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3 Nov 2010 Email

Well....I did celebrate what little I can for Halloween! I don´t have my cord with me today, because this week´s been a little different, but I´ll send you some photos next week! I loved all the costumes though, it made me proud! It´s one of my favorite hollidays! At first I thought Daniel was the scarecrow, then I saw Beatlejuice! (originally my idea) but he pulls it off real good! :) I loved all the other ones too, Coraline, Pocahontas, Brawny.......HA, and the Elf couple! and of course the blue princess! Where´s your costume Mom?! (nice job on the rats by the way)
Yay for glue!
Optimism is something very needed on the mission, I did not know that about the bumble bee, neat! I´m still trying to get through that old testament, I´m on 1 Samuel 11 right now, and D&C 89 I just read today! I wish the girls sitting next to me right now had read D&C 89, becuase they stink really badly with the smell of cigarettes! Congrats to Daniel on the Eagle!!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Was it brother Dangerfield? I really liked haveing them for the trek parents too, awesome! There´s an Elder in our zone that is from Pleasant Grove and was friends with a lot of my theater buddies from there, it is a small little world!
Well, my P-day was moved to today because the last 2 days we were in Montevideo again, but for a special training! It was really great, we did so much practicing though it was crazy for 12 hours strait the first day and a little less the next we had the training with our Pres. I really did enjoy it, it´s a series of new lessons to help missionaries become better teachers that they´re doing with all the missions right now! It focussed a lot on the compromises and how we need to be doing them more often and getting these people baptised. It was a great lesson! Oh, and we got the Moreira family in church this last week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their story is pretty fun, we actually found them looking for someone named Ramiro, a reference, turned out a Ramiro lived in there house, but not the one we were looking for! But they let us in anyway and they just so happened to have found a copy of Legacy in the garbage earlier before, and they had been praying to find the right camino (path) in life and we showed up! Coincidence?....... I think NOT! God´s hand is in this work all the way, right there with us and if we are doing our best he puts those blessings in our way there is no doubt of that in my mind! This last week was really good, lots of lessons and new people, we are excited for this change!
Thanks for the update and the prayers, and the B-day package! I actually had to open one present because I needed the socks! But the rest are still wrapped till saturday!
Love ya all tons!!!! Chau!

WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I got the letter!

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 3:50 AM, wrote:
Hola! Elder Hancock!

So, you have a new mission president? Have you met him yet? Is there going to be a gathering of all the missionaries to meet thenew mission president?

I'm really worried you have not received my letter with the camera card in it yet! And even more worried you haven't gotten anything for a couple of weeks. We have been sending letters. Both pouch and with the other address: 1167 Enrique Martinez, Montevideo, Uruguay, C.P. 11.800 I have a package ready to send, make sure I'll be sending it to the right address. I'm going to send it in a box this time and hopefully you will get it. Has your companion been getting letters? He obviously got a birthday package!!!! We did get your letter with the card in it. I will send the card back in the package. It will be in the envelope with the letter and pictures.

So how did you see Spiderman in Uruguay? Wow! He really gets around! Daniel is in New York right now. Actually we pick him up from the airport tomorrow night. He saw Spiderman twice out there in New York. Was it some kind of promotion going on?

We really enjoyed your pictures and movie clips. Good job on the applesauce! I'm so proud! The shake looked like it was going to be good too! What are the things you put in the shakes... I forgot what they are called... some kind of cookie?

You look good in your photos! The fort place looked neat! The blister looked sad! Was that from when you had to take your socks off? Ouch!!!!

Sounds like things are progressing. What a rough week you had with the poor souls who wanted to end their lives. Have you heard from any of them? Are they doing any better. (Well, I guess one of them did die)... It is just sad some people get to the point that they don't want to live anymore. It makes me appreciate my own life, and makes me want to make the most of every minute I have here on earth. We should be grateful for the opportunities and experiences we are given, even if they are hard. We can learn from the experience and grow.

