Merry Christmas from Mexico

For Christmas, Dakotah got to Skype us on Christmas Eve. It was such a nice gift to be able to see his face and hear his voice. We have missed him terribly. He looked great and so happy! He loves doing the work of the Lord and he loves serving among the wonderful people of Mexico. He has already made some life long friends there. 

It was fun to listen to him speak with a bit of an accent and to watch him trying to figure out the English word for things. He has forgotten many English words. He spoke some Spanish for us and it was fun to hear. 

We were able to meet his companion and say hi, as well as say hi to the family who was so kind to allow him to Skype us on their computer. We are so thankful for the wonderful members who have taken care of him for us, while he is there. It means so much. 

We were able to take the ipad outside and show him all the snow we have gotten and it was fun for he and his companion to see. 

While we were talking to him, Lisa Jackson happened to stop by and was able to say hi to him. That was a neat treat. He loves the Jacksons and thinks of Lisa as his second mom. 

He says to tell everyone he loves you, misses you, thanks you for all your love and support and to do good things! Have a Merry Christmas! 

Later, he was able to email a few pictures for us to enjoy. 

My heart is full. Best Christmas present EVER! Got to Skype and see and hear him face to face AND we got pictures. :)

 

Merry Christmas from Mexico

 

Dakotah and his companion were able to attend the Tampico Temple.

 

Seeing some of the sights.

This is Dakotah burning a tie for his 6 month mark.

It's crazy to think that on the 13th of January, it will be 7 months. 

Letter Day! It's ALMOST Christmas!

hola hola hola!!!!!!!!

Hello to all and everyone! Sorry that I didn't write much last week, I was super busy! It is super hard to write a long letter sometimes, especially with all the work we do!

Soo I will fill you in on things I am doing in my life as a missionary, this week was pretty great. We had the opportunity to go to the temple and it was just paradise. I love the temple every time I go! The family that was getting sealed is a family that was baptized by my comp, Elder Bruno! It was super cool to see them making these covenants in their life. During this time, all I could think about was the blessings of it in my life! And the blessings of my family that is sealed in the temple for time and all eternity! Also in the temple I learned a whole heap of things about the atonement and about the plan of salvacion! About the plan of salvacion, I had the thought about the scripture in doctrine and covenants that says that these trials are small, but if we endure them well, meaning if we are faithful, prayerful, humble, and happy, through these trials, great will be our reward in the kingdom of my Father, and when Christ says great will be your reward, I believe it is more amazing than anything we could ever imagine! I related this unto my tests that I have as a missionary, if I can endure these tests well, in that meaning of the word, then I will have an amazing reward later on!

Now for a spiritual thought, if that wasn't spiritual enough ha soo this week I have had amazing opportunities to help give priesthood blessings. The blessings were mostly for people in the ward, but a lot to my comp also. It was amazing to see how I knew exactly what to say and when the blessing was done, I just felt to stop and end the blessing. I really feel like I was guided by the spirit, especially cause I don't quite know everything of spanish quite yet, so it was a little hard to speak in tu instead of usted for the blessings. My testimony is that God guides those who are worthy and ready for his help, He knew exactly what I needed to say in those blessings and I said them. I feel and felt the peace and assurance of the Holy Ghost after ending the blessings, so I know that I said exactly what needed to be said! Also, I want to testify that it is directly because I was and am praying for opportunities to use my priesthood that we are ready and blessed with the opportunity to give blessings and help people out.

I have a new companion this change, his name is Elder Robles. He is from Chihuahua. He is taller than me. Elder Bruno, got super sick last night and this morning we had to go to the medic and get him shots and all sorts of medicine. It was crazy. He is going to Tampico today and will go home tomorrow.

I have six months in the mission now, and burned a tie on the thirteenth for that. ha

I think that that is all! I encourage all of you to have a maravilloso navidad!!!!!!!!! Everyone! go on missions! Enter the temple and make those covenants that will save you in the long run! Help others who can't help themselves because they are dead! You will find the truest love in the whole world when you are doing work for them! And how great will be your joy if you help many souls come into the kingdom of the Father! I love you all and know you all will do what is great! Keep doing all that you need to do and remember that I love you all!!!!
Elder Hancock

I will speak to you face to face on Monday. Check your email. I may send a message first, so you can be ready for the Skype.

News from our Missionary

 December 10, 2012


Hola,

Thanks for the money. I felt horrible for having to ask for help. I pray that I won't have to do it again. I was able to pay for all the travel that my companion and I had to do.

I am trying only to concentrate on the mission and helping people and I am super sorry for all the times in my life, doing the money game with you. I finally feel like you guys when I have to worry about this type of thing. I think I am turning into you, here on my mission, I make sure there is a good reason for every peso I spend. All I bought for food this week was a little milk and bread, then I got your package and so I am eating peanut butter and goober grape for like all my food. I am glad there was alot! But, on the bright side, I have learned more and more to trust in the Lord in everything and I know He will provide, whether it is through loving parents like I have, or through other means. My Christmas package came from you guys, and Barbara Sharpe sent me a package also and it had some money in it and it has helped. On the even brighter side, we have a whole heap of menos actives coming back to church. One is an ex missionary and he along with his family, are attending like every one of the activities at the church again.

I again, thank you for being the best parents in the whole wide world, I am very lucky to have amazing parents that like to care for their son.

I watched the Together Forever video you sent, and I think I am gonna use it to teach the plan of salvation part that we can actually be together forever!

I feel impressed to say that because you are helping with the missionary money, and most importantly, doing all of your duties for the church, aka temple, and callings, you will have all the money you need to have this season and always have enough to do what you need. Please know that I am trying my hardest out here. Sometimes, God blesses us with trials such as helping out a companion, and sometimes and most preferable, it is another test that doesn't have to deal with money at all. I feel like we are like the people of the Book of Mormon, we were doing good with money and everything, but God wants to know if we will stay true to Him, when there is no money to go around at all, so He gives us tests to see how loyal we are to Him, if we keep doing the things we need to do, then we will be blessed in the end, exactly like Job in the Bible.

I would like to thank you for staying good and going to the temple every week. I will try to do all that I can do for the Lord at all times! I love you and am super thankful for parents who have made the church important in their lives and for parents that have raised me in the ways that the spirit has told them to.

I love you, keep doing good things. Please tell everyone who sent stuff to me in my package, thank you! I LOVED everything! It's all fantastic! Thank you Lisa and Jackson family for the Goober Grape! One of the bottles shattered all over the package, and got on my new garments, but it's all good, there is not even one stain on them now, I washed them and they are sparkling white. ha And we still ate some of it. :)

Well, I have to go and do work now, thank you for the help, the package and everything. Remember that I love you more than you love me. hahaha Have a great day! I will talk to you soon! :D

Elder Hancock

Letter Day, a day late...

Hola familia,

We got home from our Zone Meeting in Tampico and couldn't decide what we wanted to do first so we decided to write. We had pizza today, it was Little Caesars. I was full after two slices but I ate like four, so I felt horrible! haha

This week was just great! I loved the Christmas devotional, which I watched in spanish. I can understand what people are saying to me in person and all, but my next task is to understand completely what they are saying in movies, and talks and stuff like that!  I loved also listening to the music and I felt the spirit super strong when it was playing!

