Marituba 16

Dear people,
Again, this week not much happened. We have the problem of that no one we are teaching really wants to learn more or progress, they are just sort of sleeping.  However we are working with the members more and the Bishop made a big mission plan for the ward on paper that we handed out to everyone. We also gave a presentation for the adults on Sunday about missionary work and ideas for them to help. It was good, I think we will get lots of help now.  We roasted them at the beginning by using the story of when Jesus talks to Peter after His resurrection and eats with them and asks him three times if Peter loves Him and then tells him to feed His sheep.  I think that's a powerful story to show that even after all the experiences he had he didn't know what to do and just went back to what he was doing before and working, and I think we have lots of times we do the same thing and we have lots of big experiences that we sort of forget and just go back to regular life. However, we have to ask ourselves if we really do love Him and if we do we need to help other people and serve them and share the gospel. I kind of hope the same thing doesn't happen to me when I get back from the mission. It was fun to share that story with the entire ward and then be like, "do you love Him?  If so please help us."  I think it went well and lots of people will give us references and friends to teach this week.
For the game today we had a big zone reunion and everyone was there and we all painted our faces and wore Brazil jerseys and watched the game in the church. It was extremely hype and exciting. To be honest I was surprised that the game wasn't a lot closer. I thought Mexico would be a lot harder to beat. However, Friday is Belgium, which my companion thinks is the best team in the cup and will win so it will probably be a bit more challenging. However, Japan gave them a shoot for the money this afternoon so I don't know because I thought Japan would be an easy win for Belgium. But I guess lots of crazy things are happening in this world cup so who knows.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Marituba 15

Hello People,

Literally nothing happened this week exciting.  We worked and taught people.  The world cup here is great and exciting. However one day we left our house at 10 in the morning and found a drunk man laying in the gutter on his face next to the trash can singing.  It was 10 in the morning.  Brazil is great.  Everyone here is still saying that Brazil will win the cup but I am having my doubts after their first two games which didn't go too well.  However I am having fun watching all the games and freaking out with everybody. I love the intense emotion they put into everything here. Literally everything has a reason to celebrate over intensely.  If you have an arm wrestle everyone will film it and try to place bets and literally freak out and scream.  However watching soccer is another thing all together. 

This week was the last week of President Stasevskas and he was at stake conference on Sunday and shared a good testimony.  It will be sad to see him go, I will miss him, he was a good president; and before leaving switched our email time from 1 hour to 2 hours so that was a good legacy to leave.  I hope everyone's doing great and I will keep things updated when something exciting happens.  

On a different exciting note we got a new bishop who is really excited and wants to focus a lot on missionary work and has gotten the members excited too and we are getting lots of references to work with.  I will keep you updated and sorry I don't really have that many pictures to send.

Love,

Elder Holcomb

Marituba 14

All of the streets are painted up for the world cup

Dear people,

This week was pretty busy and exciting.  On Thursday I got to go on divisions to Mosquiero, the area of two other Elders in our district and it was awesome.  The area there is huge and it is on a beach so it was pretty exciting.  My companion for the day was from Argentina, and yes, he has seen real wild penguins so that made me jealous.  His name was Paniagua, and yes, if you say it in Spanish his name literally means bread and water so we call him Elder Sacrament.  It was fun to be with a non Brazilian and was kind of funny to be two white foreign people.  He wants to learn English and marry an american so I helped him with English and he helped me with Spanish and it was a weird three language mind hurting day but lots and lots of fun.  We went to the beach and got lots of pictures.  

The 6 baptisms we had were super fun.  Lots of people came to watch and it was pretty exciting.  We had a little bit of a party after and played soccer and ate food, and I think everyone was super happy.  Also, Mateus, I had hold on to the camera to take pictures, and he had fun taking selfies and random pictures so that should explain some of them.  The world cup was lots of fun.  Everyone talks about how during the cup in other countries everything shuts down and no one does anything, but I didn't realize how true that was until yesterday.  Literally nothing was open and there were literally no cars on the street. Everyone was literally just screaming and watching the game. It was epic and completely awesome.  

My spiritual thought for this week would be [Nephi 7:16-21] when Nephi gets tied up by his brothers and they want to go back to Jerusalem Nephi prays and asks for strength to break the bonds and then after he bears his testimony to his brothers and they are humbled.  I think it's important to note that Nephi didn't ask for God to get him out of the bonds or stop his brothers he only asked for strength to be able to do it himself.  May times we are caught in a bunch of bonds and feel tied up and I think sometimes we ask God to fix it but we really should just ask for strength to be able to solve things ourselves.  One of our purposes here on Earth is to learn and grow and we won't be able to do that if God just hands everything to us; sometimes we need to figure things out ourselves.  I see a good example in lots of the people we baptized this week. Both the family of Jaycie and Gabrielli have strong opinions against the church and were fighting hard for them not to be baptized yet they still had faith to go through with it anyways.  To me they were really tied up by there families and had to pray for strength and they shared there testimonies and sadly there family wasn't humbled in the same way as Laman and Lemuel, yet both of them are still willing to press on and continue to have a strong faith.  

