And Then There Were 2

Dear family,

After playing a few intense games of survivor I am proud to say I am one of the last survivor.  Sadly both sister Clegg and sister Sister Alvaro have gone. But serious face now.  Sister clegg left this week and it was cool because we got to meet her family.  Her family is touring the philippine and they came up to bogo and met us, and gave us food which was nice.  They also did a fireside here which was cool because we got to attend.  It was kind of funny seeing very american people interacted with filippinos.  I officially feel more comfortable with filippinos then I do with american americans.  I might have turned filippino on you guys, sorry.

Other than that I went on my first split as STL this week.  It was really fun, I went with sister Lapena in san ram.  They area is super close to a really cool ocean so It was really cool being there.  Ours is close to the ocean but its not cool.  I am going to learn a lot from all of these sister which I am excited for. 

As for cool spiritual stories of the week, so we have an RC in our area named ann.  She was baptized in our area while sister clegg was assign here before  (both her and sister alvaro were assign here before, sister clegg 4 months ago and sister alvaro 1 transfer ago, but they came back to finish the last little bit of their mission)  Anyway she experience a lot of opposition with getting baptized.  Her mother was extremely upset about it and did some really horrible things to her because of it.  After sister clegg left she became less active, but when sister clegg came back she decide she would come to church.  And now she is extremely determined to endure to the end, she tells us all the time that she wants to work with us. It really cool how god knows all of his children and how his plan is all about seeking after the one.  I know that god loves all of us so very much, its cool to see the miracles around us today.

I love you all so very much.  I hope you are all doing wonderful and looking forward to talking to me soon. What its almost christmas?  CRAZY!  I love you all, see you soon.

Sister Hancock 

Sorry I forgot the picture until just barely.  The first one is me in san ram on splits.  The beach is so pretty there, and there was a ridiculous amount of boats in the ocean.  The second one is the actually had an american burger there.  I was in heaven.  I miss beef.  I haven't had beef in who knows how long.  It was a tasty experience!

Craziest Week Ever

Dearest Family,

Well these past few days have officially been the craziest of my mission.  For starters I transfered up to bogo on thursday, which is an extremely long ride.  Two hours after getting there we found out we were being evacauted out for the storm.  So we spent the rest of the night letting the sisters know we were being evacuated and telling people to go to the church so that they could have a safe shelter for the storm.  Thank goodness, and the answer of a lot of prayers and fasting here, the storm wasn't as bad as what they thought it would be.  But that could actually be false because it is really hard to get quality information here as a mission.  Before the storm I heard everything from it was bigger the yolanda to there was actually no storm coming, we literally had no idea what to execpt, but it was a lot more organized in yolanda.  

Anyways so we got here and we had a few days with nothing to do, we couldn't go on splits with the sisters here because transfers just happened and no one new their area (which is really important here in the philippines seeing as there is no addresses, its kind of different then in america).  So we ended up visiting our old areas, which was really good.  I went back to lapu-lapu and saw all of my converts there.  It is really amazing how much the have progress, I am so proud of them.  And hopefully I will be able to see the Ligan family's sealing because they said the wanted to invite me and the said it was happening in June, just before I go home.  Also apparently my arms have gotten fatter on my mission, but nothing else, I am a lot browner, and I am a lot better at the language, which is good to hear.  It is amazing what changes can happen in a year haha.

Then the next day we went to sister cleggs old area and I went on splits and we pretty much tracked, but I was thinking hopefully it will get me more prepared to be an STL.

Then the storm happened, which here it wasn't bad at all, it was really just rain, but we were at a loss of what to do with out an area in a storm, so we ended up helping planning for the chirstmas party this week.  Then we went to the mission presidents house for dinner and ended up sharing a message with his family (because his family was there for christmas).  That... Was Terrifying... And also probably the only time me and my quadpanionship will ever all teach together.  It was a cool experience.  Oh I love my quadpanionship.  It wouldn't work in any other situation, except this one, its great.

All of that, plus some of my companions going home super soon made emotions run high.  But despite the rollercoaster it was a great time.  We are all looking forward to going back to our area and checking out the damage.  Hopefully that will happen today, but we are still waiting on the area presidencies decision.

But anyways, we are doing well, and we are all in good health, and life is good.  I hope you guys are enjoying the chirstmas season in , and I hope you guys are well and happy.  Love you all so much!

