Dec 21, 2015 I picked a banana off the tree

          79 weeks

This week was fun. We had our christmas conference on Tuesday. We went to a city kind of far away called Rio Claro. We did a small play, and I played the piano with various songs for each character on the stage. I really enjoyed that.

We ate lunch with a family here that works with a meat company. Well, he told us that the hot dogs here are made with newspaper.....It´s a little bit startling, but I haven´t gotten sick, so I think that I will continue to eat them ;)

I had a chance to put a check on my bucket list this week. When I got in Brazil, it was always a dream to take and eat a banana directly off of the tree. It was such a great moment. The stash of bananas was really heavy. I didn't expect it to be so heavy...

My companion and I stopped by the church one day and the Christmas choir was singing. They told us to come sing with them in front of a supermarket that day. We weren´t too prepared with the songs, but it was fun mouthing the words in the back of the group ;)

The next day, we had a ward Christmas party at a cabin. The cabin had a pool and a soccer field, but we couldn´t participate in any of those activities... but we still had a fun time.

Feliz Natal!

Elder Sullivan

My experience with the banana

You have to cut down the tree to reach the bananas



There are a ton of Bananas



Choose the most yellow :)

Dec. 14, 2015 1 year and 6 months.

         1 year and 6 months. (78 weeks)

This week, we spent a long time doing service projects, we painted a house and it took us two days. It looks way better, but the house will never look good.... imagine painting a poorly built brick house... it´s bad.

We had a problem one day. We were going to eat lunch with a member and she told us to ride on a bus. We went on the bus that she told us, but at the wrong bus stop... about 20 minutes later, I asked my companion where we were. He didn´t know. He said that we are going in the direction to campinas. Yes, the bus took us to campinas.... We had to stay on the bus until it took us back where we wanted to go. The bus driver told us that it was the correct bus as well.

We took on a bunch of rain again the other day. It flooded the roads, so we had a hard time crossing... Here is a picture of my shoes.

that is a puddle of water in my shoes after taking them off.

boa semana!

Elder Sullivan

Dec. 7, 2015 transfer and rain and a picture

         77 Weeks

I was transferred!!! I went to my new area on Tuesday. I was transferred to Hortolândia (the center). It is on the side of my old area, but it is a different stake and zone. My new companion is Elder Mesquita who is from Fortaleza (That is where I will visit after my mission).

Elder Nunes told me all about the area because he has already been here. He has always said that it is the best place. It is comfirmed. The members here are awesome and treat us like their children/best friend. It´s great. 

We don´t really have any investigators here. I think that will be the only challenge that we will have. 

Last night, we visited a less-active member. While we were there, it started to rain. We were at least a half an hour away from home. We called for a ride, but everyone with a car was out of town....so, we walked/ran. If is wasn´t complicated enough, we had to cross a small bridge. On top of this bridge, there was a train! We had to walk on the edge and hold on to the train so that we didn´t fall. It was interesting. I took off my shoes when I got home and there was a good amount of water in them. They were extremely heavy from the rain.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Nov. 30, 2015 a forced week off

          76 weeks

My companion and I did about nothing this week. Monday night, my companion started to feel a little bit sick. Tuesday morning, he felt even worse, so we called Sister Canuto. She said to go get it checked. We went to a health clinic nearby, but we didn´t realize that the health clinic was not the place to go, but they just kept telling us to come back for results and stuff. They thought that my companion had dengue. He had a blood test and everything. 

Thursday, he was feeling a lot better, so we went to work. At night, he started to feel bad. He had really bad diarria. It got to the point where blood started to come out. We decided to wait until the next day to go to the clinic again and they said that they can´t do anything about it and that we needed to go to a bigger clinic. So, they called and ambulance and we went to the center of Sumaré. Well, the ambulance showed up 3 hours later!..The bigger clinic thought that he had dengue, so they said to come back the next day to do another blood test. They said that you have to wait six days to know if it is dengue or not...kind of ridiculus....We came back the next day and they said that he didn´t even have dengue. It was just an infection. They just said the drink a lot of water...they didn´t even give him medicine...What a ridiculus health program...

