Missionary Testimony Meeting

Hey everyone! Things are going good here in O-burg! Hopefully we will be able to have a baptism this week, we are really hoping that our investigator will be ready for it, but as of now we are playing it by ear. We got a message this week from the Assistants saying that everyone in West Columbia and in the Upstate needs to meet in Newberry on Sunday for a special meeting. No one knew what was going on so we all just obeyed and left for Newberry after church on sunday. We arive there at about 2 and the meeting started at 2 30. President McConkie got up and told us that this was a special testimony meeting, and that he want each and everyone of us (about 70 missionaries total) to get up and share what we know to be true. What ensued was probably one of the most spiritual experiences i have ever had. The meeting lasted about 5 hours and everyone had the chance to get up and share their testimony. The spirit was there as strong as i have ever felt it and it was probably one of the best days on my mission. I hope everyone is doing well though and i love all of y'all! Remember Preach like a Champion - Elder Hancock

Ghetto Ghetto!

Hey everyone! The last few weeks have been really really hectic so i havent really had a chance to update the blog. But im now in Orangeburg! It is the infamous spot in the mission for ghetto, but it is really fun. We talk to a ton of crazy people everyday. Right now we have a baptism set up for the 21st of May and its looking really good. Her name is Hedda, she is from the Bronx in New York and she moved down here to be with her mom who is a member of the church. She has excepted everything that we have taught to her and she is awesome so my companion and I cant wait for her baptism. Things are going great though and its really starting to heat up now, im not too excited for the summer haha. I hope everyone has an awesome week, Love Y'all! - Elder Hancock

Transfer Call!

Well transfer calls came this week and im shipping out! I have no idea where im going but as always im praying to go to the Charleston area haha. And once we get to July ill be praying to go to the Augusta Georgia stake. Everything is going well here, we have a baptism lined up for this week and im sad that im going to miss it. We have alot of cool people that are progressing well right now and that are close to baptism. So this will be a big week for the family! Im getting transferred and the royal wedding will be happening haha. I hope everything goes good there and im sure you will be seeing me in some form at the wedding ;) The temple last week was awesome, that was the first time ive been there in about 9 months so i needed it. Hopefully ill be back soon! I hope everyone has an awesome week though and Riley and Colby i sure do love ya! - Elder Hancock

Miracles!

Well the weather has been crazy here! last week we were hitting about 75 degrees and then out of nowhere it dropped down to 40 degrees yesterday and it hast gotten any better. You have to love the south! Oh and it hasnt stopped raining for the past 2 days, I love it! Some awesome work is happening here in the Florence zone. We got a Media Referral earlier this week that was in Darlington, which is about 20 miles away so we decided to go check it out on saturday. We went and knocked on the door and Carol, our media referral, answered. We found out that she found a pass along card in a phone booth so she decided to call the number. She is now preparing to get baptized on the 16th. She came to church on Sunday and loved it. We are really excited about all the miracles that are happening here in Florence. We expecting transfer call here in a couple of weeks and it looks like i will be shipping out. But anything can happen with President McConkie so we will wait and see. Well i hope everything is going good for everyone! thanks for all the prayers and everything you do! - Elder Hancock

Burch Family Baptism

Hey everyone, the last couple of weeks has been very hectic! We have been getting everything ready for the baptism and we had zone conference last week. It has been a very quick last couple of weeks. I found out last monday night that i am the District Leader now for Florence so that was a surprise, to me at least haha. President apologized for telling me a little bit late, but everything is working out great here. The baptism went amazing on Saturday, i baptized Tj and Sha'dai (pronounced like Shawty, im not even kidding haha) and Elder Esplin baptized Raquel. I was able to confirm Sha'dai on sunday and it was just an awesome weekend. Sunday night we were out tracting and it was about 8:30 and we werent in a very good part of town, but we felt prompted to go and knock on a couple of trailers that were near us. The second one we knocked on ended up being a family of 5 who are now preparing to be baptized on the 2nd of April. The family had said that they were praying for someone to come and help them, the dad stopped us during the lesson and said " You two have something, what is it? You have something in your eyes and i want to have it too." It was just an amazing lesson. Miracles happen everyday and we are defiantly seeing them here in Florence. I hope everyone is doing good and everything is going well with everyones families, i love y'all and im thankful for all of your prayers! - Elder Hancock

SCCM Miracle!

Well its been a hectic last couple of weeks, but we finally find the family that was prepared for us to baptize. We found the Burch family a couple of weeks ago and they are amazing! Raquel is the mom, Sha'dai is the daughter and she is 14 and T.J is 12. They came to a church tour the day after we met them and we invited them to be baptized and they accepted it. They came to church 2 weeks ago but they werent able to make it this last week because Sha'dai was sick, so they are now getting baptized on the 12 of march. Transfer calls came last Saturday and im staying in Florence and Elder Greear is being transferred. We are going to have a Zone Leader companionship here in Florence so i will be with a Zone leader for the next 6 weeks so he can train me for leadership. His name is Elder Esplin, and he is from Mt. Carmel Utah, we call him the Abercrombie and Fitch model because he looks like a Ken doll haha. Im really excited though, the next six weeks will be great, I hope everyone has an awesome week!
- Elder Hancock

Things are going good right now, after about 8 weeks of knocking on doors we found the family i was sent to florence to find. Its a mom and her son and daughter. Raquel, TJ and Shawdai. They are AMAZING! We took them on a church tour last tuesday and committed them to be baptized on the 5th. They all accepted and came to church on sunday and they LOVED it. Raquel said that this is the first place she feels comfortable, and the kids love it, TJ is 12 and Shawdai is 14. Im so excited for their baptism. Elder Caldwell is baptizing a family this week that i have taught with him a few times, so everything is going great! I love that kid (Elder Jackson Cole Caldwell) haha. You'll love him just like you love me. We are short on time so ill probably come back this week and email you a little bit more. WE love you, meaning me and Elder Caldwell :) ------ Love, Elder Hancock and Caldwell (Your Elders)