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

 

Salinopólis 2

Hello people,
This week was fun, but fast.  Not too much happened we worked and that was fun; we met lots of new people.  There weren't too many people at church on Sunday because of Mother's Day but it was still fun. I gave a talk. 
Today we woke up early to run so that was fun. We went to the beach and there was lots of fish and shrimp sculptures.  Also we went to a water stream where you can just drink out of it so we did that. There is a legend that there is a giant frog that pees in it so I thought was a pretty cool legend to share.  We will probably go to the other beach this afternoon with some members that will take us by car, and take some pictures there so that should be fun. 
On a more spiritual note remember to serve your neighbor and show love for others. That's the best way to be a missionary is showing Christ like love.  Sorry the email is quick I don't have much time today.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Isaac also called yesterday and today.  We asked him why the Coca Cola Lake is the color of cola and he said he asked a few people and some said because the devil lives in it and some said it's sediment and some said they didn't know.  Here's some pictures from his morning run along with one from yesterday of a man who is a fisherman and was recently baptized and is cooking fish he caught for them.  

Salinópolis 1

Hello!!!!!!!!!
This week was super fun!  My new area is Salinas and it's like a tourist beach town on the edge of the ocean.  There are super cool beaches here and the plan is to visit one of them later today.  There is also a beach called the Coca-Cola beach because the water looks like Coke so that is cool.  The ward here was a branch but became a ward* last week so that is pretty cool.  The members here are super fun and accepting and always like to joke around and also the people that live here are super accepting.  Literally every single house we clapped at we were accepted so that was pretty cool.  We wound up finding lots of cool people to teach and some cool families.   There is one neighborhood here that all the houses are built on stilts for when the tide comes in and it's super cool because during the day when it's dry there are crabs running all over the ground and hiding in their little holes.  My companion is Elder Santon from Bahia and is cool.  I will try to take some pictures today and send them next week.
Love,
Elder Holcomb

*when a congregation only has a small number of people it is called a branch and when it is a certain number of  more people (I think the number varies) it is called a ward.

We got to talk to Isaac using WhatsApp this week.  He gave us a tour of his new place.  It's really nice! We joked it would be the nicest place he lives in his adult life ;-)  It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a good sized kitchen and living room area, a nice patio; a side yard with a washing machine, clothesline, and a pool (not really- it's an old brick tub for laundry but they call it a pool for fun); and a front yard with two coconut trees.  Isaac says he thinks it belongs to a chef from Portugal who met the missionaries and really liked them so he now rents it out to missionaries.  Isaac had his companion cut open a coconut for us.  He can do it really fast because he is from Brazil and grew up climbing trees and picking and cutting open coconuts.  Isaac also showed us some cups his companion made out of coconuts.  He thought it was pretty funny we were so impressed with his coconut cutting skills because it's such a regular thing, but we said if it snows again we'll video us shoveling snow for him hahaha.  I've included a few screenshots from our call and the other photos are from the beach and Coca-Cola Lake (that is actually it's name) and were sent to me by one of the people that took him there.

Pérola 25

Hello!!!!!!!
This week was interesting.  Not too much happened, but me and my companion will both be leaving the area so we spent Sunday trying to fix everything up for the new Elders- getting and writing information and people's numbers down while trying to visit people and take pictures.  However I am super excited for my next area which is Salinas.  Everyone says that it is a super cool area full of people to teach and it's next to the beach so that should be super fun.  Sorry this week's email is probably super short, but I will try to have a big one for next week in the new area!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Here's a few pictures from Mara, who also sent some very nice texts:
 "Your son was one of the best people I've met recently. Although very young yet has many qualities, which makes him a good and admirable human being. I will miss him learning will be a better memory. Your son is a wonderful boy, in every visit he always smiles, a lot of fun, a good teacher. ...I confess that I cried, because he is a mature young man, determined and now needs to go, I probably will not see him anymore. He is a good friend, always did the best i could to be present bringing joy, played, shared a little of his life before the mission, always remembered the family. probably send messages every Monday to him, no matter where he is yet I will send.  I am sure that God will lead you in good ways, today you will really miss me.  Thank you also for having allowed him to come here for a mission here in Brazil, it was a way for me to know the truth, covenants with the Heavenly Father.  Your son was a great teacher. :-) <3":

Pérola 24

This week was super fun.  It was a bit difficult to work because of Easter, but it was still lots of fun!  We got to baptize Rony which was super fun.  He is super happy and really excited to be a member of the church.  There isn't really too much more that happened except one day when we were knocking on doors we found a family that is less active in the church, but got super excited to see us, so we sang hymns together with the hymnbook they had.  They are going to start coming back to church and have two kids that want to get baptized super bad because they remember the church from when they were kids.  This week we had zone conference that was super good.  Sister Nouguira (the Mission President's wife) gave a talk about the atonement and it went super in depth and was super good and of course like always everyone was super excited to work hard after it.  I will try to send pictures of the baptism!
Love,
Elder Holcomb

Pérola 23

Hello,
This week was fun.  Not much happened, we just worked and talked to people.  This week we had stake conference; that was pretty fun.  The Temple President of Manaus came to talk, and gave a good talk about the plan of salvation and the importance of temple work.  This week we will have the baptism of Rony, a cool guy we have been helping for awhile now.  He progressed super fast and it's cool because we literally just told him about the Restoration and how there is a prophet that lives today and the next time we visited him he was just like, "yeah, I decided to throw out all of my beer and quit going to the bar because it seemed like something I should stop doing if there is a prophet." Just like in the book, "Our Search for Happiness" so that was pretty cool and he is super excited to be baptized this week.  We also will probably baptize the sister of Mara who was baptized three weeks ago and maybe this girl who is a friend of a member and lives with her.  This week we also have zone conference with the mission president so that should be fun too.  I am excited to see what he says and see if I got a package or if someone I'm living with gets a package with snacks so we can eat them.
Love,
Elder Holcomb