We stayed at home all week because he was feeling aweful. Now he is feeling better and we can go to work again.

Elder Sullivan

Nov. 23, 2015 I made it.

          75 weeks

We had some interesting things happen this week. We were doing contacts way late at night one day and we contacted a girl on the road. She said that she would visit our church if we visited her church. Of course that is a great trade. So we went to her church. Well, her mom is a pastor and the church was at her house. It was more like a family home evening. In the middle of the meeting, the pastor thanked us for coming, then said, "My daughter was planning on going alone to your church, but she will not be alone. She will go, I will go, My family will go, and my congregation will go..."  I was stunned. She also told us her story on why she made the church. I think that we have a chance with her, but it will have to be different. She couldn´t come to church on Sunday, but she called us and explained why. She invited us to her daughter´s birthday party next week. It´s all just really interesting...

Sunday, a lady showed up to church out of nowhere. She looked at me with big smile and said, "I made it!" I was so confused. I asked her what her name was and she told me that I invited her to church the other week, but she couldn´t come last week, so she came this week. I still could not remember her and I told my companion. He couldn´t remember at first either. After some thinking, we remembered that we contacted her over a week ago. She didn´t give us her address and said that she would go visit the church. We didn´t believe it, but she went :) I think that it will end really well :)

elder Sullivan

Nov. 16, 2015 tmi about the stove

           

         74 weeks.

So how you can tell if you´ve had a successful week is by the amount of people that come to church. This week, we thought that we did really well. There were many who promised to come to church the night before, but nobody came... My companion was really sad about that. I am a bit stressed out about it too. We have gotten to our last hope which is "treinamento de poder" It is supposed to work miracles. We´ll find out.

We have been having a problem with our stove for a little while. One of the fires was leaving some oily substance on all of the pans.... Somebody got smart and decided to clean out the airway for the gas. He lifted up the cap where the fire comes out and underneath the cap was a....half......burnt.... cockroach.......I think the oily substance was from the cockroach.....The house wasn´t even dirty! How did it get there?! That was a sad day...

Our area is divided with two sets of missionaries. E. Nunes and his companion work on one side of the main road and we work on the other side. Well, we discovered that their were other missionaries that were working in a part of Nunes´ area. We called the assistances to see what was going on. It turns out that the area that we have, isn´t our area... that takes a good part of our ward. That could easily knock us down to a branch. It is a huge confusion and now us four are just doing a free-for-all in the area. There is no more division. I hope it doesn´t go wrong. This place is a mess right now...

Elder Sullivan

Nov. 10, 2015 bbq crashers

          Week 73

We had a busy week. Sadly, Thiago, who was our investigator most likely to baptize, started to look up things on the internet about the church. He found a bunch of crap. When we visited him, he started telling us all of the crap that he read. We were able to prove all of it wrong and he understood what we told him. A few days later, I called him and he told us that he read the book and wasn´t feeling anything and that it was against his beliefs... I knew at that moment that he was letting other people talk bad about the church and he believed it all. He doesn´t want our visits anymore...It was hard to accept.

Last night, we went to visit some investigators. They were in the middle of a barbaque with a ton of people. They saw us and invited us to join in on the barbaque. It was fun. We were the highlight of the Barbaque. They have never seen americans before. They wanted to talk about Beer the whole time... 

Our other investigator, Daniel, has been to church several times. Well, he went to a church activity and stayed out really late. Now his parents have grounded him from going to church....Great. That is the worst punishment ever! There is only one other place to go that isn´t church; The ROAD!!! Where it's normal to smoke weed on a walk to the supermarket. Now we have to hunt down the parents to be able to convince them that we aren´t trying to sabotage his life, but trying to help it. Wish me luck.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Nov 3, 2015 crazy week

          Week 72

This week was a little crazy. Thursday night, the assistances called me to tell me that there was going to be an emergency transfer. My companion was sent to Hortolandia and I stayed here. I had to go to Piracicaba to get my new companion, so that took up the whole day. My new companion is and american. His name is Elder Bush and he is from Syracuse, Utah. He is my first American companion. He´s cool. The bad smell from our house went away with E. Maia, so we are de boa!

