October 7

Dear Family and Friends!!

     We are doing great here!! Sister Hillner is on fire! She continues to amaze me! That is crazy her friend is in our home ward. Lots of great things are starting to unfold! We have lots of potentials we hope to get progressing soon. We are working on inviting people and committing the members to invite their friends to our activity coming up, "Meet the Mormons." We are really excited for this activity coming up on the 14th. It will be a setting where people can come and learn more about what we believe. We are having a panel of members present The Restoration in 20 minutes. Afterwards, we are having free pizza, activties, and answer questions that anyone might have. 

    Miracle this week was our referrals we received! We were blessed with 6 referrals!! We are teaching one of them now and she has a baptism date for October 27. Her name is Ali and she was a member referral. She came to FHE on Monday night with her friend Mikayla that is the member. We met Ali that night and got to know her a little more. The next night we went to institute with one of our investigators and afterwards we were able to talk to Ali. We asked her right there if she wanted to learn more and meet with us. She agreed and had her first lesson the next day. The spirit was so strong and I knew we could ask her in that moment. As I was praying for Sister Hillner to know to commit her, and she did! She was able to commit her to soft baptism date in that very moment I was praying! 

    This week I learned that it is important to remember what our motivation is. I loved our ZTM we had a theme of ''Double it!" For us to double the work means we have to double our efforts. I learned that we need to remember the why, behind it all. Why are we baptizing 150 souls? It's not about the number, it is about each individual person that will be blessed. As the Savior did, "One by one!" We want them to come closer to Christ and receive all the blessings of eternal life.

     I am so grateful for the words spoken at General Conference and the inspiration I received. They were all so powerful and loved the emphasis on member missionary work, how we are all in this together. We are all on the Lords team and there is no I in team. We have to work as one! Together Everyone Achieves More. Hope you all are praying for missionary opportunties! Love you all so much!!!

XOXO

Sister Hancock

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September 30

Hello Momma Dear!!

     This week has been full with so many things!! Tuesday evening the trainers started training. We have it at the mission home.  It is a really neat experience to be there and with all of these great missionaries. The sisters got to stay tuesday night at the mission home.  It was fun having all of us being able to chat with President and Sister Young.  Wednesday morning all the trainers work out together.  President handed me the van keys to drive all the sisters down. You can tell dad that President trusted me to drive a big van that they were renting!   I guess i am a good driver now! haha  I was pretty excited!  We headed over to the stake gym to play some dodgeball! The rest of the day was more training and waiting for the new missionaries to arrive at the stake center.

      I got my new companion.  Sister Hillner!  She is awesome!  She is from Arizona and is also 19. She is doing great and I am so proud of her. So grateful that I am her companion and get to learn from her. We  have had a really good week!! Mariah's baptism was on Sunday!! It went really well. We had a lot of non members attend and I was so proud of Sister Hillner.  She did amazing as we taught the people The Restoration.  She spoke with power and the members are so shocked that she has been out for just 5 days!!  A man came up to the two of us after the baptism and asked us if there was any nonmembers here? He then said well go get them because that was amazing! His name is Brother Shultz, who was a former general authority and mission president.  That meant a lot as he expressed how he felt as we taught. The Elders are teaching Mariah's 3 nonmember friends that came to her baptsim tonight.  We have received lots of referrals and we are going to be teaching lots of people it looks like soon.  Really excited for this transfer!!

 I hope you have a great week! Tell everyone hi and I love them very much!!

September 23

Momma Bear!!

     Well I am glad to hear that you were able to talk to your little boy:) and that is so fun that Bergen is going to be singing in the primary!! It is crazy to me that he is getting so big!! Maybe put him, Hank and when baby girl comes in a time freezer so that don't get any bigger;) Things sound great at home! It is crazy that it is already football season! But the it has started raining off and on here. So the rain is a comin:)

     The picture you got on Friday was of me and Sister Nealy that a mom sent out. She drove one of the sisters to our temple trip and took pictures for all the missionaries moms. We were able to go to the Portland temple as a zone on friday!! It was amazing Mom!! I loved the new video so much! I love being in the temple!! The last time I went was in the MTC, so it was nice to be able to go back!

    Well transfers are already here..... Sister Nealy is leaving me to Corvallis and I am staying here. My new missionary will be arriving fresh from the MTC on Wednesday! So after we drop off Sister Nealy at the transfer spot i will be with the Eugene 5th sisters, Rock and Conley for tonight and part of tomorrow. The transfer still hasn't really hit me yet. I'm excited and a little nervous having a greenie but I know that this is what the Lord wants me to do.

     We have a baptism this coming Sunday! Her name is Mariah, I told you about her a few emails ago. She is solid and loves the gospel! Her confirmation won't be for 2 weeks because of General Conference but she is strong, we are not worried.  Our teaching pool is a little low, so I am grateful for Dad's prayers. We are teaching Amanda, Jentel and getting them on their way to be baptized. Still finding though!! Hope this new missionary is ready to hit the streets! It is an exciting time right now with school getting ready to start. Lots more people will be in town!

  Well I have a little surprise for you and dad but idk if I should save it for Christmas??? haha we will see! Well I hope you have a great week! I love you so much! Tell Dad I can't wait for that letter:) I hope he reads these too. I'm grateful for you too. You both are sacrificing a lot for me to be here. I am not where I want to be right now but I hope that by serving with all my heart will pay you back in some way. I am grateful that I am here right now. Just this past conference one of the office couples asked me how I am liking my mission. I looked him in the eyes, with tears in mine and said "I love it." I really do, it becomes more precious to me every day. Thank you for letting me have this opportunity. I love you!

love,

Your missionary.

