July 13, 2015 interviewing an assassin for baptism

          56 weeks

This week had a major change on the mission. We had the rule to do at least 14 contacts as a companionship each day. They have now changed it to 50 contacts each day. 50 takes quite a bit of effort. 

Jul married on Tuesday!!! He said something that was way funny. He has already passed the baptismal interview once, but the second time, they discovered that he wasn´t married and he got really angry. Now, at the signing of the paper, he held up another paper to us and said, "Do you see this? This is a stable agreement between us, so basically we were married, but the church doesn´t accept this paper. With this paper, we are in fornication! Try stopping me from being baptized now!"

On Sunday, we did his interview. Well, we had planned on joking around with the interviewer, "Elder Figueira". Jul pretended that he had killed a man, but that it didn´t matter because he was going to get baptized anyway. Figueira got really scared. He didn´t know what to do because he couldn´t let an assasin get baptized nor did he want to get killed. We messed with him a bit. It was really fun. After, we told him the truth and he got really upset. It was hillarious.

This week was the first week that someone didn´t accept the free Book of Mormon. It was really frustrating. It happened twice.

I had a first experience Sunday. We had plans to go to a new part of our area that required the bus to get there. Well, we ran into Julio and we started talking. While we were talking, we missed the bus.... So, we decided to stay close to our house. While we were knocking on doors, there was one man who let us in. We taught him about the restoration and he had a lot of difficult questions that we managed to answer. We pulled out the Book of Mormon and started to explain it. He looked at it and while my companion was explaining it, and asked if he could hold it. We gave it to him and he looked at it and marveled. We invited him and his wife to read and he said, "I want to read it." (that is a rare response). After the message, the man (Adil) said that last night as he was going to bed, he said a prayer and asked God to show him which path to follow. They believe that we are the answer! Oh, how happy we were after!

Só Sucesso

Elder Koby Sullivan

July 6, 2015 marijuana n missionaries

Update on Juli... there was another problem at the cartorio (the place to get married). They did not accept his wife´s picture because it was too old. They updated the picture and the cartorio said that it will take at least ten days to process it....Now he can´t be baptized until the 18...

We have a new investigator who smokes a ton of marajuana. It seems like he will put in some effort to change this problem. He is going to bring his sister too so that we can help :)

This week we have knocked on so many doors and have been rejected so many times. Now, we are trying up our motivation and creating fancy way on knocking on doors.....no, ringing the interphone...that is about all we do day after day. Results are few. We found some people who were baptized 40 years ago as a kid and now they want to know about the church, and some old investigators of some other missionaries who did not leave a form that said that they existed.

Remember when I went to the four square church? Well, we have his address and have planned to meet with him this friday. We going to prepare all week.

4th of July didn´t really exist for me...

Elder Koby Sullivan

June 29, 2015 "Kid, I have no idea what you just said"

          54 weeks

I had a cool experience the other day knocking on doors (or interfones). I was so upset that nobody would come to the door that I did a contact in English. His response, "Kid, I have no idea what you just said". Anyway, he let us in! We´ll see how he does as an investigator. He is way cool right now :)

However, I did try the English again and nobody let us in...

We had interviews with Prez. It was really fun. We threw a barbaque that is basically cook the meat over the fire. No fancy sauces or anything. just rice. Prez. told my companion and I that we need to change this ward because it is the richest ward on the mission and knocking on doors will not work. He said to go and change the culture of the ward. We´ll see what we can do. 

We were passing by the zoo the other day and decided to go look. Unfortunately, I didn´t have my camera..... It was full of tropical birds which was way cool. They had a few monkeys and a tiger. It was a decent size, but I liked it.

Elder Koby Sullivan

June 22, 2015 "American's don't like to clean..." LOL

          Week 53

I have my new companion! He is way cool. He is from Rio de Janeiro and he has all of the accent from Rio. He is my most dedicated and efficient companion so far. That makes me happy. He is 10 months into the mission. 

We have been having some success here recently. Our most progressive investigator is Juli. He has been going to church for several months now and the only thing he needs to do is get married. He is getting married Friday, then he will be baptized on the 4th of July. His wife, Pat, went to church for the first time yesterday which is really good news. I think that she knows that she will be baptized, but she doesn´t want to be baptized right now. Her words were, "I´m not ready to jump into the water tomorrow even though I liked the church." Haha.

Our week was focused on visiting ex-investigatores. Gual and his family are way cool, and they are the most rich investigators that I´ve had. We invited them to chruch, but Gual denied. However, his wife said that their kids would like to go! They went! Mat and Vic. I don´t know if they will be baptized soon, but we need to catch Vic before he goes back to the U.S. in August.

I had one of the worst experiences the other day. I was walking down the road and out of nowhere, I feel this really warm sensation run down my arm. I flipped out. When I looked, I saw a red grime. I looked up to see that a bird had pooped on me..... to make it worse, we were nowhere near anybody, so we went looking for the closest investigator, but instead, we found bishop on the side of the road and he took us home to get washed. I'm glad that it didn´t stain.

