Laranjareis Cidade Nova 5

Hello people,
This week once again we worked. We found one guy who is super cool. He was outside of his house and called us over and told us that he was taught by the missionaries some years back and went to church and knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, but then he moved and didn't know where the church was. So we taught him some more and now he is going to get baptized after General Conference on the 13th. It was great to see that miracle after walking all day in the sun.
This week we had interviews with the [Mission] President and it was funny. It was basically:
"Elder do you like to be happy?"  "Yes President, I do."  "What makes you happy in your mission, Elder?"  "Baptisms, President."  "Do you like to be happy only one time every month, Elder?"  "No President, I like to be happy all the time."  "Then baptize every week Elder, I know you can do it!"
It was funny. For the record he isn't all about numbers and baptizing people, but when he got here he made a goal for everyone to baptize every week because this mission is one of the best missions in the world because the church is growing super fast here, but our number of baptisms fell by more than half in the last couple months. So he made the goal and I thought, "what the heck, that sounds impossible to find a good quality new person to progress while teaching others, and have a baptism on Saturday, and continue that cycle." However we started working hard and now it looks like it is possible with the amount of people we are teaching and bringing to church and feeling The Spirit and a desire of change and the truth. So that is cool. It just goes to show that President can receive revelation for the mission and that when we work hard we are blessed.
Oh, on a sad note I left my Book of Mormon, that I had all marked and used teaching people and was like my best friend, at Stake Conference. I was super sad and now I get to go mark everything all over again in a new one.  Oh also, Stake Conference was cool, a member of the seventy came, Elder Martins, and talked so that was fun.
In October the president of the area is coming to tour the mission and will talk to us, and in January an apostle (not sure which one) is coming to talk to the mission. However, we are guessing he is coming to dedicate the temple grounds here and start construction of the temple here, and then also pass by the mission on his way. So that should be fun. Maybe I will get a picture.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[I sometimes add links to words and phrases in Elder Holcomb's letters, but I've been told they aren't noticeable to everyone so I will start including them at the end as well]
What is the Book of Mormon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLSoH7kfBlY
General Conference: https://www.lds.org/church/events/october-2018-general-conference?lang=eng&cid=HP_TU-18-9-2018_dPTH_fCNWSxLIDyL2-1_
Revelation: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng
and a bonus one :-) https://www.mormon.org/

Laranjareis Cidade Nova 4

This week not too much happened again; nothing too exciting. We mostly knocked on doors. however, we did have divisions and I got to stay with Elder Schafler who reminded me exactly of the typical XC boy. Tall, skinny, and just weird. It was fun. And he did run 10ks in house. We had fun in divisions.
Then the rest of the week was normal teaching people and finding new people to teach. João Vitor, who stopped smoking and drinking last Friday (he told us he partied hard as a final going away from drinking party haha) is all ready for his baptism on the 29th because we had to move it because this week is stake conference. He also brought his sister and his mom to church. His mom wanted to go to church because she saw how much of a change it had in João Vitor. They were cool and we will start teaching them, and he wants us to start teaching his friend too.  So that's awesome we are getting lots of references that we can teach which is always better than clapping at doors.
Happily nothing got robbed this week!!!!
I love you guys and hope everyone is doing great!
Love Elder Holcomb

