Helping others see their Potential

Hola

I am so happy for your amazing opportunities mom and papi. :D 

This week we continued to give a lot of blessings. I am being obedient and working hard, mom. 

Soo this week in the work, it has been great! I have been humbled a lot, I am really tired of my prideful attitude just always trying to win the battle in me. If you are a human, you will know what I mean when I say the battle in me. There is always a constant battle between the natural man and the man that God wants us to be. I am always trying to find how God would want me to act, and, quite frankly I fall . . . . .  ALOT!!! Well, good thing we have repentance. This week was humbling because we had amazing opportunities to help a lot of people to know the potential they have as children of God. Also, I have been reminding myself almost constantly to remember how much they are giving and that their offerings were sacred to the Lord, this helped a lot to bring humility! 

This week, we got to have a cool tender mercy, we got to help this hermana. She said that she was just tired of all the chismes that were in the church, she was just going to start going to another ward, and maybe just not go. We were able to feel the spirit really really strong. My comp and I started to testify of how we can often and almost always feel that we just aren't good enough in life sometimes. The majority of the time, we feel alone; this is when we are in grave need to talk to the Lord, call upon Him like it says in Alma 34:17-27. When we do this, it is really when the gospel gets real to us, it is when we learn of our real potential, we learn that all of this is for a specific reason, that we need to grow and learn so that we can become Gods in the future. We testified of these things, the hna started to cry and she said that she was going to try as hard as she could to get through the tests, to keep going to church. I felt the love of Heavenly Father there as I testified!! I know that He loves us more than we can imagine. He is there listening and answering us; if there is no answers, it is not Him that is broken, it is us that are not listening good enough. I want you all to remember, the Lord has made an amazing list of things; He has created the most gracious of things, and even the heavens He created, and yet He says that his most precious creations, are His children. If we could really come to understand the love He has for us, we would not feel worthy to be in His presence because we have rejected him soo much; a being so innocent of being, rejected, soo incredibly loving that He will forgive us at just the slightest cry for relief! He is ALWAYS there for you! He will never let you down!! He is the one that we need more than anything else! Search Him, do not forget Him because He will never forget you. I testify this to you with all the love I can. Only with Him, you will be happy, truly happy! 

Have an amazing week, find someone to help, love them as the Lord would love them! And I want to hear the stories of how you helped others. 

I love you all and do the Lords work! 

Love Elder Hancock!!! 

New Area, New Companion

Hola, 

I am doing good. It's been a good week. I am short on time so this won't be too long today. I will write more next week. 

I love my comp, he is a real awesome guy! He really feels the gospel in his life! I love the area! I already have the majority learned. Valles is really different from Victoria. It is the smallest area that I have had yet, but I have a little ejido just outside of town, like a twenty minute drive, we are working a lot there. I am learning to speak Huasteco. We speak it to the members. 

"Talk to you later" is taeku tzu´ushín. I am trying to learn to pray in it. Padre is Paílom and Heavenly Father is Pulík Paílom or to say Great Father. To say goodbye brother, it is ma´kalam ept´chal.  It's so cool! 

Ahhhhhhhhhh…. I am SUPER HAPPY for Daniel!!!! HE will be a GREAT missionary!! Has Darby heard anything yet about her going back out? 

Yes mom and papi, I am actually going to be sending flight plans here in a little while when they send them to me. I have a paper to hand in to the secretary and then he buys the tickets, so it should be in the next month or so. It also says that you have to get an appointment with President Averett to release me and that you also need to plan to pick me up at Salt Lake Airport. 

I hope you all have a great week and do good things! Go to the temple!!!!! 

Papi, you are making me sooo happy to be your son and hear these things from the Lord, you are putting in plan! 

And mom, I love you MOST! I WIN! 

Love, Elder Hancock

Transfer Time

I have very little time to write but I am in Ciudad Valles! It is in San Louis Potosi. My companion is from California, Anaheim. His name is Elder Castillo. I think we are going to be great friends! He has like six or seven months in the mission.

