Week 8 - Four Days Left / Congratulations, Bishop

Whhhaaaaallllleeeee it's that time of week again! ELDER HANCOCK HAD ANOTHER GREAT WEEK but IT'S ALL ABOUT TO CHANGE!

Well, I'd better rephrase that. I'm still going to have great weeks buuuuuut four days from now we're heading out to the North Pole Helsinki Mission! I think Santa is a branch president up there, I'll let you know. 

So anyway, this week has been, again, fantastic. I love my life here in the MTC and I can't wait to love it in Finland!

First awesome thing to note! I love the temple! My wonderful girlfriend took out her own endowment last week, which gave me time to reflect on the blessings that come from the House of the Lord. As I sat in the temple this morning I was so amazed at how much love God has for us to give us the ordinances that are in temples. Another principle I learned this week is that charity and love are endowments themselves! In Moroni 7, the prophet Moroni exhorts us to pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart that we may receive this gift ourselves. I've done that numerous times here in the MTC and have definitely seen God's hand in my life, helping me to more perfectly love the people I meet.

The Gift of Tongues works in amazing ways. In Finnish, I know that the word 'meidan' means 'our', but as I listened to my companion give thanks for our investigator in his Finnish prayer last weekend, I heard it as 'your' investigator. I didn't realize that he had actually said 'meidan', not 'sinun' (the word for your) (the words sound completely different) for a few seconds, and then realized that God had just helped me understand a wonderful principle - these are not 'my' investigators, they are God's. They are investigating our God. I knew in my heart, I could feel it, that God had switched my understanding of the word 'meidan' for a couple seconds so I could learn something so valuable to me.

On Sunday a few interesting things happened: 1. Gary Crittenden's devotional helped me recognize some weaknesses of mine - namely, things I hadn't given up out of my past life that I still needed to! 2. I watched Jeffrey R. Holland's 'Missions Are Forever' talk, which was given here at the MTC a while back. It was amazing and taught me to consecrate these precious two years (now 22 months) of my life. 3. I got proclaimed as Most Likely To Be Seen On the News For Climbing Up Somewhere and Preaching About the Book of Mormon (a title I'm infinitely proud of, and definitely going to fulfill).

President Watson (the previous mission president for Finland that was serving while I got my call) came to our residence a couple days ago! I knew he was here serving in a Branch Presidency, and I've been praying for weeks that I would get to talk to him. It was amaaaaaazing and I'm so excited to serve in Finland! He talked to us about our questions/concerns and was an answer to most if not all of our prayers.

The Primary General President, Joy D. Jones, came and gave an amazing devotional this week! A couple takeaways - 1. Her husband said something really amazing. He was talking to a young man who said 'A mission isn't for me'. He replied 'I'm sorry, were you under the impression a mission if for you?' A mission is so not for us as individuals! It's to serve our God and His children! 2. Sister Jones brought up that the last three talks from President Monson have all focused on us being in war, having a last hope, and getting rescued by Priesthood power. I loved it and President Monson is the living prophet on the Earth!

Yesterday we watched a 'play' for In-field Orientation. In Ward Council, the Primary President gave the Bishop a gold star for being 'good', and Elder Sharp in the play immediately got up and shook his hand and said 'Congratulations, Bishop, what an honour!' and then sat back down with the straightest face ever. I laughed the hardest I have in weeks and you all probably think I'm crazy now! Oh well. That made the subject line!

We had our last lesson with Karina and we have one more with Miro. We have grown to love them so so so much and I'm so sad to leave them (even if they aren't 'real'). Love is the greatest thing we can have, my friends.

Keep being amazing, all of you! This Church is true. I know it with all my heart, and I can't wait to go proclaim the glad tidings of great joy in Finland next week.

Love and Godspeed!

Vanhin Hancock

--

Elder Hancock

1 - When it's November and there still isn't snow

 2 - The Elders in our district

 3 - our full district

Week 7 - I Really Don't Like Egg Nog, Sorry

What is UP my people? This week's been great and I'm so excited to tell you all about it!

We started Skype TRC last week, and that was pretty much awesome. Our 'investigator' taped our lesson, so if you want to see my comp and I speaking Finnish, here you go!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ueuQNjz6MYWOOslV9pg9tg5kJuMr16B/view

I hope it works! If not, just imagine that my Finnish is perfect and I looked impressively attractive in that video. Yup. That's totally how it happened.