Laranjareis Cidade Nova 3

Hello people,
This week again we worked and time went by fast. However, in the beginning of the week my companion got sick so he spent lots of time getting better and I got to study a "how families can be happy" pamphlet thing, that I think was from the 70's, [I found] at the bottom of this box in our house. It was good.
This week I also played a whole lot of soccer (or ran back and forth trying to play soccer, but everyone out did me; however I did score one goal so that was cool). [From the letter to Brian in reply to Brian's question if Isaac had replaced his stolen shoes for p(prep) days and to be able to play soccer: I ended up playing soccer barefoot and getting lots of blisters because it's just the parking lot at the church, but my feet acustomized so they are okay now.]
We are still teaching the same people and they are progressing very well and enjoying the church. Also this week there is a 9yr old girl that goes to church every Sunday and her dad came to church and said she wants to get baptized and he wants her to. So now we get to teach her and him and her brother that shows up on the weekdays to play soccer. We also had a lady move into our area that was already taught a lot by other missionaries so we are going to start teaching her.
One funny thing this week was that the church also got robbed and they stole like the ceiling fans and stuff from the Bishop's office and the bathroom mirror and wifi and the audio box for the microphone in the chapel and they couldn't get it replaced in time for the other ward so during sacrament meeting the other ward had to yell over the pulpit but it got fixed for ours.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Laranjareis Cidade Nova 2

(old pictures from Elder Campos)

Hello People,
Again pretty much this week we just worked and walked in the sun.
We found two guys that loved the message of The Restoration and are like hardcore studying it and things. One of them we have a date to be baptized on the 22nd because he smokes so we have to help him stop that first.  The other wants to learn more about when the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday. Luckily my companion likes to Bible bash so he has a ton of scriptures for that (we don't Bible bash* because I don't like it, but it's great to know all the scriptures to explain things). (However I started to like Bible bashing when you actually know how to do it so we Bible bash sometimes for companion study).
We also have two kids that go to church every Sunday that live close and want to be baptized, their dad just wants to talk to the Bishop first so we will go there this week to talk to them and teach their family. Also there was a girl we found this week in the street that went to church and knows lots of people there and liked it.
We also have like 5 people that want to get baptized but can't because they are living with their boyfriend and breaking the law of chastity and need to get married first. That's actually a big problem here because everyone is poor and just doesn't get married on paper. You will find like people that have been together 40 years but still aren't married, but we have to get them married on paper first so they aren't breaking the law of chastity and then we can baptize them. However the government here is super slow with that kind of thing. 
The ward here is great and funny and the leadership here is good too. We made a ward mission plan and everyone seemed to love it so hopefully lots of people start to work with the missionaries.
For a funny thing this week we taught a guy that believes in Greek gods, Norse gods, Egyptian gods, and Christ. It was a bit strange because he tried to explain all his thinking and using proof from history so that was fun; but honestly it didn't make sense to me so maybe I need to open up my mind more.
One guy who lives in our house is a new guy from Bolivia so he is teaching me Spanish and I am teaching him English.  Spanish is way easier now that I know Portuguese so that's fun. I basically can always understand everything, but talking is the hard part. However, I also now have friends from Peru who will take me to Machu Picchu and someone whose house I can visit if I ever visit Mozambique. So watch out because I will be a world tourist when I get back.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[*for anyone not familiar with the term "Bible bash" it usually means one person says something can't be right and the other person finds a scripture to prove it right. Or it can be each finding scriptures to prove their own point.  It is discouraged because it usually leads to an argument or disagreement and contention trying to prove self instead of leading to thoughtful discussion and understanding and respect, and thus excludes the Spirit from the conversation. The Spirit does the teaching so it is vital the Spirit can be present in a discussion, lesson, or conversation. That's why
Isaac says he doesn't like Bible bashing. Like he said, it is good to be aware of potential questions or rhetoric that could be brought up in a lesson and to then have an answer from the scriptures.

Also, for the literal readers, Isaac is not literally thinking he needs to open his mind to believing in Greek, Norse, and Egyptian Mythology- he is speaking in a more abstract sense of just trying to understand how this person is connecting those things.

Here's a few links about "The Restoration":
1 minute explanation:  https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/restoration
5 minute:  https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/joseph-smith-and-the-restoration
20 minute:  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2008-06-01-the-restoration?lang=eng
For those who want a bit extra:  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/the-restoration-of-all-things?lang=eng
For those who think they've heard all this before ;-) :  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/are-you-sleeping-through-the-restoration?lang=eng
With a Brazilian twist:  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/the-sacred-place-of-restoration?lang=eng]