St. George is amazing! — Leslie Hancock Real Estate

Elder and Sister (Denny & Leslie) Hancock in front of the St. George Temple

Dear friends and family,

On October 1st we arrived at our mission location here in St. George. It has been an amazing 3 weeks and we have loved every minute of it! We have worked hard to learn the history of the area as quickly as possible. As temple square based missionaries we rotate daily working 6 days a week at either the Temple Visitor’s Center or one of the three historic sites; the Brigham Young home, the Tabernacle and the Jacob Hamblin home. It has been such a sweet experience to be able to share so easily with people we barely know about our love for the Lord and his love for them, about the power of prayer and God’s word. While we are doing our best, we still have much to learn. Thankfully we have witnessed firsthand that the Lord works his miracles through the simple and weak.

The St. George and outlying areas are beautiful! We are surrounded by red rock cliffs that make the sky bluer than I’ve ever seen it. The city of 80,000 residents is laid out with 60-90’ wide grid like streets just like Salt Lake City. Everything spans out North or South from Tabernacle Street and East or West from Main street. It’s so easy to find anything, even without GPS. We are within walking distance of downtown which is DARLING with a plethora of art galleries(mostly pioneer art), boutiques (mostly antique or 2nd hand shops) a center square park and lots of little restaurants which we walk or bike to. Bakeries are on almost every corner that specialize in cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies or some other old-fashioned but yummy dessert. The best part…..absolutely No Traffic! We are taking full advantage of our day off each week. So far we’ve hiked in Zion’s Park, Snow Canyon and biked an 18 mile loop along the Santa Clara River, and Denny snuck in 9 holes of golf on a ½ day with a fellow missionary. Who said missions had to be tough!

The apartment we live in is right across the street from the Visitor’s Center where we work and have our weekly training meetings. When we first walked in we knew it was smaller than the 700 sq ft we’d heard. Turns out it’s just 476 sq ft!! The space is incredibly efficient though. We can walk across our main room in 5 steps which means we can greet our guests at the front door after one knock. If we fall asleep on the couch we can sleep walk to our bed in 4 steps, and if we need more milk during dinner, we can just rotate our chair to open the refrigerator. It’s all very convenient! The biggest challenge was figuring out how to hang both sets of clothes in a 5’ wide closet. I decided to just narrow things down and rotate when needed, so it makes choosing what we wear each day very easy! We’ve put out bed on risers and packed Denny’s 3 guitar cases and our luggage underneath and we’ve used our pantry and the back of most doors in the most unusual of ways. In all seriousness though, we are actually in love with our little home!

A little more detail on the sites we work at:

The Visitor’s Center is special because it is here that the young sister missionaries work. Currently we have 22 single sisters between 19-23 years of age who are literally from the 4 corners of the world. Some of the countries include Africa, Tonga, Switzerland, Marshall Islands, Taiwan, Australia, Mongolia, France, and Brazil to name a few. All together, they represent 14 different languages! One sister is from the island of Kerabass and prior to her mission had never been off the island! Many have sacrificed much to be here. They come with great faith and work long hours. They are up at 6:30, often studying for 2 hours before they head out and generally not finished with their assignments until after 9pm. I have so much love and respect for them. Two weeks ago were “transfers” which happen every 6 weeks in this mission. Transfers means that some missionaries just change companionships, others transfer out of the Visitor’s Center to be in the field, others are heading home after 18 months of dedicated service. I spoke with one of the sisters who was going home to Ecuador. I asked her what had been the hardest part of her mission. With tear filled eyes she told me, “Going home”. It was clear to see she had put her heart and soul in to serving. It’s such a lesson to all of us on the joy that comes through service. After the Visitor’s Center was closed, but before the sisters went home for the evening, a few of them began to sing. Soon they were all singing in their angel voices. I felt so moved by their sweet spirits and couldn’t help but picture my daughter, Minta, who served this same mission 9 years ago sitting among them.

I love being at the Tabernacle as well and Denny particularly loves it because he can play the piano when we don’t have visitors! Here at the Tabernacle we share about the families who were called to the St. George area on what was called the “cotton mission”. Their story is one of great sacrifice and pure grit.

Walking through the Brigham Young home gives you a glimpse back in time. It has beautiful period furniture and tells its own story of pioneer living. Brigham Young, who was called by George Bernard Shaw “The modern day Moses” led the Latter Day Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois across the plains and into the Salt Lake Valley settling more than 400 communities before he died.

If I had a favorite site to sit though, it would probably be the Jacob Hamblin home. Jacob was a stalwart member of the church and a great frontiersman, but he is best known as the Peacemaker to the Native Americans. He is responsible for dozens of treaties not just between the Indians and the white man but between warring Indian tribes. It can be said that he personally was responsible for saving thousands of lives. He served for 32 years among the Native Americans in Utah, Arizona, Mexico and New Mexico he learned more than 7 different native languages. He is most famous for the Treaty of Point Defiance, and for leading Major John Wesley Powell on a survey of the grand canyon. It is again so inspiring to realize what one man did towards the cause of peace.

There is so much more amazing historical detail surrounding each of these sites which we would personally love to share with you when you come to visit! Speaking of visitors……. we were thrilled to have the Pinkstons, Lori Crowshaw and Lou Ann Mackay visit.

Although it is getting a bit cooler in the evenings, the sun continues to shine. It is easy to see why there are so many snowbirds here in St. George.

We continue to feel so blessed to be in such a beautiful area amongst so many wonderful people. We miss you all and hope you are finding joy in your lives as well.

God bless you always,

Denny and Leslie aka Elder and Sister Hancock