Aug 25, 2014

Uma Eventful Semana!

Oi familia e amigos!

this week was a little crazy and a lot of stuff happened thats new and exciting so... here we go.

Our house is finally done being painted! it looks brand new! after it was done we reorganized everything and it looks totally different. Well. exciting news. Presidente wanted to come look at it. and he didnt ask us until 3 in the afternoon that day. well unfortunately we were already working (and were in a lesson when he called so thats good). So it was a nice test of our daily cleanliness. i was happy that i had made my bed and organized my desk before i left. Well. He still wasnt happy with us. we have some pretty old tables and 2 fridges and 2 stoves and 1 of each dont work. we also have every liahona from 1980 in our house and it looked really bad. We also have sofas instead of chairs so all of this stuff now is being taken care of but he got pretty mad at us for not telling him about it sooner. We dont really know any better cuz we are both new and everyone elses houses are a disaster. We are probably the cleanest in our district. So ya that was great lol

We had a recent convert show us an anti mormon video today. kinda shook me a little but i was able to answer the questions she had about this video. Some parts were so funny like they said that Joseph smith was our Jesus and would be at the judgement seat with God and Jesus Christ. Others were a little more sketch and ill save you from having the same experience i did. But this is one of the worst things that can happen. Have a recent convert watch something like this is just really bad. I´m glad she told us about it and that we were able to help her. Im not happy cuz i had to watch it lol.

We also had Noite cultural. Or cultural night. It was good and talked a lot about geneology and familysearch.org. was way good minus the part where the old dude talked forever. Every family brought a plate of food that represented their family. that was fun to try all sorts of different food. some was way good and the others were... well different haha. But this best part about the night was that people brought their friends and were able to meet us and we now have new investigators and people to visit them with me :) 

We participated in the choir and thats always fun. They want a lot of our time though and im thinking that its not going to be worth it to do it again. we sang at ward conference that was yesterday. It was fun to meet the stake presidency and hear their message (which was on missionary work and bringing one new friend to the missionaries every trimester. which is really good news for us cause thats more people that we get to teach :) ) But the thing that was crazy was Presidente Del Guerso also showed up and was able to see our investigators and recent converts and see the work in the ward. he is thinking about putting 2 duples in the ward and sharing our small house with 4 people haha. Pretty crazy. Whats funny is the only thing that presidente said to me was, "hows the language coming?" everything else was directed to Elder Cinezzio haha.

Well that was this week! Até próximo! 

com amor,

Élder Kyson Sullivan

I found pictures on the mission facebook page today. These are from the day he left the CTM:

Aug 18, 2014

This is the end of the first transfer! Its been a fun time and I´ve learned a lot!

Stuff to talk about this time. The weather. No really. The weather. I dont know if you guys follow the weather here but its absolutely crazy. It went like this. hot, hot, hot, rainy, windy, super cold, hot in the morning cold at night, hot. and it's winter..... 

Something happened on the rainy day... I found a nice little secret that my shoes were hiding from me! They have a hole in the bottom where the rubber wore off. I dont drag my feet, sometimes i trip, but this road here is really rocky cause of the hills. So.... i dont know what to do. Its not really a big hole but I´ll send pics. I am thinking of just putting some calk in it. But i dont know where to find it. (the 85$ shoes mom)

Today we went to Irmã Fatima´s and learned how to make rice and beans! They were really good! She owns a restaurant and volunteered to help us out. So when i get home I will show you guys how a brazillian eats ;)

Recently I feel like I´ve been training myself. Kinda a bummer but I kinda do that anyways when I was home. Sometimes though I´d like some insight from him too.

We had another baptism this Sunday!! Tat. was baptized and she was so happy she did. She is the niece of Ro. from the first of my baptisms and she too has a daughter who is only 6. She is really sad cause she too wants to be baptized. And she wants me to do it! Too bad I wont be in this area in 18 months haha.

We didnt go proselyting yesterday. We got a call that said no proselyting and stay in your house. I was kinda excited cause something crazy was happening. Turns out we just had a general preisthood meeting that was going on. 

I got to decorate my planejamento! (planner). It has Captain Moroni and Jesus being baptized! Some good pics for a mission I think. I´ll see if I cant get pics out today.

My Zone and the craziness they are.

Thanks for the love and support I get from you guys. Always praying and thinking of you!

with love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Crazy landlord wearing a pair of XXXL shorts the guys found in the apt.

(more pics coming later after him mom figures out how and finds time to do it all. They will be posted in July posts.)

Aug. 11, 2014

This week was really good in the chora menino area! We had a baptism of Luccas! He is about 11 and was going to church for about 2 months before we let him get baptized. His parents didnt come to the baptism and i hope that this will wake up the members to see that they need to step in and help!

