Dear Family and Friends,

Olá! Como vai? Everything is going good here in Brasil. It has been pretty rainy, but I like rain so it’s not a big deal.

We had two missionaries return home this past month and this week I went on a division with both! It was way cool. Elder Hiar (my comp) has tons of work so while he chills here in the office I just go out with the RMs and visit people. It’s cool to share ideas and see how different missions can be. For example one dude served in Japan, there is a rule there that you can’t talk to women on the street!! I couldn’t imagine that.. here that’s all there is in the street, all the men are always working. The other guy went to BYU and we got talking about our experiences there, good stuff.

This week I got to do two baptismal interviews, two really cool boys. One wanted to get baptized so bad he was afraid of not passing the interview, it was hilarious. I told him usually people don’t pass because they committed a crime or something, so unless you committed a crime you got nothing to worry about! They both passed, and I will interview one more girl tonight, all will be baptized today! Pretty cool huh? As for my area and baptisms, things aren´t going to well. We still haven’t marked any dates for baptism, but we are trying! Our mission has a special lesson called the Lesson of the Atonement. It’s pretty much for any person who can’t make a decision. It’s funny because it’s like a memorized lesson, not like the Preach My Gospel lessons where you just study the stuff and teach it how you want. So it took us a while to get the hang of it. We shared it with a lady who is the wife of some guy who was baptized a few years ago, unfortunately she didn´t accept baptism and says she needs to wait some more. Its good though because to be honest we have been wasting our time with some people who are going nowhere, we need to focus on finding NEW people and working with them.

We got to go to the temple, man it was so awesome! President and his wife came too and it was an amazing experience. I brought my patriarchal blessing and read it in the celestial room, WOW! It opens up your mind to a while new perspective. One thing I learned that was way cool: We shouldn´t just read and study the scriptures. We need to ponder on the words. When you study in the morning, continually reflect on it and through this process the Lord blesses us with understanding and wisdom. Also, it keeps our minds and thoughts focused on the important things and they aren´t empty for Satan to come in and put in bad thoughts or temptations. So I need to ponder more. I’m not much of a ponderer, but I’m working on it!

Well that’s about it. Hope you all have a good week. Send me letters and packages full of candy and wonderful things from the United States. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Elder Boyack

Dear Person reading this letter,

This week was pretty good. Luckily I am not freezing my butt off which always is a good thing. Things here at the office are starting to slow down. I get things done pretty quickly so I pretty much did 6 weeks of work done in about 4, usually that takes a person a couple of transfers to get used to! Guess I am just amazingly talented..  HA!

This week we had zone conference. It was really cool. We learned a lot and at the end Presidente Araujo gave a talk about the 3 kingdoms of glory, so awesome. We got some really good ideas to help missionary work move along, for example this chapel is probably the coolest one in Curitiba, it even has a huge soccer court (not a field). So you know brazillians and their soccer, we are going to get the three wards here to work together to get a weekly soccer thing going, should work out great!! Tonight we are going to have a gincana, not sure the word in English but there will be tons of fun games and stuff!

We also had a training this week for all the District leaders in Curitiba because they never get trained! President just calls them and they do what they think they are supposed to haha. So they set some rules and I got to give a training on baptismal forms (I got to show them some pretty ridiculous ones I get from them, pretty hilarious).

Today for p-day we went with President to a cool Japanese Immigrant Expo at some huge park. So there was some cool booths and reaaalllly good food. I am pretty tired though so I was definitely ready to take a nap!

Because the work has been slowing down, I will read an Ensign or some talk from and apostle to pass the time. I am really concerned with the “after(mission)life” haha. So what I am doing is establishing rules that I will do when I am back home. For example on the mish, you have a set hour every day to read the scriptures. There is nothing else to do so you do it anyways then eventually learn to love it. Out in the world you don’t have that set hour. Our schedule always changes and it’s hard to keep things programmed. Then people stop reading and start to give excuses and what not. I will not let that happen.

