Feb. 29, 2016 trunkiness is contagious and 7 more cups

          killing a companion  

Well... we are on our last week together as companions. Elder Santana´s parents are going to come spend some time with him starting on friday. talk about getting trunky! freak! so from friday til monday Elder Santana will be with his parents and brother and go cruzing são paulo. His dad also served in são paulo and they even passed through the same ward! how cool! so that will be great for him. There is only one problem. He is leaving 2 weeks before the transfer ends cause he has to do a test in his college or he gets booted out. and here in brazil is a lot harder to get into the schools than it is there. So i will get a temporary companion for 2 weeks before my new companion is here. And when he gets here i only have 5 more weeks! Yup. im going home on a 5 week transfer. :)

Yesterday my companion was saying bye to everyone and so that was great. We haven't baptized anyone together and he went without baptizing but really the change that happened in the ward was HUGE. The Elder that was before me had kinda killed the ward. so when i got there we had the plan to gain the confidence of the ward again. So that was a huge accomplishment. Also we were able to reactivate a less active family. so that also was super great. she is going through a really had divorce and has a son thats named Moroni that isnt a member. Yup. There is a guy who has a book of Mormon name but isnt a member. Guess what? He likes the guitar, he studies, he plays soccer like a Brazilian and he plays LOL (League of Legend). He is super chill. The only problem is that he isnt "ready" to commit to the gospel. He likes the world too much. But he already lives most of the commandments. We have raised the standard of contacts in the mission from 8000 per week to over 12000 a week. There have been many great accomplishments that have been put together but not baptizing has really kinda been a bummer. We have worked so hard but it hasnt come together. 

This week was a little crazy. On Tuesday we had a second pday.... We went to district meeting and then we went to lunch... and then we went to choir practice. yup. Sister Del Guerso had signed us up to go and sing at an event as "helping hands". so all day Tuesday we practiced and performed. It was pretty chill. I was able to talk a lot with Elder Mayfield (a neighbor from our ward in the USA) and get to know him better. 

Then on Wednesday we had a meeting with all the sisters in the mission.... talk about the great apostasy. There was a moment when all the priesthood left cause they were talking about health. Of course the men ran away haha. anyway it was a good meeting. inspiring for the sisters. i was up so late putting together the powerpoint that i was just glad it was over haha. 

Other than that we worked normal and we were able to get some good numbers this week. Im super happy today was pday. we were needing it. Tomorrow and Wednesday we are going to have 2 more meetings. MULTIZONA!!!! in this multizona it will be my last. so i will be giving my leaving testimony. Yup... thats trunky... haha.

To give you any idea of this week it will be like this... Monday - pday, Tues - multizona, wed - multizona, Thursday - normal, Friday - Santana´s parents get here. So ya... i know i killed phair a while back but that was when i had like a year and 4... now that i have a year and 9 im dying of trunkiness.... i dont know how i will survive.

To make it worse our "mamãe" of the ward also is waiting on her son to come home on Friday. So after hanging out there with them and Santana im done for... haha. Everyone's crazy and its contagious haha. (Kyson wrote to me, his mom, and asked me how I was doing since he only has less than 2 months left. hahaha. "I'm doing fine. Hang in there!" I said)

Anyway... picture time!  

Pedrão - this guy is awesome. he was always going out with us.... then he got into school... haha

Free advertising? just need a paper!

birthday milkshake with prezi   #APhasadvantages

mamãe e papai, família von walwitz!

reunião das sísteres

Feb. 22, 2016 the sky is falling and 8 more cups

TRUNKY

Talk about getting trunky... there is nothing worse than killing someone while you are almost dead. Man... its brutal. But the work goes on. 

In the summer time here its the time of rain. so it goes from being fairly hot to "oh my gosh the sky is about to fall on my face" raining.

here is an example...

sun....

rain....

(these are snap shots from a video i took. one side was sunny and happy. the other side was rainy and scary.)

So ya the rain kinda messed with us a bunch this week. After looking at the black sky no one dares leave their house. Just the missionaries haha. Im really banking on the promise of "the more rain you take on the more beautiful your wife will be". 