The next day, the Zone Leaders got mad with us because we weren´t able to do very much that day... They are being ridiculus on the numbers. They want us to focus on numbers, but when we are focused on satisfying the ZLs, we can´t seem to make progress with our work. It´s basically ineffective work. It´s getting to a point where I might have to start talking with President.

We´ve only been having some success in our part of Campinas. We found a man who seems really interested. When we invited him to be baptized, he said, "I have already been baptized and I believe that it was valid. But if what you guys said was true, then I would have to be baptized again." He is looking sincerely for an answer. Sadly, it was a holliday weekend, so he was not able to come to church...

Elder Koby Sullivan

Oct. 26, 2015 disappearing investigators and a rat

          Week 71

This week was rather frustrating. We had so much planned and scheduled, but all of our plans had fallen through. All of the people who we thought would let us come back weren´t at home to accept us. We called and scheduled and confirmed, but nothing. Our only investigators that were going to chuch dissappeared all of the sudden. We haven´t been able to get ahold of them for several weeks... 

One night, E. Nunes yelled really lot shouting, "rat!" We went to see, but we couldn´t find it. We soon found it inside the oven that we never use. It ran out of the oven and everyone was in a battle with the rat until we could capture it. While the rat was running, it ran right under Nunes´ foot and he stepped on it. He stepped a little too hard and it died under his foot... That was a first rat that I´ve encountered alive.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Oct. 19, 2015 15 minute notice to speak in church

          70 weeks

We have found some people who have potential to progress. I don´t have too much faith in them, but my companion is begging me to go back to them. I don´t want to go back because the father flat out said, "I disagree." But my companion thinks that he persuaded him otherwise.... Investigators that don´t want anything are not worth teaching. (That is what I told my companion).

We found one that was really cool. He was the only one who came to English class on Saturday. He is Baptist, but we just spoke in English for a little bit, then I taught him the Restoration. After I said the first vision, he asked me, "Who was that?" with astonishment. I drew everything out in detail and I taught in English :) I think that he will want more.

Well, last week, Elder Nunes was asked to give a talk in church. He was with another Elder in a different ward because his companion went home. So he told my companion to do it. My companion likes attention, so he gladly accepted it. However, he had already given a talk a few weeks before. When we got to church, the bishop asked why I didn´t give the talk, then asked me to give the talk. I couldn´t say no. So, I had to prepare a 15 minute talk at church... talk about nervous. In the end, it went pretty well. I was able to fill the time.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Oct. 13, 2015 one year and 4 months completed

          69 weeks... 1 year and 4 months

Our P-day was switched because of the holiday that they have here in Brazil. It is "Kid Day". there were a bunch of festivals and bouncy houses all over town. It was a little inconvenient becasue they told us that our p-day was switched to tuesday monday morning. So, we had nothing scheduled on monday, but we have a ton scheduled for today.... We basically don´t have a P-day.

We had a Multi-Zone conference this week. It went really well. It is always fun to hear the president give advice. It helps us understand how we need to work better and we get excited again about the work. 

Valkiria and Eduardo are going to be married in December. They don´t work, so they are going to get married for free, so that takes a lot of work off of our shoulders. 

We are still looking for people to teach. Everyone that we teach doesn´t do what we ask, so they can´t progress as an investigator. We have to let the those people on their way. President is starting to push everyone to do 500 contacts per week. We are already struggling with 300. It isn´t a rule yet, but I think in the future he will put it into play.

Elder Sullivan

Oct. 5, 2015 why shut off the water before you fix a sink?

