Come on, this isn't Barbies…. In the Great California Ventura Mission, we Baptize!!!

I am so sad not to have enough time to write each day out of what happened last week, but I will write it on paper and mail it to my Mom.  This week has been challenging, as always, but by FAR the best week of my mission.  JUSTIN WAS BAPTIZED…..  So exciting.

Dad, you are amazing and your letters and packages crack me up!  I had enough Valentines Candy for an army and my companions were in Heaven.  Thanks so much.

This week was another week full of miracles!  When I decided to serve a mission, I knew I would be giving my all to change the lives of others, but I never really realized how much I would grow personally.  My testimony is strengthened daily, and I can truly feel Heavenly Fathers love for me and those I serve.  Not only have I learned from my companion, but also from the example and strength of the Spanish Sisters.  (Hermana's)  This week we were blessed to be able to teach the Plan of Salvation 3 times.

Here's what my week was like:

Investigators Baptized and Confirmed:
Justin's baptism was amazing.  My talk went great.  Can you believe that I still remembered my own baptism.  This will make my Grandma happy, I still remember the talk she gave when she used the mirror and toothpaste.  Well, I used the same talk……… I can't believe I remembered it!

Watching Justin's light shine and hearing his testimony, seeing the blessings of the gospel in his and his family's life brought me more comfort and joy than I could ever imagine.  He and his fiancé' sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in sacrament meeting the following day after his baptism.  It brought the whole congregation to tears.  This by far was one of the best experiences of my mission.

Investigators with a Baptismal Date:
We met with Mike and taught the Plan of Salvation.  The Relief Society President joined our lesson.  His responses to questions were incredible.  We are teaching him the next lesson this week.

Progressing Investigators:
Andrew and Mishelle, they are amazing.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they loved it.  The spirit was so strong.  I really connected with Mishelle.  Their answers to our inspired questions were better than if I were to answer them.  They are looking forward to coming to church next Sunday.  We are teaching them the next lesson this week.

Less Active/Recent Converts:
Robert- We met with him and read "Finding Peace, Hope and Happiness."  The spirit was strong and lead to a great discussion on the atonement and decisions.  We committed him to reading the Book of Mormon each day, starting from the beginning.

Our first baptism!!

Visiting an investigator at the hospital.
Found these cute service dogs!

My Dad and other family members remembering us on
Valentines Day!

I continue to struggle with health problems.  After much discussion with President Castro, lots of prayers, fasting and priesthood blessings, going home might be the best option for me to deal with my health.  It makes me so sad as I love it here.  I love working with and teaching people.  I love serving the Lord and still know that this was the right decision for me, even if it is short term.  I know this is part of Heavenly Fathers plan for me.  Each day I witness his love for me and those around me.  I am so thankful for my area, the ward I am serving in, and my companion.  Also for the tender mercies that my eyes are opened to each day.  I am so thankful and feel so blessed that the Lord trusted me with so many of his children with such strong spirits.  Our calling is so great!

I love you all.  Thanks for all the prayers.  I could truly feel the love.  I have the best family ever.  (Wow, didn't think that would ever come out of my mouth!)
With Love,  Sister Hancock

This week has been crazy, hard, but full of miracles…..

Monday:  We went back to the Shigoka family house to watch “the Testaments” with their daughter.  We found out that Sr. Shigoka was hurt in a bad car accident a few years ago and is nearly deaf in both ears.  She sits through sacrament meeting and all the church meetings every Sunday and can’t hear a thing.  We are checking into a way to help her out.  (smile)  She is amazing.  I would do anything for this family.  So we watch the movie with their less active daughter who usually hates religion, but somehow we hit it off with her.  By the end of the movie, she was crying.  Hello “MIRACLE”!!!!  We are meeting again with her this week.

Tuesday:  We pretty much tracked all day.  We met Mark.  He is awesome.  He agreed to take the lessons and baptism, right then and there!  Whoa….

