May 25, 2015 prayed for a miracle contact

         back to square one.

So.... Weve got some sad news....

after a whole day of planning on marking a wedding and trying to contact Ka she told us that she liked her church better. Its the Bola de Neve. translating to the snow ball. It has a surf board as a pulpit and is based off of regae. really dumb. so she wont get married now. we have cut her and she cut us.... so there goes our only person in this area. we have moved our focus to less actives and recent converts. the saving part of missionary work haha. oh and by the way this area hasnt baptized for over 7 months...

On friday we were invited to paint a house. that was well needed service project and normal clothes helped us keep going. 

On saturday we were really sad. a lot of our appointments have fallen through but we were still walking. following our plan and doing the things like we always do. At about 6:30 our DL called us and asked us if we were alright. i said our day was crap but we were still going. He invited us to say a prayer. So we did and we asked for a miracle. When we did this we went inside our next 2 lessons and taught them both! we even got them marked for baptism which we thought probably wouldnt have happened. 

We took an investigator to church. she wont progress but she went. she gives us lots of references cause she talks to all her neighbors about us so we get into a lot of houses cause of her :)

Thats about all that happened this week. it really sucked for the first part but in the end it all turned out fine. just goes to show that the lord blesses with the miracle after you have done all that you can huh? :)

anyway have a good week! love you all!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

a little of my area. it goes back a lot more than this. this is at the train station. pretty legit stuff :)

This is Kyson's cheer team. A lot of the ones he cheered with are graduating! :(
He will miss them.

This is the press box at Utah State that is getting torn down. So many changes happening right now that will rock Kyson's world when he gets back!

One of Kyson's good friends, Shiloh,  from the cheer team got married!
This stuff makes Kyson happy!

May 18, 2015 Been in Brazil almost a year!

          Week 51 

Well.. im coming up on being a year here in brazil. its kinda weird to think that its been so long away that it doesnt really feel real. 

this week picked up a ton from the last one. we found a bunch of people to teach and we are hoping that a few will be good and that we can progress with them. 

Kari is doing really good. she went to church this week and really enjoyed it. she said next week she wanted her family to go with her :) so that should be pretty chill. we are going to mark her wedding on wednesday so i hope everything runs smoothly.

One day we took a member over to her house and she basically taught the lesson herself. the spirit was really strong and she had a friend the whole day in church. she even participated in the classes. She really is pretty special to us. 

One day we challenged our zone to a double rainbow day. that means that you do 30 contacts that day. Our numbers were pretty weak but ya after that day everyone did it so we got back on track :)

One day we had a family home evening and we made a scripture puzzle from scripture mastery where you have to put the words in the right spot and make the scripture. then we talked about this scripture and how it applies to our lives. it was pretty cool :)

oh and this week someone made us fried chicken. tasted like bacon but it was some of the most delicious food ive had :) 

weve taught a lot this week and set up this week to be equally as good. i sure hope so! :)

have a good week everyone! até próximo!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

May 11, 2015 skyped with family and Koby

          Mothers Day / 50 Weeks

Well i hope you all had a great mothers day. I did for sure. it was so nice to be able to see my family and get to talk for them for a little time.

This week... well. Eh it had its ups and downs. 

It started with a leadership councel and going to the temple on tuesday. That was really good and really spiritual and im learning how to be a better leader. We have a couple things going on this month that should be pretty cool. First President challenged us to baptize one person for every missionary. and if you wont get that chance then you should be able to participate in teaching and helping someone who will be baptized. The second thing is that this month is the month of consegration. so we are giving all our time, efforts, and talents to the lord. President said that we dont live by the law of tithing so we have to live by some sort of law.. which is the law of consagration haha. So on pday we stay home and clean and update the area book and we dont leave our areas. a little different but it makes my job a little easier haha.

The next day we had a surprise exchange. Elder Nissenin who is a secretary came with us and helped us out a little. he trained us how to make trainings and that was pretty helpful considering i havent done much of that. 

Also we have a pretty awesome Elder here. Elder Jeronymo. who is a short time missionary. Just for this transfer. We had this broken shower for over 6 weeks. He got the part we needed and fixed it really fast. we now have hot ish showers from a shower head and not a pipe in the wall. this guy is awesome! (all showers have gone from 5 minutes to 15 -20 haha)

We are having a really hard time connecting with the members here for some reason. I dont know why but we are trying to be friends with them and they are a little shut off to us. So we made a family night calendar for this month. weve had a few people sign up so we can get to know them and also so we can teach them and their friends. We have a few activities that would be cool but if you guys have any others id love to hear them. 

