steps are pretty impressive, and that put him in 2nd place. The brothers made the Top10, and I moved up a bit, although still "lazy" compared to where I was a few months ago. 

Landon said he might not have time to answer the brothers every week, but he did this week ...

*** Between Brothers ***

Dear Landon, I cannot believe that winter break is about over! Now I will have to head back to school. My basketball season is starting again though! Speaking of basketball, I got our new jerseys. For my Salt Lake wolves super league team. They're so cool. We got Jerseys and shorts. So Cooper figured out that Alec Burks is going to be out for a month or two. We got a PS4 because Keaton and Callahan wanted to get this game called "Star Wars Battlefront" which is very awesome. It's so fun. Cooper and I play a gamemode called Heros vs Villains. The gamemode is kind of hard to explain so I not going to. We went to Gene Fullmer a lot of times over the break. It was really fun. Anyway, That is all I can recall for this fast going week. So, Love ya,      Little guy Colt. 

Dear Landon, I had a good last week of 2015, and the last week of not having school. It has almost been a year now that we have had Oreo! I remember when we got him when dad was away, and he was a bit surprised to see a kitty in the house. And I also have this wristband from the school carnival which was a long time ago. Do you know those wristbands you have to wear at Jump'n'Bounce or at Gene Fullmer? Yeah, I have one of those from the second or third week of September, I still have it on from all of that time. The Jazz are still hanging on to their Playoff spot at the seventh seed in the Western Conference. They have been plagued with injuries these past few months, with Alec Burks with a broken fibula, Derrick Favors with back spasms, Rudy Gobert with a grade II ankle sprain, and Dante Exum with aa torn ACL. Callahan was talking about getting a PS4 because he was playing the game Star Wars Battlefront at his friends house, and he thought it was really fun. At first I thought he was kidding, but then we actually got our own PS4. We are keeping the Xbox, but we have something to switch in between the two. We only have Battlefront right now, but we will get NBA2K16 sooner or later. We have all gotten our Gene Fullmer Passes to use these two weeks. We were just in the mood for basketball so we didn't go swimming, in spite of getting some goggles on christmas. I've been watching NFL games a lot more often, and Sunday is my day to relax, and that is the day most of the games are on, so if you excuse me, I am going to get back to the game I'm watching. Sorry, hope you have a great 2016!    Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, Cal and I bought a PS4 just to play Star Wars Battlefront III. And it was SO worth it!! It is the best game that I've played in forevers. It was Callahan's idea to get it because he played it at Tanner's house and loved it. I showed Cooper and Colton some gameplay, and both of them were like, "eh." But then, I was like, "WHAAAT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Then they was like, "cool." When we got the PS4, I had to set it up and enter all the gamertag information. I did make us MrBlackhamster though, and our information is all Landon Blackham because I just thought it would be weird if it was Keaton or Callahan Blackham because all of our cool stuff is Landon Blackham. I had to set it up because Cal doesn't know squat about doing that kind of stuff, so I'm the new "Landon of the house." :P When we started to play it though, Cooper and Colton came in and watched us and were like, "huh, that's kinda cool." and I was like, "I know, huh." and they were like, "Can I try?" and I was like, "Suuuure maaaan." then I was like, "I told you so it's awesome." and they were like, "... yeah." We didn't unplug the Xbox, it's just on a different channel. Cooper and Colton got so into Star Wars that they wanted to watch the movies again. Star Wars is LYFE! Kitten got on top of the Christmas tree and she was about to fall down, so I tried to catch her, but she scratched my left pinky finger kind of bad. Funny to see you using the oreo cookie-dipper. We got some of those too. Christmas vacation is over. So yeah... BATTLEFRONT!! Wuv, Keaton

• Dear Colton: I bet that you guys enjoyed your time without school! Wow, super league huh? Pretty snazy stuff! Haha Keaton said that you guys were quite sketical with the game.. But it is pretty awesome isn't?! I haven't even played it, but from the game for PSP, I LOVED that, so on a big screen, with a ton better graphics? AWESOME without a doubt! Haha well enjoy it for me while I am gone!
• Dear Cooper: Huh, wow that is right! Almost a year with Oreo! Judging from the pictures, he definitely looks quite big! I guess by now his is full size. Wow, a Playoff spot for the Jazz?! That is pretty awesome! Hopefully they can hold on to it with so many players sitting out.. A PS4..... NO MANCHES! (ARE YOU KIDDING?!) Now I want to come home.. Haha just kidding. I can wait another 13.5 months. Can you believe that? Almost a year since I left home! Crazy right!
• Dear Keaton, Hahahahahahaha... I was wondering how long you would last until buying it! Is it only for PS4, or did you and Callahan just want to spend money? ;) A little surprised that Callahan wanted it that bad too, because usually he is all basketball! Well sounds like a pretty awesome late Christmas present for the family! Play it lots before I get back, becase I will then DOMINATE! maybe...

