Augusto Montenegro 9

Dear people,
This week was fun.  We had Zone conference* again this week and I decided to wear my nice shoes and pants and look super chic chic so that was fun. However on the way back we were walking along the road, and the island in the middle of the road is like a ditch so we were walking on the inside of the island, and I ended up slipping and falling into the ditch and fully immersed myself in dirty water full of trash.  I think my shoes and clothes survived but it was still funny.
This week we also found like a miracle investigator to teach. He just let us in and was like, "talk to me." He like loves studying religion and he said he has gone to lots of different religions and studied them all, but he doesn't feel like any of them are the church that Christ established/being directed by Christ.  But one day he wants to find the truth.  So we were like, "yeah we will teach you what we believe" and talked to him about The Restoration.  He knows the Bible like crazy so I was thankful for actually going to seminary every morning. He brought up the whole, in Apocalypse ( I forgot the English name but I think Revelations) it says it's the last revelation, so why do we believe in the Book of Mormon and a prophet that receives revelation today if the Bible says it ends there?  So I was also grateful for Sister Sanders and Holker preparing me for that one. Revelations basically is the last book in The Bible but wasn't the last one to be written so that kind of disproves the whole thing.
He had lots of questions, but did end up going to church on Sunday and said he liked it.  It was huge that he actually went to church because like I said before, Brazilians aren't the best with appointments and usually no one ends up going to church even if they say they will Saturday night.  He is pretty cool and likes to help me learn more Portuguese so that is fun.
Also at church the Sunday school teacher didn't show up so usually that means the missionaries teach, so my companion, but this time my companion was like, "you have to do it." and I was like, "I don't know enough Portuguese to teach people and talk for an hour."  However it ended up working out fine and people participated so I ended up being able to take up the whole hour; so that was a blessing of the gift of tongues because people actually understood me. [see also: gift of tongues]
Also me and my companion made our house look like it was robbed this week and then hid in the closet and waited for the other Elders to get back. It was so funny when they did because they freaked out and were like, "we have been robbed!" and the one other American just was like, "man... does that mean we have to clean this up?"  I have pictures, it was funny.  We cleaned after so it is super clean now, you can feel the Spirit. The new American bore his testimony in really broken down Portuguese about how when you have a clean organized space you feel the spirit better. It sounded something like, "casa.... limpa.. eu feel mais espirito."  And it was great because it's true you can feel the Spirit more when things are organized and clean.  Also I really want to paint because the walls are a white and gross because of scuff marks and dirt and stuff, and Sister Stasevskas says you can paint so I will just need to convince my companions to paint on a p-day.
Love you guys so much!
Also the other picture is of my new study friend.  Also I ate tongue for the first time. It was actually pretty tasty. I don't know why it gets hate​.

*Zone conference is when all the missionaries in one stake, or location, get together for instruction from the mission president.

Augusto Montenegro 8

Hello,

This week wasn't too eventful, but I did see a man with a Jedi braid so that was cool. I have only heard of people joking about growing one out, but this man had one, and it was cool.  Also lots of people have like their own water tower here so that is cool, but the other day I felt kind of stupid as I finally realized why water towers were water towers and why they are located on hills. I was like "woah, it all makes sense now. I know the purpose of life."   I just remembered that Elder Kaiser worked for a plumber before his mission and said when you learn the basics plumbing is actually kind of simple because it all is just physics and working with gravity, and then I saw the tall water towers and was like, "oh it all makes sense."
Carnival ended. We talked to lots of drunk people though, so hopefully we will check up with them when they are sober.  

This week Fabio called up and was like "yo, I want to be baptized this Friday no matter what." We were like, "umm sweet, sure we can make that happen." So we prepared everything and then an hour before he was like, "umm never mind something came up, can we do it next week?" and we were like, "yeah, sure I guess" so that was sad.  

