Pérola 21

Hello people!
This week was fun.  We continued to try to work really hard and we are really seeing the blessings.  We have been able to  teach lots of people and bring lots of people to church with us.  Besides the fact we worked, not much happened.  We left a message with the members during the second hour of church on how they could help us as the missionaries and gave some cool ideas to help with missionary work and share the gospel with friends.  We won't be able to baptize people this Saturday because it's going to be general conference (which will be exciting) and then after it's stake conference so the only time we  can baptize again will be the 20th.  We ended up realizing we have a lot of people that are being prepared to be baptized that Saturday and decided to let the rest of the missionaries in the city know and we are planning on having a giant baptism with all of the wards together as a stake and we are calling it the day of Pentecost.*  Everyone is getting pretty hyped up about it and inviting lots of friends to be taught by us.  It should be super fun and I am glad the members are excited about it and wanting to go out with us on visits.  This week we really saw how you are blessed and receive miracles by your diligence and obedience!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

*Isaac says they are calling it Pentecost because so many people were baptized on Pentecost. Here is a link for more about Pentecost.

Also, a few pictures from this morning:

Pérola 20

This week was pretty awesome. We ended up working super super hard and were blessed and saw lots of miracles and we were able to bring lots of people to sacrament meeting!  It was cool because they were able to see Mara, the girl we baptized, be confirmed and that was super awesome for them.  One of the things we were blessed with was that we found three families that are already married legally, because that's like impossible here, and we found three in the same week that are cool to teach.  One of them has a daughter that went to church last week and then she didn't remember her address so we didn't know how we were going to be able to teach her; but then one day in the rain we felt like we should knock on a door so we did and it was her family and they are super cool and they thought we were cool.  Also we had a service project with the ward at a school for autistic children that was super fun, but I didn't get any photos there sadly.  However I do have photos of the baptism!

Pérola 19

Hello,
This week was pretty awesome.  At the beginning of the week two of the missionaries from far away had to come into the city to do some stuff at the police station with their passports and they stayed at our house so it was pretty fun.  We went to a nice restaurant with all you can eat meat and joked around a lot. 
Another highlight was that we had a service project on Saturday to help construct our Bishop's new house.  It was super fun.  We got to climb up to build the roof and pour cement on the roof, but had to make an assembly line of buckets to bring the cement from the ground up the ladders and to the roof to pour the cement, and we both got extremely sore.  The top was just a few parts that were actually stable, and wooden boards to walk on, and then Styrofoam that we poured the cement on top of.  So we had to be careful to not step on the Styrofoam or we would fall through and it was a bit sketchy, but super fun, and only one guy fell, but just his leg went through the ceiling.  Then when we got back I was sun burnt super bad because all of my skin has accustomized, but I forgot that's when I am wearing church clothes, so when I was there in shorts and t-shirt my neck and legs got super red.  It was pretty fun to feel like I had spent a long time at the beach again. 
Then when we were teaching this random guy he gave us these frog necklaces that he tried to give some guys from another church, but they wouldn't accept them because they are from the devil because it's like an old Indian luck charm.  So now we both have matching demon frogs.  So this week was eventful. 
We are planning on having Mara's baptism this week and then baptize her sister Marta next week.  It should be super fun!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Pérola 18

Helloooo,
This week was good, but not much came out of it.  The beginning of the week was Carnaval and most people were traveling or drunk so it got a bit hard to teach people. However at the end of the week we did end up bringing a few people to church:  Mara, who I have already talked about who will be baptized on the 23rd with her sister, and Gilsi.  Gilsi is really awesome and really really wants to be baptized, but she isn't married on paper and just living with her husband so isn't following the law of chastity.  She really wants to get married and follow the commandments and be baptized, but her husband doesn't want to.  We always taught them both together, but now that he found out he needs to get married he always is too tired for messages and needs to sleep hahahhahahaha.  However, everything we hope will go well with patience.  She loves the church and the members so it will just take time.  But other than that not too much is happening.
Love you guys and will try to take more pictures!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Pérola 17