Our members in this area are really slacking. they are used to not doing anything to help the missionaries and we are trying to accelerate the work here with the members. we are doing our part but we need the help from them!

We had this family home evening/seminary class with this family. She called us the day before and asked us if we could summarize the book of mosiah and the book of alma by the next day. we agreed. well my companion agreed for me. so i got to do mosiah. mostly just read from the little section that is above the chapter and went over the story really breifly. the mom then picked out scriptures to read and it was really nice and learned a lot. Then when E. Cinezio went to explain Alma (only the first30 chapters) everyone was laughing and couldnt stop! so we called it quits at chapter 8 and ate pizzas! It was really good! 

Whats not good is churrascaria. Its like BBQ but of anything you can think of. they had all parts of the cow. coração de galinha. or heart of chicken. and all other types and flavors of stuff. i paid 20$ for all i can eat and i am so sick of meat now. I just wanna barf haha. the next day after is the worst and i cant sleep good. no wonder it talks about this in the Word of wisdom huh? haha. 

For personal study time this week i read the book "Our search for happiness" its really good and has some good insight that im hoping i can use for other lessons to help my investigators! i recomend it to everyone!

This next wednesday im starting english classes for anyone who wants to come. i am going to have a rule that if you are a member you need to bring a non member or less active and they need to write their name and address so that we can come visit them. hopefully it gets big enough that we meet a lot of people. if it doesnt work then it will just be a flop haha. 

I talked with a member today and he asked me if i liked peanut butter. (which they dont have down here) and i said of course! he said that he would get me a jar of skippy peanut butter for about 10R$! how good is that! so now i will be feasting here shortly. he said about a month and i´m telling you that i need this month to go by faster haha! 

Well that was this week. I hope you are having a good summer and working hard and having fun! I´m definitely trying my best to work hard and have fun too! pics are coming after this!

Tchau e amar!

Elder Kyson Sullivan



(Be patient. These pics will load eventually.)

First Semana Pizza!

this is called a ladeira. or a really nasty hill that my area is full of. 

we ask president for 3 things. 

1. dr. pepper.

2. a car and 

3. a flat area haha

my kitchen 

and a better pic of the bathroom. this bucket we use to flush our toilet. you fill it up about half way for a number 1 and about 2 or 3 buckets depending on the number 2. its a little bit different here haha. there is also now a garbage can that you put the paper in cuz the plumbing doesn´t like it here. the broom looking thing is for after you shower to sweep the water into the drain so the floor can dry faster. pretty interesting haha. 

our study area and laundry machine. 

me in the central. this you can put on the blog haha. its pretty crazy how many people are around out here! there are just so many people trying to get to their stores and find the better deals. everything is way cheaper in the central too!

me and luccas!

and the city. the place in front of the buildings is the flavela. or a place where the poor can build houses for free until the government needs the land then they have to move. so all the houses are stacked up on top of eachother.

this is the bishop with luccas.

and me with one of the many dogs we meet. her name is brunino. like... what?

justin beiber my companion calls me and farmer joe. haha

this bird is from austrailia and is pretty cool. when you come near it it will put up a mohawk to try to scare you! haha

Aug 4, 2014

Hello everyone. 

This week was good. We had training for new missionaries. I thought was kinda a waste of time cuz we just contacted all day. I mean its important but we could have been in a home. It was still fun cuz we got a new companion and went and contacted but had to use a book of mormon in the contact so it kept it interresting. Next training we will have to mark a day for baptism! yikes!

We have 3 potential baptisms coming up. 

Tatiane. She is the neice of romenia and recently moved in with her so now we are teaching her too and everytime is a lesson with a member (cause of romenia :) ) She asked us when she could be baptized so she is ready ;)

Luccas. he is 11 years old and has been going to church with us for about 2 months. When they are younger we like to wait and make sure they will come to church and wont drop out. So he also asked us to baptize him. had an interview with his mom and she okayed it. 

And Rute. We have been working with her for a while and she just wont come to church consistantly. We have had a couple dates for her but it just isnt working. 

Now i am reading the BOM with the LDM to try to perfect my language. The work is moving slowly haha. But i can see improvement in my speaking. Still rely heavily on the spirit to help the people understand :)

My body knows its time for cheer season to start. Its craving really bad right now and im trying to keep it under control haha. 

Inverno or Winter here is like Summer. so.. Im not excited for summer haha. 

Sorry its not super long but its basically the same thing everyweek. Foods good. People are nice most of the time, and the walking just keeps going. Thanks for the prayers and support and until next week!

Elder Sullivan (the better looking one)


Ok i have a little more time so i will continue on. I thought that I didnt have more time. 

So today we went to 25 de março.  Look up that street. Its always packed and everyone is selling anything you could want. Well except Dr. Pepper. haha. I bought a universal charger there for 5 dollars and today bought a usb card reader for 4. Like way cheap. But the street is packed. Think of black friday in Walmart then add a bunch of frightened chickens and maybe some fireworks and homeless people and you have 25 do Marco haha. 

