Dear everyone,

Well another week has gone by. And WOW let me tell you, this was a tough one. The weather here has been really gray all week. I actually enjoy it. The clouds provide nice shade but it never gets too cold. The food is GREAT. This ward is pretty  (REALLY) rich so there is always really good food and lots of it. Elder and Sister Owens (the missionary couple that works here in the office) always make cookies and american food so that is always awesome!

Yesterday we had Zone Leader Council. It is something I never knew about but happens once every transfer. All the Zone Leaders from the mission come to the mission headquarters and they have a daylong training. So this whole week we have been preparing everything. Thursday, the day before, we went downtown to do some stuff and it took a little while. When we got back, President had sent me several emails with the subject line: ELDER BOYACK. My comp said, “welcome to the office!” Haha so I had lots to do, and to top it off, he wanted me to give a training to the ZL´s about how to work with the ward leaders in helping recent converts stay active. I never got scared or nervous, I think I got some of my mom’s public speaking abilities It went very well and President liked it so much he wants me to give my training at all the Zone Conferences this transfer! AH! Oh well it will be awesome. It was pretty funny though because about a week ago I was a senior. And now I am training the ZONE leaders on how to better their zones. And to top it off, my trainer Elder Boswell was there. So I was training my trainer!! So weird haha.

There is lots of stress here in the office a lot. One thing I am not a fan of. I have always had problems with patience, and this is REALLY helping me to work on it. My comp, Elder Hiar, just had his birthday. He is 28 YEARS OLD! Haha he had to get special permission from the prophet to go on a mission! So cool. He is really good at arguing, so I always try to just avoid him haha. Here is Brazil they think a guy named Santos Dumont invented the airplane, when we all know it really was the Wright Brothers. It’s a huge deal that will NEVER be solved until the millennium haha. Elder Cardoso (my trainer) really likes music and plays the piano VERY well. I was thinking about how crazy it is going to be when he leaves me here all alone. I will not know what to do!!

I have officially passed 9 months on the mission. It has flown by, and from what I hear, time goes by 2x faster here in the office, so before I know it I will be home! AHH! So weird to think about it. It makes me want to run out and baptize as many people as possible. This area is really difficult, I really miss my last one. SO much easier.. I really miss the Bronovski family (we baptized their two kids Enrique and Natalia), I wanted to stay and baptize the parents. BUT that’s the life of a missionary. They say “Once you really become a perfect missionary, you are already flying home”. These two years serving the Lord REALLY test your faith. Its just like a muscle. You have to exercise it and consistently use it to get strong. If you stick it in a sling and sit on your butt all day, it shrinks and shrivels. I have so many different emotions EVERY day that you really learn self control. I am SO incredibly glad I made a decision to do this. And I have seen SO many things that I need to change in my life. For example, I never really shared the source of my many blessings with anyone. I had SO many chances I lost to share the gospel. So to make it up I made a promise that the moment I get home I am taking the missionaries on a day long division and we are going to visit every person I know. A guy in my last ward said he is going to hold a block party and invite everyone he knows that ISNT a member and the missionaries then he is going to bear his testimony to everyone and invite them to be taught by the missionaries. He said he is doing this because he doesn’t want to be at the judgement and have a bunch of people pointing their fingers at him saying, “YOU knew, and you never told us”. That is so awesome! That’s how everyone needs to be. Be BOLD, and stand up to ANYone. This IS the church of Jesus Christ. We have the priesthood. We are the only church that has temples!!! It is all true.

Elder Parker Joel Boyack

Dear Family and Friends,

WOW. What an insane week. Let me fill you in on what happened. So Monday night the Zone Leaders call us with all the info about the upcoming transfers (which happen on Wednesday). The past transfer was only 5 weeks, there is always one 5 week transfer per year and because of the shortage of time president never got around to doing interviews with our zone. So before the transfer call I get a call from President. He started asking me questions about my worthiness and all that, I figured he was just doing a quick over the phone interview. But then when he finished he said “Congratulations Elder Boyack, I am calling you to be my new Executive Secretary.” I was like “serious?!” Then he said “of course! You start tomorrow morning at 10 am so start packing. It was funny because me and Elder Miller had calculated the percentages of the next transfer. 60% chance I would leave, 38% chance I would stay one more with Elder Miller, and 2% chance I would stay and train. I remember I had one quick thought, “what if I become secretary?” I was very excited. I didn’t feel nervous at all. I got everything packed up and got here at 10 in the morning. I had a good talk with president and we helped the new incoming missionaries get everything worked out.

I really have been humbled by this. I was telling Elder Cardoso (the current exec. Secretary who is training me this transfer) that I felt like I was the 2nd counselor in the young men’s presidency who got called to the seventy!! I live with the secretaries and AP´s and I am Presidents right hand man. I finally have a Brazilian companion! Man it’s so awesome. With an American you are supposed to speak Portuguese, but you just slip into habits and speak English everywhere. But it’s hilarious because I am helping all the Brazilians in my house (Elder Zuccaratto(AP) Elder Cardoso(Exec. Sec.) and Elder Hiar(Financial Sec.) to learn English and they are helping me perfect my Portuguese. There are many positives to being a secretary. Air conditioning, microwave, dryer, nice house, president takes you cool places, you learn a TON, I could go on. Oh my favorite, I am the one who picks up the mail The one down side, you don’t get to do much missionary work. We have a proselyting area called Agua Verde (green water and we leave the office at 6 hours every day to work. It’s a really rich area so it’s hard work but it’s great.