Also on mothers day we went to craigs house. he is that american guy i think ive mentioned before. He made us chicken bbq pizza. that was freaking amazing. that is something that  you dont find here in brazil. i think its pretty safe to say you dont find that south of america haha. 

The area is hard. really hard. hardest that ive had. im having a hard time staying motivated to keep going and its all just tearing pretty hard on me. On top of having to be  a leader and be an example and have an example area its not working out too well. We have 2 investigators that are doing anything to learn more and they will still take a lot of work til they can be baptized.

This week was a good week but on the work end it was just crap. we didnt have very good numbers and even though we tried it looked like we didnt work at all. 

with love,

Elder Sullivan

skype time!

This sign that says: "não alimente o macaco" means dont feed the monkey. we didnt see a monkey... so we made one. thanks elder Williams haha

This is Elder Jeronymo. He is the best! Also my cool guitar. my fingers hurt all the time cause i play so much at night and in the morning.

this cat... i just couldnt help but laugh.. hahahaha i had to get a picture haha.

SKYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is before Kyson got on Skype with us and Koby.

All of Koby's roommates that passed by the computer would stop and count the heads on the screen. Other countries don't have such big families as we do in the US.

An inside joke is Section 139 of D&C that has not been translated into Portuguese yet. That's why American's have more than 4 kids and Brasilian's don't. Section 139 tells you to have more than 4 kids. lol

In this picture, Carl is talking on the phone with Kyson while he tries to figure out his password to get onto Skype with us. Carl got a phone call from Florida, but answered it anyway. It was Kyson calling on an American's cell phone he had gotten in LA before he moved to Brazil with his Brasilian wife and baby.

They finally get to see each other and exchange greetings in Portuguese.

Kyson is showing us the view from the 16th story he is on. He is trying to let us see the lightning.

The zone leader, Kyson, had to take several phone calls while we were on our Skype call...

FAMILY PIC!

Kyson's host gave him the same candy that I got today from church...

Brady Bunch!

Kyson needs to know if that's a bald spot.

No, it's blonde hair and is invisible when it is short.

Chicken BBQ pizza.

He turned off the video while he ate it, but he ate his chocolate cake in front of all of us!!!!!

Kyson says he will be home before the next Mother's Day,
and Koby says he will be home 3 days AFTER Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 4, 2015 Counting down: 364 days left! haha

          364 days

well that can be a little trunky right? well if im not wrong and i did my math right, about the 3rd of may i should be home. that means this mothers day will be the first and last one on the mission. but who knows right?

So this week a lot of stuff happened. We got a short time missionary in our ward like a trial time. He will only be here for 1 or 2 transfers to see if he wants to serve full time. 

I got a package from koby with a bunch of stuff in it so that was a good birthday surprise :)

One day we were doing contacts and EVERYONE was telling me no. I was getting really sick of it and i just wanted a yes. I talked with this one lady and she gave me a thumbs down and said "im atheist and i dont like God", as she walked past me. I turned around and yelled after her, "Well then GOOD LUCK!!!" it was kinda nice and helped me feel better. but she isnt going anywhere nice after this life. 

We did however have 1 investigator who is progressing. Her name is Karina. She is married and has a daughter. We taught her the restoration and she understood the first time. Like thats is hard to find. Also when we came back she was asking us more about joesph smith and what happened. We showed her a video and she was a lot happier with the response we gave. She said she would like to go to church so we are still working closely with her. (the last church she was in is called the ´snowball´ church.... Go Brazil!)

On friday we had a devocional with Elder Christofferson. That was really cool :) We were able to shake his hand and ask him questions and he taught us about D&C 6:9. Say nothing but repentance. Also some other things but most of it was based out of this scripture. It was really cool and really spiritual :) 

Good news! After the devocional we came back to our house and we had energy again! that was a miracle only an apostle could have done ;) haha. 

We ended the week good. On saturday we had a member from heaven take us to Outback. Now.. i know outback in the states isnt too fancy. but here its like a big deal. They had the same break with butter, buffalo wings with hot sauce, cheesy fries with bacon on top, and RANCH!!!!! that beautiful white dipping sauce that doesnt exist here. Also we got some ribs smothered in BBQ sauce and it was so freaking delicious :) Also we each drank about 1.5 liters of coke so that just made us all happy. i didnt want to leave cause it reminded me so much of home. Also the member that took us is an american so we just spake english. Man that was the best lunch ive had here in Brazil. 

anyway i hope this week goes by smoothly for you guys and that you have success with whatever you are doing. 

