Tuckers in MEXICO Letter 1 Oct, 18 2010

Estoy en mexico. Por fin. haha it has been a crazy week. it has been nuts but i love it. on the plane i sat by a member and talked to her the whole flight or at least tried to. we stayed the first night in the mission home and we ate at the pres house. he gave us pizza he and his wife are really nice. the first night we just went walking around this big park place in Cuernavaca and there were a bunch of people just chillin and haveing a good old time just talking to friends and family. me and elder woodcox just went handing out pass along cards and they prob had no clue what we said and we def had no clue what they said. haha I feel like i know no spanish at all. i am starting to comprehend better but i really need to work work and work more. i feel bad because i have to tell people to repeat stuff alot haha. but i got my companion on tuesday his name is elder roskelly. he is from Ogden and he went to weber high. he knows Mark so you should ask mark about him. he graduated the same year i did. Gentrie might know him. he said he has heard her name before. but he is a really cool kid. he has been in mexico for 4months. he has blond hair and blue eyes like me. so we are two gringoes walking among the lamamites. haha but it is all good.we are serving in one of the beautifulist places in acapulco in a place called colosio. it is awesome. the views when we take cabs and stuff our awesome. it is blazeing hot though. haha but its is all good. it is humid like texas so i have prob lost 10 pounds just being here. but thats ok. i just sweat everything off. we are opening a new area. there have been no missionarries here for months and our area book that they left us isnt that great and our area that we have is huge so we have alot of work to do but its all good. im up for the challenge. we have been working hard to find people. the first day we just started finding people close to where we first lived. we lived in the bishops old house and it was next to a member. the house did have air conditioning but it didnt work. but we went contacting and this week we have found 12 investigators and only 1 went to church this week. that is the hard thing around here. we are on the far side of acapulco and the church is like 40 min away and people either work or they dont have money to take a taxi or but. there is always exuses and it is a big problem because we found really great people but they cant progress if they dont go to church so we planned yesterday and came up with some ideas. We need to use the members that have cars to help us.we need to help them set goals in the week to give up something they dont need and save money in the week so they can go to church on sunday. they need to know that church is very important. but really our area is nice my comp said but there are alot of humble homes and acapulco is a humble city. its not even a city i think but it is very humble. i taught a lesson and they have a shack and dirt floors. so be grateful for what we have back home. but the investigator that did come to church was good. her name is Susana and she has 2 little kids and her husband is away working and she doesnt know how long he will be. we found her just knocking doors and she just let us in. we taught the first lesson and that went well. my comp teaches and i just bear testimony and share scriptures i need to work on explaining points better so they can understand me but i just bear testimony.haha but we taught her again and she is keeping her commitments and we committed her to come to church and she said she would and my comp said to her that Satan doesnt want her to go and something might come up like someone getting sick and sure enough her little baby got sick and she said she thought of us when it happened but the baby was better. but we walked by on friday or saturday and she was out on her porch about to smoke and we come walking up and teach her the word of wisdom just right there. it was perfect timing. haha but she just stayed for sacrament and i had to talk. that was interesting. i just got up and kind of winged it. but it was all good. I just try to talk to everyone that is by me when we are walking and stuff or on buses and taxis. you never know if someone is interested in the gospel unless you open your mouth so i have been doing that and in this taxi i talked with this older couple and i taught them a quick lesson on the cab and set a appointment and they loved it. they told us they couldnt go to church this week but we are certain they will this week. i feel they are ready for the gospel. my comp says i am a escogito magnent.esogito is like a chosen person. thats what we call investigatorsl. at first he was a little down and about the opening a new area but he said he hasnt talk to this many cool people in lessons before. i mean we have had great lessons and the people love it but they dont come to church so that is what we are working on this week.the people really open up once you get to know them. some of the experiences i have no clue what they said but my comp does and he tells me and im like are you serious. i missed that. so i need to comprehend alot better. so i need to work on that. but i am loveing it. we havent had a normal day yet. one day our zone leader came banging on our door at like 11:30 because he was on exchanges with the assistants and they just left him.he is a native that is fluent in spanish. he is so funny. he was banging on our door and we didnt have a bed so we had to go to his house that night so he wasnt alone. the next day we had lunch with this lady and she showed us this house she would rent us and it was way better than the one house we were in. it is furnished and has airconditioning that works. we are one of the only ones to have airconditioning which is sweet. this lady gives us fruit and food and hooks us up. she helped us wash are clothes and she let us use her stuff so we moved like on friday to this new house in our area. So basicly we got the hook up now. hhaha but yea this has been a crazy week. we went to a market today with the zone leaders and i got a nacho libre mask for tate. i dont know how to mail it but i couldnt find teisha a ring. i will have to keep my eye out. but life is crazy here and i am loveing it. me and my comp have alot of work to do and i have alot to learn. but i have 3 people from my district in my zone which is cool in the mtc. woodcox is one of them. one more quick story is a guy came on his motorcycle and stoped us and he is a member and wants to change his life back to normal. he speaks english and lived in salt lake for like 16 years. he is 30 and lives with his girlfriend we talked to him yesterday and wants to change his life so that was pretty cool. while trying to find members houses to eat we run into inactives and people that god loves them so much. like people give us wrong directions and we find someone that needs us that we wouldnt of found if we didnt get wrong directions. god knows his children thats why i need to listen to the spirit and open my mouth. LOve you fam and thanks for all the support.Elder Hancock