Hello people,
This week was good!  We ended up working really hard at the beginning of the week and found lots of new people that wanted to go to church, and we were able to bring lots of them to sacrament meeting.  We were a bit scared that because this week was the youth camping trip during the time of carnaval and all of the church youth were gone, that all of the youth we were going to bring to visit the church wouldn't find it too inviting.  However, all of them loved it still and felt the spirit. One of the ladies we brought to visit the church is a girl that I think I mentioned before that had a dream about us going to teach her and she agreed on a day to get baptized, the 16th of March, with her sister; so that should be super awesome. 
Yes it is still raining, but near the end of the week it started to clear up again so that was good. 
Also as a funny note one of our plans as a zone for this next month is called Avatar State and as missionaries we need to control the four elements.  We need to be adaptable in all situations like Water; we need to be firm and strong in our testimony and purpose like Earth; we need to keep our internal flame burning just like Fire; and we need to be spiritual aware and calm just like an Air bender.  It's a pretty awesome idea and it's going to help me be excited to work, and I am pretty sure for everyone else too, so it goes into my journal as the best zone plan I have had* in the mission. Love you guys!
Elder Holcomb

[*Best zone plan he's been given. Believe it or not, he didn't make it up.  I assumed it was all his idea, but he says he can't take any credit, other missionaries came up with it.  A zone plan is basically the plan or goals they have for the month together as a zone. A zone is the group of missionaries in a city or multiple cities.  So smallest to largest:  "area" which is 1 companionship (companionship meaning 1-3 missionaries), then "district" which is 4 or 5 companionships, then "zone" which is 2 or 3 districts, then "mission" which is give or take 5 zones.]

Pérola 16

Hello people,
This week was an awesome one, but also a bit sad.  The one family we were teaching disappeared and we can't find them at their house, and nobody we were teaching decided to go to church this week.  However on Sunday an old person that me and my old companion taught decided to go to church and loved it and decided that they wanted to learn more again!  So that's awesome and we are excited to work with them.
However it rained a lot this week, which was loads of fun to be in big rainstorms, and we got to go the awesome meat buffet restaurant again.  We also ended up finding a lady that had a dream that two servants from God were trying to find her and teach her, but couldn't, and then she let us enter when we knocked on the door. She listened to the message, but she said she didn't recognize us as the servants from the lord until we shared our testimonies at the end. Which helped me remember that as missionaries we can't logically teach anyone a desire to change, we can just bring the Spirit and help them feel it just like in 1 Corinthians 2:4.  I hoe everyone has a good week!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Pérola 15

Hello People,
This week was fun. Everything pretty much got back to normal from [since] the transfer and the energy [electricity] returning. Last week our ward got a return missionary, so throughout the week he was always wanting to give us references and leave to work with us so that was fun.  He also has a car so that was a big help so we didn't have to walk everywhere.  Diego's mom came to church and [so did] another girl we were teaching throughout the week.  The girl has a super strong desire to get baptized so we planned with the bishop and she will get baptized during the youth retreat the stake will have next week during Carnaval, so that should be super fun and cool. There is also another lady we are teaching who lives with her daughter and son-in-law that are members of the church and she also really like the messages.  Me and my companion are super pumped to continue working in the area. We had a good meeting with our ward mission leader and we have lots of good plans to continue integrating the members into missionary work!  I don't know how many people heard that I can do skype calls and text with my family every week now, but I will still try to write an email every week to continue with the blog until the end of the mission!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Isaac video called us from his Bishop's house since they are now allowed to call. It was great to get to talk to him. Mostly he joked around with his brothers and wanted updates on the video games they are playing, as well as telling us pretty much the same things he wrote. He also said Elder Bell is giving him a hard time to figure out what he's going to do with his life because...girls like a man with a plan; and then asked if we know what qualifications he needs to become a garbage man "remember when I wanted to grow up to be a garbage man?" yep we do.  Isaac also mentioned he's parting his hair now and he calls it "the Brian."  He was at someone's house and the little kids were combing his hair over and over and lots of people told him they liked it better that way so he's wearing it that way now. He says people tell him he is even better looking and looks more serious instead of crazy X-D He also slipped into Portuguese once until we must have looked completely confused. Isaac is planning on sending emails every week and will probably use Google chat too.  The internet café he goes to doesn't have video options and he doesn't have international phone calling options or ipads like some missions.  He also does not want to disrupt his Bishop's personal life by going there to call every week.  So for us even with the new rules, we will be about the same except he can call if he needs to.  It's nice to have the option available even if you don't use it every week.