These last weeks of the change we have to go to Tampico four times; today, Wednesday, Thursday of next week and Saturday of next week. It is a bunch of times but today, Wednesday, and Thursday are all days that we are having learning or training. Saturday my comp and I are going to the temple to see his converts from a year ago, go through the temple, then he leaves on the next monday to his house! Wow it is super busy!

I haven't received the package yet, I am going to check on wednesday and see if I am going to receive it! I want it really bad! :)

By the way, Mom, Happy Half of 94! ha ha

I am glad that Ben and his wife get along so great. I loved the pictures. They should stay there and do pageant together! :D Tell them thank you for remembering me. I am excited for them!

I am super glad to hear that you are praying and finding opportunities to serve others. Every night I pray that you guys will be doing the work of the Lord! So not only the missionary can be serving the mission; I'll just be serving in a different country than you guys.

Mom, about grandpa, I have learned a lot about the spirit world, it is here according to all the things that I have been taught and studied, but they are doing work. I have noticed that that is why I can feel the comfort of my ancestors protecting me and helping me along my way sometimes and this is why when we use the priesthood to help have an angel protect the house in the night, it is super easy because they are already here or in a better version of this world, helping us along the way by giving protection. My point is that I am sure that grandpa can see and he knows that you want to make sure he is taken care of. I can feel the spirit when I write this, I know that he knows you and that you have a lot of love for him. He will be thanking you in the next life for the love you have shown for him, but more importantly, the love and loyalty you have shown to Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.

I also just want you to know that our ancestors are here, they are waiting for us to do the saving work in the temple for them. Dad, we have an ancestor, he is the dad of Thomas or the grandpa of Thomas Hancock, and he doesn't have his work done yet. Go and do it for him!!

This week I have been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot and studying things of the spirit a lot! I love how it advises me and blesses me to take faith and patience into all of my relationships; this is so that the spirit can tell me and help me to know exactly how to discern and have confidence to say the things that I need to say. I have also been studying the light of Christ a lot lately and how it can help my life. I have learned or been re-taught that when we follow spiritual promptings and do what the spirit wants us to, the light of Christ in us gets bigger and burns brighter. When we don't follow those promptings, then, it gets weaker and eventually it can be erased completely. With this knowledge, I have been trying to decide or think to myself, whenever I feel a thought or feeling to do something; I think to myself, is this helping or inviting me to do good, and grow closer to Heavenly Father? And usually it is yes, and then I do it! I have noticed that I am receiving more and more promptings but also that these promptings I am noticing are directly helping someone or I see the result to help me in some way. But, the point that I am getting at today, is that I have been talking a lot with my comp, cause he is going home. He is thinking a lot about his goals spiritually and for work and marriage and that kind of stuff. I have been praying that I will be able to discern the spirit and know exactly what I need to say to help him. I have noticed that at times I say something that is completely crazy, I know that it was from the spirit cause I felt the spirit tell me to say it, I don´t know if it helped him or not, but i know it was from the spirit. My spiritual thought this week is that we all need to completely be searching at all times of the day for the light of Christ in every situation, praying and knowing if this decision will help us grow closer to Heavenly Father or not. If we do this and follow the promptings we are given, we will have more and more, also we need to write these promptings down so we can read them later and be edified with the spirit and remember what we have learned and already gone through so we can have hope for the future, learn from our experiences, and do what the Father wants at all times!

I had an experience this week, me and my companion were walking and we came to this super dark road, I took like five steps down it and my whole body stopped right in my tracks. I know that it was the spirit that stopped me, so I couldn't even walk one step further down that road. My comp wanted to go down it, but I said that I will not go down that road. I felt the spirit as we searched for another way. I know that I was saved from something that night by the power of the spirit! Keep searching for the spirit and the light of Christ in all things!

Please let Brother Scott and President Averett know that I love them. I want to write them but it's hard with the short email time we get. And grandpa and grandma, thank you for the letters! I love to read them and I love to see all the pictures you send. I hope you all know I love you. Kent, you need to write me.

Other than that I am super happy to hear about everyone and their calls to serve! That is all! Have a great week and do the things that you know are right! Know I love you very much!
Elder Hancock

Letter Day is here Again!

Hi everyone! Sorry I didn't get Kotah's letter out last week! He didn't write until way late and then we had Thanksgiving stuff to do and so I am sending you both letters this week! Double the news! lol
Mimi


MONDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2012

This week, we, as a companionship received another companion. President wanted us to help him out. Our job was to help him to get back into the work. We were talking and both felt the impression that the reason he was here with us, was because he needed to learn to truly love the people he was serving and how important that was in his mission. We didn't sit him down and talk with him, or anything like that but we led by example and I think that is what changed his heart. So, long story short, is that today when we were leaving the house, we got a call from president and it was to tell us that he was leaving. We had done our job. I know that we did our job because I prayed about it afterwards and I felt the same way I did when I left Huejutla. It was great to know that we had done our job and helped him out. I didn't get to write until late because we were helping him pack and whatnot all day.

Tomorrow, we have interviews with the president. I love president and hermana Jordan! They are awesome!

I spoke some english this week with some of the members and I speak with an accent now. ha ha I only speak english on p days when I write you guys so it's hard to speak it now.

I love the Little Caesar's guy! You two make a great team!

Well, I have to leave now. Sorry this is short. We are going to eat with an hermana and going to teach her daughter who is inactive and we are going to help activate her in the church. :D

I love you all and know that you are doing great things. Have a great week and do what the Lord wants you to!
Wahoooo! I love the mission!

Love,
Elder Hancock



MONDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2012


hola hola hola! This week was amazing! It was super busy but I had a lot of super cool spiritual insight, but for other news, I am doing amazing!

We had interviews this week with president and we talked about how I felt about our experience and how me and my comp had the same spiritual insight on what we could do to help, which was to help him learn to love more. And he also told me that I needed to make sure to email my mom each week.

This week I have been studying in Alma 32 about how we need to let this seed grow into a super beautiful tree! I had the thought that there are three major things that we need to help this seed grow, the first is that for all seeds to grow, we always need to have soil or ground that is good, we compare this soil to the bible in mark or really all of them when Jesus taught about the planter and how the different seeds couldn't grow unless they were planted in rich soil. He later tells that these are like people. If they are planted in rich soil, they can have the seed grow. I compare this soil unto your environment and how the people around you have major effects on what you do! Second, is one other thing that is necessary, it is water. If you plant a seed in perfect soil but don't water it, nothing will happen. This water is the food, the food in our spiritual seeds is doing things like reading, praying, going to church, fasting, etc. things that bring the spirit into your life. The third thing that is needed is always, light! Light is the final and most important thing that we must have in our lives for this spiritual seed to grow! What is light in our lives? Think really hard . . . . . . . . .  the light of Christ is the light in our lives! It is necessary for us to have the light of Christ in our lives for this spiritual seed to grow! If we do not have His light then we are in some serious trouble! You ask, how can we have the light of Christ in our lives? Well, we are promised in the scriptures and also again in the Doctrine and Covenants that if we are actively doing the things that we need to do, like reading with intent to learn, praying for answers, going to church; first of all a desire will start to grow in us to continue doing these things, but most of all, we will be blessed with more light and knowledge! So if we do and have all three of these things, we will have a beautiful tree grow in our hearts and its roots will be so deep that not even the biggest of machines can uproot them. After this, the scripture says, in essence, that we have to continue to keep doing these things so our trees will bring forth fruits! I have a lot more to say on this subject but I don't have time to write it all! Read that chapter and you will have amazing insights into how you need to do things and the blessings you will have!