Final Letter from the MTC #12 Oct 8 2010

Hey whats up fam. This week has been awesome and crazy. All the prayers have been answered and i am leaving on Monday for mexico. I am really excited to leave. On Monday we still didnt hear anything on our visas and as a district we decided to all knell down and pray and each of us said a individual prayer praying for our visas. After we did that we just sang some hyms as a district. In the middle of Be still my soul we all got called down to the travel office. Lets just say prayer changes things!!!! So we all run down to the travel office and everyone is going to the consolate but me. Everyones name was highlighted but mine. I was like are you serious. Im not going to lie i was disapointed that my whole distrct could go and i couldnt. They were going to leave at like 1:15 that was at 11:30. i asked what the problem was and they said i just didnt have my visa and hopefully they would call and i could go later in the week. So after that i go with my comps and eat lunch and go with them to get their suits and stuff so they could leave for salt lake to the Consolate. My comps told me to change as well and get my suite so i did hopeing that i would get to be able to go. I changed my suite and we prayed as a companionship that we could all go to the consolate together. So we leave our rooom and go back to the travel office and i ask if they had a call and they didnt. So i left the travel office and was walking to the cafateria to find someone to make a comp exchange with and Elder Stapely runs me down and says that the travel office just recieved a call that they had my visa and i could go to the Consolate. Lets just say Prayer is Power and Prayer Changes things. The faith and love of my companions really taught me alot. SO i was able to go to the consolate with my whole district and we leave Monday. We prob could of left earlier but our mis pres cant pick us up till monday. I am way pumped.

SO that was the miracle that happened this week. I also saw uncle glen in the temple which was fun. It sounds like he told ya. That is awesome that tate won his game and he played great. Keep up the great work and keep calling your own plays. haha It sounds like teisha did awesome too and is getting better each week. Also i get to call ya'll tomorrow so i'm going to call around 5-6. I can only talk for 5 min but i give you more of the update. I leave the MTC at 6 in the morning and it is a direct flight to Mexico. I fly Delta i think. Today i got to get all packed and all that stuff. Im going to send a package today so be ready for that. But Mom you dont have to worry about the situational awareness for me. You must of forgot where i went to school. haha My Comps give me crap every day for going to the air force cuz the random missionaries i have no clue come up and say oh your the kid that played at air force. My comps give me crap each day about that. haha

OH and i just wanted to thank you Mom and Dad for all that you have done for me. i really felt your love when Elder Holland spoke about the love of his parents for him. i just want to thank you for what great parents and examples you are for me. I know that you do all that you can for me and i know that im spoiled. haha And Teisha and Tate make sure you listn to mom and dad in everything they tell you. I cant remember who made the list of what to do as a parent but i know mom and dad did everything on that list so listn to em and DO IT.

I love you all so mucha and cant wait to talke to ya tomorrrow. TOday we said goodbye to all the Laundry workers in the temple we have made good friends with. The latin culture is so loveing. haha I love yall so much. Thank Joane for me for sams letters. Sam is so funny. haha

Love, Elder Tucker Hancock

MTC Letter #11 Oct,1st 2010 Still Waiting!!!

