Email received 12/24/12

Dear family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant believe it is Christmas already!!!!!  Sorry I cant write a whole lot because we are going to Toluca for Navidad and its like two and a half hours away.  But I love you all and I will talk to you all tomorrow.  9-1 your time.  

Always and Forever

Elder Hancock.

Helaman 5:12

Email received 12/17/12

Dear Family,

I guess we missed each other today.  We are not having p-day today for some reason.  Tomorrow we are having a meeting with President Villarreal.  There is a rumor going around that Tejupilco is receiving two temporals from Peru.  So Elder Machen and I might become Fathers.  SO that is really kind of a crazy thought.  That is why I am emailing so early today.  Sorry.  

Next week we are going to Toluca for Christmas.  There is where we will call home.  But they have not told us any details about how we will call.  So honestly I dont know how it will work.  Sacrament yesterday was awesome.  First the bishop spoke about the power of fasting.  It really was an amazing talk about what fasting can do and what kind of blessings we can receive from it.  After one of the counselors of the Bishop spoke about the birth of Jesus Christ.  He spoke about the star being a symbol that Christ is the light of the world that is so dark and lost.  Than he compared it to the two stars that came knocking on his door that changed his life.  He bore a fervent testimony about missionaries being a light and a star for others.  It was a very touching talk.  And than The stake president talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ.  That was such a powerful talk.  Sacrament meeting yesterday was so awesome.  

This week was a good week.  We have been having a hard time this week finding people to teach.  We had a mother and daughter that were going to be baptized yesterday that are having difficulties with each other and dont want to get baptized. So that was hard because we can do nothing to help them.  Especially if they are not doing anything to know these things for themselves.  We have been really finding so many miracles.  We found a woman named Brenda last week.  She told us that she had been taught by the first missionaries that came to Tejupilco.  She really wants to be baptized.  So that is really awesome.  But she didnt come to church yesterday so that was really disappointing.  I ate a chili in one bite this week.  Probably the spiciest thing I have ever eaten in my life.  It was awesome.  I am turning more and more Mexican everyday.  VIVA MEXICO!! VIVA!  

We have been teaching this family that is so amazing!  Roberto and Anayeli.   They have a 2 year old boy named Jason and a 1 year old little girl named Madaline.  They want to be baptized so bad but Anayeli needs to get divorced first.  Her husband left her 6 years ago and went to the United States.  It was a super sad situation.  He left her with two small little babies.  The difficult thing is that the divorce might take a while if her husband says he doesnt want a divorce.  It will be really easy if he says yes.  His mom that lives here in Tejupilco will just have to sign for him. So that was kind of difficult.  

Someone told Elder Machen and I what happened on Friday (He is referring to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connectticut).  That is so sad to me.  It really breaks my heart.  What would make someone do that.  If people just loved each other this would never happen.  It is so sad.  But that just means that its getting closer and closer.  I was thinking yesterday about how much my Mission has changed my life so far.  It is so amazing to see the kind of person that the Lord is making me.  I know without a doubt that this church is true.  Seeing the ways that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed people's lives.  How much peace and joy that comes through this Gospel.  I am so grateful to be a part of this Gospel.  I am so grateful for this chance that I have to bring this Gospel to others who are so lost and trying to find the truth that the Gospel brings.  I know how happy this Gospel has made me and others.  It is the greatest thing to know the happiness that the Gospel brings.  I love you all so much.  

 Always and forever,

Elder Hancock

Helaman 5:12

Email received 12/10/12

Hey Family!!!

Those spiders are BIG!!!  They cant stop laughing because I am always freaked out by them.  Its snowing?  Wow I miss the snow!  It is super hot right now.  I keep forgetting it is Christmas. Although I am reminded with all of the Christmas things.  I am so happy to hear that everything is good.  

This week has been really good for Elder Machen and I.  A lot of miracles.  But yesterday we were supposed to have two baptisms yesterday but they fell.  The girl we were supposed to baptize was sick and was not able to leave.  Her mom had to stay with her.  But they went to the little pharmacy yesterday and wasnt there when we went to pick them up.  It is ok though we have faith that they will want to be baptized next week.  

My District leader told me earlier this week that I am going to be doing all of the interviews for his baptisms.  It got me super nervous because it is a big responsibility.  But its ok.  I am actually really excited.  We went out to a tiny pueblo like an hour away.  It was really humbling to see the way they live out there.  Some of the houses dont have power.  They difference in the way of life and the way people live just in a matter of one hour.  Our bishop told us last night that they are going to be building a church out here at the start of the year.  All of the members are getting excited.  