         Week 68

Well. This week didn´t happen as planned. The only thing that seemed to go right was the English Class. (I have to thank Junior for helping me be able to teach english and learn all of the rules. Now I can have effective classes that won´t bore everyone out.) We had nobody the first week, then we had two people the second week, and now on the third week, we had 15! Maybe we can get something out of it :)

We literally found nobody this week. When I was giving up, I saw an old lady sweeping the sidewalk. I offered to help. After I was done I went to talk to her. What does she do? She tries to bible bash with me! She was at least 80 years old....I was thinking, "What are you trying to do? You have no idea what you´re saying." I didn´t even stay to bible bash. #Servicefail....

Our house is falling apart. I believe that our washing machine will break here in one week. Then, we will start washing our clothes by hand.... Our Kitchen sink broke, but we were able to fix it. We didn´t know where the water shut-off valve was, so there was a ton of water everywhere.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Sept. 29, 2015 lots of tracting

         Week 67

Well, this week didn´t have too much that when on.

We had an investigator who went to church. Her name is Valkiria. She is basically married to a member right now, so he took her to church. He is less active and he doesn´t want to go back unless she goes with him. It´ll be fun to bring her into the church.

We tried to do an open house with the church, but it didn´t turn out as planned. We had very few people enter. Maybe it was poorly advertized. I wish that it could´ve done better. 

My former companion, E. Nunes, is teaching me capoeira. Just on P-days because our house is really small. We have to move everything in the house just to do a little bit. It is a great work-out. I am basically just on the defensive side while he thows all sorts of things at me... folgado....

Other than that, tracting, and lot of it.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Sept. 21, 2015 a fruit getting baptized

         Week 66

This week went really well for me other than it was extremely hot and I felt dehydrated all day, even if I was drinking two cups of water at each house we knocked on. (I don´t know if that sentence made sense, but you get the idea.)

I went on splits with the DL and I learned a lot with him. He is on his last transfer, so he knows quite a bit. We found one lady who was curious about the baptisms for the dead. She called us crazy. A couple of days later, I went there with my normal companion and taught her why we do the baptisms. She understood pretty well. At the end, I asked, "Did that answer your question?" and she said, "yes, but now I have a lot more questions because I believed in one thing, but now...." I told her that the next time we would answer all of her questions. It was clear to me that she was doubting what she was taught all of her life. I felt really good with that lesson.

We have been teaching a girl who is 14. We invited her to baptism, but she doesn't want to follow our church because it is different. She said that even if it were the true church, she wouldn't follow. I have let her go as an investigator, but all of the members keep telling us to go back, so I guess I will go back in the future.

My English class didn't go well because nobody showed up....

We are teaching a really cool family that understood our message  well (which is really rare because the people aren't too educated here.). However, it is a family that is very unprepared for the baptism. They are not married, the father smokes a lot and the daughters have a horrible problem with the 7th commandment...We'll try our best.

I just heard from my other area that Nicole (the one who smokes weed) will be baptized this week! Elder Nunes and I are really excited because she is our "fruit"!

Sweet.

Elder Koby Sullivan

Sept. 14, 2015 rain, finally!

          Week 65

I am now used to my area. It doesn´t seem as ghetto as I thought it was, but it is full of random churches. We know when the house has a pastor of a church when there is a church on the side and the house is bigger than the others...

I have learned that my area actually has a part of Campinas. We work on the borderline and the ward crosses that borderline. 

Our house is really small and old. I am sleeping on a broken bed, we don´t have a microwave, and I don´t have a table to study...I guess it is kind of fun....:P 

(the screws at the corner of my bed have been ripped out and the frame below is broken. I sleep crooked. Until now, I don´t have problems with my back.) 

Until now, we don´t have any Investigators, but we are trying to do our best to find people. Sadly, is has been pouring rain for the past couple of days, so the work was a ton harder. However, the members are trying to help the best they can. I have not been through an area with so much help from the members. 

Boa semana.

Elder Koby Sullivan

How are the shoes that Kyson sent you holding up in the rain?