Love,

Elder Holcomb

  

  

  

  

  

    

   

Marituba 13

Hello!!!

This week nothing too interesting happened but we worked a lot.  The 24th is stake conference so we weren't allowed to have baptisms the Saturday before because they wouldn't be able to be confirmed the following Sunday so  we ended up asking everyone we have with a goal to be baptized to move their goal to this week. Everyone was pumped too so now we are going to have 6 people baptized this week! So that is sweet and we look like super good missionaries to everybody so that is pretty funny.  This week we taught a lot of people with Mateus, the 18 year old chemistry student Elder Geremias and I baptized, and it has been super fun. He is great and everyone seems to like him, and his testimony about the church and baptism is super strong too, so it's nice to have people see the way the church has blessed his life.  Other than that nothing too exciting has happened.  My companion has some back pain so we have to go get X-rays for him. So I guess it's just a curse I have that all my companions need to visit the hospital  for x-rays but other than that nothing too interesting happened.  This week the world cup starts and I didn't know people could get so hyped.  All the streets are decorated and have Brazil flags and banners hanging everywhere, and everything is green and yellow, it's sweet. President has allowed that we can watch the Brazil games because no work would be able to get done anyway during the games because if you try to interrupt someone during a Brazil game it is like almost a federal offense my companion said; and after everyone is too drunk to understand anything.  So that should be fun. I am pumped to experience the World Cup in a place where people are actually going to get super hype.  I already have all the groups written down and it will be fun to watch the cup.  If I somehow get a new camera this week I will try to get pictures of all the decorated streets and fun stuff.

Love ,

Elder Holcomb

Marituba 12

Hello people,

This week was good and busy.  We worked a lot which I enjoyed, and enjoyed that my companion was willing to work a lot with me.  We only saw miracles this week.  

We started teaching a little young family and they were already married on paper, which was a miracle because nobody here gets married on paper, but you have to be married on paper to be baptized.  They really liked the lesson of the restoration and asked lots of questions and so we gave them a goal to be baptized on the 23rd.  Then later in the week when we went back the husband still wasn't back from work, but when we were walking back he caught us on his bike to talk to us and he was like, "yo its true." And told us that like they read the little pamphlet and prayed and then he felt like he didn't get a response or anything so he was like, "hmmm" and then they were talking to his wife's mom  and she said that Mormons are a cult full of secret symbols and women are useless in the Mormon religion and so they were like "oh ok dang."  But then he was like, "no, the missionaries said that now since we found the truth the enemy would try to get us away from it" so he was like, "hmmm it must be true if we find out about it now and then we get all of this hate."  So he was like, "hey, lets read the pamphlet again and then pray again." Then he made us take out the pamphlet and he showed us this part at the end where it talks about how the Holy Ghost responds through feelings of tranquility and calmness and he was like, "that was my answer!!!" He was like, "it's all true can I get baptized earlier?" So we were like, "ummm we still have to teach you some things first because we aren't here to just throw you in the water an baptize you. You have to learn about some commandments and things first." and he was like, "oh ok."  So he was awesome.

Then we had this other guy that walked into the church last Saturday and asked us questions and we said the best way to learn is visit on Sunday so he did. Then we taught him this week and he was like, "ahhh this makes so much sense."  Then this Fast Sunday he was visiting again and everyone was sharing testimonies and he got up to share too. I was kind of nervous like, "ummm what's he going to say?" But then he was like, 

"I have been in a whole lot of different churches and visited a lot of different churches but all of them I went to I never really felt like it was a church being directed by Christ or the church of Christ himself so I left all churches and just lived for myself. Then one day I had a dream and Christ was like, 'What are you doing?' So then I woke up and the next day I was walking past the church and saw it open so walked in to ask the missionaries questions and then after I talked with the missionaries this week I know this is Christ's church."

 And everyone at church was like, "dang."  So now everyone at church thinks we are super good missionaries.  

We are still teaching Jaycie and she is doing well.  

We taught Loyana about the law of chastity because she isn't married to the guy she's living with and we were like, "So will you get married?" and she was like, "no, I don't want to get married to him." We were like, "ummm why?" She said that there is lots of problems she has with him and then he showed up with a bunch of cops and the cops were asking for his documents, and we were kind of like, "oh, these kinds of problems."  So we took that as our queue to leave.  

So people we are teaching are doing well.  My companion is good. The first thing he had us do is deep clean our house so now the house is all reorganized and things, so that was fun.  Nothing too funny happened this week to share, but I basically forgot it was my birthday until the Mission President's wife called and sang "happy birthday."

Love,

Elder Holcomb

Here's Isaac's (edited) letter to Brian that may be interesting to you too:

haha the stress of school is real for you too.  Thanks for the birthday shout out it was a good birthday. We walked and taught people.  Yes, everybody has to take English at some point, but nobody goes to a public school here because they are super expensive. So you just pay for like a high school type thing, but you can take it at any age so you have like 30 year olds that decide to finish high school and will be in the same class as high school kids. HAMILTON is good I am glad you are listening to it again. 

 oh and Elder Dornelles is cool. He is from Rio Grande do Sul. Also he has seen snow before.  He has one year and 5 months in the mission so I am still only with companions that are close to dying off.