Sister Hancock

Biggest News Since the Age Change

Dear Family,

I am breaking a missionary world record... Next transfer I have a QUADPANIONSHIP.  Literally I have 3 other companions.  Sister Clegg, Sister Alvaro, and Sister Sears.  I kill sister Alvaro in the first week that we are companions, and I kill Sister Clegg the third week of our companionship.  I am also becoming STL in Bogo.  How we are going to work? I don't know.  How we are going to do companionship study, I don't know.  How are we going to go on splits with the sisters, I honestly don't know.  All I know is we are a quadpanionship.  I am literally shocked beyond belief right now.  All those questions will be answered in the next e-mail.

Also I don't know if you guys have heard about the typhoon could hit here tomorrow, BUT I just want you guys to know I am in an incredibly safe area, and close to the mission office so don't worry about me at all.

As far as this week, it has been a very good week.  We had a Recent Convert family come back to church, and the haven't come to church in over six months.  We were really excited.  I really will miss this area.  I really love the ward here.  The relief society told us her conversion story this week, about when she was baptized.  She told us her family beat her, but she kept going to church and stayed a strong member, and now she is seeing so many blessings from that.  Even though sometimes it is hard, we all need to hold on to the gospel because that is were all of our blessings come from.

Anyways I am kind of still in shock, so I can't really add much details, but thats my life, you will find more about it next week.

I love you all so much!  I hope you are doing wonderful!  Keep being amazing!

Sister Hancock

Belated Birthday?

Dear Family,

This week has been full of temptations, haha just kidding.  But we have had an unusual amount of people try and talk us in to doing karaoke (filipinos love karaoke).  On of our investigator went through, "its not in the ten commandment",  and "god wants us to be happy".  Apparently you need karaoke to be happy, who would have thought?

This Sunday was also pakio (i don't know how to spell that) sunday.  He is a boxer that filipinos love, which mean no one, even members, went to church.  There were throngs of people surrounding tvs in the street.

Other then that I continued to celebrate my birthday, which was great.  On Tuesday my district bought a cake for me which was fun and I got package, on Wednesday on of the members in our ward cooked sweet spaghetti (which is what filipinos eat for birthdays), and on friday we had more cake, which wasn't for me, but you know I can pretend haha.  

Its been a good week, I really love this area.  I hope you are all doing well.  I love you all so much and am praying for you.  Keeping being awesome!

Sister hancock

Salamat Kaayo!

Dear family,

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes.  Sorry if my responses were shorter.  Just know there is a lot of you, but I love you all so much.

So, so far my birthday has been really great.  I woke up this morning at 530 because there was this crazy thunderstorm that literally shoke our house.  There was thunder literally every 30 seconds and the light outside was really creepy, like twilight zone light.  There was shoots of "the second coming is here" and "china has finally done".  But now the weather is normal, so you know we are all fine.  Lets see after that my companion decorated my desk, I decided I hated hair fall so I got a really quick hair cut from my companion, ninyo (the one that got married) made us breakfast, they gay man we take some of our laba to gave us flower pens he made, and now all of you email me.  Thanks to all of you for making my birthday so great!

Sooo, work this week.  Well I thought I would tell you about one of our investigators named malou.  First off in Filippino culture they really like mixing languages, I didn't really understand it when I got here, but then you grandually adopt things from the culture you live in, and now I love it, I have a really hard time speaking straight english.  Anyways she is native chibracano.  So during the course of the lesson she literally mixes 4 languages chibracano, tagalog, bisaya, and english.  Every other sentence is a different langues.  It keep us on our seat.  You never know whether you are going to understand a sentence.  She is really nice and really love missionary and asked us to sleep at her house like 20 time, and we had to tell her like twenty times it wasn't allowed.

We also have this really crazy less active old man that we teach that literally text us 5 times a day the craziest message.  It keeps us laughing through out the day.

Other then that we went on splits this week, and I went with sister T which was fun.  And sorry I have to cut this email short.  But I love you all so much and hope live is great for all of you.  Know I love you and am praying for you.

Sister Hancock

gialsa ang balay?

Dearest loved ones,

How are you?  I hope you are happy and finding joy in the journey.

This week has been really good.  We have a crazy CSP this week.  Get this, we literally moved a house.  No we did not move people from one house to another, we literally took apart a house, took the roof and the walls and moved them to a new location and then built the house again.  I have built a  house. actually I didn't really do it because filippinos don't really like letting sisters help so most CSP just invovle us trying really hard to help and the walls and roofing getting taken away from us and us just ending up watching.  But it was really cool, only in the Philippines...