I am glad Ana is adjusting back to regular life. I don't know how well that will go for me when I return.  Last P day at the mall there was a video game event thing and I saw somebody playing guitar hero and just dance, but it was like way real and you could buy like any song and it was cool.  It made me think about probably how much technology will change by the time I get back.  Also this week was 1 year for Elder Ribero in our casa so we made food. I finally bought batteries for my camera so I will send some photos too.  Love you guys; stay safe, study the scriptures and pray everyday.

  

Augusto Montenegro 7

Everybody Loves Carnival

Dear people,

This week not much happened, but carnival happened.  We worked all week this week but didn't have too much success. We are having problems with working with the ward members and our lunch fell through 4 times last week so now I am a very poor man and am without money, eating ramen.  We did meet one guy who was pretty cool. He let us in and we asked if he wanted us to include anything in our opening prayer. He was like, "help me stop drinking because I am tearing apart my family" and we were like, "we can do that" and taught him the word of wisdom. He was super excited about church this Sunday, but he didn't go, so I guess we will have to see what happened this week.  Carnival is interesting. I haven't seen as much crazy stuff as I expected but apparently that's because we have been avoiding the roads where the parties are happening.  Another thing, my companion taught me how to make this dessert thing that is basically condensed milk, coconut, and butter all mixed together and cooked; and its soo soo good, but also I will probably get fat.  Stay happy. Glad Ana finally gets to come home.  Don't kill the van yet, give me a warning so I can write a eulogy for it.

Love, Elder Holcomb   

Augusto Montenegro 6

[I mentioned I heard about renting an alpaca to take hiking with you...not to carry your stuff, just to hike with you and this is Isaac's reply to that]:
The alpaca thing, Elder Kaiser from the CTM says there is this sport that's like ultra marathon racing, but it's with a donkey. You carry all of your stuff on your donkey and you have to train your donkey to run with you. It's hard because sometimes the donkeys get tired and you have to pull them. Only like a small number of people do it and 90 percent live in Colorado. His gym teacher was one of them and one time his gym teacher brought his race donkey to school for them too see.  I was like, this is a sport I want to get into.
[For Ben Sharp: Answer is yes, I have had all of those things that Ben asked about. I just can't recognize them yet; and all food here is good, but I do really miss artichoke dip for some reason.  I am excited to get home and eat American food though.]

Happily Ever After

This week not too much happened; both me and my companion had pretty bad colds.  We did work a little though.  

On a side note this transfer we got a new American in the house and he literally knows nothing. Like I am not saying that as an exaggeration, he actually know no Portuguese so we don't really know what he did in the CTM. However it made me realize how far my Portuguese has come a long because now I translate everything for him and help him out with stuff. Also, another thing about my Portuguese is I can successfully argue. Like, we had an argument about if true love and happily ever after actually exist, and I was the only one arguing yes, but by then end I had the majority so I felt good about my Portuguese after that. Also people are finally starting to get my sarcasm so I think that is a good sign.  Also side note, "your mom" jokes do not work as well here. People take their mothers very seriously which is probably a good thing, but also it means if you tell a "your mom" joke it will either be very very bad or if you hit it at the right moment it can be the funniest thing. So I have to figure out the right moments pretty quick.  

We also made a grape cake which was interesting because I never had a grape flavored cake before, but it was surprisingly very good.  Also carnival is next week, but it basically started this week. Yesterday was insane. I think everybody was drunk and music was blasting everywhere. I could never focus and it went until like 3 in the morning.  Also I saw the best marching band I have ever seen, so sorry Mr. Buller.  Part of it was proably because they were all drunk and trying to walk in a line and play music together in tune but it wasn't working, that made them the greatest, it was very funny. 

Also side note for William, I saw somebody playing Pokemon Go the other day, and I was like oh yeah that exists! so maybe they have that one Pokemon only in South America.  

I love you guys and I am feeling better now so that's good I will hopefully be healed this week and then work hard and make my companion work too.  

Love you guys and [I] miss the snow.