Aside from my broken Finnish and increased amount of confused looks on my face, Finnish is definitely coming super well. It's all in the gift of tongues, I promise you. I've been reading the Book of Mormon stories book in Finnish and understanding most of it, so I'm proud to announce that my Finnish reading skills are approaching those of a young child. *bows*

I used the ghostbuster vacuum in service last week! Whoever said missions weren't fun was a complete liar, I swear. Best day of my life.

I played a musical number in sacrament meeting, accompanying a Swede on the violin who left on Monday. That was cool. Music brings in the Spirit so well! (if it's good music)

 I watched the Testaments movie last Sunday. Man, it was good! 10/10 would recommend.

Cool experience! So on Monday I was working on our TALL language program for so long (I did about 100 words) and it just kept going and going and no one else in the lab was working on it but the gift of tongues only activates when you work! So I kept working until 9:00 pm like we should be as hard as I could, and when we took the elevator down we were talking with our teacher in Finnish and someone asked him what his major was. He responded in ridiculously fast Finnish that no one understood, but somehow I understood that he said 'I'm majoring in international relations' and no one else got a word of it! I also had no idea what he said (i.e. I couldn't repeat it back to you) but the phrase just directly translated in my head, and I was like, 'wow, international relations!' right after he said it and he was really impressed. Gift of tongues is real, my friends! That was awesome.

Also, for the Tuesday devotional, Elder Nielsen (the previous BYU quarterback in like the 70's) and he brought Janice Kapp Perry (who wrote We'll Bring the World His Truth and I think the music for As Sisters in Zion). That was awesome. She was soooooo funny, all she wanted to talk about was football and Elder Nielsen was like 'what is going on' and she brought her signed football and refused to talk about hymns for like five minutes so she could talk about how much she loved BYU football. I love that woman. Elder Nielsen talked about how important the Book of Mormon was. Hey all of you, did you know that the last thing President Monson said in conference was that we should read the Book of Mormon every day? Well, he did. Are you? I certainly hope so. If not, start today. Read that book every day. I promise that you'll be blessed for following the words of the prophet. Please do so.

We got our flight plans this week! We leave on December 4th (ten days) and fly from Salt Lake to Dallas, then to London, then to Helsinki! So basically yo boi is going to England in ten days wazzup. I'll get some pictures.

We taught Karina that day! We talked about how faith is a principle of action. You can have all the belief in the world but if you don't do anything about it what gives? You aren't going to get anything from it. Act! You'll be blessed! I certainly am!

okay then but THANKSGIVING THOUGH!!!!! 1. My sister turned 13. Wooo! 2. Elder Bednar came and gave the best devotional ever. 3. We did service packaging food for hungry children. 4. We watched Love, Kennedy (best movie ever) and I fell apart bawling. Four times. 5. The Nashville Tribute BAND (whaat?) came and gave a concert (whaaaaaaattt???) 6. They turned on the Christmas lights here and they are SO PRETTY!!!!! And played a bunch of music! 7. We had egg nog during our thanksgiving lunch and it was pretty awful, so I guess that happened. (I don't know why out of all the subject lines I chose that, but that's what you get). 8. I brought in one of the band member's mother! (she thought Finland was basically Ukraine, and having been there I had to sort of help her out with the difference, but she was super nice) 9. I bought some Powerade! (okay I'm done)

THE SPIRIT IS REAL AND CHRIST DIED FOR US AND I LOVE THE CHURCH READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY AND YOU'LL BE BLESSED I LOVE YOU ALL!

--

Elder Hancock

Week 6 - I Can't Think of a Subject Line Because All Our Days Are Pretty Much The Same

Not that that's a bad thing, though. Every day in the MTC is awesome, and full of hard work and progression. I have a little less time today so I think this is the week I'll transition from daily summaries to highlights of my week.

So every day my Finnish continues to improve, which is interesting to see. Comparing my ability to before I left for the MTC, my ability has skyrocketed. It's not an easy language, certainly (Sister Martino, the MTC president's wife, said it's the hardest one here) but it's so much more logical than English. All I can say is that it's a language that once you pass the point of understanding, it just all makes sense. I love it. I've gotten to the point where I don't think I'd really feel the need to speak English if I went to Finland right now, because I can say pretty much everything I want to in Finnish now, it's just the understanding of native Finns that worries me a bit (although, my I-don't-understand-what-you-were-saying-please-repeat-as-if-I-were-a-three-year-old face has certainly improved as well).