Last week, Sister Canuto came to our house again. She racistly called me out saying, "I know that Americans don't like to clean. You have to do your part!" I humbly agreed. When she entered into our kitchen and saw the stove clean she asked who cleaned it. I kept quiet while the other elders told her that it was me. Her jaw dropped and said, "Wow! You get a point E. Sullivan." To make it better, they explained that I cleaned the fridge and the microwave. I racked up my points like crazy. She said that she has never seen a clean microwave on the mission. I then taught her what "brownie points". She really liked the idea. haha

Elder Sullivan

June 15, 2015 ONE YEAR in Brazil!!!

          52 weeks      #1year!

This week was nice.

​I should fire the Photographer....Lopes.

There is a recent-convert, Ju,  that is always talking with us and last p-day, he took us to McDonalds! Think of an expensive restaurant and times it by four. He is way cool. Each monday, we go to the church and study Jesus the Christ with him. He speaks 8 languages....and he is the official translator for the government of São Paulo.

We had a surprise this week. We had an Elder be emergency transferred to stay with my companion and I. He is from my group of missionaries. It trumped our work because we had to make several trips to the Secretary´s office. However, we did find several bridges that make the trip to the center of the city half of the size. It is a pedestrian/tourist bridge. Way cool pictures if I remembered my camera....I have a random desire to learn another language, so I asked the secretaries which languages of the Book of Mormon they had and they gave me a French BoM! I have no idea where to start, I´ll ask Ju for help.

On my one year day, I went to McDonalds to get some Ice cream. Well, when I was waiting, I heard some guys speaking in English very poorly behind me. I turned around to talk with them. One is a Brazilian and the other was a Korean. What? It was a strange moment, but it was cool to talk with a Korean :)

We had party for the Junina. It is like a hill-billy holliday for Brazil. It was way fun to eat all of the food. Free food is always delicious :)

Transfers have come and I will stay, but my companion will go. I will have another companion named Elder Nunes. I have no idea who he is. However, Elder Figu has returned to come and live with me and Elder Lopes. This will be fun.

Elder Koby Sullivan

June 9, 2015 One Year in BRAZIL!!! and tons of pics

          51 weeks

In three days is the one year mark. I still don´t know what I will do. 

This week was actually extremely different. It started out with one new investigator whose eyes lit up when we invited her to baptism. Sadly she works most Sundays, but I am not too worried about that with her. She has visited so many churches and she is not attending any of them right now. I think that we will have her baptized in a month or two.

Thursday was really tough. It was a holiday here and nobody was home. We went to talk with a pastor to invite him to help our church and several other churches do a helping hands project. Well, the Pastor is really good friends with this pastor and he invited us to watch a meeting with them. We did. This was the first time I had entered into another church in my life and it did not have a good impression on me. (We had permission from Prezident). The church is called the four square church and the person speaking was some lady and she yelled and tried to claim that she was having a vision and stuff. After her yell, the pastor invited us to the front and presented us to everyone in the church! He told everyone that I was from LV.....because I live 2 hours from there. We did not have to talk or anything, but it was interesting.

Saturday, we had a group of girls called, "Daughters of Job", come and visit our church. The group is a bunch of girls who are daughters of a mason. We gave them a tour of the church and taught them about the Restoration. They all seemed really interested. 

Today, we went to a tourist place by the river. It was really cool and I have some cool pictures. that I will send. 

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

June 1, 2015 dissed the Prez! accidentally

          50 weeks!

I finally hit "hump day!" It was on Wednesday. I was counting the days. Due to the visa, I will be here exactly 700 days and I have 344 days left. Haha! Final sprint!

This week had several Stake activities. I happen to have the Stake Center for my chapel. I saw my first bishop here, Bispo Lyra. I called out his name and when I went over there to shake his hand, another hand popped out of the blue. I ignored it with plans on going back. After I gave him a hug, I looked at who was offering me the hand and wo unto me because it was President! AHH!! I had an awkward moment and I guess I paniced because I brought him in to have a group hug.... I hope he didn't take it personally.

We all watched with the stake Meet the Mormons. It was cool. I only shed a few tears while the missionary on my side was having a rain storm. 

I really don't have much from this week..

 

Love,

Elder Koby Sullivan

May 25, 2015 we eat and eat and eat :)

          Week 49

So, we went to the center last week and who did I see? My first Bishop! It was so cool! He helped me a lot in the first area. 

One day for lunch, somebody made fish. Well, I don´t like fish all that much. It was worse when you look in the pot and you see the entire fish, head and all. This family gets offended when you don´t take a lot of food, so I took an entire fish. (I haven´t had fish my entire mission). I was able to eat it slowly (minus the head, I didn´t eat. When they looked away, I threw it away). I got through lunch successfully.

My companion and I have began to run in the mornings. He wants to lose his belly before he gets home. Yes, he does need to start 9 months before he goes home.... We were super sore for the whole week. Our bodies have not ran in a long time. 