September 16

Not much time... thank you for the letter! I love you!! Have a great week! 

September 9

Family and Friends!!!

     Well lots of great things are happening in Eugene!! Yesterday was a special day! It was Keelynn's baptism! Everything went great! We had great attendance and support from the ward! Something hit me at his baptism. I am not sure what but I was filled with so much joy, it was a different kind of joy, one I can not describe. It was a very special experience for us to be a part of. 

     At church we had an in-active member come and one of our investiagtors, Amanda, came after sacrament! We were so happy that she came! She works in the morning, so we were happy to have her there for sunday school and relief society. It was her first time going to church and we thought it would be great to have her talk to Bishop. The meeting with him was so powerful and towards the end he said he had an impression to give Amanda a priesthood blessing. That was an answer to my prayer. We have been wanting him to give her a blessing but our plans haven't worked out. But yesterday in Bishop's office was at the right time and place for her to recieve a powerful blessing. Later, last night, we met with Amanda after the CES fireside. She told us how she knew what Bishop said was true and that the blessing was directly from God. Because of her spiritual experience were able to commit her to be baptized! What a miracle! 

     We have a new investigator Mariah! She was a referral from a member who lives in Washington. He called us a couple of weeks ago and said he was going to bring a friend to church here in the ysa ward and wanted us to meet her. She came to church, met and exchange phone numbers. We were able to see her the following Tuesday and there she expressed that this is the path she needs to be on. She was telling us how her mom and her 6 friends from high school go on a few trips every year. Mariah really looks up to one of these friends of her moms named Molly and ever since she was little she has wanted to be JUST like Molly. As Mariah was talking to her mom what she should do about the church, she suggested talking to Molly. So she did and come to find out Molly is a mormon!! And Mariah knew that was her answer! Mariah is doing amazing and is already making changes in her life  in just a short amount of 2 weeks!

I love this work and I know it is true!! Have a great week:)

XOXO

Sister Hancock

August 26

Momma Bear!!

     Everything sounds great! YOu will have to tell Gram happy birthday for me. That would be so fun to go to all the temples in Utah! You should do it! We are going to the temple as a zone in September. I am so excited!! I heard the new temple video is amazing! It is crazy that the last time I went to the temple was February! I hope Bergen doesn't forget me.... But that is sweet he misses me. He looks like he is getting so big and so is Hank!

     This week has been good! Monday just the normal old p day! We do our laundry at a laundry mat in the morning and then we had a zone activity and went hiking! Then we have FHE with the ward, which is always really fun! Tuesday we did exchanges, I went to the 3rd ward for a day with Sister Rock. It was great! Wednesday we had some great lessons and we were able to take Robert to the family history center to do family history. Later, we had a miracle! For ultimate frisbee we saw one of our potentials, Amanda. We have been trying to meet with her for awhile! We invited her to our dinner that we had that night with Caitie and Lauren and had an amazing lesson. We are now meeting with her consitently and she came to Bisco's house yesterday for Sunday dinner with some of the girls in the ward.  Thursday we had a sisters conference! It was amazing! Caitie was the star! She came and we did a little presentation with her and the elders in our ward. Friday I had my first lesson with President and Sister Young as an audience!! And the lesson was on the Law of Chasity!! haha It went really great and President was really proud of us. After, we went to the mission home and grab some dinner to take home haha I love them so much!! The weekend was great and yesterday I was able to wear my cute rain jacket for a bit:) haha it rained yesterday! But other than that it has been pretty hot. 

     This morning we woke up at 5 and went to the YMCA and played racket ball with President Lowery and Brother Heiner and some of the other Elders. I am going to be a pro at racket ball haha. O and yes we are still teaching Keelynn. We have taught him all of the lessons, except for a few of the commandments. He is on fire and getting baptized on September 8th. The work is great! The gospel is true!! Thought for this week "What'er thou art, act well thy part!" 

Love you!!!

Your missionary :)

August 19

Howdy to you Momma Bear!!!

I know!! It is insane!! I can not belive it is monday and that i have been out 6 months!!! That is so crazy to me and makes me sad. I could be a missionary forever ha. I love being a missionary. It is hard but it is so worth it. I just hope and pray that i will be able to serve Heavenly Father with all my heart because you are right, before i know it, it will be over. That is one of my desires to serve with all my heart and what is frustrating is that Satan knows that. I want my Heavenly Father to be proud of me and all of you at home.

Yes, Oregon people are very different haha there are some different ones here in Eugene! They are great people though.  Glad you are helping the sisters out in the ward! Now pray to find someone they can teach:)

Hank has gotten so big!! so crazy! Everyone is growing and changing so fast!! They all need a freezer button haha.
This week we struggled finding new people but we had great lessons with our investigators. On Saturday we had a huge miracle! We were tracting and not really finding that many people to talk to. We were at our last stop on 14th street at an apartment complex. We had just a few doors open, who were not interested. We get to the next door and we met this guy named Keelynn. He was really interested and said he has been looking for a church to go to. We asked him when we could come back and he said tonight!! So we were really excited and looking forward with meeting him again in a couple of hours at the institute. We got a member to come and one of the elders investiagtors. We get to the institue at 6 and there Keelynn was, waiting outside! We were so happy!! We had an amazing lesson, he came to church and had another lesson with him that night! I am so grateful we met Keelynn! 

Well Mom i hope you have a great week! Tell daddy o I love him and i am still waiting patiently for that letter:) O and as a mission we are going to the temple in September, if we have any names i could do, could you send them? I love you so much!! Send my love to everyone at home!

xoxo

Your missionary :)

 

August 12

My Lovely family and Friends!! 