This place gets up to 120's really easy and really fast here real quick! I am in the ward lomas de vergel if you want to search it out papi. It has always been my dream to go to Valles, after Victoria and well, now it is done! ha ha

I got my first card that says I am going home today, it just says that I have served good and that I am a good missionary! So, I am pretty happy with that. ha ha I will be coming home the 26th of May. 

I didn't have time to read your letters so I will print them out and read them later. I am really pushing for time. I am really proud and happy to have such great parents!!! Keep up the amazing work!!! Tell all that I love them!!!! I will write more next week. 

I love you and do great things!!! Stay strong and search for service opportunities!! 

Love Elder Hancock

It's all about Service

Hola familia, 

First, thank you all for the money in my account. It has been a help, it seems I always need money like crazy. I gave my reembulsos to my zone leader that was going down to Tampico, but he was super pressured there and forgot to give them, so he is supposed to be sending them today by internet, so I should have some money back on Friday from those. Right now, my comp and I don't have anything which was bad and then I found out today that you had put money in my account. :D

This week was good, we are starting to warm up. It did snow this week, but it didn't stick to the ground, it just came down in little baby flakes for a couple of minutes, so I can officially say that I saw snow in Mexico!! The depression ish/anxiety problems stay about the same as they have been but I am still trucking thru and keeping in touch with president and getting blessings when I need them. We had 12 less actives in church in sacrament! So exciting! 

So, a little while ago we helped a man. He had been feeling bad and all of the doctors were telling him that it could be colon cancer developing. We gave him a blessing, my comp anointed and then I gave the blessing. It was just a spiritual experience. I felt the immense love that the Lord had for this man and the happiness He felt that the man was coming back to church. There was a promise; it was that if the man was honest in coming back to church, if he stayed strong, and kept keeping the commandments, and if he was continuing to exercise his faith, that the Lord would heal him, but if not, there is no promise. I felt like the blessing was a very cool experience and honestly I forgot when he was going to get the results. I have seen that the Lord helps me to forget sometimes to help me to really have an amazing answer in the end. But, one day this week, I went to see him and he said that he had the results and that he was completely clean, that he just has some swelling in his colon and it is being caused by his blood pressure or something. So, I am very happy and my testimony is super strengthened at the chances to exercise the priesthood! It really is the amazing power of God on earth!!

I finally got the tie, the hymnal, and the Christmas pic of mom and papi. ha ha oh I loved it. My comp and I have been singing in English like this whole week. President says if you have a companion who speaks Spanish, teach him English, the mission is an amazing opportunity for learning. My comp is speaking pretty good English and my Spanish has gotten better in this time. 

Thank you for sharing with me what those families said about me. They are great families! I love them! 

So, I was thinking on our service this week; I was thinking about how we serve the Lord and our friends. In almost every circumstance I have found myself serving the Lord. I have been serving, not the people that I want to serve, or the people that I think would be good members, or even the people that I think would need help. What has happened, is that I have found myself in the service of the people that maybe I would have thought didn't need help, or that I would have just passed up, or that I would have said that someone else could serve, cause I and MY big head and pride didn't just quite like how the vibe was with them. What I have found is that that when we truly love the Lord and HIS children, we are able to put aside the ME and the what do WE want, and who do WE want to serve. I have made friends with these people, and some are now my best of friends. I am changing into the man that the Lord wants me to be. I am in forever debt to my Father in Heaven for helping me to be an instrument, for ultimately starting the great change that can come to pass in our hearts. I love the Lord, I love his children. "And I say unto you that when ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"… I think that all of us can apply this scripture in our lives. When it says, "the LEAST of these my brethren"… it is not meaning merely the poorest of poor, or those that stand most in need. It is also meaning to serve those who might just look to be the least of worth to you. If you can "put off the natural man, and become a saint through the atonement of Christ", I promise you that the scriptures will be unfolded unto all of you. Search for the service to the people that are not necessarily your best friends, but maybe for the people, or in opportunities that really make you exercise a little bit of humility, love, tender and brotherly kindness. THAT is when we grow; if we first serve those whom the Lord wants us to serve; those whom HE would prefer, those whom HE loves more than we love them. We need to turn our sights to God, to turn them to really making them be "with an eye single to the Glory of God"; really seeing those along with ourselves, as who can we become, not who we are now. Now, I make this promise because I live it everyday, the Lord has changed my life, He is making me who I want to become!  I testify that He wants you all to help His children. He loves them, He loves you, He will help you at all times. I testify of this, in the beloved name of our Savior and King, even Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Ha ha mom, thanks for the countdown and no, I am not trunky. It has really passed, if it was going to come. I am just finding more love for the people and just serving with all that I have. I hope if it does come, I will be able to fight it off and be like you mom, working hard up to the last day! 

