Family, Friends, and everyone else reading this,

Hello! How are things in the “states”? Not to good I hear. Things are grrrreat here. We had a good week and this next one will be even better!

This past week we had a great activity on Saturday night. There was tons of little games and my team one! There was this one with a roll on a string and you had to eat in as fast as you can and you only have 5 mins, not one person except me managed to eat the whole thing before the 5 mins (you cant use your hands). There was a huge storm so not many people showed up but we still had fun. Then that night we went over to the awesome familys house and they bought pizza The two older kids (Henrique and Natalia) accepted baptism! I am sooo excited. They are the coolest people ever. Now we are going to work hard with the parents. I get to baptize Henrique so that will be awesome.

Monday and Tuesday we had a division with the Zone Leaders, Elder Rocha (hosha) means rock) came over to our area and stayed with me. He already did 2 years and wanted to stay 1 more transfer. We had some good talks about BYU and found a really cool new investigator. Speaking of zone, we had a zone conference on Thursday, so cool! I played “Called To Serve” for the final song, and messed up but everyone was singing so loud they didnt notice

One thing I have been noticing/thinking about.. lots of churches here talk about helping you be rid of all your pains and problems. But I was thinking to myself, thats not how it works! This life is a TEST, and tests are supposed to be HARD. If they arent, something is wrong. We are always going to have tough times in our lives and the best thing we can do is KEEP GOING and not let them bog us down. One thing that always helps me is my patriarchal blessing. If you have one, read it! If you dont have one, get one! And if you have no idea what that is, talk to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and ask him/her! God loves each and every one of us, and he sent his beloved son Jesus Christ here to the Earth to suffer for our sins so that we dont have to! He has felt our pain and sorrow and is always there to help us through it. I love my Savior so much and LOVE the opportunity to be a representative of him here in Curitiba Brasil.

Have a wonderful week and help the missionaries!!!

Love,
Elder Boyack

My dear family friends and relatives,

What a WEEK! Being in charge is pretty tough, not to mention that when you get a new guy in your area he doesn’t know who’s who and where everything is. But Elder Miller is awesome. He loves to work hard and doesn’t let anything get to him. Its so nice to be with someone who wants to work!! Being senior is awesome. I finally get to do things my way haha. For example my last comp would NOT teach kids. There are so many cool kids around here that love us! So now we have been teaching some, there is this group of little girls (all around 8 haha) that wanted a Book of Mormon. They didn’t go to church which was pretty annoying so I told them they get their books when they go to church haha.

Recently our area has been pretty tough. We just aren’t having much success with lessons, we rarely even get in houses. But im sure its just a phase, we just have to keep plugging along and doors will start opening (literally).

So I don’t know who has been reading so I will just update you all, we have been teaching this amazing family. They love the missionaries and their kids have been going to church for about a year. Me and my last comp started teaching them and the parents finally went to church! They have a way nice house and own a nice construction materials store. So we went over there the other day and taught just the kids the 3rd lesson (gospel of Jesus Christ) and at the end I invited them to be baptized and they (the kids) accepted!!! MAN I am so happy, I am positive this whole family will be strong in the gospel, the parents need to get married (haha ryan, stupid brasil.) So we marked them for the 28th of march. I am so happy!!

Yesterday was a pretty interesting experience. We had nothing to do so we were knocking doors. There was this one nice house and the dude was like “oh mormons! Come on in” so we were like uhhh ok. As we walked in he explained his father in law was there and he is a pastor so we were going to have a nice “chat” haha I was like greeeeattt here we go. So we come in and it was this guy and his wife and his wifes parents. They are from the church Christian Congregation in Brasil (translated for your convenience). So the start to talk about how they cant believe in Jospeh Smith, how we practiced polygamy and a whole bunch of crap. So I asked them some questions about their church and what they believed because I never had the chance to sit down with one of these people and figure out what they believe. Their doctrine is based on the church of the apostles. ALL the women have long hair, wear dresses, and while in church wear a veil. They don’t believe in bible study, they think I can go stand up and receive a revelation that second about what to say. Some pretty ridiculous stuff. Now here is the good part. They start to ask about what we do, who pays us etc. Then they get all serious and flat out invite us to leave what we are doing and follow their church! Im not going to lie. I laughed!! I said “to tell you the truth, this is hilarious! you honestly think I am going to leave all of this and follow your church? Why do you think I came out here?” Man I just was fed up, they wouldn’t even let us talk. They kept ranting about salvation and how we need to ask the Lord to show us the right path. I told this old dude, “I ALREADY DID!!” haha but he just DIDN’T get it… That experience REALLY strengthened my testimony that this is the ONLY true church. (I asked them if they know what the priesthood is and you could tell they had no idea so the one guy came up with some bogus thing where when we pray we are blessed with the priesthood.. HAHA)

