Augusto Montenegro 4

The third week diarrhea was expected, the fourth week constipation was a surprise and the fifth week return of diarrhea was never welcome.  Lets just say this week has been quite the experience and Gifford's 5 mile tempo runs trained me for the races and also this moment.  The self control over my bowels I have gained this week has been drastic.  After three days of destruction we had to call the mission president's wife and she put me on a lactose free diet so I am basically living like Eryn now.  I already miss cheese. 
On a happier note I feel like I am being spoiled because the mission president approved us to watch Cars 3.  It was in Portuguese but I still understood some things and watching something that normal was insane. I don't think I have ever been so connected to characters in a cartoon especially characters that are automobiles.  At one point one of the sisters was crying and I was like dang I don't know how I am going to watch movies in 2 years with out feeling an overflow of emotion.  However I did like the movie it was high quality. 
This week nothing really big happened just the usual walk and work all day.  However I think I did try the fruit paste Ben mentioned; that was pretty good, I liked it.  At one point I was asked to share some thoughts in English so I tried to, but I found myself struggling and stumbled through it just barely so I guess now I just don't speak any language.  Luckily I still can write pretty well in English.  Also this week I got a picture with a turtle and with a giant beetle that landed on my sleeve, but both were taken with the phone camera which I wasn't informed until after that it can't hook up to the computer so I guess you will just have to trust me. 
Also questionable music was brought out that was right on the border of approved and not approved that's why they [other missionaries?] had never played it before.  However this might be like a normal thing that everyone else is aware of but I had a blast listening to James the Mormon (a hype Mormon rapper) and some Mormon punk rock where they sang hymns in rock form and I thought of Gideon doing the same thing. 
I forgot to put this last Monday, but also we went to the mall which was a little bit sad because everything was normal and it reminded me of home, but we played laser tag. Not sure if that was supposed to be allowed but everyone was like, "do you have 10 reals?" and I don't really know Portuguese, but I was like "yeah" so we payed this person and then we played laser tag in like this giant inflatable bouncy house thing and let's just say Brazil laser tag is a bit different because they don't have that no running and jumping rule so it was basically the most hype game of laser tag I ever played.  I did lose though so that was too bad. 
I love you guys so much. have a good week. I am sad the vikings lost that would have been fun to have them in the Superbowl.

Augusto Montenegro 3

So this week not too much happened but it was really fun.  I had splits with the one Elder that said he was American but forgot English and apparently I was just dumb and he is Brazilian but speaks some English.  However we had fun, we pretty much clapped at doors the whole day, but at the end the bishop came with us to visit people. I thought it was for one person, but after that person he was like, "lets go visit Janis and Nilsi too" and I was like, "they live on the other side of the area, that's like a 45 min walk." He was like, "we keep the word of wisdom, we will walk and not faint." Then we like booked it and turned it into a 20 min. walk. Apparently he really had to use the bathroom too so we were really booking it. However once we got there they weren't even home and the bishop was like I still need to pee so he just straight up peed on the side of the road. Then the other Elder with me was like, "Does your bishop in Minnesota do this?" I was like, "No, I don't think he does,"  but now I have the image of Bishop Miller peeing on the side of a road in my head and it's pretty funny. 
On a side note everyone here doesn't understand my sarcasm because my language is bad so that's a bad habit that I need to get rid of because people keep taking my sarcastic comments seriously.   
This Saturday we had a baptism planned for Fabio, but when the time came he never showed up, which surprised me because he seemed super excited about it. When we visited him the next day, apparently his dad wouldn't let him get baptized because his dad hates religion so we told him to bear his testimony to his dad and tell him why he wanted to be baptized so hopefully that goes well.  This whole thing surprised me because Fabio is 24 and I was kind of like, "Your dad doesn't let you make your own choices?" But I didn't actually say that.  We also had our first Zone conference which was fun because there were other Americans so I spoke lots of English, which was probably bad for me, but it was really nice to speak English again.  It was fun, we ate lots of food and I saw my companions from the CTM again.  We watched a video about President Monson but it was in Portuguese so I didn't understand anything.  Also one house we went to they were watching a movie and it was in the other room, but I knew it was Doctor Strange from the soundtrack so I was pretty proud of myself for that one.  Love you guys, keep having fun, and stay safe.

