hello everyone this is Brother Holcombe. Brother Holcombe grew up in Utah and he is
the oldest of six siblings he moved here
to South Carolina in January of this
year to join a company called boomtown
real estate
he leads the customer support department
brother Holcombe is happily married to
his wonderful wife Shelly (aka Sister Holcombe)
and together they had five kids in six
and a half years and so in 2002 he was
called to serve as a missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day
saints like we are and he was called to
serve in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire this mission covered five countries
including Togo Benin Central Africa and
Cameron for 21 out of the 24 months that
he served there was a war going on so he
would have to be quarantined with his
companion in his apartment at random
times and this must have been quite
frustrating Brother Holcombe and I'm sure
we've all experienced this in the past
couple months so Brother Holcombe
how did you get through that experience
what did you learn from it you know we
we did a lot of things we didn't have
access to internet in the home or
anything like that so it's it's a big
advantage that you guys are able to
contact people and actually have
meetings and stuff like that a lot of
our time was spent actually reading the
scriptures going through the lessons it
helped me just because with the language
barrier not only did I have to learn
French but then I had to learn a whole
new type of French because it was it was
very different in terms of the native
dialect and so it gave me a lot of
opportunity to to study that to talk
with my housemates they were all native
so I didn't ever have any other any
other you know roommates from the United
States or anything like that the only
time we spoke English was
zone conference so so that was cool for
me to be able to get to learn that but
some other things that I did I got
really good at chess you know I was I
was pretty good at chess for for a while
there and then in the back yeah I
actually played basketball in college
and it happened to be the one apartment
that had a little bit of a courtyard
within its walls and we had a makeshift
basketball hoop inside the courtyard so
that was pretty cool but yeah other than
that there was some sleeping involved
but a lot of it was spent you know just
trying to pass the time
learning and reading the gospel I read
the whole you know missionary library a
couple of times during those weeks while
I was quarantined so la russa reading
lots of studying
and it helped me quite a bit once I got
home and went back to the college
because I didn't do very well before I
left so it was good I learned how to be
a student that's awesome um what would
you say could be applied to the
situation that we're in now from what
you learned I think that there's um
something good that you can find in
every different situation obviously the
the situation that I would was in was
really tragic you know is the country at
war and there was you know a lot going
on in the streets and different things
like that there was a curfew that was
imposed and then us as missionaries we
were required to stay within the walls
of our own house but you know that was a
time where I really grew in terms of my
own education and so I could have I
could have just passed the time you know
just playing chess or you know those
things that I talked about but it was a
really really good time for me to expand
my knowledge and if you know anything
about Africans they have the
incredible ability to memorize
scriptures like there are so many people
who just have every verse in the Bible
just memorized by they are so
knowledgeable when it comes to that and
so for me to be able to take that time
and just to really study and to
correlate you know Book of Mormon with
bible scriptures so especially the ones
that i heard a lot you know i could do a
lot of cross-referencing and i built a
lot of my knowledge during that time and
so that was a positive that i was able
to take out of that and then you know
just build a relationship to become a
little bit closer to my savior even
though you know there was turmoil all
around it reminds me of you know when
the apostles are on the boats and
there's all the turmoil and then they
have the super spiritual experience when
you know christ calms the waters there's
calming influences in our lives and and
i think turning the christ will always
be that calming influence so that's how
i would relate that thank you me we
really appreciate that and we know that
just like brother welcome we can all get
through this quarantine and it's best if
we follow this example and turn to
Christ and to really educate ourselves
as we are either stuck in our houses or
in our apartments it sucks that we don't
have trekked right now but it's it's
still a great time to you to learn of
Christ exactly and I love I love your
story brother welcome because even
though I'm new here we all see the
similarities that you had in your own
time as a missionary and yeah I know
that
time was prepared for God he knew that
it was gonna happen and so he's wanting
us to come closer to him and really
focus on our Savior and so is it alright
brother welcome if you could share your
testimony with us yeah yeah absolutely I
mean really first and foremost I know
that by relying on on our Savior that we
can come closer to him and and this is a
really good opportunity for anybody who
may be struggling with outside
influences you know who may be seeing
you know the inability to talk with
friends or to get with friends maybe as
a benefit because some of those outside
influences can take us away from our
Savior and I know that in turning to the
Savior and helping my family to turn to
the gospel and to turn to prayer
especially as we have five small
children in the home that are
rambunctious and so they are getting a
little bit stir-crazy and that even
though it's hard to get them to sit down
for home centered church it is always
worth it it's something that you know
delivers spiritual experiences and
really powerful experiences to me and my
wife every single week and it allows us
to also and deliver those lessons that
we may not be actually delivering
typically we you know we typically go to
church and we have teachers but now
we're preparing lessons each and every
week and I think that it really is
something that God has prepared us for
with the home home centered church
supported model and I know that the
Prophet was able to speak for God and
deliver this new model in preparation
for something like this and I am so glad
to be in a church that has continuing
revelation so that you know we can be
prepared for all of those times that are
going to
comments so I I bear my testimony that I
know that the Prophet speaks for our
Heavenly Father or and delivers all of
the messages that we need to hear and
that we can receive blessings as we
return to Christ through our leaders and
through you know just the powerful
testimonies that are coming to us you
know via this wonderful technology that
were able to actually hear from the
brother and we're actually able to have
a conference virtually and all that
stuff I mean isn't it awesome how how
this time was prepared for something
like this like it's it's not something
that shuts the gospel down imma shut the
world down but it doesn't shut the
gospel bounce and so that's my testimony
and thank you scratched amen
that is awesome and I just would like to
add my testimony today to that I really
do know that prophets like president
Russell Nelson have been called today to
lead us and guys like brother welcome
was saying that we well we can all get
through this and say these things name