Also I was thinking the other day about what President said about the 3 kingdoms of glory. I became horribly frightened with the thought of just going to the Terrestrial kingdom… I can’t even imagine how terrible that would be to not be able to live in the presence of God and Jesus Christ. I became really scared! Some people just don’t ever think about it and live life normally. My view of this life and our purpose really has changed dramastically. Some people get so caught up in the present the completely forget about the past and future. I hope this week you can all try to broaden your thought perspective and remember the true purpose of life. Remember that our thoughts and actions are what determine who we are, and that is how we will be judged in the final judgment.

This weekend is a very special one. They don’t celebrate it here in Brazil but happy father’s day!! I would like to congratulate all of the Fathers reading this, especially my brother Connor. I also would like to publicly thank my own Father for all he has done for me. He has always been there to listen and I have seen him sacrifice much of what he has, especially his own time, for his wife and sons. Thank you Dad for all you have done for me, especially here on the mission. You are a big example in my life and I look forward to walking in your footsteps raising my own family. There is an amazing short film (Mormon Message) that the church put out about Fathers, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhqRMP9meMc

I love you all, be strong and keep the faith!!
ELDER Boyack

My dearest Family and Friends,

Today I was going through my letters people have written me and I really could feel the love. So amazing! Its funny how when you leave high school, you lose all those people that weren’t really good friends. Then when you go on a mission, you really come to know who actually loves you and is thinking of you. I have so many amazing friends and an outstanding family I cant even begin to go on about it! There is one method of contacting people and it goes something like this “Hello! I would like you ask you a quick question, what of all things in your life is the most important?” About 90% of people say their family! Family really is the most important part of our life and I hope none of us ever think otherwise.

Things are going really well here is Brasil. I got bit by a monkey and woke up with a snake wrapped around my neck, not to mention the billions of mosquitoes that eat my arms and legs all day. JUST KIDDING! That’s a big joke here that when the Americans get their call they imagine a jungle with monkeys in the street and what not. Here it’s actually a really nice place. The houses are a little different but other than that it’s normal.

I am getting a lot better at work here in the office. I always look for the easiest way to do things and get it done in much faster time. Next Tuesday we have Zone Conference and its gunna be sweet. I think I will give training, not sure. The weather is warming up, a little bit. The work is slowing down here, its such a challenge. We have to do everything the normal missionaries do, in about 1/8 of the time. Sometimes I get pretty bummed out about it. Not fun!

This past Sunday we had a new boy come to our ward, his name is Eduardo and hes 8. He does commercials and stuff and is by far the most intelligent and awesome 8 year old in the world. Sadly he has a really messed up family who doesn’t live in our ward boundaries but they love us so much I think they are all going to come to this ward anyways!! We will see…

I am almost done reading Doctrine and Covenants!! So good. I miss the Book of Mormon though, MAN I love reading that book. I learned so much. We explained to a lady the other day that the bible and Book of Mormon aren’t like other books. You don’t just read it and your done you know everything. They are scripture. You can read them a MILLION times and no matter how many you still learn new things. Amazing huh? Never forget that! Have a great week I love you all, and PLEASE, share the gospel. Its so important. And even better, it’s a commandment!! So if you aren’t doing it, REPENT. Haha have a good week!

Love,
Elder Parker Boyack

Dear everyone,

What a week! First let me start of by describing how horribly cold it has been here. I have been freezing my butt off. When I heard I was going to Brazil, I thought it was going to be like Arizona weather, little did I know I would be living in a Utah climate!! Today it warmed up a little, but its still freezing! I was talking with Elder Hiar and we decided the best time to be in the office is during the summer, because there is air conditioning. So unfortunately we are here in the winter… Anyways things are rolling along.

This past Sunday I gave a talk on the blessings of the gospel. I gave the members a little “queimadinha” (little burn) on how they aren’t doing what they need to be when it comes to missionary work. This ward is a pretty old one as in it has been around a long time so here they don’t like it when some new missionary comes in and tells them what to do. Well at least that’s what the last missionary told me. I don’t care! People need the occasional “arousing of their faculties” to realize what they are NOT doing.