Working so close to President you really see how inspired he is. The other day we had a staff meeting and it transformed into a mini district meeting with President. He is so in-tune with the spirit and knows what the Lord wants. I truly believe I have been prepared by the Lord for this work. My language is going amazing; some people are starting to think I am Brazilian! I have been so blessed by the Lord, and I am so grateful for it! This truly is the Church of Jesus Christ. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Boyack

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

Dear everyone who reads this letter,

Hello! How are you all? Today we went to the temple and it was amazzzing like it always is! I love the temple. I shure miss the San Diego one, so awesome!! How about conference?? So awesome! We almost didn’t get to listen to it in English and that would have been terrrrible. Let me tell you, conference is a million times better in English. If its translated, the translators don’t use emotion haha so its just boring and annoying. My favorite talk was Dallin H Oaks on service, and Jeffry R. Hollands talk was amazing as always!

So in between sessions we went to visit a family we haven’t been able to teach for a while. So after a little while the father comes walking down the long driveway with the Book of Mormon we gave him in his hand. That’s usually a bad thing.. so he started to explain how he and his wife had read a little bit and didn’t like it and decided to stick with their current religion (catholic, even though they never went to church haha). OBVIOUSLY they didn’t ask Heavenly Father if its true, so when he tried to give me the book back I said “its your book. When you have the sincere interest to know if its true then get on your knees and ask God”. It really made us sad. I have really been starting to feel like the sons of Mosiah (Mosiah 28:3) where they desire the salvation of everyone!! So its sad to see people reject the gospel.

One thing my mom always taught me was if we did everything we can THEN the Lord will come in and help. There is a recent convert that wants her own house and I told her she has to do everything she can before she can build one. Some people think they can ask God for something and sit on their butt waiting for the blessing. So this week one of the buckles on my backpack broke. It’s a strap that goes right across your chest and it was WAYY annoying when it broke so we went to like 5 stores looking for a new piece. Then there was one guy who said he could order it. Then as we were walking back Elder Miller looked down in the street and found the EXACT piece we needed. SO WEIRD!! Haha it was the coolest thing ever, so I fixed it myself! I did my part and the Lord helped me out haha

As for the work it has been going pretty slow. We have been finding some good families but its hard to get there when they are home. We are walking a lot and getting burned, but its great. People think our work stinks and we are suffering but they are SO wrong! This is the best thing I could be doing with my life right now. And I know I am being SO blessed for it (missionaries like to call this “wife points” haha) Yes its hard but its soo worth it! I love you all. Have a great week and help your missionaries and SHARE THE GOSPEL!

Love,
Elder Boyack

Dear Everyone,

Hooray for baptisms!! This last Saturday we baptized two kids. I got to baptize Henrique and Elder Miller baptized Natália. It was awesome!! Now we are working with the parents They aren’t married but once and a while the government does this cool free marriage thing so they are having one this April 15th! So I am hoping they will go through with it.     I am really trying to get them both pumped for serving a mission, Natália already wants to go! I love the fact that by these two baptisms, so many more people will receive the gospel (think ripple effect). So cool!

This past Monday I had a division with my district leader/trainer Elder Boswell. He is my best friend here on the mission, such a cool guy. So today I decided we needed to play a joke on him:) so I called the Zone Leaders and told them I was going to call elder boswell and tell him I cant get a hold of the zl’s and he needs to do a 3 way call (this is what actually happened too so then I started freaking out and talking about elder miller got ran over by a car and broke his leg and the bone was popping out and there was blood everywhere and I acted like I was in shock and had no idea what to do while elder miller sat in the background screaming “just call the ambulance!!” so he TOTALLY fell for it, it was amazing.

Sunday we were in the HUGE bus terminal doing contacts and then a HUGE group of kids stormed in and started going crazy. So the brazillian cops show up and let me tell you, I NEVER want to have one mad at me. Here the have like levels so the normal cops are called povo, then there is a step up which is Rone which is like the guys who take care of robbers and stuff THEN you have the choque which is like swat. So these guys were swarming everywhere, we even heard a gunshot. So the kids split up and one group was running out and a cop jumped out and pointed his gun right in their face! They just kept running so he was like puching and kicking them. Nothing like some Sunday night evtertainment!!

We went to the CEASA again today (that huge fruit place). They have everything there! They have this huge plant store and found a fly trap for only 4 reais (about $1.75ish) which is awesome cuz we are getting bad flies because of all the fruit we buy/eat. I also have found and let go a couple geckos to help with the spiders, I found one the other day and always see their poop haha.

The work here is going pretty slow. All the other companionships are getting lots of lessons but for some reason its being really hard here to get very many lessons. We are working hard and doing our part. I am working on having what they call a “cara de pau” or “wood face”. That means you aren’t scared of anything or anyone, when you want something you go for it! Pretty much being bold. That’s something I think most people have problems with and something I am trying to really get good at! Once you lose your fear you have NO problem talking with anyone or saying what you want to say.

Yesterday we came across a guy who just talked his head off about religion. He says the true church of Christ is in your heart, and a bunch of other stuff. Really made me realize how hard satan is working. I love the simple fact that: ALL THROUGHOUT TIME, God has called prophets. When we have a prophet, it’s a dispensation. When we don’t, its called apostasy. PAUL told us in 2nd Thessalonians that before the coming of Christ there would be another apostasy. He later goes on to talk about how the church would be restored. It just MAKES SENSE! Some people are just to unintelligent to understand… This IS the church of Jesus Christ. We have prophets and apostles with the priesthood, so awesome!!

Have a good week, I love you all.