Family and Friends,

Happy 2010!! Wow… they call the year you spend on the mission your “black year” and mine hás come to an end! How crazy is that.. its a very weird feeling. I was looking at a 2010 calendar today and realized how close i am to coming home.. ahhh!!! Haha dont worry i am NOT getting trunky!

This week was great. It gets hotter every day. We have found some GOLDEN families recently and are focusing on them for now. Our teaching group is still pretty small but we are pushing for more.

We are doing a thing called the Paranaguá Cup where every companionship is a soccer team and then you get points depending on how hard you work during the week. Everyone here is really excited and pumped to win. We are looking forward to more baptisms! I am really excited for the new year.. we should be spending it at an irma´s house here close by. Sorry my letter is so short… ohnlny 30 minutes to write today! I promise next week it will be 3 times this size!

Have an amazing new years eve and day and make some good goals and STICK to them! I love you all and appreciate so much your support and prayers.

Falou!!

Elder Boyack

Then today is transfers!!!! I get to stay one more in the beautiful city of Paranaguá. I like it here… but its getting hotter every day I will be excited to go back to Curitiba where the weather is nice and cool.

Well President gave us half an hour today to write a quick letter so here goes.

This week was crazy! It all started with the mission conference on Friday. Everything went very well and there was a beautiful choir. There are so many talented people in our mission! We ate a huuuuuge lunch then afterwards did a white elephant gift exchange thingy. We got some cool presents from President, WAY better than last year haha.

On Saturday we had 5 interviews for baptism marked but two didnt show up and we later found out they didnt want to get baptized anymore… lame. But the other three were great! They were all baptized on Sunday night and it was amazing. One was Pedro, the father of two recent converts (Nei and Flores). The other was Lucas, the little brother of Marlo who was baptized a few weeks ago. And the other is LEia, who completely changed her life!! She stopped smoking and going to the crazy dance parties. She is divorced and has two kids, and i got to baptize her! It was an amazing experience.

Then today is transfers!!!! I get to stay one more in the beautiful city of Paranaguá. I like it here… but its getting hotter every day I will be excited to go back to Curitiba where the weather is nice and cool.

Welll thats all the big news! I am SUPER excited for christmas and for the phone call home! YES!! I love you all and wish you all a merry christmas!

Love,

Elder Parker Boyack

What a week! There is so much to say and so little time. The Lord has really been blessing us here in Paranaguá. On Saturday night when we were going in our door the bishop stopped us and asked us to give a talk on whatever we want. So i decided to talk about advesity Now you know how it is when you talk, about 50 percent of the people pay attention. But then in the middle of my talk i pulled out the letter Mom sent me telling how she had gotten cancer. I then explained about how Dad got laid off and how we all had a very hard time. I cried quite a bit haha. But it was a very good talk and I felt the spirit very strongly.

We were supposed to have a miracle baptism, her name is Leia. She completely stopped all of her bad habits, but the night before the baptismal interview she smoked So we postponed it for one week and last night we asked how she is feeling about this weekend and she said “ I WILL get baptized”. YES!!! She is so amazing.. she made the most delicious homemae]de bread, I couldnt stop eating it haha. We also have 4 other people who will be baptized this week, all of which are FIRME!! (thats firm in portuguese So like I said, we are being very blessed.

Anyways.. life is good. We are baptizing, what more can i ask for? Our zone is doing very well and all the missionaries are working hard. I am satisfied I know this is the work of the Lord, and that he helps us. There are so many prepared people out there in the world just waiting for the truth. So, share the gospel! This season is the BEST time to do it. I know you can do it and the Lord will help you.

Dear Everyone,

What a week! There is so much to say and so little time. The Lord has really been blessing us here in Paranaguá. On Saturday night when we were going in our door the bishop stopped us and asked us to give a talk on whatever we want. So i decided to talk about advesity Now you know how it is when you talk, about 50 percent of the people pay attention. But then in the middle of my talk i pulled out the letter Mom sent me telling how she had gotten cancer. I then explained about how Dad got laid off and how we all had a very hard time. I cried quite a bit haha. But it was a very good talk and I felt the spirit very strongly.

We were supposed to have a miracle baptism, her name is Leia. She completely stopped all of her bad habits, but the night before the baptismal interview she smoked So we postponed it for one week and last night we asked how she is feeling about this weekend and she said “ I WILL get baptized”. YES!!! She is so amazing.. she made the most delicious homemae]de bread, I couldnt stop eating it haha. We also have 4 other people who will be baptized this week, all of which are FIRME!! (thats firm in portuguese So like I said, we are being very blessed.

Today we went fishing with Jefferson, a ninteen year old we baptized two weeks ago. We were talking with him about serving a mission and then he said to us “I have been thinking about it… I am going to serve a mission.” WAHOOO!!!! That is probably the coolest thing a recent convert has said to me. Then when we asked him where he wants to go he said “Wherever I am sent”. HOLY COW!! That is so cool haha. Anyways i caught a teeny fish… I had like a million bites though…

Umm.. I am SUPER excited for the christmas call and mission conference.. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! What a wonderful time of year. Our city (Paranaguá) has gone NUTS on Christmas decorations… they are everywhere! Oh and some really good news, they redid our road today!! Haha the road in front of our house had TONS of potholes and trucks always pass by… it was really annoying. So today they redid the pavement and it is soooo much better.