Sorry to leave you all on the cliff hanger last week about Analyn,  So I have some bad news and some good new.  The bad news is she decided not to be baptized, sister mccurdy and I thought it was a permenant decision, until she came to church this sunday, and now I am really hoping she continues in Manila.  She has gotten her answer, and has told us several times she knows its trues, hopefully she is just will to make the sacrifices necissary.  The good news is the day after analyn dropped us, we found this really gold investigator.  Like she asked a ton of questions asked us if we had a book, told us she wanted to learn more about mormons for a while, and at the end of the lesson committed to baptism.  We have only taught her once, so I might be counting my chickens before they hatch this time, but she really seems to have so much pontential to me.

Other then that I am doing well, I am really happy and really love the ward I am assigned to.  We are having a thanksgiving devotional today, so happy early thanksgiving to you all.  I love you all so much, and miss you all, have a good one!

Sister Hancock

Happy Holidays

To my wonderful family,

Well this week was full of holidays here.  On tuesday consolacion had their huge fiesta, so all of consolacion was involved.  Mostly fiesta are just a lot of eating and drinking, and candles.  Then there was halloween, there were trick-or-treators in the area that I was teach our last lesson, because it is a richer area.  Its really cute, the say happy halloween, trick-or-treat in a really cute accent, I love filippino accents. Then Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 were all souls day and all saints day.  Which involves a lot of people going to cemeteries and getting drunk as well haha.  But it also means everyone is busy which is really unfortunate for missionaries.  So some days were harder to work then others, but I am telling you it was quite the party here haha.

Well updates on analyn, on tuesday we had a really good lesson and she commited to baptism, the on friday we found out she is moving to manila on november 18 and she isn't sure if she wants to get baptized before she is moving.  So no one really knows what is going on, but I guess I will just have to leave you on a cliff-hanger and you will have to wait for next week....

As for me, i got sick this week, but I feel fine now.  I just literally have no voice haha.  It was funny we were singing a hymn for companionship study and sometimes literally no sound came out, so I just had sister mccurdy sing by herself, and I laugh.  But hopefully my voice comes back eventually haha.

I love you all so much!  I hope that you all are happy and enjoying life! Love you,

Sister Hancock

Missions

Family,

How are you all doing?  I am doing well.  Got a new companion and we also moved apartments.    Us and the elders switched apartments and I still can't really figure out why.  But its a good apartment, I miss our apartment but you know you can't always be too choosy.  

As for my new companion, she is really nice.  Everything I told you about her is correct.  She also really loves missionary work and is a really hard worker, and really wants to help people.  I am going to learn a lot from her.

As for the area, I still really love our ward.  They seriously are like the best.  And, guess what?  Jerum came to church!!!  (I told you guys about him before, the one who prayed that people would come help and change his life)  His mom told us he got a job a worked all the time, so we couldn't teach him.  (people here in the philippines sometimes have to work literally all day every day, its really sad.)  But we passed by his house on Saturday and he was there, and apparently it was only a temporary job, so we got to teach him, and then he came to church, and the ward literally instantly befriended him, it was a beautiful thing.  As far as analyn, she comes to church all the time, tells some people she is a mormon now, but still hasn't accepted baptism.  We honestly can't really figure it out, but she is so progressing, and I really think it will be soon, hopefully.

Other then that I am doing really well.  And time keeps flying by.  I love you all and forgive me that this letter is shorter, its just hard to write an email after 4 days.  Also forgive me for not sending picture.  We have been warned that these computers have a history of deleteing pictures, so we are currently looking for a different internethan.

I love you all so very much!

Sister Hancock

Maayong buntag

Hey everyone,

I hope you are all doing well, I am.   So we got our transfer calls yesterday, and like always I have news haha.  I am getting a new companion.  Her name is sister MCcurdy. She is from oregon (I am pretty sure tanya was her young womens leader, but you guys should ask her for sure).  And I am pretty sure she went to Utah State before her mission (Wahoo go AGGIES!). But I am excited.

As for this week, it has been really good.  We went got to go to a sealing this week which was a surprise for us haha.  One of the members in our ward, ninyo, was getting married to another member in our ward and he was like begging us to come to his sealing.  We told he we probably wouldn't be to since the temple is in a different mission, but he was like, no you guys are coming, what is the number of your mission president?  So he called our mission president and long story short, we got to go see it. It was so beautiful though, what an amazing thing to be able to witness.