You will be proud of us. We are reading the scriptures every morning. (It is easier now that school is out).

The weather is being wacky again. It has only been in the 50s this week. Cold and wet. Ugh!!!! But all is going well here. We think of you all the time. We have not forgotten our missionary!!!!!! We love you and look forward to your letters and emails. Hopefully, you will start getting the ones we are sending to you!

Oh, by the way, Kirsten Ivins wedding was Thursday. It was nice. She is happy. There was a picture in her slide show of you! It must have been one from Center Stage... she was helping you with stage makeup. :) Fun to see! So, in essence, you were there at her reception too! :)

Have a great week!
Love,
Mom
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Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:29:33 -0300

WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I got the letter from you with the card tuesday!!!! finally!!! I don´t know why it took so long, So I´m content now! Missionaries really do live on letters! My camera couldn´t read the pics though.... actually! on this computer I´m using right now It read two of them. . . huh. Anyways, ya that´s the right address! Elder Roney has gotten a bunch of letters recently because of his birthday, but he tells me he´s had dry spells without letters, his sister is actually leaving for her mission this Wednesday! for Guatemala! She´ll get back from her mission over a month before I do! Loco!
We haven´t met the new pres yet, he gets here the first of July, we have our last zone conference with Pres Petersen this week, and then the one after will be with the new pres.
It was just some random guy trying to make some money taking photos with SpiderMan, I haven´t seen him since :( But I have attached a couple photos to this email! The first is us having some lunch with a member! Maria! she´s the one in the middle, her friend is on the side! She actually started smoking while we were there! We were just kind of shocked! It´s quite a punch in the gut when converts start reverting back to old ways. But we´ve been talking with her. There´s a picture of me holding a goats head..... ya.... don´t really know how to explain that one... it was just in the middle of the road one day along with some of its hooves and a bag of chicken heads and feet! Exciting!!! Things like this just aren´t that wierd anymore though... Uruguay is just a wierd place! Then we took some pictures on some giant chairs that are out in the front of another mall, it actually used to be a prison that the current president of Uruguay escaped from when he was younger.... ya! I used my debit card for the second time today by the way, I try not to use it, but I decided to get an official Uruguay World Cup jersey before the World Cup is over :) Are you watching by the way! It´s everywhere down here!!! It´s all everyone talks about! Especially when Uruguay plays! We could not get in anywhere and the city was a ghost town when Uruguay played!!! They go crazy for soccer down here!
You´ll have to get Daniel to send me some pics!!! And tell him I saw Spiderman too! ha!
Alfahores! That´s what they´re called. I´ve heard there are some Mexican stores down there, some in Provo, that you can get some and other stuff. Alfahores are so good though!!! Glad you liked the pics! The blister was a pain! it was huge! and I´ve had about 5 others that were basically apendages of the same one... it´s all good now, but it was no fun when I had them.
The one lady that ate the rat poison is fine, we saw here at the member´s house the other day, but I think she has mental problems naturally... so I don´t really know all that was going on, but she´s good now. It is sad though.... we teach that pretty much every day, I think the question we get more than any other, by a long shot, is "Why do bad things happen?" or some form of that question.... it´s actually not the funnest to answer, because we really don´t know all the reasons.... but the people need to just realize they´re not the only ones who suffer... everyone has their problems.
I´m glad to hear the scriptures are going well! make sure you start it with a prayer! that´s one thing I´ve learned, if you ask to find something new before hand, you always do! I´ve never loved studdying the scrips more! I´ve been studdying the Atonement and testimonies recently in my personal study, and I´m actually gonna send you some references in the future with a fun FHE idea... We´ve also been listening to a buch of talks for some of our companion study time! I had an experience with one the other day, we were listening to a talk about teaching with the Spirit and listening to the Spirit.. at one point the speaker said "you know how sometimes you start crying while reading the scriptures...?... that´s the Spirit talking to you." I´ve always known that... but I´ve never really heard it so bluntly and thought about it... especially here in the mission I´ve never been so focussed on trying to feel the Spirit and always wondering on if I´m actually feeling it... but I do get watery eyed quite often while reading the scrips... it just hit me... then he said "Every time that happens you should imediately get on your knees and thank God for that opportunity." I´d never really done that before! I felt something right then so I decided to do what he said almost hesitantly at first, but I knelt down right there in the kitchen and began to pray thanking God for that opportunity.. and imediately I felt the greatest feeling come over me... my head was all warm.. and I just felt good... cried a little more... I just knew God was saying... it is the Spirit, you do feel it... awesome experience... I seem to get a few experiences like that everyonce and awhile out here.. it´s really a great opportunity... it´s stupid sometimes, and it´s not easy! not at all out here! but I´ve never felt closer to God... and that´s probably why... because it´s difficult. Anyways... I also heard in a talk from Elder Bednar, you don´t need to worry about if it´s the Spirit or your own feelings, just be good and do what your supposed to and you´ll know.
Anyways, that´s long enough for now... keep up the reading and everything! Send me more pics :) and keep writin!
Love ya all tons!!! Talk to ya later!

