Quarenta Horas 4

Hello!
This week was good.  We ended up having a baptism this week of a young kid that loves the church.  He has two older brothers that have made some bad decisions and have some pretty bad addictions and he saw how much those decisions hurt their lives and knew that entering into the church would be able to give him a guide to success.  It was good to teach him and he is great friends already with the young men in the ward.  He even told us to pray and ask that his brothers can see his example of being baptized and that they will try to follow as well.  We tried to teach them, but they usually aren't too interested in listening, but I know his example already made his mom very proud.  We have some other people planned to baptize in the next couple of weeks that are very cool and are progressing well.  Nothing too crazy happened this week, but we did have a fun ward party for a holiday here and there was lots of cultural dancing and food so that was tasty; and lots of visitors came.  I'm still trying to get those pictures from the bike ride at the park and hopefully I can get them out as soon as possible.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[We were able to talk to Isaac today and he mentioned his new mission president arrived.  He says it's his 4th mission president since he's been on his mission.  The first one was almost done serving when Isaac arrived, then the second one ended up getting sick and was released, the third was just filling in until the 4th could arrive.  Isaac said a lot of people talk about their mission president being like another father to them, but he has never really built that kind of relationship with the short time mission presidents have been there.  What he has learned is that the church has given enough guidelines with Preach My Gospel and the handbook so that he can keep working and keep moving forward with direction even though the leadership changes.]  

Quarenta Horas 3

Hello,
This week was fun.  Now that we are kind of settled in the area we decided to try working really close with the members this week because we were having difficulties bringing people to church and it worked out really well!  Lots of people ended up coming to church because they felt like they had a friend there that wasn't just us hahaha.  This week everyone in the house got sick for the first part of the week and everyone that has served a mission knows that's the worst thing to happen because there is literally nothing to do when you are sick but read the scriptures or stare at the wall.  However we are all better now and were blessed with lots of visitors to the church.  The other American that lives at our house is new and learning Portuguese, but at home he was super into rock climbing, and my companion is really into African dances, so every morning we have arms and abs and then something that is basically Zumba so that's lots of fun and hopefully I get back into shape before I get home.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Quarenta Horas 2

Hello,
This week was super fun.  We once again worked hard.  This week we continued getting to know the area better and getting to know the members.  We had some visitors in sacrament meeting which was fun.  All of them are excited to be baptized.  One is a young man that loves church and wants go every Sunday and another is a single man with his two daughters that we taught just a little bit about the atonement and plan of salvation and he loved it and there is a family that is just waiting for their papers to get through so they can get married legally.
One funny thing that's happening is here lots of time as missionaries we take the bus, however Uber has now reached Belem and some missionaries found out it's cheaper to get an Uber than ride the bus if you are going there with 4 missionaries.  So it is now a thing for all the missionaries to call a member to ask them for an Uber and travel by Uber.  So that's the missionary mode of travel now.  Today we ended up going to a big nature park down town that was super sweet and we got a ton of pictures so when I get those I will try to send them quick.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Quarenta Horas 1

Hello,
This week was awesome!  My new companion and area are amazing.  My companion is from the Congo and is funny; it feels like I am walking with an inspirational speaker all day.  He said he likes people that DREAM BIG so that's awesome.  We are working a ton and what I have really learned with him is that missionaries really do have power and authority.  We really teach and call people to repentance.  We don't teach the restoration like teachers, but we show them why it's important to their eternal family.  We teach the law of chastity and the word of wisdom as the first lesson for tons of people and tell them if they want a happy eternal family they need to follow them, and they love it and want to go to church on Sunday; it's awesome.  There was this one lady that smokes that we taught and my companion was like, "you're going to stop smoking so that you can be baptized in two weeks and be washed of your sins and be born again."  We are going to give you a blessing and when you have temptation pray and drink lots of water and if you need to, call us."  And until now she hasn't smoked once.  There was one guy we stopped in the street and told him our job was to help people have an eternal family and asked if he wanted one and he was like, "yeah, I love my family" and my companion was like, "how long have you been married?" and the guy said, "actually we just live together" and we taught the law of chastity and my companion said "you need to get married and follow the commandments or you will never have an eternal family" and the guy was like, "yeah that's true I will talk to my wife tonight."  The gospel of Christ is about change every day to become better.  Maybe when we are first baptized we make lots of big changes in our life but the moment we stop changing and relax that's when it's over; we've got to get better and utilize the atonement every day of our lives.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[From Michele:  For more on changing everyday: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/36nelson?lang=eng]