    The highlight for this week was Robert's baptism! He was so excited! His service was short and sweet! The best part is when he went into the water and came back up with the biggest smile on his face. He was glowing with the spirit! He couldn't believe that this is happening to him and just a short 5 weeks his whole life is changed. He was confirmed on Sunday. Bishop gave him a beautiful blessing. Now Robert is on the right path and soon will be getting the priesthood. Robert is someone really special and someone that will make a great leader in the church. Sometimes it blows my mind that the Lord trusts us missionaries to help save His children. What a marvelous work! A work I am so grateful that I am apart of. I love seeing what Robert will become and the other people we teach. It is something really special. 

     On Wednesday I had a very sweet and precious personal study. I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Enos praying mightily to God. Those words in that chapter just really hit me and I was filled with the spirit. When I came to the end of the chapter when Enos is giving his farewell, vs. 26 and 27, I couldn't contain my feelings. Enos knew what was most important in life and that was not things of the world. And in his words, "I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father." Not only do I desire that but for these people in Oregon. The song 'I know My Redeemer Lives' came to my mind reading these verses. "O what joy this sentence gives, I know that my redeemer lives!" Then I was reading in the Ensign and came across this quote by Elder Nelson. This is what he said, "Remember, just as the body of the olive,  which was pressed for the oil that gave light, so the Savior was pressed. From every pore oozed the lifeblood of our Redeemer. Throughout the joyous days of your mission, when your cup of gladness runs over, rememeber His cup of bitterness which made it possible. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane." I love those words! I love being a missionary! Have a great week! Love you all!! 

xoxo

Sister Hancock

August 5

Family and Friends!! 

     Wow it is already Monday again!! This week was great! Caitie is now offical baptized!!! Saturday and Sunday were such special days for her. Yesterday, at church was amazing! Caitie's baptism was complete with receiving the Holy Ghost. At Relief Society we had such a powerful lesson. We talked about our 'Holy Places'. When you think of a holy place what do you think of? The temple, church, your home, etc? A holy place is any time when we feel the spirit. They are those precious moments in time. I was reflecting on what my holy places are and where I find that peace. The side walks are one of my holy places to me. That is where we talk to so many people. It is where we met Caitie, on the side walk. And now she is baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Caitie bore a powerful testimony in Relief Society. The mission can be hard at times but it is worth it, it is worth moments like that. In a letter I received from grandma she said. "I guess we have to live the best we can because one day each of us are going to run our of tomorrows... It makes me feel good to see all of you in the gospel and hear what wonderful testimonies that you have. That is what has made my 80 years so far worth living." I believe that is one of her holy places. Lets live a life worth living for! I love you all and appreciate the support!

xoxox

Sister Hancock

July 29

Dear Family and Friends!!!

Your week sounded great! All the parties and spending time with Shae and Bryce! That is great to hear about Eddie! Can't wait to see those pictures:) We had a neat challenge as a mission this week. We had the OEM Trek!! From Salt Lake to Eugene, 800 miles!! As companionships we had goal of tracting 10 hours, 10 new inv. 20 bofm, 20 resto pamphlets and 60 mormon.org cards. That was our trek! It was amazing! We were excited to start the Trek and see miracles happen.

 On Tuesday we were going to follow up with a potential investigator and he invited us to come in. We asked him if there was another woman in the apartment and he said yes. We go in and it is his roommate Shanice. We had the first lesson right there with her. She loved it and has been looking for a church. Her and her family are going through a death in the family right now, so the Lord placed us in her life at just the right time. We are meeting with her again next week.
The miracles continued throughout the week. Thursday and Friday were a little rocky but we didn't let that get to us. We were determined to reach our goals for the trek and knew we could do it. 

Saturday came, a new and fresh day! We had 2 tracting appointments with the Lord. First stop, all 7 of the doors that opened accepted a Book of Mormon!! Second, was the time that we decided to tract as a district, we found a new investigator Andrea and some great potentials and ended the day with 10 Book of Mormons to 10 of Heavenly Father's children! The Lord really blessed us and we saw the fruits of our labors throughout the week. We reached all of our goals besides the new investigators but we are excited to follow up on those we gave bofm's to! 

Today for Pday we had a zone activity!! It was so fun! We played ultimate frisbee and President and Sister Young joined in. They surprised me how fit both of them were haha it was awesome! We are excited for this week! Lots of great things are happening in the YSA ward. We have 2 baptisms this week. Caitie Dickelman and Robert Greene. They are so amazing and were so prepared! Hope this week is a good one! Thank you for the emails!  I love you so much!!! 

Love,

Your Missionary!!

July 22

Fam and Friends!!! 

     This week has been different and not much time with finding new people. But we have had lots of great lessons with our investigators. Our district meeting we had was amazing! So powerful! We talked about sacrifice and decided as a district to not open our letters and packages until Mondays. Along with that on Saturdays we are all tracting at 4. I'm excited to see the blessings that will come from sacrifice and for the OEM Trek to Salt Lake! Yesterday, was amazing! We had one of our investigators, April come to church! We were so excited she came! We spent some time tracting after church and found a new investigator! His name is Johnny and it was neat to see how his heart was softened as we taught him about the atonement. He wasn't interested at first and was going to shut the door but we just kept teaching and he definitely felt the spirit.