Email 26 Dec 2011

Cool! Stuff! This call was wierd becuase it wasn´t that hard to hang up cause I´ll be seeing you all in basically a month! It was my comps first call home! He said he felt wierd afterwards! And I called my kid and he said it was really wierd, he did Skype and his girlfriend was there! I think he was more trunky than me! HA! The fireworks were cool because they were all around us, there aren´t illegal fireworks so everyone buys all the big ones and launches them all at midnight Christmas eve! Sweet stuff! So, I figure I have to start making some return missionary resumes for all the girls back home, they can start filling them out and we´ll see which ones are future prospects! HAHA! The rest of Christmas was fun... we finished the area book basically! It´s a thousand times better... and we basically chilled the rest of the night chatting about our calls and stuff... that´s about it! But today we ate at a breakfast buffet! not that crazy, simple stuff, but still good, and we watched KUNG FU PANDA 2!!!! It´s a pretty good one, I really enjoyed it! I feel like I want to karate chop someone!..... with the Spirit of course! Well.. there´s not much to tell.... we already chatted yesterday! The photos, there´s some fireworks!, us chilling on the roof watching them, uhhh.... me with mine and Elder Rodriguez! and us eating some tacos! YAY! Christmas tacos! Well... that´s really about it... I can´t think of anything else..... we´ll let ya know next week how the New Years celebration goes! we get to stay out late again, just not sure what we´re doing! Probably more fireworks! Luv ya tons! I hope all is well! Chau por ahora! Feliz Año Nuevo!!!!

Email 12 Dec 2011

Well we got some service in this last week, we got to help another family with their moving, it was lots of fun! Then we got to play soccer with some wards, it´s actually been awhile since i´ve played and I´m sore now, but it was lots of fun! I was also supposed to talk in church yesterday but the first speaker took 20 min instead of 7...... so they had to cut me... sad day. I bought a Uruguay sweater that I´ve wanted for awhile now, so I know for sure that the card works :) This is the last week before my last change begins! Wow! That´s really strange! Ya, we did get an iron from santa! Too bad we don´t have an ironing board or other surface to use it on! I´ve been starting so see some christmas trees here now, it´s that time of year! Our tree is up too! it´s only about a foot tall, but it´s up! :) And actually, that´s about all it from my end as well. The photos are of us trying to catch fish with a bucket and a stick! Our gangster photo! a view of the bay, and a surprise package from Grandma Snelson! I´m writing her a letter, but you can give her a thanks from me as well! :) I hope everything is well! Luv ya tons!

