November 7. 2016 Trainer and New Companion

On Monday we found out that Sister Ferreira and Sister Sousa were getting transferred and the Sister Pereira and I would be staying in Autodromo! On Tuesday morning we found out that Sister Ferreia, Sister Pereira and I were going to each be training a new missionary!

The rest of Tuesday we went and met with a lot of people that Sister Ferreira wanted to say goodbye to. Then on Tuesday night, our last night all together we didn't have any electricity or lights! We were without lights/electricity/hot water for about 4 days this week! 

On Wednesday we had a meeting with the new trainers and then in the afternoon met our new companions!!! 

My new companion is Sister Muniz! She looks like an American, but she is from Brazil Campinas. She is waiting for her VISA to go to her actual mission in Florida! She will probably be here in Curitiba as my companion for about one or two months! She doesn't speak much English but she will teach me Portugues and I will teach her English!

This week we visited all of the 15 investigators that I had at the end with Sister Ferreira and then spent a lot of time walking, knocking doors, talking to people on the streets and teaching people. 

One day we taught a lesson and the guy had TEN golden retrievers!!!! As we were walking out they all followed me and were jumping up on me. I asked the guy if I could take all of them home with me but he said that I couldn't... haha. 

On Sunday we were in Sacrament meeting and sitting at the front. A member came up and said there was a man at the back of the chapel that didn't know anything about the church. We rushed back to sit and talk with him. He told us that the night before he had a dream that there were two girls that were missionaries and they invited him to something but before he saw where it was he woke up. The next morning he left his house to go for a walk, not knowing where he was going. He walked by the church and for some reason felt like he should enter. He walked in and sat at the back feeling a little sad and confused. At that moment we walked over and sat on either side of him. He started to cry and a little later said that when we sat next to him he felt that there were two angels sitting next to him and he felt comforted. 

I love being a missionary! I have learned sooo much this past week! Each day as I teach and testify more and more, the more I realize that this truly is the one true church on the earth. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and our ability to be changed and become closer to Christ. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he can help us with any challenge or weakness that we have!!!

I love y'all! Have an incredible week!

-Sister Hancock

October 31, 2016

Note from Emily's Mom - Sorry no pictures. Emily sent them in a different format, and I could not access them. We will work on that.
 

This week was pretty great! It will probably be the last week that the four of us will be together because we have transfers on Tuesday or Wednesday! We still don´t know what will be happening with transfers so I will update y'all next week! 

On our P-day last week I ate sushi for the first time!!!

Then after we ate lots and lots and lots of sushi we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day!

On Thursday we had a conference with an area 70, Elder Aidukaitis! It was wonderful!!!! The spirit was so strong and we learned a lot. He talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it is the word of God. The Book of Mormon is either of God or it is of the Devil, it can't be in between. If you read the Book of Mormon and ask yourself about each verse... Does this bring me closer to God? The answer is always yes. All of the chapters testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and the Love and Power of God for his children here on the earth. 

After the conference about 5 missionaries had the chance to talk to Elder Aidukaitis! I got the chance to talk to him one on one for about 8 minutes. He asked me about my mission and how everything is going. I know that he is a representative of Jesus Christ and is called of God. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is true and that God calls Prophets and Apostles today. 

October 24, 2016 Temple

Este semana fui muito bom! Only a week until transfers! I can´t believe I have already been in Brasil for almost 4 months! 

Here are some pictures from our p-day last week when we got to go to the temple!!! 

It was such a great opportunity and I was able to feel ``at home`` at the temple and so much peace and joy. I know that I am in the right place and I am truly starting to love being here. 

On Thursday 3 of my recent converts and 3 recent converts of the other Sisters in our area all went to the temple to do Baptisms! We didn't have the opportunity to go. But Antonio told us on Sunday that it was a wonderful experience for him. All of our recent converts are doing great, are firm in the gospel and are continuing to grow!

Thursday-Saturday we taught lots of lessons. One of the lessons was with an 18 year old boy. He has said that he has a "hard head" and is super smart! He has been reading the Book of Mormon and a few weeks ago, he asked to take the Gospel Principles book home. The book has about 40 chapters each only about 4-5 pages, but he has already read about 30 of the chapters in the last few weeks! We asked him "do you believe in prophets?" and he said that he still doesn't believe. Then we asked if he believed in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith translated the Book through the power of God. He said, "Yes, when I read it I can feel that is true." We than told him that he believes in prophets. He said "Whoa, I do believe in prophets! I guess I never thought about it like that!"

