MTC 4

sao paulo

We went proselyting this week on the streets and it was insane; it was kind of like New York, but things were a lot more spread out and not as smashed together.  We didn't end up talking to too many people just because all I can do is pretty much talk about Jesus and the scriptures so we couldn't really do much just talking, but everyone in Brazil is super nice and just would come up to us and want to talk to us and help us practice Portuguese so we pretty much just had to walk around till people would talk to us instead of needing to talk to someone first.  We did meet some Jehovah's Witnesses. That was fun, we pretty much just reached a general consensus that God loves everybody and then stopped talking.
The MTC is super awesome. [Isaac keeps talking about how great the food is so Brian asked more about it:] Yes, the food is buffet style, but not like Old Country Buffet because the food is actually super good, and I always get beans and rice because that is actually super tasty. 
Also everyday when our district goes to check the mail we gather around the little box and sing a song while snapping about getting a letter. We all forgot the Blue's Clues mail song so if you could send that to me that would be perfect.  However, none of us have ever gotten mail except Elder Palmer, our district leader, who got two letters, and one of them was sent on Halloween so they take about 3 weeks to get to Brazil. 
Mom, you know how you said I wouldn't have a companion that would just give me free back rubs? Well, there is an Elder in my district that took like a massage class or something so he will give me free back rubs and they are pretty good.  He is pretty sweet. I found out he is going to Utah State too, so that is cool.  He and I also have a handshake where we do the hand signs for fire ball jitsu from Naruto with each other's hands so that is sweet. However, he said the best anime is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood which I haven't seen, but I think William has. 
Which reminds me, the Brazilians going to Japan that can talk a little English watch anime too so we had like a 2 hour long conversation using my limited Portuguese and their limited English and both of our random Japanese phrases we can scream from the show to talk about them. They said there are lots of good anime I have not seen yet too, so I guess when I get home I will have lots of shows to watch. 
Every Sunday we get to watch a movie so we watched Legacy and The Testaments. In both of them there is a really cheesy love story, and since all the missionaries are suffering withdrawal from not being able to watch movies, like every time something happens people will scream and hoot and holler or yell "friend zoned" so it's pretty great. 
We did get turkey for Thanksgiving, Dad; it was pretty nice to be reminded of home. We also had a special devotional from Elder Bednar that we watched live that was really good. He basically did a question answer thing and it was really nice. He talked a lot about how we don't teach people the gospel, the Spirit does. Our job is to help people feel the Spirit and the Spirit will verify the truth.  We also watched a good devo[tional] from Elder Holland, and one of my favorite things he said was that we don't have any scriptures of Jesus laughing and joking around, although he is sure that Jesus did laugh. However, there are lots of scriptures of him weeping, and on our missions there will probably be lots of weeping and we will weep for the people that won't accept the truth or the gospel because of how sad we will be for them. 
It is awesome here. I love you guys so much. Keep having fun lives.

 [In response to a comment I made, "I am delighted how confident you are and how excited you are to be in a completely new place where you don't know anyone or anything! That would terrify me. Also I'm so glad you see how right this is for you when leaving (family and friends) behind was a very hard thing for you, and you still chose the right path for you. You are (a) very strong and inspirational (person) to me. I love you." Isaac said the following:]
Thanks mom, you are the best. I will keep trying to stay inspirational. Things are still kind of hard not being at home or with Eryn or with friends but the Spirit definitely helps. Another thing Holland said is how much the Gift of the Holy Ghost isn't used; we literally have a member of the Godhead with equal testimony and power of Jesus Christ and of God as our constant companion and we don't use it enough. I love that so much because I definitely never thought of it that way before.

The Alpaca scripture case

MTC 3

Hey guys,

I survived.  I don't really have much to say this week because we are always very scheduled.  We wake up early and have language class pretty much all day.  It's interesting to see how well I am actually picking up the language. I definitely am not fluent, but I definitely am gaining knowledge. We have to teach people in just Portuguese and I can actually have a conversation and talk with them and kind of adjust off of what was planned if needed.  The only problem is when you know what they asked and you know how to answer them in English, but in Portuguese I just end up saying something like, "well I know it's very very very important."  

Elder Hackleman's throat did get better, but we had to go back for different antibiotic medicine with a prescription from the doctor.  

The food here is absolutely amazing, but I do really just want some McDonald's fries.  

Also from riding the buses I realized that Sawyer would fit right into driving, but Matt Hempe would never set foot near a road. I think I almost died riding the bus places.  Which reminds me when we were getting our passports verified there was one lady with a mug where she just had like random guys' passport photos taped on it if they were attractive so I asked if I could be on it, and I don't know if she understood my English or not, but I hope I make the cut.  

Also the power goes out quite a bit and if it stays out the AC doesn't work and then things get miserable.  

Everyone in my district is pretty awesome, but we do have a little trouble staying on task and actually studying, but our district leader is really good and we all come up with pretty productive goals.  I did have to be separated from Elder Santos for volleyball because we were so good. Now that we can kind of communicate and plan stuff we aren't allowed to be on the same team anymore. 

Today we went to the temple again which was as amazing as ever, but we had to do the second session and then the gates were locked so we couldn't make it to the buses and now we are just getting back at 3:30. P-day ends at 5 so we will probably have like no time to walk around to stores and stuff and I needed to stop by the post office to mail letters and buy stamps.  

