June 2nd 2014

Hey everybody!

Life sounds pretty awesome for everyone! Good job Christina on the triathlon, thats pretty fast and awesome, sad that not so many finished the race but good job! Well, you guys could have sold some of my junk if you felt like but it sounds like the Poon boys already have all of it anyway. Everyone sounds really busy over there. We are about the same a little less since the family got baptized. Sounds like lots of music is being played and performed, me like. Interesting stake conference, sounds at least uplifting! We are supposed to have big news in a conference for the district of Azua sometime soon, hopefully to become a stake! Glad everyone got to see the temple and do lots of cool things and that everyone survived aftergrad (a miracle I would say) and that big things are happening!

So the biggest news here would be the arrival of Presidente Nuckols. We had a conference with him on thursday where he spoke and stuff. People with birthdays got chocolates (why not me? haha). It was awesome to meet him and stuff. Hermana Nuckols and him are super cool! He had lots of jokes to tell us, like, about his last name (apparently he has a relative named harry, so he´s ¨Harry Nuckols¨. It made some sense in spanish too haha. He served his mission in España. A few things here dont make any sense to them, like, someone talked about sunday being the day that water arrives and its a challenge for getting people to come to church and I saw him lean over to one of the assistants and ask why water arriving was so important. He told us he likes to surf (the first thing he talked about) and wow he is really tall like 6 foot 6 or more. He is really nice, made a saturday night live reference about baseball, likes to be happy and make everyone laugh a bit. So that was pretty neat. Hermana Nuckols looked really tired, but is really nice and has been to Calgary before for the Stampede. They havent had their training yet in the big mission president meeting yet, but they got to spend 5 days with the quorom of the twelve! So they got to do really cool things for sure! Presidente Nuckols is really excited about the work here, he believes right now we are in a chosen land, because the flag here has an ¨open bible¨ on the front. When he was in Spain, they sometimes only taught one lesson a week and that wasnt bad. Here, we just enter people´s houses, they openly talk about God everywhere and lots read the bible. So we think the work will progress even more here than it has been. We just have to have vision and work according to Presidente Nuckols. We need some sort of vision. He´s really optimistic, so Im sure the vision will be more than we asked for haha. They speak fluent french, how useful in a spanish country! President Uchtdorf made a comment about that apparently when he called them haha. Anyway, all in all they are really neat, have traveled Europe a lot and are really optimistic and friendly, I hope things go really well for them here!

So yeah, things have slowed but also sped up. With the family baptized, mostly we just visit converts and less actives now since we have no one else to teach haha. They are starting to have all those deep and interesting questions and have really been attacked by satan lately. Lots of disturbing dreams, opposing family members and questions and stuff, but their faith is so unshakable and strong they have really risen up against it all and proclaimed in fast and testimony meeting that the devil would have no place in their lives, and that they have the truth of the gospel. The parents´ testimonies are so strong and wonderful to hear and they openly share. They have become such a strong couple and its so nice to see the gospel work such a change in them as they come closer to the Lord. Junior is still funny as ever, his jokes are so clever, I cant even keep up. He always has something awesome to say. Someone was talking about blood sugar levels, and said ¨And her sugar went up¨ and so he said ¨You´re right, sugar has been more expensive lately¨. Classic! Coolest guy ever, I hope he gets an awesome calling because he really deserves one. When they asked about what happens if a spouse dies early, it was kind of funny because he was just wondering if in heaven if like his wife got remarried and arrived in heaven with another he would be all like ¨And what? Who is this?¨ So we assured him it only means something in heaven if they are sealed! Yeah!

Other than that our other three converts are good. Brian is such a cool youth so active and lively and does a lot of stuff. Sora (the young girl) is still active and awesome but is still really sassy and still makes fun of us haha. The older lady out in finka 6 is doing good but because of her grandchild´s health has missed church a couple times. But she is still super cool!