I finished the Book of Mormon on Saturday, then decided that I would read it in every spare moment I got (which aren't very many, as you might have noticed) and see how long it would take me to read. I ended up finishing (I didn't intend that as a pun, I get that at least five times a day, please don't take it as one) the Book of Mormon in two and a half days. It was wonderful and having the flow of the story rather than spreading it out between a few months was so cool. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon like that before, I challenge you to do so. That book has so much power and blessings just waiting to be unleashed.

Our investigators have experienced a lot of growth. Improved Finnish means improved decorum, less fishing around for words, and much less sounding like a monkey. An actual monkey. Ooh ooh, aah aah. We've been having actual discussions with these people and helping them understand that Heavenly Father truly loves them. It's wonderful to see the change in people when they realize how much the Gospel can bless them. 

The Danish missionaries left this week. They came in the same time as us, and we were really close. That was sad. Elder Anderson, if you're reading this, I love you. I forgot to get the rest of their emails. Tills vi ses igen!

I seem to play the piano in sacrament every week for some part of the service. Blessing or a curse? Hmm. I'll choose the former!

If you know Do-young Park, he was my best friend in 3rd grade, and he's here! He's serving in California, speaking Cambodian!

In other news, Elder Parrella of the Seventy (I think he spoke in General Conference this last October) (I just checked and he did) gave the devotional on Tuesday and it was amazing. He said just what I needed to hear.

I love you all, have a great week! I'll send a few pictures later, we're about to gob mob the lunch room.

--

Elder Hancock

1 - They love me so much they named a building after me!

2 - Elder Skinner snagged a picture of me in the lab. *jazz hands*

3 - The exercise crew! 

4 - The Finns & the Danes 5

Week 5 - FREE GOLD and PRESIDENT NELSON!!!

Joo, jos se ei ole suosikkini ihmiset!

This week has flown by! The MTC is great, I think David Archuleta is singing with us in a couple weeks, but we'll hear about that later!

Last Thursday I got my first haircut here! It was fine, I guess, and free, so there you go!

On Friday I gave the sermon on the bed! I talked about the time I was saved from drowning in Hawaii and then related it to a time I was figuratively saved from drowning, it was nice. I also did a flip, so, uh, there you go. We taught Miro and got him to commit to come to church!

Saturday was great, we got to show Miro around the 'church' and had just an all-around fun day!

On Sunday I passed the sacrament, which was a fun throwback, and bore my testimony. Our choir director gave the devotional, which was awesome, because he's a seminary teacher who really knows his stuff and he's super funny. He talked about William W. Phelps and how we came to the Church, had one tiny problem that grew to a huge deal to him, left the Church, wrote a whole ton of fake testimonies against Joseph Smith accusing him of murder and blackmail, which got Joseph Smith thrown into Liberty Jail, and then later William W. Phelps was just completely broken when the missionaries found him, and he wrote a letter to Joseph apologizing for the awful things he'd done, and Joseph welcomed him back completely with the most genuine, kind letter I've ever seen. William W. Phelps came back to the Church and was one of Joseph Smith's best friends. After Joseph Smith was martyred at Carthage, he wrote the song 'Praise to the Man'. After Brother Egett's devotional, we watched the Restoration movie. I appreciate the life of Joseph Smith so much more know. He was one of the kindest people to walk this earth, never seeking for his own gain, ever. He got tarred and feathered multiple times, so many of his children died, never ever got rich, and died for what he knew was true. I loved that movie. One of my favorite sayings from him was "My mission is to testify of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives." It's so simple and yet so applicable to my life now.

On Monday we had Chick-fil-A! Woo! And During volleyball I kept spiking the ball so hard I had this huge bruise on my wrist, so rip to me. Also shoutout to Oliver and Andrew! I saw them working on their case all the time and they work so hard, so it's awesome to see that their work is paying off. And great job to the rest of the debate team! Whee! Monday was when I heard about all that. Anyway, so we taught Miro and the Spirit threw us off of our lesson plan completely, and we ended up to where he said that he knew the Church was true, wanted to follow Christ's example, and get baptized! Wooo!!! The Spirit was so strong and it brought back the full baptismal invitation in Finnish to my memory. I loved it. 

Tuesday it snowed! Yay! I've missed snow so much, I love it. I've only ever lived in Utah, Minnesota, Idaho, and now Finland coming up in three weeks and four days, so I was pretty happy. I'm going to miss snow machining but every thing has their season. (if you got that reference and why it was funny, I love you. hint: Ecclesiastes) So that night, choir seemed to be a little more special than normal, and it turned out that was because PRESIDENT NELSON CAME AND SPOKE TO US!!! He has like 120 great-grandchildren, did you know that? He was really fun about it and spoke about how we're living epistles of Christ. His wife also referenced the chain on the Baltic Way that was made when the Berlin Wall fell, stretching from Lithuania through Latvia up into Estonia's capital, Tallinn, which is about fifty miles from Helsinki, so nice shoutout to the Baltics there. She spoke about how we make a chain of covenants, it was awesome. 