I also bought a Quad in Portuguese to fit the llama case I got so I am excited to start reading that and marking that and hopefully reading both English and Portuguese scriptures side by side will help me learn the language.  We are supposed to go proselyting right outside the MTC this Saturday so I hope I can actually talk to regular Brazilian people and understand them but we will see.  Also sacrament meetings are all in Portuguese so I really never have any idea what the speakers are saying but I think I may have to give a talk myself soon so I want to prepare one in English and translate it now just so I can be prepared.  I'll send all my pictures when I get into the field.

Love,

Elder Holcomb  

MTC 2

Dear people,

I only have 45 min to write everybody emails so if I don´t respond to you today I am sorry, I'll try to get back to you next week.  

This week has been a huge adventure. Micheal Phelps, we just saw. The police station story is basically the bus driver wouldn't let me get on the bus and then made everyone wait, took my passport, and led me to the police station. I was like, "what the heck is going on?" Then we waited there for like 30 min and then they gave me my passport back and we left and I have no idea what happened because everything was in Portuguese.

The MTC [missionary training center] has been a blast.  The food is amazing and so are all the people.  I am in a three way companionship while I am here. The first is Elder Hackleman, the Nebraskan that is absolutely obsessed with basketball and did show choir in high school so I always sit next to him during choir so when he harmonizes I sound good.  He also has this really cool pen trick that is really sweet but I can't really describe; it's cool though.  The second is Elder Larsen from Arizona who loves mechanics and building things and shooting things in his backyard.  They are both really fun and great to hang around with.  Our roommates are Elder Fariez and Elder Melo who are both from Brazil learning Japanese for their missions and are here for 9 weeks.  Fariez speaks pretty good English too, so it is great to work on our Portuguese with him at night.  Speaking of which it's amazing how much Portuguese I already know. Our second day we had to teach someone a lesson about the gospel in Portuguese and it was terrible, but I at least understood him a little, and we have done that every night since and now we can hold decent conversation and I can bear my testimony and pray.   

Dad, to answer your question the hardest adjustment has to be the toilet paper and showering with bugs.  The toilet paper comes out like Kleenexes so you can't just unroll the amount you want, and the bugs are water proof so you can't wash them down the drain but at least they don't bite.  

When we got here we had a devotional and they said, "obedience brings blessings, but perfect obedience brings miracles."  I guess I have been perfect because I definitely have had miracles. For one, I actually sound OK when I sing in choir, and the second is I am actually good at basketball because one of the rules is you can't jump (not sure why that is a rule), but it throws everyone else off and then my skills are on par with theirs.  However volleyball is where my true skill lies.  Me and Elder Santos are an epic duo no one can defeat. We can't even speak to each other because we don't speak each other's language but the team chemistry is so real nothing can stop us.  

Elder Hackelman had a really sore throat so we went to the help desk and the doctor wasn't here and the lady only spoke Portuguese so we had to try and communicate but it wasn't working so eventually she wrote something down on a sheet of paper, led us outside, pointed across the street, said, "muito bem" and went back inside. We weren't sure what to do, but we just went across the street and there was this weird pharmacy place. We weren't sure what to do because the store shop owner didn't speak English so we just grabbed our throats and made moaning noises and eventually he went in the back and grabbed us some meds and took the paper which apparently meant we didn't need to pay and then we left.  So we hope the meds are what we need and he doesn't die.  

The city is amazing everything is like crammed together and the city is so packed. I have pictures but I cant send them until I get into the field in 6 weeks or else the WiFi will crash.  

The temple is absolutely amazing. It is so beautiful and huge. The only problem was lots of everything was in Portuguese but since I was a temple worker and had everything memorized I ended up being okay. 

 Oh, and also today I bought a nice scripture case from a lady from Peru outside that has a llama on it, but it might be an alpaca because "their ain't no pack in alpaca."  Also next week when we go to the temple I am going to buy a Portuguese quad to put in my new scripture case from the church distribution center they have there. [Quad is a set of scriptures including 1-the Old Testament, 2-The New Testament, 3-The Book of Mormon, 4-Doctrine and Covenants]

My district is so amazing we all have so much fun. We spend all day quoting Nacho Libre and trying to learn Portuguese.  It's so amazing to wake up everyday and have a giant scripture study with them and everyone shares what they learned during personal study and it is just awesome to hear all of their testimonies and why they are serving missions.  It's amazing to just have the entire day jam packed with the Spirit and everyone is always so happy.  Another thing they said in the devotional is that the MTC is one place where the Spirit is most powerful second to only the temple and my first thought was, "yeah right it is a bunch of 18 and 19 year old boys" but After this first week I can definitely say that is true. I don't think I have felt this much spirit in my life. I am learning and growing so much and I am so glad for deciding to serve a mission.   

 

     

MTC 1

I made it safe didn´t die yet.  I dont have much time and this keyboard is in portuguese so sorry about spelling.  It was crazy Micheal Phelps was on our flight and when we got there aperantly something was wrong with my passport so I got sent to the police department.  It was crazy ill probably tell you more when I have more time.  My P day is Wednesday but it wont be tomorrow because I just saw you yesterday so wait till next week.  Also I cant send pictures because the internet here is terrible so wait until I am in the feild.  I will still send pictures though.  Also the city was huge like it was nothing and then just skyscrapers for miles.  I have a three way companionship and we live on the top floor and have to walk up the stairs so I guess that will be good excersise.  Also MTC email time is short so I will porbably take pictures of emails read them in my room and then respond the next week.  So tell people that if they emailed me I wont respond until next week.  Love you all sorry about the spelling this keyboard is confusing.