Sorry I dont have a lot of photos. My computer doesnt have a usb port and I have to sit next to my companion. His does and he tried to send me a few and they arent the good ones so hopefully next week we will have better success with it. 

So I´ve been asked by multiple people if we have a class of English. Well we dont yet and im working on making a class. Right now its going to be 1 night a week and hopefully get more people into the church and find more people to teach. 

Well thats time. 

for reals,

Elder Sullivan

July 28, 2014

Wooo! Today marks 2 months of being a missionary. Looking back i have come quite a ways. But looking ahead makes me excited. I cant wait to get this language down. to meet more people. to learn how to teach different types of people.

When we had reunião de distrito a elder gave a talk about being a successful missionary that i liked a lot. My favorite line that he used was,"to be a successful missionary you do all you can do that day" people still have their agency and we arent here to force them, but to invite them. Like the BoM says in the introduction. We invite all men. I really enjoyed that and our week needed that too.


My 3 favorite books :)

We did all we could this week but our numbers dont really show it. The one that shows is 100 contacts this week!! which was our goal. One day we did a double rainbow. Which is what they call it when you do 30+ contacts in one day. This is funny cause of the youtube video of they guy who is high admiring a double rainbow. I had to explain this to my companion haha. 

So we have this new family. It started with one man. his name is "P". We visited his house and taught him a lesson. the next visit he wasnt there but his nephew answered the door and we talked with him. When we were leaving his mom was walking up the stairs to her apartment. Whe used to be a member when she was 9 but moved and stopped going. Her and her dad were baptized about 20 years ago. So now we are teaching her and her children, her dad, her brother and her sister. They all seem interested and im excited to see where it goes. We have only taught the restauration and the dad seemed to light up. Like he remembered the truth of our message. way cool! 

Sorry no pics yet. I need to get an adapter for my card. hopefully it will be soon. :)

Well, I think thats all for this week. fica em Deus. as all the people say here. 

Have a good week and thanks for the prayers and support!

Love ya!

Elder Sullivan

July 20, 2014 My First Baptism!

Monday, July 20, 2014

Yes its true!!! We had 2 baptisms this week and im way happy for it! I was able to baptize little "M". He is 8 years old and is really smart! It was a fun experience and i didnt even mess up the baptism prayer in portuguese! Such a good experience for me. And no I wasnt trying to look like a superhero in the picture. Its just how it turned out. haha. His moms name is "R".

So i would like to explain a little about the pizza here. ITS AWFUL. They havent found out how to put sauce on it so it like eating straight cheese. or straight meat. I really miss american. haha. But its all good. They make up for it by putting chocolate in the crust. Kinda like we put cheese in the crust. It makes for a weird twist but something to look forward to at the end of the pizza!

We had a divisão this week. or a companion exchange. I was with the district leader cause he needed to interview the 2 people for baptisms. I learned a lot from him and he is a way chill guy. The only problem with the exchange is that i was now the senior companion cause its my area. so... i had this map and addresses and tried my best not to get lost. Fortunately we did pretty good. Marked a baptism date and got 2 new investigators. He also broke my window. haha. He had an umbrella but didnt know that it extended when you push the button.. so.. he was pointing it at the window and it broke. Thanks to duck tape its fixed ;)

Feijoada. look it up. Had it twice this week and its the heaviest food i have eaten. Its almost like uncooked but cooked meat (all sorts) with beans and rice. Its not bad but if i have more of it i will explode haha.

beans with beef and pork

This week was pretty hard for me. i am way home sick. Which didnt happen in the CTM or last week. Only this week. I hear music, or people ask about home and its just hard. I know that satan beats on us most when something good is going to happen so i just need to buckle up and take the hits. I am trying my hardest to work hard.

My thought for this week: in the book, as a man thinketh, there are many ideas. One of the ideas is that whatever you think, you are. Your thoughts lead to your actions. (proverbs 23:7) Well because we are all trying to be like Christ we also need to try to think like christ would. Something that I  have been working on this week. I also challenge you to do as well. 

with love and thanks,

Elder Sullivan 

My address: 

Rua Rui Batista Pereira, 165

Jardim Caxingui

São Paulo - SP

CEP: 05517-080

Brazil

July 14, 2014

Opa família e amigos. eu espera tudo é bem e vocês é feliz. 

So this week and a half were a little crazy cause of the WC. When i was still in the CTM there were about 6 Bolivians who ran into my room with a flag, radio and a lot of energy trying to watch the game from my window. They werent really invited they just did it haha. Pretty crazy how important futebol is down here. I was able to watch the game against Alemanha (germany) and that was great cause we lost 7-1 haha. The only game i got to watch lol. Everyone here now refers to me as the Alemão cause im white lol. Todos os pessoas, "hey alemão! como sentir ganhar? " muito engraçado. But germany won and now its over and now we can really get our proselyting going cause it was suffering cause of the games going on.

