HUMP DAY!!!!

Familia, amigos, y otros,

Hows everything going??  This week has been pretty good.  Yesterday was my halfway mark here in the CCM which is pretty exciting.  In a short 3 weeks I'll be in Nicaragua!  This week flew by, and I had a pretty good time here.  The food still was terrible, and I was privileged to have sour milk again this morning but all is well!  No new missionaries in casa 42 so that means we still have the open bathrooms.  Everyone is probably laughing that I'm so grateful for 2 extra bathrooms but you have no idea how useful they are.  I'll walk you through my week.

On Friday it was just a normal day, nothing really happened.  I've gotten to know my zone pretty well so we just hang out and play some cage during our gym time.  Thats how Saturday was too.  Just the daily routine of waking up at 6:30,  personal study from 7 until breakfast at 8.  After breakfast I have a teacher until gym time at 11:40, then lunch at 1.  I have another teacher from after Lunch until dinner, and then its language and personal study until 9.  Its getting really repetitive but its nice to get into a routine.

On Saturday we did pretty much the same stuff as Friday.  We did teach an investigator and things went well.

On Sunday I had to give a talk on Enduring to the end which wasn't too bad, and it only had to be 5 minutes so it was no big deal.  In the night on Sunday they replayed a devotional given by Elder Bednar titled "How to be a Preach My Gospel Missionary." It was great and everyone who is on a mission, is going to go on a mission, or just at home doing nothing should read it!  Sundays are awesome too because they always show a movie at night and its nice to just relax, and watch the movie.  We've seen some pretty good ones so far.

On Monday it was just a normal day too.

Tuesday came and we had another live devotional that was broadcasted from Provo.  The speaker was Elder M. Russel Ballard and he gave a pretty good talk.  He talked about how we need to wake up every morning and do the best we can, and then when we go to bed pray and ask what we could have done better.  I would encourage everyone to use this in their lives, even if you arent on a mission.  He also talked about how at the end of his mission, he and his companion had the opportunity to kneel in the Sacred Grove and ask the Lord if he accepted their work.  He encouraged all of us to kneel and ask at the end of our missions too.  It was a pretty good devotional (not as good as last week) but you all can go go read it if you want to. 

Wednesday was the halfway mark and P-day eve too so it was a good day, nothing special really happened.

This group email is kind of boring because nothing really happens here in the CCM.  I probably have already said this, but its crazy to think I'm in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world and cant see any of it.  Its sad but hopefully ill have the opportunity to come back!

I dont really have any great pictures from this week, I got a shot yesterday.  My companion couldnt watch me get it because he passes out when he sees needles. hahah it was hilarious.  It was nice to have something to do other than my schedule, even though it was a shot.

Shout out to A young and his mission call, good work! Hope things are going well for everyone at home.

I'd like to end with a saying.  This morning I was talking to a janitor and some latino missionaries, one of them who is from the Dominican Republic which is cool.  But the janitor said "trabajo sin metas es esclavitud y metas sin trabajo son solo sueños." For those of you who dont know spanish, it translates to "work without goals is slavery and goals without work are only dreams"  We need to make sure we are setting goals in our lives and working to achieve them.  Hope everyone has a good week, thanks for all of the prayers and love.  Talk to you soon!

Elder Hanson

Fruit Loops and Sour Milk-The Breakfast of Champions!

Hepatitis A Booster Shot

It's always great to see the yellow slip...

...it means I have a package!

Sunset at the CCM

First (but not likely the last) clothing casualty...Awesome sewing skills!

Me and Elder Lund

Snacks and emails on p-day...

Good Times at the Temple!!!

Mexico City Temple

Hola Familia y Amigos!!

Como Están??  Things are going alright here, I've had a decent week!  The weeks are starting to fly by here.  Since my p day is on a Thursday, the weekend is a blur.  Its crazy how the days can go by so slow, but you look back on it and it seems like no time at all.  My hump day here at the CCM is coming up this next wednesday, who would have thought it would be this soon.  I'm sure time is going by super slow for all of you people at home waiting for me, but im having a good time.

Sad news, all of my latino amigos left on monday.  I got like no sleep.  I hung out with them and just talked and chilled.  I got all of their emails so hopefully I will be talking to them soon.  They all came in and woke me up at 2 in the morning, and i couldnt fall back asleep.  It was terrible.  Anyway we didnt get anyone new in casa 42.  Its kind of nice because we have 2 extra showers and bathrooms to use so its a lot less crowded.  Its definitely a luxury, if they even have those in the CCM.  