Anyways.. life is good. We are baptizing, what more can i ask for? Our zone is doing very well and all the missionaries are working hard. I am satisfied I know this is the work of the Lord, and that he helps us. There are so many prepared people out there in the world just waiting for the truth. So, share the gospel! This season is the BEST time to do it. I know you can do it and the Lord will help you.

I love you all, have a grrrrreat week! Mom, Dad, I will talk to you next week!!!

Love,

Elder Boyack

Dear Everyone,

Yo, whats up. How are the states?? Man people her bag so much on America its kind of annoying. But its all good, I bag on Brasil a lot The weather here has been nice. I have been caught a few times by the rain without an umbrella, but I enjoy a shower once in a while. The heat has yet to come! The next transfer is Dec. 23 so we will see if i escape the Paranaguá heat.. probably not.

Things are going great. This past week we had a baptism, its a guy named Jefferson. He is 19 and truly an elect. He plays VERY good soccer and was going to our chapel to play on Wednesdays then we started teaching him the lessons. He is doing very well and I got to baptize him! (see attached picture). This next week we are hoping to baptize Pedro, he is the dad of Nei and flores, two recent converts. I had a good talk with him yesterday and he said he is not happy in his life. I told him that we have what he needs, and the only way he can find tru happiness in this life and in the next is by being baptized and following the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately he has not been able to completely let go of cigarettes… but we are working with him on that.

SPEAKING OF CIGARETTES… hbaha so we are helping these two sisters (both a little older and with a couple kids) to stop smoking. They both really like the church and want to stop smoking, drinking, etc. And find a nice husband who wont betray them. So we  bought a butt load of oranges, vitamen C pills, and then plastered their house wiht 3×5 cards with little do not smoke messages.. its awesome! One stopped smoking AND drinking coffee and the other is having some difficulties… its quite a challenge!!

Today we went to a rest home to spend some time with the older persons of Paranaguá. It was awesome! We sang to them and talked with them. To be honest, i am not so much scared to get old.. I am more worried about getting my life all in order so I can be old and be happy. These poor people are a mess. One guy kept crying when I talked about his family and other things.. I felt it was better to let him just watch TV then make him remember his home and start crying!! So I have decided I am going to start preparing myself so when I am old everything will be all figured out and I can just rest and not have any worries. I asked my friend missionary Elder C. Williams if he thought old people or children required more patience.. we decdided old people haha.

Well not much more to write about… life is good! Next week we will have the mission christmas conference, I CANT WAIT!! It will be amazing. I have really been working on being appriciative for every day I have on the mission. I am going to think back about if only I could just have one more day…. SO I am focusing on taking advantage of EACH day. This could also be applied to our lives. We have so few days here on the earth. This is a time of preparation. We need to use each day for GOOD and not waste time.

Have a grrrrreat week! I love you all and appriciate so much the support and prayers. Keep it up!!

Elder Parker Boyack

Dear Everyone,

Hello! I am in a really good mood I always love this part of the misson. There are so many emotions so its always nice when I am happy haha. Today its crazy hot. I don’t stop sweating. And to top it all off, our fan broke!! Hooray!! HAha but I am over it. I have learned that the principle of “ask and ye shall receive” is true. 4 TIMES I have asked for rain/wind/cold weather and the Lord gave it to me. Its quite amazing.

Things are starting to pick up here is PAranaguá. After those four baptisms we had in October, we had nothing to work with. Then we started working a lot with the friends/neighbors/family of Nei and Flores, two amazing boys we baptized. This past week we baptized two of their friends Juninho and MArlo. It was a great experience but there was a problem with the heater so the water was boiling hot. We had to fill up buckets with cold water to make the water colder and finally got it to a “bearable” temperature… quite hilarious. This next week we will baptize another dude called Jefferson who is amazing.. he read, he prayed, he went to church, and got an answer that this church is true. That’s all you need to do! Read, Pray, and go to church. It works!!

We have been focusing on baptizing every week and the Lord has been blessing us. I have also been working hard to get rid of my bad habits. I wasn´t using every minute as best as I could, and now I am trying to not waste a single minute. Its awesome!! I am reading a book mom sent me by Henry B. Eyering, its so good! I cant remember what its called though haha.

So I totally agree with what Ryan said. “Thing that drives me crazy is the unawareness that the members have with recent converts. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, when sacrament meeting starts, look to see if there is someone sitting alone (recent-convert, investigator, inactive) and sit with them. It will help soo much. I have run into a lot of people who have said, “I always wanted to go back to church, but I juts don’t feel welcome there” DO NOT let that happen.” SO true. We need to leave our comfort zone to make these people feel welcome. The best way to make a person feel welcome at church is when people talk to them and make them feel welcome. There is no better way.

We too had our primary presentation as did Ryan. Twin Peaks ward DEFEINTLEY has the best primary, but it was good here too. I am saddened to see here how some people do not fulfill their callings. For example when there is a meeting and every organization should be present, usually it’s the bishopbric, the Elders, and make the High preist quorum president. People just don’t take their responsabilites seriously and it will be sad when they have to report to Jesus Christ how they did. So the challenges of the week are:

1.      Talk to the missionaries and see who they would like you to sit with/talk to.
2.      FULFILL your calling. Ask your bishop what you can do better and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

Have a great week and be happy!!!

Love,
Elder Parker Boyack