Michael's Christmas phone call...

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Michael Scott Hancock wrote:
The rest of the Christmas was pretty nice... pretty tranquil! After the phone-call we left and we took pictures of murals! There are a whole bunch of random murals in Rosario just on walls or sides of buildings, so we went around and took pics :) then we went down to the river...not the best idea cause it was really hot and we could only look and not touch.... :( sad stuff. Then the rest of the evening we spent with the President of the branch... it was a fun day. I´ve already eaten some cereal! It´s better than I imagined! ha! good stuff. Now it´s time for the new year!
We always go to church at 9am! Except for a small period of time in Rivera, because it was too cold that early in the morning.
I like that lesson! That´s pretty creative! And I understand it... if I was just judging people on looks down here in Uruguay, I would never talk to anyone! JK JK JK..... they´re just different!
Jason Perry.... almost 5 min..... and I missed it! FAH!
Anyhow, this is just short and sweet, cause we already visited on the phone! I´m glad the Navidad was great! and I hope the New Year is great too! Luv ya tons!!!
OH, and Dani is down to less than 15 cigarettes a day! Don´t remember if I already told you that. YAY!

Just after Michael's Phone call

Scott Hancock to Michael

It was really good to hear from you it was like you were next door. We video taped an hour of the phone call until the tape ran out. Can you guess what game we got by the video of Alana? thats right Kinect for the XBox 360. they have played it non-stop for at least 6 hours, good investment, keeps the girls in good shape or at least exercising, which they never get, I'm worn out! its lots of fun... So, I really don't know what else to ask other than do you know how much you weigh? and what type of exercise do you do or get? today was Perry's farewell, I have never heard him talk so much before! ha ha. Daniel & April sang "in the hollow of thy hand" and mom said the closing prayer they did good! Is it raining while its hot or mostly muggy hot! Please take care of yourself and your feet! And never worry about being a senior/teacher, just contact as many people as you can, challenge yourself to talk to anybody, anywhere, anytime, see what happens! Love Dad, Your Amazing. Sing on a street corner!!!! :D

Michael to Scott Hancock

Hey! Long time no chat! I actually have no idea what Kinect is.... but it looks like fun! I don´t know how much I weigh, I haven´t weighed myself since Rivera! But I think I´m going down a little, all the sweating seems to do that! My exercise usually consists of some stretching, some sit-ups and other ab workouts, some push-ups, and some rubber-band work outs. We had some bars we were lifting in Rivera, and here we just made some hand weights, we´ll see if they do something.... basically just that. YAY Jason! I´m excited for him! And congrats to the rest of the fam for the song and prayer! It was raining for a little bit, but not much lately, they´re actually going through a dry period they´re saying. So... it´s just hot.... with the sun big and bright, little clouds nothing more. But it´s all good! I usually already sing while walking down the street, I´ll just have to do it louder!
Anyways, thanks for todo! TTYL!