Email 5 Dec 2011

My eye is a whole lot better! And the weather is still nice and hot and humid! This last week was actually pretty cool because I had my last zone conference!!! It was really wierd! I got to give my farewell testimony! and it was really cool because it was actually in the same church building where I gave my first one! and my last 4 companions were all there! It was really cool to see them all again and see how they´re doing in their missions! And as you can tell from the photo, SANTA was at the conference! He gave us an iron! wow! It was actually really cool, I thought I´d never make it to that day, but now it came too fast! Also, something really cool that happened this last week! For the last couple weeks an Australian family has been vacationing here! and they´ve been asisting our ward, they´re all members and don´t speak spanish at all! So it was fun for us to chat with them and get to know them! They even invited us over for dinner! It was my first dinner in English I think Ive had in the whole mission, it was really wierd talking in English the whole time! And then we shared a scripture with them, the first time I´d done that in the mission in a year and ten months! And I´d always heard that the Spirit is more powerful in your own language, but now I actually felt it, just passing the scriptures around with this family, everyone reading in english (even though they had cool australian accents) it really hit me hard and I loved it, it reminded me of FHE back home! A little bit of a trunky moment! Really cool! The daughter spoke english, had a cool accent, and she´s a DRAMA GEEK like me!!! I haven´t found that here in Uruguay! Cool stuff! But, alas.... she´s gone and I don´t even know here name! But it was a fun experience, and Elder Goeckeritz just liked being able to understand everyone, but he´s learning really fast despite the fact. Awesome, thanks for sending the package! I hope Ezequiel and Evalin progress more too! And we found a really cool kid named Leonardo this last week too, the only problem is that his grandma is a die-hard catholic and just blabbed the whole time, so one of us would talk with her to distract her while the other could chat with Leonardo, he even told his grandma to please give us a chance. Really cool kid. We are also teaching a few people english now... and that´s about it! Thanks so much for the email! I luv ya tons and all the support I appreciate a lot! Have a good week! The other photos are the Australians (McGown family) and another shot from Thanksgiving! Que disfruten!

Email 28 Nov 2011

We actually are feeling better! And then I got a stye in my eye! (see photo) it´s really quite annoying! I´m going on day 4 with it, but it´s getting better luckily, it irritates me though, especially now with the sun! It´s so hot now!!!! The last 2 days have been pretty humid and we are sweating! Sleeping without covers and a fan blowing the whole night! Fun Fun! That´s cool that you´re reaching out to those families, it all starts with the example! We´re trying to get our ward members to get going, but it´s taking a lot more effort than I thought! Our Thanksgiving was with a smaller crew too! well.... 2 as a matter of fact! We ate good (see photo) but it was just me and my comp! Oh well, last thanksgiving in the Guay! And we also have zone conference this next week! MY LAST ONE!!!! It´s pretty intense! The full impact has not yet hit me.....2 months left! This last week, besides the heat, was pretty good! We found a few more people! Had a good lesson with a new couple we´re teaching, Ezequiel and Evalin, they´re trying to get married, and then we´ll see if we can get them in the water! :) They´ve had a lot of trials within the last few years, I think they´re ready! We´ll see what the Spirit can do! Happy Birthday to Josh!!!! Wahooooo! And yay for family pics! I really like getting photos! Girls are still growing fast! yikes! Tell Dad to get better! Just cause I get sick, doesn´t mean he can! JaJa! (that´s spanish for HaHa!) Well that´s about it for this last week! Oh, we did go to a ward get together last night for 3 families that are moving, or have moved from the ward! Herman Paola and her fam were one! Sad day, but we visited her! She´s doing fine in her new house! Thanks for everything! Luv ya tons! Chau!