The food absolutely stinks here.  My first week it was decent, but I've gotten so sick of what they serve, and cereal and nutella just dont cut it anymore.  Plus, half of the time the milk is sour so you just have to push through and hope the fruitiness of the froot loops covers the nastiness.  Nothing really sounds good anymore so hopefully I don't starve in the CCM, i havent even made it to NIcaragua.

I have a couple highlights from this week, I'll start with Monday, Tuesday and then today. As many of you probably don't know Monday was independence day in Mexico.  We got super lucky here at the CCM and got to have Mexican night.  They put on a huge show of Mexican dancers in the huge dresses, and we all got to watch and have a good time.  I know my mom would have absolutely loved it, but unfortunately I forgot my dumb camera in my room.  I think Elder Sperry has some pictures so I'll try to get them and send them to you!

On Tuesday there was a live missionary devotional that Elder Richard G. Scott gave.  It was freaking awesome.  He talked about prayer, how we can recieve answers to prayers, and how the Holy Ghost speaks to us personally and individually.  I think its on the LDS.org website and you can just search MTC devotionals and it'll be the one on September 16, 2014.  It was great and I learned a lot.

Today, I had the opportunity to go to the Temple here in Mexico City.  It was beautiful.  Unfortunately the temple is closed for rennovations, so we werent able to do a session or anything, but we had a tour of the visitors center with the Hermanas who were serving missions there.  I understood every word they said so my Spanish is coming along pretty well too.  I'll include some pictures from my trip there, but I also got some pictures of the city that you guys might enjoy (especially Brother Featherstone, maybe he'll relive a little of his mission through the pictures).  It was an awesome experience, and some of the districts in our zone were a little mad because its only our 2nd week and they havent had the opportunity to go yet.

My "investigators" here are doing pretty well.  All of the lessons are in Spanish which is kind of hard but I'm getting better every day.  I challenged one of them to baptism and he said yes, havent had time to challenge the other guy yet because we havent had a lesson.  My teachers are super awesome, Hno. Palma who is super short, and Hno. Hernandez who always has the best stories from his mission.  Just makes me more excited to get out to Nicaragua.

Some guy with the name Romney Hansen emailed me today and said he got some emails from skid, a young money and Isaiah and he hasnt forwarded them to me yet.  I promise I'm not ignoring them!! Just for future reference my email is romney.hanson@myldsmail.net with an On not an En at the end! thanks!

I'm having a rough time with my companion here because he might go home so everyone pray for him, he needs it.  Other than this and the food I am hanging in here and having a fun time.  Nothing like a good game of cage soccer to brighten my day.  Hope everyone is doing well at home, please write! Even if I don't have time to reply it's always good to see how everyone is doing!

Love you guys,

Elder Hanson

¡Adíos amigos!

¡Hasta luego amigos!

Life in the CCM

Ciudad de Mexico

Ciudad de Mexico

Hola from el CCM!

Family and friends,

Whats up? How is everyone doing?  Things are going pretty well here, I'll just give you a quick rundown of everything.  My flights went great and everything, no problems. I got to the CCM at like 3 after we landed, got our luggage and then drove to the CCM.  I was definitely exhausted, but luckily I didnt have any classes that night.  The first 3 days really sucked because it was straight orientation, sitting in hot auditoriums and listening to people talk.  Every missionary fell asleep because it was pretty bad.  I met my compainion and everything, his name is Elder Beher (pronounced Bee-Har) and hes pretty nice.  He's from San Diego and likes to surf, and just chill.  He's a little crazy and falls asleep a lot, but we're staring to get along so thats good.  I'm in a room with two other elders named Elder Burt (who went to lone peak) and Elder Rasmussen who is from vegas.  They are going to Oklahoma and Washington.  Its a pretty dope room and I'm having a good time.

The weather here is awesome.  It's not too humid, and its like 70 degrees all the time.  It's a little cold in the morning, but it gets warmer in the afternoon, and then about 3 it cools down and rains really hard.  It has rained most of the days I've been here so Just getting ready for Nicaragua.  The food here is alright.  Its not the best ever but there is always an alternative for the North Americans who dont like the food.  Theres a cereal bar and a nutella and toast bar so I know how John survived. They have costco pizza every tuesday which is pretty good, and they had hamburgers earlier this week but my district has a late eating time so they always run out.

My district is nice.  There are only 8 of us and we all get along which is good.  Theres a kid in my district who went to West Jordan, Elder Nave, he played soccer.  He's who I mostly hang out with in my district.  I dont know if anyone knows him. But theyre chill.  The most fun is my zone because it gets wild.  We're having a zone volleyball tournametn later which will be a blast.  And we meet up every night at 9:20 to have a spiritual thought and then just talk.  It"s a good time.