The shoes are doing really well in the rain. Better than the other ones. At Patricia´s baptism, someone had filled up the tank, but I didn't see because the water was so still. I stepped into the water! Only a little bit of water came in from the top! So, I know that they are pretty waterproof.

Sept. 9, 2015 Brasil Independence day, got transferred, but stayed in the same house

         Week 64.....Where am I?

So, we had our P-day switched to Wednesday this week because of the holiday on Monday. 

We had transfers this week. It was really interesting. E. Figueira, Nunes, and I were all transfered to Sumaré!

They closed my area. We all live in the same house still....Nunes and Figueira are now companions and I have a new companion named, Elder Maia. He is from Goiana, Brazil. We are working in a part called Matão. It is extremely close to Campinas, which is another mission. It is so close that if I catch the wrong bus, then I will end up on another mission. The city is extremely poor. This is what we call a "Favela".

We had an awesome time with Junior when he took us out to eat at an american food restaurant. I got an awesome burger!

We were able to bring a family to church! Their names are Marcelo and Kelly. They really like the visits and they really liked the idea of an eternal family. We were about to have a baptismal date for them, but we are now transfered. We left it with the other Elders now. 

We also have a baptismal date for Adilson and Albertina. We had to remark them both to the 26. We are going to be able to visit the baptism.

Elder Koby Sullivan


exercising with Junior's dogs

hair cut

Koby teaching an English class.

Two Sullivan's.

Last dinner together before transfers.

pday a few weeks ago. Mom just wanted to make sure it got posted.

Aug. 31, 2015 she forgot her own baptism

          Week 63

It was raining this week, so that made the week a lot more interesting. I think it was more interesting because everyone´s umbrella broke... We were able to bare it though.

I ate some sushi for the first time. Our good friend Jun took us out to dinner. I didn't think that I would like the sushi, but he got the salmon and I ate a ton. I really enjoyed the Japanese food. I am also pro with chop-sticks now :)

We found some good investigators this week. We met a man named Vir. He is by far the richest investigator that I have had. He is about 40-50 years old and he is retired. He seems really interested in the BOM. 

We also found a family of five. We taught the Restauration. She told us some stories about why she doesn't like her religion and she has called a leader in that religion a false prophet, so she doesn't know who to trust. We asked her what would change in her life if she were to know that the BOM was true and she said that everything would change. She even called us the other day because she was really scared of a payment that she couldn't handle, so she has a lot of trust in us.

Patricia (julio's wife) is the newest member of the Piracicaba 2nd ward!!! I have never seen so much cake at a baptism! It was great. I called Julio the baptism to see where they were at. Well, he told me that they had forgotten about the baptism and that they were in another city. My heart dropped... He showed up one minute after.

He pulled another joke with her confirmation. He said that he forgot that the confirmation was on the day after and that he was with family. My heart fell again, but while we were still on the phone, their son came running out from the other side of the church. That was a huge relief!

Boa Semana!

Elder Koby Sullivan

Patricia´s baptism!

for Barbacues we eat this. 

(Julio)

​Sight seeing.

​River

Aug. 24, 2015 a good week

         Week 62

My companion and I decided to really kick it into gear. We have started to go to another part of our area and we have to take the bus to get there. It is having some awesome results. 

Note to the Pastors: If you are going to try to teach a missionary, please teach them something that will maybe change their life. Don't go talking about a deep doctrine that you learned in your personal study. Nothing you talk about makes sense. I have had way too many this week trying to teach me about the book of Revelation and they don't even know what they are talking about. Yes, I do know several things in the Bible that you don't know. Don't tell me that you know everything. 

I have knocked on a ton of doors. This week all of the pastors decided to show up. One of them tried to convince me that he was a prophet....I asked him is he had seen God. His response, "Yes. Well....no. But I'm not a prophet like from the Bible..." Then you already know that you are a fake. Tchau!

We knocked on a crazy person's door. She started to talk about why the Mormon church is bad. We saw that she had been badly misinformed. We said bye and we started to leave in a quick pace. Well, she got out of her house and started to chase us down the street to tell us more! We told her we would come back another day...