Email 21 Nov 2011

Hola! ¿Cómo anda? I hope you´re all doing just great! and hopefully better than me, at least physically. These last couple of days have really kicked mine and my companion´s bottoms with health. It all started saturday morning, I woke up just horrible, my stomache had a nuclear bomb dropped in it or something. Constantly I flet like I was going to throw up, but didn´t thank goodness. Then started the diarrea! and then aches and I felt really hot and sweaty! It was not good, I actually took a nap for awhile and my comp studdied more... then we pretty much had to stay home and find things useful to do there cause I couldn´t leave, we did make it to a couple appointments, but I felt bad cause in each one I had to use the bathroom for awhile. When night-time rolled around, my comp started feeling the same symptoms and he went to the bathroom probably 9 times during the night, and you can imagine that we were both just dead for church the next day, just feeling exauhsted and yucky! But we survived church thankfully, but no investigators came.... not that great of a way to end the week. Luckily today we´re feeling better, at least we hope we continue like this. Anyhow, sadly enough, that´s the biggest news we have for this last week. We´ve been trying so many things to find people, but it´s still been difficult. and our health situation didn´t help, but this week we´ll find some more! I´m glad that there´s a lot of work in the studio, that´s good stuff! A few of our investigators/ less active members that we have helped out have been able to get better jobs and are more happy lately, their starting to see the blessings of the Lord more in their lives. Here Thanksgiving is called Dia De Gracias! but no one celebrates it, they just have the name! We´ll try to find something fun to do, or at least something good to eat that day! The photos are of one of the many cakes we had on our birthdays! a photo of us helping Hermana Paola move (notice what it says in the background, and that wasn´t even planned!) and a funny picture of us with Maite and Aurora! Thanks a lot for the email and the love and support! Luv ya tons! Keep up the good work!

31 Oct 2011 Email

Oh ya, the pictures! that´s our new project we did in our house, we also have one of temples! A picture from Hermana Paola´s birthday party! Fishing with Pat! Decorations! and the baptism! Wow.....First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! I expect to see everyones costumes! Secondly, this last week really was a week full of blessings! Starting off, I did get my package! Thanks a ton! I already ate the oat-meal and some of the cereal! And the decor is up (see photos) and I´m waiting now for my B-day in order to open up the wrapped (in special spiderman wrapping paper) items! Then.... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (see photo) Silvia is now baptised! It went really well! I had the privilege to baptise her! The water was warm! It was awesome! We had a decent turn-out! It was also my kid´s first baptism! Nice stuff! The best part was after we had finished changing the mission leader asked Silvia if she wanted to give her testimony, being a timid girl she said no, but to finish off the night he gave time to the members to bare a quick testimony and guess who got up at the very end?.... Silvia! and I liked the other testimonies a lot, but her´s hit me hard. It is the greatest feeling for a missionary to really be able to see that a convert is truly converted and knows.... it was a great experience! The next day she got confirmed! And they asked Elder Goeckeritz to do it! He was freaking out so bad! He was so nervous! I think he gave her a head massage! But he did just fine! Also his first confirmation! It is really cool actually for me to be able to have these experiences with my kid as a trainer, he also annointed an Hermana for a blessing yesterday! Also, I don´t know if I´ve mentioned the Sarubbi family in any of my emails, they´re a less active family that used to be really active, really good family! The grandma, mom, and her two kids. Something happened in the church and they stopped coming at the beginning of the year. The missionaries have always visited them because they are really cool but they just haven´t been able to get them to church. In my whole 4 months here we´ve been visiting them still every now and then to try and build up their spirits! The last lesson we had with them just ended up bad, lots of shouting and tears, and anger towards the ward at least from the grandma, we were really sad and just didn´t know what to do, we left a conference talk, "Two lines of communication" by Elder Oaks, and they hadn´t read it... to my surprise, when we were taking Maite to primary sunday, the 2 Sarubbi kids came running in the room! My first thought was ´What are you doing here?´ then I had one of those duh moments, if they were there then the mom and grandma must be down stairs! We hurried down and sure enough! They were in there sitting with the members! And I don´t think I´ve had a bigger smile on my face in my whole life when I waved to them in there! The mom then told me afterwards that she couldn´t stop thinking about us the whole week and that she´d read the talk and something must have touched her and gave her the strength to go! She said they´re going to go every week now! Those are amazing words to hear. It truly has been a blessed week! We´re preparing for 2 more baptisms this saturday if all goes well! And we are really excited! I haven´t been so happy in such a long time! It´s amazing! The district is doing really good too and if all the planned baptisms go through this weekend we´ll have 6 baptisms in the district! That would be the best birthday present for me and even for my comp. Anyhow! Glad to hear that Abigail is such a great baby! I can´t wait to be able to see her in person... well I can wait.. about three months more :) Thanks for writing me! I hope you have a great Halloween! It´s my favorite holliday so party it up!!! Luv ya tons! Chau!