Every first week of the transfer is the Zone Leader Counsel. All the zone leaders from the mission come here and there is a big day-long conference. Really cool. I got to give a training on the new referrals site, I did very well!  Also it was cool to see my trainer Elder Boswell, he is in the furthermost zone of our mission so I only see him once a transfer now.

So we broke a mission record in May! We had the biggest baptizing month in mission history! Actually the first month it opened they had 200, we got 175 this month. It was so cool. People are starting to work harder and desire baptisms. President is working really hard and its paying off!

So  I have really come to learn something these past couple weeks. You will get a much better result if you have 100 people praying for your investigator then just the 2 missionaries. So this week I am going to ask for your help. This month (June) me and Elder Hiar have a goal of 4 baptisms. We have many perspective investigators, but all of them are going to need divine help. SO please put these people in your prayers (family, and personal) and ask Heavenly Father to bless them with a desire to be baptized, feel the spirit, etc. Here is the list:

-Adalton (really cool guy who is very interested, recently got back in contact with him)
-Idete and Bruna (wife and daughter of our last baptism, Nadir)
-Hilda (wife of member, cant overcome habits and doubts some doctrine of the church)
-Alana (daughter of a recent convert, mom doesn’t think she is ready to be baptized)
-Fabrícia and Eduardo (amazing family who just NEEDS an answer this is all true)
-Renato and Rose (very nice couple, NEED to go to church!!)

PLEASE help us out. I know that Heavenly Father will bless us if we sincerely ask with faith. And if you think 4 is a lot, just to let you know the goal for the month of June of the assistants is 16!! They are really exercising their faith, they even shared their goal with the bishopric and the ward.

This is the truth, and we MUST share it!! It’s a commandment! So if you aren’t helping out with missionary work (doing divisions, giving referrals, etc.) you are breaking a commandment and need to repent. May we all try harder this week to be instruments in the Lords hands by bringing people to the true church of Jesus Christ. That way, we can get blessings! Just like D and C says, every commandment has its specific blessings. I don’t know about you, but I loooooooooove blessings Haha! Have a great week, and write me a letter or email telling me HOW and WHAT you did to be a missionary this week. Whoever wins gets a famous Elder Boyack smoothie. Tchau!

Elder Boyack
Praça Joseph Smith 15
Portão – Curitiba – PR
80610-210   BRASIL

Dear World,

Im curious how many people actually read my emails… my estimate, about 1000. AH! Anyways I am doing amazing. We had transfers this past week which means my trainer Elder Cardoso took off and left me all alone (with Elder Hiar the finiancial secretary)!! Anyone who is familiar with military terms knows what I mean when I say this week is my “hell week.” But its almost over! Yesterday we had a meeting with President and scheduled all the zone conferences, temple trips, etc. So much work ahead of me…

One “novidade” of this transfer is I was called as a district leader!! My district includes the secretaries, assistants, and another companionship next to our area. I was blown away. I figured President would let me wait a few transfers to get the hang of being the executive secretary but nooooo. So now besides doing all my office work, I have to take care of a district! I am excited I know that the Lord will help me with ALL this work I have to do. I had my first baptismal interview last night! The district leader does the interviews for the people in his district. So the assistants had a 13-year-old boy, he was way cool, and more importantly, he passed! Hooray for baptisms.

So this past Tuesday night I got to hang out with one of the new missionaries, his name is Elder Denis. He went to the interior so they stay the night at our house and get shipped out the next day. So he has the collest conversion story ever. He was living in Boston, and one day he was getting his hair braided (he is black.. ). Then all of the sudden a book of mormon commercial came on! His mom wanted one so they called and a week later it came, in the mail.. (normally missionaries deliver it) So he started reading it and was really liking it, THEN the missionaries showed up, and baptized the whole family! Even cooler was he has a sister that wasn’t living at home at that time and was having lots of problems, then later on he got to baptize her! So awesome… He is a straight up gangster with a boston accent, and just a way chill dude.