Then as well our kabalay (our person who livesin the same house as us, which is so much harder to say)  got to go on splits with us this week because her companion went to manila for a day. (sometimes foreign missionaries here have to go to manila for visa things)  But anyways it was really fun.  She is really cute.

Then as far as the work goes, last night we had a really powerful lesson with analyn.  The spirit was really strong and I got to bear my testimony in a way I never have before on my mission.  It was such an amazing experience.  She is still really hestitant to commit to baptism, but hopefully it will be soon.

Anyways I love you all.  I hope you are all doing wonderfully.

Love you,

Sister Hancock

Conference

To my fellow hancocks, and those who happen to be of another last name as well,

The mission continues to be a great place to learn and to grow. 

So we are continuing to teach Analyn (the helper of our bishop) she was able to go to conference this weekend which was cool.   But anyways it is cool to see how much she has progressed, last time we taught her she talked about how different this church is. (we were scared when we started teaching her that she would be super shy, because she is shy with everyone else, but she has turned out to be way talkative which has been really good while teaching here.)  Anyways she was talking about how member of this church talk about how much the have changed because of this gospel, and she has notice a difference between members and others and she said she wants that for her self.  I really really just love her.  After we teach her, bishop always feeds us, and him and sister wolfe both have a goal to make me as fat as possible.  They are constantly piling rice on my plate and sister wolfe just sits there laughing the whole time... Companions haha...

As well we got to watch conference this weekend which was super cool.  I loved how they let people give talks in their native language, what a cool thing the church is doing!  That is one thing I love about the gospel, that no matter what continent you go to, no matter what language the gospel is taught in, it is the same everywhere.  And no matter what type of people listen, no matter their background or life situation, well all find peace and comfort from the same principles.  What a beautiful thing.  I hope you all found answers to your prayers during conference and you all apply the teachings and counsel of our living prophet, because they truely do receive revelation directly from god, and god, our heavenly father, truely knows what is best for us.

I love you all so much.  Thank you for your strong testimonies and the way you live the gospel.  Keep it up, god needs each and every one of us for his work her.

I love you all,

Sister Hancock

P.S the first picture is me and sister wolfe eating a vanilla and milk fudgee bar.  We have had a goal to find the two together and compare them side by side.  We were both extremely excited when our dream had finally been realized that day.

The second is only in the philippine in the place where it tells you not to try to catch a jeepney, would be the only place where people are gathered around trying to catch a jeepney.

Hump day = Pay day?

Dear family,

Sorry for the late email, we went to the temple this week so our p-day was on Wednesday. And yes it is true, it officially hit my hump day.  I am officially half-way done with my mission.  The time has seriously flown by, I seriously can't believe that it has gone by this fast. 

And apparently in the past 9 months my preaching has gotten better, because this week while tracting many people tried to pay us after, in fact one time I was just talking to this couple and an old lady came out of her house gave me money with out saying a word and walked back in her house, I was sooo confused at what was going on for a while.

Other then that this week has been really good, we have started teaching analyn and she is super super good, she has come to church 3 times and reading as well and she always talks about how much she loves that mormon are just sunday member, that they are actually good people throughout the week.  The spirit is always really strong when we teach her.

Anyways other then that this week will be a spiritually bomb because we just came from the temple, and we have conference this weekend.  I am really excited to listen to the prophet.  I hope you are all doing well, and happily applying general conference into your lifes:).

I love you all so very much!  I hope you are all doing great!  I keep you in my prayers!

Sister Hancock

P.S.  The pictures are me and sister wolfe at the temple and then filipino's selling spider.  They just hold spiders here and also have them get into fight, and they don't understand why americans are afraid of them

Merry Christmas

Dear family,

The "ber" months, or september, here brings the start of christmas, but now things are getting serious.  Everyone has decorations everywhere and christmas music is always playing as well.  We also have a very small christmas tree in our apartment  And I though american who started listening to christmas music after halloween where crazy.

So it has been a good week.  First we went on splits with the STL's which was fun, as always.  We also had our bishops helper come to church again, we still haven't been able to teach her because our cellphone got stolen... So we had no idea where our bishop lived, and we had no way of telling them we couldn't come... So they kind of got mad at us... But its all good everything is worked out now after we told them our cellphone got stolen.  That was honestly the first time a filipino has ever gotten mad at me, I hope that never happens again.  Other then that we have gotten 2 referral from our ward that seem to have a lot of potential so hopefully the will progress.

