Jan. 4, 2016 Let's take a tour of my area. Pictures!

          Saudade de dormir (missing sleep)

Well... that week flew by... let me tell you a little about my area.... 

So my area is the area of the temple and above. so if you can think of all the people that have already heard about the church and all the people that "think" that they know about the church you have the right place. Ya its kinda rough. Its hard to find someone that lives here and that wants something.. but ya we are trying our best. 

the week was spent walking around, doing contacts and trying to find some cool people that would accept us :) Lets take a tour.. 

Some of the few places 

Estado Morumbi. São Paulo Futebol Clube. Yup. my area. 

hospital Albert Einstein. thats pretty sick. 

Here in brazil anyone of these houses are huge. Even in the states it would be a big house. Did you count the people in the streets? Well if you saw one they dont live in my area. They just work for the rich people haha. 

So we are working our tails off and we are planning trainings and still we have to keep up on our area. Most of the nights after following up we finish about 10:20. Then finding time to do anything else is impossible. I think i got to bed at 10:30 only one time this week. We had to finish up some trainings and plan for the next day and there isnt enough time to do all we need to do and still be obedient. Its a rough life. 

We had a few miracles happen this week. And in this area... its really miracles...

Miracle 1: Im not sick. Its been raining the entire week and i dont use umbrellas. So im in the rain a lot. but thanks to the lord he has blessed me with health :)

Miracle 2: For new years president freed up Just Dance for our zone to have a little party. That was super fun :) and a miracle haha

Miracle 3: We did a contact with a man on the street on saturday and he said that he had been in the hospital for 32 days. He said he´d go to church... and he did :) We´ve already taught him with the Elders Quorum President and he is marked for the 24th :) besides him we had another person who came late to church saying that he wanted to get to know it. He works in piracicaba but lives here. (Koby ill be sending you a reference so that you can teach him while he is gone alright? haha) So ya another miracle! We also had 2 other people there that we took with us. So... 4 people that went to church. for this area thats super good! Last transfer the most they had was 1 so really we had a good week :)

Miracle 4: I have from 1 til 6 for pday today haha ;) 

We are trying to work more with the members to get them to help us out in the proselyting. we are passing by and asking for tips to make them feel important. Also we are making them help us out on the references haha.

have a good week and happy new year :)

Elder Sullivan

Our party. ice cream of jubuticaba. 

my dad: Elder Cinezio is my zone leader. cool right? haha

yup tell everyone back home that Andrew is breaking the rules ;) haha just kidding. he had permission from president! Smart kid! 

They tried doing 2016 with their hands haha

St. Geezy!! Yup he is my zone leader too haha

we got 50 mattresses in the office so we took them and put them out front to watch the fireworks.

happy 2016!!! :)

Dec. 28, 2016 Became the new Assistant (AP)

          Christmas and a New Year

Well.. Rumors are rumors. I just got to the Mission Office as the new assistant of the SPO mission. Super cool but i feel like its going to be a lot of weeks without a pday haha. I already have to do the trainings and the transfers and welcome in the new missionaries and all that stuff.. so it should be super cool. 

Ya so we took on a bunch of rain this week but it was good. we were able to find some good families to teach :) I went on a 2 day division to help an area. That was really good. We were able to do a lot of work and take away all of their excuses for not being able to do the work right haha. 

English is slowly leaving me... i have been forgeting words and not being able to say many things. My new companion is Elder Santana. He is super chill. He works really good too. The good things about being assistant is that your companion is one of the best missionaries in the mission and your area is the example of the mission. So that should be fun to get to know this week. 

We left the area baptizing :) haha Gustavo got baptized this weekend and it was super cool. His sister would have been baptized too but she wasnt up for telling us she wasnt ready and so she stayed at her aunts house and didnt come back for her baptism. kinda sad but its all good. They´ll baptize this next week.

Thats all for this week! My life is going to be crazy! Pray for me! haha

Love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

photos to come......

