Friday, June 27, 2014

June 27, 2014

So i've hit the month mark and i feel like its the 2nd week. I was told it goes by exponentially but i didnt believe them. haha.
I played the piano on Sunday and it was sketch but i got people singing and thats all that matters right? haha. I also blessed the sacrament which was fun cause its in Portuguese and you dont want to mess it up haha. Elder Willden is now our district leader and we are all doing well.
One of the hardest parts of being in the MTC is having all of your friends leave you. We meet a lot of good Brasileiros and they are only here for 2 weeks. Its a sad time when they leave but the new ones that just arrived are going to my same mission so that pretty exciting :)
Oh and i was asked to play the piano for the next group of people leaving when they do their choir thing on Sunday. Still dont know what song haha. Silly hispanicos
Alright so on wednesday there were some other silly hispanicos who were having a pushup contest. Well my companion volunteered me to go against this other hispanic (at night time) well he didnt have a shirt on and looked huge. I was wearing my gymnastics shirt and representing.  We both started and he was done at 79.. I did 109 and showed them that america is the best ;) Only joking :) but im soooooo sore. like im still sore! to where it hurts to move and stuff. My companions used to call me Sully like on monsters inc. (all the Brazillians do) and this week they changed it to swolly so i guess thats cool :)
(Mom's note: I looked up what swolly was on google, and it had this swolly mammoth with all these muscles. I think that is what the reference to swolly is.)




A few things from devotionals this week. We get them broadcast and we heard from 2 apostles this week.
Elder Ballard: The gospel is the most important news we can talk about in this noisy world.
Elder Christofferson - live:
No one should feel like repentance is futile.
Doing great work makes you great but do so by making yourself the least.
You have never talked to a mere mortal - only potential gods and goddesses.
The savior LIKES me and knows me. (made me think that he is my BEST friend and i was able to relate better.
They were both way good and you can probably tell which was my favorite. :)
I've been praying for gma myrtle too. I dont know why but i felt like i needed to. Well there is my answer haha. Thats a good way of knowing i have the spirit :)
Koby is blonde as ever and his companions love it haha. We see each other at night mostly and not a lot during the day but he is doing a lot better than what he used to.
Language is coming. Im starting to plateau but i know when i hit the field it will be crazy improvement.
I want to thank you for the support and love i've felt since being out here. i can feel your prayers and your love.
Elder Sullivan

Friday, June 20, 2014

June 20, 2014

Hi everyone. its hump day here in the mtc. We only have 3 more weeks of training til the real training starts lol. Its been a good week. well.. good enough week. When i have a good day I will get a bad one the next day. Maybe its cause im hoping for good days like that everyday.
 
Anyway last friday after emailing we went out and looked around the boundaries of our mtc. Elder taylor was yelling boa tarde to everyone we saw and some workers called us over and we went and 'talked' to them. We dont really know a ton of Portuguese still. They offered us JACA. Its a Brazilian fruit and is really sweet and has a weird texture. I'm assuming you can look it up so i wont try to explain it haha.
 
Koby played the piano at the devotional on Tuesday. Mom you'll be happy to know i played prelude it ;) It was fun cause koby had just arrived and couldnt understand the Portuguese people were saying so i went and sat by him and translated haha. Its fun seeing how far i've come. I'm playing sunday though and should be a lot of fun. I get to pick 5 or 6 songs and play for the congregation.
 
Wednesday we went proselyting(?) at a "park". It really wasnt a park just a big area between buildings. We all were given 2 BoM and told you gotta get them all out in 2 hours. Well to get to the park we had to take the bus. If crazy could explain it i would use it but it doesn't even come close. I talked to a family on the bus and tried to make out what they said over the loudness and the getting thrown all over the place. I was able to give them a book of Mormon though and was way excited about that. We then continued to go look for people. We were there when there was a fan fest for a soccer game though so not a lot of people wanted to come talk to us. Well not come, have us come to them haha. We ended up getting the rest of our bom out to 9 lucky people and was a way cool experience. There was one man named George who i would like to talk about for a second. I wasnt going to talk to him cause he was smoking and i didnt want to talk to someone WHILE they were smoking. i dont mind the fact that they do it just around me. Anyway we made eye contact and that was it. We walked over and he was way happy. He didnt believe in god, had 2 kids, worked IT and spoke some english. He even helped us out a little bit by telling us how to say 'for free' cause everyone always is wondering how much a BoM is haha. All of the Brazilians who i have talked to are way patient and way helpful. They will kinda root for us while we are talking haha. While we were there we got 2 references from members. On the way home i tried to talk to another guy but its hard. my Portuguese isnt all that good.
 
Companions stink. i cant get them to follow the rules or hurry up or anything. Its way annoying and no matter what i say they just wont. Really frustrating.
 
Ya koby has pday on wednesday but i see him at desjejum and the end of almoco and jantar. (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) I go to his room at night and see how he's doing. He seems to be enjoying himself.
 
I hope you are all doing well and i pray for you everyday. I'm unfortunately out of time but just know that i'm not sure if this visa is a blessing or not. haha. I love you all and cant wait for next week!
 
Tchau! ate' mais!
 