Then we went out with my favorite family that night, the Rogers’.  We went to a member’s home.  He is an engineer and designed his backyard.  It has waterfalls, huge rocks, and a HORSE set-up.  Hello HEAVEN!!  It was spectacular.  Ha ha Matthew, I expect this some day.

Wednesday:  Sister training leader exchanges.  This was the best day ever!  Sister Randall, my training leader is a twin.  So of course we hit if off instantly.  She was so chill, teaching and tracking was a breeze.  We laughed and smiled a ton.  She is serving in Agoura Hills.  We were talking about the rich and famous people in our wards and she told me she has the guy who wrote Despicable Me!  She said he goes out with them weekly and he is hilarious.  His name is Cinco and they have the red power ranger.  Is this real life?  Anyway, we met two amazing people while tracking.  It was so exciting.  Then we ate dinner, best tri-tip ever.  The ward takes such good care of us!

Thursday:  We met with Mike again.  He asked a million questions.  Basically, I should have listened in seminary a little more.  He apologized for only reading 14 chapters in Nephi, ha ha.  Then we met Caroline.  She was diagnosed with a mental illness.  A year ago, she lost everything, her kids, her husband and her home.  She is doing better now and she is back in her home with her husband and kids.  She lost all faith in God.  She cried during our entire lesson and at the end, she said that she wants to believe again.  She even committed to baptism.  She is so strong.  She said that people hear the term mental illness and are afraid.  She knows she I a good person and a great Mom.  She cares for and loves her kids so much.  Something about her touched my heart.  I want to help her so bad.  She looks like she weighs and 85 pounds and is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.  She wants to believe so bad and I know she wants to feel the peace of the gospel.  Tonight we met with Mike again.  Another Mike.  Coolest ever but he can’t pass his drivers test.  We are trying to find a member to help him study since we aren’t allowed to read the manual (lol).  If he passes, then he won’t need a ride to work and then he can stay for all of the Sunday meetings.

Friday:  Interviews!  The sister training leaders gave us training on the atonement.  I have always thought of the atonement as repenting of sin, but it covers so much more.  Pain, sickness, sufferings, everything…..  Then President Castro talked on trust.  The training lasted 5 hours.  Then we had interviews, President Castro is amazing.  He talked to each of us a lot about how much thought and prayer went into the sisters he put in the area.  In each of our interviews, he said, we were put together for a reason.  We all went in this area because it was a hard, rich area, and we were the ones that might make a difference.  This area hasn’t had sisters in forever, and a zone of all Elders needed strong sisters.  We are setting the tone for all the future sisters in Simi Valley.  WOW.!!   I’m thankful for my companion teaching me such obedience.  (Never thought I would say that, ha ha)

Saturday:  The Lord has more than blessed us!  It was a crazy day/week and we weren’t able to work as much as we had planned.  In 2 hours, we were able to find 2 new investigators, 8 decs and 2 baptism invites.  The Hermana’s (Spanish Sisters) and my companion are amazing.  We are so blessed.  It was a hard day; on the way home we stopped for gas.  A lady got out of her car with a dog that looked exactly like my dog at home, Beaux, freckles and all!  It made me so happy that I almost cried.  (The tender mercies) Love.

Sunday:  It has been miracle after miracle this week.  My testimony of prayer and my trust in the Lord has hit a new all time high.  We reached our goals this week.  Ten, yes 10 new investigators and we hit the standard of excellence.  I hate the numbers, but now that we are working together in love, we are achieving them.  When we first got here, we barely had 2 investigators per week.  Also, I get so anxious at night and knocking on doors late, that it scares the stink out of me.  So selfishly, I have been praying at every prayer that we will have enough appointments each night that we don’t have to go knocking.  Everyone laughs at my prayer and we kind of joke about it, but this week we just looked at our calendar and we are booked every night!  I wish you could hear my sigh of relief and see my huge smile.