 Before our dinner we decided to tract some more and as we were preparing to leave some members came and talked to us. We asked where they think we should go tract and one of them said her apartment. So we headed over there and as we walked up the stairs there was this young women sitting outside taking her daily smoke and about to drink her beer. We started talking to her and getting to know her. She is a single mom and has two little kids, a 4 year old son and a 2 year old daughter. I started telling her how Christ came to America and blessed them one by one and told them to bring their children to Him. Tears filled our eyes as the spirit touched her heart. I felt such a love for this woman and I know she felt the love of the Savior. She was excited to receive the Book of Mormon and wants her kids to grow up in a church. We referred her to the Sisters in the 3rd ward and she said she hopes they will call her. I love little moments like that. Those moments are worth any sacrifice. 

Being pioneer month, the pioneers sacrificed so much! In companion study this morning we were reading a talk in the July ensign about pioneers to prep us for our OEM trek this week. In the talk he quotes President Hinckley "... each of us is a pioneer in his or her own life." That statement is so true. We are modern pioneers, we are facing hardships and times of trial. One thing that the pioneers had and what we have is the gospel and our Savior. Elder Ballard said,"As grateful as these faithful pioneers were to see the rescue party, how much greater is the rescue through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ." He is our rescuer. I am grateful I get to be a small part of that rescue in finding those who are prepared. We are all pioneers in our own way! I love you all!!!

Love 

Sister Hancock

July 8th

Family and Friends!!!

     Hope everyone is doing great! I am hearing great things. Gram, I hope your head is feeling better! Please don't fall off your bike again.

     Wow!!! What an amazing week. Idk where to begin. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much!! So many miracles!! It all started on Tuesday. We met Robert! And then on Wednesday we met Caitie. We are serving with Elders in the ward too.    Elder Henrie has felt that he should knock on this one door for a long time, so they finally did on Wednesday, and it was Caitie!! They knocked on her door like 30 min. after we just met her on the street.  Little did we know how solid and prepared both Robert and Caitie are. We had a lesson with Caitie on Friday and it was amazing. And another amazing lesson with Robert on Saturday!!

    We were expecting 5 investigators to come to church! I was confident that all 5 of them were going to come. Not only did 5 come but 7!! Danny, Teyan, Robert, Caitie, Scott, Lee and his friend Will.  5 of the 7 stayed for the other 2 hours of church! After church Robert asked us what scriptures he needs to read to become a mormon!! Caitie loved her experience at church and we had a lesson with her later on that day. We committed her to be baptized on July 28th. Teyan came up to us, saying she is ready to be baptized!  WOW is all I can say.  We couldn't have planned it more perfectly. So much more happened yesterday!  One of the best days on the mission!  My heart is so full.  I have so much love for these people that we are teaching.  Heavenly Father loves them so much and I know he loves all of His missionaries. I still can't believe He trusts me to do HIS work and be HIS servant. 

     I have been starting to read in the New Testament this week.  Something that amazed me is the love Christ had for everyone. The people that he healed had the faith that He could heal them.  With the story of his disciples out at sea, and they are fearful because of the storm.  He tells them. "Where is your faith? Why do ye fear?  It is that simple but sometimes so hard.  All we need is to have faith and the Lord will show us the way. I love you all so much!!!

XOXO

Sister Hancock

June 16

My Wonderful Family and Friends!!!

That is so exciting all the Texans are in town! How fun!! Lots of fun stuff going on! I hope everyone is doing great!! This week was full of miracles!!

Me and my companion Sister Payne just love the Coast so much!! It is the best place! 

On Friday night we had a zone conference call and as a zone for Saturday, it was going to be a day of miracles, exercising our faith. So we had an awesome miracle with one of our investigators, K. She went to California to see her son graduate and she just didn't have the greatest time there. She was really heart broken about it and about other things in her life. She doesn't understand why Heavenly Father would do this. When she was done explaining, she said that she has gotta take a smoke. So I said we will go outside and she said no, she doesn't want us to do that. We shared some scriptures with her and the member we had with us shared her testimony. K felt the spirit so strong and dropped her lighter and cigarettes, probably without even recognizing it, saying how she feels this great energy and peace. The spirit is so strong and she later had tears of joy! It was amazing! 

Later Saturday night we had a ward talent show!! We had 5 investigators there and 7 less actives!! We were so excited and so shocked!! haha We also did a talent, involving a missionary rap and glow stick dance!! The members loved it!! We dragged our ward mission leader and another member to do it with us! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much in Florence!  Sometimes it is hard to recognize those blessings and miracles.

This sound great at home!! We had Zone conference in Eugene on Wednesday and we came with one of the cleanest cars. About all the missionaries had the same idea we had, is that we wanted to win the cleanest car!! haha we got a 5 dollar gift card to McDonalds!! It was probably one of my favorite conferences so far! Talked about becoming a consecrated missionary. It really made me realize i have a lot of work to do. This week has kinda be hard and rough for me but Saturday and Sunday really lifted me up. We found 3 new investigators on Sunday! A, G, and K!! 

Sunday morning we had a conference call with the sisters, telling us that transfers are a week early! My heart dropped. I could be transferred this time to somewhere new. After the call, i just cried because i don't want to leave florence. I prayed right there and told Heavenly Father ill go where you want me to go. Later on i was at peace and comforted, knowing that it will all work out. This moment i had also was a small taste of what i will feel like when i really leave Oregon. I won't want to leave and in a way that comforted me knowing that I love it so much I wont want to leave.  I have grown such a love for the people here and for Oregon and the gospel and a lot of things. I am excited to get the package!! For p day today we went on bay street!! I got an awesome Oregon coast hoodie and sunglasses!! While we were in one of the stores a lady walked in and it was Sister Payne's aunt!! It was crazy!! haha 

I love the gospel and love being a missionary. It is the hardest thing I have ever loved to do. Some days are hard and I want to give up, but something or someone keeps pushing me along. I couldn't do it without my Heavenly Father and Savior. I love you all!! 

