Dear All,

Due to the small amount of email, I have 40 MINUTES to write all this! Thats a lot of time and i don´t have that much to talk about.. The weather has been ok here.. Paranaguá is weird because in one day it is hot and sunny then later rains. It happens almost every day. The big Carnaval holiday is coming up so there are groups of “bands” all over the city which basically consist of a bunch of guys beating like crazy on drums. The bad part is their practice starts at 10:00 at NIGHT. Needless to say, getting to sleep just got harder

Today was pretty cool! We played soccer at our chapel and the teams ended up with all the americans on one team (that always happens) and i am proud to say the good ´ol USA team is UNDEFEATED!! Haha the brazillians are furious. Can you imagine a group of brazillians coming and beating us at basketball or baseball or whatever? That would NEVER happen. So to have us come to their country and beat them is quite humiliating for them haha. MAN it feels good to win!

This past week we had a baptism. Its a girl who has a way messed up family and is currently living with a member family in our ward. She has been going for quite a while but would never let us mark a baptismal date with her. Then one day when we were teaching another lady there we marked with the lady and this girl decided she wanted to finally get baptized! We were all still a little unsure though if her mom (who lives in Curitiba) would let her but when we called her her mom was really happy and even wanted to come out to see the baptism! It truly was a miracle and the girl is VERY intelligent!

This next week will be transfers… i am so curious as to what will happen with me!! I have been here in Paranaguá for 3 transfers (4.5 months) which is the average time, but it is possible I stay one more. To be honest i would like to get out of here, Paranaguá is great but I would NEVER live here.. and it helped me realize how much i really love Curitiba!! We will find out Monday night then transfers happen next pday so it is possible next week i will be emailing you from another place.. cross your fingers!!

Well yeah thats about it. I would like to share a thought i had this week. There is a quote that is one of my favorites from Jospeh Smith that goes like this, “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel”. Now i want you to think about what he said. How does this apply to you? Certainly he doesn´t mean each and every one of you should go out in the streets crying “REPENT YE!” and things like that. As Gordon B. Hinckley said, we all have our own “sphere”. Now how can you preach the gospel in your “sphere”? Maybe its talk to the mailman about his religion. Maybe its send a dozen cookies over to the lady who is always alone. There are endless possibilities. Who remembers the second greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Now how can we love our neighbor? Heber J. Grant once said, “The best way in the world to show our love for our neighbor is to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” May we ponder as to how each of us can do this. I testify that as you do this, you will be immensely blessed. You will feel happier and have more of the Holy Ghost in your lives.

Have a wonderful week and go be a missionary!!

Love,
Elder Parker Boyack

Dear People of the NOrth,

Greetings! I totally agree with Ryan, portuguese is so much better! I have found that i actually struggle when i pray in english haha. I feel my portuguese has improved alot in this area. People have been complimenting me on how well i speak and sometimes think i am brazillian! Sometimes i answer our cell phone and the other elders think i am my brazillian comp.. haha i love it! I am not sure how but in these next 6 months i am really going to try to better my portuguese. I want to master it. SPEAKING of next 6 months, i have reached my 1 year and 6 months mark! HOLY COW I AM OLD! It doesnt seem like it though.. President will be leaving in the end of june and i leave in the middle of july so i asked him if before he goes we (my group) could have lunch at his house and if he could give us the final blessing he gives all the missionaries going out. He agreed and so we will be his last group to go out, im so excited!!

My comp woke up sick this morning and wouldnt leave the bathroom lol. We had tacos and pizza last night (tacos actually dont exist here, but the bishops wife makes some pretty dang good ones). It has been HOT HOT HOT. Yesterday was probably the hottest day in my whole life. I was sweating so much i thought i would melt! I have been hearing about all the crazy earthquakes and stuff, can anyone say LAST DAYS!? Oh speaking about that i had an interesting “discussion” with a Jehovas Witness. I really enjoyed it because i learned a lot about their religion. I have no interest to do theology or anything like that but i really do like understanding other peoples doctrines and beleifs.

Unfortunately Andreia who was supposed to be baptized last week didnt pass the interview because she smoked. Then she has pretty much dissappeared, i think she has started going to her friends house a lot. So today we will finally find her and see if things are good for this week. We dont have any other firm baptismal dates, one is a cool kid that was breaking almost every commandment known, and miraculously has somewhat changed his life around. He should get baptized in the next couple of weeks.

Next week we will have our zone conference and the week after that we will have transfers! We will see what happens. This week we had a huge miracle. Unfortuantely our ward is not very good when it comes to retention, so already we were seeing some of our recent converts fall away. One, who is called Juninho (ju-neen-yo) didnt go and we found out he said he didnt want to go anymore. We went over to the house where he always plays computer games and left the 3rd message about the gospel of jesus christ. Afterwards he left with us and we walked over to his house and as he gave up some water i told him his friend Jefferson (that kid who has lots of problems) had gone to church. Juninho felt really bad and we decided to go visit Jefferson. We all read the Book of Mormon together and afterward Juninho said the closing prayer (he hates doing it) and asked for forgiveniss and for help in doing the right things and keeping the commandments. It was amazing! THEN after that he asked me to help him write his testimony so he could bear it this Sunday. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!? Before he was saying he didnt want to go tochurch anymore… miracles happen!