We have been teaching a single mom Named Osbelia.  She was interviewed for baptism this past week.  In the middle of the interview her ex husband showed up and started to get upset that Elder Morales was in a room with her alone.  He started to get mad so Elder Morales had to leave and finish the interview the next day.  She told us she couldnt get baptized yesterday and that she will have to wait a week.  She told us that she couldnt get baptized because she has to look for a new house for her and her three little kids because she is afraid of her ex husband.  So that is a really scary situation.  So we are really praying that her husband cant find her.

Last monday night we had a miracle.  We had stopped by the house of someone we contacted on the street (We didnt contact her she contacted us.  She asked us who we were and what we do.)  So we stopped by an she answers the door.  She invites us in and Her husband was standing behind the door.  There names are Roberto and Anayeli.  He told us that he felt really bad.  And that he really needed our help.  He told us he knew who we were.  He said he had been taught by the missionaries like ten years ago in Texas.  His whole family was baptized except him.  He has had such hard life.  He was put in jail for six months for something he didnt do.  After that his wife left him with two little kids.  After that his family stopped talking to him.  He came back here to Tejupilco and Met Anayeli.  They are such a sweet family.  We fell in love with that little family the first time we saw them.  Roberto said he wants to be baptized as soon as possible.  He wants to change his life around so bad.  All he wants is the best for him and his family.  This really humbled me.  Seeing him in his situation.  That first night with them the Spirit was there so strong.  It is so  amazing for me to see the Atonement change someone in just a week.  The presence of the Gospel instituted into a family oh so troubled.  Seeing him and his family really touched me.  I know without a doubt that Anayeli contacted us for a reason.  Heavenly Father really wanted us to find that family.  I love you all so much.  Thank you.

Always and forever 

Elder Hancock

Helaman 5:12

Email received 12-03-12

Hola Family!!!!

Elder Machan is awesome!  He is from El Paso.  He says he goes to the Ciudad Juarez.  Really crazy right.  He says that the youth cant go sometimes because it is so dangerous.  It was rated the most dangerous city in the world a few years ago.  And no he doesnt have a texan accent.  He went to BYU before his mission.  I have no idea what we are doing for Christmas.  I dont think they tell us until like the week before I have no idea.  I dont think that Tejupilco is the farthest area in the Mission.  I think I that it is like in the middle in mission.  I honestly have no idea where we are.  It is actually funny.  Not exactly where we are.  Did you look it up on google earth?  It is such a cool area.  Diferant.  We see our Zone like every few weeks i think.  I am not sure.  But We have not seen them yet.  It is just Elder Machan and I and our District leader and his companion in this area.  It is way cool.  the Distance wont affect anything on mail.  It all goes to the zone and we get it when we have our Juntas on tusdays.  The only problem is is that we only go a few times a change.  But thats alright. 

Well this week was a chalangeing one and diferent.  We started the Nuevo Enfoce this week.  It is somting that will change the mission and missionary work but for us the only problem is is that we had a hard time getting the refrerences.  It will take time for the mind set to change but its all good.  We went this week with old investigators and it didnt work to well.  There are a lot of streets here that dont have names.  And so in turn it is really hard to find these people if they dont have an adress.  

So we cleaned our house today.  It was SO gross.  Elder Morales and Elder Rosas helped us.  But it took us just about all day to clean.  But now it is so nice.  Before there were bugs everywhere.  SPIDERS!!!  tuesday night we were walking up the stairs to go to bed and at the top of the stairs on the wall was a scorpion.  It was super startaling.  We didnt know what to do but we had to kill it.  So that was a really comforting thought of having a scorpion in the house right before bed  It was actually kind of funny expireience. I am just not used to those.  

Being with Elder Machen is awesome.  We only speak spanish.  And because of that my spanis is getting so much better.  We worked so hard this week to find people to teach.  We found this mom with three little kids that is really sweet.  her husband is in the United States working I think.  We started teaching her this week.  She seems really animated about the church.  But we brought her to church yesterday.  i dont think I have ever been so stressed out at work yesterday.  It was really bad.  There isnt a church building here in Tejupilco.  We meat in a casa de oracion.  And so fitiing 40 people in a little room is really tough.  But it is really stressful for missionaries when investigators dont feel anything at church.  So that was the only frustrateing thing about yesterday.  It was super awesome but church was hard because it was really hard to feel the spirit.  

Yesterday we found one of our investigators home.  His name is Roberto.  He is an amazing man but he has a lot of problems.  He is around 60 and has 15 children with 6 or 7 diferant wives.  Yesterday he told us that his 16 child was born.  His new girlfriend is like 25 and his situation is bad.  He told us yesterday about growing up in a comunity with bad things.  Drug cartels and things like that.  He has had such a hard life.  But we taught such a powerful lesson yesterday.  It was really such a beautiful thing to see what the spirit of the Lord does to people.  I could litterally see a change in his heart and a desire to follow Christ.  There is no bigger joy in this world than to see the joy and happiness the gosspel brings.  Because truly being on my mission has made me see that we cannot be happy without the gosspel.  It has changed me as a person.  Seeing the changes in my life have been amazing.  Without the gosspel it would have been impossible.  I love you all so much.  