XOXO

Sister Hancock

June 10

 Your week sounded great!! That is so fun mostly everyone in the fam will be together!! Levi's party sounded really fun and what a great uncle to take Bergen! This week was great! We had sisters exchanges this last week!! Sister Hollingshead and Nealy spent Thursday night and Friday night with us!! It was really fun to have them here! Sister Nealy is fresh out. She is 5 days older than me and we are about the same height! They are both great sisters! We had an awesome zone meeting at our stake presidents super nice beautiful home! If you have any fun ways we could let our investigators know we love them, let me know! We had stake conference this weekend too!! We had Elder Foster come! it was great! He gave a great talk about teaching our children in parables, as the savior did. Teach them by stories! We got to have lunch with him and the other   missionaries! President and Sister Young were there also! We have gotten to see them 3 weeks in a row!! We are lucky sisters! Their son comes home in 2 weeks! 

Our investigators that we are teaching the most are  R, C, J, K, K, K and J. I will have to tell you more later. We have a ward talent show this coming Saturday! So that will be fun and a great time to have investigators come! We have invited a lot of people, so hopefully they will come! 

Me and Sister Payne are doing a talent so that should be fun... haha O bikes... So our ward mission leader, Brother L has bikes, so we just park our car there and take the bikes and bring them back so it works great. The mission is cutting miles, so its nice to have another way to get around. We have our zone conference in Eugene this week! excited for that!! Tell Dad Happy Fathers day for me!! Wish I could skype with him too! haha It is crazy we are half way through this transfer already!! Time flies! thank you for getting the rain jacket, summers here in Florence are really windy, so hopefully that will help too. 

I love you so much!! 

xoxo

your missionary

O brother:) i love you too! good luck at vet school Dr. Hancock!!!

June 3

Fam and Friends!!

Everthing sounds so good!! It is nice to hear how everyone is doing! Mais that is so fun you went to the Taylor Swift concert with that "hot date"!! haha Jennie if you are reading this, I hope your wedding day was perfect, my mom told me about it and it sounded adorable!! I can't believe you are married! Levi!! That is so exciting you are going to Mississippi really soon! Your leaving poor mom and dad all alone... well good luck bro and go find ya a wife;)

Well this week was another great week!  We did so much better getting members to our lessons this week! We were so excited to have almost all of our lessons with a member!! We taught a less active this week, his name is J. We ended up teaching his girlfriend and daughter who are not members. It was such a neat experience! They all felt the spirit, especially his girlfriend J and we will be teaching them again next week. We had another answer to a prayer! Our investigator R, the one that is not married to the man she lives with G. He is a less active member and the reason they haven't gotten married is because he needed to get disability. Well he had his court date about a month ago and just got the call this week that he is accepted for disability!! They were not expecting the call for another 4 weeks or more. The lawer said it was the fastest he has seen! We were so excited to hear the news! They can now get married! We hope it happens soon! And as we help her and G stop smoking, she will be able to get baptized!!

I was reading a talk in the May 2013 Ensign by Elain S. Dalton,this is a part in it that i loved,  "When I was in college, I was a member of the BYU International Folk Dancers. One summer our group had the unique privilege to tour the missions in Europe. It was a difficult summer for me because a few months earlier my father had unexpectedly passed away. While we were in Scotland, I felt especially alone and became discouraged. We danced at a chapel that night, and then after our performance we went next door to the mission home. As I proceeded up the walk, I saw a stone placed in a well-kept garden by the gate. On it I read the words, “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” At that moment those words went deeply into my heart, and I felt the powers of heaven reach out and give me a message. I knew I was known by a loving Heavenly Father. I felt I was not alone. I stood in that garden with tears in my eyes. “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” That simple statement renewed my vision that Heavenly Father knew me and had a plan for my life, and the spirit I felt helped me understand that my part mattered."

Whatever we do in life, act well our part! Do our very best! I love you all!!

xoxo

Sister Hancock

May 27

Family and Friends!!!

This week has been a great one!! Me and Sister Payne started riding bikes.! And oh it has been an adventure!! Our first full day on them, we stopped this guy who was on a bike also and started talking to him. We were on the bike trail by a park, long story short there was this man yelling at us saying he was going to call the cops. So as we were getting on the bikes to go, I wasn't going anywhere. My skirt went underneath my tire and pulled me back and my skirt off of me. Good thing i had my spandex pants on:) it was pretty funny!! 

We had a really awesome experience this week! With that being said I am grateful for prayer. It wasn't something we were praying for in the moment but it was an answered prayer by us and the girl we talked to. We stopped by a referrals house to see if she was home, she wasn't and as we got into the car we saw a girl walking. We hurried to get out and she turns around and says hi. We started talking to her and explaining how we are missionaries. She stops us and she says 'You are an answer to my prayers. I was running and listening to church music and praying for a sign to know what to do. And then you guys came." We told her it wasn't a coincidence we ran into her. We started telling her about the Book of Mormon and bearing testimony to her and she asked if she could have it!! She started crying, we all did. She embraced us with a hug with such gratitude that we stopped and talked to her. It was a miracle. We were in the right place at the right time.

Yesterday we had a great Relief Society lesson on 'Converted Unto the Lord'. It really made realize what being truly converted means. It is enlarging and deepening of our testimony. Our testimonies are not enough. We need to be truly converted and it is a process. Like the 10 virgins 5 were prepared with their lamps of testimony and their oil of conversion. It is an individual thing. It is one precious drop at a time. I love you all!!!

