Olá Pessoal!

Whats new? Not much here. It´s raining, still. Haha this week was good. So I saw a sweet soccer ball and I HAD to buy it J and me and Elder Spendlove were at the church and a million little boys wanted to play, how could we say no? I did pretty good but I REALLY need to exercise! I could walk all day but running, man that[s something different haha. They all love us now so that makes me happy cuz most of the kids make fun of us haha.

Transfers are today, me and Elder Spendlove are staying 1 more together. After this one he only has 1 left so we have no idea what will happen! As for the work, its going GREAT! We have 8 people close to baptism so we are pushing each of them, some need to get married first which will take a couple weeks..

So yesterday Elder Spendlove and me decided to go to this place in our area called the CEAZA, which is where all the fruit comes in to Curitiba, and you can buy it suuuper cheap. It was closed cuz we came to late, but we did discover we have a post office and the bank we use (HSBC) in our area!! Haha it was hilarious cuz we didn’t think we had them but turns out we do! So when we were walking home I wanted to take the BR (freeway) and as we were walking we saw a guy stuck in the mud on the side of the BR and ran over to help him. Another guy who had a tow rope (actually just a rope J stopped to help. We got FILTHY but I got the guys address and I will send it to the missionaries in his area. I always loved that commercial where it started off with some guy picking up a kids toy. A person saw him then later this person helped an old lady cross the street. Another person saw him and it was a chain of service. It’s contagious!! If we help people and set an example it will ripple out and affect everyone.

MAN soccer wore me out today, haha you can probably tell. But things are going great and I am healthy! I know this church is the ONLY true church on this earth and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a living prophet today with authority from God. Its so awesome how this gospel just MAKES SENSE! Its amazing how much the bible has in it that testifies of the restored gospel. Now the challenge, SHARE IT! Grab some pass along cards from the bishop and carry them around in your car. You never know who the Lord will put in your path Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Boyack

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

Dear world,

How is everyone? Tell me about it, life is hard! Haha anyways this letter will be pretty quick because everyone and their grandma decided to write me an email so I spent most of my time reading!! (which is NOT a bad thing, keep it up!) Anyways this week was good.

On Thursday night to Friday night me and Elder Spendlove did a division with the Zone Leaders. I stayed with Elder Kendrick in our area and Spenlove went and stayed with Elder Barros. It was awesome! Our zone leaders are the coolest guys and I really learned a lot working with him.

On Sunday I gave a talk about an experience we had (bishop wanted it to be a good 2 minute experience to get the members excited about mish work) so it happened just the day before. We were walking to lunch when Elder Spendlove decided to take a route we NEVER take and whats even weirder is it was raining and the other route was a dirt road (rain+dirt road=MUD) but we went and we were walking along the BR (freeway) and an old couple had a flat tire! He had no idea how to fix it so I got to work. While I changed the tire Elder Spendlove talked with them about who we are and what we do. They live in São Paulo so he gave them a pass along card and told them to call the number and the missionaries will come to their house. I am convinced this is the Lords work and he will provide us with opportunities to share the gospel, we just need to listen to the spirit.

It’s the middle of the summer but all week it has been cold and rainy! Pretty werid but I like it J

So we have some good investigators, one is Vaginor. HE is a really smart guy who has been to every church and doesn’t like any of them. He loves ours and loves studying the Book of Mormon. We will baptize him, but he first needs to get married. His wife isn’t interested at all and I think hates us haha.  It was hilarious though because yesterday we needed him to talk to his wife and see if she wanted to get married so he said, “HONEY, do you want to marry me?” haha it was HILARIOUS but she said sure (haha) so we will get that dnoe for them and then baptize him!

We also have a new investigator (Ricardo) who came to church. We taught him the first lesson and he loved it. He heard a lot of rumors about our church but every single thing he heard was BOGUS so he is happy. He likes to read so we gave him PLENTY haha. We challenged him to baptism and he said if he gets an answer of the BOM being true he will so pray for him!!

The work is going good. Transfers are next week but I am pretty positive I will stay here with Elder Spendlove.

Well I am out of time. I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Boyack

Olá Pessoal!!

Man my portuguese hás been getting a little rusty so I am trying to speak as often as possible. I am warning you now this letter will be short. Be prepared.

Well this week was chuck full of WORK. Contacts, lessons, walking, and SUN. That’s about it. It has been raining yesterday and today, yesterday I was walking along and heard a noise, I found a baby kitten hiding in a small box FREEING to death. So I couldn’t just leave him there, I grabbed him and took him with me. We were walking up so I got him all warm then just left him at a house I saw already had some kittens. I wanted to keep it so bad!! UGH.

Anyways things are good. Today we went and visited a few touristy places here in Curitiba. Got some good pics, but sadly the comp wont recognize my camera right now.. will send them next week fo sho.

This past month we have been really focusing on the Book of Mormon. We have been improving every thing we do with it. One thing is how we handle it. Usually we pull it out of our backpack and treat it like another book. But it is scripture, and so we are trying to treat it like that. I made a SWEET gold case for the 1 book of mormon I carry around with me. Then when we teach a first lesson I put another one in. I really have a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It isn’t another bible, it’s another testament of Jesus Christ!

Things are good here. Thanks for all your prayers and emails. Keep them coming! I know this church is the ONLY true church here on the earth. I know that we have a living prophet who has REAL authoirity from God. And I know that we are all sons and daughters of God and that every one of us has the opportunity to become like him.

