DECEMBER 16, 2013

Family and Friends!!
  I soon will be leaving this week and will be transferred! My companion arrives from the MTC Wednesday and we will be headed to Central Point 4th ward. It is about 3 hours away from Eugene and a little bit colder. And it doesn't rain as much there ha! More like Utah weather!

  The transfers keep getting harder and harder to leave. It has been much harder than leaving home. I have grown to love this area so much and all the people my companions and I were able to serve. I am so grateful that I was able to serve in the Eugene YSA ward as long as I have. It has been such a blessing for me to be able to serve in this special area for 6 months! I am so grateful for the miracles that I have witnessed, the many memories that have been made, being with the members, and so much more! I love this area so much! I have grown the most here and I am so grateful for the lives that I have been able to influence. I was reading a talk called "When You Save a Girl, You Save Generations." I loved this quote, "Your righteous choices will qualify you to make and keep sacred covenants that will bind you family together eternally." And another one by Robert Hales says, "If the example we have received from our parents was not good, it is our responsibility to break the cycle... and teach correct traditions for the generations that follow." I loved both of these quotes so much! I have been able to witness both of these things on my mission and especially here in the Eugene YSA ward. I am so grateful for that opportunity and look forward to the miracles that await in Central Point. Love you all!! Thank you for all your Christmas Wishes!! 

Xoxo

Sister Hancock

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Family and Friends!!
Hope everyone had a good turkey dinner!! It is officially Christmas Time!!!! So excited for this month!! I know great things are going to happen!
Heavenly Father is just pouring out blessings upon us! We were blessed with 4 new investigators this week! We met Rayne on Wednesday night. We were actually going to contact a less active member but she wasn't home. Rayne answered the door and we asked her if we could come inside and teach her more. She willingly let us in and we were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation! It made so much sense to her! We got her info and she said she would love to meet again. We will be seeing her this weekend!
We had a great thanksgiving dinner with some of the Relief Society sisters! We were so blessed to have such a great meal and be around some of the girls in the ward! Friday for district meeting we talked a lot on prayer. Focused on the blessings that come when investigator pray and pray on their knees. We also discussed using prayer as a door approach. We haven't put a good effort in trying this in our area so after the meeting we decided to give it a try. It all started with an intense civil war game that caused us to receive a miracle of finding a free parking spot!! Then proceeded to contact 2 potentials and 3 new investigators with this approach! They were so accepting as we asked them to prayer for them and their finals coming up this week.
I have learned so much this week!! I have been studying the conference talks more and really have gained knew knowledge from them. I am grateful for our Prophet, his apostles and the other leaders of the church. One of the talks that I loved was called "The Words We Speak" It's about speaking to our children but applies to the people we teach everyday. One of the quotes is " To speak to a child's heart, we must know a child's needs." I changed it to say, "To speak to an investigator's heart, we must know an investigator's needs." And another part of the talk I applied to those we teach.. "What will we say to them that will sink deep into their hearts? What words will encourage them, lift them and help them stay on the path? Will we make a difference in their lives as we take the time to tell them they are sons and daughters of God and He loves them? And don't they need to hear that their Heavenly Father loves everything about them, that they are special to Him." I love the phrase 'The words we speak'. What words will we choose to speak today? Especially this holiday season!! Take the time to think of what Christ has given you and what you can do to give back to Christ. It may be the words you speak. I love you all so much and so grateful for the support!!! Hope you all have a great week :) 

Xoxo

Sister Hancock

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