XOXO

Sister Hancock

May 20

Transfers were today... i am staying in Florence for another 6 weeks and who knows maybe another. Sister Payne is also staying! i have been in Florence for 3 and 1/2 months. it is weird to think that one day i will be serving somewhere else in Oregon. Florence just feels like home now. 

This week was a great week! We have been teaching this girl who just turned 8 last week. Her dad is a member and her mom is not. We are also teaching the mom. But A the girl really wanted to be baptized and so we just went over the lessons with her. Her baptism was this past Saturday! She was so excited and we had one of our investigatiors there to see what it is all about and get a little taste. It was a great service.

This week I recieved another confirmation that this is where I need to be, serving my Heavenly Father. I was reading in the November 2012 Ensign about President Monson's announcement of the age change for missionaries. I am here because of that announcement. I never thought at age 19 I would be serving a mission. It made me realize even more how much i just want to lose myself in the work. I came on a mission to forget about myself and serve my loving Heavenly Father. One of the desires of my heart is to truly lose myself in the work. I desire to have an eye single to the glory of God. Doing so everything else will become secondary. Me and Sister Payne are not perfect and no one is. Elder Nelson said, "Be patient with yourself. Perfection doesn't come in this life, but the next.." 

Last night we had dinner with some members, the Floods. They were baptized in 2011! They are the greatest converts ever!! The converts every missionary wants to have! It is so amazing to see the result of someone being baptized. They were able to go through the temple last year and were able to go to the sealing of their daughter a few months later. They gave me hope and reminded me again, why I am here. They are so happy and they are a forever family! It is so special!! The gospel of Jesus Christ is so special. I can't believe I am here doing this. I am a missionary. 

Love You

May 13

Family and Friends!!

It was so great getting to talk and see all of you yesterday!!! I am so glad the face time ended up working! It seemed like i was right there with all of you! Loved seeing all your happy faces, it really lifted me up! It went by too fast, but that's okay :) Well what to say... so after i finished talking with you this was what happened later that day...

We are really trying to get the members involved and excited about missionary work. At our dinner appointments we have challenge them to either pray for a street to contact or someone for us to teach. Our first follow up was with Sister S. Yesterday she was proud to say she found her answer. She got a map out and was looking for a street we could contact. She said she kept going back to Rhodendrum Drive and she realized she actually knew a woman that lived on that street. She said alright that is my answer. After we had great talks with our families, we headed over to contact this referral. Sister S didn't know the exact address but she knew she lived by a member and described the house to us. We knocked on one house, it wasn't her but we found a new investigator. Then we knocked on another house that looked like the description and it was her! She was taking a nap but we are going to go back! We ended up finding 1 potential investigator, 1 new and hopefully an elderly couple we could serve. Sister S was definitly inspired! We can't do it without the members! This is going to be a great week! 

Me and Sister Payne have caught a cold but we are not letting it get in the way! The work must go on! With transfers coming up, we are ready for the finish line! Sprinting to the end!!

Well I love all of you and thank you so much for all the love and the support! I really do appreciate at it! Keep praying and don't forget to smile :)!  Spiritual Minded Is Life Eternal! 

XOXO,

Sister Hancock

May 6

Everything sounds great!!

This week was awesome! Full of miracles! We had a district goal to find 10 new investigators. Saturday night we had only 4! We have been praying for the district that we would be able to make that goal. Sunday after church we went through former and other investigators. One name stuck out to me, her name is J. The elders found her a few years ago. So we went over to J's apartment. A women was outside right next door to J's, watching her 7 year old son who turns 8 in June!! We started talking to them. She became really interested and was telling us how she has trying to find something more. She is very religious but hasn't found the right one for her. We told her that we have that church for her and I promised her that the gospel will answer any question she has. We got a return appointment with her and her son! Come to find out J next door moved! We came there to find A and her son I! Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways!! I was so happy that we found 2 new investigators that are the elect! This week we found 4 investigators and as a district we found 7! We almost reached our goal! Prayer is a powerful thing! We definitly have to do our part!

idk where the elder is from but yes he had to go home to get surgery. i am excited to talk to you all on Sunday!! it will be fun to see all you happy faces! i am not sure what time it will be. We get done with church at 1. so anytime after that, we don't know when though.  tell daddy thanks and that mean alot! brought tears to my eyes. i will see you Sunday!!!!! 

xoxo sister hancock

April 29

Dear Fam!!

Everything sounds great at home! That is so exciting that Levi passed his test! Good for him! Levi and Sam never change,.. do they? haha that is so funny that they won a tshirt and a kindle! awesome! Bergie sounds cute as ever! it will be crazy in October when Shae has her little one:) so excited for that!! 

Well lets see... We are finding a lot of great people to teach! Monday one of our less-active/recent coverts, Monique asked us if we could go to her little boy's tee ball game. Their family wasn't going to be able to make it to watch him and she wanted someone there to cheer him on. It was really fun watching lil Jack. He is a hoot! 

We found 2 new investigators this week! Alex and Carolyn! So that will be exciting teaching them this week. We have other lessons with our progressing investigators! This week was just a lot of knocking on doors and less actives! We have lots of lessons planned for this week. 

Friday we had a conference call with the mission! They are so powerful! It feels like all the missionaries of the OEM are right there in the same room! We had a situation in the mission that they needed to address. One of out Elders needed to have emergency surgery because they found a tumor and they needed to remove it. And he might have to do some chemo. It was such a spiritual experience we had as President opened our fast with prayer for this Elder and his family. It made me realize that we are all in this together. There is no to waste. We our on the Lord's time. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

XOXO

Sister Hancock

April 15th

    This week was really good! Me and Sister Payne are getting along great and are excited for this transfer!

