Week 32, or 87 - Baptism!! (sort of)

Hey everyone! Some of you know that I was able to go back to Finland for a bit recently, so I thought I’d share the missionary experiences I had there. (after all, you all did sign up to hear gospel happenings with me in Finland until October 2019... so don’t complain!)

I got in on the 28th of April around 3 pm, lugged my stuff around, and then met with M (the first investigator I had) shortly thereafter. He’d been progressing up until the start of April, actually, but kinda dropped off a bit. We talked about some good stuff, and I invited him to church, but sadly didn’t see him there that week.

On that Saturday I met up with the Helsinki Zone Leaders (Elders Olsen and Skinner, and if that last one rings a bell, it’s because he was my MTC companion. Go us!) and we had a sports night! It was so fun, and I met some really nice members and investigators. I met a sister missionary from Idaho Falls, actually! I was able to bequeath some of my vast cavern of Finnish knowledge to her. Ha. I could’ve said anything! But, with great power comes great responsibility. 

On Sunday I SAW ELDER KRAUSE AND SISTER PERRON (like three days before she came home, too). That was fun, but even as awesome as it was, it wasn’t the highlight. Can you believe that?? It wasn’t because they informed me that an  investigator I found had gotten baptized the day before and was getting confirmed that day! So I was able to see it, and wow that was special. I officially have a baptism!! (Sort of. I’m counting it. If you think otherwise, you’re welcome to take a plane over here and fight me) And her husband wants to get baptized and they’re going to have kids and they’ll hopefully get baptized and then kids’ kids and OH goodness I cannot TAKE it. The Gospel blesses families!!

Oh, and also, R was in church!! He’s a man that I helped reactivate in my first transfer in Helsinki. Apparently he comes every week, so that also made me quite happy. Woo!

So. After that, I taught a lesson with Elders Krause and Kimball to a man who was so so nice! He’s had a hard life recently; he came from Nigeria, his wife decided that she wanted a divorce (I don’t understand why, he’s so humble), she doesn’t really take care of their child, and he’s bunking with a friend. So humbling. We talked about how we can use the scriptures to answer our questions, but it isn’t just going to be a first-time’s-the-charm-with-zero-effort sort of thing. He sent me a friend request on Facebook after that, so I was happy (:

After I was coming back from the lesson, having said goodbye to the Neitsytpolku Elders,  I found myself standing next to a man who thought that yelling to the train about how “Mormons stand up in sacrament meeting and speak in tongues and they believe it” would be a good idea. I, being a modern-day intellect who’d been to more than zero sacrament meetings in my life, went up to him and basically told him off (I was more irked than I should’ve been, in hindsight). But we actually ended up becoming friends!! Haha, who knew. We talked about life and religion for like half an hour. He’s from somewhere in America (I can’t remember where) and was just vacationing for a bit in Finland. We parted on good terms and I’m sure we both appreciates having that experience, of both being children of Heavenly Father searching for how He manifests Himself in our lives. (:

I ate dinner that night with some members that I loved in Helsinki. Yes, I spoke in Finnish (they don’t know English all that well), and yes, I haven’t forgotten it. I’ve actually gotten to the point of sounding like a normal uni student! At least, that’s what they thought—probably because I can actually speak spoken Finnish now, which I was not allowed to do last time I was in Finland. 

On Monday I met with the APs and President Aura! President took me out for pizza. Haha! What a nice man. He gave me an abridged version of My Plan (a thing departing missionaries meet for on their last transfer) and we talked about careers and other life things for a while. Wow, I missed him so much. 

And then on that Tuesday I departed for England, and I’ve more or less been there since (but that doesn’t matter. This is about Finland)! I’ll attach a couple pictures I got so you can tell I’m not lying to you. I’ve gotten a haircut since, but overall, they aren’t bad representations of my face. 

Missions are forever, and families are eternal.

Pidä usko. Love y’all! (:

Sam

Week 31 - Last one for now.

Hey, everyone!