Com amor,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

They are trying to "bring more water to the city of Osasco" so they destroyed all the sidewalks and leave them looking a lot like this. but its alright cause theres a pipe in there now. How do you like that dad? haha

A really cool picture i got of the temple after the devotional with Elder Christofferson

The very first lawn mower ive seen in Brazil. Usually they use a weed wacker to cut the grass.

and my cool little package and letters i got :) thanks fam!

Apr. 27, 2015 Ahhhhh, the Amish Life!

         11 months and amish living

Well im gettin to that point where i can start going down the hill right? haha So some things have happened this week both good and bad. pretty interesting how that happens right?

Our power still hasnt come back yet. That really sucks. We dont have a washing machine, microwave, fridge, phone charger, hot shower, or light. just some really basic things. If youve ever tried living like an amish youll know what im talking about. So this week we went to the other missionaries house about an hour away from our house to wash and iron all of our clothes. we were there all day. But its amazing how their house seemed like a resort haha. A hot shower and clean clothes can really change your perspective on life haha. 

This week was the first week i ate at McDonalds on my mission. Dont worry they didnt change anything. Its the same crappy food that tastes amazing that they have in the states. Its a little more expensive though.. i paid 21.50 R$ for a big mac with fries and a drink. but it was definitely worth it. 

On last Pday we went to Villa-Lobos. and went roller blading. If thats not the gayest thing you and your companion could do. It actually turned out pretty cool cause we found some other missionaries there and we had a lot of fun. I did try to do a pretty amazing trick and jump a crack and i ended up on my butt. But that was the worst that happened. 

Our brazillian roommates have really been hating on me recently. Ever since the emergency transfer, they have been pretty annoying. I just go to my room and try to keep away from it. then they exploded at me and asked me why i didnt like them. I told them that they kept glaring at me and i didnt like that and that when i dont like someone i prefer that they go away. so i went away to keep them happy. When i told them that they kept quiet cause it was pretty true. we got a division in our area again and so now we are a lot better friends. Also one of them will be transfered this week so that should help. 

This week on friday i will be able to hear Elder Christofferson talk to my mission at the MTC. Live :) Should be pretty legit and pretty spiritual. I mean i live in Utah but ive never seen an apostle in real life before so this should be pretty cool to participate in this (and not have to have a translater ;) )

we had a pretty cool lesson where the investigators were actually interpretting the scriptures right and were understanding everything we were saying. it was really awesome. One of the girls that was there was actually a friend of the other. when we went to get her address she doesnt live in our area. that was kinda disappointing cause she was searching for a church and was confused with the others. She will get baptized for sure :)

So i ran out of things to talk about. Have a good week and dont get dengue. (DANE-gee)

Love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

We have a water shortage in São Paulo right now 

but that wont stop the Lords work from moving forward. 

filling up the font with buckets man!

and the ways we invented filling them up.

thats a fridge shelf. :)

and an eraser with a sacrament cup haha

My zone. :)

oh and my companion had a baptism in his last ward. that was fun :)

Apr. 20, 2015 cold showers out of a bucket, no power, and mosquitos galore

            No power, gas, or water

heres a cool pic of a  milk carton on the ground i saw when i was walking :)

This week has been really interesting. We have basically been living without any of these 3 things for a week, a day, and everyday during 12 and 6 pm.

Brazil kinda sucks for this reason. they are in a drought and dont know how to store enough water for the amount of people they have so..... they have to cut off the water to try to save it or prevent people from using it. Also our power bill hasnt been paid for about 3 months.. so that got cut off. apparently it was under a members name and it said that the power was included in the rent so nothing happened with it. So... we dont have fans at night (lots of mosquitos) we dont have a fridge that works, we cant charge our phone at our house, or iron our clothes, candles are our light and if we had a shower top (shower head?) we would have cold showers. but the cold shower is a normal thing for us now cause its been about 3 weeks without a warm shower. our water will shut off from the shower at 7 am so you have to get a bucket of water and a cup and dump the water over yourself to get clean. Thats also really fun let me tell you. ;)

On my birthday we did something really fun. we had a milk shake. haha well thats all we did during pday. then we went out to go work and visit members. when we got to the first members house she wasnt there... so Elder Williams said we were going home. we got home and a different sister had made a cake and we bought pizza ;) so it was a good birthday :)

birthday pizza. dominos and pool :)

birthday cake :)

We had interviews with President on wednesday and those were good. First one as a zone leader so he had a little more to tell me and to help us out. basically he told us its our zone and we can do with it what we please so... here we go :) 

oh and my zone. at the interviews.