So yeah, we are teaching two youth, the worst behaved youth we have invited within the walls of the church. They just kind of come from bad home environments but wow one of them has such a burning desire to be baptized and change and join the church, he just doesnt really know how to turn that desire into action, but hes getting there. The other one cant stop laughing but I think he likes the church. They both just want to be at the church all the time haha. Too much. They´re always there. They´re funny though and I like them and I always have to give piggy backs but ah well. Sometimes they really try. I think one of them has a testimony. They at least feel like they belong at church. But they need to be less annoying to the members, or someone might punch them.

So thats kind of all thats happening. We had some cool zone activities and stuff like that and played games and such. We sang happy birthday on the phone for a hermana. We eat really good food like banana bread sometimes. And yeah! It was a fairly normal week otherwise!

I hope everthing continues good for everyone. I am so glad to be out here and Im glad everyone is out and about as well. I hope someday you can meet these people who are so dear to me. I know so much more about God´s love now, what it really is and how He shows it and how much He truly loves all of us, and to be a reprsentative of His Son, I need to also have His love. If nothing else, love has changed these people´s lives forever now, and they dont have to worry about anything else. God really loves us. A lot. I wish we could all have His love and share it perfectly. And be optimistic like the mission president and have vision for our lives and the lives of all of God´s children!

Anyway, thanks for everthing family! Have a wonderful week! Adelante! Adelante!

Con todo mi amor,

Elder Sullivan

PS Our new theme from a song ¨Todo es increíble!¨ Everything is awesome!

May 26th 2014

Hello family!

So it sounds like things are pretty cool over there! I like the pictures of Germany, looks like a really pretty country like Austria! Good to hear Mom is learning some spanish. Its a nice language and not all that hard and really useful even worldwide! Entonces, sigue! I never got to do rogaine but thats cool Christina did, it sounds pretty cool. Good to hear the weather is warming up. The hot sun here may have heated up more but Im not entirely sure. Its just hot, and I dont mind it anymore so its all good haha. Sounds like everyone is pretty busy and everything, I hope the business stays as good business and everyone keeps having a good time. Dad can keep playing the accordion if he wants hahahahahahahah. Have fun with the new callings and adventures! Young Mens would be a huge job out here, so many youth both active and inactive.

Well the big news here is that all the things that were supposed to happen.... DID! As you may have seen from the pictures, we had a wedding, a wedding party at the church and a baptism of 5! Familia Ramirez Menyetti is now on the way to being an eternal family! The marriage was kind of interesting. Here they hold the whole thing in the little room in the office with the papers. They have to like sign the papers and stuff, and stand up sometimes and the lawyer completes all the stuff and stamps it. And then at the end they have a like ¨You may now kiss the bride¨ thing. Anyway, it was really exciting to see and be with them (although the ceremony not so much hahaha). The husband was smiling the whole time and just looked so happy to be getting married and baptized and stuff. His face kind of said ¨Woah man, Im getting married!¨. The wife was excited too and hugged my companion hahahahahahaha! Anyway, they were really excited. They even dressed up pretty well for it. We celebrated with them that day (it was wednesday I think) at their house and at the office and met some of their family members which was cool and chatted about these strange joke story things, which appear to be really popular in latin culture. They are really funny. Junior (the dad) loves telling the stories (kind of like Dad) and making jokes and chatting a bunch. Funny guy and super awesome.His coming to have a testimony is really neat, his is my favourite. He didnt really pay much attention to what was going on at first with his family getting taught and everything and going to church and stuff and even in lessons with us he said at first it was just kind of weird. But we always told him to pray about it. And for some reason that stuck really well, and he prayed. Eventually he says he just knew it was true. He had dreams about it frequently and just knew that this was the true church and he had to follow Jesus Christ. Anyway, he is really cool and shared his testimony at the baptism and his wife too. Martha (the wife), she knew it was true from our first lesson, it was a super powerful lesson and she went and prayed right away. It was really nice to hear from them at the baptism, they thanked God and us and I liked how they said that lots of missionaries had passed by before, even were teaching their daughter, but for some reason the time was when Elder Peña and I arrived. I am so grateful the Lord gave us the opportunity to help this family and that they were prepared for this moment. The kids are super cool (the little 8 year old was so excited to go in the pool and be washed hahahaha) and the young men really took in Walfin, the teenager, and now hes really cool and always says ¨Gracias por enseñarnos el Evangelio¨. Chantal, the daughter, after countless weeks has finally been baptized haha. She is the most solid in the family in terms of knowledge and will be a great person. They are all super cool, and its really neat that we got to baptize all of them at once. All five of them dressed in white getting ready for salvation. In their marriage, even though the official thingy says till death, they said ¨Oh, itll be forever haha¨. So I hope they can go to the temple, because we will be here to watch them be sealed!!!