I think a lot of you are aware of this already, but last week after meeting with the doctor in Espoo I received an immediate medical release from missionary work and returned to Rexburg yesterday. However! I'm not getting released until this evening so I can still write this email, right?

To get the elephant in the room out of the way, I'm not exactly sure what it is that sent me home. I've received a couple diagnoses of the same thing but to be absolutely sure (like really really absolutely) I'm seeing doctors in Rexburg, Idaho Falls, and Seattle in the upcoming month and should hopefully get the exact diagnosis and treatment right. The thing I was originally told was that if I had what I was originally diagnosed with I wouldn't be able to be out in the mission field. I've since come to believe (still kind of wary about it) is that if I get properly medicated I might be able to serve the months I had left in the States, Finland kind of being a stretch. But that's a huge if and for now, I am literally just living my path in faith. 

I'm doing okay. It's been tough to return and walking around Rexburg today, I felt a little awkward (albeit when you walk around in dress clothes with a Finnish missionary name tag and no companion (except my mom!! I had her) then you're bound to get some looks, especially in the burg). But it's been way great to see my family again as well as my hometown. 

I do plan on starting at BYU this fall, as was counseled me back in Finland, and if I were to return it'd be in a while, around 6 months to a year. I have to accept as well that maybe not returning is in God's plan for me, that I might have others things to do in this next year, I just don't really know what yet.

However, I did have a wonderful experience associated with my return just about half an hour ago! I went to the temple today (ohhh how wonderful the temple is! I missed it so much) and while waiting in the celestial room I saw a girl who was going through for her first time. I heard an older lady say "sister missionary" (it was funny because I couldn't hear anything else she said) and after she left, I felt really really really prompted to go over and talk to her, like I'm pretty sure I was made to go talk to her, I had no choice in the matter. I walked over and said 'hey, excuse me, are you serving a mission?' and she said 'yes, I am!'. I told her that I had just gotten back from my mission the day before and was actually still set apart as a missionary. I felt prompted to tell her some things about missionary work and then asked her where she was going, and she said 'the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission'. I paused for a second because I was a little overwhelmed with emotions, and told her that I had lived in that mission for three years and not to worry about it because the people and place were amazing, and I had such a love for it. Afterwards I bid her good luck and at that point I knew for certain that Heavenly Father knew where I was and still was willing to use me as a tool for missionary work.

I know this Church is true. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that Russel M. Nelson is God's prophet on earth. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father.

I know this Gospel is true. I could absolutely never be convinced otherwise by this world or anything. 

I love Finland. I cried when I left. You can't give yourself, truly all of yourself, to a place and a people and not fall in love with it. I miss Finland immensely. It's been the greatest trial of my faith in my life to leave, but I know I'll go back someday and I know that I was an influence for good there.

I love you all. Thank you for your support, and hopefully you'll get a Week 32 email sometime in the future. :)

All my love,

Elder Samuel Hancock

Finland Helsinki Mission

~

Vanhin Samuel Hancock

Suomen Lähetyskenttä

Sis. Aura, Elder Hancock, and Pres. Aura 

Sister Aura, Elder Hancock and Mom

Elder Hancock's plane from Helsinki to Amsterdam, then
on to SLC and finally home to Rexburg

Week 30 - Hallowed Ground

First off, as I was writing the title I remembered that although the word for 'halloween' in Finnish is written 'halloween' it's pronounced 'hallohvehn', and that reminded me that sometimes because the letters w and v are the same to Finns they'll say words like 'visiting' as 'wisiting'. That was really random but there you go!

So this week. I guess first off I should tell you all that throughout the last few weeks I've been meeting with some different medical professionals, and the second to last time I was on the phone with one I was told I was ill with something that would require me to return home to be treated, and likely be unable to return to the mission field. This obviously shocked me immensely and dealing with it has been difficult, but luckily I have one more appointment with a very good professional in Espoo (right next to Helsinki) on Wednesday so we can be absolutely certain about the condition and best method of treatment. Thus I'd appreciate to be kept in your prayers for a spell, mostly that I'll be able to accept and understand God's will as being greater than mine, in whatever happens.