As for my crazy tracting story of the week.  Well as usually we were going door to door, and we ran into this nanay who was doing her laba, we asked if we could teach her and she just pointed to the chair, so we sat down quite unaware if we were teaching or not.  Eventually her and her husband came and sat down so we started the lesson.  Halfway through the lesson the neighbor came over and her husband went and started talking to her.  We continued teaching and then and one point when I stop talking, Sister Wolfe didn't start talking, I looked over at her at she was staring at tatay, I looked at tatay and he was doing witch doctor vodo stuff to heal his neighbors son.  Needless to say we quickly ended the lesson and left laughing.  First time I have actually seen witch doctor vodo stuff.

Oh also a random fact for the day, whenever I try to speak in a different american accent it always comes out in bisaya, I don't know why... I think there is something messed up with my brain...

Anyways I love you all, I hope you are doing great and staying happy!

Sister Hancock

Missionary Life, take 1

To my beautiful family, 

That is a very true statement,when ever I show anyone your guys picture they  always talk about how I have a gorgeous family.  Anyways I heard something that was really funny today that I thought I would share, I might be overly missionary humor for you guys, so I don't know if you guys can handle it. But here it goes.  We were talking about how many languages there are in the philippines and then one of the missionaries that lives in our apartment said, "Philippines must have done so serious work with the tower of babel."  And I laughed.

Anyways this week has been really good. I am really enjoying my new area, and the ward is really supportive here, things actually operate how they should, which is a miracle here in the philippines.  We also get people the work with us which we haven't really been able to get in my last areas.

So we were able to teach Jerum again this week.  (He was the one who prayed for people to come and help him change his life and then he saw the missionaries outside tracting and stopped them and asked him to teach him.)  It was such a good lesson, the spirit was so strong and he had soo many good questions.  He is fantastic.  We have also been able to see success with our other investigator, so it has been really good here.

Other then that we do a lot of tracting.  Which we get some pretty funny stories from that.  I am going to tell you guys about one experience but sister wolfe is a lot better at telling stories them I am so I am going to quote her.  "i love tracting because it give a lot of funny stories to tell. One time while we were tracting we ran into this crazy old nanay (old lady/mom), that had 4 toes on one foot and caught me staring at it every time. There was also poop on the floor which could have very well been human poop.  She insisted that we see her new grandchild who was born the previous week, but I had suspicions that her real intentions were kidnapping. Nanay burst into the room where the childs parents where sitting.  The father was an american who looked up shocked because nanay had just burst into the room and yelled out 'gosh dang it nay, can some one pleeeease get me my pants' "

Anyways, to make the story short a lot of awkward things happen all the time  in the philippines.

Anyways I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week.

Love you tons!!!

Sister Hancock

P.S. the first picture is typical sister wolfe and then the next picture is a nanay in our ward who always works with us, she is fantastic.

The new Area

To whom it may concern,

I am doing great here in consolation!  I really like it here and I really like my new companion.  The ward here is the most put together ward I have ever seen in the Philippines and things are run how they are suppose to, its fantastic.  I can also see a lot of potential with this area, since I have been here we have gotten some good referrals and we taught this man who said he has been praying for someone who to come and help him change his life around.  The spirit was really strong while we were teaching him and we are really hoping he progresses. We also committed someone to baptism who has really wanted to get baptized before but has run into a lot of obstacles, but we have plans the we hope are going to be able to help him.  There is a lot of potential here so hopefully it progresses.

As for my new companion she is from texas and it really really funny and crazy.  She keeps me laughing a lot. She is also part Guatemalan. And...  She is 20?  I tried to get her to tell me what to say about her, but she didn't know what to say either.  But just know she is a really fun person to be companions with.

Other then that my area is very very hilly, so hopefully by the end of this area I will have great calves.  But I might not because we have the temptation of fast food right exactly behind our house, that is something I definitely didn't have in ubay haha, but no worries sister wolfe is big into running so we have plans to run everyday this transfer.  I can't really think of other new because I am still really new here and get lost everyday, but I really like it here.

Anyways I love you all and hope life is going well for all of you!  Know I am praying for all of you.  Love you tons!!!

Sister Hancock

Where in the World is Sister Annika Hancock?

