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