At church today, a man came up and handed each of us a gift card, then walked away.  We had no idea who he was and he just seemed to disappear.  It was $50 to the grocery store and then another one to Jamba Juice.  Anyway, that evening our appointment cancelled so the RS president asked us if we wanted to go out with her.  She said we were visiting a man that had lost his brother and aunt his week.  We knocked and the man that gave us the gift card opened the door!  This man is most selfless person I have ever met.  He had my Dad's (and Uncle Jerry’s) smile!  It melted my heart.  He was so inspirational and cares so much about everyone else.  (Reminds me of my Dad)  The man does so much and cares so much for people, but doesn’t want anyone else to know about it.  (Dad, I love you!)

All of Southern California fasted today for rain.  Then at 7 pm tonight, it started raining and hasn’t stopped.  What?????  I love and miss everyone.  Please write letters, I barely have time to read emails and sometimes they won’t even print.

Love, Sister Hancock

This week was amazing, finally!!!!

First off, this week was amazing!

The first week of doing it all wrong has kind of passed. :)

I am finally getting the hang of things!! YAY! Ha ha

Monday: P-day! Thank goodness! BTW, we barely had time to grocery shop. The time goes so quick! But our zone does sports together. Sports+California+weather= HEAVEN!

Tuesday: We knocked pretty much all day. I dreaded it, but I got SO much better. :) I can almost say the entire restoration at the door. That is HUGE for me. We have a crazy rich area, walking up to the giant mansions is intimidating, then trying to explain the gospel to successful doctors and lawyers is well, crazy, ha ha.  In our ward we have met an actor- He was in the goonies, the Dad in the Glass House (Yes, Hailee, the one on lifetime!!!) :) He also plays in SVU and Castle. We taught him today and I asked him a million questions.  Then we had dinner with the bodyguard that was in charge of Hilary Clinton during the whole CLINTON scandal. I think he also worked with Bush. He's the first counselor in the bishopric.  Then we had a lesson with the Weeks. He plays the base for Panik at the Disco. Call me crazy, but I have never heard of them. haha oops!!

Wednesday: We knocked all day again. Hah, I am improving still. :) We had dinner with the Sharps. I have never eaten so much ice cream in my entire life-and they had horses, pigs, and chickens. HEAVEN AGAIN!  We also taught mutual. I LOVED it. Of course it was nothing like our Young Womens group at home. It was weird looking out and seeing different girls, (lol), but it was super spiritual.  I wish we could go every week.  Love, love, loved it. :))

We met with the Rogers family after that. It was such a spiritual lesson. There were tears-haha. We set a date for baptism!! :))))

Thursday: Ian said YES to baptism (on the 22nd of Feb.!!) He walked outside to where we meet for lessons with a pack of cigarettes and asked if we minded if he smoked.  lol.  I think I gave him one of those, really, what do you think, looks. Because before anything else was said, he looked at me and said...uh, I think I will wait. :) He is recovering from a drug addiction.  I love meeting with him, he is so strong and wants the gospel in his life so bad!  We had dinner with a family named Shigokas! The wife is from Holland and the husband is from Japan. We had white rice.  haha. The daughter said they have it every night. The daughter is in her 30's and usually is strictly against the church, but we really connected with her. We are watching the movie “the Testaments” with her on Monday!  She called and said she is inviting her friends!  Brother Shigoka talked a lot about representing who you are. He said, “each day we need to improve our shining moment."  I LOVE that.  Each day we just need to be a little bit better than the day before.   Their son is schizophrenic (holy spelling).  They deal with a lot, but they are so happy and inspirational, such a neat experience!!!

Friday:  The focus of this ward is missionary work with part member/less active families. There are four families that we visited today where the mom is active and the Dad is either less active or not a member.  This one family really reminds me of home. (btw-sorry for always making it so hard on you growing up mom! ;)  The dad is hilarious! They were all so surprised that I could hold my own with them- I guess the years of being "picked" on have paid off.   Ha ha.   Love you Dad!!