I had a baptism this week, it was a baptism of three, two sisters and another boy from another family, his name is Diego. The girls are Alexa and Marleny! It was super awesome! The dad of the two girls just got baptized and got the priesthood last week, so it was way cool that he got to baptize his girls!

My comp is sick. He has a parasite or something like that. We have to go and get him super medicine that hermana Jordan told us to get. Keep him in your prayers. I know you worry mom. I am being careful, but hermana Jordan told me that every elder gets one, so I'm just waiting for it, the words from the blessings before my mission are fresh in mind though, that I will not get sick like super sick, I will get the average illness but I won't get super sick if I am taking care of myself.

I am still not sure how we will do the call at Christmas, mom. I would like to Skype because it is more affordable for you guys. My comp says the Mexican Elders just like to call their parents but it's a lot of money to call Mexico from the States  and I feel like Skype is better for the Americans because it is less money. I will let you know what I find out.

I love you all and keep doing the right thing! Keep searching the scriptures and Heavenly Father will help you to understand them as you do! I am super happy and proud of you all (my friends and family) for acting on the spirit and deciding to serve missions!!! They are the absolute best things in the world if you let them change your heart!

Love,
Elder Dakotah Hancock

 View from Dakotah's room in the early morning.

Dakotah and his companion, Elder Bruno

Baptism this week, Alexa, Marleny and Diego

It's Letter Day, Letter Day, Letter Day!

Well hello dear family!!!!

So, this week was great! I love the new area but I feel uncomfortable sometimes cause I feel like I should be in humble ole Huejutla. haha I talk about how we did things in Huejutla all the time with the other Elders. We don't have hot water here and still wash our clothes the same way as we did in Huejutla. The food is good. We had one meal this week that originated in Huejutla. They have different frijoles here than in Huejutla though, it is only black there and here is the other.
My comp thinks that I am Jeffery R. Holland, when he was younger, of course, but he always calls me Elder Holland and holds the pic of him in the Liahona up to my face and compares us. ha ha

This week an hermana couldn't feed us so she gave us money to buy food so Elder Bruno and I bought chinese food. It was delicious when we were eating it but later that night we paid the price ha ha! I don't know if we will eat there again. ha ha.

This week we got new rules in the mission. We cannot contact, cannot baptize, cannot baptize anyone under the age of 14, every lesson pretty much has to be with a member, and a couple of other things. It was crazy when we got the rules, but I am happy that I am in this mission so I can tell my kids that I was in the mission when the word "missionary" changed from someone who just goes out and tries to do what the Lord wants and baptizes or something like that; to someone who helped a whole ward or stake come back to church and save themselves in the kingdom of heaven!!! It is called the work of salvation and it is definitely a harder way of working, but I know that we will all be benefited by it! I know that presidente has revelation for us all in the mission so I trust that the Lord is working thru him for the best!

Well, I was having a hard time this week and satan was in my thoughts making me feel not good enough or things like that, you all know, those kind of days, but I was praying really hard and I remembered the scripture that God will not allow us to have a temptation above that which we are able to overcome with His help. This thought really helped me cause I saw that Heavenly Father will not give me any temptation, doubt, thought, or anything, unless he already knows that I can overcome it for the better, praying for help the whole time. Satan just tries to get me down on myself and it's super hard but every time he does, I pray and Heavenly Father is there EVERY TIME. I know that Heavenly Father will help me at all times. This thought that I had was an answer to my prayers and also to a lot of other prayers. I have also seen that God does things in his own time. I love the answers we receive and how we can notice an answer to a prayer along time down the road!

I was thinking about how I felt super happy when I felt that I had done everything that the Lord wanted me to do, in Huejutla and I related this to that we could have the same feeling when we are finishing the mission, and also when we are finishing this life. If we do all that we can, at all times, then we can have the greatest feelings of peace and joy, of happiness and of faith, not fear for death, but a hope and knowledge that it is really only the beginning of an amazing journey!

I LOVE to hear about all of the mission calls, and I know that they will be tested in ways that they don't even know! I know that the Lord is strengthening me to be the man he wants me to be! I have noticed that with Elder Lopez I learned to work very hard! And with Elder Bruno, I have learned that I can have fun while doing the hard work. :D

Tell Ty, that I love him and the mission is the best decision in his life yet! He will have tests that will push him to the limit and then right off the edge of the cliff; it is then that God can help us learn to fly and become who He wants us to be!

There is GREAT news for everyone, gather around and read this! When I was in the MTC, I weighed 225-230 pounds; I was huge! But, now, I have dropped like 30 pounds and I am sitting at a wonderful 198-200 pounds!! I can't believe that I have dropped 30 pounds! I can finally see the muscles… ha ha I am grateful that the Lord has blessed me with the ability to drop the weight so I can do His work better.

I don't have time to send any pictures today and the internet has been slow today, so I will try to send some next week. Thank you for the pictures grandma and thank you mom and poppi for the pictures. You look foreign to me. It's crazy! Without the sling and todo poppi looks a little different. ha ha
I love you all and do amazing things!
Elder Hancock

It's another LETTER DAY and TRANSFERS

Dear family!

I am in a new area and I want you to guess where it is. hahaahaha I am in the state of Veracruz! ha

Well, this week was just great, it was a great test of faith and I have seen many of the blessings of the spirit! So, first of all, I am amazed and excited that everyone is going on missions and I know that they will be better people because of them! I am super excited for Shane, it will be a test for him to learn german, but I know that he will be able to do so, if he has a prayer in his heart at all times! Tell everyone congrats on their calls! I cannot say how much I am grateful for my mission! I have seen so many opportunities to grow and to open my heart to the promptings of the spirit and to let Heavenly Father shape my life in the way that he wants to.

This week, we had a girl set for baptism and we felt all week that she was ready for the baptism, but when she talked to us she didn't feel ready. We fasted for her this week and I saw a miracle. We went to visit her Saturday; the day of the baptism, and she still didn't feel ready but she wanted to see how it was done. Long story short; after the baptism, she asked me and my comp if she could be baptized that night! I was super excited and I loved the whole experience! I got to baptize her. It was my first and last time in the water, I will tell you why that is with all the changes. 

Now for the news about all the changes! First, I left Huejutla and I am in a city called Panuco, it is about an hour or so south of the Tampico Temple and about two hours north of Huejutla. I already love it and I can tell that we are going to have some really great success here!! My new comp is with me for his last change in the mission! He has six weeks left! His name is Elder Bruno!
He is from the farthest south state in Mexico. He is awesome and our house is a mansion! It is one of the nicest houses in the whole mission. I think we have a little hot water, but I am not for sure yet. We still have to shop and get my companion's hair cut today. We have to walk a little ways to the internet cafe, but there is a lady who sells bread, right across the street. Elder Lopez is now in Mante serving as leader of the zone!

