The First Week

To preface Cole's letter there are a couple of things you should know:  Before Cole left I was giving him tons of advice and one of them was to take some anti-diarrhea medicine with him since he is going to Mexico.  And in his Coleman-like way he replied that he wants to get diarrhea. and that it's a good cleanse and stuff like that.  It made me laugh so hard and we teased about it quite a bit those last few days!!  So in my first letter to him I asked him if he had any diarrhea yet. Also he and Nate have their own language that consists of a lot of Sponge Bob references and other weird movies, etc.  

Whats up family? I just got back from the temple in Mexico City. It was soo cool! I got to go through the entire thing in spanish, which was really cool.

So I guess Ill just tell you about my week. The first day was pretty sucky. I got there finally and I was so tired all I wanted to do was find my companion and go to bed, but my companion wasnt there yet. So I pretty much just YOLOd it alone for the first day, went to a devotional that I slept through that night, then went back to my Casa at night. I went into my room, and there was still nobody there. So I put away all my clothes, wrote in my journal, and got everything ready for bed. Finally, at like 10 pm the other 3 guys in my room showed up and I had a companion finally. Waking up hasnt really been hard for me, probably because of the 11 straight months of work waking up at 6. I think I get more sleep here than I did all summer. The mexico CCM is pretty cool. The grass is so green and they cut it almost every day, Dad would be so jealous. There is like a 8 foottall cement wall with a chain link fence on top, and on top of that is some barbed wire. Outside the CCM is insane. It looks like somebody dropped a bomb on a regular city, and little kids planned out the rebuild. There is no structure here, it is just crazy do whatever you want buildings everywhere except the CCM. I think I know why i got called to come to Mexico. Its because i needed to see how great America is. I really cant wait to get back haha, I really appreciate the states and make fun of the kids who have to live like this for the next 2 years. The spanish is coming along way good I think. We have been teahing an '' investigator'' for the past week. Its really a teacher, but he pretends not to know english so its kinda hard. I usually end up talking a lot more than my companion becuase he never knows what to say so he just looks at me. It is kinda hard but I learn better by doing anyway, so thats good.

The CCM is kinda like a mix between high school, seminary, EFY, and a hitler youth camp. Haha, there are so many rules and stuff and all the kids are super high schooly, but its cool haha. My district is mostly pretty cool. There are 8 dudes and 2 girls. Three of the guys went to the same high school in Arizona, and so they are all friends. One of the guys is exactly like Jordan Todd Woods. He is always singing, and loves the theatre and whatnot. All those guys live in the room next to mine. Then there is my room, the guys are way nice. My companion is nice and all that mischief. If I had to describe him, I would say he is pretty weenie hut junior (explain it Nate). He is just a weird kid, and we dont talk much, but at least he gets up on time and wants to work. He always takes a while to get ready, so I wait for him a lot. The girls in our district are older, so they act like theyre better than us. Its pretty annoying sometimes but they keep us on track sometimes, so i guess its 6s.

I am pretty sure the reason they didnt give us a P-day until 10 days later is because they dont want everyone to write about how much it sucks. The first few days are way hard, its 16 hours of study, eat, class class class, eat, class study study, eat, study, sleep. It is hard to get used to for sure. But it is good now haha. I actually like it here. The food here is... well... haha nevermind. But Mom, I am proud to say that I have had zero diarrhea here. In fact, my poops have been more solid than ever, even though I go 3-4 times a day. That is my relaxation time, I get a few minutes of alone time, without a companion or a teacher. Some of my favorite times have been on the toilet. I see Megan all the time, I am actually like 7 feet from her right now on the computers. I also saw a girl from my tech class, Lise. My favorite person to see is McKenzie Maxfield though. We talk about home or just funny stuff that happened and its good to know someone from home to talk to about little things like that. I think if I had the choice, I would actually choose Provo though.

All the days blend together way too much. It is probably around 65-70 degrees hereeveryday, and it rains every night. Sunday was my favorite day, because I got to take a little nap and church was way good actually. I play a lot of basketball and a little volleyball and whatnot for exercise time, so it is great. The first few days we didnt get any exercise time so i was losing my mind but now we get to ball out everyday and its way fun.

It is way great to hear about home! Its weird, it feels like Ive been gone way longer than that, but also it was like it was yesterday. Ill send some pics and whatnot as many as i can. The mail here is apparantly way slow, it takes about 2 or 3 weeks for a letter, and 4 to 6 weeks for a package, so if you are going to send me a package, do it soon please haha!

A few requests-

Please call me Cole. Haha I hear Elder Hansen WAY too much haha, its weird. Everytime I hear or read Cole it is like christmas haha.

Send pictures!! Of anything you can see haha. Anything that is like home.

 If you are sending a package, will you send me some pics of friends for the album, a family pic or two for the frames, some toothpics (I need something to chew on all day, I have had this popsicle stick forever haha), CANDY, some drink mixes, and Nate, could you get me a scrub brush or two? haha i feel so dirty all the time, and I wanna scrub.

I miss everyone, but it is going great. I really, really miss music, so Mom was right.

I love you all so much-

THE Elder Cole Hansen