September 20, 2023 - 5th Email - Mexico Day

 Hola!!

This week was less eventful but still really fun

One thing that kinda sucks is I got a cold last week, I had a teacher who said he had gotten sick and then literally all of us proceeded to get colds, it was a bit goofy since we had just gone through this at the beginning of our time at the CCM where we all got colds but we survived and now we chillin.

Also, another guy in my room (we have two companionships) had a key that was stuck in his closet keyhole. Like, this thing would not budge, and it's been stuck there since the beginning. He's actually been using it as a doorknob since for some reason thay door doesn't have one. I was able to get the key out by pushing a trash bag through the keychain and yanking it while pushing on the door. This key was absolutely busted. I'll post a picture of it.

Ok so Friday (September 15th) was Mexican Independence and I thought it was super cool I got to be here for that, there were fireworks and cannons all over every like two seconds. The decorations were all cool, and actually they've left them up since which I really like since it is Mexico and the banners and stuff are just really cool. At the end of the day we all met outside the comedor and we were told some Mexican traditions on their Independence Day. The mayor of each city stands in the square while shouting set phrases, and after each phrase everyone around shouts "Viva!" Presidente Reyes, who is the second counselor in the MTC presidency, was picked as the guy to do it for us at the CCM because he is actually Mexican. It was really awesome and everyone had a great time. It was hard to get to sleep cuz the fireworks and fiestas everywhere were so loud around us.

At dinner the CCM hired a mariachi band to come play for us and it was really awesome. Everyone was standing around, some people joined in and danced with the band, including the MTC presidency. They actually had really good food that day, too, rather than just cafeteria versions of Mexican food. They had churros that I covered in Hershey chocolate sauce and Nutella so that was pretty awesome

Also on Friday Elder Nelson and I did another mock lesson for Helping Others and we had absolutely no preparation but we still did pretty well so that's cool

It's rained a ton these last couple days too and it's really good because it hadn't rained in like two weeks.

Elder Nelson absolutely destroyed his phone on Saturday because he dropped it. It had already been a bit broken, the screen didn't work really well at all after like the fourth day here and he doesn't actually know what happened to it, but on Saturday it had it's last straw and just was unusable, there were so many cracks. We had to take it to reception so they could fix it. He had to pay a fee for the repair, but they had to take it in for a couple days which is pretty sad because I'm pretty sure that means he lost his duolingo streak, but we got it back last night and he noticed that they never put a screen protector back on it.

On Monday now we're trying to only speak Spanish. No more "¿Quien es el Latino?" (Because we won)

We're going to be focusing just on Spanish this week in class and not going over gospel stuff, so that's a bit weird, but it's really useful to get used to the language.

My cousin (a different Elder Hanson) just got here yesterday and I was able to say hey to him so that's pretty cool, we get to see each other for just over a week before I leave. Speaking of leaving, it's super weird that it's coming up in just nine days. I'm not really sure how p-day works next week, we have normal classes on Wednesday but it shows no schedule for Thursday so we might be able to just pack and stuff that day.

We also had another earthquake drill yesterday. Apparently it's a famous day in Mexico because in 1985 and 2017 on the same day there were deadly earthquakes in Mexico City, and we did a drill in memory of the people that died in the earthquakes.

Today for our temple trip we had to wake up at 5:30 because our bus left at 6:15, we left so early we're getting breakfast there. That means our p-day is going to be longer though so I'm all for it

Spiritual Thought:

I really like Moroni 7:42-43:

42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

I really like this scripture because yesterday at our Tuesday devotional President Hymas (the MTC president) said we're going out into a world that's faithless. But many people have no hope either, or they haven't humbled themselves. We as missionaries are going out to spread the gospel to bring people hope, and to tell people to be humble, and only then are they able to have faith.

So again I'm not really sure if I'll be able to send an email while I'm here at the CCM next week because the schedule is goofy lookin, but if not then I'll be in California in my next email. My flight is really early on the 29th. Still not sure if I'm sad or excited. I've loved my district while I've been here and I'm going to miss them, but I'm really exicted to get out into the field and be able to eat American food every day again.

Hopefully I'll be able to write again next week,

Elder Hanson

Pictures!