Next week is transfers and I have six months here, and me and my comp have four and a half months together, so it's a definite possibility I will be going. I would love another change here, but I have no idea what will happen. If I am transferred I will probably be late writing or maybe even not until Tuesday so if you don't get your letter don't worry until then, don't worry. 

I am short on time today, so will you please write Tyler a little hi and have a great week for me and tell him I will write him next week. And please tell Darby, I am thinking of her and I am excited for her to get to go back out! I will try to write her next week also. 

I have to go now. Have a great week! Go to the temple! I love you all! 

Elder Hancock

P.S. Mom, I love you MOST! I win! I win! I win! 

Christmas Time... and it's cold here in Mexico!

Hola familia, 

I am super freezing so my hands are struggling to type. Here in Mexico, they don't have heaters, so when it gets cold, all the houses are just made out of cinder block and cement, so that is why I am soooo cold!! The gloves I had, the thumb started ripping and now I don't have a glove ha ha I just have one!! We have had rain for like five days now and I have cold wet feet. ha ha

My week was good. I loved talking to you; mom and papi!!! For Christmas, we ate like in every single house we visited that day…we can say I don't want to eat for another week and a half… ha ha ha ha it was GREAT!  We also had a baptism this week, her name is Liliana Dolorez Ruiz Honorato. I will send a picture next week. We are so excited for her. 

So this Christmas time, I have been thinking a lot about the promise that the prophet gave us; he said that if we would change the word from Christmas to "Christ" "mas" mas meaning more, but in spanish. I have thought about the word, the word Christ means our Savior and Lord, whom we love and serve, it means that we are willing to be followers of Him, meaning that we are also christians. Now, if we are christians, and members of the only true church on earth, whom really possess the sacred privilege of the priesthood, then we are going to show our faith through our actions. When we do this, it allows us to really find our testimony in the only true religion here on earth. Christ is the beginning and the end, He is our lawyer before the Father! He loves us more than we could ever imagine! Now the word, "mas" in spanish, it is the word meaning,"more", putting more with Christ, that means that we are willing to put what He would do and to put His gospel before our own wants, thus making the word Christ-more. I know that if we can accomplish this then we will receive amazing blessings from the heavens! I can testify of this from just one of the little and amazing events of my Christmas this year.  This year I have been trying to serve as the Lord wants us too. I was able to have a strengthened testimony that this is how Christmas should be spent; in the service of others so that they can have a great time. Thinking of that, this Christmas we had a guy come with us, he is always wanting to go with us, he wants to go on the mission. Well the last week, he told us that he wanted to go with us all the week long, I was thinking it was just to be with the spirit, and besides that, he is the only one who is a member in his family, his dad has told him that if he goes on the mission, he is not allowed to be part of the family coming home. He just said, well, I have to go, it is what the Lord wants! So, after Christmas, he was with us, I asked him what his family did for Christmas? He quietly said that they really don't do anything. Now, I felt the spirit testify to what we had possibly done for this young man, my heart was touched and I knew that the Lord wanted us here to help him to have a good Christmas in the way that the Lord wanted! I testify to the truthfulness of service! I love seeing a change in others faces and I know that they can feel the real love of Christ in their lives! I know that the gospel changes lives and makes us better people! I can testify of that because I have been living it and I have seen the changes take place. I want you to all just please search for someone to serve in this year that is coming up. Search for the ways that you can change someones life, but through the small and simple actions everyday, first start in the family, but don't let your efforts end there, find at least one person every month to say that you can change and help by subtly saying hi, helping to push a cart, or just helping with the snow or leaves. They are not big things, but they are the things that the Lord wants when He says in the scripture, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass".  I promise you with all the spirit and love that I possess, that you will be more happy in just the next year that comes. I make this promise and I also promise you that you will find more love for the gospel and for others! I promise this and give all the love I have, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.