I feel bad that I didn´t do well in English when I was at home because I have had some people who are trying to get a job send me their papers to revise them. I did notice that almost every sentence was incomplete, but it took me forever to decide what was wrong with the sentence. I have never made so many corrections on a paper before... and i´m not even good!

Our house is always singing here. We´ve basically got a quartet and it has been some of our messages for the past week. We are singing the basic, I need thee every hour. (mom's note: Koby's companion, Elder Jimenez, is a professional guitarist and singer who played music for David Archuleta)

É isso...

Elder Koby Sullivan

​Falda´s food

​Eat more!

​Elder Jiménez is always excited to eat 

They come, they eat, they leave.

​cool pet turtle.

(mom's note: it is so nice to see such happiness in his eyes!)

He has been out almost 1 year. 

May 18, 2015 gave a talk in church spur of the moment, and food, food, and more food!

          48 weeks

So, I think that I can start counting down on the weeks that I have on the mission. 

When I got here in Piracicaba, the house was a mess. It looked like it hadn´t been cleaned in 10 years. So, Sister Canuto caught the house before the first P-Day and did not like it at all. We spent all day last week cleaning all sorts of grease on the walls and the floors. I can proudly say that we have a new clean home :)

We have a cool investigator. She makes us a bunch of really good food every night that we go there. We love eating, but she makes us a ton of food. We start with a chilean soup which fills us up really quick, then she gives us a spaggetti or a hamburger, and then she gives us some dessert. (She makes enough for each of us to have seconds of everything). We probably gain two pounds everytime we go there... One day we went and told her that we couldn't meet with her because we were too full from lunch. (We didn't say that we were too full). 

Yesterday at church, I was asked to give a talk. Unlike being a member and having a good week to write the talk, they asked me at church to give the talk that day....I was incredibly nervous. It's a good thing that the ward only has 70 people and not 500.

Another investigator, who just needs to get married and he will be baptized, gave us lunch yesterday. He made us Italian food because he part Italian. Then, He brought 6 liters of ice cream and almost forced us to eat all of it. We all almost threw up! If everyone keeps giving me food like this, I am going to explode! 

Elder Koby Sullivan

May 11, 2015 Koby's companion played guitar for David Archuleta in Chile!

           

         11 Months!!!

11 Months today!!! That means I am almost on the downhill part of the mission. I can see the top!

It was also really fun to talk with my family :)

The first thing that I noticed in this ward is that a lot of people speak English. About a week ago, they put in the newspaper that we are giving English lessons for free, so we have a ton of people coming to have this lesson. I taught the advanced class which was just teaching English from English. It went really well.

Last week, I learned how to open a coconut. It was really simple. Burn it, then throw it on the ground! Thank you Irmão Clovis :)

My shower is really different. In Brazil, the showers have an electrical cord that goes directly to the shower head. Is it safe?... I don´t know. Normally they work fine... Our shower head is a little broken. When we turn it on, we have to take a long rod and wack the shower head a few times until the electricity connects. Then, to turn it off, we have to use the rod to twist the handle because it has been electricuted during your shower and will give you a nice shock! 

My area is really rich. I thought that Pirassununga was rich, but then I got here and the houses have doubled in size! There are several private roads that we can´t go on....

My companion is really cool too. His name is Jiménez. He was starting to go professional in singing and guitar, but he decided to go on a mission first! Also, when he was in Chile, he played in the band with David Acheleta! He is on the videos of David singing! So cool. (David Archuleta served his mission in Chile where Jimenez lives.)

Elder Koby Sullivan


Last week´s trail

A part of the river.

My shoe.

Guilherme :)

Antonio and I

​I think that they are trying to grow the tree sideways....

And awesome family :) (I was teaching the man piano)

skype time!

SKYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is before Kyson got on Skype with us and Koby.

All of Koby's roommates that passed by the computer would stop and count the heads on the screen. Other countries don't have such big families as we do in the US.

An inside joke is Section 139 of D&C that has not been translated into Portuguese yet. That's why American's have more than 4 kids and Brasilian's don't. Section 139 tells you to have more than 4 kids. lol

In this picture, Carl is talking on the phone with Kyson while he tries to figure out his password to get onto Skype with us. Carl got a phone call from Florida, but answered it anyway. It was Kyson calling on an American's cell phone he had gotten in LA before he moved to Brazil with his Brasilian wife and baby.

They finally get to see each other and exchange greetings in Portuguese.

Kyson is showing us the view from the 16th story he is on. He is trying to let us see the lightning.

The zone leader, Kyson, had to take several phone calls while we were on our Skype call...

FAMILY PIC!

Kyson's host gave him the same candy that I got today from church...

Brady Bunch!

Kyson needs to know if that's a bald spot.

No, it's blonde hair and is invisible when it is short.

Chicken BBQ pizza.

He turned off the video while he ate it, but he ate his chocolate cake in front of all of us!!!!!

None of us had eaten, we left church early to eat before they called,

but then they called an hour early!

Kyson says he will be home before the next Mother's Day,

and Koby says he will be home 3 days AFTER the next Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!