Always and forever

Elder Hancock

Helaman 5:12

we saw these spiders yesterday..  They are HUGE.  There are like five around where this is.  They sit on like 5 foot in diamiter webs .  they have to almost be as big as a base ball!!!

Email received 11/26/12

Hi family!!

Wow I am really glad that Thanksgiving was good.  I kind of missed you all on Thanksgiving.  Everyone kept reminding me.  But thats alright.  Grandma sent me an email it was really nice to hear from her. 

Today was changes.  I was transferred from Aquiles Serdan to a little pueblo four hours outside of Mexico city called Tejopilco (if you look up a place called Valle de Bravo.  Valle de Bravo is a really nice resort in our mission that is like two hours away from my area in Tejopilco, and then look up Tejopilco that is my area.)  It is so different than my last two areas.  It really is like a small town in the middle of nowhere.  It is such a pretty place.  I am really excited to work in this area.  My new companion is Elder Machen.  He is from Texas.  He has three months in the mission.  This is his second change in the mission.  I am his mother.  I am finishing up his training.  I am really nervous but I know that I will be able to do it through the Savior.  Our house is huge!!!  It is the nicest house in the mission.  All other houses are really not big or nice.  But the bad thing about this house is that it is really dirty.  It has not been cleaned in a long time.  I opened up the cupboard and there was like oil and salt and stuff that hasnt been used for a long time and there was like spiders and webs everywhere.  All over the house is that stuff.  And we cant leave our cereal boxes open because the cockroaches will crawl in.  Its pretty awesome.  Ok and really gross.  But hey good mission story.  But we are going to do a really good clean next week. 

This week was such an awesome week.  The Lord blessed us so much.  It really was a testimony builder for me.  I have really had a really hard time in that area.  I am not sure what it is.  I have a lot of cool stories this week.  (well cool for missionaries).  Me and Elder Muñoz were contacting and found this lady that had a couple kids by her.  We asked if we could share a message with her but she asked us to come by later.  So we went by later and taught her a lesson.  We asked her if she would like to go to church with us that Sunday.  But like always she told us she wasnt sure because her husband works a lot and he is really athiest and Catholic.  (yes it is possible to be Catholic and athiest.  Being Catholic just because your family is...)  Well we asked her if we could come by the next day.  She told us we could.  So the next day we went by but her husband answered the door.  When we saw him we thought he was going to tell us to leave.  But instead he stood there for a minute and told us to come back.  We went back later that night and he let us right in.  We only taught him and his kids.  But at the end of the lesson he told us the reason why he let us in was because he saw something in us that made him curious that made him want to listen.  We invited him to church and he said that he was going to go but if he couldnt go because of work his wife and kids would go.  Him telling us that was a miracle.  We knew that the Lord had lead us to that man.  We knew that because of our efforts and through our obedience and diligence that the Lord blessed us with that family. 

I have been blessed so much this week.  I am so grateful for the blessings and comfort I have received in my mission so far.  I feel the love of the Savior every day.  And so in turn I have felt the love he feels for his brothers and sisters.  As a representative of Jesus Christ he uses me to show that love he has for the rest of the people.  I am so grateful for that and for his love that he has for me.  I love you all so much.  I am so grateful for your support and your prayers.  I need it.  But in turn I feel them.  I can still feel your hugs and your love every place I go.  I know that you all are with me.  And through the Savior you all dont seem to far away.  Thank you so much for all you do for me.  I love you all so much.  Please dont ever forget how much your Heavenly Father and your Savior and Jesus Christ love you and how bad they want you all to make the right choices.  Because I know without a doubt that is how we will be happy. 

Always and Forever,

Elder Hancock
Helaman 5:12

Me and Elder Machen
Me and my Area
Study room
Downstairs
upstairs

Email received 11-19-12

Hi Mom,  

Well that makes me super excited to hear that the house is getting repaired.  I am really sad that I dont get to talk to Owen and Chelsey this year.  Its alright. I saw them right before I left for Mexico.  But I have no idea if I am going to use phone or skype.  I think it might depend on my area.  It is really cool that Cody Corrington is going to Owen's same mission.  I got the package last week.  I think it might have sat in the offices for like a week or so.  Some weeks during the month we dont get mail.  