We had another lesson with a girl who is friends with a member. We asked if she believed these things are true. She got the biggest smile on her face and said that she believes the things we are teaching her are true! Whenever we teach her something she always says "QUE LINDA!" Which means, "how beautiful!". The gospel and truth of the gospel truly is beautiful!

We had lots of other lessons and it was a good week! On Sunday it was the Primary program, where all the children in the ward sat on the stand and sang, read scriptures and gave short talks. Todo mundo chorou. The spirit was so strong that basically everyone cried. It is amazing to see how strong the spirits are of children. We should all be humble like the little children. When Christ visited the people he said that the children said wonderful things. This past Sunday the children said wonderful things. 

October 19, 2016

Our Pday was changed to Wednesday this week because we get to go to the temple today!

Last Pday we went to a cool Garden here in Curitiba. It had some waterfalls, and some really pretty flowers! We walked around and took lots of pictures! 

 

On Tuesday one of the members took us to Pizza Hut. The Pizza Hut Buffet here in Brazil is really fancy and the pizza here is incredible! I ended up eating 8 slices! (More than the other sisters). We were so full and then they drove us to McDonald's for ice cream! We were so full and thought that they were kidding. "uh, is this a joke?"  But they said they weren't kidding and that we had no choice. So we accepted. 

During the days we have been walking around and teaching our investigators! Then in the evenings often times we have family home evenings with recent converts or members and our investigators. 

Yesterday we were walking home from meeting with a less active member. It was pouring and between the 4 of us we only had one umbrella. I chose to walk out in the rain because we were walking really slow and we were still getting soaked. Sister Sousa joined me and she said "We are taking a shower in the rain and when we get home we wont need to take another shower!!!" 

Sister Sousa and I soaking wet after "tomando banho na chuva" Taking a shower in the rain!

It has been a good past week! I hope all of y'all have a wonderful week!

"Sometimes we don't believe in ourselves, but God ALWAYS believes in us."

-Sister Hancock

October 10, 2016 Sick... :(

This past week was sadly pretty uneventful because I was sick from about Tuesday night-Saturday!

On Monday our district leader bought us PIZZA!!! Our District this transfer is just the 4 of us sisters and 2 Elders. It was seriously the best pizza I have ever had in my life! 

Tuesday we taught lots and lots of people! 

Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning and we went a little bit early and made buruacas, a banana milkshake and brought a cake that we made, because the Elders had bought us Pizza. 

One Elder said, "All the pictures I have of our district we are always surrounded by lots of food."

Since I was sick this week we had to stay in our house for a few days. I was able to catch up on lots of sleeps, general conference (which I downloaded in English), and scripture study, but it wasn't super fun to stay inside all day! 

On Friday we finally left the house and taught 6 people. On Saturday we had to stay in our house again and then on Sunday I was completely back to normal! 

I had some time this week to watch some of General Conference again. I really loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk in Women´s conference!

Faith is powerful, but no matter how much faith we have it can't violate another persons agency or we can't force our will on God. We don´t always know why things happen or why certain prayers go unanswered, but in the end ALL things will make sense. Trust that God loves you perfectly. I know that God loves all of us and "all things will work together for those who love God." 

Love y"all! Thanks for the emails and support! 

-Sister Hancock

Attachments area

October 3, 2016 General Conference

This week was wonderful! It really is such a blessing to teach and serve the people here in Brazil Curitiba.

One day we were at lunch and the member told us to eat more, like they always do, and so I got up and got more food. Then I sat down and was eating and the lady came over and dumped a huge piece of chicken on my plate! I was already full and I had already gotten seconds. I was the only one that she gave more food to and I had to eat super fast so that I wasn't still eating 10 minutes after everyone else was done. 

 

On Thursday a sister got a call and the Elder said that Elder Holland would be coming tomorrow. Obviously he was joking because General Conference was this weekend but Sister Ferreira got excited and said "I need to dye my hair," and then Sister Pereira said, "I need to repent." The contrast between these two priorities was really funny! We didn't have a conference with Elder Holland, but on Friday we did have a conference with President Hart. 

