Hello people,
This week was super fun. My new companion is Elder Souza, from Minas Girais, and he is super awesome and super funny. It's fun to have a Brazilian companion again.
We finally got our energy [electricity] back on Thursday. it was funny because my companion's first day in the mission we didn't have any light to unpack his bags and we just did everything by candlelight. The house is a lot more chill now though because there will only be four of us in the house now and it's more quiet, but I think I like it better.
This week we worked hard and we ended up finding a young couple that wants to be baptized. It was a miracle we found them because usually they both work all day and then they study at night and don't get home until 11 o' clock. However we found them in the like 40 minutes they are at home and taught them about the restoration. They said that they have been wanting to get baptized in a church they just needed to follow the commandments first and get married legally and were planning on getting married next month. Then they prayed, and asked, and went to church yesterday; and said they loved it and that they got an answer to their prayer and wanted to get baptized. So now we just have to wait for the government to sign papers and plan a cool wedding party in the ward, and after that we can baptize them.
Diego's mom wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday because she was sick. However she became good friends with the Relief Society President and they are chilling all the time now. We also managed to have a few other visitors at church that we are going to work with during the week. I love you guys! Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Holcomb
*
Monday, February 11, 2019
Monday, February 4, 2019
Pérola 13
Hello people!
This week was a decent one. It was a bit different because it's the end of the transfer so we were trying to get stuff ready for if we leave the area, however we did still work decently.
We brought a senhora to sacrament meeting which was awesome because she was having difficulty feeling a response from God if the church and what we were teaching was true or not, but we promised she would be able to feel a response from God if she went to church. Then she did go with us and said she felt it was all was right. So now I am super pumped to go back and continue teaching with my new companion.
This transfer I will stay here in Pérola and I will get a brand new companion. However, nobody wants to tell me who he is so I will just find out when he gets off the plane and finds me because we are in a far area where we need to get a plane from Belém to get here. However, I am sure he will be great. I hope everyone is having a good time with the cold because I am missing it!
Love,
Elder Holcomb
Here's Isaac's letter to his dad (since he answers the question about his electricity and shares some interesting info):
Sounds like a fun week staying inside and playing lots of video games. I am excited you are going to run the Ragnar and have confidence in you to train and run fast. Also I had a dream you were ripped when I got back and did like back handsprings in the backyard everyday too. So you will have to work on that when it warms up as well.
Yeah the power is still out. Apparently the last financial secretary never paid our bills, was just saying he was, and the new one got there and was like, "ummmm I just paid 4 months of bills that were late." So now we are waiting for the company to come to our house to turn the energy back on.
Yeah, we got transfers. I am going to be able to train a missionary!!!!!! Which I am super pumped about because I have always wanted to train a fresh missionary. Both of the assistants now are my friends and said they didn't know if I could because they wanted to make me a zone leader, but I told them I wanted to train first. So now I get to train and I also am going to end up district leader which I am pumped about and excited to help out the district with all the past drama that happened this transfer. And basically what you said to your team at work* was what I told everybody during the drama and I think it worked out decently. Also that's going to be a huge bank now. Maybe if you play your cards right you can use this merge to move up in the ranks and buy a sweet boat house for when I get back ;-) Just remember to focus on what's right and show off those leadership skills you learned back in high school. As Uncle Iroh would say, "Zuko! Remember the basics!"
Love,
Your son Elder Holcomb
And another add on:
Yeah, I finished training an Elder but I wanted to train again and yeah if you are zone leader you both are seniors so you can't like train or help a newbie.
*A portion from Brian's letter to put Isaac's words into context:
Oh, they announced at work that TCF is merging with another bank in Detroit. It won't become official until they get regulatory approval which probably won't happen until September or October. it will basically double the size of the bank... There's some concern about whether all of our jobs will move to Detroit or not. I think they might all move to Minneapolis instead. Regardless, I think I'll just keep my head down and work hard on the things I can control and we'll see what happens. That's what I've been telling my team at work too. You can't focus on the things you can't control, just focus on the things you can control and do them the best you can.
Have a great week and keep doing good things!
I don't think I shared any of these pictures yet:
This week was a decent one. It was a bit different because it's the end of the transfer so we were trying to get stuff ready for if we leave the area, however we did still work decently.
We brought a senhora to sacrament meeting which was awesome because she was having difficulty feeling a response from God if the church and what we were teaching was true or not, but we promised she would be able to feel a response from God if she went to church. Then she did go with us and said she felt it was all was right. So now I am super pumped to go back and continue teaching with my new companion.
This transfer I will stay here in Pérola and I will get a brand new companion. However, nobody wants to tell me who he is so I will just find out when he gets off the plane and finds me because we are in a far area where we need to get a plane from Belém to get here. However, I am sure he will be great. I hope everyone is having a good time with the cold because I am missing it!