Saturday: We knocked practically all day. We had an appt that afternoon with Daniel.  He invited his girl friend to the lesson...missionary DREAM.  Daniel takes care of his grandma that has cancer.  He is incredible! We invited them to be baptized. :)  Then we met with Mike, he is pretty much the coolest man ever.  He rents a room in a little house, so we were sitting on his bed/couch teaching him. He's a war vet and has some pretty amazing stories with some challenging struggles.  He is amazing!  He came to church Sunday.  He has such a HUGE heart!!  Then we met with another Mike (there are four Mikes we are teaching) His wife cheated on him and he's jobless and about to lose his house. It was another great spiritual lesson. Definitely a testimony builder on faith and hope!

Sunday:  We spoke in church, taught gospel principles and relief society.  Fear of public speaking = gone.  lol!  The ward is SO excited to have sister missionaries!  In sacrament meeting, we kind of didn't have enough time to prepare a talk, so I just went with it.  I talked about my first time ever knocking on a door.  I was so confident when I knocked, but when the door opened, all I could get out was "Hi, I am sister Hancock and we are...we are...we are um..." ha ha! They laughed, I was so nervous.  I related it to Elder Holland’s talk/ quote, " We have to be bolder, bigger and better than we have ever been."

It isn't always going to be easy and doesn't always come out, but God will not let us fail.  The hearts of men have been prepared. Missionary work is hastening. It is time to forget the hastening and get to work.  Ha ha :)  We went to dinner with the Low Family. They made homemade Gluten Free bread, cookies and pizza. HEAVEN. Everyone takes such good care of us. :))

Overall, I LOVE it! It is NOT easy!  I have learned a TON. I have been humbled and learned how to obey with EXACTNESS!  Oh, and be teachable. My poor trainer.

My companion is amazing. She is such a great example. She has taught me that there is always room to improve. This morning we woke up at 6:32, instead of 6:30.   She asked me to ask for forgiveness during morning prayer.  My face was like, ah...really? Then she explained that it is black and white, there is no gray.   Exact obedience brings miracles. :)) I am a work in progress. Oh yes, and I am learning that EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS/ :))

I am starting to accept and adjust to this lifestyle!  My relationship with my Heavenly Father is stronger than EVER!  He lives and loves each one of us. We have a purpose. The power of prayer is REAL.

Overall, I love it here!!  The work is hard but rewarding! Our ward is amazing and the weather is perfect.

Mail comes every day at  6. I am kind of selfish, but I look forward to it everyday!!

Send letters please, it takes about 6 days for me to actually get them.

I LOVE YOU ALL!   I MISS YOU!!

I can email friends. :) But not much time!!

Real mail is the best!!

LOVE SISTER HANCOCK!

Survived my 1st Week in the Field!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks.  I survived my first full week "out in the field", and you haven't gotten a call saying I'm coming home yet!!! Ha ha.  I was called to the Simi Valley 5th ward.  It's a very affluent area, or so I was told, ha ha.  But really, the homes are huge, it's a little intimidating and everyone is blonde! So here was my week.

Tuesday:  I met my companion.  Her name is Sister Maure.  She's from Texas, but was raised in Mexico until she was 12.  We are sharing the apt with the Hermana's.  In order to help them learn Spanish, we speak mostly Spanish.  It's awesome.  So, our bishop and his wife picked us up , we went to eat, then moved in.  We are the first Sister Missionaries in Simi Valley in 15 + years.  Everyone is soooo excited to have us, it's amazing.  We were white washed in.  Usually a new companion is transferred with one that's been in the area so they know all the ropes, but when you're white washed, you are both new to the area.  Since we are both new and the first sisters they're calling it a "PINK-WASH"… It's been challenging because the Elder's didn't keep the area book updated, so we have been trying to figure it all out!