I will be calling on Christmas Eve

Well first things first, the phone call, I will be calling on Christmas Eve, because I´m not sure if we´ll be somewhere else for Christmas. I´m gonna call you sometime from 7-8pm here, so that´s 2-3pm where you are at! It´s pretty much the only time, so if someone can´t make it..... too bad so sad, just gotta wait till Mother´s Day! I´ll call you guys first on the cell so you can get the number! Then you call me! YAY! So that´s Christmas Eve, the 24th, this Friday! Got it?! Espero que sí!
Anyhow, We are officially moved! We only falt our telephone, but it will be transfered before I call! But this last week I was actually really sad because we lost so much preaching and proseliting time with the move, we were running around everywhere dealing with contracts, telephones, tools, the move itself, inventory, cleaning the new house and cleaning and dejunking the old house! Oh, it was a long week. But we are all in, we installed our califon and everything and it´s actually a really nice house, we are closer to everything, the stores, the members, our investigators, the President, there´s even a carth that sells food literally next door. We have two floors, a nice view of the city. It just looks and feels cleaner and we have nice neighbors! YAY! So the good thing is that now, we can work better and more effectively because we´re closer, so this next week we´ll work hard and find some new investigators. As for baptisms for Christmas, very sadly we won´t be having any...... but we do have some people to work with. We are dealing with a lot of less active people and I´m really quite sick of hearing excuses to tell you the truth.... it´s really sad how people get baptised for the wrong reasons! But on the bright side we had an awesome lesson with Rosa´s husband Dani, he´s dropped from 50 cigarrettes a day to only 20, he´s changing a lot, they are studying together every night, and I found out that he´s actually had a testimony about the Book of Mormon for awhile, he had a friend give him one once, it caught his interest and he read it and it gave him such good feelings, and then whenever anything bad would happen in his life, it would pop up some how. He´s really changed a lot, and as soon as he can quit the smoking, he´s getting baptised! He´s really an awesome guy! Oh, I gave my first talk period in the mission last sunday, on the signs of the second coming... my comp talked as well, but he took 30 min, so I only had to talk for 10, but It was really good if I do say so myself :) We also had interviews with the Pres. and did a little Christmas program, Pres. Heaton actually dressed up as Santa Clause, it was pretty sweet! They gave us lots of goodies, and I got a some gifts from Grandma Snelson and Aunt Amy, so I´ll be opening those up on Christmas too! AWESOME, christmas with presents even in the mission, and in a new house, how exacting! would be better with baptisms, but we do what we can!
I also finally got the letters from the young women today, so I´ll send some replys later on!
A Uruguayan (that´s how you spell it!) Christmas is basically the same... without snow, and lots of heat! There are Christmas trees and some lights. Not sure about Mass and stuff..... Uruguayan Catholic is different than other Catholics......ya.. to say the least.
I really like that thought you shared, I´ve never thought about it that way either, that perhaps they all just doubted him... But it reminded me of a quote I have that talked about how the only people who know how strong temptation is are those that try to resist it.... to find out the strength of an army, you fight against it, not give in to it. Bad people don´t really know how bad they are, they just live a sheltered life always giving in.... in fact the only person who really knows how strong temptation is... is Christ.. because he´s the only one that has resisted all temptation... He´s the only complete realist. ( it was something like that) pretty interesting. It´s true though, he´s the only one to know how tough it can really get, we have no idea. I am so grateful for what he did, even though I don´t understand it.....I know he loves us... cause I´ve felt it.. especially out here.
Anyhow, I´ve got to go, thanks for todo! I´ll be calling you this week! Be good and read and pray! Hasta viernes! Luv ya tons!

In the city of Rosario!

Just me and my comp in the entire city! But it´s all good, we have BIKES!!!! I hadn´t ridden a bike in over 10 months! It sure is fun, and good exercise too! And the house I´m in is huge compared to the others I´ve been in! and there´s just the two of us, but we actually will be moving to a diffrent house this wednesday because the guy raised the rent, but I´m sure it will be a nice place too! In church the other day, we had a total of 11 people in church! It´s definitely a smaller membership here. In all of colonia it´s kind of like that, a little more difficult of an area, but I see lots of potential, we´ve already found some good investigators and in church the other day we had an investigator tell us that he wants to get baptised, so will be working with him and hopefully he can get baptised on Christmas, but he has to stop smoking first, we´ll see how it goes!
I can´t believe that those two are back home! And in my next change, I´ll already have a year! CRAZY!!!
I did get the camera card and I sent mine back today! I´m not sure what time we´ll be calling, but it may be easiest if I call you just so you can get the number on the machine and then you call me.... you would have to pay for it... but it would make it easier on my part, but I´ll talk with my comp and find out what time! It will be a P'day so we can pretty much call at whatever time!
The members are good here, but I am in Catholic country again... a little tough, I´ve seen a lot of nuns around actually, and the first building you can see from the freeway is a giant Catholic church, but.... we´ll do our best, we have the better help!
Anyhow, that about does it for now! Thanks for everything! Luv ya tons! Keep reading and praying!

leaving La Pedrera!

