Dugay na

to my beloveds

How are you?  I hope summer weather is treating you well.  Here in the Philippines summer just ended and everyone is going back to school, which is nice because it is still hot, but not as hot.  We have rain occasionally now.

So you are probably all think I died in some crazy tropical storm and that is why I didn't write you but actually we just had a temple trip today and whenever we have a temple trip they move our p-day to Wednesday, but don't worry all will be back to normal and I will be emailing you next Monday.

It is weird emailing you now because I feel like so much has happen, I don't even know what to write about.  So we had Nikki and Alyn's baptism this week.  It was really great haha but when we got there the font was extremely dirty so we sat their waiting 3 hours for it to start haha, but the good news is they got baptized anyway, and here in the Philippines you normally wait about an hour for it to start anyways so I guess that is not to bad haha.

This week was also Sister Salima's birthday, so of course I bought her a cake, and she said it was her first time ever celebrating her birthday.  But she really enjoyed it so that is good.  She has also been super super sick for the past week, but still always just wants to work so we have still be able to teach just not as much.

Worley has also agreed to get baptized but we are waiting on his work before he can be baptized, he never came out and said this, but we are like 90% certain that as soon as he becomes a member he will be fired from his job because his boss is catholic so we will just see what happens with that.

Also the toting family came to church this Sunday which was way exciting, they have also agreed to be baptized so hopefully they continue progressing!  If thing go like normal I probably won't be able to see either of their baptisms because I will be transferred, but I guess we will just have to see what the lord has in store for me... I am hoping its bohol haha.

Anyways I love you all and hope your summer is full of fun activities.  Until monday,

Sister hancock

P.s sorry I would have emailed you pictures but this computer is weird.  Sunod na lang.

kining lingwahay....

To my loved ones,

Haha so I am continuing to learn many things about this crazy language god wants me to learn.  One of the things I learn is that hubad does not actually mean to translate (or at least here is lapu-lapu it doesn't, supposively in bohol it does?), it actually means to get naked.  So for the past three months I have been here I have been saying, Joseph Smith got naked the book of mormon with the power of god.  Hahaha none of our investigators thought to correct us until final Krisha told us.  ... Our poor investigators...  I also found out ambut is a very rude way to say I don't know, and the teachers at the MTC said it was fine...  Also apparently one of the conjugations they taught us in the MTC is tagalog not bisaya...  Also whenever our investigators read the church pamphlets I am constantly having to explain certain words to them, which is hard since my vocabulary is still very limited.  In fact one of our investigators after reading it ask "who wrote this?", and sadly I use those word that no one knows because those are the resource that we have to learn from.  So in conclusion, I am pretty sure in order for an filippino investigator to be converted by a foreigner they have to have the gift of interpretation of tongues.  But we continue to have baptisms here so the only explanation has to be the church is true.

Other then that I went on splits with the STL (sister trainer leaders), this week.  It was my first time ever working outside my area.  Their area is in manduae which is super city.  It was really fun actually, it kind of made me excited to experience different things while I am here on my mission.  I also learned a lot from our STL about teaching to need.  It was a great experience.

Other then that the field is still white here in Lapu-Lapu, cordova.  We have Nikki and Alyn's baptism this Saturday which I am way excited for and their dad came to church for the first time yesterday which made me way happy!  We also got referrals last week and they are super great!  They both committed to be baptized during the second lesson so we are excited to continue to teach them.

I love you all!  I hope you enjoy summer like I have been doing for the past 3 months :).  Amping ha?

Sister Hancock

I forgot to attach the pictures I was going to send.  One is of my companion and I with the STL's, and the other is a picture of what the calling the "swatters" in the city.  The city is also reall gross so hopefully I never actually get assigned to the city.

I love you all, enjoy!

Sister Hancock

So Good to Talk to you

Family,

It was so good to talk to you!  I just feel so happy right now!  I thought I would email you the pictures of julius, krisha, and angings baptism since I have yet to email you that.  

I love you so much! I really have the best family ever!