We had a crazy lady go to church yesterday. She kinda shows up out of nowhere then disappears for like a month. Ya she showed up yesterday. We marked to have an appointment with her tomorrow but she will probably cancel. She is really good at canceling on us. haha. We spent some good time quite a ways away from our normal working area. here are some pictures.

It takes about an hour to walk to this bridge from the temple. This hour walk is my area...

proof that i went there haha ;)

We were going after the lost sheep. thats a member list in my hand. We didnt find anyone. It was all super disorganized..... crap...

Well thats the week for now. This next week we´ll be having a few more meetings and running around trying to get these things handled and taken care of. Some fun stuff to be ending the mission. 

Good luck, Have fun!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

How we get baptisms in our area... haha

A guy in a hammock.. can you see him? he was like 30 feet in the air.. Just chilling. Probably smoking some weed haha.

Feb. 16, 2016 9 more sacrament cups (it's a countdown)

          só mais 9 copinhos   (just over 9 cups)

Yup. we´re down to 9 more sacrament cups. 10 weeks but 1 of those weeks is conference weekend. Hence the time is coming to an end!

 

Well to start off the email i have a few happy birthday shoutouts. 1st to my dad. way to go man! youre getting old! 2nd to Kash. he hits the big 18 on the 19th. And also to my companion who is now 21. That was fun to be able to celebrate his birthday with him. Our lunch had fell through that day so i had called up some people to make the day a little more special. that included a BBQ lunch and cake and all sorts of stuff :) the dude is great and deserved a good birthday :)

we had all sorts of meetings this week. Tuesday was the transfer so we had to train the new trainers and match them up with their companions. also was our pre-conselho meeting with president to plan for thursday. 

Wednesday was district meeting and also our partied for E. Santana. And thursday was the leadership councel meeting. It was for all the leaders. Usually just the ZL and Sister leaders trainers come. but this time we included the DL and gave a training for them too. So lots of planning and stuff to do in just 2 days. Finally friday til sundaywe had a normal time working. If you wanna know how someone would feel after all of that you might be able to see a little from these great shots...

 

dont worry.. we take turns sleeping so the lesson goes on :) 

 

a few shots from the meetings to come....... aguarde...

 

fun fact. this week was valentines day. I asked Elder Santana if he would be my valentine. We got a beijinho from a member that was really tasty. Its like a coconut drenched in sweetened condensed milk. but a little more denser.

 

after a long day at work there is nothing like coming home to take off the tie... 

 

anyway on the work side of things it picked up a little bit for the little bit that we got to work. We found a family of 4 with 3 over the age of baptism. So that has its promises. It was a reference from a member so we have our hopes. They arent married though so it will take a bit for the baptism to come through. 

 

Youve got more pics coming your way so keep your head up!

 

Elder Sullivan

pday today....

 

temple trip!

museu do futebol!

this is for koby

gordon hinkley came here for the temple party :)

some sp graffiti

Feb. 8, 2016 pizza is happiness

         sem título...    (no title)

Well this brings us to the end of our transfer. 6 weeks in Morumbi. I mean we had a fun time and the ward is cool. I am super unexcited to do the work here. like.. our happiness is pizza. haha thats why there are more pictures of pizza than baptisms. think about inviting someone to eat a delicious cake that you know is super great. And everyone you invite says no. think about it. You spend your entire day inviting and all you hear is "no." im tired of it. leaving the house is a pain, talking to people is a pain now, knowing everyday that you will spend the whole day on your feet is a pain. Its just a lot faith testing here. I only ever felt that i had a good area in Campo Limpo. Alright i feel better now. 

We had a miracle happen here! on Sunday a person that we did a contact with during the week showed up at church! So that was awesome. and to end it up our other miracle Nil just moved. He is now out of our mission. but who knows. maybe one day he´ll be baptized. 