The branch here is growing like crazy and helped so much with the family. We all organized a not so surprise wedding party for them, and it went actually really well. At least, everyone had a good time and of course it started an hour late but welcome to the church and even better here in the DR. But yeah one member made this amazing wedding cake with like the actual wedding designs and everything (I have no picture, it was eaten). Anyway, so it was a really cool time with a bunch of dancing that I severely wanted to participate in but did not. I asked Elder Lopez, ¨So... can I dance? haha....¨and he said ¨Well, take off your plaque and go haha¨. Anyway, it was a really cool wedding thing and we ate and had fun and the members danced and the family has been so well accepted. The President of the branch here is elated and has done so much to help the family and gave a super nice welcome to the branch and everything and the members are really pulling together for it and anyway its just been a great time and we just have to keep the spirit rolling.

Anyway, super cool times here. Hopefully someday this family gets sealed forever. We are working our bums off to make sure it happens. So if anyone needs some extra bum from some missionaries in the DR, call us. We have a lot of converts right now so that has been a big point of focus, hopefully we can find some new people amongst all the craziness.

So some other stuff happened I think... but I cant recall it we did too much work with the family for me to remember. But its been cool. Thanks for praying for the family, and please keep praying for them. We just hope so badly all the converts stay active forever and ever. Even if I took three tries to baptize the dad haha. The wife once, but the dad is kind of crippled in one foot and I didnt see that his hand was out of the water like 2 times. Ah well. Hes saved. And he always says it was because he had to wash more sins hahahaahahaha.

Ok, what else? Our new mission President arrived on friday! We have yet to meet him. Our conference with him is this thursday and apparently we have interviews with him someday. Or something. Its all a little hazy. But it should be cool.

The labour continues! Elder Peña and I are super happy and crazy elated with craziness and its been super cool times here in Azua. We rested a lot today haha after our fairly crazy week. Hopefully it just gets even better. We have two young men we are preparing to baptize and they are coming along cool so maybe we will just be baptizing and retaining and strengthening the kingdom forever!!!!!!!! YEAH!

Anyway, hard work pays off. I love the people here so much, and through just a little bit of work they came so far. I mean, really we didnt do anything the Spirit did and they changed their lives but it was great to be a part. As I always say to them, ¨Its always a pleasure, and it will forever be a pleasure to have known you¨. The same with you family and with all people Ive ever met. Forever changed. As Ammon said, We love them, and they love us and wow its just super cool. They were so converted they died for God. Anyway its cool!

Gracias por todo mi familia, que sigan adelante

Les quiero muchisimo,

Elder Sullivan

May 19th 2014

Hola Familia!

So I hope everything is going well and that Tasha is having a good time in Germany. There is a German guy here actually who is married to a member here or something but not really and anyway his accent is really weird. I can´t really imitate it, but its kind of like those Indiana Jones movies but in spanish. I hope the Heningers are alright and they will have my prayers. The lake is sounding pretty cool I hope everyone has fun on the water. Thanks for all the photos and words of encouragement!

So everything has been going pretty good. Transfers were announced. Our house is the same. Two of the sisters from our district are leaving and one of the two staying is training (a joy I am somewhat glad I am not experiencing right now. I love training, its just hard to learn new stuff while you are training haha). So I am really happy to be with Elder Peña still and we are going to have lots of fun and lots of awesome success in wonderful Pueblo Abajo!

