You Can Make the Pathway Bright

Dear Family,

I really could not be happier.  Yesterday and today I just woke up really happy.  I spent the morning singing.  I don´t know if you´ve all been praying extra hard or what, but it´s working!  It really is so great to be a missionary.  There are little bumps along the way as a missionary or in this life, but all we need to do is kneel down in prayer for a little bit and realize that we are on the glorious path that leads to an eternally joyful future!  This is the path of happiness that we are on.  If we stay the course, we will be happy.  Maybe the opposition in this life has power to bump or bruise us, but we are eternally stronger than any momentary difficulty if we stay the course.

There were some great experiences this last week.  On Tuesday night, a member in the ward drove us to Juiz de Fora to take part in the mission counsel.  I got to talk to some of my favorite missionaries, which was great.  Unfortunately we didn´t get to visit any members or recent converts in the area.  On Wednesday, we had the counsel meeting and it was awesome!  We decided some things for the mission.  At the end, President Cascardi started to share 3 Nephi 17 with us, his favorite chapter.  He got emotional when he read about the powerful words the Savior had used in praying for the Nephites.  I thought a lot about why he would get so emotional.  I came to the conclusion that he must know what it´s like to pray so fervently for another, including us missionaries.  I am so glad that I began praying for Sister and President Cascardi before the mission.  I feel like right now I am harvesting the blessed feelings of respect and love for them.

We are working a lot with our wonderful part-member family.  They are doing great.  They went to church yesterday and just loved it!  The dad is feeling like he really wants to make a change in his family so that they can stay firm in the church.  It is such a blessing.  Yesterday we talked to him about the Priesthood.  It was such a blessing to be able to talk him about the joy of having a father that holds and exercises the Priesthood.  I love you all and am ever so grateful for the strength you give me.  I love you!


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

PS  I met the missionary son of Peter Schillemat from Cabo Verde.  His name is Marcos Joao Araujo.  It was cool.