So last week I mentioned a book I am reading (“Drawing on the Powers of Heaven” by Grant Von Harrison). It is officially my favorite book. There are so many things that I have learned, so many thing I need to work on! One thing that really drew my attention this past week was the subject of the gifts of the spirit. Listen to the following quote from George Q. Cannon: “How many of you… are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in your family circle or in your secret places, contend for these gifts to be bestowed upon you? How many of you ask the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to manifest himself to you through these powers and these gifts? Or do you go along day by day like a door truing on its hinges, without having any feeling upon the subject, without exercising any faith whatever; content to be baptized and be members of the Church, and to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have done this?

God is the same today as He was yesterday;… (He) is willing to bestow these gifts upon his children. I know that God is willing to heal the sick, that He is willing to bestow the gift of discerning spirits, the gift of wisdom, of knowledge and of prophecy, and other gifts that may be needed.”

How awesome is that! There are SO many gifts of the spirit we can have, all we have to do is four things:

1 Study the gift, learn all you can about it
2 DESIRE the gift (read last weeks email)
3 Ask the Lord to give you it
4 Be obedient!

“I can promise you that the spirit is a whole lot more anxious to help you than you are to be helped” – S. Dilworth Young. We need to learn to ASK, and SEEK these gifts. We all have weaknesses, none of us are perfect, but the Lord can help us with out righteous desires by blessing us with the gifts of the Holy Ghost. I hope we can all understand more the significance of these spiritual gifts, and strive to obtain them. Have a grrrreat week, I love you all!

Your fellow brother in the gospel,
Elder Parker Boyack

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am humbled by this opportunity to speak with you all today. I pray that these words will help each one of you in your busy lives.

This week was good and bad. Good as in we got lots of work done in the mission office, but bad because we didn´t get much done in our area. We have transfers next week so we are getting ready for the verdinhos (greenies) to get here and we are getting all the flights ready for the missionaries who are leaving. Usually President does the transfers the Sunday before transfers day, but he has been working almost this whole transfer with it and pretty much finished. We have been really growing as a mission, our last group was about 15 new missionaries, we are getting 15 this Tuesday, then 15 more the next transfer! Then leaving there are only 3 this transfer and 5 the next. So we are in a big need of trainers and let me tell you it takes a GOOD missionary to train so President has spent lots of time back in his office.

So one of my duties is the baptismal forms. Every time someone is baptized and confirmed, the missionaries send me the form with all their information then we send it all to church headquarters. I have to enter every paper into the computer, you get pretty good at it So as you could imagine, the best mission in the world has a lot of baptisms! So lots of baptisms means lots of forms and information. So I was having a little trouble organizing everything. I asked a few other missions how they were doing it and their methods weren´t really good either. So I came up with this amazing excel spreadsheet to help track everything. The church doesn’t have any official program or method, so I sent my spreadsheet to São Paulo (Brazil LDS Headquarters) and they loved it! So things are going well, I am just not looking forward to this Wednesday when Elder Cardoso (my trainer) leaves! Then if something happens I can’t blame it on him! HAHA but I am confident I will do a good job.

So the other day I was getting a haircut and you are going to laugh, but honestly it was the first time I have looked into a mirror and seen a man. I really have grown up so much here on the mish. I can see it and feel it mentally. I am thinking different. I love reading! I never liked it as a teenager haha. Jeffrey R. Holland claims to be the person most affected by his mission, but I would say I am pretty close. I just couldn´t imagine not going. This is such an amazing opportunity and experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

