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

He's in MEXICO!

We were able to talk with Kotah on Monday, August 13, 2012 before he flew out to Mexico. It was WONDERFUL to hear his voice! He was upbeat and excited to get out actually doing the work. He had great experiences at the MTC and absolutely loved it, but he is ready to be in Mexico and out meeting people and sharing the gospel. He was just a bit nervous about the plane trip, and just the new beginning, yet still so excited.

We asked him to say something in spanish for us, and he said okay, I will just bare my testimony in spanish for you. It was 10 minutes of words I did not understand(Kelly understood quite a bit because he's been learning it), BUT we could DEFINITELY feel the spirit as he spoke. It was AMAZING… for lack of a better word. I am thankful that he shared it with us.

He has grown so much and he sounded like a real MISSIONARY as he spoke. He wants to honor this family(as he serves his mission) and his ancestors who are cheering for him beyond the veil. He had a very nice spiritual experience with that last night, especially with his Grandpa Chick and his Grandpa Orebaugh.

He encouraged his younger cousins, the primary kids and some other good friends to be good, to mind their parents and be good to them. He also wanted them to work hard to be prepared to serve missions. He says it is the best decision he has ever made and one they will never regret making.

He has loved all the letters and packages and all the love and support from everyone. It has meant a lot to him.
He got letters from our Primary kids and he sure LOVED those.

We did very good and didn't cry until it was time to say goodbye. Then he shushed us(like he always does when we cry). He said he was happy to get to talk to us, but now it was time for him to go and be the man that Heavenly Father wanted him to be. He was in very good spirits and just excited to get going.

He wanted you all to know just how much he loves you and that he prays for you.

He arrived safely in Tampico about 8:00 p.m. last night and we received an email from his president, telling us that he had arrived safely and was spending the night in a missionary apartment.

He loves letters! He is sorry that in the MTC he did not have a lot of time to write personal letters and emails, so he just wrote the one email to everyone. He hoped you all understood and know that he still loved hearing from you. He and his roommates, figured out that he averaged about 5 letters a night and 1 1/2 packages a week. WOW! Thanks everyone for all the love and support for him! He will try to be better at writing in Mexico, if he has more time.

Here is his Mexico Address for letters:

Elder Dakotah Cheyenne Hancock
Mexico Tampico Mission
Apartado Postal 241
89460 Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas
Mexico


Here is his Mexico Address for packages:

Elder Dakotah Cheyenne Hancock
Mexico Tampico Mission
Ejercito Mexicano #501 Loc 17
Col.Loma del Gallo
89136 Ciudad Madero, Tampaulipas
Mexico

You can still go onto dearelder.com and in the drop down menu pick the Mexico Tampico Mission and you will be able to write him for free. It goes to pouch mail from there.

All mail goes to the Mission Office and then waits there until they have a meeting etc… where the zone leaders or assistants will bring the mail to them. So, it can sit in the office for quite awhile before it gets to him, sometimes.

Again, thank you everyone for the love and support. It means a lot!
Mimi and Kelly

P.S. He has lost weight in the MTC and had to put his belt on a tighter notch yesterday morning when he got dressed for the day.

More Pictures...YAY!

 

 

On his way to the Mexican Consulate to get his visa

 Mexican Consulate

 

 Dakotah and his companion pointing out their mission on the MTC map.

Last LETTER DAY from the MTC...

Dear familia,

This week was a fun one, we were scared that we weren't going to get our travel plans because when everyone else got them and we didn't. So we waited for a day or two to see if they would come, then it was like five days and then I had had it. So I went to the travel office and asked when I was supposed to receive my travel plans? They said that they thought that they had printed them off but they hadn't and so they gave them to me, so I guess you could say that I saved all the Tampico missionaries(just kidding).  Anyway, I am super excited to get to Mexico!! I cannot wait to be there! It's only four days away and I feel like I did when we went on the cruise and Mexico was only a drive to California away!

