Pérola 3

Hello people,
This week was a fun one. Work wise was pretty much normal however we brought one guy to sacrament meeting who is pretty awesome. He is 22 and accepted our message and wants to be baptized on the 15th. I don't remember if I said this or not, but on the 15th of December we are going to have a stake baptism night where like all of the baptisms in the stake will be at the stake center and it will be like a big party so everyone is planning baptisms on the 15th. So he wants to work to be baptized then, and we have 3 other people that want to prepare to be baptized then, but the others still haven't made it to church and that's kind of like a key requirement to be able to be baptized is actual go to church. However the area is doing good. The ward mission leader is super good and always helping members go out with us to teach. This week we hit our zone goal for the month so everyone went crazy and celebrated and got happy and we were the only zone to hit our goal for a long time in the mission so the Assistants to the President got happy with us too, and we will probably be able to go to the beach and have churrasco on the beach one P-day.
Also Pres. Almeida got sent home early for health problems so the Mission President changed again and now it's President Nougeira. He was already president in the Brazil João pessoa mission (which is the mission that baptizes the most in Brazil). So everyone is a bit nervous to see if he is super strict or relaxed, just like when Almeida showed up. However he also is only going to be here about 6 months before he goes home and we will get a new president. So I guess President Staveskas who I thought I would only spend a little of time with will end up being the Mission President that I spent most time with and got to know the best.
Also I bought a camera from one of the missionaries that live in our house so now I can finally send more photos again. Also people are getting prepared for Christmas here so that's fun and it brings back memories of when I first arrived here in Brazil; so that's fun I guess I am an old missionary now.
It's fun to think about how much I have learned and grown. And yet lots of it has just been from personal study of the scriptures (lots from others too) but I was surprised by how much we can learn by personal study and prayer. We have lots of good teachers, but the best teacher of all is The Holy Ghost* so sometimes we need to sit and get a nice lecture from Him too.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[*Here's some links I've added to elaborate on Elder Holcomb's thoughts:
(short, but has links to more) https://www.lds.org/topics/holy-ghost?lang=eng
(medium) https://www.lds.org/church/news/my-most-influencial-teacher-the-holy-ghost-helped-me-serve-the-one?lang=eng
(long) https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/how-does-the-holy-ghost-help-you?lang=eng]

Pérola 2

This week was awesome! We weren't planning on baptizing anyone, but there was this one girl that's been to church a lot, but always went to her aunt's house to help out. So the days that she would go to church she wouldn't know, so we could never plan a baptism, but then Wednesday she was like, "I will be here this Saturday; baptize me." So we were like, "great!" and planned her baptism. It was a lot of fun and everyone was very happy.
We found lots of cool people during the week to teach, however, on Sunday nobody came to church so we got a little sad, however we will talk to them this week.  Two cool people from this week: There was one house we knocked at right before going home at night and it was a mom and daughter. The mom lives like far away in the middle of the jungle so won't be able to make it to church, and the girl was like "I am a part of the igreja da paz." We were like, "ok, but we still have a cool message for you guys," and so we left the message.  Then when we went to follow up the next day the girl was like, "we did what you asked and prayed and asked if what you said was true and my mom said that God sent you two here to help us and now we both know it's true and we want to go to church." So that was a cool experience and showed the power of prayer. Sadly the mom went back to the middle of the jungle and only visits civilization like every four months and the girl went to her aunt's house for the weekend, but this week will be back in her house.
Then there was this other guy that stopped us in the street and said he needed help fixing up his life because it's ruining his relationship with his family and wants to be a good dad for his family and didn't know why but wanted to ask us for help. So we marked a time to meet with him tonight.
The ward and area here are awesome.  The members are all lots of fun and the area is pretty and great to take photos. I am going to buy a camera from one of the missionaries I live with so I will send more photos soon!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

From Elder Holcomb's letter to his dad:
My new companion is very good and really wants to be a good a missionary so we are teaching lots of people but no one really wants to go to sacrament meeting. The house is fun, there is me and my companion from Peru that also likes Avatar the Last Airbender and is teaching me Spanish. There is Elder Puche from Colombia, that served in the military (that this week caught two pigeons with his bare hands to take a picture) and his companion from the Dominican Republic. Then there are the zone leaders, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo, and an American from South Carolina (that ran XC and did show choir). It's pretty fun.
I am in the ward of Pérola and we live in the neighborhood Santo Andre next to the church; and three duplas are in different wards.