The statue is called "menino jesus" and its like a community park thing

That was my birthday I bought pizza for everyone to eat and Irma Daniella baked me a cake, it was fun.  Their family is awesome. They are lots of fun. She is basically the missionaries' mom and reminds me a little of Grandma Nancy in a way. 

Here's pictures from the baptism mentioned in last week's letter:

Marituba 11

(Picture of Isaac getting his vaccine update)

Hello!!!!!

This week was good.  On a quick note this transfer I am still in Marituba but I will have a new companion, Elder Dornelles.  This week was a normal working week.  We did get to baptize Arlison. He was very excited and it was very fun.  It was an adventure because when we were trying to fill up the font the water broke and wouldn't fill up just like my first baptism. However, this time the Bishop told us to use the emergency fire hose.  So we got to drag the firehouse through out the church building and then fill up the font.  It was very fun; however, cleaning the giant wet hose up afterwards was not.  I got pictures on my companion's camera because mine is still out of battery so when I get those I will send them!  

This week we started teaching a lady that didn't really believe in any church because she went to a lot, but didn't think any of them were the same church that Christ had left on the earth.  So we started teaching her and now she wants to get baptized, so that's awesome!!!  

We had Jaycie show up to church again so that was fun. She was very sad that Elder Geremias will be leaving, but I think she likes the church because of the church, not just him.  This week we can teach her at her house because people have finally realized she isn't just talking to us because she wants to get with one of us.  

Also, we had one guy that showed up to church just because he wanted to ask questions about it and I told him the best way to learn is to go to church, and he did, and he liked it and he wants us to teach him now so we will teach him this week too.  

Also this week I have been helping the youth in the ward with physics homework so I guess I still remember physics. I am surprised.  

I will send more pictures when my companion sends them so I will send them next week.  

My spiritual thought for the weeks would be 2 Nephi 31  about the steps of the gospel and baptism.  It was what we shared with Arlison before he was baptized and he likes that chapter a lot.  When we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost it is a very special experience. However, we need to always remember it, and then continue to do what we know is right, and really endure until the end, and always use the atonement in our life to improve and change because that's really what using the atonement is. It's changing how you live your life.

Love,

Elder Holcomb
[also sent this in another email:  oh also yes the trucker strike has been a problem because no one has fuel for there cars and the buses have been cut to 50 percent so that's a big thing  some airplanes have stopped too and the missionaries going home this transfer were worried their flight would be cancelled and they wouldn't be able to go home so that was funny but I think they are all fine]

Marituba 10

Hello people,

This week nothing too different happened but we did work hard.  We are still teaching Alison who is planning on being baptized this week.  He is pretty excited so that is good.  We started teaching someone named Jaycie who is cool. She and her kids have gone to church every week and really like everybody. The only problem is that she like separated from her husband last week because he likes to drink a lot and so everyone in her family thinks now she is trying to get with one of us missionaries. So we can't go to her house to teach her or everyone will be like "hmmmmm" because she is living at her mom's house now.  So we can only talk to her when she goes to church and the last two weeks she has been there so that's good.  We also are teaching someone named Loyana and she is sweet. She goes to church every Sunday too and likes everything, the only problem is she doesn't want to seriously pray and ask to see if the church is true because she is scared about the changes she will have to make in her life if the answer is yes.  

A funny thing is, another person we were teaching this week, when we were talking to her she was like, "it's best to meet on Thursdays because I work a lot on Tuesdays and Wednesdays" and my companion was like, "oh, what do you do for work?" and she was like, "oh, I am a prostitute." and we were like, "oh....."  but we are still teaching her so we will see how that goes and if she wants to make a couple changes in her life.  

The other funny thing is one day at lunch we were eating and there was a little iguana outside so we all went outside to look at it but then it got scared and ran away and into the house.  So then we spent thirty minutes chasing a very fast little iguana around the house.  We eventually did succeed and I have a picture of me holding it so that was fun.  

My spiritual thought would be we need to make sure that we are always putting the Lord's will first not ours and following His plan for us because I would say the hardest problem we have here is that someone will believe in the first couple of lessons we give but as soon as we talk about something that would mean they would need to change their life they don't want to believe in it anymore so we always need to remember to be humble ourselves too and look for what the Lord wants, not what we want.

LOVE,

Elder Holcomb

Also random side thing is that I heard that one chandelier song in the street the other day and like in the U.S. I had a hard time understanding what she was saying like even that she was saying chandelier but after 6 months of only hearing Portuguese I definitely knew exactly what she was saying.  So I guess I could probably understand "Smells Like Teen Spirit" now too.

[in answer to my question, "what is your favorite scripture right now?":   haha I don't know if I have a favorite scripture right now. I LIKE all of them.  However, a good one I like is in 3 Nephi, I think 13, when Christ is teaching the apostles and at the end basically tells them to give up everything because God can provide it.  there is an excellent one when he sets apart the apostles in the new testament but I am not sure exactly where.]