Thinking about your talk topic of gratitude; you should be here in Mexico, where people are really grateful for things, not like some people in America who just say they are grateful and don´t really know how to show it! I love the people here and I know I can be a help to them. This last week I felt like my work was done in Huejutla. My desires were that I could be there for one more change to teach some people that I really love but the spirit is the one who helped me to know that I needed to go cause I was done there. I was just feeling really down about leaving Huejutla, so I prayed for excitement and joy entering this new companionship and area and He has blessed me with it. :D I am also glad to see that the Lord has blessed me with a comp that wants to work.  Now there are hermanas in my old house ha… that is crazy.

Other changes are that it is now a rule that we cannot baptize, contact, and a lot of other things. The people baptizing have to be people in the ward. We can't go out and contact people but if someone talks to us about the church, then we can talk to them about it and contact them after. We can talk to people, just not about the church unless they bring it up. It is all on the members now. They help us do it all. Pretty much, it is our job to motivate the members to do their job and in turn, we will receive people to teach. It is a whole heap of faith on our part! I don't know why the changes in everything but I know it will be for the better! I think maybe it is mostly because we are doing this thing that is called the work of salvation. It is all to help the members that we already have to be active, and through this, we can have members like back home, who are helping others to come unto Christ. The work of salvation is the most important thing right now, because the prophets have said, what kind of church are we, if our members aren't even active, what good is baptism if the members aren't active. That is why we are doing all of this.

I am going to go now. I love you all and know you will do the right thing! Keep smiling! It is the light of your heart that the world can see!

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

It's LETTER Time!!!!

Hola!!!

This week was crazy and at times it was a hard one! I loved times and at other times, I had the hardest time of my life. I went on divisions two times; that means that I wasn't with my comp for two of the days. I know that Heavenly Father blesses me with those times to learn. I am seeing challenges that the Lord is putting before me to grow. I have been feeling a lot of the time, like I am just not good enough for the Lord and His work. This is because I want to be so much better everyday!  After a lot of this not feeling good enough business, I was praying a lot! I felt comfort and I don't know, but the Lord has helped me a lot to receive an answer to my prayers.

This week, while I was writing in my journal, I just started to have spiritual thoughts flow from my mind like no other. They were way important to me and helped me. They were direct answers to my prayers. I know that we can receive more revelation as we write down our thoughts. One of my thoughts was the scripture that says the Lord will not allow you to have temptations or trials about that which ye are able to handle. This helped me so much because it helped me to see that I can grow from my experiences with my companion. The Lord helps me thru all things and to grow from them, even if they are experiences I don't enjoy. Another thing I was pondering, was where my patriarchal blessing says that I will come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ perfectly in my life. I had the thought that if we love one another; that is the first step to learning his gospel and everything will follow perfectly, if we can only learn to have the love that he had! I have been working on that love and I am seeing improvements in my life already! I am learning more about myself and starting to see the plan Heavenly Father has in play for me. I am excited for the opportunity to have a new companion, if I get one at cambios next week, so I can see how others work and I can continue to improve myself.

When I was reading poppi's letter I was thinking that we are sometimes hard to humble ourselves and that is why the Lord allows us to have hard times; to learn. With me, it's learning to love a comp. who is so different than me; for poppi, it's the reminder of the crash that has helped him. The Lord knows exactly what we need and will help us get thru those trials and experiences. The other day, I almost started to cry in my prayers because I felt like it wasn't possible to love everyone in the way I needed to, but then I remembered that I had that spiritual gift before my mission. I needed to thank my Father in Heaven and continue to ask for it. I am thankful for it every night. In fact, more than that! I love to see the growth taking place in my heart.

I can't do anything without the spirit! Every time I speak, I feel the spirit in my heart because I know that it helps me to speak. I have felt the Lord take over my thoughts and feelings when I am teaching. I love it!

We won't have a baptism this change but we do have an amazing investigator getting interviewed today, so I am super excited about that!

Now, don't feel like you have to get everything I mentioned for Christmas. I understand, no money issues, finally. I am learning what it's like to be a parent, here on the mission. I never have money, so I have to put my priorities first, ha goodness! I can feel myself becoming more like my parents everyday, spiritually.

I love you all! Have a great week. I know that you will do what is right! Keep going to the temple and all that! I am sorry to those that I have not written, I don't have a lot of time here on the computer, but I love you all the same. I love to hear from you all.

Elder Dakotah Hancock

Dakotah and one of the Elders in his area. They have become pretty good friends.

News from our Missionary!

Hola,

This week I am super glad that I am able to be in the mission. I am super grateful that I listened to the spirit when I was writing you all, in your letters. I think it is cool to see everyone leaving on missions now! I wish everyone could come to my mission. I finish my training in two weeks from today and holy cow, I do not ever feel ready for all that comes my way but I just sit still and quiet for a minute and listen to the thoughts of the spirit in my mind and my heart.

I gave a talk in church this week and it was supposed to be five to ten minutes long and it ended up being fifteen haha. I talked on Moroni chapter seven and how in that chapter it has a question; the question is, how can we have or obtain all things good? I then went on to explain that in the verses following, there are three ways or in spanish tres pasos that we need to have to have all things good. The first is found in the verses following in how it says that through Christ we can have all things good but not just faith in Christ, but by exercising our faith in Christ. The second is a hope for a better world and by having hope and faith, we have to have charity, it says that if we do not have charity, we are nothing! I liked that I could relate this to the missionary work or in spanish, la obra misional. In Mosiah chapter 28 it talks about the Sons of Mosiah and about Alma the Younger, in verse three it describes perfectly what pure charity for others is. Go and read it :D

Anyways, this week was great. It was super hard like always but it was good! We were searching for a referral and we couldn't find them at all. We had seen her in the micro earlier and I remembered where she got off the micro (little van thing for transportation). I had the thought; go to where she got off. I thought about it and had decided to follow the spirit at all times, so I had to follow this time. I said to my companion as we were walking to the next cita on our agenda, let's go back to that spot. He said all kind of mad and what not, "seriously?!" I said, why is it a bad idea? It's better than just giving up. Finally, he said ok. As we got to the spot, we saw the lady and she was getting into a taxi, I was happy I had listened to the spirit. We obviously couldn't talk with her cause she was in the taxi, so we decided to start walking to our cita. We passed a house with an hermano that we had a cita with later that night. I felt the prompting to say hi, so I did, and we ended up teaching for like an hour and a half with him, and his family. Then he got a call and he said that the call was work and he wouldn't have been able to make it that night to the cita so it was sent from heaven that we showed up at his house early! I was super happy cause I saw the blessings of listening to the spirit!

My companion bought gas for our boiler; we are the only missionaries in Huejutla with warm water. You can get reimbursed for it, but you have to have a boiler for it first. We are like the only ones with a boiler, so I have had hot water for like a week and a half now. I feel guilty sometimes when I use it, cause no one else has it. Another Elder here, had it and says he felt the same, but at the same time, he said he had to enjoy it while it lasted.