O Rodnei

my going away party :)

the change of assistant ceremony haha

this is what i look like emailing you guys if youve ever wondered... haha

My new Companion ELDER SANTANA... we joke with him and call him elder santanas haha 

the old zone

baile de favela here! haha 

Gustavo with the magic suit that makes you look skinnier haha. cool baptism! :)

Dec. 21, 2015 Christmas in Caucaia ...again. He loves this place

         Rumors at Christmas time

Hey guys... this week was pretty eventful so lets see if we can't sum it up. 

Talk about everyone trunky... like the whole week. On Wednesday we had our mission Christmas party and that was pretty fun. we went back to Caucaia and we had a fun time at the church's sítio. President went a little overboard with the children's play toys but it was still good.

(sorry im not in the pics mom but i was just getting some pics to remember what was here)

football

volleyball

wet soccer....? there was soap on the court so it was slippery

and a mechanical bull

there are about 180 missionaries in my mission..

and a ton of packages (p.s. thanks Aunt Kristin!!! I got the package :) )

Lots of my good friends went home this weekend. My ex-companion Elder Williams, Elder Gshwend, and Elder Carvalho. These next few transfers are going to be super weird seeing a bunch of people leave. 

(that is not who is in this picture btw)

Thursday we went back to the temple to get references for the mission.. so we sit out front and do contacts with everyone and basically try to pull out their address without looking desperate... well.. the record was broken again... 

It really wasn't fair. We had the assistants and zone leaders so like... if we wouldn't have broken the record it would have been embarrassing... he is dead cause that was his last day of the mission. He is home now.... haha

We have a transfer coming up this week. So Next week ill be leaving Pirajussara. The rumors are that ill be going to the mission office as the AP. We´ll see what happens. I will only know on Sunday...

We also had our ward Christmas program this week. It was on Saturday.. Im super bummed cause we spent the entire day fixing stupid problems in the zone. We had to go get a planner, do a baptismal interview that didn't happen cause they weren't home, fill up a baptismal font that Satan emptied and also talk to everyone at the party. man i was stressin that day. but at least we got dinner and a few contacts :) 

At least the week ended finally with a really great baptism of Edina and a couple that the other elders were working with. Its just that... Satan really hates us... We had filled up the font Sunday morning and it was ready for that afternoon. We had our meeting and right as we went to do the baptism... the font was empty.. someone had pulled the plug on our baptism!!!!!!! I HATE SATAN!!!!!!!!!! We then took it into our hands and had every faucet in the chapel turned on to fill up buckets to fill up the font faster... about 45 minutes of waiting later... They got baptized. :) Take that Satan!!! 

Alright so that was this week. sorry it was so long but a lot had happened! 

Merry Christmas!!!! :) 

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Even the buses are celebrating :) 

Dec 14, 2015 workin for a white Christmas

          Gettin into that Christmas spirit

This week we had a lot of good things happen. :) We have 3 baptisms planned for this sunday so we are busy running around and keeping them happy with everything. Im getting a little trunky in this area.. ive been here for almost 6 months so im almost ready to ask them to make my membership official here in the ward haha. I know that ill be leaving here shortly. probably within 2 weeks. So im getting in those last baptisms before i leave zion haha. 

Funny story. We were trying to be a cool zone and baptize every week. President said that we should make a "white christmas" and mark everyone for the 19th and 20th. We tried being rebelious and not do that. Well... we havent baptized the last 2 weeks and everyone happened to fall on the 19th and 20th... so my lesson learned is.... Follow your leaders haha.

Lets look at pictures now :) 

This is the house that came closest to being the most decorated house ive seen. 

Thats a hard task here in brazil....

Maybe sometimes boys from utah dont know what coffee looks like.... Just a heads up for you future missionaries... it really exists ;)

our cute (not gay) foto shoot at a family night.

nativity scene at the chapel next to the temple.

Pizza :) 

Its a little late but here it is.. This mcdonalds is the best... it has air conditioning!!!!!! :) 

escada de inferno

This tree is massive. look it up. its called Jaca. 

they are like watermelon that grow on a tree. And they dont fall either. Their (for lack of a better word) umbilical cord is freaking thick!!!!! We tried getting one but it wouldnt fall..... 

