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

Feb. 16, 2015 got lost and found a river

          Month 8

We found a thrift store in our area. It was really cheap, but they had nothing that fit me. We found church pants and shoes for only 1R$!!!! They had everything, but nothing worked for me unfortunately... people are smaller here. 

We had an emergency division on Thursday because appearently my companion was wanting to go home. I had just talked with him and he told me what he was feeling, but it was something that every missionary goes through, so I didn't think much of it, but he almost called to go home. Luckly the zone leaders called for an emergency division just before he called. He is better now. They talked him into his senses.

Carnaval has started. What does that mean? Iniquity....Don't enter the center of the city. My city is small but still really bad. I can only imagine the northern part of brazil.

Valentines day we did another division with the District Leader. I stayed with the american, E. Lowder. We had planned to do a bunch that day, but then we got a little lost and ended up at the end of the city. We saw a sign that said that the Waterfall was up that road, but it didn't say how far. We started up that road and walked a good three hours....We found the waterfall though!! :) The waterfall wasn't too impresive, but the river was. I have never seen a river so big! (pics below). I would return there.

The week was good. I hope yours was :)

Love

Elder Koby Sullivan

The start of our walk:

It's green here.

more green.

I saw a crane.

biggest river I have ever seen.

Koby on bridge crossing: Cachoeira de Emas

Doing a split with another American, Elder Lowder.

YAY! A PICTURE OF KOBY!!!

This is a picture of the bridge we were on.

I don't know why I took this picture.

More pictures of the river. (If you could see a bigger picture of this, there is a beach close to that house where it is a popular swimming spot for people. Thanx: Google maps.)

A cool sidewalk.

Feb. 9, 2015

          34 weeks

We met a kid this week. We taught him and his grandma about the restauration. The grandma was a bit crazy, so we basically just talked with the kid. He accepted the lesson really well. We told him to tell his parents that we stopped by. We called him a couple of days later and he said that his mom did not allow him to read the book and that he should throw it away. Really? How bad could a book about Jesus be? He still held onto it. I know that he knows our religion is correct.

I had a weird dream the other night. I had the need to  say a prayer, so I woke up, knelt down, and prayed. In the middle of the prayer I thought, "what are you doing? It's 2 in the morning, go to sleep!" I then finished my prayer and went to sleep. It was just really weird.

The wedding is on. We have the date set and we got the bishop involved in a ceremony. We will baptize the family the day after. It will be a packed weekend! 

That was about it for this week.

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

Feb. 2, 2015 didn't get mugged!

          Week 33

This week was interesting. 

As An has accepted to get married, all of his friends want to get married if he does, but you have to have at least a 40 days notice, so the marriage is on the 27 of february. It is really hard to plan this wedding and it is only a basic wedding! 

I encountered a one-legged man the other day. He crawled out of a car yelling, "help!" we went to go see the problem and he told me to call the police. I responded that I didn't have a cell phone. So, when he handed me his, I told him that I didn't speak portuguese. He told me to go to #@!!. The guy in the car was his brother and said that he was really drunk. We could tell. When we shook there hands goodbye, the one-legged man grabbed me like he was going to start hitting me, but luckly I pulled away....

That wasn't the only close call. We wanted to see what the University looked like that was by our house. We started walking up what looked like an abandoned road. Half way up the road, my companion yell, "look!" There was a man who jumped out from behind brush and started attacking to guys on a bike! I saw a police car on the road above us. My companion started running up a hill to flee and told me to follow him, then the police car came zooming on the road that we were on. It turns out that it was a police man that was in the brush busting a few people. My companion brought to my attention that we were saved. If those two on the bike would have gotten to us, then we would have been mugged. The lord is on our side :)

That is some events that happened with me this week.

Love

Elder Koby Sullivan

Jan. 26, 2015 I ate armadillo!!

          week 32

This week was interesting. 

We went to Em's family to persuade them that the church was true and we gave an awesome lesson, but when we finished, his mom said to us, "Look..."(at that moment, we knew she would reject it. "I believe that your church is true, but not from your message.".....What?...."I believe that it is true because of Em's baptism. He has been acting so much better and happier." YES!!! "But..." NO!! "I need something to change in my heart before I will change religions." Well. I guess we will just give her time. They later invited us to a Barbaque and showed us what we were going to eat. Then, they gave me a nice big frozen armadillo.... gross!!!

At our barbaque, I grabbed a normal amount of food. Then, Em's mom walk in and said, "Why are you so shy?!! You are not allowed to be shy in my house!!!" Then she dumped a huge plate of meat and armadillo on my plate. I couldn't eat it all and she told me to go get more so she was grabbing my plate. I pleaded, no, and told her that I would get some later. I didn't finish all of my food...

One day it decided to rain... no. One day God decided to dump a bucket on the city. It rained for about an hour, but that was enough to flood the streets to the point where bags of trash were floating down the road and people would fall over trying to cross the road. It broke several roads, knocked down trees, and got my bed all wet... :(

We met one lady at the soccer courts who was watching her grandson. My companion said that he doesn't want to talk to her because he knew that type of religion and they don't accept anything. Well, she came to us. We told her about the plan of salvation and it led into the restoration to her accepting baptism, but not now. She had been afraid that she was baptized incorrectly in the Catholic religion. She is now in an adventurist church? Whatever that is. Golden investigator. We will meet her again in the future.