Oh heavens, congrats to Brant and Kristy! It's crazy they are preggo!  It's gonna be a boy and it will have red hair like Kent! :) I wrote Alex a letter in only spanish. Tell her to look at it and don't use the translator for it. ha ha Tell Kent, I will try to write next week. Tell all the family and friends that I love them and I am thankful for their love and support and prayers.

Have a great week and keep doing great things! I love you all!

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

It's LETTER day! :)

*I am sorry it took me so long to get this up. I was crazily taking care of two side jobs I've been working on and have deadlines for. Thanks for understanding. * -Mimi

Today, I don't have much time to write letters let alone read much, I am sorry if I don't get to everyone's emails.

This week we have been doing a lot of teaching. We encountered this family of antiguo investigatores, they are like way ready for baptism but I am sure that God will give them some tests of their faith to see if they are really serious about getting baptized. Anyways, I was the one to set the date, or really just ask them if they wanted to be baptized when they read a little more and prayed a little more about the whole message. Even though it was just that, it was scary! I had the thought to do it the whole lesson, but I finally just said to myself; well I am here to invite others to come to Christ aren't I? Then I better do what the Lord wants me to do. And I did it! I put all my faith in Heavenly Father and it was the correct way to follow the spirit in that situation!

Another experience this week made me realize a little bit of why I am here. We watched the restauracion movie with this family, they seemed to like it and after and during, the spirit was super spiritual for me! I absolutely loved it with all my might! Afterward, one of them said to me that she would read the Book of Mormon every day and every night, because she wants to believe this message! It was all that I could do not to jump out of my seat and fist pump as hard as I ever have! I was super excited and I shared with her Alma 32 verse 27 where it says that all that you need is a desire to believe and that, that is what she had! I told her to pray about this message and I feel like all is great with them!

Well, there are only three more weeks in this change and then I have 5 months in the field! ahhhh it is going by super fast and I am loving every day of it! It is like 90 degrees today and that is very horrible since we are in our cool season. 

I love you all and miss you all. I love that you all are trying to do the Lord's work! Keep doing what is right and know that maybe the calling that God wants for you is to serve in the temple and knows that you don't need a calling in the ward right now. He knows that you truly love serving in the temple where it really is needed! Remember that; cause it is a thought I had when I was reading your letter! :D Remember that the Lord knows all things from the start to the end and He knows how He is going to use you to serve in the future. You and padre have been such examples in my life of the thing that matters the most, and it is charity, the true love of Christ!

Through the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can can be clean, but not just that; He suffered for EVERY doubt, EVERY pain…EVERYTHING. I bear my honest testimony to you, that I KNOW for a fact that God helps us. He is there and listening to every tear, every prayer and every pleading for help when the world is crashing down on us. I know that fasting brings true miracles, I have seen many of them on the mission so far! I know the Lord has changed my heart for the better and permanently. Do all you can to apply the atonement in your life every day. God will fix those days that are harder to go through.
I love you. Keep showing your love for everyone.
Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

Letter Day! And can you believe he's been serving for almost 4 months?

Wellll familia! happy four months for your son!!!!!! haha I have 17 weeks in the mission and this week is the 13th so I will officially have four months in the mission!

I am sooo pleased to see that everyone is going on missions and I love the age change! It is hard as a 19 year old kid to be here in Mexico doing all of the things that a missionary does, but I know for a fact that the Lord has strengthened me in ways that I will never be able to know. This week was great. We had amazing lessons with some investigators, but we didn't get near as many contacts as last week but we consider the lessons we did have, as super successes. 

For conference I got to watch every single session but only one of them was in spanish. I can understand the spanish but I figured I should watch it in english so I could learn everything I possibly could. I absolutely loved every bit of it! I don´t know why but I felt and I do feel like it was one of the highlights of the mission so far; not that it is better than a baptism but just that I learned a lot of things. During the talks, I thought about my family in the future and that I am going to be a good dad that centers his family in the church and missionary work. I think I needed to feel this because I was so preoccupied with if I could be a good dad, before. Also, I feel more thankful to the Lord for my family than any other thing! I am thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a family that will do anything for me if I ask and that they know that I will do anything in my power to help them with what they need to do. I loved the talks and I felt like they all applied directly to me and my purpose, as a missionary! I know that later, after the mission, I will raise my children in the church and pray for them to have opportunities to serve missions, not only because they are important, but also, because I know how much the mission has changed my life. I loved President Monson's talk at the end, about how we should just take a step back when times get hard and count the blessings we have even if they are super small. I have been doing that and I have been able to see the hand of the Lord in my life almost every second. :)

I forgot to tell you guys that for the baptism Elder Lopez and I played the guitar; families can be together forever, but in spanish.

Grandma sent me a picture of their pumpkins, but I bet mine are better. ha ha just kidding Grandma and Grandpa! What happened to Kent, I haven't gotten a letter in two weeks? Tell the family I love them and I would love to hear from everyone.

I love you all with all my heart, but I have to go to juntas con distrito, o sea, district meeting. I want you to know that you and mother are more important to me everyday that I am out here! Keep reading the Book of Mormon everyday, english or spanish. I am in Ether and the other day we read with someone and I just started to feel super excited to read it all again and continue to feel the spirit that much stronger every day! Keep doing what you need to do! I pray for you guys all the time.

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

It was dripping water from the ceiling in the house 

sooo this is the pic of me dealing with it ha

Letter Day!!!!

pues este semana fue bien fantastico! me encanta todas las cosas que oigo sobre ustedes buscando por los oportunidades de servicio! haha I won't write the whole thing in spanish, anyways, this week was great!

I am super tired and sunburned. Tired, because we are working to do super better this change. I am super thankful for this because we get to work super hard, but I am always tired, I mean ALWAYS! I can barely make it through daily planning without falling asleep haha.

On Sunday we had an investigator drop us for the time being. I hope we get to teach her more cause she had a baptismal date, but later on in the day we picked up two more investigators and that was an amazing blessing from Heavenly Father!!!!!

Today we had zone meeting and we have like four new missionaries, two are americans and one of them is in our district. The other three are in other places and two of them are from Mexico. One of the ones from Mexico is from Cuernavaca and his dad is the ward mission leader. I asked if he knows Colton Crook and he does! haha How about that?!  That is bien fantastico! 

So, this week has been great. Last week you told me to pray always for those opportunities to give service to other people. I thought about this a lot and I had not been doing that as much as I could have, so I started to do it more and more. The next day we had service and another day this week we did service from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon! It was beastly and my neck is super sunburned from that because it is used to having my white shirt and tie on all the time haha, but it was good. 

This week I ate some of this salsa because the hermana said that it wasn't hot at all so I tried just it on a tortilla. It was the biggest mistake of my life! It was hot enough at first that my nose started to run and my eyes would start to cry if i didn't have a drink in my mouth so that was no me gusta!!! It was a good laugh though haha.

The washing here is pretty hard on my shirts and one of them ripped on the collar. I am going to use pino which is pine all, on them. I think the funnest part about today is that I can finally understand what I am reading on the cleaning bottles, so I am super excited to clean my clothes and stuff.

