Week One! At The CCM

At The CCM - Week One! 

Sorry I haven´t had a chance to reply Yet!! Our P Day is Thursdays and since last Thursday was our first day we didn´t get to have a P day at all. Also I want to start out by saying that this Mexican Keyboard is very different, And very difficult to type on, so ignore the multitude of grammar and spelling mistakes por favor. 

This P day is much needed! I'll start from the beginning. Wednesday was exhausting with all the travel and everything. But they are very nice and welcoming at the MTC. After all the delays and everything I didn´t get here til like 9pm. They welcomed us with a costco pizza though :) I flew with 3 elders, one from eastern Washington and one from Utah. It was good we were all together once we were in Mexico to help each other get through customs and find our driver. Driving in Mexico is crazy. Thought we were gonna die...but we made it!! Someone said this is the second largest city in the world...crazy. Anyway we finally got to the CCM and got all our stuff and went to our little casas. The casas are pretty nice with like 4 bedrooms each with their own bathrooms. When I got to my Casa I saw Elder Fazio!!!! He´s my friend from my ward at BYU. It's so nice to have someone that I know with me!!! The rest of my apartment and district are also Great. My companion is Elder Bowns from Orem Utah. He's a great guy, and I love working with him!!!

Thursday was a lot of meetings and orientations. It was probably one of the slowest days of my life. Felt like I had been at the CCM for at least a week... but it definitely got better. We met our teacher. Hermano Ramirez. He´s so awesome!!! He's from Mexico City and served a mission pretty recently. He's a really good Spanish teacher as well as gospel teacher. Its a blessing to have such a wonderful Maestro. This was also the day we met the rest of our district! The other elders in my casa are Elder Bowns, Elder Fazio, Elder Santana, Elder Thompson and Elder Whojan. I love all these guys. They are all really fun, but also work very hard. Elder Santana and I get along especially well. He's a crack up. We all have a great time together. 

Friday was a lot of class and studying, and we also found out that we got to teach our first investigator Friday evening! All in Spanish..... I knew no Spanish. Trying to learn to give a lesson was very difficult...but it was a great experience. 45 minutes of confusion and Google translate on his phone. We will continue to teach Alexis for the next few days.

Saturday was very much the same. we spend hours on end in our classroom, studying Spanish and studying the gospel, and then trying to study the gospel in Spanish... If my district and zone wasn´t so awesome this would be way more difficult and boring. We have gym time every day. I forgot to mention that... we usually play basketball or ping pong and then get a Mexican Gatorade and some Mexican Doritos and candy from la tienda (the store) everything is dirt cheap here. New garments are 17 pesos... so like a dollar and thirty cents... Doritos are like 40 cents.

 Sunday was great. Still very busy, but it was great to take the sacrament and have priesthood meeting. Everything is in Spanish, but I was able to get the main idea of everything and its crazy how the spirit still testifies to you even though you aren't really able to understand the words being said. I lay down every night really really tired... but so happy to be here!!

Monday was more class, Spanish is coming a long...very slowly. Its frusterating to know what we want to say to Alexis, but have no idea how to say it... He's a good sport though, and helps us to understand what he's saying, and attempts to understand our terrible Spanish. I heard that he becomes our evening teacher sometime this week...which will be interesting.  

I´m sure we all said some very interesting things to him during our lessons. The Food here is beginning to have an effect on everyone in our casa. sometimes its pretty great, but sometimes its no bueno, and most of the time it comes back to haunt us. The fruit and fruit juice is great though!! Very fresh. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were basically the same as Monday, more Spanish lots of scriptures and an investigator. I´m learning so much!! I read D&C 121:6-9 this week which has become one of my favorite scriptures!! Its a huge comfort from Heavenly Father, even though the CCM really isn´t that much of an affliction, it can be hard sometimes and the Lord promises that it will be but a small amount!! He also says that "thy friends do stand by thee" (he's talking to Joseph Smith in Jail) and I know that you guys are standing by me!! and will "hail me again with warm hearts and friendly hands"! I miss everyone dearly! and hope everyone is doing well! 

Love Elder Hansen

PS.  Send the ward my love!!  I´ve talked to Elder Gale a few times, but I haven't found my other cousin yet. I also ran into Hermana Stokes a couple times which you heard about! She's awesome! So nice :) There are quite a few people I recognize from BYU here as well! The CCM is great. Pray and think about you guys always!!