Predominantly I want to be the greatest envoy of Heavenly Father I can possibly be, extrinsic influences forgot. Of all that I've experienced and grown to love in Finland, I sure as heck don't want to leave. I suppose we'll see!

Missionary work wise I had a wonderful week! We had an investigator in church and got to meet with her afterwards! Also during exchanges in Lappeenranta I taught the Word of Wisdom to one of the most humble investigators I've ever met. We gave him a blessing and he gave us all of his cigarettes. We threw them away. Good stuff!

Anyway, the library is actually closing early so I need to hurry, but I love you all and have a great week!
--
Elder Hancock

Hei my name is Elder Hancock. You want a book?

Our view off the deck.

Us in Lappeenranta on some fire exchanges.

Week 29 - cat hair day

Hello everyone! This week was pretty great. 

First off we were able to do exchanges in Mikkeli this last weekend because my comp had a training meeting. I went and did work with Elders Krause and Van Buskirk, two of my roommates from my MTC group, which was awesome! 

Second for this week is cat hair day, which was yesterday. Just a crazy day. So we went to buy a snack super quick and I just grabbed some stuff and at the cash register it cost 3,30€ - guess how much money in coins I had in my pocket? yeeaaaahhhhh 3,30€!!! then we met with an investigator who dropped us but then his cat got hair all over me and my nice suit dang. We went tracting whilst I was trying to get cat hair off of me and got stopped by a lady who asked if we gave out blessings. we gave her a Book of Mormon. She done got blessed! And then we got asked by a drunk guy if he could use the bathroom in the public square and we were like ummmm definitely not. And then we took a bus to do more tracting and he was on the bus too yelling at my favorite bus driver sunglasses man, who always wears sunglasses and every time you get on he flashes a smile at you and goes hei hei hei while nodding his head a bunch. Anyway so we got back home and through this entire day I was getting cat fur off me still but when we got back to the apartment and I took a shower at the end of the day I chemically burned my entire head and neck by leaving body wash on it for too long without washing it off whoops. Then I sent a text to the north zone leaders and they got ticked at me for some reason and set the assistants to the president on me, luckily they were way cool. Anyway, just a crazy day and that happened. 

I love you all and have a good one!

--

Elder Hancock

1 - us in mikkeli on exhanges

2 - some savages on the elevator about to knock some doors

Week 28 - We ran through a forest this week?

Hello everyone! Not much to report from this week, but I have a couple stories.

First off is we missed a bus one evening, and there was another one coming in twenty minutes but it was on the other side of this mountain. So I was just like 'let's go!' and we started running through the forest up this hill. Turns out it was a lot futher than I thought and we ended up having to run through bushes, trees, mud, a field, a swamp, and came out in the middle of nowhere on some highway. I had been praying throughout this twenty minutes of running that we'd be able to find the bus stop, and there was nothing in sight when we emerged from the swamp onto this highway. So I was like 'well what do we do' but then literally ten seconds later a bus came out of nowhere and I flagged it down, and it accepted our bus passes and everything and took us back to our apartment! That was for sure an answer to my prayer, and if we had gone any slower we would have missed it. I'll attatch pictures of how sweaty and dirty we were (oh well).

Another thing is one night when we were eating dinner I just wondered out loud 'I wonder what it would be like to be Elder Näslund?' (he's a Swede who works absolutely insanely hard) and Elder Winder was like well, we'd just be running everywhere and talking to literally everyone so I went 'hmm let's try it!' and then we both dropped our bags and left the apartment at 5:20 and ran, like actually ran to the nearest apartments and talked to everyone on the way, and ran in between the apartment buildings taking two or three steps at a time on the stairs. One time I went back to try and get these people who had already said no to take a Book of Mormon like ten minutes after. We went hardcore until 8 (which is when it would be illegal in Finland to solicit) and were so exhausted. But we got out two pass along cards and a book so at least there was that.