Wednesday I hosted Sister Ashley Burt! It was crazy because Elders hardly ever host Sisters, only when we're completely out of Sisters to help host, so I got told to go take a Sister car and I saw it was from 1M and was like, hey, maybe I know them! Yeah, so it was Sister Burt, who I've known since like 3rd grade, so that was cool. I thought a lot that day about D&C 4, talking about serving with all your heart, might, mind and strength. I heard a lot about the new Thor movie, and we were talking about it in our dorm. I think that if you're on your mission and wish that you could watch a movie you couldn't then you're doing your mission wrong. I love being a missionary! My life is amazing and there's nowhere I'd rather be, except maybe in the field. ;) We taught at the TRC for the last time last night before we start Skyping Finns and it was great!

I was able to do initiatories today and I loved it! I love this gospel and this mission and I know it's true! I love you all! Email me, I love hearing from you!

Rakkaudella, 

Vanhin Hancock

--

Elder Hancock

1 - Icelandic to Finnish conversion chart that I made! 

2 - Elder Ames drew a picture of me.

 3 - another mountain picture

From Mom: Sister Ashley Burt's mom texted me this picture of Elder Hancock meeting Sis. Burt to walk her in to the MTC.  How fun to see an old friend!

Week 4 - Rauha! Yksi rakkaus!

Hello, everyone!

The subject line means 'peace, one love'. I heard one of my teachers throw it out this week and I loved it so there you go!

Every day Finnish gets easier and Finnish gets harder, so sorry if I start making weird sentences or something in advance!

Last Friday I went to the health center and got some medicine - pseudophedarine, some random prescription, some other bottle of pills I forgot about, and uh, another one. I don't know why I remembered Sudafed. Oh well! 

Saturday I started feeling better, probably because of the medicine. I learned 60 Finnish words that day! The next two days were spent learning about ten and reviewing those 60. I love Finnish, did I mention that? I have a really weird pseudo-Finnish accent now that I can't get to go away, so speaking in the English language sounds strange sometimes.

Sunday was beautiful! I got released from my position as District Leader (three week rotations), got our sacrament meeting moved to T4 (the big new building), played in Sacrament, watched the video Legacy with our zone (we all lost it), strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith being Christ's prophet, and my favorite part, Mitch Davis gave our devotional! He directed the Other Side of Heaven. He talked about how missionaries need to Get Called, Get Courage, and Get Lost! It was wonderful and we got to see a couple clips of the Other Side of Heaven as well.

Monday I was even less sick yay! We learned of our new investigator Karina, which was great! We also got to teach Miro again that day.

Tuesday was amazing. I slept so well, and then the day was great and then Elder Christensen from the Seventy Presidency gave the devotional! In our discussion after, I got so pumped for missionary work that I was literally bouncing up and down in my chair and since I can't go out and tell people in Finland that the Church is true yet I ran around the MTC and told everyone I saw that the Book of Mormon is true!! I got some weird looks but I don't care because I know it's true and I would legitimately die testifying of it (although I hope it doesn't come to that). 

Yesterday was great too. Some people in my zone started talking about awkward date stories and I felt so strange hearing them, like, going on dates is such a thing of the past for me now. I know my purpose, I know what I need to know, I know what I need to do to get there, and I know that I love Christ! I'm so glad I'm serving a mission, this has been the best month of my life. 

A month! Wow. That's crazy, I'm serving a 23 month mission now! And I'm loving every minute of it. I've matured more this past month than I did my whole senior year, and I've loved putting who I am into God's hands so He can make of me what I need to become.

I love you all! Suomalainen kieli on niin mahtava, mä rakastan se. Mä just haluan olla Suomessa, mutta mä tiedän että mä täytyy ole tassa... nyt varten. Rauha, yksi rakkaus!

--

Elder Hancock

 

Week 4 Pictures:

1 - Me, Vanhin Skinner, and the Danish Elders (Ældste Danielson-Jensen and Ældste Anderson ) at the temple today!

2 - Moroni 10:4-5 suomeksi!

 3 - I was a witch for about three seconds on Halloween. Creepy, eh?