This past week I found a book by Grant Von Harrison called Drawing on the powers of Heaven. (computer crashed here, thank goodness for Word auto-save!!). So this book is so small but packed with amazing things. I have learned a lot about desire. In your words what does desire mean? To wish? So for example, I have the desire to learn how to play the piano well. Do I just wish to play it well or do something about it? Mr. Von Harrison describes a desire as a “motivating conviction.” So if I TRULY have a desire to learn how to play the piano well, I will practice DAILY and work hard at it, AND have the faith I can accomplish my goal. So then I asked myself, what is my desire on the mission? One word, BAPTISMS! I must admit, my desire of baptisms was the wrong definition at first, just a wish. But now I realize that if I truly desire to help people discover the truth, I need to work HARD. I cant just sit on my butt all day here in the office and expect to see people flocking to the baptismal font. So I challenge you to ask yourself, “what is my ultimate desire?” If it’s a righteous desire, God will help you to accomplish what you want. But what are you doing about it? We need to CONSTANTLY stay focused on what we want. If we relax and let our minds wander, things enter in that hinder our progress. We must focus on what we desire and work towards it. I tesify that the Lord will help us if we ask. He loves us and wants us to be happy. We our children of our Heavenly Father and he has made a perfect plan for us to return to live with him for eternity. That is why it is so important that we show our love and faith to him by keeping the commandments, praying, and listening to his servant the prophets.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, I hope you can ponder on these things and change your lives for the better! Have a wonderful week!

Dear Family and Friends,

Good afternoon! How are things over there in the United States?! Things are doing good here. Guess what? In about 1 hour we have a baptism!! We have been teaching this family and the father (Nadir (pronounced Nah-gir)) is getting baptized! The mother doesn’t have much interest and she won’t let her daughter get baptized, YET! It will be awesome, and don’t worry, I will send pictures

Yesterday I went on a division with one of our Zone Leaders Elder Knowles. He is a pretty cool guy. It rained the entire day, and luckily I forgot my umbrella, but it was ok. We taught some really cool families.

So today we cleaned our entire house, I love cleaning! Then Elder Hiar, one of my companions who happens to love cooking, decided he was going to make lasagna! It was soooooo good. One cool thing I started the other day is this system to help me get down my routine i.e. brush teeth, study scriptures, pray, etc. So for every thing I need to do throughout the day there is a two sided circle, one side red the other green. So at the beginning of the day everything is red then when I do that thing I get to flip it to green. Pretty lame sounding I know, but it REALLY helps me! I still haven’t figured out the prize I get when I have an all green day. Usually the one circle I always miss is exercising haha! But I am learning…

I have officially become the household barber! Haha I have some natural hair cutting gift, but I hate cutting hair.. pretty funny. So I charge 1 real (about 45 cents) per haircut. I am making some gooood money.

This week was a rush, we are getting into zone conferences so I have to get everything ready. I am working really hard and loving it. I thought I was going to give the training I did a few weeks ago but President wanted me to stay here so he had the AP’s do my training. I was actually bummed out because I really enjoyed doing it.

We have really been blessed recently with some good referrals. Elder Zucaratto the assistant said something cool the other day, ”if we don’t find the elects, they will find us!” so true.. in fact quite often people walk in here wanting to know more, SO AWESOME!

I really love this work. I really need to get better at it! There is always so much to learn and do. And most important, we can NEVER stop. Just like the prophets say, EVERY member a missionary!

Dear World,

Olá! Como vai? Se quiser eu posso escrever em portugues mas eu vou falar inglês para que vocês possam entender. Tá bom? Haha throw that in Google Translater and it should come out right.. For whoever has seen other side of heaven, remember the part when he reads the bible in tongan then when he finishes he practically forgot English? That’s how I am feeling! EVERYTHNG is Portuguese here so you start thinking and dreaming differently. Its funny though because when I wake up I am not completely mentally “with it” so I talk in English expecting a response from someone but no one understands! Pretty funny sometimes.

