Saturday, December 27, 2014

Dec. 22, 2014 I need a Dr!

         Week of Christmas and of 7 months!!


Feliz Natal Todo Mundo!!!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

This week was pretty good. We had our mission christmas party that was fun. It was in my area in the sitio. Its basically jungle and everyone seemed to like it. I thought it was boring cuz its where ive been working for the last month and a half haha. We made skits and did other activities. Look for the shout out on Facebook that me and Elder Mayfield did. They said it would be going on there. 

One freaking amazing thing that happened when i got there was an elder had found Dr. Pepper. He even gave me a sip. I cried so hard from happiness. ;) haha first time in 7 months!

Something sad happened this week. we lost 2 elects. One is 14.. we just found out that she has a husband.. well not legally. theyve been living together for 2 years now... what the heck brazil? Our other one decided that she will move to northen brazil. why do people do this? haha. Our area is really hard so president gave us 2 more neighborhoods closer to the chapel so we can get some good work.

We are getting ready to move into our new house. Its about 40 min walk from our other house but it will put us in the edge of our area so we can do work at night. 

We found an elect by hitch hiking. so its a good way to do some contacting ;)

We got a new bishop last week and we are pretty excited. He is doing everything right and even is helping the elders!!! a big change from the last one. 

Have a merry christmas! I'm stoked to talk to some of you guys on christmas! I've been practicing my english for you ;)

love,
Elder Kyson Sullivan

Dec. 15, 2014 practicing my English

         Yet another transfer


Well... Here we are about a week from christmas! ya im so excited to see my family!!! so.. feliz natal todo mundo! whats sad is here there are some churchs who dont even celebrate christmas cuz they dont worship christ. so its not really a big deal down here. 

When it rains here we lose service. we were 3 days without calling anybody. that made it interesting for lunches. also in the rain we walk in mud. It makes for hard work. no one likes a muddy missionary. I really dont shine my shoes except for sunday cause its so much work to shine muddy shoes. 

We had a ward christmas party this week. It was not what I expected. We got there, had lunch and left. like there werent any activities to do and no one talked or anything. of the 80 members about 30 went. and 6 were elders. like it was a weak party. just a barbeque and some frisbee. 

We found an investigator that will do something finally!!!! her name is Nai. She is about 16. and her gma ve. We left a pamphlet about the restoration and she read it. Not only that but answered the questions in the back. Not only that she saw the references to the BoM and one of her family members had already recieved one. so she started reading that without being asked. I think she will be baptized. The only part that is hard is that she lives about 30 min by bus from the chapel. thats money and time. and they are a humble family. 

My companion is a little crazy. He doesnt help a lot with the paper work and doing the contacts but he is getting better. also he talks in his sleep. we can get him to say or tell us about anything. Like make animal sounds or tell us the pin to his debit card. and whats funny is he doesnt remember any of it. when we ask him the next day the look on his face is priceless :)

sorry no pics today im on a crappy computer. 

btw im practicing my english with the other americans here. i dont want to have to trip on my tongue to speak to you guys haha :) (really its been a problem.. you know forgeting my native tongue. its getting  better though :) )

have a good week! i love you all!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Dec. 8, 2014 w great pics

          A good week


A lot of good and cool things happened this week so sorry if the email misses a few details. This week we started working in an area thats never had work in it before. so it was just contacts all day. Lots of new people that are showing interest. a problem is that half of them cant read so reading the BoM is a little difficult. we swing by and read a chapter with them and help them understand. 

We had a baptism this sunday. it was of the ward but we also reactivated this family into the church again. so that was a good acomplishment :) 

One day i was on a divisão (splits) and we were walking down the railroad. well we found corn. so we picked it. still waiting to cook it but it should be good :) and free. :) also i got a cool picture. ill send it to you now. 

One of the companionships wanted a hair cut so they  thought it would be a good idea to give the other one a hair cut for free. well he messed up and made a bald spot on his head. luckily for him Elder Sullivan has a mom who taught him to cut hair and he made it better. (didnt fix it all the way but its the best i could do). I cut the other dudes hair too and he felt bad so he put a bald spot on the same place on his head so the other didnt feel too bad haha. what a good comp.