Salinopólis 5

This week was lots of fun.  We worked hard again.  This week was my birthday and people ended up throwing a surprise party for me so that was fun.  They played the national anthem and some hymns and brought cake so that was fun.  My birthday was pretty cool, I was very grateful, and I got a custom t-shirt with everybody's name on the back to remember everyone.
This week was the temple dedication of the Forteleza temple in Brazil so we were going to watch that this Sunday, but the internet didn't work and it ended up being a regular sacrament meeting, but there weren't any visitors because everyone was planning on the temple dedication. 
However I ended up getting transferred to a new area which was sad.  I loved the area of Salinas, everyone there is super cool and it's a really awesome city.  However now I am in 40 Horas, closer to Belém, which is fun.  The past Elders here gave us lots of work to do and people to baptize so that is fun.  I am excited to work here and to meet new people!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

[Isaac seemed slightly reluctant to let us know he's being transferred so soon because he is becoming a zone leader.  Zone leader is basically someone who will be leading and training a larger group of missionaries.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salinopólis 4

Hello,
This week was pretty fun.  We worked hard, but it's still a bit difficult to find people that are progressing.  We brought a casal [married couple] that is the friend of a member that are super cool and we will continue working with them.  This week church was a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to stake conference so lots of people didn't want to visit.  We were going to bring the same girl that went to church last week and her family with us however they dropped out at the last minute so that was a little sad.  However stake conference was super fun we got to see other missionaries and also there was a seventy that came and gave a good talk about leaving worldly things and staying out of debt that was fun.  This week everybody got a cold but it was still fun to work.  This week we are going to have a zone conference in Belém with Elder Godoy one of the seventy so that should be fun.  We will also be able to see other missionaries which should be fun as well.  The transfer is already ending so that is a bit sad.  I like this area and I have no idea if I will be leaving or not.  However either way I am excited to keep working. The end keeps getting closer and closer and there isn't much time I have left to get to be a missionary anymore :(
Love,
Elder Holcomb

A couple of things from Isaac's phone call today:
It is Isaac's birthday on Friday (send him an email!) so we asked what he will be doing.  He said he'll be at Zone conference so we asked if everyone will sing to him.  He laughed and said, actually, at all the other zone conferences he has announced it's someone's birthday and gotten everyone to sing to that person...whose birthday it isn't hahaha (He says he stole the idea from his cross country and nordic ski coach).  So he thinks no one will believe him if he says it's his birthday.  
Also while talking to Isaac somehow corrupt police officers came up ??? I don't remember how, but he mentioned sometimes (not once, "sometimes") they will be sitting in someone's house teaching them and then all of a sudden you'll see the neighbors jumping out of the windows and take off running into the jungle and you'll just be like, "what?" and then five or ten minutes later the police will show up.
Oh, I think I remember what it was, that brought up police corruption.  At some point on his mission, I don't know when, someone called out to them on the street and so they went to talk to him and he told the missionaries how much he loved church and it was his favorite, but he couldn't be a member because he had killed so many people and he even wrote the prophet and asked, but the prophet said no.  There's probably more to that story, and we don't know the "rules" about those things, but Isaac is wondering if part of it could be because he didn't serve time for his crimes, but the prisons are pretty bad and the justice system is corrupt...even some of the police; and that is how we got to that last story.
Here's some photos sent to me.  Isaac was excited to go running on the beach and sing Chariots of Fire to himself in his head.

Salinopólis 3

Hello,
This week was awesome!  We worked really hard and knocked on lots of doors it was lots of fun and people gave us a lot of food.  We went out with a member on Friday that bought us pizza!  Sadly again not that many people went to church, but we brought a couple people that said they liked it so that's good.  We will continue working with them.  The area here is pretty cool, but super touristy, however lots of people give us lots of food so that is good.  Sorry this email isn't too big, but nothing much happened besides the fact that we worked and that was good.
Love you guys,
Elder Holcomb

Photos: pizza; tacacá, Isaac pulling weird faces for fun, and visiting a touristy place