Monday 7 April 2014

April 7th Letter and photos








Hey! So hopefully everything is going super well and everbody is having a wonderful time still! That was really neat to hear about Christina´s awesome trip out to Russia! Sounds pretty exciting. I can see Mr Uzick raving already. Ah well. By the way those baggy pants are super awesome and everyone needs to wear them. It makes you look like a real man when you do the squats. Music IB will be fun. It was probably my favourite class. And I think I got decent grades (I still dont know what my IB scores are). Anyway, thats really cool to be exposed to awesome culture and see cool new people and things that make the world so wonderful. Especially with a music theme and the chance to experience musical culture (in my opinion the best culture). Super cool. Hopefully you didnt shame the family too bad Christina. I bet the ballet was really neat. The music for ballets is so well written and so cool to see it adapted into movement as well. Pokemon is cool, but not as cool as awesome jazz and other music in Russia. Now you must apply the wonderful music of Russia in daily life. And suffer North American ways. HAHAHAHAHA.

Also exciting to hear about the baby! YEAH! The Sullivan clan grows! I am sure the whole family is really happy and that there were many excuses to throw excessive parties. Thank you also for the pictures of all your adventures, especially on the water. The call of the sea is always there sometimes, but the thrill of surfing does not compare with the work of the Lord. Oops I suppose I should have sent you guys with a spanish note to say to all the people in Loreto. haha. Everyone in the pictures is looking a little different than before. Maybe just longer hair. But different. Anyway, everyone looks good. It makes me glad that everything has been going well and that everyone is found well despite everything and that the parties continue on. We still party here!

Nice to hear about holidays. Water holidays, snow holidays, hanging out with people. Looks really cool, nice to hear that the Muirlaslos are doing well. They sent me a package I received a couple of days ago. Nice to hear from everyone, and that everyone is progressing on their walk of life onwards to victory! We shall have to ski and surf upon return together as family again sometime. As much as I cant imagine being anywhere but here haha. I do the hanging out with people part at least haha and maybe a little sightseeing on Pdays. This Pday was a little different though. Today I packed a lot. After 8 months in Ivan Guzman, a fairly large portion of my life I suppose, I am leaving and so is Elder Diaz. We wont know where until later tonight with the phone call, but its certain that we are heading out of this little box that has been the DR now for 8 and 9 months. Wow. I am still feeling a little strange, as is Elder Diaz. It´s as if we are leaving home again. I cannot comprehend yet not having these people be in my care, my responsibility and in my timetable. It will be strange to leave them behind. It has been an awesome experience to share time with people. Like the Prophet said in conference about love for others and God being so special, important and wonderful, I have actually experienced that with these my dearest brothers and sisters (hermanos y hermanas as we say here everyday). Each person here has been so special and it will be strange now to only leave them with memories and shared time. But I realize that is the purpose of life. Share time and grow with people. Find ourselves in the service of others. I feel such love for them, and I suppose I know a lot more now how God feels about each of them as well. They are so dear and important, and will stay in my prayers forever. I learned a lot here about love for people. That love is all that matters, as (well, I am requoting here but oh well) whoever is found with charity it shall go well with him in the last day. At least I had some farewell lessons with everyone to tell them to keep going. Javier plans to serve a mission after receiving inspiration in conference to do so. He has struggles sometimes, but is growing more and more, and I am so glad to have been with him and be a part of his life. He has this strange nickname for me, ¨Chino negro¨. So, I guess I look chinese but really I am black at heart haha. Even though he has been my only baptism here, his missionary service will continue and so many other people will receive joy through him now. People already do. It was strange as we walked through the streets I saw a bunch of people from my missionary past around. I guess I have impacted them for better or worse. I hope at the least they remember my love for them. The reason we do things in the mission, and really, the reason we do things in life is for love. If we dont, then we will be selfish, selfcentered and lost. I am glad that in our family there is great love, and that such great things are happening with all of you. It has been so great to serve these people here in Ivan Guzman. To be their friends. To have comforted them when they needed help. To pray with them. To sit in their houses, whether humble or grand. To bless them. To teach them things they never knew. Life changing things. To have seen them go from one point in life to another, just for our presence. I know how Ammon felt know, saying that if they had not ascended up unto the lamanites, then they would have lost all those precious bretheren they held so dear. I may not feel so much like a missionary of success or excellence, but I guess I did something here at the least. It has been so cool to find the prepared people and help them find Christ. See them read and read and read in the Book of Mormon and learn all about the book, especially what each particular prophet taught them. See them pray. At first to no one, and then they learned they could pray to their father. So did I. To try and learn french with these people while they were learning spanish and somehow finding some medium to speak with them. I was present for the baptisms of people that I had been with in their toughest moments, and shared the Love of God with them. It has been so great to help a family come back to the church just for our love and the love of God and the truth that is ours.

So that was a little reflective. It will be so different to not be here anymore. And not with Elder Herrmann. He has been such a cool companion I have never known anyone as well other than you my family. We will be in contact haha. Anyway, thank you so much for helping me get out here in this wonderful country with wonderful people to serve the Lord. It may feel super weird to be on to a new adventure, but like Pres. Uchtdorf said, there are only endings in mortality, and only new beginnings in eternity. So all these people here shall continue with something I left them, and I need not think it is the end. Just another beginning. Thanks for all the love you have shared with me family, and now it is being spread abundantly!

As always family, continue onwards! Tell the water I miss it! So glad I have been here I hope maybe you meet a few of this people, or have at least lived vicarously with them. They are so great! Their laughs and smiles (without braces ahahahaha) and strange jokes with my bad jokes (spanish humour is still taking its toll) And yeah lots of strange things but mostly great and awesome. Weirdnessssss.

Que el Senor siempre les cuide en sus manos de misericordia y amor. Les quiero y amo mas que todo. Tengan mi amor con ustedes en todo momento, y el amor del Salvador.

Con amor (with love),
Elder Michael Sullivan

PS Enjoy the billions of photos, I will try to send the SD card sometime soon and use the other one maybe!

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