Hump Day!!

September 17, 2013, at 4:00 A.M., I left the Hansen Home in Sandy, Utah, for the Salt Lake Airport. I Landed in Mexico City around 1ish local time, and proceeded to live like a mexican for 6 weeks. I flew into Texas October 29th, 2013, and met my first companion the next day. I've been through Denton, Haltom, and now Fort Worth. Apartment fires and Tornados. Bible Bashes and baptisms. The summer on a bike, and a winter in a car. I've eaten authentic Mexican, Texas barbecue, and everything in between. In short, it's been a good year. 

We just got back from the temple, my first time in English in over a year. It was AMAZING. Haha, wow, the temple is such a cool place haha. I took pictures, but they won't load. 

Tomorrow is my year mark, and also we have interviews with President Ames! It is such a sick week haha! We had a sweet day yesterday and I am so stoked! In other news, there is no other news.

I love y'all, and sometime around last week I think I started to miss y'all haha. A year is a long time. But then again, I can't believe how fast time flies. Or how much I've learned. Haha, it's funny to think, I only have 1 more of everything. One more Christmas, Halloween, Mother's day, shark week, Super bowl, and International talk like a pirate day (that one was pretty rough in spanish (arrrrrgg, mi compa). 

Pretty much, I am going downhill now. I feel like an old guy, especially when I see 18 year old elders that have no idea what they are doing haha. I had to explain to one elder where cotton came from. I knew 5th grade U.S. history would come in handy sometime haha (eli whitney and the cotton gin). Haha, I know I'm still a goober, but I can sit still now and be patient and wait for things haha. 

Anywhey, got to go, but I love y'all. Texas Roolz.

Love,

Cole

Eternal Perspective Goggles

Man, it is so hard to hear about death and whatnot from home. As a missionary, obviously the first thing that popped into my head was the Plan of Salvation. We are so blessed to know what is going on. We can put on our "eternal perspective goggles" and know that the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ, in hopes of glory, in the knowledge of the plan. My prayers are with the Coffey family. 

This week, we went nutz and worked up a storm. Hopefully when all the dust settles, there are some gold nuggets instead of rocks and dirt. It is pretty cool, from the library there is a super great view of downtown Ft. Worth, so I keep getting distracted and whatnot. Um... not a whole lot new. Pretty much I am used to everything about being a missionary (haha, after a year) and whatnot, but the only thing that is hard is we drive down the middle of TCU campus every p-day and see all of the banners for the football players and it is rough haha. I miss football. But it's all good. I'll only miss a few more games, and then I'll never have to miss a game again haha. 

In other news, there is no other news. Talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Cole

Spagetti-O's and Flat Tires

Hey guys I got your package this week and I forgot how delicious Spagetti-os are and so now I'm on the spagetti-o diet. Woo! Not a ton has happened this week. Elder Tulaga is brand-spankin' new, and whenever I ask him who they were teaching he says "I dunno." So, we are starting over! Woo! 

So fun story, this week Elder Tulaga had 7 flat tires, and I had one. Haha, after the first two, I offered to show him how to put a patch on, but he didn't accept because "he already knew how." 5 flats later I told him, "we're going to walk until you buy a new tube" haha. So, we've been on foot all week. 

On P-days we ball HARD here. Well, as hard as it gets as missionaries haha. But it is really fun. 

The two things I learned this week-

1. I used to be all rigid (like a breadstick) because I need to be perfect blah blah blah, but it's like basketball. If I'm all rigid, then it's cuz I don't got the funk. And if I don't got the funk, I can't ball. So the key is just to relax and play the game. Metaphorically speaking. 

2. I may not always know the answer, or be the perfect guy for the job, but I am supremely confident that I am going to be able to get the job done, and get it done right. 

We email from a library here in Ft. Worth. It's pretty close to the mansion.

Love,

Cole

P.S. The mansion is haunted. 

Ft. Worth

This is the mansion. My comp. and I live here alone. It is huge and awesome. It is kinda old, but the water pressure here is amazing. Like, crippling water pressure. Anyway, here is a pic of my comp. 

He's originally from Samoa, but has lived in west valley for the last few years. He is super cool. He's been out for 1 months, so I am finishing up training him. He's a straight tank, a big humble teddy bear. Speaking of teddy bears...

We found this in the mansion. Love y'all and hope you have a good week!

