Mar. 30, 2015 baptism and maybe a transfer

          41 weeks

My companion and I have never done so well this transfer!

An? Well, he was BAPTIZED!!!! As we say here, "Milagre não! A Bichiga!" Which basically means, "bigger than a miracle." Unfortunatly, Only An came to the baptism. His family didn't. His wife was supposed to be baptized too, but something happened with her, so she didn't go. I still don't know what happened to her.... 

Transfers will not be known until later tonight. All that we know is that president said for everyone to pack their suitcase.... I want to see this :)

All of the missionaries in Pirassununga gathered together at the church and did activities with an elementary school here. None of them were mormon exept for the teacher who brought them all there. It was really cool. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures.... triste. 

We've encountered several new families and they have accepted baptism, but if I am going to be transfered, I can't help them anymore. However, it seems like the hard work is starting to fall into place. I am starting to see results :)

Boa Semana!

Elder Koby Sullivan

​A strange plant 

 as I was putting things in my pocket..

An. at the baptism

​this is our zone shirt.......I tried my best to put a U-state with the U, but they messed it up...

​I took a picture of this billboard because it reminded me of my sister Kamarie :)

I left my camera with him to take my pictures of the baptism. Shout out to Elder Lopes!!!

The rest of these pictures are by friends of Koby's: mostly by Elder Lopes.

Mar. 23, 2015 rainy week, wet feet, got yelled at

This week did not go that well.

It always rained on the day that I wore my shoes with a whole in the bottom that has been filled in with duck tape. Therefore, my feet were uncomfortably wet. I thought back to the Klondikes scouting and decided that I would put a sack over my feet. :) It worked really well until the sack ripped....

I got yelled at by an old man because I knocked on his door. He was catholic. He said that we were wasting our time knocking on that road because everone is already christian? We asked him if he knew anybody we could look for and he got even more mad. In the end, I asked if we could say a prayer with him because that is a bit difficult to deny. He got more mad and pretended that he didn't understand me. Then he claimed, "i say a prayer everyday! I don't need anymore prayers!" Haha. When we left, he was still yelling at his family because of us.

Elder Wallas (DL that lives with us) had an idea to take pictures. We all dressed up in dating clothes, then took some cool pictures. Unfortunatly, my camera is very old, so the pics aren't too cool, but still good :). It ended with us dressing the same an dancing. It was awesome!

suave na nave

(smooth??  mild in nature??  lol)

 So isso. 

 Americanos!

 Oh yeah.

Pastel.

My companion is the one next to me.

Baptism is still on for Saturday in the morning. He is excited, so that is good.

-Elder Koby Sullivan

acai

acai drink, yum

Mar. 16, 2015

9 Months

Okay, so we went to An's house and he told us that he is busy for the next two saturdays, so we have to move the baptism to the 28th. I brought the Zone Leaders with us so that we could see where they were standing. They said that An still wants to get baptized and is advising people for the 28th. That is really good to know.

I did a contact with a man on the road. We went to visit him, but he wasn't home, but his son Mats was. He is 19 years old. He let us talk with him and we are basically friends now. We invited him to be baptized on the 28th and he accepted it if he is ready by then. Yes! Maybe I could bring his family in too. Then everthing will be awesome! I have high hopes.

We finally have a ward mission leader who is not innactive and he is really excited to help us. He is always wanting to go working with us. It is awesome!

That is my week.

Elder Sullivan

Mar. 2, 2015 scheduled a couple to be baptized, and more referrals

Week 38.

After many hours of studying and pondering on what I should teach An and Ma so that they will accept getting baptized again, I finally went over to there house and left a message about the long term goal for the temple. And just to be GH, they accepted :). They will be baptized on Saturday! (gh is a term the missionaries use. Glory of Men. Not sure if it means to be proud of yourself or to be prideful?)

The week has been basically contacts after contacts after contacts. We finally get people to accept us, and when we start teaching them, they comment, "Hey, I was already baptized in your church, but I never went after I was baptized." I have heard that phrase several times this week. Now we have more lessons with the less actives rather than the investigators. But, they are giving us referals like crazy!

That is what is happening these weeks. Wish me luck, or pray for me ;)

Love

Elder Koby Sullivan

Mar 2, 2015 koby learns to dance

Week 37

One of my roommates is teaching us Americans how to dance like a brazilian. Were not too good... :). But it was fun.

I visited a family to figure out more about the marriage. They asked me to teach them Piano and English. I almost offered gymnastics, but I don't think that would end well. They had quite a bit of years on them :)

Wedding? yeah....so, we had planned an interview for An on Tuesday (the day before the wedding). We got there on Tuesday with the District leader and An wasn't home. The DL was really upset, but we found him at his work. The DL planned to meet with him that night. Well, that night came and we found him in his home. He told us that he didn't have time, then the DL started to argue with him. Then An yelled, "I will not get baptized this week!" ...... How do you respond to that? I almost threw my arms in the air and said, "I'm done" and walked out. Instead, we just listen to him complain about the wedding.

   The wedding went well, but we could tell that he was mad at us for bringing the DL. Now we have to be patient with him for this week and we will need somebody else to do the interview.

The day after, we visited Em. He hasn't been coming to church recently, so we taught him the importance of church and we asked him if he would go this Sunday. His response, "I'm going to leave the church." What? I asked him why. "Because I want to" He didn't tell us anything more than that.... que triste. 

One day actually went good. One of our appointments fell threw and while my companion and I were trying to decide what to do. I decided to knock on the door that we were by. A Japanese man responded and told us to come back the next day. When we returned, he was waiting for us and accepted the messages. He goes to a church that restricts meeting with missionaries and visiting other churches. When we invited him to church, he thought for a minute and listed all of the reasons why he shouldn't/can't go. Then he said, "I'll go" 

Yes, He did come and it was awesome. The ward answered all of the questions that he had during the classes and he gave us a ride in his extremely expensive Corolla (In Brazil, it is a little over R$90,000). ($30,000usdollars)

Elder Koby Sullivan

Feb. 23, 2015 wedding plans

         36 weeks

I have my new companion. His name is Elder Duarte. He is from Belém (Bethlahem), Pará, Brazil. The same city as my other companion. He is completely different though. I like him. He is very obedient and relaxed. He only has two more transfers left on the mission. 

This crazy wedding is driving us insane. We are running back and forth in the city to plan a ceremony for An. and his wife. The other day we asked if we could post-pone the ceremony. He told us that would be better for everyone. Well, the next day we came to confirm the time of the baptism on Saturday and he laughed. We were confused. He said that the baptism is not going to be this Saturday....(We had this baptism planned for over a month now). He said that everything was planned out nicely so that it would be the ceremony on Friday, the baptism on Saturday, and the Confirmation on Sunday, but now that the ceremony will be post-poned, he wants the baptism after the ceremony!!! What?! He wants a ceremony with a whole bridal's gown and everything. We have been looking for a gown for the entire month. The cheapest one to rent is 600 R$!! It isn't even the wife that wants the ceremony. It's him!! He is still getting married on the 25, and we are working on the baptism on the 28 as planned. I am really upset with him. I have lost my desire to help them get married, but I will still work on them.

Not only that, but the other family that Portilho and I have been working on for the past couple of months has told us that they will not switch religions. It doesn't help that it is Em's family, now he doesn't go to church anymore. Portilho really liked to go to that house, but with my new companion, we decided to be direct and asked them why we were there. They told us that they learn a lot from us, but they don't want to switch because they believe too much in Mary (Mother of Crist). Now, we are looking for new people.

This week could have been better, but we will do better. 

Elder Koby Sullivan