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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
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