Augusto Montenegro 2

Isaac seemed a little rushed today. Here's his letters to me:
[roughly 7am central time letter]
Awesome week I am proud of you [response to what I wrote him] I will try to write a big letter to you too but it is Eryns birthday so I will write her first Love you too though
[9hrs later letter]
Sounds awesome sorry I am getting back late.  My companion is not too great at communicating things.  Anyways, this week has been a long hard one. Not too much happened.  I had my first division and my companion was sick so I worked with other Elders this week so I didn't accomplish much. [I think he's saying since his companion was sick he went out with other missionaries.] However, there was one lady we taught that had a past in drugs and people wanted to kill her.  That's all I picked up.  Also we met a clock builder repair dude and it's just like you would imagine! He was this old short guy with crazy white hair and just sat there working on clocks and talked to us. I felt like my whole life was being foreshadowed and prophesied because he was speaking in riddles in this small room covered with clocks and watches, and for some reason buttons.
I have a massive blister that the Brazilians were excited to pop. They used a needle, but I was surprised because they put some thread on it still and pulled it all the way through. It was so all the pus could drip down the string, and I was like, "smart." I have some pictures I will attach.
Also, we ate at Burger King which is actually high quality here. I also found a sweet deal, 36 burger patties for 9 reals, which is the equivalent of 3 dollars, so I have been cooking myself a double cheese burger for dinner every night. 
I love you guys so much keep kicking!  Also still barely can communicate in Portuguese
[a few minutes after that]
Some deep stuff went down maybe I will tell you when I have more time next week.  Not bad stuff all good don't be worried but deep stuff.  Love you !! have fun at the pasta party.
[letter to his dad]
Language barrier is a barrier for sure, but I find myself remembering stories in Portuguese so maybe that is a good sign; and I started dreaming in Portuguese.  But I still can't communicate well.  I had one person ask if I was Brazilian or American after I said, "tudo bem." I responded, "brasilero." Then they said, "ahhh American." So I hope that means I am getting somewhere if I can make it through the first word.  Love you too happy three kings day!!

Augusto Montenegro 1

It was wonderful to talk with Isaac on Christmas! He seemed to be as happy as ever and having a great time. He excitedly shared a few stories, one being how impressed he is with the kite flying skills of the kids. "They are master kite flyers here!" "You think there's no wind, but then a kid just lifts up a kite and up it goes!" "And they never get any caught in trees or power lines, it's amazing". He also went to a house that "had legit 10 parrots living in it and I got to hold 3".  His prep day is Mondays so he'll be writing on Mondays now. Here is yesterday's letter:

Hey guys this week has been crazy.  It started off with at night this giant moth flew into our house and I thought it was a bird but when it landed it was a moth and everybody ran around screaming. I got a picture of the moth though so I will include that.  Also not just the moths are huge they have massive frogs as well that are like bigger than both of my fists combined. I don't have a picture of that though.

                                    

Second, at one point when I was studying the language Elder Pereira went to the bathroom. Then after like ten minutes I heard him trying to open the door, but he just never came out. I was confused, but then he called for me to help him . Apparently the lock was stuck and he had locked himself inside the bathroom so he started saying stuff to me in Portuguese I didn't understand and I was really confused; but then since the door is like half rotten at the bottom he kicked out the bottom of the door and made me pass him his cell phone and he called someone (not sure who) and then yelled at me to destroy the door. So I yelled "Policia abrir sua porta!!!" and kicked the door down and he was hiding in the shower. We spent the next hour cleaning up the floor so that was fun. I have a picture of the half broken door.  

 

Also one day for lunch we ate at this person's house that was low key a tree house, but not in a tree, just like built on stilts for some reason and was super high up so that was cool.  Also I think this is a place Nasty J and Collin Clark would like because everybody just chills out shirtless in basketball shorts and bare foot, and just walks around and chills so I thought of them.  Also when you get coxinha you can get a drink with it called gioba and it basically tastes like grapefruit juice so I thought William would like it.  Also at the store I saw they have kinder eggs here so I will have to smuggle some home when I return in two years.  Also one of the guys at the CTM [Missionary Training Center] said I remind him exactly of the crazy mascot guy in Big Hero 6, and I was like "true that basically is me, except for his whole theory on how to wear underwear, that is not me."  