The new President is scheduled to arrive this week, on friday or something! We have interviews with him saturday in the morning, so it will be nice to meet him! We shall see what happens with the mission from there.

Otherwise we are all good. We did some cool stuf last week. Made way too much banana bread. On friday we had our big exhibition skit night thing that we had practiced in districts and brought together as a zone! I have a bunch of video of it, but I dont know if you guys will get to see it until I bring the CD we are supposed to make of it home. Anyway, our district did this thing where we had to do a bunch of clapping patterns as we acted out receiving mission calls while we were sitting at this table thing. It was really cool and stuff and executed with classic poor quality but the people liked it and it was funny and good and cool. A sister in the district came up with it and practicing it was like musical theatre all over again (she like, studied theatre in school and stuff so it was legitimately like a music class kind of thing). Too much smiling and exaggerated motions again haha. We also did another skit with the whole zone and did some awesome singing and acting in a portrayal of Samuel the Lamanite and a modern version of it. It was cool. We used music from a bunch of movies and stuff with our own words put to it. The other two districts came up with some really cool stuff too. They made all these different scenes of things with music and singing and lots of cool inside jokes, like classic missionary experiences in the Dominican (they had some contacting time, and so the missionaries found a lady who brought out a book of excuses and read them things like she was catholic or had gripe and yeah, and this family they taught who forgot the appointment and hadnt read the pamphlet but couldnt get away haha. So the missionaries taught them with our classic weird examples and hand motion thingys and handshakes and stuff, but then the missionaries just sang ¨La Oracion del Profeta¨(Joseph Smith´s first prayer) and the family progressed to baptism haha). So anyway, cool stuff. The activity was supèr fun and the only thing that could have been better is if more members had shown up, but a few did so thats sufficient.

Our investigator pool is shrinking with the baptism coming up, but thats ok. We have two young men we are teaching as references from our convert here and even though they are superbly badly misbehaved at the church, we are working on that and they understand a bunch of really important things like prayer and reading and following Christ. Now they just have to behave better so they can have the Spirit and figure out that it is actually really annoying to do stupid things during a class and steal people´s stuff and play around with it and be super weird. it reminds me of me too much, so we shall have to teach that a little more haha.

Familia Menyetti is super awesome and will be baptized after their wedding on Wednesday, which will be the first wedding actual ceremnoy thingy where they sign the paper that I have ever seen. There is a party on thursday as a farewell for a missionary. There is another party on Friday to celebrate the family´s wedding. And then we baptize them saturday. Pretty much a slammed week with assorted other things to accomplish. But its going on. Love all the people here, they´re super funny. I really like the Father in the family we are teaching, we like to chat sometimes and he reads a lot. Cool guy, always has a funny story or joke or something and has really come to be the leader of his family now through the gospel. Kind of neat how its all worked out from then until now. Things just kind of change, and we dont even know until its already gone and this family went from being just one kid we were teaching to all of them as a unified and awesome family that will totally be eternal. So thats pretty cool.

Anyway, I hope everything is going well with all of you. I know the Lord has kept you and blessed you, and for this I am grateful. Its really important that we recognize our Heavenly Father really is a Father, and wants to care for us. I have learned a lot from Him here, and how much He cares for all of His children. I care a lot about them too. The sort of motto I have built up on the mission and what I like to tell people is that we are children of God, and as His children have great potential and purpose. We do not have to live beneath that potential, we just have to make the choice. And that choice is to love. It is either love or something else that is far beneath the potential of a child of God. So glad that the restored gospel has taught me that and I am so glad that my family has given me the priviledge of learning that.

Love you all with all my heart, y que el Señor les cuide siempre,

Con amor,

Elder Sulivan

May 12th - Mothers Day and Baptism

We had a great time Skyping with Elder Sullivan on Mother's Day.  He appears happy and healthy and is in an exciting area where the Gospel is spreading.  Elder Sullivan was able to perform the baptism ordinance in Spanish for the first time on Saturday, May 10th.  He attached many pictures as you see above along with the short note below.