Oh also this sunday i lead the music. Elder Oyston played the piano so that was pretty cool. Music by the Elders!

That was the big stuff that happened this week. lots of people gave us pizza. thats always fun to get pizza for free :) i think it was them saying sorry for never coming with us for visits. 

Well its been a good week and i hope this week is even better! thanks for the support!

Elder Sullivan


a dude riding a cow like you would a horse. only in my area.




some of the only christmas lights ive seen. its by a pond so the reflection was cool. 






selfie with a goat :) only in my area.



a cool looking pregnant spider. it was really big. when i smashed it it exploded. :)




























a pic of ad. and his mom and dad.









































one of the many beautiful roads in my area.


another one:



Mom is glad to see there is a need for that rain jacket finally.


pizzaria!



the hair cut, haha



the haircut fixer, haha


Smashed some money on the train track and will send it to my brother, Koby, who is serving up the road a few hours away!


Cool trees in Brazil.



My area is mostly farm lands.



I'm sure this picture is for his mother!!!!!





Monday, December 1, 2014

Dec 1, 2014 6 months! what?

          Disappointing week


Well this week was both really good and really bad. Our baptism that we had lined up moved. the day before the baptism. she said she would still be around but we are waiting to get the address to send the other missionaries there to baptize her. 

I also hit 6 months! thats good. only 3 more times ;) I celebrated with ice cream and a Reeses. 

Thanksgiving here sucks. Well... actually its pretty good for not even existing so..... 

Something that messed up our week was a service project. they always take a ton of time and we never get to leave when we´d like. its worse when they give you lunch after cuz they make you stay until you finish until you can eat. They play dirty ;)

So we take a bus everyday to get to our area. we also pay for it every day. its about 5.20R$ every day. That adds up to about 64 R$. We only get about 130 R$. So i asked president for a little reimbursement. Wow you would have thought i killed someone. Finally after about 2 weeks he gave us a little help. He paid for half of our traveling expenses. so thats good :) I was really angry at him for a little cuz he was being so stubborn, not for not giving us money. but for excluding us. Everyone else was getting money, but not the guys who had to take a bus everyday. So that was fun this week haha.

One day we missed the bus and had to walk to our area. We were already about 30 min from our house for lunch and we still walked another hour and 20 minutes to get to our closest part of our area. It wasnt one of those naturist walks either. haha

The work is slow but im still happy. Im loving this area for the clean air. The city is pretty bad. I´ll try to get some pics out if the computer will let me. have a good week!

Elder Sullivan

The computer hates me today. Until next week!


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Nov. 24, 2014 good pics and mandioca harvesting

          6 months!


Well here we are about the 6 month mark. All is well and ive learned a ton already. Im not quite fluent but i understand quite a bit. I love it here and i love doing missionary work. 

This week was pretty cool. We didnt really have the best numbers but i was happy. Ill tell you a little why. Our area has about a 15 Km radius and has 6 regions in it. Oh.. and we dont have a map.... So getting addresses are a little difficult. Some days we walk up to 13 Km. Some days though.. we get lucky and people will give us a ride. Some times the bus passes and he opens up the back doors so we can sneak on and not have to pay. only when there are few people on the bus. haha. 

We have 2 baptisms coming up! one Is Benedita who is a senhora and the other is Adrian who is 8. They are both really excited and i cant wait to help them progress more!

We had a service project this week. It was out in the middle of the forest. We cut grass, cleaned it up. trimmed a tree.. burned a bee hive, harvested mandioca and planted new ones again, oh and backflips :) we also ate sandwiches so it was a success :)

That was basically our week. ill try to send pics here in a little. 

Tchau! Boa Semana para vocês!!!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

the crew!



mandioca. 
its a root that you eat. similar to a potato. Elder Oysten, elder Castilla. our LMA and our 1 councelor. 



gasoline



                Burning the Bee hive

    

some other pictures of Caucaia...
and Grilos when it was misty.



some animals.



a spider I caught (why he thinks his mother wants to see a picture of an ugly spider
instead of his face, I will never know...)



 (and YOU ARE WAY TOO CLOSE TO THE SNAKE!!!!!)


Here are pics off the internet to help show what mandioca is:







It's a root, like a potato.


