Marituba 9

Isaac didn't write a letter for the blog this week (5/14) because we talked on Mother's Day. It was great for us to get to have a conversation instead of emails. Isaac sounded like he is doing great which is good because some days the missionary life is hard. I think it will take too long to try to remember everything we talked about so I won't write it, but it boosted us all to be able to connect with hearing and seeing each other. :-)

Marituba 8

U (sent May 7)
Dear people,

This week nothing really has happened out of the ordinary.  We worked and helped people.  Monday we had a service project and we basically weeded someone's lawn and helped mix and pour cement.  It was good; we worked hard and after they fed us lunch so it was worth it.  

A funny thing that happened this week was that when we were going to a house of one of the people we were teaching, her kid that maybe is like 4 was playing soccer in the street, and when we passed by was super excited to see us, and then after we passed by we heard him tell everybody "that guy is from North Korea" and everyone was like "really wow!!" We weren't sure if he was talking about me or my companion because both of us don't look anything like a North Korean.  Also lots of people like to ask me if they have memes in the U.S. and that question always makes me laugh and I say, "yes of course they have memes in the U.S."  

On a more spiritual note we started teaching a friend of one of the church members and he is really cool and wants to be baptized and we are going to work with him and help him to be baptized the last Saturday of the month so that should be fun.  He is really cool and excited. I guess my spiritual thought of the week would be sometimes no matter how much faith we have and how much we pray for something sometimes we wont get what we were asking for. Sometimes things end up different and everyone has their free agency to choose and we can't change that.

Love,

Elder Holcomb

P.S. if you don't get the subject figure it out

Marituba 7

Exciting Trip to Taua

Dear people,

This week nothing too crazy happened but we did have a couple things happen.  The first is I got a Christmas card on Wednesday so that was exciting. I was really pumped to see how Aunt Emily was doing 6 months ago.  The second thing was that there was a giant wind while we were waiting for the bus and I watched the roof of the warehouse near by get blown off.  The third is we got a email that someone asked for a Book of Mormon online which is surprising because not that many people use the internet to ask for missionaries. They lived in Taua so we had to pay a for a cool bus with air conditioning and got to ride for about an hour to Taua.  We had never been before so we sort of just hopped off the bus and started asking people for directions and where we were (because we didn't have the internet) so that was fun.  However we did find the house and we found the guy.
Turns out the guy was a member, but left 6 years ago. [He] now decided he wants to come back because he realized it was true and felt guilty for leaving everything he learned behind.  As we talked to him he started asking questions about people that were in the ward. Everyone he asked about we were like, "nope, I have no idea who that is." and he would say, "really? Wow."  Turns out he was talking about a bunch of people that lived in Taua and they all just stopped going to church.  We didn't think missionaries had ever worked in Taua because it was so far away and didn't think any members lived out there. So we were like, "what the heck really?" and he was like, "yeah, I'll take you to there houses."
So we went to one where he was surprised that this guy had gone inactive from the church, and clapped at the gate, and the guy came out, and was like, "oh missionaries you have returned!!!!!" Turns out this guy is like super old and can't leave the house because of his legs and can't make it to the bus stop to go to church. However he like helped form the church in Belem and was Branch President and Bishop in multiple wards and even had chairs in his house he took from old chapels.  He also talked about working with Ulisses Soares a lot and how great of a guy he was. We were like, "yeah, he is an apostle now" and the guy was like, "doesn't surprise me."
Apparently the old Bishop used to visit him once a week and gave him authority to bless the sacrament for himself in his house.  However the old Bishop was almost excommunicated from the church so when the new Bishop was called [the new Bishop] literally knew nothing so everyone just forgot about this man and everybody in Taua.  So that was a miracle and now we are going to visit Taua at least 2 times a month to talk to him and the new guy and try to talk to all the people that stopped going to church.  That was a cool experience of the week.
I guess my spiritual thought would be always listen to the Spirit because the first younger guy said he debated not asking for the book of Mormon online and just going to church again, but he said if he just went to church he probably wouldn't have talked to the missionaries about the people in Taua, but he felt like he should ask for a book of Mormon online. So always listen to the Spirit because it can affect other people's lives too.  Also the online websites of the church do work so that was exciting to find out too.  Have a good week and don't give me any spoilers about Infinity War.

Love Isaac
 

Marituba 6

Valor of Buses Increase

This week was eventful; we had divisions and took a trip to Mosquiero to have a baptismal interview.
The week started out with me finding 4 cabas [large black wasps] in my bathroom right when I was about to shower so then I shut the door and just waited to go back in for a day and then when I went back in they had all disappeared so hopefully they found the way outside and not into the rest of the house.
This week there was also a bus strike and all the bus workers quit working because they wanted money, but then the government was like, "we can't do that" so the buses are still not functioning.  However on Thursday we had divisions and I got to work in Anindeua with one of the Zone Leaders.  It was fun. He is cool. I learned a lot and we taught a lot of people.  My favorite thing is that their apartment is above a small market that sells small toys and they were selling Star Wars LEBQ´s, basically Star Wars Legos, but cool because Chewbacca had a light saber.
We also got to take a 1 hour bus trip to Mosquiero to interview one of their investigators for baptism and we got to ride in a cool bus with air conditioning because the public buses are on strike. The only problem is all the private companies ramped up there prices now because everyone needs to use them.  Mosquiero was cool though, they had a beach. One of the kids there, when he found out I was American, asked if I had visited New York and if I know Spiderman. I told him "no, I just met Steve Rogers." [He was joking and the kid new he was joking]. Also the elders' house in Mosquiero doesn't have lights and they have just been using candles for the last 6 weeks so I thought that was pretty cool.
Both Maria and Mateus got baptized and confirmed this week.  It was fun. You could tell how happy they were to be baptized and be a member of the church.  The bishop gave a good thought about when we are baptized we are born again spiritually and it feels like we are a baby in the church and gospel and that we don't know as much as others and we are constantly learning and can be overwhelmed.  It was good but I thought a lot about how as older siblings in the church we need to be helping our younger siblings learn and grow and be patient with them.  I think it's always important to remember everyone is family and that we can rely on people for help and that we need to help others as well. My camera lost battery again so I will have my companion send pictures and then send those later.  I love you guys so much, keep on truckin'.

