Aug 17, 2015 baptism!.

Temperatura Atual: 70°F 21°C 

Seg Ago 17	Ter Ago 18	Qua Ago 19	Qui Ago 20	Sex Ago 21
Alta	Alta	Alta	Alta	Alta
85°F	82°F	84°F	69°F	79°F
30°C	28°C	29°C	21°C	26°C
Baixa	Baixa	Baixa	Baixa	Baixa
60°F	64°F	58°F	55°F	58°F
15°C	18°C	15°C	13°C	15°C

         The end to a very long drought

BATISMO!!!!!! this week was pretty nuts. Josefa (our old lady that we were teaching) decided to follow the church of jesus christ. We talked with her on monday this week and she didnt seem very sure she wanted to keep getting the visits. We told her to pray pray pray and ask God. She did. On thursday when we went back she was waiting for us at the door and invited us in quickly. We thought she was going to cut us so we werent going to say anything about the prayer til after showing her the restoration video with Joseph Smith. But she surprised us saying that she had gotten her response and she will follow the church with all her faith. The baptism was planned for the 23. The next day we went over with a member and did the pre interview. She passed well. We had stake conference on the weekend and we just decided we´d throw her in with the other baptisms that were happening that day too. We had the interview before church, baptized her after and She was so so so so so happy. Like she said this is the happiest day of my life :) Super spiritual :)

Standby on news about a baptism in a river...

That was the biggest news we have this week. there are some other really good people that are still around but didnt go to church. they should be progressing but its harder to get them rolling than it was with josefa haha. 

We had stake conference and they said some cool things. One was if every member of the church brought 1 person every year for the next 9 years, and those people also brought 1 person to church as well, The world would be intirely full of members in 9 years. So take someone to church :) haha

another thing they said is that the members should be the planters of seeds and the missionaries are the reapers who come by and get them when they are ready. So start spreading your seeds! 

We had one of the best BBQ here for lunch yesterday. I ate SOOOO much meat and he had the best spicy sauce. Im not feeling too good today but it was definitely worth it haha :) 

Thats what went down this week and well see you next time!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

Aug 10, 2015 middle of winter and 85*F plus pictures

Temperatura Atual: 66°F 19°C 

Seg Ago 10	Ter Ago 11	Qua Ago 12	Qui Ago 13	Sex Ago 14
Alta	Alta	Alta	Alta	Alta
83°F	81°F	84°F	86°F	83°F
28°C	27°C	29°C	30°C	28°C
Baixa	Baixa	Baixa	Baixa	Baixa
61°F	55°F	59°F	61°F	62°F
16°C	13°C	15°C	16°C	16°C

remember its the middle of winter here. 

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:20 AM, <muddyjob> wrote:

can't complain about THAT weather, right?

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:21 AM, Koby Sullivan <koby.sullivan@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Awesome!

 yes you can...i want the COLD!!!!!! the tie and pants make it a lot hotter. im a happy missionary when the sun goes down   :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          Week of Divisions

This week was absolutely crazy for us and we had so many things we had to do and managed (i have no idea how) to do it all. Tuesday we started off our week with a leadership conference and that was way fun. President always has something cool to teach us. we learned a lot about how to lead of course but the part i liked most was the part where he said that if we dont get sealed we are denying the atonement. Christ died so we can have eternal life. part of that plan is to get sealed. So... Looks like im going to have to get sealed when i get home to accept the atonement haha.

our zone :)

that temple trip :)

We will be having Elder Anderson of the 12 apostles come to our mission on the 22. standby for more details :)

So like i said we had a ton of divisions this week. One of the assistants came to our area to do a "check up" to make sure we are doing a good work. haha. it lasted 2 days and it was nuts. We did so much work i was exhausted for the rest of the week. But i couldn't be. cause the same day we ended one with him i had to go with another elder in the zone so Elder Phair could do a baptismal interview. So i still had to set the example of how to work and go hard all day. Dont worry. cause that ended that night (we live in the same house). the next day was normalish to the point where we did quite a bit of work. But the day after we had to do one more interview so one more time we had to leave our area. This pday is well needed.

Our great LMA who went back to his mission and my companion too. Elder Phair

Pizza after the divison :)

A few cool people:

We have been teaching a few FAMILIES. yes a family!!!! i have always wanted to help a whole family go to church and not just one or 2 of them. So we are really focusing on teaching them and getting them to go to church. one is Osí and Kat. they have 3 daughters and 2 that can be baptized. they went to church on sunday and they loved it. We taught them the plan of salvation with the temples and they ate it up.  One reason we know that we are in the true church is because of temples. 

The other family is Isas. She also has 3 daughters and all 3 can be baptized. along with boyfriends and cousins that we have taught as well. They are all marked for baptism but just need the desire to fulfill it. Isabel already is baptized and helps us out a lot with our lessons. 

Last and not least we have Jose. We took isa^^^ with us and they were from the same church. Jose said she didnt like that church and isa helped so much in telling her to go to the church of jesus christ :)Yup. Love that lady! 

We are in the process of cutting those snakes. Its really hard to deny them appointments but we keep slipping out of there. She makes it really hard to know if she has interest or not.. 