Finland's a very interesting place. I definitely love being a missionary, but Finns are very quiet and not much interested in religion. However we press on and even if I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to baptize anyone as a missionary I continue to emulate the Savior and go about doing good. Keep the faith, everyone, and I love you all!

--

Elder Hancock

Us after running through the woods

Sad guitar photo

Week 27 - Kouvola round two

Hello everyone! Probably the most anxiety-inducing thing here this last week was transfer calls, and we are both staying here for another two months but Elder Winder will be the district leader, which means we'll be able to conduct exchanged in Kotka and Lappenranta (which is like 20 miles away from Russia) as well as do some in Mikkeli with the Zone leaders, so that's exciting. I'll also have extended mission leadership conference splits with Elders Krause and Van Buskirk (who were in my MTC group) so good! Split split banana splits.

We had a few lessons this week which was nice, and extended the baptismal invitation to and older couple in one but sadly even though the wife really wants to be baptised AND her husband has received multiple crazy spiritual experiences including miraculous healing and visions in dreams and ACTUALLY HAS A TESTIMONY et cetera he still didn't want to get baptised and won't let his wife either which is dumb. Whatever I'm not bitter. Other than that we met with a guy who hates Americans except for us because we talk about Jesus, so that was fun.

Anyway, not too much. We changed pday to Monday still because tomorrow's transfers and we're having a couple elders hang out with us throughout the day until their comps come from Rovaniemi and Kemi respectively (also the two northernmost branches in Finland, whee) so we'll do splits then too. Weow! 

I hope you all know that I do have a testimony of Jesus Christ. my sufferings are absolute nil compared to his. I love this gospel and the opportunity I have to share it even if people reject it.

Have a great week!

--

Elder Hancock

1 - it's been a misty time lately! 

2 - TREES

Week 26 - life beith a partyeth!

Well helLLLLOOO everyone! This week has truly beeneth a party. 

First! We had Zone Conference in Mikkeli!! I haven't been able to visit a lot of Finland yet having been indungeoned in Helsinki for a while and now an hour and a half northeast in Kouvola, but we just drove through the forest the whole time and it was so pretty!! We also had a wonderful time. 

Also, general conference!!! Good GRAVY a lot of stuff happened! My favorite part was receiving my own revelation from God that President Nelson is the prophet on the earth today. I know now, and I am so excited to see what he does in service for the Lord in the future. Also, shoutout to RUSSIA GETTING A TEMPLEEEEE that is so cool! As well as Layton, where two of my sisters were born! I thought about a certain Kaysville family I know, how awesome!

Funny experience this week! So we had the Kotka Elders over here for two nights to watch conference, and one of the things they did was make me try this Finnish food called Mämmi. My comp said it tasted like a fudge brownie, so I was like yeah bring it on! He dumps like this lump of paste on my plate and man this thing tastes like garbage! I was like what?? Then he said that Mämmi is literally just ground up old rye bread and water, which made sense. Apparently they eat it with a vanilla sauce too and that was okay but I didn't have much of an appetite after that. Also, when the President of the good ole USA came and visited this one time and saw Finns eating it he was like 'someone get these people some food, please!'. The next day this member, Veli Hyvärinen, picked us up for a lunch appointment and he asked if I had had Mämmi yet and I was like yeah that stuff is the pits. He laughed and then at the actual lunch appointment after lunch they came out with this box of Mämmi!! Then Sisar Hyvärinen told this story about some elder that prayed way hard to like this random Finnish food throughout his whole mission and by the end he loved it, and then Veli Hyvärinen was like 'Veli Hancock, you should do the same!!' to which I just said we'll see about that haha.

Anyway, I hope you all know that I know that Christ really did rise again! I hope you all can find your own testimonies of the same thing because it changed my life. I love you all and have a great week!

(PS I put a video of me in my Elder Hancock's Flippin Mission Pics drive folder drinking the vinegar we dyed our eggs with. I don't know why we all did it but we did so.)

--

Elder Hancock

1 - a frozen lake coming back from Mikkeli

 2 - I saw some random guy on our porch

3 - us in aprons slaying eggs