Until next week,

Elder Parker J. Boyack

New pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pboyack/

Dear Family and Friends,

Weeks continue to fly by and I make my way through the jungles of Curitiba. The harsh weather continues to make the work difficult. Not really, I just feel like writing a cool story. but a funny story about weather, the other day we were walking down the street and I look up at say “rain in five seconds.” In exactly five seconds, it POURED. By far the hardest rain in my life. Once in a while these little flash storms will hit and they are OH so fun My umbrella is pretty dinky too but my shoes don’t let the water in so I can’t complain!

I have been taking on small projects and my most recent one is really cool. Its an idea from my old zone leader (now AP) Elder Fortes. You have 15 little plastic cups and each cup has a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ (temples, tithing, authority, etc.) then you build the pyramid and talk about how Christ established this church when he was here on the earth. THEN you talk about how he and the apostles dies and unauthorized changes were made and people started changing things. So you pull out the cup on the bottom and the whole thing comes crashing down. Kids love it So then you talk about how there were some people who liked this and that and made a church, then a guy made another till you have a bunch of little pyramids. Then you ask which one is the church Christ left and they say “none” and you say exactly. Then you can share a scrpture about an apostle who profesied about a restoration, whatever. then you talk about Joseph Smith and how he wasnt sure which church was right and how he was called to be a prophet and you then rebuild the pyramid and show how today we have the same church of JEsus Christ! Its so awesome.

So story time, yesterday we went to teach a family we recently met, and the wife is pretty stubborn and has no desire to change, the husband really wants to. So we did the pyramid, went great, then she asked us what we think about the gift of tounges ( big thing down here, some churches the people start screaming because “they are filled with the spirit and start speaking in tounges”) but i looked her straight in the eyes and said 5 months ago i didnt know a single word of portuguese and today I am here teaching you with no problems. THAT is the gift of tounges. MAN the spirit was so strong that whole lesson, even with her 4 kids (the cups kept them attentive so i think we broke her down a little bit and hopefully they will come to church.

Yesterday we taught a great 1st lesson to a lady who said she was born catholic and has no desire to change, by the end of the lesson we marked a date for her baptism Pretty cool to see how the spirit can change peoples attitudes.

Thats about it for this week, pretty uneventful, just lots of rejection and walking But its all good. The work is getting better and we are finding more people every day. One thing I heard president talk about is how cool would it be if every missionary walked with a Book of Mormon in his hand. The moment I heard that I picked one up and never put it down. It really helps to show people and talk about it, plus people come up to you and ask you about it.

Keep up the good work, read your scriptures, say your prayers, help the missionaries, and write me!! I love you all thanks for all the prayers and support.

LOVE,
Elder Parker Joel Boyack

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

New pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pboyack

Dearest Family and Friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Man it is 2009 already.. Today starts my “black year”. It is the full year you complete on the mission J Last night was pretty crazy. We were on a division with a member and were trying to teach this one guy who asked for the Joy to the World DVD. He is a single guy who drives a taxi so we met with him at his house and taught an amazing first lesson. What a great way to end 2008! Then we got home and wanted pizza but EVERYthing was closed so we just made some food then went to sleep. I woke up at 11:55 and literally thought I was in the middle of World War II!! Everyone and their grandpa was lighting huge fireworks… so crazy. I found a small kitten that was FREAKED out and wanted to take it home soooo bad but we can’t have any pets.

A couple days ago me and Elder Spendlove went to visit a member family and there were little girls outside. We told them they were in charge and to tell us whose house to go to. So they led us up and down the street and not ONE person let us in!! (Which is weird here) But it was really fun.

We had a baptism this past Saturday. A lady named Rosali was baptized by her husband who was baptized a few months ago. It went perfectly! She was bawling at the end, which means you KNOW they are going to remember that day for the rest of their lives! We then had a district meeting where we all were in our white baptism clothes and held a mock baptism. It was really cool and really got us thinking about why we are here and what we are doing to find people to baptize.

Me and Elder Spendlove have been having a tough time getting good numbers.  In other words we aren’t doing as many contacts and getting as many lessons as we should be. This week was pretty bad so we had a really good discussion on what we need to do and what we can do. We also talked with our district about it and they really gave us some good ideas. We have the Zone Leaders in our district, they are so cool! So this week has been going GREAT and we are really kicking it into gear!

We have been finding lots of families which is GREAT. Its hard to find a family, usually you find a couple or a single guy or whatever… one family the guy walked us out and he said he had a friend who always invited him and he never went to church but he really thinks this can help his family and he said he will bring them all to church J Really awesome..

Haha so yesterday me and E. $pend<3 (spendlove haha) were walking along and noticed some weird catholic sacred grove deal. So we walked around in it and it was pretty cool! We got some weird looks but it was all good. I noticed that every little sign or picture of Christ was about his death. It really made me think how our church focuses on his life and the fact that he lives today. Not that his death was not important, in fact it is ESSENTIAL, just nice to remember everything else he did.

Well that’s about it for my week. Today was good, we played football (American) with some missionaries and some youth from the ward. We had a big barbecue at a members house then me and E. Spendlove went home and cleaned the whole house (needed it really bad). I made no-bake cookies and they are on the counter cooling as I write J yummm.
Happy New Year! Make some good goals, read the part in Preach My Gospel about making goals, it really helps. One tradition my family started was to have the first fhe of the year making goals then reviewing how we did the last year, then keeping the goals in a little stocking that hangs up all year. We also burn all our calendars and talk about was was good and bad about the year, REALLY fun I recommend it!

Love,
Elder Boyack

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