Things are going great here. It has been colllld all week. And its not even officially winter yet! But its all good, I don’t mind the cold. I dry cleaned my suit and some ties and they are just like new! Makes me so happy

Well as most of you know I was called as the executive secretary. I will let you all in on what exactly I do from 9 to 6 Monday though Friday. One of the main things I do I get people in and out of the mission. I schedule flights, vans, etc. for all the missionaries and President when he goes to the interior. I also deal with all the Baptism Forms, when someone baptizes a person they fill out a form and they all get sent to me. I enter them all into the church system, pretty time consuming but someone has to do it! I also deal with the governmental stuff, visas, and passports. So a couple times each transfer I take the greenies and missionaries passing 1 year and we have to do some paperwork fo their documents. I am pretty much the secretary for the president so any times he needs something he has me do it. There are lots of other things, im just not thinking of them right now! I am a pretty creative person so I have been giving a lot of new ideas to president, for example we are making a mission website! Its so sweet. Also we got cool temple recommend holders and I am making a design for a cool mission pin. Then once and a while there is the good ol training to all the missionaries.

THEN after 6 every day we get to work in the field until 9. The work is going pretty well here, its not the easiest area. We have 4 people marked for baptism, and almost all our investigators and FAMILIES!! There are lots of others that we are working with that are so close! What a blessing… so be ready for baptism announcements! Its funny because in the 3 areas I have passed through so far, EVERY time I came in the bishopbric changed. So I think my next area I will call the bishop and give him an early warning…

I have been dealing with a lot of contention lately. Contention in the office, in the companionship, with other missionaries, and I hate it! I have always hated contention. I don’t have much patience either so it’s a pretty funny mix. So the other day I began to study peace. It was really cool. I learned a lot about how we live in a world full of contention, strife, anger and hatred. But WE who took upon ourselves the name of Christ need to be peace makers. Instead of arguing, try to find solutions. SO many problems in this world could be solved if people forgot their differences and just tried to have peace. Some people are hardhearted and just like to be mean all the time. Its funny to see when one person is in a bad mood, EVERYONE around them gets in a bad mood!! So we need to be an example to everyone around us. People will see the light and peace and will WANT IT. They will ask why we are always happy, its happened to me already. So this week, I want YOU, yes you reading this letter, to make peace. At work, at home, with friends, whatever. Keep this in your mind and remember it so when the moments come you can be a peacemaker!! That’s just one small step to following the example of Christ. I love you all, peace out!!

Dear everyone,

Well another week has gone by. And WOW let me tell you, this was a tough one. The weather here has been really gray all week. I actually enjoy it. The clouds provide nice shade but it never gets too cold. The food is GREAT. This ward is pretty  (REALLY) rich so there is always really good food and lots of it. Elder and Sister Owens (the missionary couple that works here in the office) always make cookies and american food so that is always awesome!

Yesterday we had Zone Leader Council. It is something I never knew about but happens once every transfer. All the Zone Leaders from the mission come to the mission headquarters and they have a daylong training. So this whole week we have been preparing everything. Thursday, the day before, we went downtown to do some stuff and it took a little while. When we got back, President had sent me several emails with the subject line: ELDER BOYACK. My comp said, “welcome to the office!” Haha so I had lots to do, and to top it off, he wanted me to give a training to the ZL´s about how to work with the ward leaders in helping recent converts stay active. I never got scared or nervous, I think I got some of my mom’s public speaking abilities It went very well and President liked it so much he wants me to give my training at all the Zone Conferences this transfer! AH! Oh well it will be awesome. It was pretty funny though because about a week ago I was a senior. And now I am training the ZONE leaders on how to better their zones. And to top it off, my trainer Elder Boswell was there. So I was training my trainer!! So weird haha.

There is lots of stress here in the office a lot. One thing I am not a fan of. I have always had problems with patience, and this is REALLY helping me to work on it. My comp, Elder Hiar, just had his birthday. He is 28 YEARS OLD! Haha he had to get special permission from the prophet to go on a mission! So cool. He is really good at arguing, so I always try to just avoid him haha. Here is Brazil they think a guy named Santos Dumont invented the airplane, when we all know it really was the Wright Brothers. It’s a huge deal that will NEVER be solved until the millennium haha. Elder Cardoso (my trainer) really likes music and plays the piano VERY well. I was thinking about how crazy it is going to be when he leaves me here all alone. I will not know what to do!!