During the conference we talked a lot about the training program and how we can be better missionaries! As missionaries we need to work with all of our heart, might, mind and strength! A great missionary gives their heart completely to go through hard, diligent work and then God will return blessings of spiritual power and strength. 

One evening we were walking home and I said "Vamos fazer buracos!" instead of  "vamos fazer buruacas," So I accidentally said LETS MAKE HOLES!!! instead of pancakes! 

For conference weekend we brought 2 investigators. One of them came on Saturday afternoon and the other came to the other three! The investigator that came to Saturday morning really enjoyed it. He came on his own to both of the Sunday sessions. We talked to him after the Sunday sessions and asked him about it. He said that he has never enjoyed going to church, but for some reason he really likes coming to the LDS church. He said he has always been anxious, but when he comes to church and when we are at his house teaching him he feels calm and peaceful! It is incredible to see him changing his life and his true desire to feast upon the word of God. 

Conference this weekend was wonderful! We watched all of the sessions in Portugues at the stake center, but I was able to understand almost everything. On Sunday the four of us wore our coral dresses that a lady in another ward made for us. A lot of people asked us if we were going to be singing in the choir today. One person asked if this was our new uniform. It was really funny to see everyone's reaction of the 4 of us walking around in the same style dress. Normally every Sunday we color coordinate but this Sunday it was the exact same dress.  

I loved all of the talks and one the really stood out to me was Elder Bednar. 

How can we better come to know the Savior? We must exercise faith, followH im, serve Him and believe in Him. Can you follow Him and have faith in Him but not believe in Him and His promises? Some people think that the blessings of the Atonement only apply to others, But the amazing thing is that the blessings are for every single person! He is talking about YOU! Believe in Him and in His promises. Believe that we can be made clean and pure through the Atonement. Believe that we can overcome literally every challenge in life. If we put our trust in the Savior, He will lift us up and strengthen us through our trials. We will have more peace and more joy in life. I know that Jesus Christ died for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US! I know that He was resurrected and He lives. Because He lives we can be cleansed from sin and live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. He sacrificed for you.

 

Eu sei que Jesus Cristo nos ama e que ele é o Salvador e Redentor do mundo. Eu sei que a Expiação aplica a todos nos. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo vive e nos precisamos ter fé nele e acreditar com todo poder, mente, forca e coração.  

I love y'all! Have a wonderful week! 

-Sister Hancock

September 26, 2016

This week was wonderful! We didn't have much time to knock on doors and look for people because all of our days were packed with lessons! This week we decided to focus on the 20 people we have that are investigating. All of them are at different stages. Once we decided to concentrate on these 20 people the members gave us a contact at almost every lunch this week! It is wonderful because we are starting to work more with the members!!!

Now that it is officially spring here the amora trees are starting to ripen. It is a fruit tree that has little berries similar to blackberries! As we walked from one lesson to another we found a lot of trees! So now when we are hungry we know where to find free food! One day we carried a little container and filled it up with berries! 

One day we went to teach a family the plan of Salvation! It was a super great lesson and the spirit was really strong. The family who has two boys (11 and 1) and one girl (7) The lesson went really well and the kids had lots of questions! And we used our little cut out plan of salvation and they loved it! The boy said "your Portugues has improved since last week!" Then, when the 7 year old offered to say the closing prayer, in her prayer she said "thank you that the sisters have not given up on us, because we haven't gone to church yet." It was the sweetest thing! 

One day we went to lunch and there was another couple there. The members always say ``Eat more Sisters!`` and usually I do. That day I was the only one who ended up getting more food and the guy said ``we will only invite Sister Hancock to lunch at our house because she is the only one who knows how to eat!

This week was great! General Conference is this weekend! Take the time to prepare to listen to the words of the prophets and apostles!!! Think of questions you want answered! I know that as you listen to conference your questions will get answered and you will get guidance you need to face the challenges of life! I will get to watch it in Portugues so I might not catch everything... But I can´t wait!!!

All is well for me here! I love your emails and thank you for your support!

Love you all!

-Sister Hancock