Well! I´m finally leaving La Pedrera! I´m going to Colonia! A city called Rosarrio! And I´m getting another Latin companion! Elder Samuesa! From Chile! So, I´m excited to go and everything, but again, it will be sad to leave all these people I´ve known for the last 4 months of my life! But that´s ok!
This last week we had a very powerful lesson with a mother of a member who has had missionaries visiting for about 30 years, but has never been able to stop smoking! We had the lesson with her daughter and son in law, I´ve been learning about the importance of the family this last change, just seeing how the Gospel blesses families and helps them grow. We talked to her a lot about that, and her daughter gave a powerful testimony, even started crying, about how her mom has changed and how it would be just really great to see her get baptised! Then I had a strong impression to share a testimony, talking about how I´m just now realizing how important the family is here on the mission and how I never really sincerely got to know my parents, they didn´t know a lot about the things going on in my life, we had the occassional talk here and there, but not like it should be, and I need to make some changes when I get home, then I realized that I have the eternities to get to know them..... but only If I can live worthy to be with them in the Celestial Kingdom, cause I already know my parents will be there... I´ve just got to keep myself clean and faithful so I can be there too.
It was an amazing lesson.
Anyhow, that´s about all I have time for! Can´t wait for the package! If you can send a camera card back, I can send you the one I have! These pics are with the Branch pres and his sons, with Sueli, one of our investigators and The zone of Rivera!
Anyhow, thanks for everything! Luv ya tons! Read and pray!

29 Nov 2010

Sounds like a good Thanksgiving! I made my own little feast, made me some mashed potatos and tried the brown gravy! with some bread, apple soda, and some sausage that Macy Hammond sent me in a b-day package! (I also got some paper and envelopes from her so I don´t need those anymore, but I still need stamps.) It was a nice little feast! And a lot to be thankful for! We had a good week, finding some good people that we will be happy to work with, we finally got something heading towards Fabiana Gonsales´s divorce of her husband and marriage, she´s so ready for baptism, and Shannon is doing awesome, we just shared with them about Family home eveneing and they are excited to start it!

It´s been really hot a few days down here... got up to 35 degrees celsius! We were sweating quite a bit, but we still worked, hopefully I´ll loose a few pounds in this heat! Ya, I´m having fun trying to spend my money wisely here, I´m actually doing pretty good, I have quite a bit left over for this month!

I just finished 1 Chronicles! That part in Ether is really nice for lessons we share with those who are not sure about baptism, but they read and pray and go to church.... we tell them that the Lord led the Jaredites to the ocean, and they stayed there for 4 years thinking it was nice, and they forgot to call on the Lord, but all this time he had a promised land much better waiting for them, they could´t stay there, even though they felt comfortable, they needed to cross the water to get to something better!
Well I´m glad all is well with everyone, thanks for everything, be good! It´s almost Christmas time! Luv ya tons!

22 Nov 2010 Email

Oh did we have a baptism?! YOU BET! It was an awesome experience! From the beginning, I´ve been working with this family for about 4 months now since I got to Rivera, and just seeing the changes and the blessings that have come upon them, how they´ve grown and changed... it really has been a blessing for me, I´m so lucky to have a part in it.
Shannon Millela Quevedo Gonsales did receive her answer and was baptised Domingo 20 de Noviembre, 2010! and confirmed a member the following day! I was so lucky to have the honor of entering into the font with her and to watch first hand this young daughter of God be washed clean and enter into the fold and I also confirmed her and had another firsthand view as she became a member and recieved that most precious gift..the Holy Ghost. It was a large blessing for me, and it felt so good. Her family was there, and a few other members. Her Mom now has the strongest desires to get baptised, and as soon as she can get the divorce and marriage through, it will happen! I probably won´t be there, but it will happen!
It was actually pretty crazy preparing for the baptism, the water was still in the font from the last baptism! and the pump was broken so we couldn´t drain it, so Elder Tippets and I spent our day using buckets to empty the font! it took forever and we sweat a lot! But it was worth it every bit! we then took some cups and rags and fished out all the gunk and cleaned it, and then filled it! It was fun!

The sacrament meeting sunday was actually really cool, the couple that were baptised the week before were confirmed and Shannon as well, so we had 3 confirmations! It was neat! We also have 2 other investigators with a date! Sueli! an older lady who´s really forgetful, she´s already been to church 3 weeks in a row and loves it, we´re just taking things slow with her cause she doesn´t remember everything. And then Andrea! Who had visited with missionaries awhile back and then we visited her again, taught her the first lesson and left her with a Book of Mormon, she read and prayed, and she got an answer as well! She described it as a feeling of peace! She made it to the church yesterday and has a date in December! We are being rejected a lot! but we are being blessed! Definitely hunting!

Yeah, it´s warm her, we actually sleep with the fan on, so the mosquitos don´t attack us with it on, and I use my spray, so I´m actually good on the net!

I am remembering all the things I´m thankful for, oh there is so much! especially after the amazing experience we just had! I´m thankful for my family too and their support!

Luv ya tons!!!! Be good!