I would eat it!! says mom.


there are more :) hey i have to go. ill take some wicked pictures this week to send. should be pretty cool :) love you! until next week!

hey can you send me pics of me when i was young and skinny? and one of the whole family. i wanna show these people here. maybe something of gymnastics too :) k thanks!

I sent this picture to Elder Sullivan to let him know that 
while we were at the 
state high school football playoffs,
that he was being represented!
 AND that we were warding off the
evil spirits of the venue that shall not be named.

He LOVED it!!!!

GO AGGIES!










Monday, November 17, 2014

Nov. 16, 2014 crickets and mist

          Grilos *chirp chirp*    (means crickets)


Me in the area. It's always misty like this. Way pretty!




Well... Grilos. You know. For opening an area, we don't have many contacts. My area is really like a farm town. a lot of horses, cows, chickens, and a ton of dogs. I think the ratio of dogs to people is like 3:1. The ratio of dogs in the street to people in the street is like 10:1. So a lot of our contacts are with dogs. haha jk. But really its hard to do a lot of contacting cause the houses are really spread out. Luckily we have had some work done here before. Unluckily is that this area doesn't even have a map. it doesn't surprise me cause have the streets don't have names. Its basically a forest. Ill try to put a pic if the internet works with me. My area is a mix of 5 "neighborhoods" so its a really big area. Some times we have to walk the distance of up to 9 Kilometers to get to our next lesson. It really sucks when they aren't there haha. But the good thing is, is that we are becoming really good hitch hikers ;)

Training is good. Its a lot harder than it looks to give "loving criticism". We are doing good and teaching well but he is really kinda prideful cause of his past and his experience with teaching. Its a little annoying but we will see what we can do about that this week. I've been praying for inspiration to try to help with this problem. anyone have inspiration for me? haha

I'm really excited to be in this area. I believe that the Lord has "elects" for me waiting for me to talk with them. So... i talk with everyone. :) its really cool to see these people start to listen and become that elect that's been waiting for me. Ive already encountered 2 :)

My area is REALLY beautiful. Lots of vegetation and lots of things to admire about nature. God really is wonderful! It's like hiking everyday. Like I'm out in the mountains looking at all the great stuff that we have here. 

In other news our house that was made for 4 elders now has 6. We have 6 elders in this one ward (if that tells you the area boundaries). So we are pretty tight friends ;) Oh and I found out that Spencer Jolley also passed through this area ;)

Love you all so much!

Elder Kyson Sullivan


My comp in the area. it was raining pretty good. w/o umbrella.....



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Nov. 10, 2014 good pics and Sister Fatima

         Transfers and Baptisms.


Wow a lot happened this week. Lets start with the good stuff!

Ru was finally baptized!!! :D She was my very first lesson here in the field and was my last baptism of this area. The meeting was really good and we made it really special by singing i like to look for rainbows as the 4 elders. Also she got a lot of presents and we even showed videos on the TV. It was really spiritual too! :)

Rome went to the temple this week to do baptisms for the dead. She took 78 of her own names to the temple. When she explained what she had felt and seen the spirit was so strong. She really felt the presence of God and has a really strong testimony. It was fun to see my recent convert go to the temple and do the work for her ancestors. Also im blessed to have a temple here so close to my mission! 

It finally came! My transfer!!! Ive been transfered to an area called Grilos. Which translates to Crickets. Yupp. its in the forest in the zone Caucaia. I heard i will be taking a bus to get to my area every day cuz its pretty far from the home we will be staying in. Oh ya... Im also going to be opening the area. So lots and lots of contacts! To make it better I will be finishing the training of Elder S. Oliveira! So to summarize all this ^^^^ Training, opening area, forest. 

In sacrament meeting this week our pianist couldnt come.. so they called on me 30 seconds before it started to play. i only played the top hand and got a majority of the notes right but hey for not practicing it was basically the hand of the lord. Mom i hope youre proud that your dream came true ;)

In other news i climbed through a hole in a fence to buy a churro in the favela (really poor area) and it was filled with condensed milk. why doesnt america have this? it was probably the best churro ive had in my life. We also painted an entire house. so this week has been packed with a bunch of fun things!