We had a baptism this week for Luiz. Saturday we were setting everything up when suddenly the water just didn't work to fill up the font and none of the water in the church worked either. So we were like, "what the heck?" and called the bishop who got there and basically knew exactly what was wrong. He like ran to the back of the building and opened up this hatch to a hole in the ground that had a like plastic pipe that had come undone and he legit was just like, "hold my feet" and went headfirst in. So he was like hanging down trying to fix this pipe when he yells at his kid to go get some yarn from his office, and he ends up fixing this pipe with yarn.  Which that lasted about 4 minutes when it busted again; so he tells his kid to drive home and grab his wrench even though his kid is like 11. Then we had to run to the nearest hardware store to buy parts. By the time we got back this hole was filling with water and the bishop was basically submerged as he fixed this pipe.  However he fixed it and we were ready for the baptism when it was like 5 min until and Luiz wasn't even there yet. So we ran outside and ran to where he works as a moto taxi driver, and were like, "hey man, what the heck?" and he was like, "oh, I thought it was tomorrow " and we were like, "nope its right now." So he drove home, and we ran back, and we ended up baptizing him, but we weren't back to our house by 9 so we broke a rule. 

 

New Year's here was crazy! Fireworks started at 6 and then they legit went until 6 this morning and it was hard to sleep, but I mean, I still ended up getting some sleep before midnight, so that's a first for me on New Year's Eve for awhile.

PS  One house we ate lunch at was blasting U2 and had concerts on DVD under their TV and I thought of home 

Here's some pictures Isaac sent of his companion and him, his apartment, another missionary, and Christmas dinner someone shared with him and his companion. (I think there are 4 missionaries sharing their apartment right now). (Oh, and Isaac mentioned in his Christmas call that they made what he didn't think were built with the intention to be bunk beds into bunk beds...I'm a little nervous about that...)

MTC/Belém

 

Isaac left the MTC on Monday and arrived safely in Belém. His mission President sent us some pictures and this letter:

Dear Family Holcomb,

With great pleasure we inform you that Elder Holcomb arrived here in Brazil Belem Mission today (December 18), and currently serving in city of Belem (Augusto Montenegro Area), with his companion and trainer Elder Pereira. Sister Stasevskas and I, along with the rest of the mission, are very excited to have your son serving here with us.

He has a great missionary spirit, with faith to do whatever the Lord commands. We would hope that you would, whenever possible, write letters to strengthen him and to encourage him in his missionary service. We give our sincere gratitude, and hope to keep in touch.

Yours truly,

Sister and President Stasevskas
 

Isaac wrote a quick email today to let us know when he'll call on Christmas. Here's his super quick letter to his dad:

Well to answer yes this first bit has not been like a fire hose because I just don't understand anything but still overwhelming so that makes it kind of fun being a deaf mute man it is crazy here but I will probably tell you more during skype also always send the packages and letters to the mission office and then the zone leader will deliver them directly to me. I will look forward to it and surprisingly I can't really find a place to buy pencils here just weird meat shops that don't look sanitary.

MTC 6

This week was fun. We went proselyting again and this time we talked to someone that wanted to hear more and gave us their address so that missionaries that actually speak Portuguese can talk to them.  Also, on the way back from proselyting we saw a guy juggling fire bottles in the middle of traffic for money.