Marituba 5

Outstanding Week

This week yet again nothing happened, but we walked and taught. One funny thing that happened was Saturday night the bishop asked if we could talk on Sunday so I got to prepare a talk in Portuguese, and I ended up doing pretty well I think. Everyone said they understood so that's good.  Another funny thing is my companion says I talk like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, like the Portuguese Shaggy.  I have never listened to Shaggy speak Portuguese so I don't know how true that is. 
Also this week at a family's house we are teaching, they had a bunch of fruit trees in the back yard and I got to eat cocoa for the first time. It was good. It doesn't taste anything like chocolate, but they make homemade chocolate and that was tasty too. 
Nothing else worth sharing really happened, but both Mateus and Maria came to church and met with the bishop so if all goes well they can be baptized this Saturday, which I am pumped about. I don't know if I ever mentioned Maria, but she is this nice lady that was an x-girlfriend of a member and then a different member told us to talk to her. When we did she was really pumped about it, and then she really wants to get baptized so that's good. The funny thing is that her x-boyfriend thinks she is just doing it so that maybe he will like her again because he thinks she still wants to date him, but she said the thing that scares her about going to church the most is seeing him again because he is so full of himself so that made me laugh. Luckily they both have strong testimonies of the church and are willing to let personal things go for the Lord.  The thing I thought was funny was that they both are over 50 and it's a lot like a high school relationship. Anyways that was fun.
 I guess one spiritual thing is that like the sacrifices people make to go to church here are big. There is one family that lives a 3 hour bus ride from church, but wakes up early every week to get to church at 9 and lots of times people don't have cars but they still will walk or ride the bus to church every Sunday. People make big sacrifices to make it to church every Sunday and that is cool.
My camera ran out of batteries again so sorry, but I don't have any pictures. I will buy batteries to get pictures of the baptism though for next week. 
Love you guys.

Marituba 4

Long Week

Dear people,

This week was long but nothing interesting really happened.  We walked a lot and taught lots of people. We probably had one of the best weeks of the transfer with teaching people lessons, but it was a let down when nobody we were teaching showed up to church on Sunday.  Some funny things are:

The Bishop likes to visit the church a lot, naturally, but he always forgets to bring his keys and ends up locking himself in the church grounds a lot. Since we live close sometimes we have to throw back on clothes after we get back for the night, and run to the church to let him out. 

Another is that we live in like a residence area, and our neighbor loves this one Billy Joel song and plays it every night at least 5 times and sings along, so that's always looked forward too.  

Also when we were eating lunch at a member's house they had the news on and they showed footage of our very own Target Field. I watched a bald eagle land on a baseball player in Minneapolis and I was like, "that's my home! I have been there!!" Then the members were like, "Wow you are rich!"  I was like, "No, I am not rich, I just live there, my dad pays all the bills."  So thanks dad. 

Another funny thing was during fast and testimony meeting one man stood up and shared his testimony on the 12 tribes of Isreal and how they will be restored in the latter days and how they will all be gathered together and it was really in depth and I didn't understand all of it, and the Bishop's face was just this look of confusion and "where is he going with this?" the whole time. It lasted 10 minutes and you could tell the counselor to the Bishop was like, "you should tell him to stop soon," but the bishop was way too interested in where the guy was going with this testimony.  It was funny I wish I understood it.  

Another thing is one thing about Brazil is it's really easy to teach lessons because usually people are just chilling in there house watching T.V. So you just clap and they come out and say, "Oh come in come in I love God please share your message." The hard part is getting them to actually listen and sincerely pray and ask if the things we are teaching are true.  That's just to answer some questions I have been getting about how hard the missions is.  The hard part isn't the finding the people to teach it's finding the right people to teach.  Love you guys,

Elder Holcomb

Marituba 3

Incredibly Eventful Week

Dear people,

This week was not eventful at all; not really anything happened.  After lunch one day I did see three wild monkeys running along the wall so that was cool. I tried to get a picture, but they were too fast.  I also got to see a cat play with a mouse and then catch and kill it so it was like Tom and Jerry in real life. I also helped a girl with physics homework and got it all right, so I guess physics is the same in Brazil and in the States.  We did have zone conference, that was fun. We learned more about how to recognize the spirit and we watched a cool Easter video I really liked called "Graças a Ele" which was way good.  General conference was good too. Everybody was pumped that a Brazilian was called to the 12 [apostles] and I think it is cool too that the [Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] is becoming a bit more than just Americans. General Conference was interesting because sometimes I only understood bits and pieces because it was in Portuguese.  However I got the gist of what was going on.  One thing that stood out to me is it felt like lots of people talked about the importance of listening to the Holy Ghost and we often forget we have a member of the Godhead with us to always guide us and comfort us. It was also interesting to see the apostles talking, but not hear their voice and hear the voice of some guy translating.  That was pretty much the highlights of my week. The kid from cyber is doing well and our other investigators are all doing well too.  Happy April!

PS I think this is the picture of my companion