Anyway have a good week. Paz no Senhor. (Peace in the Lord)

Elder Kyson Sullivan


a little of 25 de março

Aug. 3, 2015 saving lives

          working the clean field (campo limpo)

This week was really cool and a lot happened so lets see if we cant get it all out right now.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and we applied the program of seis na sexta (six on friday) and that means that we do 30 contacts on wednesday and thursday and mark all the appointments for friday. then on friday we go and get all the new investigators and try to mark them for baptism. so 6 new people marked on friday. its pretty cool and it worked pretty well this week. we tried to get everyone happy and excited about doing it cause no one really was haha. 

Also on tuesday... our water came back :) :) gloria á Deus! haha

I had an exchange with an elder who was sent to the hospital. it was kinda nuts cause we thought he was going to die... but he didnt. he just had a sore throat. it took 200 ml of blood to test and an x ray and a pee test to tell him that. really they were just trying to get money out of our insurance so they did all the tests haha. 4 hours later we got out of there. 

Me and Elder Phair officially have what are called "snakes" (they say that in portuguese too). We have 2 investigators who love having us over to talk about the gospel and to just talk with us too. we are so creeped out by them its not even funny. Our plan: baptize and run. haha. They are super weird and we have to be more careful when we are around them now. but hey. we´ll have 2 baptisms easy on the 30th :) They came to church yesterday probably just to see us but thats alright with us cause they were there and they were learning. But yes... very creepy. 

This week we had some help from the Young Women to do some visiting. We went and visited an old lady named Jose. She is really strong in her church but really wants to get the holy ghost so we told her she could get it in our church. She is always super happy when we bring other people to come see her too. We recently baptized another lady from her church and she was saying that she was one of the firmest there. If we convert her... we convert the church. standby for the update on the church sign being removed ;)  anyway these YW are awesome! they offered their help to go and get Jose to show her how to get to church. They also brought another YW (who isnt baptized) to church too. Actually while they were with us we sent them out to do some contacts and they contacted this girl. They brought her to church too along with Jose. They really helped us a lot this week. 

I Really strengthed my testimony this week about how good God really is. Yesterday we had a family night in the house of a lady. She invited her neighbor over who isnt a member. He started crying and said his wife left him. She called us over immediately and we taught him about the atonement and the purpose of life. He was thinking a lot about taking his life but while we talked to him he was getting better. We took him over to the family night and he loved it. He went from such a sad man to a distracted sad man and we were able to help him be happy that night and feel the spirit. Yes.. God put us in that house at the right time. He could have lost his life. Now he has hope. We are going back on saturday. 

We have been finding a lot of really good people. Like really a lot. I love this area and the people here are fantastic. We are just looking for the right person to baptize in a river and a river to baptize them in haha.

should be a good week! hope yours is too!

Elder Kyson Sullivan

July 28, 2015 NO WATER for 6 days! No showers, No flushing!

          Did you hear that? No more fresh water!

yup. we are goin on 6 days without water in my house. If you know what that means... 4 really smelly missionaries with a load of crap sitting in the toilet that we arent able to flush. Welcome to Brazil. We have been taking our precautions though.. all the doors stay close and when it rains... we go out with buckets and pan and cups and we harvest everything. Yes i have been taking a shower by rain water for the last 3 days. It was quite the idea though to go out and take advantage of the rain. we really enjoyed filling up all of our 2 liter bottles and being able to flush the toilet that one day. Remind me to show you videos here in 10 months haha. 

We had a confirmation this weekend of a recently baptized girl who was baptized the week before i got to this area. So that was fun and really spiritual. She has gone to church 3 times and will not leave the church for nothing according to her haha. That is what missionaries like to hear!

We taught a girl from russia this weekend too. She believes that maybe there is a God but really not in anything. just herself. So that was fun to teach a different culture and in english. We invited her to pray and ask if God is there. A pretty cool experience and any reason to teach in english ill take. church was cool cause i translated the classes for her. 

Thats all of interesting that happened this week. i hope you all had a good week too and that this next one can be even better! 

Love,

Elder Kyson Sullivan

On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 2:16 PM, <muddyjob> wrote:

Is everyone without water?
Can you fill up 2-liter bottles up at the church to flush your toilets with? And how about using the church bathrooms to do a sink bath? You do have a church there, don't you?

haha no it was just our house. it came back on tuesday though. so we are clean and the toilets are flushed. :)
ya we collected the rain that passed by our house and we flushed our toilets and we took showers with a cup.
we heat up the water on the stove and dump that water over our heads. haha.
ya we used the churches water a few times.

the church building here is one of the nicest ive been in btw... so yes we have a church haha.

July 21, 2015 a wealth of people to teach in a not-so-wealthy area

          Transfers

Yup i got here. its awesome. the area is fantastic. Ive always wanted to go to an area where there was always a lot of work done and lots of people to teach. and well.. i got here :)

we have about 15 recent converts on our side of the area. so we are constantly over at a house and working on going to the temple. the other thing is that this area is so great that we have 8 baptisms planned in the zone. so really its a complete turn around from vila yara. Im loving it here.