Nothing much has happened this week.  We had orientation on thursday and friday, saturday we watched some video on the law of chastity and then had interviews with the branch president and his assistant.  I talked to the assistand and his wife went to Bilbao Spain from 93-94 I think so Mom and Dad you might know his wife.  I'll let you know.  Sunday was awesome though.  It was fast sunday so we fasted dinner on Saturday and then breakfast on Sunday.  It was a 24 hour fast and i felt like i could fast for another 24 hours. It was awesome.  We had fast and testimony meeting and everything was in spanish.  I understand almost everything I just need to learn to speak better.  I got into a routine monday and we have study time in the morning before breakfast, then have a teacher until lunch.  His name is Hermano Palma, one of Parker Breinholts companions in the Guatemala City Central mission. He loved it Cam! After lunch we teach an investigator which is going pretty well.  We have to teach in all spanish and my companion doesnt really know any so I talk the whole time. We had a good devotional on tuesday which was a recording of Elder Holland.  And then yesterday was p day eve so I was just stoked on life the whole time.  Thanks for the donuts, they were great.  

My spanish isnt too bad, I have some latinos that live in my casa that are from Peru, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico.  Theyre all my close homies and I play soccer with them everyday.  Just talking to them my spanish has improved sooooo much.  Whenever we play its latinos y elder hanson a gringos.  Always a good time.They leave monday though because theyre only here for 2 weeks which will be sad.  I stay up way too late talking with them everynight, and everyone in the casa has no idea what they are saying so its kind of funny.  Theyre always yelling "Hanson!"for me to come and look at something they have.  Everyone else cant undrstand anything so theyre super grateful that at least one person can kind of speak spanish.  They told me I speak spanish well, and I teach them a little english here and there.  Our casa is a "spanish only zone"according to them, so i'm getting better.  Me and Elder Nave in my district told them some complements in English and we call the north american hermanas (gringas) over and have them say things to them.  It's hilarious.

I know a ton of people here.  The first elder I saw when i got to the CCM was Elder Sperry which was awesome.  I eat lunch and stuff with him everyday.  Elder Wallace is here too, he leaves in 2 weeks.  Elder Frampton from lone peak is super nice and we all play cage soccer together which is a blast.  Theres some guy from murray named Elder Rietveld who knows Chuck Daddy which is cool.  Theres and Elder Seeborg from alta who knows a lot of my friends because he played lacrosse.  Elder Smart from East says hi to Josie and Chelsea, and I'm sure I am forgetting some people who I hang out with but its all good.

Hope everyone is doing well at home, heard BYU is doing well which makes me happy. Shout out to Isaac for scoring that winning touchdown, I liked the photo.  Nice job Eli in football.  Hope school is going well for Riley, and dance for Maddy.  Hopefully Owen doesnt get too good at Fifa while im gone, and lily doesnt grow too much. 

That all I can really think about writing right now, there isnt much that goes on here.  This was really scatterbrained but its hard to get everything in.  Sorry for the typos and everything, I have to write fast!  Hope everyone has a good week and I'll talk to you all soon. 

Love,

Elder Hanson

Mis amigos latinos

Me and Elder Sperry

Mi distrito

Me and my companion (Elder Beher)

First Letter-Mexico City MTC

Hi Mom and Dad.  Just wanted to let you know I got here safe.  It's super rainy here, so looks like i'll be using my umbrella and raincoat a lot.  I havent met my companion yet, but I should pretty soon here.  One of my suitcases cracked, but everything is here and good.  The flight from SLC to Atlanta was miserable.  Thanks for the picture of Hunter and the family!  

My p-day is Thursday so you wont hear from me for another 8 days.  Love you guys lots and I hope everything is going well at home.  Probably boring without me.... but you'll survive. I'll be letting you know how things go here, the B on the mountain is a little overrun but it is still there.  Talk to you soon!

Love,

Romney

i was supposed to send this too:

Your Missionary's mailing addres is:

Elder Hanson

10/14/14 10E

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico

The estimated departure date for your missionary is Oct 14, 2014. The use of the

above address on all correspondence will greatly faciliate delivery to your missionary

at the MTC. Please don't send packages.

The Airport and Good-bye for Two Years

Elders also going to the Nicaragua Managua South Mission
(Elder Hanson, Elder Jensen, Elder Hoffman, and Elder Olsen)

Final Good-bye With Friends