Before I left the CTM there was 8 hours of oreintation. All in portugues. I gave up after hour 3 and just nodded my head. I do that a lot out here in the field haha. I dont really understand a whole ton but i do understand the jist of what they are saying. Like if they are talking about food or cities or people but i dont really know all of what is happening. My portuguese is improving though. dia a dia. I am trying to do 15 words a day and i only speak portuguese all day so that comes pretty easy. The hardest part is subjunctive and sentence order.

I'm in Chora Menino which translates to crying boy.

My trainer is Elder Cinezzio (pictures to come hopefully next week). He is from Brazil and is 20 years old.
He knows how to do things like speak português. haha We have a lot of fun joking and learning. I am teaching him English as he helps me with Portuguese. A good little trade we have. He has been in the field for 3 months now so he is pretty new but he knows what he is doing. A lot of our talking is slow and he is always asking if i know what words mean. When i dont its either the dictionary or a game of charades or a really good description in words i do know. The only bad part of this is that we cant really do it in lessons. So a lot of lessons are nodding when he is nodding and laughing when other laugh haha. I see improvement though and i keep a prayer in my heart for understanding. 

So my first day in the field i unpacked a little. and we went to this ladies house. Her name is rute. (hoo-chi) we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Way cool for day 1!

A couple days later we went and visited another pesquisador named "R". She is really sweet and is really interested in the church. She has a son and he is also investigating. On my 3rd visit to her we showed her a video of the atonement for missionary work. Which is mostly for missionaries but we showed her so she could better understand it. Its a compilation of 2 talks by Harrold B Eiring and Jeffrey R Holland. Very cool and spiritual. After the talks she said she wanted to be baptized on the 19. We were way shocked cause we didnt ask her. I know she is being taught by ther spirit.

This sunday i was asked to bear my testimony in church. That was fun and way sketch. I think the ward is accepting of me and I hope I can help them in anyway possible. Should be fun.

Every day we have lunch provided for us by a member. Its way nice. Lunch is the big meal here and ward members are nice to let us come join them. The food is way good. My favorite fruit so far is a mango. But there have been other close ones that are really strange and only found here..

I am out of time now but i want you to know of my love for you guys and my prayers are always for you!

I know this church is true and the lord watches out for his missionaries! 

Vai Brasil even though we suck now. and tchau!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

July 4, 2014

I remember when i was first getting here and not believing i could continue on for another 6 weeks. It dragged. Well.... its over and i cant believe it haha.

Not a lot happened this week that was notable and worthy. Other than i got a hair cut... yay. 

We took a test on our language skills... i think i passed cuz they didnt send me home yet haha. Well thats basically it. OH! its 4th of july! And i could have been at a barbeque! haha jk I am enjoying it here and the lunch ladies are giving us a "american" meal today. We can hope its good! The food has been pretty good but dont trust the desserts... thats all for that. 

Sorry for the meshed up together (mom edited a lot of it) but my enter button isnt working today. 

So about grandma's passing. Thats super sad. President called us in and sat us down and told us that she had passed away. I'm glad that it was him that was able to tell me and not my next president cuz i dont know my other president like i know President Swenson. He is one powerful man and has been there when i grew the most. I was also way blessed to have Koby there with me. Man is that a blessing. At the time i didnt really have a testimony of the plan of salvation. But when President said how great is it that we know of the plan i got on it and studied like crazy. I now have a testimony of the plan and the happiness that grandma is in with her husband. I had a letter written to her but i never got it sent off. I'm kicking myself cuz of it but its all good. I'm glad that she was able to hear of my growth here. Thanks mom :) 

Something cool that happened about 1 hour after the news was we were in class and the teacher ( the next prophet ) was teaching us and he told us a story. He thought about not telling us though. He said that his president told him at his last interview before he went home to smile everyday. He got home Wednesday and his dad died on Friday. Super sad. I know he was prompted to tell me that when i needed it. So ...  smile everyday everyone :) 

Also we got new revelation. Brazil baptizes the most people every year. Sadly, only 4% stay active. So now we have new revelation. not sure if its for just Brazil or for the world. But we now teach all 5 lessons BEFORE and AFTER. not just 4 before. And we also stay in contact with the investigators for the next 3 or 4 months afterwards too. 

Alright I'm out of time. and thats really all that happened. 

I hope you didnt have a hard time decifering this haha. 

I have a testimony of this gospel and I know that God loves all of us and knows what we need when we need it! 

I love you all and thank you for the support you have been giving me. I can feel it all the way over here! 

Vai Brazil! 

Love, Elder Sullivan (Kyson)