So, about the glasses, I was in Tampico and Sister Jordan looked at me and told me to take them off, that she wanted to see what my real looks were. So I did and she said that they hide my looks and that I should get different ones. I told her that I know, that that is what my mom says all the time and that I wanted different ones now that I am on the mission and have wised out a little; because I have, on the mission and they are okay for college but I don't know about the mission. She laughed and said that I might need to come to Tampico to the eye doctor there, so I might do that, but for now, I am blind. ha ha

I am speaking the Spanish almost fluently and I am working on reading out loud, but yes, I can almost follow what everyone says to me BUT it is ONLY the don del lenguas en mi vida. Es no me. Nunca.

I think it is just barely settling and I am accepting the fact that I am living on my own and I am doing it in Mexico for that matter! Everything has been a little surreal for a little while, like since I entered the MTC, but now I feel like I can just let loose and be myself more, and that is the person that can do what the Lord wants because I don't worry about ruining an investigator. I just talk to them like they are my best friend because I earnestly want to share the truth with them. I love it! I love seeing that I am daily becoming the person that God wants me to be!

I love to serve the people here in Mexico and I love how nice the ward is! People say that there is a different spirit here about the people in the ward, I just feel at home because a lot of them are like the people in Ephraim.

Mama and Poppi, I am glad to hear that you are making going to the temple your six month mission thing. I want you guys to find time to go at least once every week until I get home, well, unless you have surgery Poppi, but I'm sure that won't happen because you are in my every prayer for that one. You don't realize what a blessing the temple is until you don't get to go every week. The people here pay every bit of money they have that month to go and then save up for two more months to go again, so appreciate it and serve!!! Go to the temple right now and do some special work for someone.

I miss you guys a lot, but not like I want to come home. It's just when I learn something and see that you have taught me in my life, that principal, I say to myself, wow what great parents I have. :D

Well, I feel the spirit prompting me that it's time to get off, so I will talk to you all next week. Have a great week. I love you more than you can know. I see what you have done in my life everyday and I am more thankful than you will know. Gracias from Mexico!

Love, Elder Hancock

It's Letter Time!

Pues, hola familia!!!!

We aren't having district meeting today, because of changes. Our Zone Leader, Elder Bolon, is going to Tampico tomorrow to pick up his new companion who is american, and I am going to speak nothing but spanish to the poor guy because I know the blessings of only speaking spanish. It is a huge help to learn the language when you get here. This is why I am writing later and also because I had to go get another haircut today.

Yes, we did have a baptism this week! In fact, we had two! I loved it! My comp baptized them both, but I got to confirm one of them! That was a little scary because I don't quite know a whole lot of spanish for the blessings yet, but it all went well!

This week was kind of crazy because of the baptisms and because this week is cambios. I am here for six more weeks with Elder Lopez, so I hope all goes well and that we can reach the goals we have planned for. We planned for four baptisms this cambio and we want to have like six or more if the Lord will help us get all of them.

I love your drawing of the blessing in the hospital poppi and I love all that you are all doing! Tell the whole family that I love them and I will always be happy to hear from them! I am excited that you did a whole phone call in Spanish, poppi. I can't translate as good now because, I have forgotten some English words. haha

Sooo, about Ty, I am super happy for him and I know that it will bless his life more than he will ever know. I have seen so many blessings and so many changes in my heart everyday that I am in the mission field and I have had spiritual experiences that I never would have had before the mission here; things that I am glad I am doing, that I have seen are helping me to become the man that God wants me to be! I pray everyday that I will be open to the changes in my heart, that the spirit wants me to have and that Heavenly Father wants me to have. 

I don't have a lot of time, so please write and tell Ty, that I love him and that this is the best decision he has ever made in his entire life! Follow the spirit in all that you do and it will all be okay!

Also, tell Ben congratulations and I am glad he is getting married in the temple.

I want to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Poppi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was going to write it last week but I forgot ahhhh.

How was the temple dedication? I did not get to see it.

I feel like I should write more about the week and what not. So, this week was great. Me and my companion are doing great and we are going to work harder than any other missionary this week cause we watched a video on repentance. In this video it had a talk from Jeffery R. Holland. He speaks about how, when we are tired, want to give up, think that all hope is lost and we can't do anymore, think of what Christ did in our lives. He never gave up, sat down, etc. What he did then, and what he did with the children in the Americas, is, that he was the perfect example of how we can live our lives and he knelt down and prayed, not for himself. He prayed for the people. I'm not saying that praying for yourself is bad, I'm just saying that it is pretty awesome to pray for others too.

I love to see the progression in the family also. ohhh tell Alex that I hope she has a great week and does cool stuff with that crocodile dna and whatnot.

I love you all and hope you do the right thing in everything you do. Smile and be happy. Be amazing. Get better poppi, I pray for you everyday. Keep doing what the Lord would want you to do; do the work of salvation or in Spanish, la obra de salvation.  :D

Love, Elder Hancock!

Yay! It's LETTER DAY again!

Hola, 

This week we have had some major trials of our faith as missionaries. We haven't had any baptisms yet but the miracle is what I am going to tell you; but first, I hope that you are getting better poppi, and loving every minute of life. I pray every single night that you and the family will be able to have the opportunities to serve our Heavenly Father and when I read what you write I feel like the prayers are answered every single night!   

At times I find myself thinking about after my mission, and I think how in the heck am I going to be a great parent like you guys have been to me? Then, I read my patriarchal blessing; I have read it a lot on my mission. I think about the promises that are made to me in there and I can see part of the blessing coming to pass already. It says that I will have challenges that will perplex me and these are the challenges that everyone in this world has to overcome. I see every day that I am having to overcome the challenges of life, to put aside the natural man; what I want to do, and to think to myself, what is the Lord's way in this situation. Also, I have been studying a lot about Christ in my study time. I used to not like that the Book of Mormon said the exact same things as the Bible, but now I can see that it is because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Also, that the people in the Americas needed to have the same teachings of Christ as all of His other sheep. In my blessing it says that I will come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ completely and fully. I can see that I am learning about the gospel of Christ more and more everyday and how it affects my life! I hope that I can come to a full knowledge of his gospel. That is my ultimate dream. I can also see that on the mission (and this week) I am changing; not physically, but mentally, to where I don't really think about what I need when we are out walking and I start to think about; what does this investigator need? Or how are we going to help this person go to church and feel the spirit?

We have two investigators who are really miracles! One, her dad has some problems with the church that we found out about like Monday and we have been praying all week for her and for our investigator that was supposed to get baptized two weeks ago. This week on Sunday we found out that her dad will allow her to get baptized and her baptism is on Friday at seven. The other, was in church when they announced the baptism for her and asked my comp why they didn't announce her name; she wanted to be baptized also! It was a day of miracles!!!!!!!!! We have been praying for three baptisms this change and Sunday night we noticed that one of our investigators has already been taught everything and she has been interviewed and this week she told us that she wanted to be baptized. We truly had the Lord test our faith until the end and He tested us because we can only grow when we truly trust and have faith in the Lord!

I have noticed in the photos that daddy has a lot more of a sincere smile after the accident, because he is truly grateful for the things that the Lord has blessed him with, like family and the gospel in his life. I think of this as a huge blessing in my life. I am loving that daddy is trying to write spanish to me ha ha and es te qierro no qierre hah you said that you love yourself with that one hah but it was ok, I understood. Tell Kent that I understood all that was in his letter and paper, it is just a little slow for me to speak with those concepts ha ha Tell Alex that I love her and she should take a picture of the crocodile stuff. 