Email 10 Oct 2011

I´m glad you got to meet Elder George! I think I had more fun with him than any other comp! He´s a really cool guy, I´m glad to hear you got his info too! Nice! And the gifts! Just to let you know, I bought the little jersey before I heard that Ariel and Mick had already gotten one! So it was my idea! Vamos arriba Peñerol! I´m excited for the package, fun little detail, Elder Goeckeritz has his birthday on the 8th! so we´ll be celebrating together! Cool stuff! Well right now the whole city of Montevideo is just partying it up! with their 200 year anniversary of being a country! There are stages set up all around the city and bands playing on them all, it´s really cool, but we´re not gonna get much work done unfortunately. But it´s still really cool some of the stuff they are doing! Other news! Silvia has a date for the 22 of this month! She came to church yesterday and really liked it! The young women leaders really liked it too becuase she´s pretty much the only young woman in the ward right now! And we´re working with Marcelo again! He fasted and we fasted for his smoking problem, he´s got a plan to follow and we´re going to help him out and hopefully get him baptised, I really want to see him make it! The training is actually pretty fun! We´re getting along really well and working hard! Anyhow, got some cool photos of the ocean and the new comp and stuff, I hope you enjoy! It´s been a good week! Thanks for everything! Luv ya tons! PS yummy steak!

Email 29 Aug 2011

This last week was kind of difficult, all our investigators had problems with meeting with us so we didn´t really get to see any of them this last week! And we didn´t find any new people.... but on the flip-side! Marcelo has quit smoking and now has a date to get baptised the 10!!!!!!!! I´m so happy for him, they´re getting married on the 5th! He really wants to get baptised! The first wedding I went to I wasn´t a witness, I just was invited and took photos for them, this one i actually am a witness! neat!

I filled out a form, my trunky papers, is what they´re called, and I´m going home the 2 of Feb! I assume no one´s coming here right? Oh, I went on my first divisions as a district leader with Elder Pace! He´s taller than I am and from New York, a really cool guy! He´s a really good missionary and a good guy in general! I had to set the example and all, but he´s probably a better missionary than me! :)

Wow... so the other night we were visiting members and we were talking and eating some tortas fritas! And it just so happens, that right when when everyone quits talking and it´s silent for a moment, I passed gas!.......oh, and I made a face so everyone knew it was me! We had a pretty good laugh though so it all turned out fine in the end. I actually haven´t laughed so hard in awhile!

We also made quesadillas with a less active family too, they turned out really tastey, but I didn´t get any photos, and this computer is not reading my camera so there will be no photos today.

Tomorrow we´re going to talk about faith and using it to find people in our district meeting! It´s super important, to know that God is preparing people to receive the Gospel, we just have to find them and have the courage to talk to everyone! and share our testimonies with everyone! following the guidance of the Spirit of course! Our whole district and even zone is having a hard time finding new people.

Oh, we had our zone conference last week, and it was all about...faith! And another trunky thought, next zone conference is my last one! we do it every other change! that´s crazy! I´ll be giving my final testimony like all the older missionaries who are leaving! scary!
Well, I think that about does it, Sorry again that there are no photos, but probably next time. Thanks for the update and for all the love and support like always! Luv ya tons! Chau!