This week has been really good.  We didnt start working until Wednesday this past week.  On Thursday we had a Special Zone conference with Elder Alonso (of the Seventy).  It was so awesome.  Have you heard of the new Mission focus?  I dont know if its just in our mission or the whole world but there is a mission in north Mexico I think its Tamolipus where Elder Muñoz is from but there they do NO contacting.  They rely on references from the members.  And in The Great Mexico City West Mission, soon, like possibly starting next Change is we Rely only on references from the Members.  It is so awesome!  The work will progress so Much faster!  But if the members dont give us references they pull the missionaries out of that area and it becomes the responsibility of the members to do all of the Missionary work in that area.  It is kind of harsh but it is something that comes from  Elder Dalin H Oaks.  This is how We will get REAL growth in the missionary work.  In the next year our mission is supposed to double in missionaries.  150 to 250.  Three companionships of missionaries in one ward.  It is an amazing number!   The Lord is really getting the work to move a lot faster.  It is really awesome!!  Elder Alonso talked a lot about the Atonement.  How if we teach that the Atonement of Christ is the centra cosa en the Plan of Salvation and if they accept that God is their Father in Heaven, Christ is their Savior and Redeemer, if they study and read the Book of Mormon, Repent for their sins every day, and go to church they will build a testimony that will help them Endure to the End.  It really made me think, "Why those things?"  Those are the basic things.  If we dont have faith in Christ we wont read the Book of Mormon; if we wont read the Book of Mormon we wont go to church; and if we dont go to church we wont endure to the end; and if we dont endure to the end we wont receive salvation.  These things are so important in our lives.  Not just in investigators lives but in ALL of our lives.  But the most important thing is to love your Father in Heaven.  It is the first of the 10 commandments.  Yeah so that was awesome.

But we had a hard day yesterday.  We had another baptism fall through.  Just like you said in that email about Elder Murray and Elder Tuitu struggling to find investigators to teach and to bring to church.  I have been asking myself what I have been doing wrong for too many weeks.  Last change and this change have been soo hard because of that reason.  Through mighty prayer and fasting still nothing.  People tell you they want to go to church but they never go.  We were sad yesterday because no one came to church with us and our baptism fell.  We met a guy about a week and a half ago that we were supposed to teach but we didnt because Elder Muñoz was sick.  We went to his house last night really just as a back up plan.  He really didnt look interested when we contacted him.  But when we went by his son answered the door.  He doesnt believe in God but he told us to come back later to find his dad.  We went back later and taught them both.  We sing  hymns with our investigators and when we sang the spirit flooded the room.  We knew they felt it.  We taught such a spiritual lesson.  They accepted everything.  The Dad Jose Antonio told us he wanted to go to church really bad.  And his son Jose said he would pray and ask if God exists and if he does he says he will get baptized on December 2.  It was an answer to our prayers.  We were so close to just giving up but we didnt, we kept on with faith.  I know that if we Endure through our trials with faith The Lord will bless us.  I love you all so much.

Always and Forever

Elder Hancock

Helaman 5:12

ps.  Is it ok if I send you letters for you to send To Jordan  Danny and Derek?

Email received 11/14/12

Hi Family,

I am so sorry i did not wright on monday.  This weekend has been really crazy.  Saterday Elder Muñoz got sick.  Saterday night he called the Hermana Villarreal and she said that he should go to the hospital.  It was really crazy.  He got in a taxi and went to a hospital inside the city.  I spent saterday night and sunday with the zone leaders.  It was super crazy.  We didnt sleep hardly at all saterday night.  The Zone leaders put their beds together and we all slept on it together.  (only in the mission will that happen)  Yeah super crazy.  The next day we had stake conference that we never saw.  We ran around like crazy brinning investigators to church.  on sunday night I went to the hospital to see Elder Muñoz and I stayed there until today.  The Doctor thought he had Thyphoid fever but the Test ran negative.  and then he started to have really bad diarria.  It got super boreing.  By last night we had boarded the "Crazy train"  I dont really know if it was hard for Elder Muñoz but it was really hard for me to not be doing anything.  When we were doing nothing for three days I started to think about home a lot.  I started to miss you all a lot.  Last night a little boy was screaming and crying in the room next to us and all I could think about was Eli.  it made me super sad.  But its alright.  The lady that brought us food was really cool.  But we have a special zone conference tommorrow.  Elder Elonzo from the 70 is comming to speak to us.  I am super excited for that.  

This change has been another hard change for me.  It feels like no one wants to talk to us.  But that just means we have to work a lot harder to find those people who really are looking for the truth. I cant beleive I have 7 months in the mission already.  It is going by so fast.  It really is scareing me.  It really is pushing me to work harder every moment of every day.  I love you all so much.  I am really sorry this is so short.  

Always and forever

Elder Hancock

Helaman 5:12