I have officially passed 9 months on the mission. It has flown by, and from what I hear, time goes by 2x faster here in the office, so before I know it I will be home! AHH! So weird to think about it. It makes me want to run out and baptize as many people as possible. This area is really difficult, I really miss my last one. SO much easier.. I really miss the Bronovski family (we baptized their two kids Enrique and Natalia), I wanted to stay and baptize the parents. BUT that’s the life of a missionary. They say “Once you really become a perfect missionary, you are already flying home”. These two years serving the Lord REALLY test your faith. Its just like a muscle. You have to exercise it and consistently use it to get strong. If you stick it in a sling and sit on your butt all day, it shrinks and shrivels. I have so many different emotions EVERY day that you really learn self control. I am SO incredibly glad I made a decision to do this. And I have seen SO many things that I need to change in my life. For example, I never really shared the source of my many blessings with anyone. I had SO many chances I lost to share the gospel. So to make it up I made a promise that the moment I get home I am taking the missionaries on a day long division and we are going to visit every person I know. A guy in my last ward said he is going to hold a block party and invite everyone he knows that ISNT a member and the missionaries then he is going to bear his testimony to everyone and invite them to be taught by the missionaries. He said he is doing this because he doesn’t want to be at the judgement and have a bunch of people pointing their fingers at him saying, “YOU knew, and you never told us”. That is so awesome! That’s how everyone needs to be. Be BOLD, and stand up to ANYone. This IS the church of Jesus Christ. We have the priesthood. We are the only church that has temples!!! It is all true.

Elder Parker Joel Boyack

Dear Family and Friends,

WOW. What an insane week. Let me fill you in on what happened. So Monday night the Zone Leaders call us with all the info about the upcoming transfers (which happen on Wednesday). The past transfer was only 5 weeks, there is always one 5 week transfer per year and because of the shortage of time president never got around to doing interviews with our zone. So before the transfer call I get a call from President. He started asking me questions about my worthiness and all that, I figured he was just doing a quick over the phone interview. But then when he finished he said “Congratulations Elder Boyack, I am calling you to be my new Executive Secretary.” I was like “serious?!” Then he said “of course! You start tomorrow morning at 10 am so start packing. It was funny because me and Elder Miller had calculated the percentages of the next transfer. 60% chance I would leave, 38% chance I would stay one more with Elder Miller, and 2% chance I would stay and train. I remember I had one quick thought, “what if I become secretary?” I was very excited. I didn’t feel nervous at all. I got everything packed up and got here at 10 in the morning. I had a good talk with president and we helped the new incoming missionaries get everything worked out.

I really have been humbled by this. I was telling Elder Cardoso (the current exec. Secretary who is training me this transfer) that I felt like I was the 2nd counselor in the young men’s presidency who got called to the seventy!! I live with the secretaries and AP´s and I am Presidents right hand man. I finally have a Brazilian companion! Man it’s so awesome. With an American you are supposed to speak Portuguese, but you just slip into habits and speak English everywhere. But it’s hilarious because I am helping all the Brazilians in my house (Elder Zuccaratto(AP) Elder Cardoso(Exec. Sec.) and Elder Hiar(Financial Sec.) to learn English and they are helping me perfect my Portuguese. There are many positives to being a secretary. Air conditioning, microwave, dryer, nice house, president takes you cool places, you learn a TON, I could go on. Oh my favorite, I am the one who picks up the mail The one down side, you don’t get to do much missionary work. We have a proselyting area called Agua Verde (green water and we leave the office at 6 hours every day to work. It’s a really rich area so it’s hard work but it’s great.

Working so close to President you really see how inspired he is. The other day we had a staff meeting and it transformed into a mini district meeting with President. He is so in-tune with the spirit and knows what the Lord wants. I truly believe I have been prepared by the Lord for this work. My language is going amazing; some people are starting to think I am Brazilian! I have been so blessed by the Lord, and I am so grateful for it! This truly is the Church of Jesus Christ. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Boyack

Address:
Praça Joseph Smith 15
Portão – Curitiba – PR
80610-210   BRASIL