Love,
Elder Holcomb
Here's Isaac's letter to his dad (since he answers the question about his electricity and shares some interesting info):
Sounds like a fun week staying inside and playing lots of video games. I am excited you are going to run the Ragnar and have confidence in you to train and run fast. Also I had a dream you were ripped when I got back and did like back handsprings in the backyard everyday too. So you will have to work on that when it warms up as well.
Yeah the power is still out. Apparently the last financial secretary never paid our bills, was just saying he was, and the new one got there and was like, "ummmm I just paid 4 months of bills that were late." So now we are waiting for the company to come to our house to turn the energy back on.
Yeah, we got transfers. I am going to be able to train a missionary!!!!!! Which I am super pumped about because I have always wanted to train a fresh missionary. Both of the assistants now are my friends and said they didn't know if I could because they wanted to make me a zone leader, but I told them I wanted to train first. So now I get to train and I also am going to end up district leader which I am pumped about and excited to help out the district with all the past drama that happened this transfer. And basically what you said to your team at work* was what I told everybody during the drama and I think it worked out decently. Also that's going to be a huge bank now. Maybe if you play your cards right you can use this merge to move up in the ranks and buy a sweet boat house for when I get back ;-) Just remember to focus on what's right and show off those leadership skills you learned back in high school. As Uncle Iroh would say, "Zuko! Remember the basics!"
Love,
Your son Elder Holcomb
And another add on:
Yeah, I finished training an Elder but I wanted to train again and yeah if you are zone leader you both are seniors so you can't like train or help a newbie.
*A portion from Brian's letter to put Isaac's words into context:
Oh, they announced at work that TCF is merging with another bank in Detroit. It won't become official until they get regulatory approval which probably won't happen until September or October. it will basically double the size of the bank... There's some concern about whether all of our jobs will move to Detroit or not. I think they might all move to Minneapolis instead. Regardless, I think I'll just keep my head down and work hard on the things I can control and we'll see what happens. That's what I've been telling my team at work too. You can't focus on the things you can't control, just focus on the things you can control and do them the best you can.
Have a great week and keep doing good things!
I don't think I shared any of these pictures yet:
Monday, January 28, 2019
Pérola 12
Dear people,
This week was entertaining. We worked hard like usual. Diego, who we baptized, is super pumped to be a member of the church and whenever we go over to his house he has lots of questions about being a member. His mom also started reading his Book of Mormon and decided she wanted to go to church with us too so she went this past Sunday. That was pretty cool to see how much the change in her son could effect her. On other notes I learned how to do the cup song this week from the Young Women's President. So now in our house we just always do the cup song for like 5 minutes straight without stopping. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a cellphone to waste your time. Another exciting thing is that our energy got cut so we spent the last three days sleeping without a fan. So we haven't actually been sleeping and I wake up about 4 times every night to take a cold shower. However, hopefully it comes back Tuesday. Generally the transfer would be this week, but however, it's next week so everyone is a little bit stir crazy and wants to know what's going to happen to all of us especially with the President being new and all of that. Sorry there isn't too much to share this week, but next week should be fun because it's the last week of the transfer.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
Here's some of the pictures Isaac sent last week:
This week was entertaining. We worked hard like usual. Diego, who we baptized, is super pumped to be a member of the church and whenever we go over to his house he has lots of questions about being a member. His mom also started reading his Book of Mormon and decided she wanted to go to church with us too so she went this past Sunday. That was pretty cool to see how much the change in her son could effect her. On other notes I learned how to do the cup song this week from the Young Women's President. So now in our house we just always do the cup song for like 5 minutes straight without stopping. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a cellphone to waste your time. Another exciting thing is that our energy got cut so we spent the last three days sleeping without a fan. So we haven't actually been sleeping and I wake up about 4 times every night to take a cold shower. However, hopefully it comes back Tuesday. Generally the transfer would be this week, but however, it's next week so everyone is a little bit stir crazy and wants to know what's going to happen to all of us especially with the President being new and all of that. Sorry there isn't too much to share this week, but next week should be fun because it's the last week of the transfer.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
Here's some of the pictures Isaac sent last week:
Monday, January 21, 2019
Pérola 11
Hello people!