Anyways keep up the letters and emails, send me pictures, and candy! Also a new tie would be nice… and if you are feeling REALLY generous, goldfish!! Have a good week,

Elder Boyack

Whats up my homies,

Haha well today was transfers! Elder Spendlove went to who knows where, they don’t tell us haha. My new comp is another American, Elder Miller from Home, Washington, haha sweet huh? He was the group that came after me which means, I am senior!! I am pretty stoked. I pretty much was senior with Elder Spendlove because he wasn´t a big fan of making decisions so I just made them haha. But I am really excited because me and this guy are really going to work! We have lots to do and not much time so we are going to hit the ground running.

This past week was pretty slow, not much to tell about. The bishops moms neighbor was having leg problems so she told him her son could give him a blessing so the bishopbric went over and gave him a blessing and the next day he was perfectly fine! So I guess Heavenly Father made him realize he needs to be a part of this church so this guy wants to know EVERYTHING and be BAPTIZED (his date we marked is the 28th of April). So that’s some good news!

I am blanking out on what to talk about, I took a nap and have a headache.. SORRY!

This is the true church of Jesus Christ. WE have the authority his apostles had. And even better, we have temples! Go to the temple! Help the missionaries! Talk to your neighbors and friends! And, MAGNIFY your calling. Most people just “do” their calling. There is such an amazing difference when you go above and beyond. And you will receive so many blessings for doing it. Thanks for all your support, KTYL (know that I love you) and have a good week!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Boyack

Dear Family and Friends,

Tudo bom? Everything is good here. Crazy hot summer weather (Ryan, I can´t complain haha) but man you get used to a cooler climate then the summer sun comes out and ROASTS you. The past couple days the COOLEST thing has been happening. Curitiba is surrounded by mountains and these big thunderheads sit on top of them and chill there all night. They are PACKED full of energy and there is lightning everywhere, but the coolest thing, its SILENT. No thunder. It really is an amazing sight.

So this week at church I decided I have had enough. Sacrament meeting is pretty nuts. Kids running around screaming, all the youth sit together talk and draw, and the adults talk about their week. We had a lady (investigator) say when one kid talks the Padre at her catholic church stops and says “SHHH!!”. So we were pretty embarrassed and we talked with the bishop how we need to improve reverence. Also our lessons with member have been soooo low so I got up in priesthood and read a few things to help the guys know how important this is. This week we have a week full of divisions We had more lessons with member on MONDAY than all of last week!

Walking down the street as a missionary we get a plethora of reactions. Most young adults make fun of us so when we were walking past this big group of young adults (about 25 years old) I was like greeeat here we go. But to my surprise one of the guys called us over and asked us what we do. MAN it’s so nice to have people ask you and not their friend next to them who probably will say some ridiculous thing. So they asked us a million questions about our church and the U.S. they were extremely impressed and  they are all coming to our English class we have on Saturday at 4:00. It was an amazing experience because they realize how much we sacrifice and why we are here.

As for our investigators, things are moving along. Vaginor, a man we have been teaching forever who is AWESOME, decided he wants to separate instead of marry the woman he is living with right now. YES!!! When we challenged them to get married he said, “well its a commandment! MIRIAM (she was is the other room, he yelled this) DO YOU WANT TO MARRY ME?” haha thats how he did it.. Needless to say she was quite the party pooper.. she wanted nothing to do with us. and he is going to live with his mom who lives in our area So I was very happy about that. Our golden family is doing great. I would love to baptize them all RIGHT NOW but the parents have to get married and the kids need to be taught a little more. I am certain they will all get baptized, its just a matter of WHEN.

Transfers are next week, honestly I have no idea what will happen. Elder Spendlove has only 1 transfer left which makes it more complicated. I am hoping I stay, im not a fan of changing areas But if I do, its where I need to be! This truly is the true church of Jesus Christ. I see soooooo many other churches that make me SAD! These people are so misled.. and its ever more heart breaking to have them want nothing to do with you. What other church has temples? What other church baptizes the dead? What other church has the same authority the Apostles of Jesus Christ had? What other church can bring you into the celstial kingdom? So far I am only aware of 1, if you find another, let me know. I would LOVE to hear about it Thanks for all your prayers and support. To quote the Prophet Joseph Smith, “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel.” SO, go invite people to be taught, hand out pass along cars, help your missionaries, and be an example.

Love,
Elder Parker Joel Boyack