Hola familia!! Como Estan? First of all i am convinced that my mission call has been changed to the MTC. We went to the travel office today and they tell us the same thing evertime. Oh just come by tomorrow. They said they are hopeing that we will go to the consolate on monday or Tuesday but that is what they have been saying for the past 2 weeks so hopefully they are right this time. I am ready to go. I am going to be here longer than all my Chinese Taiwan friends. They all leave on Monday so yes they are all still here in the MTC. But they leave monday while im still chillin here. But its all good. I have had a good attitude about it, it just is a little frustrateing. Me and My Comps Elder Payne and Woodcox are makeing the most of it which is good. The temple has been awesome to go to. Today was really cool. We did sealings again this week and i swear almost every page had Mary and Margrett on it so i know that i have a fan club watching over me. That was a nice tender mercy in the temple today. I miss Grandma. How is grandpa doing? i need to write him another letter. There was just this one girl that is friends with one of the missionarries in my distric and she did mini mission thing where she stayed at my Miss pres house in Cuernavaca and went on splits every day in Mexico with missionaries. She just wrote me about Cuernavaca and how awesome it is so that was that. I prob have a whole bunch of letters waiting for me in Mexico. haha but for all the missionarries waiting i think there is like 30 or 40 of us but im not sure. I know there are 9 missionarries in my district and we are all waiting to get out of Spiritual Prison. haha Did i tell you that i am in a threesome companionship. It is me elder payne and elder woodcox. Elder Woodcox is the new . he and elder nelson were our roomates and elder nelson left 2 weeks ago and has been in Georgia. He is serving there until he gets his visa for Bolivia. So the three amigos have been doing great. I feel like we are going nuts and it is time to leave. haha We come up with all kinds of crazy stuff. We have our own version of spanish and we make up our own verbs, so hopefully we dont use them in mexico because people will have no clue whats going on. haha it is harder to teach but we study good together. Elder Woodcox was basicly fluent in spanish when he came in so he has helped alot in that aspect. which is good. That stinks that Tate lost. Do they let him run the ball in 14 or 15 counter? Those where my favorite plays. That stinks that texas lost you need to tell blake to Hombre Arriba. haha But thats good that air force won. Is air force ranked? Im glad that Brandon got his letter. how is he doing with his leg? . I cant wait for conference it should be great. aparently conference in the MTC is like christmas so we will see how that goes. Alot of the missionarries are singing for priesthood i think. So you'll see some Elders I know. haha BUt basketball has been alot of fun. I've have been killing all the Elders. I need some competition.haha i also need to be more humble. Im working on that. haha But i love you all very much. I am pretty confident that i will be leaving next week. So lets pray that that happens and i'll continue to work hard here in the MTC. Love you lots. Adios.

MTC letter #10 Sept 24 2010

Mother!!!! . I have revieved no news at all. So basicly i am going to be in the MTC for the rest of my life. I have no new news. We went to the travel office and they said that they have no news and to check on Monday so who knows. I might as well Stay here forever. haha no Im just ready to be in mexico and to get out of here. I love the MTC but i am ready to go teach real people. The Gym finally opened up so i have been playing basketball. The MTC is way awesome with basketball. Its been fun to ball up on all the elders. haha But i get to go to the temple 3 times a weeek which is pretty sweet. We are pretty much on our own and make our own plans of what to do. We have been studying alot of spanish and we have set appointments to teach alot of nativos. One is from Mexico and we talked to him for like an hour just about food and all kinds of stuff. It was hard to understand him cuz he spoke so fast but then we taught him a lesson and we understood almost everything he said. I am alot better at understanding gospel spanish but when it comes to other stuff i can get the main points and the rest is way over my head. But my purpose is to teach the gospel so thats good i know that part. One funny thing in our lesson with the Nativos was they taught us in English back and they have only been here for 2 weeks so it was good to see them struggle like we struggle with Spanish. One of them asked, "What you doing with your life?" and then he told us to open up to Jack chapter 1 verse 5 (James 1:5). I just starting laughing it was pretty funny. They laugh at us so it goes both ways. I love speaking with them it is way fun. One of them wants us to write in his journal and we asked what he wants us to write and he said, " just write something about me in English." I love talking to them. In the temple we have been helping and talking with the workers that speak spanigh and that has been fun. Today we talked to a new volunteer and he started crying and bearing his testimony it was pretty neat. We have got to know one of them really well his name is Fransico and his son is going on his mission to Argentina in December. He served his mission in Cuernavaca and has been telling us stories. Today he told us that he was the only member in his family when he served his mission. He said his parents would rip the letters he sent home and wouldnt write him. he said it was hard but he knew the church was true and was doing the lords work. Some of his cousins got babtized and his parents are not members but they respect the church now. I admired his faith. That is all i got as he told his story in spanish. I think that was the gist of it all. But it has been fun to do that. I Love this work im just so ready to be in Mexico. but its all good. I havent called yet on the card i need to do that. I just keep forgetting. That stinks that tate lost. you need to tell me the whole scoop of the game. How is CJ doing with his hurt Groin. Tell him To HOMBRE ARRIBA!!!! haha Oh yeah I saw Nate Fort's Sister. I have seen here around and i was like i have seen her somewhere. Then i saw her name said fort and just went and said hey and gave her a handshake. Anyways i love you all losts. I'll let ya'll know the knews of my visa as soon as i find out. Love you \