This week was a really good one, but at the beginning of the week my companion got sick so we didn't do much besides study all day and watch the rain in a hammock. However, at the end of the week we did end up getting to baptize Diego, the cousin of a member that lives in a different city. It was great to be able to baptize him because he had such a strong desire to for a long time, but his mom wouldn't let him because she wanted him to be baptized in the Catholic church. However when we went to talk with her she was super nice and gave us avocado ice cream, and turns out the only thing we really needed to do was teach her. All the other missionaries had just taught him, but when we had offered to teach her she accepted, and after hearing our message she understood and let him be baptized in the church. I think it's interesting how much understanding can change things. Just like in "Our Search for Happiness" written by M Russell Ballard. The whole reason he wrote the book was just for understanding, not trying to convert anyone, and the reason we taught his mom was just for understanding, and that made her realize how important it was for her son and let him be baptized. I will send pics of the baptism and the rain too. Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Holcomb
In our letters we were discussing the portion of last week's Come Follow Me lesson that teaches about the people who witnessed Jesus Christ as a baby (shepherds, wise men, Simeon, and Anna). Isaac wrote:
Yeah, that's what I liked too. The only people that recognized Jesus only knew because of the Spirit. In this part and His whole life we can have as much proof and evidence as we want, but we will only recognize Christ and the truths of the gospel if we are listening to the Spirit.
Isaac sent photos, but forgot to give me permission to access them, so next week I'll share them.
This week was a really good one, but at the beginning of the week my companion got sick so we didn't do much besides study all day and watch the rain in a hammock. However, at the end of the week we did end up getting to baptize Diego, the cousin of a member that lives in a different city. It was great to be able to baptize him because he had such a strong desire to for a long time, but his mom wouldn't let him because she wanted him to be baptized in the Catholic church. However when we went to talk with her she was super nice and gave us avocado ice cream, and turns out the only thing we really needed to do was teach her. All the other missionaries had just taught him, but when we had offered to teach her she accepted, and after hearing our message she understood and let him be baptized in the church. I think it's interesting how much understanding can change things. Just like in "Our Search for Happiness" written by M Russell Ballard. The whole reason he wrote the book was just for understanding, not trying to convert anyone, and the reason we taught his mom was just for understanding, and that made her realize how important it was for her son and let him be baptized. I will send pics of the baptism and the rain too. Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Holcomb
In our letters we were discussing the portion of last week's Come Follow Me lesson that teaches about the people who witnessed Jesus Christ as a baby (shepherds, wise men, Simeon, and Anna). Isaac wrote:
Yeah, that's what I liked too. The only people that recognized Jesus only knew because of the Spirit. In this part and His whole life we can have as much proof and evidence as we want, but we will only recognize Christ and the truths of the gospel if we are listening to the Spirit.
Isaac sent photos, but forgot to give me permission to access them, so next week I'll share them.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Pérola 10
Hey people!
This week was pretty fun. It rained a whole lots so it was a bit difficult to enter into people's houses to teach them because we were all wet and muddy. However, we had lots of contacts in the street so that was fun. The kid from last week that went to sacrament meeting is super awesome and wants to get baptized. He talked to missionaries like a couple years ago in Manaus, which is a different city here in Brazil, and really wants to get baptized so we will be able to baptize him this Saturday after we reteach him everything [in the missionary lessons]. I taught him how to solve a Rubik's Cube so that was pretty fun and I was surprised I still remembered how to do it [not part of the missionary lessons]. We found some cool people to teach this week but no one was able to make a visit in the church except for the people we already have been teaching for a while that already have a date to be baptized. That's pretty much what happened this week.
This morning Elder Bell and I decided to run to the bank, but when we got there the money hadn't gotten on our cards yet.* We were counting on the money we got from the bank to buy the bus ride back home so we had to end up running home too which was funny hahaha. However life here is good. I will try to do more interesting things that I can share in the emails and will try to send some photos from the week too.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[*All missionaries pay the same amount to serve a mission to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That money then gets redistributed to the missionaries, based on costs of living, to cover the costs of their food, rent, bus passes, etc. Each missionary gets a bank card with the allotted amount for a certain amount of time- I think a month, but I'm not sure.--MH]
[Isaac and his companion made covers for their planners]
This week was pretty fun. It rained a whole lots so it was a bit difficult to enter into people's houses to teach them because we were all wet and muddy. However, we had lots of contacts in the street so that was fun. The kid from last week that went to sacrament meeting is super awesome and wants to get baptized. He talked to missionaries like a couple years ago in Manaus, which is a different city here in Brazil, and really wants to get baptized so we will be able to baptize him this Saturday after we reteach him everything [in the missionary lessons]. I taught him how to solve a Rubik's Cube so that was pretty fun and I was surprised I still remembered how to do it [not part of the missionary lessons]. We found some cool people to teach this week but no one was able to make a visit in the church except for the people we already have been teaching for a while that already have a date to be baptized. That's pretty much what happened this week.
This morning Elder Bell and I decided to run to the bank, but when we got there the money hadn't gotten on our cards yet.* We were counting on the money we got from the bank to buy the bus ride back home so we had to end up running home too which was funny hahaha. However life here is good. I will try to do more interesting things that I can share in the emails and will try to send some photos from the week too.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[*All missionaries pay the same amount to serve a mission to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That money then gets redistributed to the missionaries, based on costs of living, to cover the costs of their food, rent, bus passes, etc. Each missionary gets a bank card with the allotted amount for a certain amount of time- I think a month, but I'm not sure.--MH]
[Isaac and his companion made covers for their planners]
Monday, January 7, 2019
Pérola 9
Hello People!