Sister Hancock

Creepy Crawly Critters

To my amazing family,

So I thought that since I have a samoan companion my days of killing the critters were over, unfortunately for me this was very very untrue.  During daily planning this week I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my whole life (I took pictures of it and would have sent it to you, but unfortunately this computer won't let me send pictures.)  After several shouts of "Kill it" "I don't kill animals"  I finally bravely and courageously threw the area book on it.  I think that means I have passed a test of some kind.  Also I now know what it feels like to be swarmed by bugs.  We were at a less active house just sitting and then we where swarmed by... they called them ants but I don't think they were ants.  They were every where on everything.  It was so disgusting I can't even tell you.  But despite these challenges I am still living today haha, so no worries.

So I want to share a really cool experience we had while tract (we seem to tract a lot now and I am fairly certain it is because sister salima actually really enjoys tracting, I never did it with sister davis.)  But anyways we teach around and getting rejected (I have learned filipino aren't as nice when it isn't two americans approaching them, every one here thinks my companion is filipina its really funny.  Then when she says she is from samoa they always look at me really confused and I think I have finally figured out why, because sa amoa in bisaya is pretty much from ours so I always just tell them its close to new zealand.)  Anyways we walked past this house and then decided to  turn around to see if one of our investigators was home.  After we turned around I felt like I should stop at this house so I just said good afternoon to one of the girls there and they instantly said "mom" and the mom came and invited us in to sit down.  Apparently before that they were wondering why we didn't stop at there house, and really wanted us to come and visit them.  They were so good and so interested and before we even said anything they were talking about going to our church.  The moved from bohol because their house got destroyed in the earth quake.  I am really excited to continue teaching them, they seem so golden.

In other new Alyn and Nikki have their interviews this week.  (they are two daughters of Anging).  I am so excited for them to be baptized.  I seriously love the ligan family so much!  They are the cutest when we teach them.

That is all for my news.  I hope life is treating all of you well.  Have a fantastic week!

Sister Hancock

One Week!!

To the family that I get to see a week from now, CRAZY!

So I had plans to send you epic of picture of Julius' baptism and me playing volleyball in the sand (it really is like the most epic picture ever), but due to the unpredictableness of  internetcafes, sadly I can't send you any pictures.  Oh well next week na lang.

This week has seriously been such a good week. First off our ward has gotten really excited about missionary work so everyone and their tiki wants to work with us.  It has been so good because when members are at the lessons they are seriously so much better.  It adds a real aspect to what we are sharing.  People don't just think we are two crazy Americans, real people actually believe this, its fantastic. 

We also had Julius baptism which was one of the best baptisms I have ever been too.  There was so many people there (which doesn't really happen here) and the spirit was so strong. I got to lead the music so I got to look out at everyone and the whole time I  was just think about how we are all brothers and sisters united in such a great cause.  I just loved everyone so much.  Then afterwards Julius bore his testimony and he talked about before he had a great job, a beautiful wife, and kids but there was sometime missing.  He talked about how it was hard to forgive people  and he just felt this whole in his life.  After much persistences from his wife he finally decided to take the missionary discussions.  He talked about after that the hole was healed.  He is so happy now.  He hasn't missed a day of church in the past four months and has made so many changes in his life.  Seeing that is what makes life as a missionary so amazing.  I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the lord!

We also have Anging and Krisha's baptism this Friday.  Hopefully I don't get transfered so I can see it, but if not teaching them has been so great.  They were the most prepared people I have ever met. They are getting baptized a day before their initial set date, which in this mission is a complete miracle. (Pretty much that means in the first week we met them they had to give up all word of wisdom problems and never miss church.)  It has been such a miracle.

In other news we got to play volleyball on the beach which was so fun!  Haha sometimes I forget what normal people fun is like.  It was a shame we couldn't go in the water, but don't worry Julius told me that if we are by the ocean he will do me the favor of shoving me in, and if he shoves me in I have no other options.  But today we get to go to a mexican restaurant.  What?  I seriously thought those didn't exist here, but they have one!  I am so pumped because I have been craving mexican food for so long now...  Life is just fantastic.  And to top it all off I get to skype you all in a week.  I can't wait!

I love you all so much!!!  I hope life goes wonderfully for you this week.

