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

Oct. 20, 2014 baptisms n pics

          Batismos!

This week we had 2 baptisms! Vini and Gab! They are way wild and wanted to swim after the baptism was over. haha. crazy kids! 

Today we went to the tallest building in sao paulo. it was way cool! lots of buildings every where! pics to come.

This is E. Gschwend. He is from Texas, and is the zone leader right now.

They go on splits a lot and Kyson really likes him. 

I practiced spanish this week a little. was a little different but i think i will stick to portuguese until i can get fluent at it. its coming better and everyday i see a little improvement. there are still a few rules that i cant get a hang of. 

I made eggs with rock salt cuz an argentino told me to. well.. not really. he said the salt was on the shelf on the box when really it was in the cupboard. kinda funny but they were way bad. he ate them all  and was grimacing the whole time. i threw mine away and paid him for the eggs ;)

Elder Santos isnt any better with getting ready in the morning. He is really stressing me out cuz i want the members to like us and they dont like lateness. what a fubeca. 

Work is feeling a little monotonous these days. but the days are going on and on. Almost to 5 months! thats a little crazy to think about! Not much happened new this week besides that stuff ^^^ Have a good week everyone!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

p.s. can i say how cool it is to have a brother in the same STATE on a mission too? like what are the odds? its like im in st. george and he is in filmore. que legal!

This is a Brazilian BBQ. Churraco. Courtesy E. Mayfield.

The flavelas is the poorest part of town. 

According to the Elder who took this picture, 

the flavelas are being torn down and these red, green, and blue buildings are 

going up in their place for the homeless to live in. Courtesy E. Iverson.

Oct. 13, 2014 a day in the life

You know when you are so close to getting something but it depends on another person for you to get it? Thats how it is with baptisms right now. we are working really close with 3 people. 

Ru. She is still going strong. She is in a battle with Coffee right now. She says she drinks it only in the morning and can stop whenever. We have challenged her over and over but its not working. We have tried replacing it with something else similar to coffee. Its just not working. She has recieved all the lessons, has a testimony but just cant stop drinking. She wants to get baptized but its kinda been a struggle with her. We are still working diligently with her though. She is a really sweet lady and has a good heart!

V. He is a boy that is full of energy. He is 11 years old and has a dad that doesnt want anything to do with the church. He was raised a little weird and now has some habits that we have fixed. 1 of them was not respecting his mom. We have drilled that into his head now. He is doing a lot better and now likes to go to church with his family (minus the dad). His mom is always saying how much he has changed from our lessons. 

So close.

G. The little sister of V. She is really imaginative and is a funny little girl. The only problem is that the Jehova Witnesses got to her first and filled her mind with crap. We are now trying to clean that up so she can get baptized too. She still goes to church with us and its always good to talk to her and play a little too. 

An is the mom of those 2. She is a less active but has started coming to church more. Her husband is a little crazy... he likes to go out on the town and do who knows what. She never knows where he is and when he is home there is a case of domestic abuse. Its really sad and we are just trying to help her through it. Bishop is also working with her and trying to strengthen her and her faith. Worse comes to worse they will end up separating. :(

Our House is a joke. We just recieved a HUGE dresser and it takes up half of our study room. We have a sleeping room. with 2 other dressers and 2 bunk beds. a study room. with 4 tables and this huge dresser, and a kitchen with 2 tables 2 fridges and a shelf and try to put 4 missionaries there too. Its kinda a mess. I feel like the mom here. Everyone likes to sleep in and not do the dishes and not clean anything. I ended up doing all of that today. by myself. Its kinda a struggle right now but im trying to talk to them and get them knowing that i dont like to do it too but it has to be done. Also to top it all off we all were sick this week. Still recovering, but its been a mess and a really bad joke. haha

One thing ive learned in the mission is how to ration food. I am running out a little faster than i would like so now I'm down to the last bits. Im just trying to make it til the 15 and all will be good! Sometimes I think that the money they give us isnt sufficient but we survive somehow :)

So a day in the life of a  missionary: (for you mom)

get up and shower, eat breakfast, get ready for the day.

study the book of mormon, preach my gospel and other resources that will help your investigators. then study this again with your companion but more in depth for each one for the day. 

then i study portuguese for an hour from some books i got at the mtc. i also found a really good one here in the house that i am working out of. 

then lunch! its usually at a members house and they make something yummy (most of the time) and we eat and leave a message and go to work.

We plan the night before or during comp study for what we are going to do for the day. We pass by houses and see if we cant teach them a lesson. some people have lied about their address and we cry a little but move on to the next house. We try to plan a route so that the houses we visit are close together and we can get a lot of visits in in one day. We Then come home at about 9 and plan and eat and write in the journal and go to sleep until the next day. 

Thats about it! I thank you all for your prayers and your love and your support! Its getting a little easier being out here but i still miss the states! Enjoy your peanut butter and Dr. Pepper! ;)

Love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Oct. 6, 2014

         Conference Weekend and Transfers

Kyson's mom: I don't like to tell Kyson much about Utah State sports. I don't want to go to that "homesick" spot with him. But, I just could NOT HELP MYSELF this week. So, here is the snip-it I started my letter with, hoping he would not jump on a plane and come home.

"The news of the week is that Chuckie Keeton might be out for the year with his injured knee. That means Darell Garretson was QB against BYU at BYU. Darell did awesome. BYU's QB did awesome till he got tackled and a BROKEN LEG right before halftime. Halftime score was 24-14 for Aggies. Well, the BYU backup QB made about 40 passes, and only 3 of them were caught. Two of which were caught by the Aggies. Utah State kicked BYU's butt. 35-20. Utah State has not won at BYU since Dad and I were going together in the 5TH GRADE. 1978."

Here is Elder Sullivan's response:

GO AGGIES!!! FREAKIN PAYBACK!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! 



Well this week was pretty good! I got my new Comp Elder R. Santos and he was a Zone leader but got "downgraded" to what I call finalizing my training. He is way cool and likes a lot of the same things that I do. He is from Natal. I now know what a good missionary is like haha.

Conference! a few things that I really liked from conference are these:

Walk AS Jesus walked. The temple work is only limited by the number of members of the church. and Be a little better than you were in the past. I really enjoyed this a lot and was able to watch in English so I understood it all and felt all the power that was behind it! 

Well because of conference this week was a little slower and didnt get as much work done as usual, but something miraculous happened this week! We marked Ru for baptism!!!!! Whooooo!!! This was something that was a struggle to do. We tried a couple times but she didnt want to just jump in the water. She wanted a for sure answer. Well we are helping her accept the fact that she really has a testimony and is ready. Our last lesson with her she cried cuz the spirit was acting so strong in her! Its so cool to see these changes in people!!! The baptism I hope will be this Sunday :)

I love you guys a lot and thank and pray for you each night! Until next week!

Elder Sullivan

Elder Sullivan in the front of the classroom with his new great friend, 

Elder Gschwend from Texas.