This week was pretty normal. New Year's was a blast of fun. We were able to spend the night at a member's house and we got eat a lot of tasty food before going back home. We thought working was going to be really hard this week because of the holidays, however, we ended up working very hard and finding lots of new people to teach. On Sunday we had two visitors that are both friends of members and they are super cool. We taught both of them about the restoration and agreed to pray and ask if was true and will talk to them again tonight. We have another girl that we are going to baptize. However, her step mom ended up losing her baby in the hospital (that would be great if she could get some prayers), so we had to move her baptism to a later date. We also have one guy we are teaching that is super fun. He is 23 years old and is a waiter at a restaurant and an Uber driver with a baptismal date for the 19th. So the work here is going really well. Two hour church was pretty great. Now that they got rid of the Gospel Principles class we got to participate in the young single adult class and that was super fun. Also there were three Americans visiting from Colorado in our ward because one of them got proposed to from a Brazilian in the neighbor ward so I got to talk in English with them. It was pretty cool to talk to Americans, however, they talked about the snow and then I got missing snow a lot.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[These are pictures from a hike this morning]
This week was pretty normal. New Year's was a blast of fun. We were able to spend the night at a member's house and we got eat a lot of tasty food before going back home. We thought working was going to be really hard this week because of the holidays, however, we ended up working very hard and finding lots of new people to teach. On Sunday we had two visitors that are both friends of members and they are super cool. We taught both of them about the restoration and agreed to pray and ask if was true and will talk to them again tonight. We have another girl that we are going to baptize. However, her step mom ended up losing her baby in the hospital (that would be great if she could get some prayers), so we had to move her baptism to a later date. We also have one guy we are teaching that is super fun. He is 23 years old and is a waiter at a restaurant and an Uber driver with a baptismal date for the 19th. So the work here is going really well. Two hour church was pretty great. Now that they got rid of the Gospel Principles class we got to participate in the young single adult class and that was super fun. Also there were three Americans visiting from Colorado in our ward because one of them got proposed to from a Brazilian in the neighbor ward so I got to talk in English with them. It was pretty cool to talk to Americans, however, they talked about the snow and then I got missing snow a lot.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[These are pictures from a hike this morning]
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Pérola 7 and 8
Hello people,
Sorry I didn't email home last week because of the skype [video chat with family on Christmas day]. However there isn't much to share; the work has been a bit hard because of the holidays, everyone is traveling and visiting family. However we have still been having fun. The Relief Society gave us a present of a bunch of cookies so that was tasty and a bunch of balhina de chuva (which is basically doughnut holes).
However I do actually have some pictures to send now so I hope all of you can finally enjoy pictures after a long long time.
Remember to always smile and be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!! And get pumped for the new year and set good goals! The new Come Follow Me manual looks pretty sweet and we got one for our missionary house and we are planning on doing it as a missionary family :-) I'm excited to study better about the New Testament and get more knowledge on the mission of the apostles because I always understand and know the mission and life of Christ, but what happens with all of the apostles and their missions after I always seem to forget the context of those letters and parts.
I will try to share the photos on google drive.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[Isaac shared a lot of pictures so I'm just going to add a few here in case he doesn't send more next time so I can share some then. Second to last photo Elder Holcomb and another Elder went on a run wearing each other's high school team jerseys; and the last photo is the view of Santarem after their run up the hill.]
Sorry I didn't email home last week because of the skype [video chat with family on Christmas day]. However there isn't much to share; the work has been a bit hard because of the holidays, everyone is traveling and visiting family. However we have still been having fun. The Relief Society gave us a present of a bunch of cookies so that was tasty and a bunch of balhina de chuva (which is basically doughnut holes).
However I do actually have some pictures to send now so I hope all of you can finally enjoy pictures after a long long time.
Remember to always smile and be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!! And get pumped for the new year and set good goals! The new Come Follow Me manual looks pretty sweet and we got one for our missionary house and we are planning on doing it as a missionary family :-) I'm excited to study better about the New Testament and get more knowledge on the mission of the apostles because I always understand and know the mission and life of Christ, but what happens with all of the apostles and their missions after I always seem to forget the context of those letters and parts.
I will try to share the photos on google drive.
Love,
Elder Holcomb
[Isaac shared a lot of pictures so I'm just going to add a few here in case he doesn't send more next time so I can share some then. Second to last photo Elder Holcomb and another Elder went on a run wearing each other's high school team jerseys; and the last photo is the view of Santarem after their run up the hill.]
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