September 19, 2016

This week was great! We got to meet with President Hart twice this week!!! On Tuesday we had a meeting with him and all of the 12 trainers/trainees. President is trying to introduce the training program that all missions are supposed to use because the president before him didn't use it. So basically nobody in the mission actually knows how to train or be trained. He is using us as his guinea pigs to help him figure out how to use the program because we are his first group.

We have been teaching Sister Sousa random phrases in English. On Tuesday she told President the two phrases she knows "you are not the boss of me" and "you are so cute." He laughed and said ``when I said every missionary should learn English on their mission I meant more about the gospel!``  

On Sunday night he invited the 4 of us sisters and 2 Elders to his house to help him more about the 12 weeks training and what we did in the CTM, because he has a group of 16 missionaries coming on Tuesday! We helped him and then got to eat ice cream with him and his family! President said that when Sister Sousa said that he wasn't the boss he almost sent her home to show her who is boss (100% joking). Then he told her to tell all the phrases she knows to Sister Hart. She said she learned a phrase about the Gospel! "Do you want to be my plan of salvation?"

 

Other highlights from this week:

-One of the days it looked like it was going to rain and then as we were walking to our house to get umbrellas it just starting pouring. `CORRE SISTER!``. We ran to our house but we got soaking wet. 

-Every night we read the scriptures together. One night we read with the other 2 sisters that live in our house. I read in Portugues, S. Ferreira read in English, S. Sousa read in Spanish and S. Pereira read in French. We took turns each reading a verse and it was really cool! 

-Sister Pereira´s Birthday was on Friday. All week we had been saying how her birthday was on Friday and then when her birthday came we all pretended to forget and then threw a surprise party for her that night! We made a cake and couscous and blew up balloons! 

 

 

-On Saturday we started to teach an English class for anyone that wants to learn. One girl learned to say "don't ask me," and then she said that whenever we asked her a question. 

-I have already finished one transfer! The 4 of us are staying in this area for at least the next 6 weeks because we are still being trained. 

I love you all! I know that this church is true and that God loves and knows each one of us more than we can comprehend! 

-Sister Hancock

September 12, 2016

This week we were able to visit a lot of people! Of the 15 people that I said we had to visit last week, 6 of them agreed to come to church and 4 of them actually ended up coming. We do not have a car and the 4 people each live in different houses that are not close to each other. So to actually get them all to the church was difficult. We went and got two of them and then walked to church with them and then left them with the other sisters, left again to get the other two and then walked again with them back to church! Lots of walking! But it is all worth it because we got them to church!!! 

One day we walked about 4 miles... actually more like 10. We walked all the way to one side of the border (of the area) to meet with one of our investigators and then had a meeting on the opposite side with another investigator! A LOT OF WALKING!!! But, like I said before, I don´t mind all the walking when we are actually able to meet with the people here! 

 

The best parts of my day usually revolve around food. Everyday the members feed us, but if we don't have a lunch appointment we go back to our house and make couscous. Wednesday we had a zone conference and then after we had lunch with the Mission President that seriously was the best food I have ever had. Then that night we had a ward activity... with more food. Thursday we have our weekly free hamburger at Doge Doce. Friday there was a wedding for someone in the ward (more food). 

On Saturday morning we had the opportunity to take one of our recent converts, Antonio, to the grounds of the Curitiba Temple. It was wonderful and the Spirit was so strong even on the outside of the temple. 

On Saturday night we went to visit a member and she gave us this Christmas flavored soup, and they had a ukulele that they let me play!!! We always have the best conversations with them and their family is so strong and the spirit is so strong in their house. The husband said "I want people to come to my house and feel something different than what they feel right outside the gate. We always try to make sure the spirit is here in our home."

``Even though we may feel lost in the midst of our current circumstances. God promises the hope of his light - He promises to iluminate the way before us and show us the way out of darkness`` -Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Love you all! 

Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Hancock

September 5, 2016

Ola pessoas! 

I don´t have a lot to say this week. The week went by really quickly! I can´t believe I have already been on my mission for two months!!! 

This week we had a lot of lessons fall through but the lessons we were able to have went great. We have been able to keep meeting with our 4 recent converts and they are all doing wonderfully. This next week we have about 15 people that we plan to meet with and then will hopefully find even more! 

Everyday I find more scriptures that I love! 

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7, 122:7, 123:17

``My son, peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment....that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good, hold thy way.. for God shall be with you forever and ever... let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power!``

Eu amo vocês, and I love to hear from you! 

