Dear World,

Wow! What a week.. today for a zone activity we went to Fazenda Rio Grande (Big River Farm) and played paintball! It was sweet. I really had fun and our team(district) did great. We had to work REALLY hard doing contacts and getting lessons to earn it.

The work has been a little slow still. Brazil had Carnaval this past Tuesday so everyone and their dog is at the beach! There are some crazy churches that don’t let a person do ANYTHING so its funny to see them all at church when everyone else it having a party. You guys cant even imagine the crazy churches here. You walk by and could close your eyes and imagine your self at an Indian pow-wow because everyone is clapping jumping up and down and screaming haha. So sad to see Satan getting a hold of these good people. That’s where we come in!!

So one thing I love here about Brasil, the KITES! Literally they are everywhere. They aren’t like the ones in the U.S. They are usually either a paper square or home base shape with a little wood stick frame. They cost about 1 US Quarter here. So then these kids take their string and put on ceról(crushed glass powder with glue). Then they all get their kites up and cut each others string!! Its so funny cuz the rule is if the kite falls its up for grabs so there is always little kids running after kites. Its gets pretty intense sometimes, I have even seen some adults go crazy on a kid for cutting him haha.

Last Thursday we had conference. MAN I love President! He truly is inspired and knows what he is doing. We mainly talked about the Book of Mormon and shoot.. I forgot the word! Keeping compromissos? Like for example if I challenge someone to read, we need to visit them and make sure they read etc. I learned a lot. What I noticed though was not even 24 hours after conference I had gone from a total high to a complete LOW. These change so quick. The mission really helps you to get control of yourself and work with tough situations.

So the 23rd of February I hit my 7 months, TIME FLYS!! Man I feel old. I was thinking about how the past few years of my life have been a blur. It makes me sad! I realized how SHORT this life is and how important it is to stay faithful and hold fast to the iron rod.

I was EXTREMELY blessed with a good trainer(Elder Boswell). He followed every rule and helped me to get into the habit of being a GOOD missionary. Unfortunately my comp Elder Spendlove was trained by a missionary who shouldn’t have EVER been able to train. I am trying to help him to do whats right. He is a pretty lazy guy and leaves in six weeks so its hard to work with someone like that but we are progressing! PLEASE pray for us to baptize our investigators. We have so many good people that are SO close. We have been finding families like crazy which is sooo good! I love teaching a family because I just look the parents in the eyes and say “ you have NO idea how much this church can help your family!” This truly is the true church of Jesus Christ that was restored trough a living prophet. That’s why its so important to SHARE it with the whole world! Don´t be shy, be BOLD. Its hard, trust me I know, but if you can overcome your fears the Lord will help and bless you tremendously.

Peace and Love,
Elder Boyack

Minha família e meus queridos amigos,

Oi! Whats up? Things are going well here. It’s the middle of summer but it rains almost every day. Yesterday was a beautiful day and today was gross and hot. The weather changes a lot..

A missionary from the ward here came back because he had a bad problem with his leg. So he has been helping us out a lot but now he cant do divisions anymore because the doctor put him on crutches. MAN! I hope that doesn’t happen to me. I really have been blessed with health in my life (even though I have had a cold the past couple days

The work is going well. We have a good batch of investigators, but no baptismal dates marked. All of them have a thing or two that is hindering their progress.. we are working hard to get them to FEEL that this really is the truth. We are finding more families which is great. It really is awesome to find an INTELLIGENT family who listens, understands, and does something. Far to often we come across people who love to have us over because “everything about God is good”. They just don’t get how special our message is..

Tomorrow we have zone conference. I LOVE conferences and district meetings. I always leave them pumped and excited to get back to work. I will let you all know next week what I learn

So every week we set goals on what we want to get done. Then you just work the whole week and hope you reach them. This week me and Elder Spendlove are trying to get 100% on EVERYTHING. Which means tons of contacts and lessons with member.

I don’t know why but I just am not in a writing mood.. not much to talk about anyways. Thanks so much for all you help and support! Until next week,

Elder Boyack

Dear People that Love me eough to read this,

First off, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Technically I shouldn´t have one, but hey if anyone needs one just send me a bog FULL of candy and you can be my valentine Not much news on the Brazil end this week. Today we went to the mission office becase Elder Spendloves shoes are done for and we took the wrong bus. So we went for  nice little tour around Curitiba then got off on the wrong stop and had to walk a few miles. Always love a little exercise!! HAHA.

The work is going ok. We still have so many people close but no one with a date set. We helped one of our investigators Vagnor, move, only about a block haha. We found an AMAZING new family. The two kids have been to church many times. The parents are the coolest people ever. The guy, José, has his own Construction Materials business so we get along great talking about that stuff. They didnt go to church when the promised, we still dont know why. But I asked President to do a Family Home Evening with us at their house so we will see what happens

We got a new fridge! We had a small hotel one with a broken seal so the ice in the freezer would build up and your stuff would get fozen inside the ice haha. Now we have a nice big one with plenty of space One thing that has been difficult is lessons with members. ITs hard to figure out who is availble when and remember and all that stuff. So you men out there, HELP OUT YOUR MISSIONARIES!! They will love you, maybe even make you cookies, well, probably not. But the Lord will bless you con certeza (for sure!).

This truly is the Lords work. I LOVE being a missionary. I have been a little worried about losing this missionary spirit and getting caught up in not so important things. When serving the Lord he opens the windows of heaven and pours so many blessings out we wont have enough buckets to catch them!! So if you are in need of blessings (pretty sure EVERYONE is) then go do some missionary work. Help the missionaries, talk with your neighbors, whatever.

Thanks for all your support. I love you all. I love my Savior, and my family. Have a great week!

Elder Boyack

Dear World,

Today we went to the temple so I dont have much time. Things are going great here. I wrote a list today of people we have close to baptism, 15 PEOPLE!! The work is really picking up and we have so much to do. Its hard because sometimes you forget important things which NEVER is good

This past week we were having a ward baptism (8 year old girl). So we were walking to lunch when we received a phone call and figured out she is 9! So oddly enough because she is 9 it counts as a baptism for us. So we spent the whole day getting things ready and there was an activity after and we had to get our district leader to come interview here, pretty intense. She is the coolest little girl so I am glad we got to help out.

The weather has been great here. Sometimes I feel like I am back in Utah, and sometimes I feel like I am back home in California (which is always nice Today a huge flash storm hit, that’s always fun haha.

Yesterday we were walking along and a guy ran out of his house and said “hey! Where is my Book?(of Mormon)” We did a contact with him a few days ago and we never stopped by his house. So we taught him and it was awesome. Problem is he is a truck driver so it will be hard to find him in his house.

Well that’s about it. I am doing great. We went to a place in the bus terminal today where you can get 1 kilo of fruits and vegetables for only 99 cents!! (1 kilo = 2 pounds, 99 cents= about 45 american cents) so I am eating very well have a great week , I love you all!

Elder Boyack