This week is Carnaval. which in other words the days that the elders stop working so Satan can go all out. Think of a week of iniquity that everyone except Mormons celebrate haha. Anyway so we were told to go home earlier to stay away from this kind of stuff. So we were on our way home when the sky decided to fall. The lightning was so strong and so close I jumped a few times and was so scared I even ran most of the way home. Like think about almost dying. Then think about almost dying by lightning when you dont know when or where it would strike. Those were my feelings haha. 

Like always, some pictures for you to help me sum up my week.

love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

this is our district

this is our zone

the blessings of being close to the temple

who wants to do a pyramid? (btw it was not my idea....)

temple and rain...

have you ever seen so many americans so happy?

yup. happy americans.

thats my companion!!!

#thugmormon

Feb. 1, 2016 good food w pics insta style (foodies)

         craziness in the mission office.

this week is crazy... i dont have much time.. being here in the the office you learn about all the things that you never want to learn about. so we have been busy trying to control all this... 

this week was awful. at least we found one new investigator haha. It was even a reference! that was the first time that i have been here that a reference has gone right. haha. 

Our baptism this week fell.. he didnt feel ready. He didnt go to church that day... so that is super sad.. we were pretty bummed.. :( we´ll keep working with him but i dont think he´ll be baptized in a bit. its hard here cause there arent many people that want to know who we are. Some good news is that one of my recent converts in Campo Limpo baptized her last daughter yesterday. We were super happy. She is super cute (dont worry she is only 8... haha ). I wish i could have gone but i didnt have time. President let me call them and congratulate them. So it was nice to talk to them again. 

here are some good pictures to take up the space that should have been filled up with words.

Enjoy. 

our cool BBQ :) 

for dessert he made a roasted pineapple covered in cinammon sugar :)

the gang...

a poem for you portuguese speakers

just remembering the promise that the more rain you take on.. the cuter your wife gets.

one side of the road... a haunted mansion

the other side...

look at the size of those leaves!!!!!!

Magoo 2 again... this pizza is heavenly and fattening. Thanks Magoo!!!!! 

you have to get pizza with a chocolate border! we dont ask for pizza if they dont do borda de chocolate! :)

and some good ol SP graffiti for you guys too. 

some hats that ill be sporting when im home! ya they´re sick. 

one more Pday at 25 of march. 

waiting for the food! its that pic in the background....

ya it was super good and super fattening. id go again. :) 

PDAY with the assistants 

thats all for now. I hope you got some good healthy entertainment. Just know that im doing good and my workout program will start now. I bought a jump rope to help out :) I hope you all are doing well and that you are excited for the last 3 months. sorry for the short email but next week will be better..

love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Jan. 25, 2016 3 months left and stunting missionaries

         1 year and 8 months

Well.. this is it. The home stretch. These last 4 weeks have flown by and so i cant even imagine how fast these next 14 will go. Some might say that im a little trunky.. well.. i am. But the focus is on the work! Dont worry. I just like to think about what i will do when i get home and can work and hang out and hug who i want haha ;) Only 3 more months and ill be home. So yes. Everyone can be trunky for me. 

This week we found an investigator "of the hour" or "really cool". She is "married" to a really really really rich less active. They went to a party at a church in a different stake cause a member that worked with them invited them. My companion happened to be working that stake. 2 weeks later he got transfered to here in morumbi. Turns out that this guy that he recieved lives in our area. Also that his "wife" wants to get married in the temple. Also that they went to church on sunday :) Everyone loved them! like a ton! they are super cool and they said that church didnt even feel like 3 hours. Which is a sign that they liked it! We will be teaching them again on thursday or friday. When we went we took another rich family to integrate with them. they are 3 houses down so that will be nice for them all. 

Nilton is progressing. He had some problems with the 4th question and so we had to delay his baptism for this week. He will have the interview on wednesday and already we have a family night planned with the bishop for tomorrow. Should destroy! Finally we will have a baptism here! :)

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

we enjoy making a scene at district meeting

now if i can do it with them... i can do it with anyone... haha

this is what you call "borda de chocolate". CHOCOLATE BORDER!!!! 

wheelchair races with daddy haha