Have a great week! 

-Sister Hancock 

August 29, 2016 A lot of miracles!

I witnessed a lot of miracles this past week! 

One day we were walking around knocking doors and we passed a lady on a bike who we found out was a member. We asked her if any of her neighbors would want to hear more about the gospel. She said no, and right then one of her neighbors walked by and she asked if the neighbor wanted to hear a message from the missionaries! She accepted and so we walked with her to her house and shared the message of the restoration of the gospel. 

On Saturday we had THREE baptisms! Wesley, Brian, and Rubens.

Wesley (9), Lives with his grandma, Eliane, who recently decided to come back to the church after many years. They live in a house with other family members who are all members. We have been teaching Eliane and Wesley together and they are great! 

Brian (14), has an Aunt and Uncle in another ward. He has been going to church, mutual and reading the Livro de Mormon. He was really ready to get baptized but his Dad was not sure if he wanted Brian to be baptized. Last Sunday it was pouring rain and Brian still got up and came to church. His Dad´s heart was softened when he saw Brian´s dedication and that he really wanted this. When it rains at least a quarter of the members don´t come to church.

 

Rubens (22), the nephew of the bishop. He has a strong spirit and testimony and was really ready to get baptized. 

We met a woman named Edith this week and she came to church with us. When we taught Edith we were getting to know her and she was saying that she had been out of a job and looking for quite a while. We taught her about the Sabbath Day and putting God first in her life. We were talking about putting God in first place and that if she did God would bless her and He would help her find a job. She recognized that she needed to do this and she accepted the invite to come to church with us. On Sunday when we picked her she told us that the day that we visited her she got a phone call from a friend who said there was a job opening at her work. She told us that when she got the call she had been thinking about the things we had said. It was truly a miracle! 

P-Day :)   

August 22, 2016 Rain Everywhere... but keep a smile and continue trying!

This week it has rained almost everyday! I love the rain but it makes it hard to find and talk to people. 

Some highlights from this week:

-On Monday I got a second birthday cake! A member brought a cake over to our apartment on Monday night and someone came in my room where I was studying and they asked me to help them carry some stuff so I walked out into the living room and then they all started singing to me! 

-I finally bought cereal! Also I am getting used to the boxed milk :P I was having serious saudades (missing) for cereal, although I am still keeping my new years resolution of only eating cereal once a day. 

-One day it poured all day long. We did lots of walking, through lots of puddles, lots of annoying dogs, lots of nice denials, a few not so nice denials, etc. Each day is a trial of whether or not we will retain good spirits, keep a smile and continue trying! 

-I live in an apartment with my companion and two other sisters. We always help each other set up when the other group has a baptism. So we went to the church to help them set up and there was about a foot of dirty water in the font and it wasn´t draining. We later found out it was rain water that had leaked in. Anyway, we scooped all the water into big buckets and then dumped them out. It was my job to carry and then dump out all the buckets. We filled about 20-30 buckets with water! One sister said ``welcome to the mission.`` #thebaptismmustgoon

-Each day I understand Portuguese a little bit more. Line upon line I will learn to speak and understand this language!

It is not a bad thing to struggle. The greater the struggle the greater amount that our faith will grow. God gives us trials to be like a refiner's fire that will purify our hearts. When our hearts are focused on ourselves we will only get the benefits we were looking for. For example, if we serve only for ourselves we will get the glorification but that is all. If we serve with our hearts pointed toward the Savior, so much greater will the blessing be. ``Do you love the Savior enough to struggle?``

Amo vocês! 

-Sister Hancock

August 15, 2016 Arrived In Curitiba and First Baptism

I don´t even know where to start! On Tuesday I said goodbye to the CTM, my awesome Companion Sister Gimm, my district and the two best teachers in the entire CTM. We woke up at 4 in the morning and flew to Curitiba where we met our new mission president: President and Sister Hart. 

There were 14 missionaries that are new to the mission (2 Americans). Our new mission president and his wife are incredible! They are so full of love and their purpose is about truly helping to convert people and not just baptizing. We spent the morning with them and ate the best Brazilian food ever for lunch! In the afternoon we met our new companions! The whole mission was having a transfer because the new mission president is changing everything around. There were so many missionaries and I had no idea what was happening! Then we drove to my new area Pinhais, the ward is called Autodromo.