I have been reading recently the teachings of the prophets books (old Sunday school manuals) and i am really learning alot about our past prophets. I made a goal in my life to read all of them. The church has SO MANY useful materials and many people dont take advantage of them. Today I read about Joseph F. Smith. He was shipped of when he was 16 to serve a mission ALONE in Hawaii! His first task was to learn the language and he said he could converse noramally with a Hawaiann after only a MONTH. THAT my friend is the gift of tounges. It is such a blessing to have a prophet of God on the earth today. I sometimes feel an ungrateful feeling. Sure we can say we are thanful for a latter day prophet, but how do we SHOW it? Do we actually pay attention to what he says and put those teachings into practice? I testify Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and through him we can know Gods will for us.

Have a wonderful week and BE A MISSIONARY! I promise many blessings from heaven to those who DO Gods sacred work. Want blessings? Then magnify your calling and share the gospel!

Love,

Elder Parker J. Boyack

Dear Everyone,

So i had like a bazillion emails and now I almost have no time to send a long letter!! Thanks all who send letters/emails to me, they REALLY help me out.

This week was full of rain and HEAT. I love it. You get out of the house sunny and hot and run in at night DRENCHED from the rain because you didnt bring an umbrella, so awesome!

This week was pretty intense. Some of our recent converts are struggling and we are really trying to help them and continue working with our investigators. It is hard stuff! Sundays are defeinitley the hardest.. SOOO MUCH stuff to do.

Yesterday we had a miracle in our area, but i was on a division! So i will tell you all about it next week when i really know WHAT happened haha cuz Elder Tenório tried to explain it to me but im still not really sure what happened. All I know is an eternal investigator decided she wants to be baptized!! Which is ALWAYS a wonderful thing

Well i am out of time, I need to go get a haircut then buy foooood, i keep eating it too fast haha!

I love you all, GO DO SOME MISSIONARY WORK!

Love,
Elder boyack

Dear Family and Friends,

So many things have been going thrugh my head these past weeks… i have no idea where to start or what to say. The weather gets hotter every day. I swear yesterday my shoes were melting to the sidewalk haha. Luckily brazillians have come up with two LIFESAVERS in this heat. They are known as “chup-chup” and “caldo de cana”. Chup-Chups are like homemade otterpops (popsicles). They are made with natural fruit and milk, and com in about every imaginable flavor, and the best part, they are dirt cheap! Caldo de cana is a delicious juice drawn from sugar cane, they run the sugar cane through a machine which squeezes out all the juice then they mix a little lime or pinapple to give it extra flavor. Needless to say I am loving brasil

The holidays were HARD especially here in the “litoral” (beach region) and our zones numbers were way low. BUT we are all pumped and working very hard and the results are already showing. We are doing a competition in the zone and some of the companionships are really kicking butt! Yesterday was a bonus day to see who could get the most lessons with member. I had THREE divisions marked and they all worked out but unfortuately hardly anyone was home or let us in.

One of the districts in the zone is having some problems keeping the rules, especially when it comes to managing our time wisely. For example one day they left the house at 1:30! So this past pday me and Elder Tenorio did a surprise visit AFTER pday was over and lets just say things were pretty ugly at their house (they all live together). So we had a VERY good talk and the spirit was really strong. For some reason most of them had lost their focus and forgotten why they were really here. We helped them to get pumped and to get back on track and they have really done a good job of improving. It was a very cool experience because sometimes the leader just lets it go or he just calls them and says dont do it again. That was something I learned with President… when someone is doing something wrong you NEED to correct them otherwise they wont respect you.

One thing i have been praying and fasting about is my testimony. No need to worry, I have a strong one!! But i realized how much more strong it needs to be. I guess i was satisfied with what I had and just didnt do much about it. One thing President taught us a few zone conferences ago was that the mission is the best place to build your testimony. Now is the BEST time I have to really develop christlike attributes. So in these next 6 months (HOLY COW) I am really working on always building my testimony and developíng my christlike attributes so that when I depart from this wonderful place, i will be prepared and ready to do my best in the real world.

It is so incredibly AMAZING as to how the gospel just makes sense! This HAS to be the true church, and I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it IS. We truly are doing the Lords work and for that we will be blessed. It is by far the most difficult (fisically AND emotionally) thing I have ever done in my life and I am so grateful for this opportunity. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He lives. He loves us so much we cant even understand it!

Today is my Moms birthday and I would like to publicly (i think thats how you spell it haha) express my love to her. I couldn´t have gotten to where I am without her. She is a huge example in my life and I am SO grateful she gets to live MANY more years here on this earth with us. I love you Mom and hope you have a very happy birthday! You will get your present in 6 months haha!!

Well I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you have a great week! This year i challenge you to make at least ONE goal that relates to missionary work and I promise that it will bring you happiniess and peace in your life if you work hard at it all year. I love you all!!

Elder Boyack
Brasil Curitiba Mission