-the broken key

-me with a giant bag of popcorn I bought at the la tienda store

-roly polies we caught, they're literally everywhere

-mariachi band

-mariachi band 2 plus President and Sister Hymas and President and Sister Reyes

-Independence Day evening

-Elder Nelson got a plunger stuck on the ceiling in the bathroom

-epic chandelier in the Thomas S. Monson building

September 13, 2023 - 4th Email - Batman, earthquakes, drains

Hola a todos!

So uh this week was pretty crazy and this email is very long, but a lot happened. This was definitely the most fun week I've had so far and it's crazy I only have two more here at the MTC.

First I need to thank my mom for sending me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich kit on Thursday it's been really nice to have backup food when they aren't serving something I like (which is pretty often)

We didn't actually have an earthquake, but last Friday morning (Thursday night) we were all woken up at like 1:15 AM because an earthquake alarm was going off. We didn't know what was going on at first because we couldn't actually hear the alarm but then someone pounded on our door saying "I think it's a carbon monoxide alarm" so we all hopped out of bed and got dressed and just went outside and found everyone from all the houses around us on the green indicator circles where we're supposed to go if there's an earthquake, and it was obviously not a carbon monoxide alarm. There were probably like 25 people on our circle and then like another 25 on the circle a ways next to ours. It was just those two in the immediate vicinity. So we're all standing around super confused because we're all exhausted and didn't feel any earthquake, and eventually it just turned into a joke and we were all laughing about it. We were standing out there for about a half hour.

At one point some guy in a different building ran back into his house and put on a Batman costume, and he started running over to our circle. We were all like "no way it's Batman he's gonna save us" and he gets to us and goes "hey guys it's me Batman I just wanted to make sure everybody's okay" and then he started choking and said "sorry guys the morning breath is getting to me" and finally he left after saying "May the Holy Ghost be with you". And he did the goofy ninja run back. After that we kinda forgot what we were doing out there because we were laughing so hard but then some guy came over on a bike and was like "get back inside and go to sleep" and that was basically the end of that. It took me forever to get back to sleep after which kinda sucked but it was the most eventful night by far since I got here.

So there were a couple theories why there was an earthquake alarm, some people thought it was a false alarm, the teachers thought it was a drill, and a bunch of guys were saying an earthquake happened like twelve hours away and somehow triggered the alarm specifically at the CCM. I'm personally leaning toward the first one. It definitely wasn't a drill, not at 1 in the morning when we're trying to sleep (especially since we wake up at 6:30 already) and also because we had a drill in the middle of class that same day.

That drill was pretty cool, there was no alarm for some reason but the teachers were just like "yo there's a drill going on right now" and we all just walked outside. It was crazy looking with all the missionaries walking over to a place we go if an earthquake gets really bad, like the green circles are for smaller ones but this one specific area is for bad ones. I really think it only happened because it looked cool since there were people recording us walking. We lined up as districts in our own parking space lookin things and we needed our zone leaders to get a head count to make sure everyone in the zone was accounted for, but our zone leaders didn't actually show up until like 20 minutes after the drill started because their teacher forgot, so that was funny. I think the one at night went off on accident because the drill was at about 11 AM and the one at night was at 1 AM so they might've forgotten an extra 1 in the time or something. It would explain why an alarm didn't go off during the day drill.

Our showers got fixed, finally. We went to reception because we were tired of the smell of the mold we found and a couple guys came over and dealt with all the drains. Apparently, the pipes weren't long enough. The water was actually clean (well, for Mexico) and it was because there was a gap between the pipes and the water level that mold was growing inside that gap and we were smelling it. So the guys brought longer pipes that just extended all the way down to the water, and we don't smell the mold anymore.

We also did our first "Helping Others" in Spanish on Friday. We just gave a five minute lesson to some missionaries that were almost done at the MTC roleplaying as investigators for the church. For other people in the district it was really hard, but Elder Nelson and I actually did really well and it ended up being a great lesson.