My new companion/trainer is Sister Ferreira and she is awesome! She speaks English but doesn't ever speak it with me. She speaks really fast and half the time I have no idea what she is saying. In fact I have no idea what is happening about 75% of the time. The people speak really fast and all have accents. I will understand them someday and for now I will just try to be patient with myself! 

We walk A LOT!!! Probably about 4-6 miles a day. All the houses have gates in front of them so to knock on doors you have to clap your hands and then wait for someone to look out a window or come outside. Almost everyone has a dog or 3 and so that makes it difficult to hear each other. There are dogs all over the streets and sidewalks but the city is pretty clean. 

The food is great and I am going to gain so much weight! The last day at the CTM someone said to always ``eat and repeat``. If you don´t eat a second time the people will think you did not like their food. I have been sticking to this eat and ``repeat`´ and it is great. The food is always rice, beans, some kind of meat and maybe a pasta. 

The people are awesome here! I only wish I could understand what they were saying to me! The ward here in this area is really strong already and we are working to make it even stronger! We have a few investigators that are progressing towards baptism and they are all incredible. 

Our investigator Antonio was baptized this past Saturday!!! He is 56 and a few weeks ago when other missionaries were walking by he said ``Hey I want to go to your church!`` so of course they were like ``great here is some more information...`` The first day I got to my mission we taught him (he had already been to church 2 times and had been taught a few lessons). We taught the commandments (mostly my companion was the one teaching). He was a little reluctant and was wanting to ´´argue about things. On Friday when we went back he had completely changed. He shaved his beard, and you could see light in his eyes and he looked so happy! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized and he was a little reluctant at first but he was ready and he knew it. I asked again and he accepted!!! He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was the best birthday present I could have asked for! He was so happy and the Spirit was so strong!!! 

The rest of my Birthday was pretty good. At night we had a meeting and then went to meet with a less active member family. When we got there we talked and then they said they had made dinner for us! So we walked back to the kitchen and then they all started singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese and brought out a cake! We ate dinner and cake with them and it was so great. It made me super happy! :)

Alma 26:12 ``Yea I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in His strength i can do all things.``

God has the power and can do all things. I know that I am weak but the gospel is meant to be taught through the weak and the simple. I know you can do all things through the help of God and his son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ and His atonement, all things are possible! 

AMO VOCES

-Sister Hancock

August 5, 2016

Note from Emily's Mom - Emily arrived safely in Curitiba on Tuesday. It is her birthday on Sunday (Aug 14th). She would love a short email from you. :)   emily.hancock@myldsmail.net

 

 Sister Hancock in front of Curitiba Temple with President (Mission President) and Sister Hart

 

 

``I knew the Brazilians talked quickly but I didn't know they talked at the same time!´´ 

One day my teachers were talking to each other and then they just both started talking really quickly at the same time and we were all like... oh no... is this how it is going to be in the field?!

I leave on Tuesday morning to go to Curitiba! I am super excited and slightly nervous. But mostly excited! 

Random things that happened this past week:

-We were teaching Andre and I was trying to say we renew our baptismal covenants and I said ``nos renewo... nossa convenios.`` Andre just laughed and said ``renovar...´´ to help me out a little. A lot of random things like that happen all the time! BUT I am learning :)

-A lot of times I have no idea what I am going to say but I just open my mouth and start talking and it is sometimes a miracle that my ``investigators´´ can understand me!´´

-I did not use a headset in the devotional this week and I was able to understand what the people were saying! IN PORTUGUESE! 

-It is my favorite thing ever when we get to go outside (FORA) and study!

-They had cereal the other day for breakfast and it made me so happy! (I really miss my marshmallow mateys)

-An Elder was asking my teacher how to say `centaur´ and she was like... ``just like that.. `sentar` (to sit)... we all laughed and then he drew in on the board and she was like ``OH centaura``

-An Elder in my district will remember Abacaxi (Pineapple), because it sounds like ``a bag of sheep´´ 

-When we were talking to our investigator about how he felt about his Baptism he said ``It was wonderful, I just felt so happy and I never in a million years saw myself doing any of these things and changing my life for the better.`` It was awesome, I can´t wait until real investigators are saying this! The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the help we need to become stronger, face our challenges and change for the better. 

Faith in Jesus Christ can lead you through every challenge in life. We can literally do anything with the help of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Faith is taking a step in the dark and believing that you will be guided. Through the power of Jesus Christ we can change and become better. ``we must be firmly attached to him, believe on His name, come unto Him and be transformed!``

I love you ALL! 

-Sister Hancock