Dear family,

another transfer  has come and passed and it again raises the question, where in the world is Sister Hancock?  Drum roll please........ CONSOLATION CEBU.  That is right, I got transfered back to the great island of cebu, only this time I actually live on cebu island and not on lapu-lapu island.   My area is really city and apparently our church has an elevator?  Which is completely COMPLETELY different then Ubay. My new companion is Sister Wolfe, an american.  I am excited I will hopefully send you cool pictures of my area later!

So as for the happenings of this week, well I did get to do something really cool.  I get to ride a carabo for the first time (which is an animal here that kind of looks like a bull that they use for plowing fields).  It was pretty legit.  I also got to drink carabo milk, which was the best milk I have had since I have been here, it was almost like milk back home (the milk here is really gross, all the have is powdered milk mostly).

As for the spiritually things, Lita came to church again wahoo!  She has a problem with priesthood so that is why she has yet to agree to be baptized, but tuesday we had a really good lesson about the book of mormon.  The spirit was really there, so we are hoping things go well, but I guess I would really get to see since I got transferred, that is the sad part of transfers is leaving everyone. It was really sad leaving the pinero family and brother dedios as well

Other then that I literally traveled for 8 hours today in order to get to cebu, and I had to pack all of my stuff this morning, so I am really exhaust, but I got a chance to take a picture of the boat we ride to get to cebu for you all.  I hope you enjoy that.

Anyways because my head is on low battery (that is how filipinos say they have a head ache, just a little bit of info for you)  I am cutting this email short.   But know I love you and am praying for you all and miss you all.

I love you

Sister Hancock

sorry I always forget to include them with the email, but this is the boat we rode today

Wet Market

Dear family,

Sorry if this email is kind of shorter, you all emailed me this week which is fantastic, but doesn't leave me as much time to write a big email.  But I request you guys have a family reunion every weekend so that you will miss me more so that I will end up getting more emails, its fantastic.

Anyways so at the begining of this week we went to tagbilaran for a mission conference.  (Tagbi is really far away so we didn't get to work for two days due to travel, it was very exhausting.)  It was really great though, I learned a ton and we also got to celebrate the missions 1 year birthday (wahoo we have been a mission for one year!)  and we also celebrated our mission presidents birthday.  So celebrating all around wahoo!

Also this week Lita and Casandra came to church.  Lita is an referral from a bishop in cebu.  She is really really awesome.  She hasn't been able to come to church because her grandson has been in the hospital, but this Sunday she came.  She is the nicest lady ever and always wants to feed us haha and she really wanted to come back

Casandra is the american who came here to marry a filipino but wasn't able to so now is kind of stranded, anyways she is a member but hadn't been to church for 4 month, but she missed it so much that she decided to walk and hour to get to the pinero's house so that they could give her a ride.  (she doesn't have plete or money for transportation).  That is a serious problem here that everyone lives to far a way so they can't go to church because its too expensive, but I guess we have discovered the solution, convert someone who lives close to them and has a tricicad so they can get a ride. Haha but it really but into perspective just how blessed we are to have church so close.  Seeing people sacrifice so much to come to church and partake of the sacrament really inspires me.

I hope we realized just how blessed.  Thank you all so much for your support for me, I couldn't do it with out you.  I love you all so much and pray for you everyday.  Next year I will just have to beat you all at golf

Love you tons, take care ha?

Sister Hancock

P.S. Here we have to buy everything from a wet market, and there is pig heads laying everywhere, its really gross

The ocean is a great place for a baptism

Dear family,

I hope this email finds you happy and excited to go back to school.  As for me I still have a year before I have to go back to school.  That is one of the advantages of serving a mission haha.

So this week has been really great!  The pinero family officially got baptized wahoo!!!  We were really blessed that day because it was high tide so they got to stay in close to do the baptism.  It was a really big blessing because the elders baptism before was low tide and we couldn't really see, much less hear what was going on.  But during their baptism we got to hear and see everything which was great.  The spirit was so strong too.  It was so cool to see a whole family get baptized together, that really is what missions are about. Helping families live together forever.  I am so glad we have that blessing.  It was really cute as well because after wards when they bore their testimony, Sister Pinero wrote her testimony so she could give it in bisaya.  The branch (we are a branch now wahoo!) was also really great because a lot of them came even though we have to go really far away to get clean ocean (the ocean by ubay is really gross as in if you walk in it with an open wound you could die, really REALLY gross), anyways they came and they gave their talks in tagalog so that they could understand.  I am starting to kind of a little bit understand tagalog, its great.