A quick note to post! (And thanks for the photos)

So this week was awesome. We have a lot of progression and its pretty crazy around here. We have an activity this week where we have to do skits (this stuff just never ends). We are hoping the family we are teaching comes through and are working super hard with them. They are scheduled to be married next week and everything and everyone is reading and praying and doing really well. We cooked lunch with/for them and some pan de guineo (banana bread) to celebrate the birthday of their son who just turned 8 (so he is also going to be baptized). So that is super cool.

Also, we baptized two people! A little lady from a banana plantation who cant read really but wow does she have faith. She has retained what we taught her pretty well and shows her faith like no other, actually walking all the way to church without fail early even though she travels the farthest. So she got baptized. Nice lady. Always really kind and funny haha. I finally baptized! A young woman, who even though she is super sassy and always makes fun of us and seems a kind of mean or prickly person, she really isn´t. Strong testimony, and really loves the Lord. After she was baptized she just giggled and laughed and smiled so legitimately it was super cool. Didnt even make fun of my hair. Bore her testimony and stuff (its super cool, and she really didnt want to at first but then she did haha). And she survived the baptism even though I submerged her for a super long time haha. So that was cool! Its fulfulling to help people and impact their lives in way that will impact them forever.

So thats kind of it for now. More later!

Elder Sullivan

May 5th - New Mission President

Hey everybody!

Wow everyone at home is having lots of adventures in Salt Lake, the temple, at home and in the snow! Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated here haha so I kind of missed that but oh well. All that stuff in salt Lake sounds pretty cool, other than the shopping. Thanks for the pictures, Thomas still looks the same (little), and snow looks super weird! It makes me proud that Benson and Andy have taken up jazz music and the higher plane of life as it is. I am sure it rocked the youth world, and told everyone that they must listen to jazz. I didnt know Richard was called to Carolina. Thats cool. I hope that all goes well.

So this week was really cool! President Rodriguez and Hermana Rodriguez are already gone as of Thursday, off in Toronto! They had been saving a long time to go. I completed 9 months in the mission as well on Thursday (wow) and its all sort of going too fast. We are still teaching the super awesome family of 6, 5 of which will be baptized at the end of the month (the other guy is not 8). They are superbly awesome and cool, and have changed so much just from the first lesson we gave. They even follow the commandments (almost, the marriage has to be set this week, and the husband has to stop drinking coffee. He dropped alcohol before so... it shouldnt be bad if he has faith). All is well other than the husband didnt come to church this sunday, so the whole family has to show up the next few sundays. His wife left him in the house when he was tired and didnt really want to go or something and told us ¨well, salvation is personal right?¨ Yeah, until you leave your family without it! Oh well, they are still a really awesome family. We have two baptisms this week that will be happening! A youth and an older lady. They are super cool. The one old lady is that one who walks super far, and she was at church early again, and this time with her daughter and a girl who helps her read sometimes. Lots of faith. The youth is sort of mean and sassy on the outside, but definitely has a testimony and love for the Lord, and all the sufficient knowledge (and months of church attendance). So yeah, its super great. This branch is really close to becoming a ward within the new stake of Azua if everything goes all well. So we have to keep filling the chapel with people until we can complain its too small. The focus is priesthood holders and potential priesthood holders, hence the branch has worked really well with us to help the family we are teaching and has given us a bunch of names of less active families. We just have to push on a little bit more. Converts here can get the Melquisedec (thats the spanish spelling, I dont know what it is in English) priesthood after just a few months. So we could be a stake in my time here in the branch, but only if we work super hard. So far our church attendance has been pretty high and our youth attendance especially. We just have to find more oldies and family types now haha. It wil be a little strange with a sort of backup president for a bit until President Nuckols arrives at the end of this month. But its all good! We are feeling great here doing lots of work and there is great progress, we just have to continue with faith and I have to not fall asleep in our first appointment of each day hahahahahaaha (its really hot and I get sleepy after eating food haha). Usually it means we were in the lesson too long anyway.