Week #45 - Last Letter of 2015

It was the first Christmas in the mission, and it was a blast!

On Christmas Eve, we had the opportunity to have our mission Christmas Conference! 

Playing games, singing Christmas songs, and eating out!

 It was sure awesome!

Then for Christmas, we first were told to give service until lunch. So we went with a family of the ward and helped them out to mow their lawn.. And it was a big lawn too.. We then eat out with them too. Then we left to go with another family who let us use their computer so that we could make the call home! So of course that was fun. :)

Anyway, hope everyone was able to enjoy Christmas this year.. I know I did, being able to serve the Lord here in Puebla (although I am technically in Tlaxcala right now.. jeje)

Love you all!

When we Skyped with Landon on Christmas Day, the family he was with was feeding him some yummy treats. He was consuming them during our conversation. At one point he looked off camera and asked a question ... were there walnuts in that dessert? Yes. Landon is allergic to walnuts (all nuts). Not life threatening, but I could tell it was affecting his throat as we finished up, and he didn't have any medication on hand, so I was anxious to hear that he was all right with his next letter.

To Mommy: 

I actually just waited it out. Later in the night, after we went home and went to bed, I had a lot of pain in the stomach.. I thought I was going to barf for a bit, but nothing happened. But as you will read in the journal entries, the next day, I ate nuts again.. It was in this mole salsa, and I just tried to power through. That was not a wise idea. That time we went home to take some Benedryl because it was really bugging me. But don't worry, nothing too serious! Well thanks again for the presents! I love my good supply of mustaches.. ;)

I was so glad he'd received his Christmas package from us in time! I'd gotten it off quite late, but the My Missionary Shipping service got it to the mission home in TWO days. So he did get it for Christmas! He had requested a digital picture frame filled with photos from home. I included a pedometer (that I'd purchased when he thought he lost his ... he found it again, but I figured I'd send the new one again for backup). Then we filled the box up with his favorite stuff (Oreos and Reeses) and some little toys and trinkets (like the mustache glasses pictured above). 

*** A Peek in the Journal ***

• Sunday 1220: First normal Sunday here in Apizaco. Church starts at 12:00, finally! In every one of my areas we have started at 8 in the morning. But ... in January in changes ... to 8:00. It was the confirmation of Fred and Akjadra in Sacrament Meeting. In the evening, we found an investigator! Good way to start the week. 
• Monday 1221: P-Day, yea! We started off by cleaning a bit, then when to the church to play soccer and basketball. It was so good to finally play basketball again, It was more than three months since I last played. After playing for a couple hours, we went to the store, and I got a haircut. We went to write home, but it didn't work! When we tried to login, it just showed "Error".  Our district leader said he was having problems too. So he told us to get to work and we could check in the morning. 
• Tuesday 1222: A lot of riding in combis today. We went to visit Hna Coral, who lives in Ixtacamsticlan, which is in the middle of the mountains. It is an hour driving in the combi, then another hour climbing through them. But it was worth the ride to visit this family. Later, we were able to use the internet to write home.
• Wednesday 1223: A bit of a long day as we didn't have any citas, just a lunch with members. We went to the church for our correlation meeting, but no one showed. There was a pretty fun activity going on at the church ... tacos, bounce houses and IronMan3. We only participated in the tacos ... ;)
• Thursday 1224: Christmas Eve, and it was awesome. We had to leave early to catch a bus to the Capo for the Christmas Conference. We started out with a little breakfast, which included some Krispy Kreme donuts. Then the games started. First, it was a basic relay race, carrying an orange on a spoon from point A to point B. After several rounds (and several accusations of cheating) the tiebreaker was between Pres. Nelson and Hna Nelson, with Hna Nelson representing out side. She suited up in her tennis shoes! It was surprisingly intense, and Hna Nelson won it for us. The second game was a memory game, which again resulted in a tie (and our group won it again!). There was a third "12 Days of Christmas" game, which we lost, then one last "Cat and Mouse" game. After that we began to sing a variety of Christmas songs (in English) ... and it turned into another competition, although no one was declared a winner. Then things cooled down. A few missionaries bore their testimonies, then it was time to head home.
• Friday 1225: Christmas! We had permission from President Nelson to sleep in until 7:00. Sure, it's only a half hour more, but it was great. For our service, we met up with Hno. Gutierrez. Mi compa was using the lawnmower and I was using the edger and we cut all the grass. It was a lot of grass by the way! Then we helped them construct a chicken coop. After working, the family brought out a series of pinatas. Not just for the kids, but for everyone! Then we played volleyball, not with a net, just to see how many volleys we could get ... I believe the high was 47. Then we went to the home of the Perez family to make the call home. It was great. The only bad thing was that I ate this apple dessert that had nuts. Haha, oh well. Merry Christmas!
• Saturday 1226: Pretty slow day today ... at lunch I accidentally ate nuts AGAIN. We visited with some families, met up with Fred at the church, then had an appointment with Angel, but he disappeared! We taught his mom and brother and she did say things had been better with their family. As we left, we found Angel with a friend and it was obvious he had been drinking. 
• Sunday 1227: A pretty good Sunday today, except that my compa was feeling sick. We went to church, then to lunch, then to work. While contacting and looking for a referral, we found a woman who accepted to listen and said we could come again tomorrow. We had a couple other appointments too. Our last contact was very kind and nice, but it appears she only wants to listen out of curiosity. We we see how it goes!