We had a talent show and me and my companion played the spirit of god on our guitars and everyone loved it. It was pretty chill and we practiced a lot. 

My companion is Elder Phair. He is really cool and teaches really well. ill be killing him in this area cause hes going home in 2 transfers. So ill be in this area for a while now :) im alright with that. He is from Chicago area and served in wisconsin fro 10 months before he got to brazil. 

not a ton happened this week. we went to the temple today and thats why im emailing today. :)

(Tuesday)

with love,

Elder Sullivan

July 13, 2015 cheap all-you-can-eat doesn't mean "good" or "safe".

          transfers!!!

Yup! Im getting outta here! I got transfered to Zona Campo Limpo! Só que.... i didnt ever want to go to this zone haha. Its got a lot of favela and a lot of funk in there so it was a place i wanted to avoid. But Its a zone that baptizes thats for sure! Ill be continuing as a Zone Leader and i have made some pacts with myself that im going to be a better leader and a better example to those around me. Also i am going to start speaking more portuguese (Which will be hard cause my companion will be american again). My companion will be Elder Phair!!! He was in my zone 1 transfer ago as a District Leader when he turned into a Zone Leader. Now we will be working together better. So it should be a fun experience. Im stoked to get out of this area im in now. 

We have a pretty big problem in our ward that really shouldnt be a problem. Our members are marking our investigators for baptism. That is usually good but when the investigators arent ready for it its a big problem. So we have now lost 2 investigators thanks to our members "marking them" for baptism. Its a lot of pressure and they werent expecting it. So that sucks. Ive talked to bishop about it and he said he´d talk to everyone. 

We found a really good man this week. I wont say golden cause everytime that turns out not happening. He is really cool and went to church this week. Only problem he has is the Word of Wisdom. He is 31 and lives with his parents and just has had problems with drugs. He is trying to change is life and his parents are supporting us going over there 100% haha. 

This week President Del Guerso told us to start studying about the atonement. Thats some serious power right there. We are getting ready to get another apostle in our mission and he told us to start preparing. (We think President is going to go 70 haha) Ive been using true to the faith and marking all the scriptures and ill be going to the TG here shortly. I invite you to do this too :)

I had a split with Elder Cinezio this week that was way cool. Its way more fun being his companion when you can understand everything haha (he was the missionary that trained me). That was a really good experience and i learned a lot from him still. 

Oh and just so you know.. cheap all you can eat food doesnt mean that it will be good. or safe. so be careful ;)

love,

Elder Sullivan

July 6, 2015 "it's too true to deny so keep with it."

          hitting the wall

This week was really eventful but i dont have a lot of time to say all i want. So really brief and cut short here we go....

We took a member to one of our lessons and he said its not worth going to church if shes not going to be baptized. so she didnt go this week. Trust me we tried to fix that but it stuck with her. what did i learn? its not worth a member lesson. haha

We had conselho. That was fun and a lot of fire haha

we had a few family nights this week where we had to unwrap BIS with a knife and fork. that was fun and really competitive. That is how we celebrated our 4th of July.. really we didnt do anything...  but on the 5th we did have an american breakfast for lunch :)

Today i finished O Livro de Mórmon for the first time in portuguese. i started on the new year and i finished a year from the day that i left the CTM. So that was pretty specail. By the way its too true to deny so keep with it. :)

That about all i got for this week. sorry it was short. Have a good week!

Elder Sullivan

June 29, 2015 she kissed our hands and some sweet pics

          Weeks cant go by faster

This week was really hard to keep going. like REALLY hard. Think of a time that no one ever wants to talk to you and put that as a week. Youll be in my area haha. We really had 5 lessons this week (which is bad) and we resorted to less active members. 

One of those lessons we were able to present the Book of Mormon to Mar and read a little with her. she doesnt know how to read. So we read with her. :)

Another one of those lessons was with Ros. She is 76 and knows how to read so we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved our visit. She even kissed our hands so take that! I have a 76 year old snake ;) But really she might be a golden. Just getting her to church will be a little hard haha. 

We had stake conference this weekend and Elder Fernandez of the seventy was there. He did a lot of burning. one of my favorite lines he said was while telling a story about the missionaries... "the missionaries were knocking doors, because the members didnt open their mouths." That really put my work into perspective and something i want to do more this week is ask for more help from the members. 

Another good line from conference was from a recent return missionary whose Mission President said this "You can go to heaven poor and stupid but you cant get in if youre not married." So.... thats just something to think about haha. 

today we went to 25 de março. Its like a strip mall of 2 million people. really the streets are packed and i went on a monday haha. I bought some ties, a memory card, and some brazil memories. so pretty cool stuff :) we also went to the tallest building in são paulo and met some colombians from florida haha. they work for delta so they went to rio to be tourists for free haha. lets see if i cant get some pictures....

thats all for this week! hope yours was better than mine.

love,

Elder Sullivan

a cool sunset in a pink tree

the bank of são paulo

1/4 of the city. (the other 3/4 my camera couldnt get haha)

nothing better than coming home to a sweet dr. pepper :)

our friends :)

the building