Elder Hancock

MTC letter #9 Sept 17 2010

Hey mom i just got your message I feel horrible about brother Dial. They will def be in my prayers. That is awesome that teisha is doing great. That is great to hear. Keep working hard Teish. Thats also great that tate had a good game. Thats sweet he got a interseption and hes carrying on the tradition. Keep up the great work bud. and all of you keep me updated. Teisha and tate i want a weekly update of all your games. I want ya'll to tell me about it. haha school doesnt take up that much of your time. haha. Also I was glad to hear that air force killed byu. That was pretty sweet. Elder Gerrman now owes me a drink. haha Also some big news is that i did recieve my Permisa which means that i will not get reasigned to a new mission which is good. Only 40 missionarries out of 120 or so got their permisas the rest got all reasigned today to somewhere in the states. I will most likely be here an extra week or Two in the MTC. I will not leave this monday. They said that we will be able to go to the Consolate this week. So pray that happens so im not stuck here forever. We were very blessed as a distric to not get reasigned. Im glad that i will be sent straight to Mexico. Everyone going to Cuernavaca got their Permisas which was 11 missionarries the rest of the missionarries were picked randomly is what it looked like to me. But i am so glad i will be leaving soon to mexico. They gave me a phone card to call yall to let you know that i will not be leaving so I'm planning on calling youi at 4:30-5:00 tomorrow. You better answer. I think i can only talk for like 5 min but thats when i'll call you to let you know the news i just gave you. haha So that will be fun to talk to ya'll tomorrow. This week was great. It is our teaching week this week which means that we taught lessons in spanish. Me and my comp elder payne set a goal to teach 40 lessons this week while everyone else set like 20 or 30. We are well on our way to achieve our goal. We taught 12 lessons yesterday which was fun. haha. Yesterday at the TRC we taught a older lady and i really felt like we touched her as a person and not as a fake investigotor. It was really cool. We taught the Law of Tithing and tied it into the second lesson. She got pretty emotional at times and i felt like the spirit took over. It was fun to teach. Also when we taught missionaries in our zone this week we taught them as missionarries which was really good i think. We would share a scripture and bare testamony and try to build all of em up. We had some pretty good experiences with that which was good. I'm going to send ya'll a bunch of letters and some extra spanish scriptures i have because they gave me some when i got here in the MTC. I dont have room for stuff so i'll be sending a package home full of extra stuff i have. The Gym wasnt open again this week. I think it will open the day i leave prob with the luck that i have. haha But all is good here at the mtc i'll just have to stay here an extra week or two which will be good to study some more. also i kind of like the fact that i can write who i want and you have no clue who im writeing. Forget facebook when i get home. I'm going to stick with letters. haha But i love yall lots and i will talk to ya'll tomorrow. Oh read Romans 8 it is the best. Love yall