Albe has a smoking problem, but I've seen a lot worse. I think she can stop in a little bit of time. Adi has no problems stopping him from being baptized and we have the 5th marked. Everytime we leave their house, we leave happy :)

Bru has accepted baptism for the 5th. He is the easiest person to teach. While we are teaching, he takes the words right out of our mouth and says, "I've already studied that part." haha!

I love those moments when the person learns something and accepts it. We taught a couple the other day who asked, "I'm Gospelic and she is Catholic. What makes your religion so different?" .... I'm glad you asked... We taught the Restoration and he said, "You answered my question." :P

His name is Mar.

It was a good week and we are excited for Pat's Baptism on Saturday!

Elder Koby Sullivan

Aug. 17, 2015 comp got wisdom teeth out, Kyson called it p week

         Week 61

Wow. This week was interesting. 

I watched my companion get his teeth pulled. That was my first time and my last time I will stay to watch that. It was gross...bleh. 

I tried to get someone to work with me while my companion was down, but I nobody could come with me, so I had to stay with my companion. 

We received a referral from some other missionaries on the mission and they passed to the secretaries the address, then it went to another group of elders to us. When it got to us, it was all messed up. The house did not exist. The assistants called us asking why we didn´t visit the guy, because the guy called the office. Then we explained everything and we finally have the correct address. His name is Bruno and he is way cool. We showed up to his house and he was extremely curious about the church. I have never taught the Restoration so easily on the mission before. Só ouro.

We took Adi to a Family Home evening with Euri (iri). However, his wife couldn´t go because she is really sick from cancer in the liver. She is really weak and we have given her a blessing. She is way nice and everytime we go to their house, she is calling us angels and we just want to help her. 

We were with Julio one night and he offered us a ride home. Well, his car has a sun roof and my companion had never looked out while the car was moving, so we both looked out at the same time. While we were out, Julio was clever enough to wash his window....We got really wet. Nice one Julio :)

Have a Boa Semana!

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

Hey! It's Koby! Just sending this quick email from Julio's house/email. I love you guys :) talk to ya monday.

P. S. Awesome food!

Aug. 10, 2105 a lost contact agreed to baptism

         Week 60

We started our week kind of bad. We taught a lady named Eliz who seemed like she would progress if we could just taught her a few more times, but she has so many Catholic friends that they messed with her head and now she doesn´t want any more lessons. That was really sad for me...

Junior is way cool and took my companion and I to McD´s and got us a giant big mac. It was huge and delicious! I really felt the hamburger for the next couple of days...haha. Worth it.

We are teaching a lady named Nic. She has a different background about God. She thinks that God is a spirit and dwells in everything around us. So, she uses everything natural to get closer to God. I am not quite sure about her view on our lessons, but she went to church on Sunday :) 

We have ran out of doors to knock on in our area, so now, we have started to knock on them all over again, but with more creativity in our words. 

Remember Adil? The one who said that we were the answer to his prayers? Well, we lost contact with him for a while and now he has a break and we can teach him a lot. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, then the Gospel of Christ. He is asking fewer questions each day and listens more. We invited him to baptism and he accepted!!! We have planned for the 5th of September! 

Pat is still going strong and has agreed to give up the coffee. I sure hope she can do it. 

This week my companion will take out his wisdom teeth, so I don´t know how this week will turn out....

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

Aug. 3, 2015 saints and idols, but what about Christ?

          Week 59

Our meeting with Elder Costa was canceled at the last minute, so they moved it to this week. 