Yesterday, I was reading about the stripling warriors and everything that they did! They were the most awesome men alive! I love how in Alma 56, Helaman asks them " what say ye my sons?" when asking them if they wanted to go to war. It then goes on to say that they were small, not experienced, and were in all means not qualified to fight. But their answer was as simple as it could be, they said that they remembered the teachings of their mothers, (or I like to say for myself, in this case, the teachings of my parents), that IF you trust in God and HAVE faith that He will help you, along with BEING obedient, then will the Lord help you in all of your afflictions and trials. 

This was way strong to me because I thought of all of us when I read of that. How we have to have faith going into lessons especially in a foreign country. We have to be obedient to have the spirit with us in all of our afflictions or trials and how we, if we do this, can know that Heavenly Father will help us in all we do, if we first ask for help.

Tell grandma and grandpa thank you for the package! I loved it! Thank you mom and pappi for your package too. 

I am going to send home one of my suit coats and some other things so I will get that sent to you tomorrow. I am pretty excited to talk to you all over the phone on Monday and see how your doing! :D  

Always do what the Lord would expect of you to do and always listen to the promptings of the spirit and act on them!!

I will talk to you Monday. Have a great weekend and what not! 

I love you all!!!!!!!!! con todo mi corazon! 

Elder Dakotah Hancock

It's LETTER DAY and GREAT NEWS on the Visa Horizon!

*Sorry that this took a day to get out, but I have been incredibly busy this past couple of days and then we were waiting for word about the visa after they got back, so that we could add it to this. And then I just got busy and didn't get it done until now. It's a short one this week as he was heading up to Salt Lake to meet with the consulate for his visa. *
Mimi


Dear familia,

We go to the consulate today so the visa is going ok! :D Yes I did get gary's letter and package and loved it; we are going to use the martinelli's for our going away party!!!! :D I have seen Brock Larsen in here along with Sharee Melor and Jessika with a k and Jordan Olsen from Alex's grade! In his district there are six elders going to Tampico so it was fun to talk to them for a while!

It has been a great week, I have been doing exactly what I have been doing for so many weeks now but it is great because we finished all of the spanish grammar lessons!!!!!! That was an exciting day! I understood everything that Kent wrote to me and I'll think of something to write him back! haha
I go up to the consulate at 1:45 so we don't get to go to the temple but I think in this instance that it is ok to miss.
I am glad to hear that papi is doing better and that you all are going to try to go to the temple more and more since he is feeling better.
This week has been jam packed with just how much we don't know how much the atonement is active in our lives! That was an amazing thought when I saw how much I have been taking it for granted and I am so happy I know now, so I don't anymore! I was thinking about when I first arrived in the MTC and then I remembered one of the first nights, I felt all alone for some reason; it was a scary feeling. Even though I was in a building full of elders feeling the same way I felt, all completely alone, so I decided to pray. This was the best idea I could have had! I felt completely filled with the spirit and I didn't feel alone anymore, it was great! I finished the prayer and then I felt somewhat alone again, so I decided to keep praying to feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost. I did this until I fell asleep. I haven't felt alone since! It is a great testimony builder to me to realize that Heavenly Father is always there to help you. Even when there is no need for help, he will find something that you need help with! Another thing that happened this week is that that Elder I shared my testimony with, got sent home. It was sad to see him leave but I know that he will grow from this experience!

For Ty, I am calling somewhere spanish speaking! It's the best decision I have ever made! I am excited for you! You better let me know where you are going when you get your call bro.

I hope you all have a great week and do EVERYTHING that the Lord wants you to do! I know that if you ask him for help, and are willing to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, he will come to you in your hour, or your very second of need! Have an amazing week.
Love, Elder Dakotah Hancock


We got this after he got back from the consulate:

Ohhhhh it was just amazing!!!!!!!!  It was fun and I took some pics of up north. It felt like a long trip but I now have my visa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I am soo excited to get to Mexico. I am just excited to talk to people and to teach them! I am only a week and a half away! I cannot wait!
Elder Dakotah Hancock