Joyeux Noël

This week was a blast! We had Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Elder O's birthday all in one week. Now we'll have New Year's Eve and New Year's Day this week. Let's just say there have been a lot of piñatas.

I'm glad things are going well at work for Dad and you are all having so much fun this Christmas season.

I'm also so glad I could talk with you on Christmas! It's such a blessing to have the technology available to talk with you guys face to face from so far away. I look so forward to talking with you all in just four short months!

Alex sure is such a fun cousin. What a riot it must be to have so many fun cousins together for basically a week straight.

Christmas was full of lots of food and so many nice members who shared their Christmas with us.

 Our Christmas tree, which we plan to leave up forever.  We found lots of random Mexican things to decorate the tree with.  Also, I discovered that the Costa Rican flag folded in half looks like a French flag.

 We spent the Christmas week trying to hide from the heat and sun.  Not like any Christmas I have ever experienced.

 Elder O's birthday celebration!

Almost Christmas!

Yesterday Club America won the Mexican league championship! Number 1 team in Mexico! I'm a happy camper. There were a lot of people last night driving around in pickup trucks throwing Fireworks and shouting, ''America! America!’'

The game was apparently fun to watch because the other team started to get really frustrated, threw some punches, and three players got ejected, basically handing the win over to America. America is now the all-time record holder for Mexican championships!

I'm really grateful I went to Mexico on the mission. It has taught me that worrying about your daughter because she won't practice the piano is possibly the easiest trial somebody could hope for. I look so forward to raising a family and having all of those Little things come up. It's a lot easier than things I see people here having to deal with.

Transfer news! Elder Ortiz and I will be together until the first week of February, so we'll be celebrating Christmas together.   Vamos a festejar como unos ticos locochones (a tico is somebody from Costa Rica).

I randomly ran into my old companion this week!

Can't wait to talk to you guys on Christmas.

Club América

I'm glad that Zacky dude made some sweet money selling cocoa last weekend.  What a cute kid.

I love the coke can Nativity you sent me. It knocked my socks off. That's both outrageously hilarious and outrageously Mexican.  I love how it takes all of Christmas down to the basics.  Nothing fancy to distract from the true meaning of Christmas.

The weather in Poza Rica has been quite pleasant these past few weeks. It's a nice place to be in the winter because it's just hot enough to be enjoyable without being overly scorching.

I'm not playing as much soccer in Poza Rica as I did in Xalapa (with Elder Valdès that was basically a requirement for Mondays), but I still do enjoy playing. Our recent converts all like Club America and they're keeping me updated on the league results. Looks like America might win it all this year! That'd be fantastic.

My package was already in Xalapa but President is waiting until the Christmas conference on the 18th to hand over all the packages. I sure hope I will be with Elder Ortiz for Christmas!

Don't worry, Mom. In just 4 months and 20 days you can talk all day long with me and hear my voice as much as you'd like. I'm not quite sure what I'll even talk about but I will likely tell all the mission stories I can remember.

I sat down last week with the David Lanz book and played through the whole album. Hurray muscle memory!

A random nighttime selfie.

 Taking a picture of a man taking a picture of a duck.

 I had my first barbecued steak this week.  I miss America.

 Club América is in a position to win the finals this week.  We are all excited about that.

 My buddy loves Club América as well.

 I'm still not too great at dribbling the ball, but I can actually kick it now.

 Mondays we play fútbol in the mornings, and it is always so fun to do something different.