I am going now, so I love you with all that I am and I want you to go to the temple this week!! Be amazing!! 

I love you and keep being strong in your callings, so that you can keep helping other people. Tell Darby to let me know where she goes, I am excited for her.

Love, Elder Hancock

and p.s. Mom, I love you most! I WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Skype

It was SO GOOD TO SEE HIM AND HEAR HIS VOICE!!!

His Testimony

Climbing the Mountain...

Hola,

Mom, I loved the Abinadi thing; I just said in my mind, there is the mother with the super testimony!!!!!!

The week has been good and I have been working really hard with my comp. My brain was a bit cloudy but I took to the fast. It helped, as I knew it would! I have been worried about money, I don't know why I never have any, even when I am good with it, it is never there! I am kind of sick of it! I don't want this to carry on to my family after the mission, so I am going to try to be the most strict person I can be so that I always have enough. I have gone months in my mission not buying food because I know I can do it, I guess I am just frustrated.

We climbed the mountain today, to take pics with the flag! We have to have permission from Pres. to do it, so it was authorized and we were safe. I didn't get hurt. I actually stayed behind to help my comp get up okay, because it was hard for him, so we were the last ones to get up.

Please tell Darby I wrote her, to be watching for it. She is in my prayers.

I am loving the work! It is now time to go so I am going to print some things from president and leave. I will talk to you next week.

I love you all! Do all the good things!

And mom,  I   WILL   ALWAYS  WIN!!!! I LOVE YOU MOST! I WIN! :)

Love, Elder Hancock

 

 

Support and Peaches

Hola,

Mom, first off, I am one hundred percent okay, maybe it still hasn't hit me yet. But he is from America. He is the youngest of all the kids in his family and there are like nine kids I think. His dad is a Stake President in Idaho. I am mostly worried for his family and how they are feeling. Also, another thing that is hard is that his MTC companion is in my District. I have been helping him a lot, because for awhile, it didn't hit him but then it finally got to him and now, he's had some Hancock along with other elders' talks.

President is doing a tour of the mission and helping all to understand what happened. I think tomorrow he will be here, and so yeah, he is taking it pretty hard. Please keep him and this elder's family in your prayers, as well as his MTC companion.

And mom, I will be the most safe that I can ever be.

Some days have been a bit discouraging this week. You always raised me to love people and not numbers, and so I try to follow your example, mom, and not worry about the numbers as opposed to caring about the person. But, then I wonder sometimes why those who are seeking the numbers are getting baptisms left and right and I am barely getting lessons some days or the lessons drop and I am left walking all day. I don't know, it's hard to understand sometimes. I am trying with all my heart to do all that the Lord wants and I thank you for all the advice you've given me. I feel like I don't have much time left, only about seven and a half months and I want to do all I can in that time serving the Lord. I will continue to work hard to do my part in spreading the gospel. I promise you that.

I am sorry that it's not really a long letter this week. I will send a longer one next week. Tell Papi that I love him and I am going to print out the picture when it is all the way done, so hurry and finish it!

I love you more than tacos al pastor, and that is super far, mom!

I love you with all my heart!!!!! I must leave now.
Elder Hancock


You would have never thought I was eating fruit huh?!!? Well, here is peaches with cinnamon toast crunch cereal on top. ha ha I like fruits and veggies now. My old comp. never ate any veggies so I had to eat them for him, and before I had already started to like them, but now it is just more than that, I like them! ha ha