Elder Hancock

Letter 8 MTC Sept,10 2010

Hello family. thanks for all the treats and the package. Ive made sure that everyone has seen the air force sign that you made. That was pretty legito. I also got the cards you sent i'll make sure and get that done. I havent heard anything on visas really. Today i heard a rumor i dont know if it is true. They said that there are like a bunch of missionarries supposed to leave on Sept 20th or 21st or something to mexico and like a third will get the permisas and like two thirds will just get retransfered and wait for their visas. Whatever happens is suppost to happen but i really want to leave on time so keep praying hard. Joanne has sent me sams letters and that has been way fun to read. He is so funny. It sounds like he is haveing a blast i cant wait to be there. Tell her to keep sending me those. Today i went to the temple and did sealings for the first time. That was pretty cool. After we helped in the laundry room and there were three workers that spoke spanish. It was fun to joke around with them in spanish and stuff. they were older one is from Argentina one is from Peru and one from mexico. The one from mexico served in Cuernavaca and he said that he loved. He said it is way beautiful and the people there treat you like angels. so that sounds good. haha he was also telling me about the ruins and how cool they are in Cuernavaca. The man from Argentina is way funny we have worked with him before. After we bore our testimony in spanish to them and he said it was good so that was fun. We have been teaching the second lesson in spanish and i feel we have done really well. With our limited spanish i feel that we use the scriptures really well to explain doctrine and then bare testimony and ask questions the rest of the time. I really need to work on explaining personal experiences in spanish though. Thats the only thing that is missing so ill work on that. also its hard to understand people when they slur words together so fast but its comming. I did get all those pics of the truck. they are sweet. I think im takeing it to colorado when i get home. Just letting you know. Also i believe Cameron Zamora has left i havent seen him so i think he is in the field. Austin wrote me this week and sounds like that he is doing good. I see all my freinds from the academy every day so thats fun. One thing i learnded this week is that god has never given a commandment that is temperal. D&C 29:34 so i have been working on makeing planning as spiritual as it can be. Also make learning spanish a spiritual experience instead of learning like it is homework. It has gone pretty well. so if you want to learn fast learn it with the spirit. thats the key. haha That is funny that Tate had a great time at six flags. He finally was able to Hombre arriba. I still havent got a letter from tim but you said he sent one so hopefully i get it. But all is good here in the mtc. It seems like there is not enough time to study each day but its all good. Oh and i love the shorts you got me. Mis pantalones cortos son legito y exalente. haha but Let me know how teisha and tates sports are going. Tell them to keep me updated and tell me how they are doing they can write on dear elder cant they. haha But i love you all and keep up the good work. Just pray that i get my visa and pray that the gym opens up soon. haha it should open up this week. Pues, love ya'll!!!!

Love, Elder Hancock

MTC Letter 7 Sept 3 2010

Hello my family. How is life. it sounds like everything is going great with everyone. Teisha that is awesome that you made the tennis team. keep working hard. Cant wait to here how tates done. all of you keep up the good work. Sam left this week which is crazy. i recieved a letter from Joanne and she forwarded his letter to me. Let her know that i really apreciate that and would love to continue to recieve his letters. I didnt get to tell him goodbye the night before he left cuz im busy every night makeing sure everyone is good in the zone. But i was able to teach him a lesson in espanol which was fun. I know that he will be awesome in Mexico. but this week has been way awesome again. Each week gets better and better. I feel that i am teaching alot better in spanish. I feel that i am saying things alot faster and faster each lesson. Me and my comp have been working on focusing on the needs of the investigator expecially in espanol and i feel we have done alot better this week. This next week we get to teach the second lesson in spanish which is fun. Like i said i feel i am good at teaching the doctrine in spanish but i need to work on telling personnal experiences in spanish. that gets into all these crazy conjugations. but thats what i need to work on. Also i feel like if i'm not speaking about the gospel in spanish then i cant speak good at all. haha but im working on it. this week we got another new distric in. We are now the olderst distric in our zone which is way crazy. but it is fun. i feel so much older than everyone. haha that is crazy that byu went independent. they just were too scared of us i think. The temple was way good today. In my personnal study today i was studying in preach my gospel under finding people and i really enjoyed the section under family history and it had alot of good scriptures and it got me thinking that when we baptize people and help them with family history that we are helping generations and generations of families. that was just awesome to think of today. I also like the anology in preach my gospel of how we are fishers of men. and we need to be the fisher that goes fishing and leaves his line in the water the whole time. We dont want to be the fisher that goes fishing and only has his line in the water for half the time. That means that he is only going to catch half the fish. We need to be always finding ways to find people to teach. i think it all comes down to effort and being creative and never wasting time. I'll make sure to be the missionary that leaves his line in the water all the time. I think that is awesome that joel was able to come over. Tell him i love him and he needs to tear it up just for me. He also better go to bible study and you tell him i said that. That stinks that Leander lost . This week i also found a awesome scripture in D&C 24:12 it talks about the engergy and strengh you recieve from missionary work. I can really feel that scripture work on me. I have all this extra energy and desire to share the gospel. Ya'll need to do the same. Dont fear, be bold, and help the missionaries. I love you all so much and pray for ya'll every day. Tell tami thanks for the treats and kel as well and i love em. Love ya'll!!!

Love, Elder Hancock