DEER family and friends (HA! Get it??

Feliz natal! Merry Christmas! Just got off the phone talking with the family. Man its nice to talk to them. Here it doesn´t seem christmasy so its hard to really enjoy it but the presents and telephone call were awesome J Things are going well here. I felt terrible yesterday but got some rest and im feeling a lot better. The work here is pretty slow especially during this time. Pretty much everyone told us to come back around January 7th.. But we are working hard so things will start going well

This weekend we have a baptism, her name is Rosali. Her husband has already been baptized but she had a bad smoking problem. She finally stopped but wanted to wait a month to make sure she would have no problems, should be great! I talked to Elder Boswell and he said Ezequiel and Jandira STILL haven´t gotten baptized because she smoked again.. UGH! Man I REALLY hate cigarettes. Its a big problem here in Brazil you will see like 12 year olds walking around smoking. All it is is a waste of money, life and it makes you stink!! Plus its so addictive its really hard to stop. Man I am grateful we have the Word of Wisdom and that I never had any problems with it..

Christmas eve was pretty uneventful,  I was feeling terrible so I just went to bed early, then this morning I woke up early and we went to a members house and made pancakes with maple syrup J yumm. Then we played some soccer and then had lunch at a members house, then made our calls home. Well I am out of time but I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas!

I am so grateful for our savior and everything he did for us. Without him we are nothing. A missionary told me the other day he was feeling really down and saw a quote on his wall that said “you are never alone”. AMEN! Remember that always. I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,
ELDER BOYACK

Address:
Rua Carlópolis 119 (Fundos)
Pinheirinho – Curitiba – PR
81880-390
BRASIL

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I had transfers today. I really thought I would stay in my old area but my comp Elder Boswell is training again, so I left! My new area is in south Curitiba and from what I have heard, is not doing to good. They don´t really have a good batch of investigators and their members don´t really go on splits. But I am going to change all of that (with the help of my comp, Elder Spendlove). He has been out for a year and 7 months and is from Monroe, Utah, some city in the middle of Utah. He is a really cool guy and we are going to have no problems. I wanted a Brazillian so I could practice my portuguese, but the Lord had other plans for me J

This week was great. Our second counselor took us to a Churrascaria where they walk around with big skewers of meat and give you whatever you ask for. Its BRAND new and realllly nice. Good stuff J I really love the members from my old ward, I was just getting to have good friendships with all of them, and I left without getting to say by to any of them, kind of hard for me. We had a Ward Chirstmas Dinner on Saturday, which went great. There were tons of investigators and tons of people brought their friends.

We had Everson marked for baptism but when we taught him the word of wisdom he told us he has a lot of problems with it. Which really bummed me out because he is the coolest guy ever. He told us he knows the church is true and wants to get baptized as soon as possible, and he is working hard to stop all the problems he has. I said bye to him last night and told him I want to hear about his baptism J

Ezequiel and Jandira didn´t get baptized either because we got a call from President saying we had to wait one more week to make sure Jandira has overcome her smoking problem. This is like the 5th time their baptism has been pushed back… ridiculous. BUT they are getting baptized this weekend, sadly I will not be there.

So talking a little bit more about transfers, we got a call Monday night telling us what was up. I have to tell you it was a complete surprise, I didn´t want to leave, and its hard for me to keep a positive attitude. I don´t know why but I have a hard time with change. But I know that’s one thing that I am going to get used to. The mission is awesome. It is incredibly hard work and really tries your emotions but I am so glad I am here. I am learning so much and even better helping people find the true church. Im not really good at writing spiritual letters and describing my feelings, but I do know this Church is true and am so grateful to be a missionary. Thanks for all your support and prayers, I love you!

Love,
Elder Boyack

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

Here are some of Parker’s latest videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no6u2vKSlRg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTZhDnoVZfs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDKGOR-m-80

Hello hello Everyone,

This week was greeeeeeeat. The weather has been SO crazy! We have had a couple freak storms that last for about and hour, then the sun comes back and it gets really hottt. Its really feeling like summer. It´s funny cuz when i put on sunblock, me and my comp get really distracted because its like we are at the beach Today our zone went to Barigüi Park. Its a huge park with a lake in the middle of Curitiba, and a big part of it is just natural jungle. So we went on a hike and I got some sweet pictures, but sadly I forgot my cable so I will show you all the pictures next week. My dad and brother should be updating my flickr site with all my pictures, www.flickr.com/parkerboyack i think that is the link.

On Saturday one of our members made us a huge churrasco (barbeque). He gave us each a huge tbone steak then just kept telling us to eat more and more. Honestly I have never eaten so much meat it my life. I didnt eat for like 12 hours after that! Today we went to McDonalds, and last night for pday’s eve we made tacos We discovered a new pizza place nearby that has PEPPERONI!! Its so good, here it is normally rare and expensive. As usual, I am enjoying the food here. I am scared though because this is supposedly the best place in the mission when it comes to member meals and stuff, so Im nervous haha

Monday night we had a Family Home Evening at our new convert, Marildas house. She is so awesome! She invited like a million people and made pizzas and her specail strawberry cheesecake. It was really good. We had a good Chirstmas message and made Christmas cards. We are trying to work with the rest of her family, whats funny is we were first teaching her mom and sister but then we met her and she got baptized so now we are back to her mom and sister, but its sweet cuz she is always there. She was confirmed Sunday and is having a blast. Me and Elder Boswell have been showering her with gifts (a new triple, dvds, motabs, piuctures, books, magazines) so i guess she felt bad and bought us something It ended up being a white shirt, socks, and some candy. Pretty much anything a missionary needs!