Otherwise all is well. I am chilling with Elder Peña and I am learning lots of english kreyol stuff. How fun! I work out lots. Like a lot. I can almost lift the same amount of weight as everyone else but not quite. Maybe in pushups I am equal? Anyway, I cant think of too much else. Oh, Elder Peña lives in Carazol Belize, which is where Amanda went on that HEFY thing. So they totally met. Elder Peña is super cool, and lifts way more weight than I do. And has to talk with the Hermanas on the phone every day (A pain I avoid and just get to eat food and work out at night hahahahahahaah!) He is a good guy, and so are the zone leaders. Nice house to live in, other than the one bathroom thing. We have to do lots of chores for the zone like clean houses and deliver stuff and do stuff like that sometimes. But wow the area is progressing so much, so I cannot complain! The weather is the same, hot. I dunno if I can even return to Canada or how on earth Pres and Hermana Rodriguez are possibly surviving right now. The zone leaders baptized a guy a week ago (maybe I said that already?) Anyway, he has a crazy child who bit me and stuff because he has mental problems but hes a funny kid.

Anyway, I love you all and know that you are all kept safe by the Lord while I am out here. Thank you so much for all your support and prayers, they really do count, I know. Thanks for being such great parents, so that now I can try to help other parents become better too (well, or at least the Lord and the Spirit can but only if I show up`at their house). Know that I love you all, and that the biggest thing I have learned out here on the mission really is about how to love as the Lord loves, and about how much He loves everyone. Never forget that Heavenly Father and Jesus love everyone!

Con amor,

Elder Sullivan

April 28th 2014 letter and pictures

Hey everyone!

Wow everyone is really busy at home, probably busier than me! Have a nice trip in Germany Tasha! Eat lots of Saurkraut and Bratwurst but try not to get too fat! I am not really getting fatter anymore, thanks to all the exercise. We say in our house that everyone is looking for exaltation in it since everyone is always working out in the morning super hard haha. I hope everyone is still doing really well and that someday that kitchen looks like a kitchen again. Sounds like everyone is having fun, and doing good stuff at church. Say hi to Uncle Marty and Aunt Sheila and Holly and Scott and the baby. Sounds like everyone is really excited, how unfortunate however to be consigned to such a Sullivan fate. We have also been having super great food like you guys! Like this super spicy picante sauce someone made for us that is almost as bad as kimthcy spiceness and death! I hope the trip to Utah goes well (here, they call it ¨the factory¨or in spanish, ¨la fabrica¨. haha)

Our house is sprayed with permithirin, so we havent used the mosquito nets, and the area is kind of like a humid desert, so there isnt that many bugs other than large hornets. The malaria medication would kill me out in the sun here, so I havent been taking it. Dont worry, I´ve barely been bitten at all here.

So, in big news, President Rodriguez and his family are leaving this week! They received a visa to move to Toronto in Canada, and so they are finishing their term a couple of weeks early. So off they go to other adventures! We had a big conference with them before they left, and they shared some really interesting things. Its super sad they are leaving, I havent met such wonderfully loving people like them. President Rodriguez is just such a big man full of bigger love. He really cares about his missionaries so much, and really exemplified for me what is charity, christlike love. I am going to miss him and his family. Hermana Rodriguez was such a caring mother to us all. Didnt replace mom, but did her best. Like a dominican told me once ¨El amor de la madre nunca falla¨ Mother´s love never fails. I told them that I hope they got a good impression of Canadians from me and that they are welcomed warmly to the cold lands of canada, and that they bring lots of coats. I pray that my country welcomes them well. President was so grateful for my service, even if it wasnt that much. I remember interviews with him and speaking with him, he liked to always say nice things. He would always talk about his day and how the people I was teaching I better love them and he liked to hear about their lives. He liked to talk about his family, he is probably an awesome father. Anyway, I am going to really miss him he did such great work and did it always with love. My favourite thing he ever shared was when my companion had chosen to leave the mission, he shared in Alma 26 about how Ammon said that when their hearts were discouraged the Lord comforted and consoled them, but told them to return and suffer with patience their afflictions. But then later, those missionaries grew to love their people and their people grew to love them, and they suffered long and hard, but were granted great success. Not higher position, or numbers or something, but the deepest love of the people they served. Maybe Ammon had even suffered by the hands of the people who after held him up, but it was all worth it for him.