Love,

Cole

P.S. New address

1418 Lincoln Ave. #2

Fort Worth, TX 76164

Texas Parts

Hi guys, so it's transfers and I'm out! To... the mero mero, Ft. Worth! And, the place I'm going to live is a house, not an apartment. Haha, someone donated a house to the mission or something, so now the missionaries in Ft. Worth live there. In mission slang it's known as "the mansion." I am so excited! My new comp's name is Elder Tulonga or something like that, and it's his second transfer so I'm gonna finish up training him. I heard that my new area is more Mexican than Mexico itself. Woo! Still on a bike though. 

It's kinda weird to leave Haltom. After gallons of sweat, a surprising amount of blood, and one, very manly, tear, I'm on the way out. It's all good though. Haltom is on the upswing, and a pretty solid missionary is gonna replace me.

In other news, I finally learned a new way to tie my tie. Woo! Only after a year of wearing one every day haha. 

Look out Ft. Worth, there's a new sheriff in town.

Love,

Cole

**I found out that Sister Ames started a Mission Facebook page, and I found all of these photos of Coleman at work.  It was like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!  

 

"Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

Hahaha, that quote pretty much describes how I feel about Haltom. Sometimes I have lost enthusiasm though. 

So this week, we met this guy named Joaquin. He has some... interesting ideas about the Godhead. Hahaha, he was telling us that God and Jesus and the Spirit were the same (not that unusual or hard to teach the truth), until all of the sudden he agreed that God has a body. But not just 1, God apparently has 7 bodies. And can astral project himself into any of them, or if he wants he can just go around in spirit form. And every time the bible says the word "cielos" or "heaven" it is really talking about the 4th dimension. Needless to say, I learned a lot this week. Jk, he's really confused and he LOVES to talk, like a Texas talker on steroids laced with heroin. 

The good thing is, that I realized how much my knowledge and testimony have grown. Before, I might have questioned myself or something, but this time I was whippin' out scriptures right and left. I have the quickest draw this side of the Mississippi furr shurr. 

I went on exchanges with 2 missionaries that are getting trained, both of them in their area. Haha, it was pretty tiring. They want to do the best for sure, but they're just newbies and don't know what they're doing haha. They were both super stressed the whole day. They were all rigid, like a breadstick. I tried to give them the funk, but they wouldn't accept it. Haha, it was pretty fun, but it's been a tiring week.

Today, when I went to turn off the shower, the hot water wouldn't turn off. The tub filler upper faucet was just pounding water pure hard. I tried to play plumber, but the only tools I had were a bike multi tool and a crappy pedal wrench. I did pretty good at taking apart the whole tub, but I couldn't fix anything. So now our hot water is running until "later" when maintenance gets around to it. Oh well.

So when I was fixing the tub I moved my bike to get into the closet behind it, then when I came down 30 minutes later, my front tire was completely flat. There is no hole in the tube. I have no idea how all the air left. I studied patience as a Christlike attribute Sunday, and I suspect the Big Man upstairs is trying to help me. Thank you? 

Anywhey, next week are transfers. I have some good guesses of where I am going to go, but I'm not telling because I'm always wrong. 

I don't have any more pictures of me or from my camera, but one of the missionaries in my district let me borrow his usb to copy music, so here are some of him. 

Love, 

Cole

Random Missionary Photo

Tater tots and Jedi's

Hi guys! 

This week was one of those weeks where pretty much everything was pure average. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened at all haha. 

We had Zone Conference and it was pretty cool. I learned a lot. President wants us to ask y'all for some cool family history stories, so if you could send me some fun ones? I thought of Uncle Alvin and the Bear haha, and for some reason the creamation of Sam McGee even though he's not in our family. The problem with family history and latinos is 1. nobody really cares (I have tried to contact like 10 people and they strait up say "no" or "I don't really care" haha), and 2. there are not a ton of records so it is purty hard to do geneology.

Anyway, just so you know, basketball went really well last week. I have gotten way better out here. Look out D-Man!

Love,

Cole

P.S. Thank you for the picture sender thingy!

I shaved my head

I made something called tater tot casserole and ate it for 2 1/2 weeks.

Elder Petersen is a Jedi

One day Elder Petersen was really cold and so he put on all his winter clothes . . .

If you can see in the bottom right corner, it is 68 degrees.