Im really excited about this transfer and the opportunity to train someone else. Opening an area scares me a little but i know that the Lord will help me. Keep me in your prayers as i encounter these new experiences! I love you all and have a good week. until next time!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

 Ru




and a little look of what i climbed every day. its not called ´cry little boy´ for no reason haha



rom and mig. thats the tie i gave him for my going away present





And Ju and Tati. (ju wants me to baptize her. she turns 8, April 30 in 2016. One month before i leave!)



my planner for this transfer





and a cool picture that a member drew here.



the district im leaving (yupp all elders!)


Brad Carr In todays email my son Elder Carr told us that they were both in the CTM together and they went on splits together this past week. He is the one in the front in the middle.

 This picture was posted by Elder Tewksbury's family. It looks like the same day as the one above.





and Sister Fatima. she gave me lunch about 40 times here in this area. about 10 times every month. She has REALLY good food. i credit my gaining weight to her ;) (this photo was taken today)


(Mother's note: my personal hero on the other side of the world.)





Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Monday, November 3, 2014

Nov. 3, 2014 contacting at cemetary n pics

          Atividade no Cementário


Atividade no Cementario (activity in the cemetary)

So this week was pretty cool. One of the elders in the house had a birthday. we celebrated with pizza and cake. It was halloween where we scared 2 people accidentally. and we also visited the cementary and did over 250 contacts in less than 2 hours. 

This last sunday was dia dos finados. where a ton of catholics go and clean the grave of the person who passed away. Well.. My idea was... there will be a lot of people... who are sad... and need to know about eternal families. so... we went with a little paper and handed them out saying that families can be forever. and did this for a while. we also had a few lessons there and talked about the church and gave out pamphlets pass-along-cards and other materials that we had. we are still waiting for the calls but hey it was a good easy way to have a lot of people hear about the gospel. 

Another thing that was pretty cool was that Elder R. Santos lost his planner... well that wasnt cool. the cool thing was that we had both prayed to find it. (I prayed mostly cause he was throwing the biggest fit and i wanted it to stop.) But ya turns out he had dropped it and one of our investigators that live close by picked it up. when they saw us looking around they ran out with it in their hands! God answers our prayers :)

Also we met a return missionary who is living in Kaysville right now. he is here for work and he baptized a family who lives in our ward. he came and helped us out at the cementary and also gave us a ride to lunch. what a pal. His name is Carl Dixon. been home for about 7 years now. 

Rute is going to be baptized before i leave. well i hope. Its planned for this sunday. please keep her in your prayers that she can be prepared and resist the temptations of satan in being confused and not wanting the church anymore. She was my very first lesson here in the feild and my first investigator! 

This weekend i plan on taking Romenia and Tatianne to the temple to do baptisms! it should be a really spiritual and happy time there. 

Thats about it! with love,
Elder Kyson Sullivan

a little something to laugh at



if our house was any smaller......





me and elder Gshwend repping the states in brazil. 


and me and my companion. 



Sporting the "Bro Tie". 

All his best bros bought a tie like that to take on their missions
all over the world.


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Oct. 28, 2014 language is hard

5 Months! 

Welcome to 5 months in the field. i still like it i think and its getting easier everyday. 

i forgot to note what i want to write on so i will share an experience. One day i asked God if this church was true and to show me a sign. you know thinking like an investigator and not for myself. well the next day we went to a lesson and a group of evangelicals showed up with a pastor and everything. I know what koby means by this prayer cuz they were all yelling and crying and shouting haleujah and amen jesus and look at me god! it was a little crazy and i didnt feel any sort of the HG. So that was a fun answer to a prayer ;)

Ru is a real struggle. she has a testimony. knows the BoM is true. likes the church. but her daughters are really giving her a hard time about all of this. So we have her marked for the 9 and are planning a really big baptism for her!

We are also planning a contacting activity this sunday. its like the cinco de maio of brazil. so its going to be in the cemetary. talking about the plan of salvation and doing a lot of contacting. should be pretty fun and we are getting the ward involved too. whats even cooler was it was my idea :) go inspiration!

The language is proving to be a challenge for me. its getting harder rather than easier to communicate and i am getting a lot of blank stares recently that says that they dont understand. well. im going to study really hard this week! 

Thanks for all the support and the prayers! i love you guys and hope you have a good semana!

Elder Kyson Sullivan