Elder Sullivan
 
ps... Vai Brasil! ;) its nuts with the world cup here!

Friday, June 13, 2014

June 13, 2014

Oi familia e amigos.

I thought i knew a lot of portuguese last week but that was before this week went around. i started studying the language more and preach my gospel more now cuz I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON for the first time. now i can testify with all my heart that i know that it is the word of God.

Something that might be helpful for some people is the mtc address. it's

Brasil MTC
Rua padre antonio D'angelo, 121
Casa Verde
02516-040 Sao Paulo -SP
Brazil

I dont know which i have on FB.

This week flew by compared to the last week. Although all we do is eat and sit and eat and sit haha. We do however have actividade fisica where we play speed and volley ball and can lift weights.

I was recently asked to play the piano for a devocional. I dont know why cuz i said i was a beginner haha. I told them i needed to practice and told them that they had the wrong sullivan haha. She said she would ask koby and i told her that this week i could play prelude but not ready to play for the congregation. I just made a purchase today of a hymns made easy in portuguese. I practice during my personal study time.

So i have had a few questions on how you learn a language from someone who doesnt speak english. the answer is.... charades. It is seriously for the first few days a person jumping around acting out his sentences. Also dictionaries are your friend and i have mine with me where ever i go. The teachers are REALLY good though. They are really strong with the spirit and are actually fairly recent return missionaries. Irmao benatti is 20 years old and has only been home for 4 months. He is way funny. Irma deborah is really nice too. She will mostly just talk to us in portuguese which is really a help cuz we can learn how to understand people talking fast. They are both more friends than they are teachers and they are always praying for us.

So i still have a little time so i have a funny story to tell you. Everyone here is in the choir. and sometimes they like to mix it up and have one verse in portuguese then one in english then one in spanish that way everyone gets to sing in their native tongue. whats funny is when the hispanics sing in english. Oh my me and my companions are just busting up in the back cuz we know what its like to have to practice certain sounds over and over again cuz they are so unique to brazil.

World cup..... started yesterday and there was no doubt that it started. fireworks, horns, yelling all of it and it was nuts. the first day of the world cup here is a holiday (go figure) so all the businesses were closed and no one was on the streets. brazil won 3-1 so it was a happy day in the mtc. Vai Brazil ;)
So that all i have for this week. I hope all is well at home and that you guys are staying healthy busy and full of faith. I love you all and appreciate every bit of support you give me.

Oh ya one more thing... Koby is here ;) haha but seriously i had waited for days for him to come. Im glad he's here cuz im happier now and have someone i can talk to. I help him out when i can and i love talking to him in portuguese cuz he is really bad and it reminds me of where i was when i first got here.





I know this church is true and everything is possible when we have faith. even learning a language! i have a testimony of prayer and how God answers everyone. I know it cuz i have seen it happen. If you guys want a really good inspirational movie look up. The atonement: the work of missionaries. so bom.

Thats all for now.

Love you lots!
Elder (Kyson) Sullivan

Friday, June 6, 2014

June 6, 2014

June 6  
(mother's side note: the shift key is really small
and way over in the corner of the keyboard of 
their computer in the MTC, so there's not a lot 
of capitalizing. Mom has fixed as much as she cares to.)

Oi familia e amigos
O ctm es bom. Eu aprendo muito portugues no rapido. Nos aprendemos encinar lições e oramos e fallamos português. Muito loco esse estou no brasil.

{google translation (hi loved ones the mtc is good. I learn very quickly in Portuguese. lessons learned in encinar and pray and Portuguese fallamos. I'm in Brazil)}
For sake of time the rest will be in english. So the ctm is a lot like the prison. A lot of rules in bed at a certain time and they wont let you outside the gates unless its your pday. But its ok cuz the spirit is here and god is on our side.
I am trying to follow the rules with exactness like it says in alma 57,21. Right now Im in a trio and its hard. At first it was good but now i am having a hard time with them. They like to be rebels and not really that into the rules. They look most forward to p day which is great but really distracting. We have fun and laugh a lot.. .maybe too much but its good.




Right now im in 3 nephi reading about christ its the greatest. We went to the temple today and it was so good. Its about an hour drive but they send us out there on tour bus that have reclining seats and its so great.
We have brazillians in our room and they are helping us speak our portuguese. They are very helpful. The latinos on the other hand... they just confuse us cuz we dont know if they are speaking portuguese or spanish haha. Im learning fast and praying hard everyday. A lot of time in portuguese.
I shared my testimony on sunday. i found moms note and ya i started bawling. I didnt even find it til sunday and it was right when i needed it. I shared a paragraph out of it and was bawling the whole time. The mission presidents wife said that she wrote my testimony down and really enjoyed it so i guess it was good.
The food is good for the most part. I try everything and am finding out what i dont like. You can count on one thing though.. rice and beans. muito bom ;).
We had a devocional on tuesday and it was about being representatives of jesus christ and how thats how everyone sees us. I will try my hardest to act like Jesus is my companion and is always next to me and helping me along the way.
Thats all for this week. Love you guys with all my heart and miss you lots.
Elder Sullivan.
ps the teachers only speak portuguese. thats one way to do it i guess haha