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

MTC Letter

Dear Family,

Well Happy Valentines Day!!

Wow, I can't believe I am here.  I love it so much!  It is like happyville here!  All the Elders & Sisters are so happy!  My first day was amazing!  I was blessed with two companions, Sister Hall & Sister Peterson.  They are amazing and have such great testimonies, all the sisters here do.  For our first day we met our district and teachers.  Six of us are going to Oregon and the other six to SLC South.  The Elders are great, After we had the presidency welcome, dinner at 4:15, teaching experience and met our zone leaders.  It is an adjustment having dinner so early.  I have learned alot here already.  It has been humbling.  I definitely have alot to learn and I am learning to use my time wisely.  We missionaries study all day but when the day is over it isn't enough time.  Sometimes the hours seem long and the day seems like a year, but at the end of the day I wonder where the time has gone.  There is also alot of ups & downs.  I haven't been real emotional but more frustrated with myself.  Sometimes it is hard to stay focused but I need to forget myself and go to work!

Well I hope everything is well at home.  I will do better at writing and you all do the same.  The support from family and friends really does help.  I love you all and have a good week!

Love
Sister Hancock