[HMU for the TBH was Isaac being silly because he says when he was in High School people said that all the time when they wanted attention and he'd love getting some mail because he doesn't get much]

mystery location 1

(photo throwback to Marituba-recently sent to Elder Holcomb)

Hey guys!
This week was fun getting to know a new area again. The area is super cool and the members here are fun.  All of the streets are mud and sand and the rain season is coming back so all of the roads became mud streams so that was a blast to work in.
The area has lots of work to do and the people here are pretty accepting. Our zone leaders challenged us to talk about baptism and invite everyone to baptism in everything, including contacts in the street. So me and my companion have a picture of Christ's baptism, and when we make contacts we are literally like, "hey, do you know Christ?" "Yes, he is our Savior and he showed us the perfect example in everything and taught us His gospel. One of the things he did was be baptized." Then we explain a bit about baptism and then invite them to be baptized. I was kind of like "that's a little up front and don't think anyone's going to accept that," but we tried it and it actually worked and I was like, "what the heck?" So this week we had ten people agree to prepare to be baptized and continue learning with us on the 24th of November and the 15th of December. On the 15th we are going to take all the baptisms in the stake to the stake building and have a big party at the stake building so we are trying to find people to take to that. 
Also, now there are 6 of us living in one house because our house is one of the biggest in the mission and it's crazy.  One guy was in the Colombian military before his mission and when we have a Nerf gun fight he always wins. We also made a goal as a companionship to sing a hymn before every lesson to bring the Spirit. We both sing horribly, but it brought the Spirit, and now we realize [when we are teaching] we can sing and then explain the Spirit  and how the Spirit speaks to us, and say, "the same feeling you had during the hymn is the feeling of the Spirit."  Then it helps people recognize responses to their prayers too.  My companion is great.  I asked him what he liked to do back home and he said "study" :-) :-) (but he actually is sweet, he isn't boring).
Love,
Elder Holcomb

PS
HMU for a TBH
[Not sure what Isaac means by this, but all guesses so far are that he wants people to write, so if you need Isaac's email or regular mail address leave me a comment on the blog, on Instagram, Facebook, or email me.]

Santarém 5

Hello people,
This week was a blast!  First off this week was the last week of the transfer so we were working real hard to bring people to church (which only one person ended up going :-( ) However, on Wednesday we had divisions and our lunch fell through and then one member from our ward that lives in a city about 5 hours away was close and said, "hey I will take you guys to a restaurant." Let me just say, this was no ordinary guy.  He picked us up with his wife in this fancy truck and then sped down the highway, and turns out he just got back from his mission in less than a year, but he is already married, and has this fancy truck, and then he took us to this amazing restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the beach. This restaurant was like one of the fancy tourist restaurants so there were some people from France there.  We took photos on the beach and in the little heart thing that I will send. However you can look it up on the internet for better photos. Then later in the week he stopped by our house and gave us a whole bunch of things from the grocery store, and it was amazing, which included Nutella (and Nutella is super expensive here) We almost cried. We took a photo I will try to send too.
However on a more serious note, I was transferred again, but only to an area about 30 minutes away in the same stake so that's a little funny. My new companion is from Peru so I guess that means I can continue bettering my Spanish. However, I am a little sad in these last two areas I have spent such a short time and found people to baptize and watched them progress and now I will be moved again before I can even see them be baptized so that leaves me a little sad, but I know they are making the right choice.
Love you guys!
Elder Holcomb