Okay that's everything that happened on Friday

On Saturday when we got back home from class in the evening our house was stinking like crazy again. It was really weird because we were literally in the house not even four hours before and it smelled fine. Turned out this time the smell was coming from our laundry room, and it smelled way worse than our showers ever did. We had had a broken washing machine since like the first week we were here but finally it was just filled to the brim with water and algae was starting to grow in it. We were just gonna leave the door to that room closed on Sunday, since we can't do laundry on Sunday anyway and we didn't want to make anyone work on Sunday, but some other guys in the other district in our house went over to reception and told them, so we actually helped the guy that came over to pick up the machine and install a new one. So that was cool.

Mexico's independence day is this Friday, and we've definitely been hearing patriotism around. We hear cannons go off during the day all the time, and fireworks too, which makes no sense because you can't even see them. For our service on Monday we actually decked out the reception area in Mexican flags which was pretty epic.

On Monday we started speaking only in Spanish in class. A lot of us are actually getting much better at Spanish. Elder Nelson is doing a great job during our scripture study and stuff. Our teachers made a game out of it: "¿Quien es el Latino?". Basically we pick one person in our district to be the "Latino" for a day, and if that person speaks any English then we lose. We all still have to speak in Spanish though, because the teachers don't know who the Latino is and they need to guess which one of us it was the next time we had class. If they guess wrong, then we win. It's a point system, and if we win they're getting us packs of Mountain Dew.

On Tuesday it was pretty weird because they served us spicy chicken tenders for breakfast. I mean, they tasted great, but it was strange to have that for breakfast. Especially since Tuesday is pizza night so we had two fast foodish meals in one day.

Also this morning we used the new washing machine for the first time and when it finished the cycle it started leaking soapy water absolutely everywhere so we're probably gonna need a new one lol

Little spiritual thought:

Sunday we listened to a great devotional of an old talk Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave. It's changed my perspective on missionary work a lot, taught us to be adaptable to people's individual situations, because some people need to hear different parts of the gospel first based on their own circumstances. The same lesson might not be as effective for a different person when we're teaching them.

Okay this email is long enough lol see yall next week

Elder Hanson

Some pictures:

Clownfish bus, pretty morning yesterday, me holding one of the reception decorations, a bed fort, Elder Nelson and I at the temple's visitors' center, and all the missionaries walking during the day earthquake drill

I do have a video of the Batman guy but we're supposed to get people's permission to post things of them so I'll just leave that to your interpretation.

September 6, 2023 - 3rd Email - A Pretty Crazy Week

 Hola!!

A lot went on this week, it was honestly hard to keep track of everything.

First, we got a new schedule starting Monday that threw everybody off guard. We have to get to breakfast 15 minutes earlier than before so we have less time to get ready in the morning, and our pday starts an hour later and ends an hour earlier. I was a little bummed about that, but as we've actually gone through the schedule it makes everything go by a lot faster which has been good.

We were also told we were gonna get a new morning class teacher, and we were all super sad and stuff but then on Monday he walked in, said he had no idea what happened and that he was still our teacher. So we chillin and no longer sad

Apparently this whole schedule change thing was because there's so many new missionaries coming in this week they needed to adjust everything in order to accomodate them since we don't have enough classrooms for all the expected districts, so that's great that there's a lot of missionaries but I also was just starting to get used to the last one lol

Also update on the shower thing, we looked down the drains and we found black mold which is kinda tough and sorta unhealthy, so we finally got somebody to come clean our showers but only two of the four moldy showers actually got cleaned and the one in our room wasn't one of them, hopefully I'll be able to close this smelly shower arc sometime soon

Nearly everyone in my district got sick, as of right now we're at 9/12, and so many people were sick in general that people were told to wear masks if they were still sick. Luckily I was one of the first to get sick and I'm better now.

Spiritual Thought:

Yesterday we had a devotional from Elder Gary E. Stevenson broadcast from the Provo MTC, and he talked a lot about missionary work, and he talked about how we were all assigned our mission by one of the apostles by inspiration and I know that I'm going where the Lord needs me.

Elder Hanson

Some picks

Cool wild parrots, more from the drive to the temple (we went again today, that's where I got the Crash Bandicoot mural and the goofy gym), Elder Nelson with the surprise pic when I walked out of the bathroom, a full moon even though it looks terrible with my phone's camera lol, we made a makeshift bat signal, and Elder Hollberg from my district somehow stood up a broom on its own during a service time