Saturday night we had the casamento(marriage) of Ezequiel and Jandira. Ok first we had to take them to the city office to get legally married. There were three couples there. NOT ONE of them held hands, hugged, or kissed when they were pronounced husband and wife. NOTHING! Then during the wedding it was almost the same. No one smiles in the pictures, and there is very little affection. Let me jsut say, I am going to have the biggest smile my WHOLE wedding haha I got some great pictures I will show you all next week from the wedding. Jandira was having a really hard time quitting smoking so we had to wait one more week to baptize them, so this sunday we are baptizing them both!! FINALLY!!!

We are also baptizing a guy we have been working with, I have talked about him a couple times. His name is Everson. He is awesome. His mom is already a memeber and fell away when she moved, but she knows like the whole ward already from just random things, so she wont have a problem reactivating, she came to church and loved it. Everson came to church the second time and loved it, tons of people were like hey when is your baptism?! He said “i hope soon” so we were like ughh can we come over today? So we went over taught them and marked him for baptism this sunday. Our recent convert Marilda asked him when he is getting baptized and he said he is preparing then she said that all starts AFTER baptism So that really helped him feel better about getting baptized. So if everything goes right, 3 baptisms this weekend!!

This past week I went through the tower of Ensign/Liahona magazines and got out all the conference ones. I LOVE reading the talks. There are so many good ones that I missed. I LOVE conference I found a lot of really cool talks that have really helped me out. The church magazines are awesome.

I love being a missionary. Even though you get weird looks and EVERONE asks why both our names our elder, and we have to wear pants in the searing heat, its awesome. You really gain a big appriciation for all your blessings. Its hard tiring work, but its great. Mosiah 2:17 really helps you realize who we are serving and why we are doing all of this. I love my comp, area, ward, mission, leaders, and savior!! I read a great talk on how our testimonies need to be based on the savior. He is the rock of our salvation, the light and life of the world. Without him, we would be stuck in a neverend state of misery. But he gave his life for each and every one of us. He knows what we are going through and is always close to help us through times of trial. We can build our faith in him by reading the scriptures, and prayer. I encourage EVERY single one of you to develop a habit of studying the scriptures daily. I KNOW its hard, but its also a commandment It will help your days to go by so much smoother, and give you good things to think about throughout the day. Keep helping the missionaries and have a greeeeeeeat week!!

Love,
Elder Boyack

p.s. transfers are next week!! AGHH
p.p.s. SEND ME LETTERS (even better, CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!)

address:
Praça Joseph Smith 15
Portão – Curitiba – PR
80610-210
Brasil

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! Everything is going good here. Today for p-day we went to the temple. SO AWESOME! I love the Curitiba temple. After we did a session we went and helped out in the baptistry. Really cool stuff. I bought a couple cool movies too. Church movies are awesome. We watch the Restoration, The Testaments, and Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration. They always help our investigators to feel the spirit, and it´s nice cuz we don´t have to explain it

So this past Sunday I had my first baptism!!!!!!!!! I baptized Marilda and it was awesome. The water was really low though so I had to do it twice. She was really happy though and LOVED it. We went to her house yesterday and talked about the temple, she set a goal for Nov. 30, 2009 to go through She is so awesome. She is feeling kind of lonely because there are tons of big families and she is a single mom. Hopefully she finds a good guy in the church! This next week we are FINALLY marrying Ezequiel and Jandira. It has taken FOUR months. Hopefully this weekend we can baptize them. They have been having some problems but I think everything will work out fine.

Elder Boswells parents sent him some pie mix so we made banana cream pie for thanksgiving. Honestly it couldn´t have turned out any better! It was huge and we ate it for like three days straight haha.

So one day we were finishing up a lesson with a family we are teaching and it started to rain a teeny bit. I forgot my umbrella so they lent me theirs. The teeny bit of rain turned into a freak tropical storm in about 5 minutes So me and Elder Boswell stood under a bustop for about 45 minutes waiting for it to pass over. It was actually pretty cool, but scary at the same time. The state just south of us (Santa Catarina) has been having rain for a month straight and over 100 people have died from flooding. Thousands of people are without food clothing or shelter. So this week we gathered tons of stuff and put it all in sorted big boxes to ship down to them. It was a really cool service project.

So the weather has been amazing the past couple of days. BEAUTIFUL sunsets and of course I never have my camera with me.. ugh. The other day we were walking and saw a huge field, FULL of fireflys. It looked like a stadium with camera flashes everywhere. SO COOL! I have really gained a big appreciation for this planet and how amazing it is. Sometimes I take it for granted..

Well that´s about it on my end. Send me a letter and keep my happy I am so grateful for everyones help and prayers, and keep up the good work! ALWAYS remember we are children of our Heavenly Father and remember how much he loves each one of us. He wants us to return to live with him SO BAD but we need to do our part. Read the scriptures daily, go to church, and say your prayers. My favorite scripture is 2 Nephi 32:20. ALL we need to do is that, and we can have eternal life. EASY!

Love,
Elder Boyack