I have lost a lot of weight so I am scared as to if I will gain it back now, because my appetite is back up and I am eating a lot. A lot of the food here is healthier and I am walking a lot too, so that is good . I don't know if I will be writing from Huejutla or not next week because this is the last week in the change, and I don't know if I am going to be changed or not yet. I will make sure I write no matter what and let you know. 

I am excited to hear of those preparing to serve missions. My advice is to prepare by reading your Bible and Book of Mormon a lot and knowing how the Book of Mormon can testify of the Bible. All that the people have is the Bible and know nothing of the Book of Mormon, so you need to be able to let them know how the Book of Mormon testifies of the Bible. Both are true, both are needed.

I hope you have an amazing week and I love you all. Do great things this week. Oh, would you write my cousin in Mexico and tell him that I love him. I don't know why that is important, but do it. :D 

Love life and serve the Lord with all thine heart, might, mind and strength and He will do the rest.

Love, ELDER DAKOTAH HANCOCK

News from Mexico, it's LETTER day!

Hola, 

Well, it is that time of the week again!!!! AHHH YEAH!!! THE CROWDS GO WILD! haha 

This week it was way busy and super super crazy! On p-day last week we got a text saying that I needed to go to Tampico at 6:10 in the morning. So we bought my ticket. Up until this point I thought that my companion was joking with me and I didn't really need to go to Tampico! ha ha but I went and Elder Martinez needed to go tambien. When we got there it was for our visa stuff. So, the first day, my pictures for the visa weren't correct so after that I was informed that I had a training in Tampico the next day also, so they were just going to keep me there over night, and try to get the visa worked out the next day. It seems like God wanted me there for that long because the next day my visa didn't work again and this time for some reason the lady couldn't do the paper work and the pics were bad again, so I was informed after that, that iI was going to be there for another day. By this time I had started to miss my old area and started to think that Tampico was my new area. The third day everything finally worked out and I finally got home like at six thirty or seven in the night… ahh sooo that was a crazy week right there. 

I was able to change my money while in Tampico and pick up a couple of shoulder bags to take the place of my one that broke. I got ones sort of like I got while we were on vacation last year. 

While with the other elders in the offices I saw the blessings of having a companion that doesn't speak english.  As we were talking with the other elders in the offices and what not it was all in spanish and I was one of the only new ones to be able to keep up with the conversational spanish and the others would only talk when it was about the lessons and what not like that. The moral of the story is, that I saw the blessings of my companion and how much I have grown. I am thankful for my companion and we are getting on the same page as one another. wahoo! 

We didn't have our baptism this week, we are praying really hard for everyone, so we can possibly have three baptisms this change!

Tell everyone I am doing very great and I appreciate all the prayers and support that everyone gives me. I can feel the power of your prayers everyday. Remember to give someone else a smile today. :D 

aha I love all of you and I hope that you have an amazing week and do always follow los susurros del espiritu santo!

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

This is me in front of the Tampico Temple. 

Letter Day from Mexico!

**Thank you for all your support and prayers. We got to email back and forth for a bit today, since we were on when his email came, and so I have added in some of that to his letter. He is learning and figuring out how best to do the work. He is experiencing lots of neat things, as well as some not so neat, but he is growing from every experience he has. He is maturing, as a person and he is continually humbling himself before the Lord, and finding answers to any problems he has come up against. It's so rewarding for me, as a mother, to see him growing and learning and developing a deep desire to serve the people even more fully than he thought possible. The Lord hears and answers prayers, even the little prayers of a new missionary struggling to find his place in the work or even just to be able to become accustomed to the different foods he's being fed. Dakotah is feeling the prayers sent his way and he is thankful for them. He loves being a missionary and he loves serving the Lord.
Mimi




Hola,

I am feeling a lot better and the praying is working because the food is a lot better this week than before. One thing I thought about was, what would mother do if people weren't eating her food? That seemed to kick my stomach into gear and the food is pretty great now! One meal that almost made me sick last week; I have had twice this week already, and it has not made me sick. This week it was really hot and there was no rain, I missed it! haha
I can't send any pictures this week. We are in Central because I had to get a haircut and so we are emailing from here and this computer doesn't let me send out pictures.

Tell Kent, that I can see why he is jealous that I am here and he isn't. ha ha but tell him after the mission I want to come and visit, so I've been thinking and he shall come tambien. I am happy for Kent in school, tambien Alex.  Ohh there is a missionary who is in love with Alex and he only has till december left haha. He is one of my best friends in the field. Has Ty Dudley gotten his call yet? Make sure to let me know.

Poppi, the language is coming along pretty well, all of the people are astonished when I say that I only have a month in Mexico and they all think that I spoke it before the mission. I have to reassure them that I did not, and it is only thru the gifts that the Lord has blessed me with, that I can understand and what not. I understand what is being said but sometimes I have troubles with what to say back to them.

Anyway, I was having a bit of a hard time and then I just started to think, my mission is supposed to be fun and something that I will remember for the rest of my life; I need to stop being a baby and only thinking about me. I need to force myself to have fun in EVERY situation and that will help me to love my mission. Well, it is working and I have seen a difference.

I try, everyday, to act like good ole Elder Calhoun, and make the work fun for me, personally, but most of all, for others! I try to enjoy every day and to always have a smile on my face and to act like I did back home, being fun loving in all things.

I have been reading and studying as hard as I possibly can and I had felt like my companion was being kind of mean to me, but then I realized that in my studies I need to search for things that can help my investigators, and with my companion, I need to be the bigger man, take any tone that he may use, that feels mean, with a grain of salt and just love him for who he is. I have learned a lot from him and I am not mad at him in any way. He may get transferred this change, and I may get another trainer to finish up my training because they might need him to train a new batch of missionaries coming in; there are like twenty coming in. The president wants the more experienced trainers to be the ones helping the newest missionaries. If he does leave, I will be sad but it's what the Lord wants so I will be okay. I am thankful for my mission and I can see the blessings in my life.

We have a baptism this week and I am super excited because it is my first baptism!!!!!! :D

My week has been exciting! I got to go to a town called Panacaxtlan last week and I forgot to tell you about it; the people there are amazing and I love them with all my heart! I love to teach them too. They all understand spanish but most only speak a language called nahuatl and it isn´t even close to spanish. The reason I got to go both times [I went again this week] was because my companion is the district leader and he has to interview people for baptism there. As missionaries, we are not allowed there without special permission because the non members there do not like the missionaries and they have even done some pretty serious scary mean things that I wont tell you, so you don't get worried. But, to go, we have to have the stake president with us and it is usually two companionships and a couple of the councilors of the stake president also. It is a way fun experience and I love them a lot!!!

I hope you all have an amazing week and I hope you do what is right and what the Lord wants!  I love you and can´t wait to hear from you ohhh and I'm not sick anymore ha

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

It's TIME for a LETTER!

Hola!