That has always stayed with me in the mission. The Lord hasnt asked me to suffer, luckily. Just to love His children and realize how wonderful they are. There is this wonderful family we are teaching, who are absolutely flying through marriage papers and craziness and the only thing lacking is teaching the husband and son a little more. Although the old lady from the banana orchard was not baptized this week, she will be in two. Her daughter had a baby and they came and picked her up to go and help, so it was not God´s will this week. But in two. Our baptism goal for next month is pretty ridicolously high. 7. But its going to happen with faith and effort. And even if we suffer, well thats what the Lord asks and these people need and every last scrap of effort is worth their love. The church is going to have to help the family with the money for the marriage, but we are hopefully soon going to be attending a Dominican marriage! Yeah! Those investigators just keep on trucking! They have a lot of faith. Some guy who thought he was a prophet scared one of our youth investigators when she was reading the book of mormon in front of our house and tried to tell her she had never felt the Holy Ghost because she wasnt having strange seizures and crying and dancing. We clarified that, but she will probably read the book indoors now. The zone leaders invited that guy to church hahahaha. So the other religions really do attack us pretty bad, but the church is strong enough in Azua, although the shame of friends and other people is an obstacle for lots of investigators. I guess too much trust in man and not enough in God.

Anyway, everything is going good. I saw some really awesome movies today, like 17 Miracles. Really cool, all the stories and stuff. The sun is still super hot, but I kind of like it better than the humidity in the night. Baptisms went a little funny... well we are a branch. Everyone had to be baptized in 3 tries haha. And a little kid bit me really hard! Great kid though. He has mental problems he was dropped out of a window once... but hes great and happy and it was really cool, after his dad got baptized the dad came and held him and talked with him (the kid cant talk) and he had him up to his face and the kid was sort of biting his face but way more affectionately than usual and his dad was so happy to be with him. YEAH MIRACLES. Anyway it was super cool.

So I hope everyone is doing super well! Keep the faith! I ate ceviche kind of thing yesterday and it was really good! We will have to eat it in Mexico!

Have a great week everyone!

Siempre con amor,
Elder Sullivan

April 21st Letter and Pictures

Hey everyone!

So I sent some photos earlier, they are of a zone activity we did. We played some games and had a water fight at the chapel it was really cool. I got hit in the face. We made water balloons out of fundas (bags that are super cheap and thin haha). They worked extremely well. Probably too well we got the whole zone wet. It was fun and stuff. Building unity or something (maybe it didnt really have a purpose, but hahahahahaahahaha). I dont have too many other photos kicking around as of yet, I keep forgetting to take one of everyone. Next week I will get one of at least our whole district.

Its really cool to hear about all the nice things happening! Wow, maybe Kyle will be getting married! To a scary scottish lady, but married at least! Haha, kidding. He has to be careful with those who play rugby. Especially ladies rugby. And she enjoyed quadding. Bad sign. But she said yes, so thats good hahaha. I am glad the family is doing well, I hope it justs keeps improving. Tasha will do well on exams, she is smart and intelligent as opposed to her brother, he is not so smart and is still learning how missionary work is really done (since its a little different after you move areas). Yes Elder Peña knows spanish, and he is super comfortable speaking it. Like, all the time. We mostly speak spanish in the house. And watch a lot of movies during lunch and at night. Cool stuff. We have piles of cds of music and movies. Its a fun house, a litle small maybe.

So Easter is super different here. We celebrated Semana Santa (the same as in Mexico) here with the zone activity today. All of everyone else´s weekend of celebration ended today with hangovers. So, the whole easter bunny thing doesnt exist here. Supposedly its a lot more religious here, the whole easter thing. People take the week to do about the same things as we do at home though. It was cool, but almost no one was home. They all went to the beach or something. Everyone was a little late to church, although we did fill the chapel with people! The branch isnt all that big, our chapel is kind of puny, but with it full I think there is a fairly large number of members. And investigators haha. 