Other then that the work continues to progress.  Our current second counselor used to be less-active (probably because he lives an hour away from the church),  but ever since he has found out he was going to be the second counselor he has come to church every sunday. and for the past two sunday his wife has come with him as well.  She is not a member, so we are trying to really focus on them, its hard because they are always busy and they live an hour away from us (and riding on a motorcycle for an hour is kind of exhausting), but they are really really good!

Other then that I am doing really well.  I learn and grow everyday, although thankfully I am not yet fat.  I also still continue to eat new foods (I ate a salted egg yesterday, we looked really gross but it was actually completely fine) and still love living here and serving a mission.  I hope you are all happy.  Continue to be the great people you are! I love you all so much!

Sister Hancock

A new Branch

To my beloved family,

Hello, how are you all.  I am glad to hear you all enjoyed the wedding.  I was also celebrating on this side on the world.  We went on splits with the STLs that day (which I always have fun going on splits, and sister davis is still my STL so we had fun).  And the for dinner we had chicken adobo and mango floats to celebrate. I am thinking I will have to make that for you guys when I get back.  Then we had a sleep over, so you know, the whole world was just partying.

Good news this week, The pinero family passed their interviews, wahoo!!!!!!  I was pretty soaked although I almost fell asleep while waiting, because I don't know why but interviews here take forever and there was four of them getting interviewed.  So their baptism will be this Saturday, in the ocean.  I am excited to send you guys pictures.

Other good news, Ubay is official a branch, wahoo!!!!  So that means they are now looking for a different place to have church.  It been really cool to see our little group progress so much that we are now a branch.  Sacrament meeting was really cool too.  Our mission president came and talked about how before Ubay was randomly cut out of our mission boundaries and wasn't in the boundaries of anyone's mission.  They talked about how the devil was trying to keep the saints here from receiving blessing.  But now they have corrected that and there are 2 sets of missionaries here.  What a blessing it is to be able to serve here.

As well we were able to see the elders have a baptism this week.  I love baptisms, the spirit is always so strong and it makes you so excited about the work.  The work really is hastening and it is such a blessing to be able to witness that.  

I love you all and hope you are well and your testimonies are strong.  Keep on enduring to the end!

Sister Hancock

P.S.  The first picture is our branch presidency, the missionaries and my mission president and his wife when we became a branch.  We are standing outside of our apartment/church.  The second is the elders baptism.

Marriage?

Family,

What my sister is getting married this week, that is so crazy.  I hope you all enjoy the wedding immensely.  I will be thinking of you and probably celebrating in some was with my companion.

So I have been really good this week.  The work continues to go on.  The Pinero family have their interview this week and then they are getting baptized next week.  It is so cool to be able to watch them progress as a family so much.  I love watching the testimonies grow and their acts of faith help my faith to grow.

I just want to write you guys a little about this group I am in and how awesome all of the members are here.  They really are soo faithful,  We have one nanay who lives extremely far away from the church (most of our members live far away because I live in the middle of now where).  Anyways its really expensive for here to come to church every sunday, but in order for her to have money to come she does all of the missionaries laundry every week.  It takes her a really long time, but despite that she does it every week just so she can come to church.  Our group leader is also really amazing.  He seriously would do anything for us missionaries if we asked him too.  He always want to work and always asks us if we want to go site seeing for our p-day, he is great.

This week randomly we had an american family show us at our door, (which is extremely weird here since there is only one other american that lives here besides me.)  It wasn't random because they were actually their to screen children to see if the were malnutrition (which pretty much every one the screened was), but we had no idea it was happening.  It was a kind of funny situation.  After that they went a played a prank on the elders, they said "do you guys speak english, we are lost, we are looking for someone who love jesus".  It was kind of funny because the elder they talked to is fresh from the MTC so he got really excited. haha oh good humor...

Also this week we had Zone training meeting, which involves us waking up at 430 in the morning driving all day to get there (because we have to go all the way to calape) and the getting home at like 600 at night, but I guess that is what you get for being the missionaries that are the farthest away from everything.

Anyways I love you all and I praying for you and hope you all enjoy the wedding, and your week and your lives. 

Sister Hancock

 

The first picture is me climbing up a coconut tree, I may or may not have fallen on the way down...Its okay if no one sees it your fine right?  The second is they have leaves here that you can actually blow bubbles from, coolest thing ever right?  My mission is completely now that I have seen that haha.