Jan. 18, 2016 Pictures!

         1 year and 7 months...

It turns out that I knew my companion before he came here. I met him at the mission Christmas gathering. Elder T. Silva is from Paraíba. He is actually from the same ward as Elder Tomaz! (One of my first companions). 

All week it has been raining. Now that it has stopped, both of my shoes are finally dry :) 

My week has been going by without credits on my phone. My other companion used them up.... Yesterday, I had someone call me and hang up. He did this 3 times, so normally that means to call back, but I didn´t have credits to call back. I went to use the church phone and called him. I asked who I was speaking with and he got upset with me. He said, "You called me and you want to know who you are speaking with?" I explained the situation, but he just started calling me names... It was an interesting phone call.

I am loving this ward. It seems that every week we always have a new referral. This week, we have a family home evening for every single day! Each one with a new investigator. It´s the missionary dream! I don´t even have to do contacts to find the people. (Of course I still do contacts, but it is less effective).

Elder Koby Sullivan

Favela

New Years 

Cool clouds over the streets of Brazil

Decorations! thanks, Aunt Kristin!

Jan. 11, 2016 I bought some acai, it's like ice cream or sorbet

         82 weeks

I have been craving a bunch of foods here. First, a maracujá (passion fruit). Their was a member that must have discovered because she gave me one. I made some amazing juice and I have never felt so great drinking passion fruit juice.

Second, açaí. I bought 1 liter for R$ 15!! Ha! Beat that Kyson! I fight not to eat it all in one sitting.

Now that Walmart has closed, we have to walk 20 minutes to get to the next closest supermarket, so we are buying a lot at each trip to avoid walking so far, but it puts a lot of weight on our travel back. I hear that they are going to open a different supermarket where walmart was, but until then, we have to go a long way.

My companion, E. Mesquita, will be transferred tomorrow to Piracicaba. I will receive E. P. Silva. Just by the name, I know that he is a Brazilian :) I know nothing else.

Our ward is helping us out a lot with investigators. We had 5 investigators at church and we only taught one of the five. We have just earned 4 more investigators!! We will see a bunch of results here in a few weeks :)

I forgot my camera again, but next time I will have pics...

Elder Koby Sullivan

Jan. 4, 2016 I tried liver; I am not a fan

         81 weeks

Happy New Year!

I made more cookies for the New Year and the family has been begging me to return and teach them how to make them. The husband of the family opened up a bottle that looked like apple cider and started serving it to everyone (He isn´t a member). He gave me and my companion some and my companion immediately told me not to drink it. It tuned out to have alchohol, but I didn´t notice the smell. Everyone in the family was noticing the smell and started throwing it on the ground. That was a close one. The husband was the only one drinking it. We'll have to teach him about that.

One day we went to walmart to buy a few things. It was packed. It turns out that they put everything for less than half price. The next day, it was closed. They closed Walmart here in our area. It happened so fast and they didn´t tell anyone about it. I heard that it happened with about 30 in Brazil on the same day.

I tried liver the other day. I don´t think that I have eaten such a horrible food. It is now my least favorite food of all times. I grabbed a few pieces at lunch. I couldn´t just leave it on the plate, so I was eating a bunch of food at the same time, but it didn´t work....I wasn´t able to finish it...

Elder Koby Sullivan

Dec 28, 2015 I made choc chip cookies, they don't have those in Brazil

          Week 80

Christmas week was a good one, and it rained the whole week.

We visited our ward mission leader on Wednesday and he told us some great news. His daughter has been a member for years, but her husband, who is from Portugal, told her a "secret" that he wants to be baptized. We received that secret and we will be working with him. I don´t think that his baptism is too long from now.

We had a zone meeting the other day that was really interesting/startling.... The assistance came over and asked what our "zone" needed to be the best zone. One Elder said that he was the problem because he is tired (he only has 7 months on the mission). Another Elder said that he didn´t care at all if an investigator shows up to church or not. He said that he just doesn´t love the people.... Another said that he just didn´t have the faith to baptize anyone this month. (Two of these elders were already my companions). I became a little worried. I can only imagine what President will think...

I made some chocolate-chip cookies for Christmas. They all loved them even though I burnt them. The oven got too hot, and it was on the lowest setting. 

For Christmas, we had a dinner and played "Truco" It´s a card game. In Brazil, they celebrate Christmas at midnight, but we couldn´t stay until midnight, so we just stayed for the dinner.

Elder Koby Sullivan