Dec 7, 2015 A year and a half completed

          A year and a half

This week we had a lot happening. A lot of good appointments and a lot of good people to teach. The highlight was our new message. We talk a lot about repentance to the people now like the apostles did and like D&C says to. Arrependai-vos! So we are doing that and saying that to leave the sin completely you need to be baptized. Its working. We had 2 teens come to church and they liked it! after showing them the font we marked them to be baptized on the 20th. Be looking out for Gus and Julia :) 

We had a multi zone conference and President called us all out to repent. So really this repentance thing goes both ways haha. 

The zone is struggling this week. My plans for baptizing a ton in December are falling. I don't really know whats happening but nothing it coming from our work. I hope that by the end of the month we can get something going. 

Sorry its so short this week. My time is up. I would send some really great pictures but my drive isn't working on this computer.. so next week!

Merry christmas to you all! christmas.mormon.org

Much love,

Elder Sullivan

Nov. 30, 2015 just happened to serve all this food on American Thanksgiving...

         Thanksgiving in Brazil isn't thanksgiving.

but it sure comes close at the house of irmã naide. 

Lucky for us we had one of the best lunches in the area on thanksgiving day :) Thats pernil. or like the pig thigh. SUPER good. 

yup. Thanksgiving. 

Besides this... well.. i do the same thing everyday. We walk and teach.

We were presented a "ready baptism" its a mother in law of a member and she is here for a few months and wants to get baptized. Her name is Edina. We are helping her stop drinking coffee and start doing the right things. really her only problem is coffee and she has already been to church more than 3 times. so its just time to throw her in the water. haha. 

We are also teaching another family member of a member of the church. Her name is Mari. She will be a little harder to get baptized cause she needs to get married first.... But she went to church and brought a friend :) 

And lastly we are teaching a mother of a missionary. Her name is Cata. She is super sweet and worries a lot about her daughter who is in the south of Brazil. She at first hated the church but now we are passing by and helping her read the BoM and pray about it. This is a cool experience. I'm super grateful that my whole family are members cause there are a lot of people out here who are the only member of their family baptized. That's a lot of Faith!!! 

That's all for this week! 

Abraço!

Elder Sullivan

Nov. 23, 2015 Mari's baptism

        Mari :)

This week we were blessed with maris baptism :) 

She is the one one the left. and that's her granddaughter (also trying to be baptized ...) 

So this week was really turned towards preparing her. so lots of little lessons with her. Also we are working on getting people to go to church. 2 people showed up out of no where this week and they are related to members and now we are going to work with them :) NTM!!!!!!! haha. 

This is the new elder in our zone. his name is Elder dos Santos. He´s chill. This is his first pizza in the misson. We're doing well in the zone but its all going down hill. The new people weren't as turned to the mission as the last ones. So we have some work to do. 

This is my week. sorry they are so short. really i just do the same thing everyday. And its talk with a bunch of Brazilians. 

Lots of love from brazil!

Elder Sullivan

p.s. no i didn't have to pay him to put that shirt on ;)

Nov. 16, 2015 no transfer for me this time

         6 months in Pirajussara

It's the transfer week and i didn't get transferred! that means the white Christmas is going to happen! :) This area is super good and im super happy that president left me here to enjoy the blessings :) My companion was telling me that i would leave the entire week. I told him that i wouldn't. I started to believe him a little towards the end and started getting trunky for my next area. I only have 4 more transfers so that's good. only one more area after i leave this one :) 

Not much really happened this week. We are still trying to find families. its getting kinda hard. We did 162 contacts trying to find them but its becoming a challenge. I feel like my companion is almost scaring them away... he is like super righteous and doesn't really like being friends with anyone. And when i try to talk about things other than the gospel i feel like he thinks im a fubeca cause im not "doing my purpose".  So that's kinda annoying. but he does a lot of contacts. Just one more transfer haha ;)

Really just running around is what happened. We´re looking forward to a baptism this weekend with Marina. She is a lady who a member kinda introduced us. He said "hey elders!" then left. Hes the godfather of the granddaughter of this lady. She is super special and already has a testimony. its been super cool working with her and seeing her progress. :)

That's all for this week. here's a normal view of Brazil in the favela.... look at the pastors house next to the church haha

lots of love!

Elder Sullivan

the last zone