Sister Hancock

I have got some good news, and I have got some bad news

To my beautiful family,

Life is full of it's vicissitudes (not only am I learning a second language,but I am also ever increasing my english skills.)  The good news is Roxelaine got baptized!  The bad news is I was very sick this whole week.  The good news is Sister Davis still let me work.  The bad news is because of the overexertion I lost a leg.  The good news is the gave me a really cool cane. The bad news is I sound like a man today.  The good news is apparently when I speak bisaya  I always speak higher so I sound like my normal self. 

But seriously I was pretty sick for a while and then the night of Roxelaine's baptism I asked the elders in our ward to give me a blessing, and then that night my fever stopped.  Since then I  just have a manly voice and I cough a lot which has been a great blessing.

Roxelaine's baptism was a really really awesome experience.  They always have new converts bear their testimony and she talked about how much she has changed because of the gospel.  It was so awesome to hear that.  That is probably one of the coolest parts of being a missionary is to see people change their lives for the better.  It is so rewarding.

And other good news of the week, Julius is getting baptized this week!  Wahoo, we are seriously so excited.  After the interview the elders who interviewed him said "he will definitely be a leader of the church".  And I said "I know, I am excited for that moment when he speaks in general conference and I can say, I taught him."  He is crazy, he is already on numbers in the bible.

Another investigator I have yet to tell you about is Melody.  She is sisters to one of our recent converts and she is so great.  She feels very strongly about the family and that is what caused her initially to be interested.  Her baptismal date right now is May 17, and we are trying to get her daughters interested.  They always listened when we teach, they just haven't committed to baptism yet.

In other news we currently have a mouse swimming in our langanan (the things we do laundry in).    When I found in I cried out "I need my nanay", (sorry mom I didn't mean you.)  Unfortunately neither of us know how to kill it, and I couldn't kill it with a knife, so if any of you have any ideas we are very very open to suggestions that don't involve touching it. Also I learned I can't eat rice with just a fork anymore. I don't know how to do it.  I can only eat like a filippino now.  And I crave rice now.  And I like coke now.  Not that you really cared about those details, but you know the Philippines changes a person.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Sister Hancock

P.S.  The first picture is Roxelaine's baptism.  The second picture is the Ligan family.  It goes Anging, Krisha, Alyn, Nikki, and me:)

P.P.S family, so apparently my whole week schedule is completely changing so my p-days will be on monday, so you all should write me before it is monday here, I don't know what time that is there.

Saving Souls and Killing Ants

To my loving family

I hope you are all doing well and that you all enjoyed your Easter feasts very much.  Easter here was great!  Holy week is a very big deal here.  Everyone closed their stores and everything for wednesday - saturday (they were all open on sunday again though which is kind of ironic to me.  It was crazy not having tons of people line the streets, it kind of reminded me of america haha.  But every night (since we live right across from a catholic church) we got to see a parade of saint and people holding candles its crazy how many people participate!  Then easter day was amazing because we had so many investigators at church.  We had to actually move gospel principles to a new room because there wasn't enough space for everyone.  I was just so happy all day!

We also got to teach the ligan family (anging and krisha and others) a lot this week.  Which was great because teaching them is my favorite thing.  They are so great we just barely taught them about Tithing and that Sunday without us even knowing they set up a meeting with bishop and payed their tithing.  They have so much faith I blows my mind.  Krisha also was taking notes during church which amazed me because I have never ever done that.  She has such a strong desire to learn as much as she can so that she can be a good missionary.  Then we were telling the how we were baptized when we were 8, and they were like "wow we must be late bloomers".  And then they said "No we aren't late bloomers, they just came late".  Haha they are seriously the best.

Other then that we have roxelaine's baptism this week which we are excited about!  We also had a mission tour and it was soo good to see everyone from the MTC, and be amazed at just how smart general authorities are.  In other news our apartment has increasingly been infested with bugs.  I find bugs in my oatmeal every morning now.  Oh well that's life in the Philippines.

I love you all.  That you so much for the support every week! 

Sister Hancock

P.S The first picture is the mission tour and then the second picture is the entrance to the subdivision I live it.  It looks really nice haha.