Heavenly Father has helped us so much this week in guiding to people to talk and teach. We have met so many people this week and have a lot of great potentials! One day we were going to see one of our investigator and on our way back to our car we saw a girl walking along the side walk. We started running after her and then slowing down and then running again haha

    i am sure whoever was watching us was thinking that we were crazy! We caught up to her and talked to her about the Book of Mormon. She seemed really interested and we will be meeting with her hopefully this week!

    Another crazy story... We were on our way to a house and I saw 2 girls walking out of a restaurant and I told Sister Payne to pull into the parking lot. The girls had already gotten into their car by now but that didn't stop me from talking to them :) haha  We jumped out of our car and ran to the door. I knocked on the car window and we had a great discussion and bore testimony to them. I had such a love for them and just knew how much Heavenly Father wanted them to have the gospel and how much they need it. They are sisters, teenage age and we gave them a book of mormon. We will be calling them this week to set up a time to see them.

    We had so many times when Heavenly Father puts in the right spot at the right time. I am so grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We couldn't do it without Him. I hope everyone had a great conference weekend. I love all of you so much! Till next week :)

XOXO

Sister Hancock

April 8th

  I  have to make this a quick email. It is 5:30. We just got back from Eugene. Transfers were today, so I got my new companion Sister Payne. We both have been out for the same time, we were in the same zone in the MTC, so we will be training each other. We are in Florence still, so I gotta show her the ropes haha

    So Sister Barton will be flying to Idaho tomorrow. It is crazy that she is leaving. I am gonna miss her. We were so close and she taught me so much! She was an amazing trainer and taught me everything I know! I am excited for me and Sister Payne. This transfer is going to help both of us grow so much! thank you!. 

   But everything sounds great and i'm glad you enjoyed conference! It was amazing! I will have to give you more details next week. I am a little nervous for what is ahead but I know the Lord is going to help me. It is going to be great! I love you so much! Good luck with work! 

Love,
Sister Hancock

April 1st

   Me and Sister Barton are the only ones that live in the apartment. We live at a members home, her name is Sister S. She is such a nice lady. We love her!  The part we live in is above the garage, so the extended part from the house. We had fast sunday too and we forgot to fast also hah but we had speakers and a special musical number by Sister Hancock and Sister Barton haha.It was a awesome sacrament meeting and me and my companion sang He Sent His Son! I guess i am a singer now.. not really haha we had lots of people say we sounded like angels haha.

 For our mission plan for the members, each auxiliary prays for 5 less active names to contact     and they ask them if they have a testimony, if they plan on coming back to church and if they say no or yes to both questions you ask the last question, will you take lessons from the missionaries? So you guys could try that!

Our 2 investigators on date are doing great! And we are trying to find more people! We do have a potential family. The husband is a less active member. His wife and her daughter are the ones we want to teach. The daughter wants to be baptized. We are just trying to get a time to meet with them. You can pray for that.

    O and about the goodfellows,  a lady in our ward knows them. I saw her wedding invitation on the her fridge and i asked her how she knew them. So that is pretty cool.

    My Easter Sunday I woke up and opened the presents my mom sent me and went to church, talked to people and had dinner at a members home!  It was a good day! We also had both our investigators there and about 10 less actives! Kinda weird having my first holiday away from home but it was good:)

     This week I got to go to Eugene on Wednesday because my companion went to the temple. So I spent the day with the sisters there! It was really fun being with them! I hope I serve there sometime. They serve in the college ward, so that would be really fun!! Eugene is so different from Florence. Florence is a much smaller town and there isn't much around.

Time goes by so fast! I feel like I just had p day and now it is our last week before transfers and my companion is going home to good old Idaho Falls! It is crazy!! She leaves April 9! I'm kinda nervous leading the area with my new companion. I'm sad Sister Barton is leaving but it will be a good and exciting change for her and for me. So this week is going to be full and busy! I'm really excited for conference!!

    Well I hope you have a great first week of April!! I hope you liked the pictures! I love you very much!! I hope your reading and praying with Dad! It is never too late to start. I love you!!

XOXO

SISTER HANCOCK

MARCH 25TH

Hello Family!

     Sounds like everyone is great! Things are great and just out sharing the gospel to all these people in Florence! There are so many people we talk to that already know it is true! Which is awesome!! This week is going to be great, being Easter week and conference next week! So we plan to make fliers and give them to everyone we see! We have had lots of miracles!! We are about to teach a family who the mom and daughter want to be baptized! 

     Our 2 investigators are so awesome! We had some awesome lessons with one this week! We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation! She just ate it all up! She was so excited to know that she can do the work for her mom and grandma! That touched her so much and brought her so much peace! She is so humble and knows it is all true! She loves feeling the spirit and having that comfort! Kay and some other people came to church yesterday! We were so excited to have her there! She has some health problems but she stayed the whole time! She loved it and will be coming again! 

    At church it was ward conference and the stake president talked in sacrament. He had an amazing talk about President Monson's call 'Reach out and Rescue!' That the rescue is to all. He talked about the young men who carried the people across the sweet water river one person at a time. We need to to do the same, rescue one person at a time. There is not limit and as we let the Lord help us he will multiply our effort and do much more than we could on our own. 