The week was great and the language is coming day by day. I talk to more and more people everyday. Everyone says that I am doing way good for only two weeks in Mexico but I don't feel like I am doing as great as everyone thinks. The first week the food was the best on earth and I couldn't get enough of it, but this week I have been sick.  I think maybe, I am still getting used to the food and all. I take pepto a lot and it seems to help. I pray really hard that I will be used to the food and able to put myself aside and not let this get in the way of the work. I am not deadly sick or anything, it's just a bother, so if it gets worse then I will get a blessing, I promise, mom. I have lost some more weight with all the heat and sweating and the not feeling well this week, so I am excited about that part. ha ha  I am never not sweaty, it's a regular thing here. lol  Oh today, I came upon a chicken foot and my comp said I wasn't accustomed to the food yet and ate it for me. I also found Tampico juice at the store! I was super excited and got it!

Thank you for the pics. They are way fun. I love to see what all you are doing. I hope that Alex is loving her new place, even though it isn't anywhere as cool as here! I love the people! I love the area! The clouds here are amazing!

My companion is great! The members are way nice and they feed us all the time but I always get full and can't eat everything on the plate. In answer to your thoughts, mom, I already do think and dream in spanish, I just don't completely understand it. ha ha  The binding on my scriptures completely broke on them and one of our investigators put wood glue in them for me and they are perfect now. :D

The internet is really slow today, so I am just writing one email. Please tell Grandma and Grandpa that I love and miss them and thank them for the email. Also, tell them they should put hair around their stuff like they do in the movie Rookie, with their fields.

I think that you need to do the work for our old old grandpa; it's Thomas's dad or his dad, but I was looking at the family history thing and his isn't recorded as done.

So, one day this week, we were having a way hard day. It was hot, I sweated a lot and all of our appointments fell thru so we didn't know who to talk to or what to do. I had been praying the whole day and I wasn't getting anything, it was horrible, but then I took a moment and bowed my head and showed Heavenly Father that I really wanted an answer and I had a name come to my mind. Well, we were on our way to that house and we helped these people do some yard work and we got two new investigators there. Then, when we got to the house of the name I was thinking of, she wasn't home, but her mom was and we got her as a new investigator. It was way awesome! Prayers are always answered, even if the answers take awhile to get to you.

I am glad you got home safe from taking Alex to school, with all that adventure on the way home. I have to go now and write my weekly letter to the president. I love you all a lot! Have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock

Here is a picture of me out in the heat, look at the amazing clouds. Yes, it's hot here! :D

   

LETTER DAY from Huejutla!

hola hola hola hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! como esta???!

Sooo this week was great but it was somewhat hot, not hot like Tampico because Tampico has mas humedad (humidity). It does rain here every other day, if not everyday! I love the rain because it cools things down a lot! We do have to wear our suit coats on Sundays, but only for Sacrament, so it's hot, but not too bad since we only wear it then. 

I get cold showers but I am hot when I go to sleep so I don't have any covers. By about 5:00 in the morning, the fans I have, make my toes a little cold, so I wake up and my feet are cold and my body is cold but I am sweating. It is a way weird feeling. I do miss being dry all the time. ha ha 

Today I did my laundry in a sink thing, like everyone has them. Oh and we have a machine in our house to rinse them out so that is good. :D

Oh to answer your question, I would introduce them to the hot cocoa if they had it here! Something that is really great is this yogurt called lala yogurt, it tastes like liquid gogurt! It is fantastic and I love it! My favorite meal so far is gringa, it is like quesadillas but with steak in them and you can put what condiments you want on them. The food is pretty hot; poppi would not be able to handle it. ha ha 

I love my companion. He is funny and we are getting along well. He is from Sonora, a city that is right by Culiacan, so he lived by the ocean. 

We are teaching a lot of recent converts and a lot of less active members, we have like two or three families that are investigators and I want more!!!!!!!!!  

This week I spoke like maybe five times in lessons and yesterday I decided [after receiving an answer that was really a reminder of what I have been taught; just open my mouth and follow every prompting and the Lord will put words in my mouth] to talk, and so I did! And amazingly enough, words came out and now I love talking to people cause it is helping me to understand their spanish; I followed the prompting and I received help when I needed it. It's different how they say someone has good faith here, cause they say, tiene fe muy bonita! so it translates to has very beautiful faith. 

In about every single lesson there are chickens or roosters walking through them which is cool, we are usually outside on the porch or there are mosquitoes and they are mean. I have almost used all the spray that you gave me but in spanish it is called repelente. Sometimes the members make fun of me because I use so much, ha ha but I don't want to get sick.  

We walk a lot but not like 12 miles a day. We have a good sized area so we take the auto büs. It is only 5 pesos every time we ride it but it's 5 for one person, so really it is 10 pesos. It is a lot better than taking a taxi because those are like 20-30 pesos. (here 5 pesos is like 40 cents, and 20-30 pesos is like 2 dollars) 

I get to see cool things like you can't imagine everyday and I get to see the most humble and happy of people living in houses that have like two rooms at most. I love them! There are some houses here that are way nicer, like two story homes that are way nicer than homes in America. 

I do have some cool pictures but they take a long time to load so I will try to send more next week. Today, I will send one of me with one of the families here. They are very friendly. You can probably see, I have lost some weight too. 

I love it here! It is awesome! 

Tell Kent to get on down here and we will be compañeros! Tell him to write me in spanish and next week I will try to translate. ha ha 

I have an hour each p-day to write you. In this area, I don't think I will get to do any sight seeing on p-days because our p-day ends at 4:00p.m. when we have District Meeting. Today, we just cleaned the house, did laundry and what not. I have to go now. Anyways do great things  :D

Adios and I love you all!

Love Elder Dakotah Hancock

FIRST LETTER from MEXICO

Well, my companion had to come and get me in Tampico, so he didn't get a p-day so we kind of had a make shift one today. We had District Meeting and also we went to get some money for me to go shopping for groceries and then his p-day stuff. From now on p-day will be on Mondays.

I am serving in an area named Huejutla [pronounced way-hoot-la], in the state of Hidalgo. It is about four hours south of Tampico. It is way more green and pretty, but it is a little hot; about ninety times hotter than at home, and apparently it rains everyday around six o'clock. I am excited for that. ha ha Of all the Elders that came in with me, I am the only one that went south instead of staying in Tampico or going north.

It is way awesome here! I already love it, but there are bugs everywhere in the day and they leave at night.
I feel like they speak faster than Tampico, so it's pretty hard here; like there are some differences in the language and there is some slang but not too much. There are four companionships here in the whole city but each of us lives in our own part of town. Our district is the top right fourth of the city(on a map).

My companion is a native and doesn't speak english but it really helps when the natives are speaking to me; I have him to help. He is way awesome and everyone says he is a super hard worker so I am excited for it!

I hope you are all doing great. It was fantastic to hear from you at the airport, so I hope you all do great things. Tell everyone I love them. I will write you on Monday.
Love, Elder Hancock

 

Driving in down town Tampico, on the bus to Huejutla. 

He's ARRIVED and is READY TO WORK!

He arrived on Monday and enjoyed his first real mexican meal and spent the first night in a missionary apartment close to the mission home. On Tuesday, he was interviewed, received mission orientation, assigned a companion and started a 12 week training program. Today[Wednesday] he started his first full work day. 

Dakotah and President and Sister Jordan

Dakotah and his companion