Marituba 1

You Already Love Marituba

Dear people,

Marituba is awesome!  Sorry I didn't take too many photos; I will for next week.  Marituba is huge and we walk everywhere and I got another huge blister this week.  Our house is a house this time not an apartment. My first day there was a giant brown wasp thing, I think called a caba, that I had to kill while I was showering so that was fun.  I also had to adjust to killing cockroaches in the bathroom before I showered; which I wasn't sure if I would get used to, but I did.  It's convenient because you can push the cockroaches into a corner and the ants will clean them up.  Also I included some pictures of a large spider I tried to kill, but missed though, and it is still roaming our house.  

In Marituba we have a mom that is called the missionary mom and I love her so much because we can always go there and eat food when we are hungry and she has food for us.  The ward is amazing too, they are all so nice.  

The area is huge so my companion taught me how to hitch hike the public bus system so that should come in handy.  

One fun thing is that we are a part of the mom squad with their babies. Like every other afternoon we go to the park and chill with the moms and their babies and teach them so that is fun.  

I also tried takaka (I think I spelled it right) but its basically a soup that had weird boogers in it.  It tasted good though.  

At church we had 4 college students studying religion visit so that was kind of fun to help them with their homework and answer questions.  

I saw a trailer for Incredibles 2 on TV, so I will have to watch that when I get home too.  Everyone in Brasil has their TV blasting while you are walking by or when you walk into there house (it was only part of the trailer not all of it).

Marituba is fun. It seems like people have a bit more money here than in Augusto Monte Negro so it's interesting and a bit of a change; but overall nice because of the abundance of food.  We have one person that feeds 3 pairs of missionaries every month and Sunday one of the pairs didn't show up and we had to eat their share of food, and I literally could barely walk out of their house.  

I will write more about the people I am teaching when I get to know them better. This week was kind of just a blast of new information and new things.  Its kind of funny, because of my companion we have lots of girls around the age of 20 that want to "learn about the church" so that's kind of funny, but we don't have trouble finding people to teach.  (My companion is kind of like Collin Clark, jacked and good looking.)

I love you guys!  Remember to stay safe. I will try to take more pictures for next week!   

 

Augusto Montenegro 11

 Ready Or Not Transfer

 

Hey people!,

This week was pretty uneventful. Except Tuesday we were without water so the other missionaries in the house made me climb into the area above the apartments to check it out, and so I used my non existent plumbing skills to discover the problem ;].  Surprisingly the plumbing was pretty self explanatory, and I figured everything out and was able to fix everything. The water was just dirty for awhile before we could use it again.  

This week we had a service project where I got to mix cement for the first time.  It was fun, but lots of work, and I know why Bob the Builder purchased his mixer.  I learned a lot about how to construct a house out of bricks and cement so basically now I just need to learn about electricity and then I can build a house.  Just joking, there is probably lots more in depth things to building a house, but it's kind of cool I am learning about house maintenance on a mission. 

It was the birthday of the other American in our house so we baked a cake, bought açai, and had a big party until 10:00 at night. We party hard.  

However there was one big surprise! I ended up getting transferred to Marituba! It's surprising because usually new missionaries stay in their first area for 3 or 4 transfers and I only had two. My companion was a little bit sad he will be staying there longer than me.  My new area so far is cool.  My new companion is too; he is huge and funny.  His accent is a bit different so sometimes it is hard to understand, but he is pretty awesome.  The house is different too, but pretty big. I will send pictures next week. The only thing I know about my area is that it is one of the biggest in the mission so we are going to do a lot of walking.  Also when I arrived in my area they were having a funeral and I ended up being the one to say the prayer. So I had to give a nice thoughtful prayer in Portuguese about death and that was difficult but I think I pulled it off and it was heartfelt.  Things are staying crazy here; hopefully they are still crazy at home, but not too crazy.  love you all!

Love,

Elder Holcomb

oh p.s.  my new planner I made is pretty sweet so I sent pictures of that.

 

 

Augusto Montenegro 10

 Everybody Loves Coxinha

Hey people,

This week not much happened.  We walked a lot but nothing other than that happened.  We started teaching the door man this week that lets us into our rich gated apartment complex and he really seemed to like it.  We went to his house and taught his wife too, and they both came to church and seemed to really really enjoy it a lot. We are going to go back and teach them this week.  They are really fun.  

Also I forgot to include this last week, but on the way back from Zone conference these guys hopped on the bus and started playing flutes and guitars. I was low key jamming and wanted to buy their album they were selling, but I didn't have any money on me because I paid for the bus.  

Also this past week I have been holding onto the little flip phone we have for our companionship. The first day we got a call and the phone buzzed in my pocket and it scared me. I literally jumped and my companion laughed at me.  It was funny to see how much I have adjusted to not having a phone in my pocket.  

Also we went to a house and they were watching like a small child TV show with there kid. My companion started singing the songs so I learned them too; so now I know Brazilian children's songs like "pocoto pocoto upa cavalinho" (not sure if that's the name of the song, but it's a phrase). 

Also today is the last P day for an American Sister that is going home so yesterday we spent the whole afternoon and night making coxinha which is by far my favorite food here.  I wrote down how to make it so I can make it when I get back for people.  It's super tasty I have included some pictures.  But really not much happened this week so sorry for the boring email.  Next week is transfers. I think I will stay in Augusto Monte Negro one or two more transfers but we will see. 

Love,

Elder Holcomb

PS  oh and this morning something funny happened. The water in our house wasn't working but Piris already used the bathroom and then he couldn't flush it. Apparently there was an explosion so the whole neighborhood doesn't have water and so we couldn't shower or brush our teeth. It is quite an experience, but I thought that was funny. We joked about taking a bath in the baptismal font but hopefully that doesn't actually happen.  I don't know when we will get water again but hopefully by tonight.  

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.