     It being Easter time, another thing he said stuck out to me. He asked the question, do we have a need for the Savior? He said the need we have, is the commitment we have to the gospel and the Savior. During Easter is the perfect time to think about this question and what Jesus Christ did for all of us. We all have a need for the Savior and that is His Atonement. He suffered there for me and for all of you. And he would have done that just for you and no one else because that is how much he loves all of us. 

     Happy Easter everyone!!! I hope you all have a great, long spring break and remember why we celebrate Easter! I love you all!!!

XOXO

Sister Hancock

March 11th

     First I just wanted to say how grateful I am for such an amazing family and that I love you all soo much! My love for all of you has grown so much! Being out on the mission you see lots of sad and hard family situations. I appreciate all of you so much more and so grateful that we were raised by such great parents who taught us the gospel.

    This week has been great! Still having ups and downs. Tuesday the Relief Society has quilting and President let us go for an hour. We met 2 non members and have an appointment with one of them this week, which is awesome! Bishop Greth has had this tradition to take the Elders to 'Taco Tuesday' so we did that with his wife and Sister Shultz. Wednesday was a harder day for me and Sister Barton. We were both kinda low and we had a good talk. We got out of the car and tracted by the church. The Lord showed his tender mercy and we found 2 new investigators. The one is a single mom and has a son and the other is a family but the family cancelled yesterday. The rest of the week was good! We have ate a members home for dinner every night! We had Zone Training meeting, which got all of us pumped! It is so nice to see and talk to other missionaries. We had a good meeting and made some great goals. For the month of March, our zone made a goal to have each companionship to have 1 baptism. Pray for us! On Sunday it was the Missionary Show! Me and Sister Barton talked in sacrament! It went really well. I talked about becoming child like. We both didn't have much time to prepare so we had to rely on the spirit to help us. Church and Sundays are wonderful! I love them so much! Such a great refresher.

    Today for p day, some of the moms in our ward took us on this little hike with all their cute kids and a few of their nonmember friends! So that was good we got to talk with them and hopefully will be seeing them soon. We were right by the ocean and the hike led up to the light house! It was foggy but still pretty. We also saw a whale! I will have to send some pics of the hike and other pictures I have taken!

     Well sounds like all of you are doing great! I love to hear what's going on! People here love that new Bible Show, it sounds good. Saren's shower sounded so fun!! Can't wait to hear how the wedding goes! That's fun Ashlee and Reese stayed and I'm glad to hear Shae and Bryce are home safe!

     Like I told you last week, our goal is to baptize 3 souls! So pray for us! I have a feeling this week is going to be great! Me and Sister Barton are ready to work extra hard this week. I am getting the hang of things but still have lots to learn. We have Zone Conference this week which will be awesome! Excited for that and the Stake Relief Society is doing this Women at the Well thing on saturday! Our Zone is also doing this 40 day fast! I will tell you more about it later! I just gotta trust in the Lord. Just taking step by step. I hope you have been praying for missionary opportunities. If you haven't start this week. Well again I love you all!!

XOXO Sister Hancock

First Companion

Sister Hancock and Sister Barton

Arrived in Oregon

Hi Family!

Everything sounds great at home!

I know President Young called you on Wednesday night. We stayed at the mission home that night and headed to our area the next morning. We arrived to Florence Thursday afternoon and went right to work. Sister missionaries haven't been in Florence on the coast for over 8 years. So the members in the ward, especially the single sisters were so excited, because they can have us for dinner now.  Alot has happened in the past 4 days. My trainer, Sister Barton has been out for over a year. She hasn't been in this area, so we are both new but I'm sooo glad she knows what she is doing. Today on our P day we finally got to clean our apartment and unpack! The elders left it not the way we would have liked. So we have spent all day cleaning. 

It has been overwhelming trying to learn everything, and getting to know the area and the people. We have talked with alot of less actives/recent converts and our goal is to build up the ward and make it stronger and really have the members be a part of it. The people in the ward are great and have been so nice to us. Our goal for this area is to have 3 souls be baptized. I know we can do it and the Lord is preparing those 3 souls.

As you know there are 58 new missions and one of those is in Oregon. It is the Salem Mission. So in about 4 months our mission is going to be split. 5 areas from the Eugene mission and 3 from Portland, will make the Salem mission. It is a bitter sweet time for President and Sister Young because some of the missionaries in Eugene will be serving in Salem. President wants this to be the 4 months we never forget and wants all of us to work our hardest. It will be the 4 months of miracles. 

 It's crazy I am already here and that I'm a 'real' missionary! It hasn't hit me yet that I am serving a mission! All of it has gone by so fast! I loved the MTC! It was awesome and I met so many great people there and learned alot! It's weird actually being in Oregon. It's different than Utah in many ways. The area we are in is gorgeous! There are so many trees and so green, sand dunes, rivers and the ocean! So much water! The weather has been pretty nice so far! Last two days have been sunny. It gets a little chilly because of the wind but so far its been pretty nice. Not too much rain yet :)

The mission is hard. I'm not gonna lie the past 4 days has been hard for me to adjust. I have been missing home. I have felt very out of place and not myself I guess.I have just felt overwhelmed. I have realized that this isn't my mission. I received my mission call and was called to serve here but it's the Lord's mission. Right now I am just trying to stay positive and relying on Heavenly Father. I just gotta work, work and work. This is just a very small portion of my life and I don't want to waste the Lord's time. I know things will get better once I get things down and the flow of things. Satan is real and he does everything he can to distract the work. He definitly knows my weaknesses. I'm so grateful I have my companion to help me and my Heavenly Father. Thank you for everything and all the love and support! This week I want you to pray as a family and come up with a name that you could invite to church this month. I love you all so much!!! xoxo

Love, Sister Hancock