With Brian in that picture is his mom and brother. His brother is an active member now, the mom not so much but its coming.

Our big news for the week is that we found this awesome family of 4 kids. Well, they were mostly a reference from a few family members who are members of the church, but we managed to follow up really well starting with the mom. She already has a testimony after just the First Vision, so she just needs to keep going! The dad is a stepdad but a super good one. They all came to church on sunday together and really liked it. We went that night with the movie ¨On the Way Home¨ and they really learned from it and loved it. Its the story of a family coping with the death of their youngest daughter, how they really fell apart, but then recover because of christ and a mormon friend and sister missionaries. Anyway, in all the family gets baptized and looks forward to being together forever. It realy stuck with the family, and so we extended the baptism invitation. They have all accepted for the end of may! We are superbly excited, we really love and care about this family, and they are doing a bunch of cool stuff. They read together and pray together and are arriving at a testimony together! We have been working a lot for them, and just hope that they keep on going and get through to the end. They are really close, but we still have weeks to go haha. Anyway, its really cool how the gospel sort of just enters people´s lives and they change. Their faces are already different. We are seeing some changes in their home life, and hopefully it just gets better! Its fun to be with a whole family like this. Reminds me of our family and that we are doing the same, all on the path to eternity. We shared with the family about losing family members, as the dad lost his dad recently, and it seemed to really strike him that nothing really ends. There are only mortal endings, and eternal begginings. Super neat our lives are. All it takes now is perseverance and prayer! We are really getting close to them, and Elder Peña doesnt want to leave next transfer so he can see their baptism. I hope that happens.

We also are having a baptism on saturday (triple baptism, the zone leaders and one of the hermanas are having baptisms as well). She is this really old looking lady who is actualy only 48 but smoking destroyed her. She has quit though, and given up all of that and is keeping all the commandments. She cant read, so thats a challenge, but we have assigned the Relief Society to go read with her. She lives out in this far off thing called Finka 6. Its sort of a banana orchard town thing. 30 minute walk from the house on a gravel road. Worth it to see this lady. She doesnt understand much, but has truly shown faith already. She walks to church every sunday for a little under an hour. She leaves early to get there an half hour early to be sitting in the chapel. She has diabetes and a bunch of other health problems, but still comes to church with her kids that her now gone and divorced husband left. So we call that real faith. She gets there before we do (although, we do take a guy in a wheelchair who was less active until now, so thats our excuse haha). So that faith and having the spirit is getting her baptized, but the Relief Society is going to have to work with the retention thing (visiting teaching and home teaching is always poorly executed, but we be getting there).

Anyway so yeah, we teach cool people. Another youth is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. She´s smart and has gained a testimony, so it will happen if we can finish teaching her (she is always sleeping at home....) We kind of need to find people now, or next transfer will be nothing but knocking on doors and bothering members haha. I do like bothering people though, and yelling ¨buenas!¨ into every single door.

So we do cool things. The work is nice here. The place is more relaxing and I think it looks pretty. People say its really hot, but everyone always says that about everywhere so.... ah well. The zone is fun, its kind of strange having hermanas but most of them are cool. Although every night my companion has to call them and thats kind of bothersome (it takes a while to talk with hermanas).Otherwise its a nice chill area There are stil all those non progressing investigators haning around, but at least they are not all the investigators this time!

So its nice here. Hot and sunny, another day in paradise or something like that. But awesome. I like the work here. Its been really fulfilling and it fills me everytime we see people now. I feel a deep love for the people we have been working with now. The members are cool here, one young man bothers me haha but everyone else is cool. People still think Im japanese sometimes. Or something. But they all love to hear about canada.

I am so glad to have my eternal family with all of you. Always in my prayers and heart. Thank you for everything, it has blessed me and every one of these people out here that have had the priviledge of getting to know the eternal family of God, or at least my part of it.

With all my love,

Elder Sullivan