An experience that happened this week was one day we were working and we got to a house where the lady was leaving. Well... I wasnt about to let her slip out of my hands like that. So i started to teach her about the restoration. I taught it REALLY fast. when i asked her if we could say a prayer she invited us in and asked us more questions. We said our prayer and it turned out to be a really cool lesson. We have another appointment with her tonight :)

So ya thats about it for this week. I hope youre all well and healthy and not missing any power.. or gas... or water... cause it really stinks haha. 

Love,

Élder Sullivan

an american from oakland who has 2 things any american would die for!

and they have dominos here :) that pizza was expensive but worth it :)

 (the member gave money for lunch)

 (also the kfc in the background ;) )

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 12:33 PM, Koby Sullivan <koby sullivan> wrote:

I see your mission and realize that my mission has nothing....

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Kyson Sullivan <kyson sullivan> wrote: 

yes that would describe your mission perfectly haha

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Kyson Sullivan <kyson sullivant> wrote:

in that same place theres a mcdonalds, and a burger king, and a subway :)

a freaking pink limo that was really really ugly. it had eye lashes too. 

it was for a little girls birthday party... haha

and a cool looking spider :)

Apr. 13, 2015 It's my Birthday!!!

          Its my Birthday!!!

Happy birthday to me! im 21 now and that doesnt mean anything here in brazil cause you can drink when youre 18... so its just another birthday! (not that im planning on drinking haha ;) )

This week was fun. I almost bible bashed the crap out of this guy but the spirit told me not to so we just left. that was really fun to get rialed up like that :) Something thats not so fun is blistered feet. its always a bandaid and duck tape to try to ease the pain. they are going away but they always come back. i just cut off a bunch of caloused skin to see if that would help with the blisters. One more thing thats awesome is that we have been taking a cold shower for about 2 weeks now. our shower broke and we just have a pipe sticking out of our wall that cold water comes out of. so its pretty nice. wake up and get in a cold shower ;)

This week we did a lot better than the last. we found a lot of new investigators but no one worth mentioning yet. We are trying to talk with everyone and something cool happens when we do this. most of our new inv. have invited us in without us asking. then we teach and they ask questions and thats usually a good sign of someone who wants to enter the church. so this should be pretty cool to see if they actually want to progress and go to church and what not. 

I love this gospel and i love being a missionary. I love these people and although sometimes after lunch its hard to get up and get working i love serving them everyday :) 

I love you guys too! always remember that! :)

Elder Sullivan

Apr. 6, 2015 Still sick and an American companion.

         Conference weekend

So this week we also didnt do too much. well like a lot of work that is. I was still sick at the beginning of the week and cause me and my companion are new at the ZL thing we were being trained by an assistant to the president. Well i really wasnt feeling good so sister del guerso sent me to the hospital. That was a fun 8 hours of waiting and getting home after midnight. We didnt even get our full training by the assistant but its all good. Turns out i only had an infection in my intestines. or something like that. all i know is that i took the medication and felt better. 

The next day we went to a leadership counsel. Also a blast cause there was a lot of debating and a lot of people pulling out the preach my gospel to prove their points and it was pretty entertaining to watch. I didnt say anything cause i am new and dont know anything haha. But we were able to see where we can help our zone and what points we need to do better. 

We did however get a little bit of work in. Thank goodness. We are working off a list of references that another missionary left. Most of them dont exist but a few do still. We found a 8 or 9 new investigators that have room to progress. I am excited for this week cause its a normalish week and we can do a FULL week of work :)

Then we had conference. That was good. I watched in english and got to feel the emotion in everyone of the speakers. I did however watch the preisthood in portuguese and that was right when the other brazillian spoke so i heard it live :) Its nice cause conference is like the missionary holiday. Just conference all day and being spiritually uplifted :) 

Ya but other than this that was all that happened this week. I really like my new companion. He is chill. Its great to have another american cause when you dont want others to understand or you want him to understand completely you can speak in english. He is really funny and i like him. He Has a good spirit about him and will help me become a better missionary. 

I love you all!

Elder Sullivan