We met a man who has just began to look to put Christ in his life. We taught him the Restoration, but we have a huge competition against the Four Square Church. He had never heard of the Church of Jesus Christ, but he has a ton of friends in the FSC. It will have to be a miracle to get him to come to our church, but we believe in miracles :)

We had a little argument with a Catholic the other day. We were teaching her and she tried to convince us that the Pope is a prophet and that we have to worship idols and saints. I used the bible and explained everything to here and she replied, "Well, you are in the wrong place because I will not give up my saints and idols. This is what the Pope said." She was pointing to all sorts of statues in the house. We left right then. I almost said to her, "And Christ or God? I see that you have pictures and statues of everybody who wanted to follow Christ, but you don´t even have Christ." I was really upset.

However, we do have some amazing news. Pat, who is Ju´s wife, has accepted baptism for the 22! It is way better teaching her because I feel like I am teaching her and not trying to convince her. She believes a lot in the Reincarnation, but after the Plan of Salvation, she understood the need to be baptized and marry in the temple! The most excited person is Ju. He was telling everyone at church that she was going to get baptized.

Elder Koby Sullivan

July 28, 2015 "engraven images!"

          Week 58

This week was a little chaotic. It was E. Lopes´ last week here, so while he was with Prezident most of the time, E. Figueira, E. Nunes, and I worked together as a three-sum. 

I never ran into so many people against the church. The other day, I tried to give a little card with a picture of Christ on it and he almost ran away shouting, "engraven images!".... I was a little stressed that day and so I asked, "Sir, have to taken a picture of your son? When you have taken that picture, you have made an engraven image of your son. Therefore, you are in sin in the sight of your eyes." He sat quietly, then said that he had to leave.

Others just say, "come back another day and lets hit it off." If that isn´t calling for a Bible bash, I don´t know what is. I haven´t visited those people yet.

One lady, as we were knocking on doors, let us in. She said that she knew a bit about our church because the pastor of her church has taught her. When we taught her the restauration, she sat and looked as if she was deceived. She did not expect our message to be like that. I think that she is in doubt right now about her church. We will visit her this week.

Not much this week. Transfers are the same. I stayed here. Piracicaba para vida.

Elder Koby Sullivan

July 20, 2015 knockin and talkin

          Week 57

We had our multi-zone conference this week which was really fun. We learned a ton. Next week, Elder Costa will come to speak to us. That will be fun.

This week did not have very many results. We had over 90 doors knocked on, and 3 people let us in (that is not including people who weren´t home). It was pretty tiring and the people that accepted us didn´t really want anything...

I know I´m a missionary, but I just have to say, I hate dumb people....

First person: A lady whose door I knocked on let us in. We taught the restoration and she said that she had already read the Book of Mormon and she also said that she didn´t want to switch religions. We asked if she believed the book to be true, and she said yes. We explained a little more and I asked, "Do you believe that Joseph Smith was called a prophet of God?" Her response, "Clearly! But I´m happy where I am and I don´t want to switch religions..." Wow... It is the true church of God! What more could you ask?...

Second Person: We visited someone that we talked with on the road. We taught the Restauration and pulled out the BoM and testified. We told them that they would receive an answer. Well, the lady asked the most ridiculous question, "If I know that the book is true, do I have to go to your church?" What kind of question is that? You don´t want to go to the true church? She said, "I´ve always been Catholic, and I don´t want to change." Even the old man that was bed-ridden lifted up his arm and said, "I´ve been catholic for 76 years and I will die Catholic." Ugh. that made me mad. 

I hate ignorant people....

Anyways, Jul was baptized!!! We had a barbaque at his house. Everything was good there minus the pig´s stomach. That was the strangest texture ever. He tried offering me more, but I had to deny. It was really fun. Jul was so big (6'4" 250lbs), that he had to kneel down so that he could be baptized. It was funny. Now we just need to teach his wife. I think that she wants to, but she is afraid of her 5 year old son running around in the church and misbehaving. Other than that, I think that she will come.

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

Koby went to the zoo with a man who is good friends with him and the other missionaries, and he sent me these pictures of Koby at the zoo. (Koby was feeling bad that he didn't have any pics from the zoo since he didn't have his camera.)

Koby in front of his apartment.

Koby before he got his hair cut.

Koby after his haircut. haha. not much difference.

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