This week we had a couple devotionals that talked about working with church members. One guy showed a painting of these missionaries working in this field and it was hot and the sun was shining and missionaries were just harvesting all this stuff by hand grinding. Then he showed another picture of when missionaries work with the ward and and they had like a huge harvesting machine thing that made the work so much easier, and I liked that. I thought about Bishop Miller and how his big thing was working with the missionaries.
Also this week we watched Legacy again. There is one Elder in my district, Elder Kaiser from Colarado that looks kind of like a guy in the show. So whenever [the guy in the show] started making moves on the one girl we would pat him on the back and make whistling noises and say "O.K. Elder Kaiser!!"  Which just shows you how desperate missionaries are for any romantic story.
In one of our doctrine classes Sunday they talked about Trump announcing Jerusalem as Israel's capitol. It made me realize just how out of the loop I am with news happening around the world, which made me a little bit sad and happy at the same time.
We also watched the Christmas devo and it reminded me of Mom because that is her favorite part of Christmas.  I really liked  all of the talks, but one thing that stuck out to me was when the one lady's mom told her to give something away that was a sacrifice so she would feel a bit sad getting rid of it because that is truly giving. I remembered when Ana gave away that stuffed animal rat she really liked so I guess that means Ana truly gives things to people.
There have been lots of people talking about how their families were blessed from having a missionary on a mission so I was wondering if there was any blessings you could see with having me gone. They could be savage too like you finally have left overs at dinner or the socks don't smell. Also maybe you have double blessings because Ana is gone too.
My companion Elder Hackeman's favorite Pokemon is Kadabra or Kyogre, Elder Hall's is a Torterra and Elder Kline's is a Starmie.  That's for William.
Also Mom, at the distribution center after the temple today I saw a book I thought you would really like called "The Gospel Art Book" that had like all the art and stuff about the art like scriptures and things.
We got new American Elders that were fun to talk too and see how much us that have been here for 6 weeks have grown, but also [fun to] show them around.
Elder Kaiser and I decided to run for 20 min which was terrible because I am so unfit now, but we survived, we just are really sore.
 I leave the MTC the 18th so next time I email you I will be in Belem. I will have been in the field for about a week.
 Also went to the temple for the last time in 2 years today which was kind of sad. I like the temple here so much. We got to do baptisms, which the font here is amazingly beautiful, and the shower afterwards multiplied my testimony by ten. It was the best shower ever. After I got into it there was no doubt in my mind this is the true church; it was absolutely amazing.
Love you guys

[Since Isaac leaves Sao Paulo on Monday, here are the photos from Sao Paulo (that weren't shared in the last couple posts)]

 

MTC 5

 This week was fun as well. I have been saving up the snacks throughout the week to put in my companions shoes for the vinoxman (don't actually know how to spell it), but that was fun. They were a little confused, but I explained it. 
The church put out the Christmas videos which are awesome we watch each day's in the morning during personal study and then find a way to implement it. It's kind of hard to do in the MTC especially when one day was "honor your parents" and talked about how if you haven't talked with your parents in awhile give them a call and talk to them; and all of us were like "wow thanks for rubbing it in."  The videos are super short quick and awesome, make the day great, and doing the little service things put me in a great mood for Christmas even though it's always super sunny and hot outside. 
The World Cup groups came out this week and everybody was super stressed because none of us have access to internet so we had to beg an instructor to tell us, but now it's spread like wildfire so I wrote them down. It's amazing to see how hype the atmosphere is even though it doesn't even happen until June. Apparently Brazil has a super good team this year so the missionaries going to Japan in my room are very sad because they will be gone when their country wins the cup, or so they say.  Also the other night we were about to fall asleep when we just heard loud noises like thunder start outside so we jumped out of bed. Then all the Brazilians started screaming and I was like "what is going on?" Then we looked out the window and there were fireworks outside and our roommates started freaking out and apparently the Corinthians, the local Sao Paulo team, just won. So they celebrated and it was insane! I don't think I have ever seen people celebrate so hard even for like the super bowl. It's great! I love it so much! People just go absolutely crazy! 
My Japanese companions also started teaching me some Japanese so I say stuff to them in Japanese, and then my companions get a little bit salty because I am supposed to be studying Portuguese but instead I am just talking to people in random Japanese simple sentences.  However, I think it's fun. I still have the basics of Portuguese down even though I probably should study a bit more. 
Also Elder Fariez my room mate says to look up the band Calypso they are terrible apparently, but they are from Belem so let me know how they are. 
Keep having fun I wish I had snow to ski on!!
 

Oh I totally forgot December first we had a Christmas party, and they put up a ton of lights, and I mean a ton, and lit them all. It was awesome and they had ice cream and we got pictures.

 

 

[vinoxman is Weinachtsmann. When Isaac was a baby our family lived in Germany for a few years and so our family still follows the tradition of leaving out our shoes on the night of December 5 to get filled with treats from the Weihnachtsmann (or Christmas Man if you translate it directly).

Brazil is in Group E with Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Serbia. For the full results of the 2018 FIFA World Cup draw click this link]