Wednesday:  Wake-up at 6am.  PUKE!  I will never complain about being up for work at 8 or school at 9 ever again.  Today was my first day knocking on doors.  My trainer said I was really good at relating to people and a natural teacher, she is just being nice I think.  It was AWFUL.  I never thought I would be one of those annoying people that knock on doors.  When they say "no", I want to say ok, have a nice day, but my companion is trying to teach me to be persistent and stay focused.  I guess I ask too much about them and not about the gospel!  Oops.  Annoying people is hard work!  That night we ate at a members home (by the way, we get fed every night.  We have to turn people down sometimes.  So no worries about me losing weight)  Anyway, the sister made the best GLUTEN free dessert.  I was in heaven!

Thursday:  Zone and District meeting.  So much fun.  I have the best district.  Then more knocking and we met with the ward mission leader to figure out who was who.  This ward is amazing at missionary work.  We have lists of people.  Mostly part member families and less active families, which means less knocking. Whooo!  I have really learned to love the people.  It's probably not always correct, but I like learning and getting to know them before we start right in with the restoration.  We have lots of goals, which sometimes discourages me.  There's also a ton of rules I did not know about.  Humility and obedience, 2 of the hardest lessons for me to learn.  I have been doing great with them both, although it hasn't been easy.

Friday:  More knocking.  There is a guy we see that reminds me of someone at home.  He has 2 girlfriends.  One in KS, who is LDS and homeless, that's why he is meeting with us, and one who lives in CO.  He is awesome.  

Saturday:  Stake Conference.  President Castro spoke.  He is very strict and soft spoken, but he knows each of us by name.  You can feel the love they have for us.  Sister Castro is amazing too.  I respect them so much that it makes it easier to follow the crazy rules.  The first thing my companion said to me is, "I am 100% obedient".  We are all human and we all will fall short, so I strive for 110% obedience, then when I fall short, I am at 100%.  It was at that moment that I knew I was in trouble!

Sunday:  Stake Conference was awesome.  It was a broadcast with President Eyring speaking.  He spoke about PIMA, AZ.  It was weird because we still knock on Sundays.  We work all day, so no Sunday naps………….

I have seen the miracles and blessings that obedience has brought.  I really do love it.  It's not always easy and there are times where I feel like I am doing it all wrong, but nobody said it was easy.  Each day I learn something new.  The people are amazing.  There's so much love.  I miss everyone at home!  But  I 100% believe this decision is blessing my family as much as it is me, and those who I am serving.  Someone gave a talk and said, "You are serving the Lord's people, so he is taking care of my people."

Our mission motto is:

In the Great California Mission we:

1-Baptize

2-Obey with exactness

3-Seek to be trusted more than loved

4-Teach with power and authority

Please everyone write and don't forget about me!!!!!!!!

Love you, Sister Hancock

I am finally here!!

Welcome to the missionary blog for Sister Marissa Hancock.  You will be able to share in her mission experience in the California-Ventura Mission.  Please come back often to read about her experiences and to see pictures of her mission.

Well after a short stay at the MTC in Provo, I have finally settled at the California-Ventura Mission.  I entered the MTC on January 1, 2014.  What a way to start off the new year.  Saying good-bye to family and friends was a little teary, I have to admit.  Although I had a few bumps along the way in the MTC, things are good.   Challenges  and trials come in all shapes and sizes, it's learning how to deal with each one that makes you a better person.

I am loving the California weather.  Although anything would be an improvement over Idaho weather.  Rexburg is not the choicest spot to be in the winter time, although the campus is beautiful covered in snow.  I learned so much from my experience at the MTC, even if it wasn't all classroom learning.  Driving in California has been my latest challenge.  As many of you know, driving and directions is not my strong point.  I think I will be requesting a GPS in the next care package from home.  I love my new ward, although it's not Wickenburg, it is great.  It is the Simi Valley 5th Ward.  The people are super friendly and make us feel at home.   I am getting to speak a ton of Spanish, and that really makes me happy.  I know my Heavenly Father loves me!  He lives!  I have felt the spirit so strong and have really seen the Lord's hand in my life!