*** Step Stats ***

Sunday, December 20 - 12830

Monday, December 21 - 24486

Tuesday, December 22 - 23489

Wednesday, December 23 - 17022

Thursday, December 24 - 15433

Friday, December 25 - 10855

Saturday, December 26 - 16845

Sunday, December 27 - 19243

That's a bit of a shift in Step Stats this week. Taking the top spot is Uncle Shane! They are moving and all the packing (and no chairs to sit on) got him more than his usual steps. Cooper slowed down ... and I barely made the Top10 myself! Callahan's Zip hasn't recorded several days when he worked and was active, so I'm sure he would have actually been in there somewhere. Hopefully I can regain my #1 spot when we return to the routine in January. 

*** Between Brothers ***

Dear Landon, I don't have that much to say because we Facetimed on Christmas. I'm mainly going to be talking about Christmas, well of course. I did get a few presents. We went to Grandmas' house on Christmas Eve, I opened my present there and got a flashlight. That's right, a flashlight, every year! But I did have fun there anyway. The day after, we went to Magas' house. I had one present there and it was Utah Jazz shorts! And the presents I got here at home were, basketball shorts, Trey Burke jersey, red elite socks, and two t-shirts. And in my stocking there was, magnetic putty, worlds largest gummy snake, and a lot of stuff that I can't remember. We brought this game to Magas' house called, Pie Face. I only got whipped cream in my face like a million times. There was a game Jazz game, LAC against Jazz. LAC ended up winning because they gave Alec Burks a concussion as well as an ankle sprain. Well, that is about it for this week. Anyway, love ya, Colt 

Dear Landon, it was really fun to Skype with you on Christmas, but it wasn't really long considering it was only forty minutes. And I only got to talk to you about the BYU vs Utes game. Anyway, I got plenty of good things for Christmas, starting out, I got a monthly pass to Gene Fullmer at the start of Winter Break. I got a big bruise on my knee the first day we were there when we were playing with some other people, but I still wanted to play. And for Christmas, I got a PassBack Football, wallballs, two pairs of joggers, swimming goggles, a Gordon Hayward Jersey, a new t-shirt, and these things called HotSnapz which are awesome. My favorite present was the PassBack Football, because when you throw it against the wall, there is bouncy kind of end to the ball, so it'll come back straight to you. The Christmas eve party was fun, we watched the Westra slideshow from the throughout the year, the Candy Bar Game, and just the party itself. I got a card from grandma and it had a $20 gift card to Amazon. The next day we went to Maga's house and I got some Utah Jazz socks which were pretty cool, then the day after that I went to the Jazz Game. It was a really close game, but the Clippers ended up winning at the end. But the Jazz would have won if the Clippers hadn't of given Alec Burks a concussion a a bad ankle sprain, or if Derek Favors wasn't injured as well. Love, Cooper

Dear Landon, I know that you know I've seen Star Wars, but you didn't know that I've now seen it three times. And it is awesome EVERY TIME! I've also watched some of the other Episodes again because that's just the right thing to do. For Christmas I got Boba Fett slippers, a magnetic pen/stylus, the new Copper Hills hoodie, some new ties, colored pencils for school, magnetic silly putty, and some awesome Jazz socks that Maga gave to me. Cooper got a Jazz voucher-thing so he can go to any home Jazz game this season, or something like that. Tyler got season tickets to the Jazz and tonight he had three extra tickets to the Jazz, Clippers last night, so he took me, James, and Cameron (some basketball friends). Dad and Coop took us there and all six of us were in the lower bowl! Also on Tyler's Twitter, he follows the NBA on it, and there was a picture where you can see us four! We were really blurry and it was a picture of Paul Pierce. In the 4th quarter, some guy on the Clippers missed both of his freethrows. Chick Fil A has a deal with the Jazz that if the away team misses two free throws in one pair, then they'll give everyone there a free chicken sandwich. They don't hand them out at the arena though. You have to go to Chick Fil A the day after and show them your ticket and they'll give you one. However, today Chick Fil A was closed, so we'll go tomorrow. It'll probably be crazy. It was really funny and way fun. Good to see you on Christmas. I talked to Bro Adams today, and he said that he got to Facetime/Skype Jake for two hours! Also when Bro Seewer was taking me home today, he said they got to for an hour. That's messed up maaaaaaaaan. Jk jk. So yeah... Wuv, Keaton