Love

Elder Koby Sullivan

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 2:34 PM, <muddyjob> wrote:

so, you have a frozen armadillo in your freezer? I will never be able to say that.....lol

On 26.01.2015 09:36, Koby Sullivan wrote:

no. They had it. We ate there.

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 3:04 PM, <muddyjob> wrote:

why is there no pie in koby's face?

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 3:05 PM, Koby Sullivan <koby.sullivan> wrote:

I pied other people's faces, but I can't find that pic

Jan. 19, 2015 1st baptism!

          Week 31

Have you ever had fish eggs? yeah, they are the weirdest textured food ever.

We got a little raise in the money we receive every two weeks, so what did we buy? Subway! Guess how much we paid on a 6 inch sandwich. (hint: it was called the cheap of the day.) 

subway!!

We also bought a hamburger called "x-tudo" or extra everything. It is basically a heart attack on a bun. I have been feeling that burger the entire week. It has started to wear off now. 

​x-tudo......

The week went really well. In fact, I had a suprize BAPTISM!!!

 

We invited our investigator's son, Em, to be baptized and he accepted, so we scheduled the date for Sunday. My companion wanted me to baptize him, so he told Em how awesome it would be to be the my first baptism. Em smiled and wanted me to baptize him. 

He is really quiet and the way we got him to accept us is from us visiting him at the soccer courts. The baptism was awesome. Now we have to convince the parents why they should join our church and not stay as a Catholic. Catholisism is basically their culture.

Em and I after the baptism.

Em's family

That is it for this week

Love, 

Elder Koby Sullivan

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:29 PM, <muddyjob> wrote:

 Was the sandwich $5? and the big burger $7?

On 19.01.2015 10:30, Koby Sullivan wrote: 

Guess again. More expensive

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:35 PM, <muddyjob> wrote: 

 since the sign behind you says 16, I am gonna guess 16$R.

and the big burger 20$R?

On 19.01.2015 10:36, Koby Sullivan wrote:

close. It was 14$r for the burgur and 8R$ for the six inch sandwich.

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:42 PM, <muddyjob> wrote:
how does that translate to dollars. is it like 2.39 real for 1 dollar?

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Koby Sullivan <koby.sullivan> wrote:

I think. I heard that it is 39 cents is 1 real.

Maybe it isn´t so bad of price with american money, but the wages are the same down here and the money is worth less.

From Elder Kyson, a few hours south in Caucaia, Brasil: 

it was ~12 R$. about 5 bucks. youre nuts i wouldnt ever go there. its pretty expensive. everytime i go i turn around and walk out crying empty handed. haha. 

​

that is rain, not fog

got my bag wet when I took the picture

Jan. 12, 2015 hot and humid

          Month 7

This week has been pretty hot. They said it has been sitting around 45 C with humidity. I think that is about 115 F. We basically die on the road. It rains at night, so that brings in the humidity. 

Happy Birthday to my companion! We celebrated at all of the investigators' houses and each one of them gave us cake. Talk about fattening! I don't want to eat any more cake for a few months. 

I started teaching some recent-converts piano. It was actually really fun. I am teaching them piano in the form of English. They don't use letters for notes. They use the "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti". I basically told them to forget that... Maybe I will use piano lessons for some investigators. I think that will help. 

We visited the Lady who was in the hospital the other day. My companion had me give her a blessing and dedicate her house. It was a little difficult, but I did it!

Not too much happened this week. 

Love, 

Elder Koby Sullivan

Jan. 5, 2015 pics of rain

Week 29

The weather has been really...exciting this week. It has been extremely hot. One day, it began to rain. My companion and I took cover on a soccer court that had a roof. Well, inside the court was one of the sons of our new investigator and his friend. While we waited for the rain to pass, we played a little bit of soccer and showed the too kids that we are normal people. During that time, I have never seen rain so strong. The streets were flooded in ten minutes. The side of the court began to flood and started to pour into the court and got my bag and scriptures wet....great. It was fun though. The two kids came to sacrament Sunday. 

Our scheduled baptism was canceled again. His grandma had to go to the hospital, so we will give them some time for her to recover. We visited the grandma when she returned home. 

New Years is full of action. We spent the afternoon with a neighbor. They made a barbaque with some different meats. I ended up eating Pumba from "the lions king" and the maskot from the World Cup. I think it is an armadillo. That was my favorite one :). They ended up sending us home with a bunch of food.

I am teaching an investigator from a different ward English. He is a bit crazy. He really likes to talk about all religions. He likes our religion the best. He told us about his neighbor who said, I will never accept those missionaries because they don't believe in Jesus". His response? He threw a Book of Mormon at her and yelled, "read it! Then tell me that they don't believe in Jesus!". Haha! 

Transfers are tomorrow, but I stay here with my companion! He is really cool. I am excited.

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan