Faith in Every Footstep

Dear family,

I am loving life as a missionary. Sometimes, I take moments to stop and think about what it is I am doing. What a blessing!

This week was especially great. I am still recovering from excitement from the baptism last week, and I am being swept up in the exciting plans for a baptism this coming week.

Once again, I didn't really leave any time to type a real email for you all. I am so sorry. I will try to sum up quickly the joy of this last week by telling a story from yesterday.

We found out Saturday night that we wouldn't be able to use the Bishop's car to take our investigators to church. This was an extreme bummer since we were really relying on this to transport our investigators. I looked at the money I had and asked myself if I was willing to pay the price to have my faith bring our investigators to church. I decided that we would have to pay the way for all of the members of this large, poor family to get to church. Well, we had to arrive at their house earlier than usual. When we arrived, we found that no one had woken up yet. This was the first blessing of the situation. We had been inspired by the situation to get to the house earlier and were able to make sure that they went to church. Then we found out that the matriarch of the family (who has a date to be baptized this week) would not be able to go to church because she was not feeling well. That would not do. She had to go to church in order to be baptized. We entered her tiny room and found her on her bed. THe pamphlet about the gospel of Jesus Christ was on her pillow. She can't read, but told us that she had been studying the pictures, pondering and praying about baptism. She said she got an answer from God that she needed to be baptized. She said she needed to be baptized before she died. This sweet 73-year-old grandmother was filled with faith. We offered to give her a blessing of health so that she could go to church. She accepted. My companion anointed and I blessed. With chilling wonder words of power came to my mind as I commanded this daughter to arise and that generations of her family would bless her name. After the prayer, she did arise and accompanied the rest of the family to church. It was a moment of surrene and simple goodness. I am so grateful for this chance to fight against the works of darkness and to establish light in the lives of the children of God.

I love you. I am grateful for your love. May God bless this family so that no unhallowed hand may stop the work of God in the loves of those who matter most to us.

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

Scavenger's Handcart

Faith, Promises, and Covenants

Dear Family,

This was very big week for me. It was one of the best weeks of my mission. Let me quickly expain, no, let me sum up.

The baptism of Lia happened this week. She is the young lady I mentioned who came up to us in the street one day and asked to meet with us. She is also the one who I taught about the woman at the well and being made whole through the living waters and the fountain of life. This week was a miracle. She left today to travel to her mom's house for vacation. We really wanted to baptize and confirm her before she left. She made a lot of rapid and surprising progress during the week that made her ready for baptism on Saturday. It was a great tender mercy for me as well. She really is my investigator to be baptized. I was there when she was found and taught. I received revelation to teach her. I had her in my prayers. Finally, I had the great privilege of going into the water with her to perform the sacred ordinance. It was a special occasion. It was made more special for me when I realized that this was the very weekend, a year ago, that I received sacred covenants in the temple. It is a miracle. And today is the day that Grandpa Ayer passed away. I know that he and others have been guiding me on the other side of the veil to find, teach, and baptize people while enduring the rigors of the work. It is a great blessing. I know that Christ lives. I know that we can return to our Heavenly Father because of Him. I know that we will be prepared for that return through the Holy Spirit. I know this power of the spirit is real. I felt it flow through me as my companion and I laid hands on Lia's head and told her to receive the Holy Ghost. This power is real. THis work is real. Lay aside every corruptible thing and grasp those things of eternal and incorruptible weight and significance. You can find these things through the words of the prophets. I wanted to say more about faith and promises, but I don't have time. Know that a servant of God can give us no greater gift than the promise of the Lord. Begin to recognize His promises and have the faith to do the basics.

Love, Elder Ayer

To the Jew and to the Gentile

Dear Family,

This week was wonderful! Well, that is despite for the shame of the Brazilian soccer team. Yeah, I'll say a little more about that later.

Anyway, last Monday was really great. We spent the day having a churrasco in the house of a great member named Geraldo. Churrasco means barbecue, but the barbecue's in Brasil are really different from American barbecues. And to be honest, I like the churrascos here more. Basically, someone keeps making really salty, tasty meat on the grill until you explode from everything that you are eating. It is really great.

After the barbecue, we had a family night with our investigator Lia. We met her the other day in the street. She came up to us and asked to be taught. :D She has been taught in the past, but moved away. She finally got around to talking to the missionaries again. Anyway, she brought a friend with her to the family night. I didn't realize until we got there that the friend was an Israeli Jew who was traveling through South America, didn't speak any Portuguese, and spoke English. How cool! Anyway, I talked to him for the whole night. It was very interesting to listen to him talk about living in Israel. He said that he hadn't ever heard the name of Jesus Christ until he was an older teenager. His mother is kosher, but he doesn't practice like she does. He is very interested in learning about Jesus Christ. Some of this interest comes from a false perception of who He is because he believes that Jesus is some person who taught others to do what they want and just love people. I thought of the talk by Elder Holland when he denounced the view of Jesus Christ as a "smooth" God, but testified of the Biblical character of Jesus Christ as someone who established the importance of commandments. I helped him understand that Jesus Christ's message is a message of love through commandments that bring us joy. He asked another interesting question about how I am different from him today because of my faith. That was an interesting question. I am continuing to think about it, but the joy of the gospel of Christ is clearly that today we have the opportunity to receive a remission of our sins and strength in our trials. It was very interesting to talk to him. At the end of our encounter, I was more than happy to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon (luckily the member had one in the house). He was very interested to read it. Interestingly, I know I can trust the Book of Mormon to clearly teach the relationship between the Jewish faith and Christianity. Jewish belief in its purity is the same thing as Christianity. The prophets in the Book of Mormon knew of Christ, and the believers were even referred to as Christians because of their belief in Christ. Abinadi taught to foolish priests that the meaning of the law was fulfilled in Christ. I know that if this Jew reads it, he will know of the importance of Christ in his life. The Book of Mormon was written to the convincing of Jew and Gentile. The only thing that made this Hebrew encounter any better was that his name was Chaim. How great! I asked him about Fiddler on the Roof, and he said that he had already seen it. Le chaim!

Also, Lia is doing very well. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it went just perfectly. We only made it to the front cover of the pamphlet. Elder Rodrigues asked if she would like to see the Bible video about the Samaritan woman at the well. I was confused why he felt like we should watch it. Despite my doubts, it went perfectly. We discussed the video afterwards. She talked about an emptiness she had felt inside of her when she wasn't being taught by missionaries. I talked about how Christ's promise to this woman was that she could have a fountain of eternal life springing up inside of her forever. Right now, Lia is coming to the well to draw water. She is meeting with missionaries to feel the joy of the Spirit. However, the promise of Christ is that through the cleansing of baptism, we can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so that He can always dwell with us and we can receive a promise of eternal life during this mortal probation. We are empty because we have left the presence of a loving Father in Heaven. We will feel whole when we begin to accept the presence of His holy representative, the Holy Ghost, permanently inside our hearts. This is the pursuit of a lifetime. We must always live worthy of this eternal fountain. Lia was very moved by the lesson. She came to Church on Sunday and will be baptized this coming Sunday!

So, I am feeling more and more Brazilian. I can tell because I cringed during the entire game with Germany. (we were allowed to watch the match) It was really disheartening and sad. Well, afterwards we were scared of angry Brazilians. Apparently, some other American elders were threatened with death by a crazy Brazilian because they appear German. So, we took precautions and stayed inside after the jogo while things calmed down. The next day, everyone gave me weird looks and lots of people asked me if I was German. Nope, cuz I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free... (cue my patriotic music from last week). Anyway, it was really interesting.

I love you all! I am doing great! I feel your love and I am so thankful! One week left in the transfer. I am hoping for a little change. We will see!


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

Salute to Chuck Shepard

Dear Family,

Well, a lot of good things happened this week, here and abroad. I hope that more emails flood in so that I can read about my favorite sister returning to my favorite family and our favorite home. Until then, here are some things that happened while I am here doing my favorite thing, missionary work! :D

Last Monday, we had a noite familiar with our investigators. We brought them to church last week, and they loved it! THeir names are Joel and Alcione, and they have 4 children. We had a lot of fun at the Bishop's house as we played that game where you put a sticky note on your forehead with some name of a famous person. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. The next day, we brought members with us to teach the plan of salvation. THe LOrd perfectly laid the foundation of our lesson; Alcione started talking about the children she had lost and the grandchild she had lost as well. I was able to bear testimony briefly about modern revelation that gives us hope for the eternal salvation of those who have died in childhood. The Spirit immediately entered the room. There was silence, and there were tears in Alcione's eyes. We had a prayer, and commenced to teach about the mighty plan of God. Due to many talks in church about genealogy and temple work, we also taught about the temple. It was amazing to see them be filled by this profound doctrine through their simple faith. It was amazing. We talked to them about marriage and baptism. They have committed to do both! We are very excited for them, and we are working on marriage papers for them AGORA. Unfortunately, they weren't able to come to church this Sunday because Joel spent the night drinking and passou mal. It just goes to show that the vices of men always get in the way of us obtaining those things which are most dear and precious to us. Luckily, there is repentance and the ability to change. We are looking forward to their continued progression.

Lots of America this week. On Tuesday, EUA unfortunately lost in the jogo contra Belgica. However, I'm sure they were easily cheered up in the following days by singing some very patriotic songs. "Cuz I'm glad to be an American where at least I know I'm free..." Yep, as you probably imagine, that is what I did on ye olde Fourth of July. I woke up feeling a little trunky. NO watermelon. NO lake. NO blueberry pie. Well, freedom and America are a lot more than that. I started going through the hymn book and singing all of the patriotic songs to myself. Well, that was good, but I really wanted to listen to someone else sing these songs to me. At last I remembered my first area in West Virginia. There was an old war (Second World and Korea) vet in the ward named Chuck Shepard who we brought the sacrament to. He really liked to make "photoshows" about his military service with accompanying patriotic music. He had given me one of his videos. I searched through my bags, but found nothing. I said a prayer and searched some more. Finally, I found it! I put it in our DVD player and hoped for the best. SUCCESS!!! I played that video and listened to a little piece of America. Well, my South American missioary housemates were in somewhat of a mood and didn't seem to want my American spirit around. They asked, are these hymns? Yep! These are hymns in the hymnbook! I can listen to them! They grumbled a few things about America and how Brazil is better because Santos Dumont invented the first airplane and not the Wright Brothers (okay, you have the airplane and we have freedom and everything else). Sorry, this isn't meant to sound discouraging, but I was really feeling the American love that day. It was really good. Also, I started making an Americna flag from paper. All I need now are some star stickers. Also, I got to hear fireworks! It was Independence Day! Everyone was setting off fireworks because Brazil won the jogo! It was a great day.

I am loving the time here in Brazil. I am loving the people. Miracles happen every day. The spirit testifies of truth. The spirit guides us. We are being redeemed as we help in the redeeming work of others. It is a miracle. The purifying influence of the Spirit is the only thing that will prepare us for an eternity in the pure presence of our Father. Everything we do in this life should lead us and others to make and keep covenants which magnify the influence of the Spirit in our lives.

I love you. I think about you, but not too much (okay, I am working on it). It's hard, but it will bring blessings. I love you.


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. I found a place that sells waffles. You can bet I bought it and ate it!

P.P.S. All the members here refer to each other as Irmã ou Irmão (first name) without fail. This is the rule here in Brazil. No one is referred to by their last name except the missionaries.

P.P.P.S. We have a mission song. It reminds me of the Hill Cumorah Pageant song. Lots of good words mixed in together put to a tune that doesn't make much sense. It's fun to sing! (and fun to hear people try to sing it)

God Bless America

Dear family,

It has been another crazy week. Let me give some brief, fun, spiritual, loving highlights.

MOnday we watched the jogo of Brazil against ?(20-year-old moment) in the house of the Bishop. It was a lot of fun. They had some good party food. Among the food was something called torresmo. Everything jokes that Americans love bacon, but this was better (and more fattening) than bacon. Oh, it was so good. I looked it up in the dictionary later and found out that I tried good ol' crackling! I am glad that I can get the deep, deep, deep South experience! :D

We had an awesome week for church attendance! We brought an entire family to church. It was so great! They have six people in their family! It was wonderful (and wild)! Anyway, the family is very sweet. They love to sing together. The dad plays the guitar as the rest of the family sings (evangelical) hymns. The oldest child is named Mariah Carey (of course, they have to change the spelling in order to have it come out sounding the same). They are super awesome. It was their first time at church, and the whole world took them in and talked to them and supported them. We are going to have a family home evening with them tonight in the house of the Bishop. It is super great!

For our other investigator, Tiago, he is doing super well. He is continuing to progress. This week he has been working at overcoming his addiction to smoking. He has had some great success. One thing that has been hard is to get him integrated into the ward. He has a lot of shame about his past life following his previous tendencies and attractions. Because of this, he feels ashamed to talkl and interact with members of the ward. Some of the members are not helping because they talk about him in the sense of his personal temptations. They talk about how they have never seen someone with those tendencies make a permanent change. Some of them are afraid to interact with him because of this. Well, this grinds my gears and puts fire in my blood. When I hear this coming out of member's mouths (who should know better), I feel like getting up to the pulpit and joining Brother Brigham in the excitement of exhortation. Well, it is not my place to do that to the ward, but I still want to testify in my words and actions that anyone may change through the Atonement of Christ. To support this, I read from Alma 26. In this, Ammon talks about his and his brothers' misison among the Lamanites, a wicked and idolotrous people. When he and his brothers told the other members of the Church about this, they said that it was a waste of time to try to convert the Lamanites. The brothers were "laughed to scorn" and told that it would be better to take up the sword and "destroy them and their iniquity out of the land". Well, the sons of Mosiah did not take this counsel. Instead, they went in faith to teach the Lamanites and saw one of the greatest conversions in the history of the world. Their bretheren were loosed from the bands of iniquity and were filled with the light of the everlasting Savior. This people would be obedient unto death. These missionaries did not bring in a harvest of half-wits or half-hearts. They brought in the greatest harvest of the children of God. This is my testimony, that the Atonement can take effect in even the greatest of sinners. This is real. I challenge all of you to think of the most sinful person you know and refer them to the missionaries. Perhaps God is preparing them for a change of heart. This change of heart will only be aided by our dedication to love and support all of God's children in righteous endeavors.

Well, I love you all. I love that Sarah will be returning home for the 4th of July. I am happy for you all. I am hoping that some of the Americans in my zone and I will get together today and eat a cheeseburger (with sweet ketchup, potato sticks, and maybe an egg). Keep me in your prayers. I'll keep you in mine.


Yours always,

Elder Parker Ayer

1 year older and wiser too?

Dear Family,

A lot happened this last week. I hope that I can write it all fast enough. I actually planned out my email this week so that I will be able to write about all the things that I need to write.

Okay, I will start out with my birthday. It went well. Mom said to buy a cake for my birthday, but I really didn't feel like eating a Brazilian version of cake for my birthday. I wanted the real deal. Well, when you want something done, it's best to do it yourself. Mondy I went shopping for cake supplies. The cake itself wasn't that hard to buy. I just bought a really good cake mix. Then I had to venture out and get the frosting stuff. I had to search for a while to find some cream cheese, but I got it! Besides tasting a little too salty, it was the same thing as American cream cheese. At the end of the trip to the store, the ingredients had mounted up to about 20 US dollars, but I really wanted that cake. Monday night and Tuesday morning I baked away. I really didn't feel like being a weirdo a baking a cake for my own birthday. Luckily, another sister in our district had a birthday this last week, so I slapped her name on the cake, too, and brought to district meeting birthday morning so that we could have a party. It turned out really well! That day there was also a Brazilian match. We had to stay inside for a few hours. Also, that day was the 2 year anniversary of Elder Rodrigues' church membership. How great!

This last week I was able to witness a great miracle. I am continually grateful that I get to see the Holy Ghost work wonders in the lives of those who open their hearts to Him. A week ago, we were walking down the street when a man introduced himself to us. He said his name was Tiago and that he had been taught by missionaries before. He had felt the Holy ghost testify powerfully of the Joseph Smith story and he believed the CHurch was true, but he unfortunately struggled with same-sex attraction. We set up a time to meet with him for this week. The first meeting went very well. We met in the chapel. He said things like, "Every time I walk into this building, a feel a warm feeling come over me" and "I feel like my actions have separated me from God". He really is golden. We talked to him about the importance of the family and the hope of change. He admitted to us that he couldn't imagine the day when he is able to overcome his feelings and have a family. He looked broken and destitute of hope. We told him that attraction is not sin, but action. I wanted to fill him with all the hope that I have ever felt in my life. I wanted to bear testimony of every experience I have had in which my Heavenly Father kindly reached out and strengthened me to overcome obstacles. I wanted to be like the sons of Mosiah who testified with such strength of the healing power of the Atonement because they had been redeemed from their past as the "very vilest of sinners". At the end of the lesson, he was more hopeful for the future. The next lesson, we taught the Restoration. It was one of the best lessons I have ever had. He already recognizes the promptings of the Spirit testifying of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. This when I explained the First Vision, the Spirit easily came into the room and gave confirming power to my mortal, fragile words. It was such a wonderful experience. The meeting was comforting and reassuring, knowing that someone who has been lost in the throws of sin can once again return and heal a broken bond. There is a balm in Gilead, it is the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This last Sunday, he was our only investigator to come to Church. He is now doing those things in his life that will help him prepare for an eternity with his Savior. I am sincerely grateful for this experience. And I hope that everyone who reads this will know that there is a way back from a life of sin. It is in a broken heart a contrite spirit. It is in faithful observance of the commandments of a loving Father in Heaven. Stop giving place in your heart for the father of lies and misery, and begin to give place in your heart for the Father of joy and life.

Alright, now for some bullet points of fun things. Here we go!

*I saw 4 wild monkeys this week! They weren't the big kind, but were squirrel sized. How cool!
*I love doce de leite. Take it away before I get fat...ter :D 

*There are lots of types of banana here. One here is really good and has a tangy, orangy taste. 

*Capybaras live along the river here. Last Monday, I saw a huge dead one on the side of the road with flies zooming around it. UGHH!  

*We got permission from the President to watch the jogo today! Yeah! US classified! 

*I tried a coffee alternative this week called cevada. I think it might be like Postum. It was good for the first few sips, but then got gross fast. 

*I had interviews with President this week. Super great! 

*We can watch any church movie about missionary work (The Best Two Years, The Other Side of Heaven, etc) hahaha  

*These fun portugues/englishy words: shopping (mall), tutti frutti (sounds like toochy froochy), pique nique (picnic) 

*I asked someone if she has had beans every day of her life. Yep. I said I eat beans and rice like once a month in the US. She said, "what do you eat every day, hamburgers?" 

*My nickname is Elder Ai because when I get stressed out with the language, I hold my head and say, "Ai" 

Please thank Grandma and Grandpa Eliason for the card. I got it this past week. I love you all and pray for you sempre. You are the best around!


Love, Elder Ayer

Another wonderful flag day

Dear Family,

This email might be a little short. I spent a good amount of time trying to upload a video to the email. It turns out that the video is 1.3 GB and much too big to attach or upload. Anyway, the video shows me being a little goofy, laughing and smiling, saying things like "I love you," and being a very Parker-y missionary who loves his family. I hope that that makes up for the obvious lack of video. I love you!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, FATHER!!! You are a great example to me. Thank you for the encouraging words. They really do help. I refelct on your missionary stories often as a source of strength.

Also, HAPPY FLAG DAY!!! Boy, this one was great. Actually, this is probably the best time for flag day in Brasil. During the world cup, people are patriotic here. People love football here, closely followed by God and family. Everyone has a flag hanging outside their house, hanging from their car, on their shirt, etc. The cup of the world really is super crazy. We aren't allowed to watch the games, but we see a lot of them just because all of the little stores have the games playing on a giant big screen tv. Everyone is fixated on those screens. When Brazil plays, we have to stay inside our apartment. They've only played once so far. During the game, we knew everytime Brazil scored because the entire world went crazy. Vuvuzelas, fireworks, cheers, screams, pounding, etc. It is very exciting, and makes for a good talking point when we start up a conversation with someone. The next jogo is tomorrow during my birthday! It looks like all of Brazil will be having a party just for me. :D

The work here has been going well. We keep seeing miracles. We keep being led to the people that are prepared to receive the gospel, the meek and humble who really want to seek out the truth. It is very good. We have one investiagtor right now named Wagner who is preparing for baptism. He really wants to learn English, too, which becomes a bit of a problem during lessons because he starts translating everything that we say into English and then looks at me for confirmation. It's a little funny, but really distracting, too, because I can't switch easily from English to Portuguese and back again.

Everything is going well! I am super happy to be here. I have been studying faith and how we can work miracles through our faith in the Lord. Be faithful. Seek out the promises of the Lord. Do all you can to fulfill the promises so that He can bless you. Rinse and Repeat. Sorry, everything serious has to be followed by something goofy. I better kick this before I turn 20!

I love you all! Have some yummy breakfast on my birthday. I'll be eating corn starch mash. :D (it's good, albeit strange) I love you!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

When you are happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Dear family,

Well, I am going to be a little honest. But do not worry, the honesty has a happy ending. By the way, this keyboard only types in Portuguese, so I do not have the capability of making apostrophes, so excuse the formal language or typos. Anyway, I think that I experienced depression for the first time this week. It was the strangest feeling. It came a little bit at a time since I got to the Brazilian mission field, but really manifested itself this last week. Holy heartbreak, batman! Im not sure if that phrase really quite fits right here, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Anyway, things kind of all mounted this week. No, it wasnt any one incident that set things off. In fact, nothing out of the ordinary that made me feel so crummy. The weirdest thing was that I thought I was acting perfecty normal, and my companion kept asking me over and over again if I was sad. No, Im not flippin sad! It was frustrating. I would walk and think to myself about all that was going on, within and without the mission field. My companion would also tell me about several other American missionaries who had come to the field after waiting for visas and were sent home because of extreme depression. When we got home, I would listen to general conference talks from the apostles to try to cheer me up. It was ineffective. I read a talk by Orson Pratt (?, dont quote me on it), about the Potter and the Clay; it talked about how those who are humble can be molded in every situation by the Master Potter and live happily and cheerfully. Well, why wasnt I? I felt like the most humble of all. I, who couldnt speak. I, who had learned lots of things already but was restarting at square one. Well, the I´s had it. I believe Anne Hathaway once talked in a movie about how often we repeat the word I and dont think about others. Yeah, that was happening. One morning this week, I was reading in Preach My Gospel about how to recognize the spirit. The chapter talked about the importance of receiving personal revelation for ourselves and to help others in their progression towards Christ. I realized that I hadnt tried at all to receive revelation for myself or others. I had completely disregarded the importance of prayer, and had not been using my gift to receive direction from the Holy Ghost. At that moment, I was done with feeling crummy. I bowed my head, folded my arms, and closed my eyes. In simple terms, I told Heavenly Father about what was going on. I told Him that I did not want depressive feelings because they were not benefitting me as a missionary. I asked Him to take them away. When I was finished, I began making plans for my new life as a missionary. That day was the best day in Brazil. I talked confidently with the members we ate lunch with. I was cheerful and energetic the entire day. I talked with everyone I saw. That day, my companion and I talked with 40 people in the street, and we saw so many miracles. Since then, we have found several new people to teach. Some of them have accepted the baptismal invitation. We had a stake conference on Sunday, a broadcast from Salt Lake. Three of our investigators came. Even better, another man from our area came who we had never met before, and now he wants to learn more. There are so many things that I have been learning in my time as a missionary. We cannot sit by. We cannot be content. We cannot be things to be acted upon. We were made to act. Yes, God is at the head of this great and eternal work. That does not eliminate our personal responsibility. We can plan and directly act. In doing so, we can expect the blessings and guidance of God to follow. Make an evaluation today of what you are doing and who you are. Make a plan to improve. Promise the Lord that you will follow this plan. Act in all diligence. See miracles follow. I know that God wants to bless us greatly. We need to allow Him to by acting in faith and in all diligence. I love you all! Sorry for not responding to your questions and emails. Go BRAZIL!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

Abride with Me

Dear family!

I love being a missionary, it is so great!

There are a bunch of stories and things that I need to tell you.

First, a miracle story from last week that I forgot about. We were walking along the street and I saw a sign for Churros (shu-hus). Well, that was exactly what I felt like eating, so we stopped and I offered to buy some for my companions also. Well, the lady cut up the dough for the churros, and I was like, "that is the most pathetic churro I have ever seen. I can buy one 3 times as long as that for 1 dollar at Costco!" Well, my doubts were soon pacified when the woman then took the churro and filled it with leite condensado (sweetened condensed milk) and chocolate (chocolate). Oh my goodness, that churro was out of this world! Anyway, we were standing there eating our churros and I started talking to the lady about the Church. I wasn't able to pay yet because another car drove up and the lady had to start making more churros. Well, a man got out of the car and stood there waiting for his churros as we talked more about the gospel. The man hadn't even said a word, but when the lady finished his churros, he asked if he could pay for our churros as well! What a blessing! Nephites still walk the earth, and the Lord is fulfilling his promise to his servants that they shouldn't worry about what they should eat or drink because they will be provided for. :D

Second, the greatest contacting story of my mission. We stopped by a church waiting to cross the street. As we waited, I look around and noticed that there was a wedding in the Church. And what do you know, the bride was sitting in the car. As I thought more and more about the situation, that weird feeling started bubbling up inside of me that I was going to do something crazy and irrepressible. I consulted with my companion; he advised that I not. And yet there was that nagging feeling. I did it quickly before I could think too much about how ridiculous it was. I walked up to the car, extended my hand through her open car window to shake her hand, and said, "Parabens, nossa presente para voçê," (Congratulations, our present for you) and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I walked quickly back over to where my companion was. Once we walked across the street, I looked back and noticed some things I hadn't realized before. The church was the Assembleia de Deus, a church which despises our church. I also noticed that the bride was no longer in the car. I had given the Book of Mormon to her in the most likely most terrifying few moments previous to the beginning of the ceremony! Well, I know that she will now always remember the Mormon missionaries, and I hope that our encounter helped calm some of her nerves. :D

Also, that breakfast stuff is called mingau. Apparently there are several ways to prepare it. I learned about one way this past week. Heat 1 cup of milk, two tablespoons of corn starch, and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a pan over the stove and stir until it thickens. There might be more steps, but that's the basic gist of it!

Also, musical ability is really lacking here. Most people can't sing the melody of hymns very well, and no one sings the harmony. Well, yesterday in Church, the singing was sounding pretty stable and intune. I decided to venture from my position of support and test out a harmony. It was great! I felt so good to sing a little harmony again. Well, Brazilians don't mince words. Later, my companion told me that it was annoying to other when I sing the "other notes". hahaha Now I'm supposed to sing hymns they way they're supposed to be sung. OOPS! :D

Can I just tell you that I love the rules? I love obedience. Here, there is a culture of disobedience. It's been a little hard to be patient with this. I can just tell you that obedience is so freeing. When we obey, we have the promise of the Lord that He will bless us. He WILL! How can we hope to affect the lives of others for eternity if we don't have the faith to be obedient? I love the words of the Savior from hymn number 185. "Be obedient, I implore. Prayerful, watchful, evermore. And be constant unto to me that thy Savior I may be." We allow the Savior to save us when we are obedient. I love you all. There is so much I want to say, but so little time. I only have an hour for email. I love you!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

Humility is the key to Inspiration!

Familamily,

I love you! I love you a lot! Thanks for the pictures. There is a reason that I can only receive emails from you once a week. If I were to receive emails from you every day, I definitely would not be able to concentrate on anything other than fun visits with friends, brotherly wedding plans, and home. Im grateful for this one day to see all of the fun and then get back to work. I love you!

Well, interesting experiences this week. You would think that after 9 months in the field and 4 trip-ships, I would know how to interact better with people. Well, change takes time. It will probably take much longer than 2 years to learn everything that I need to know. Anyway, at the beginning of this week, all I could think about was speaking Portguese and the gift of tongues. Why, you might ask? Well, it just so happens that I am in a foreign country where my sole purpose is to TALK to people and invite them to Christ. You can probably see how quickly my patience has deteriorated. Anyway, it was particularly bad at the beginning of this week. I became so consumed with my lack of ability that I did not really think about the misisonary work at all. Yeah, I became very focused on myself and on me not knowing enough, me not being able to participate, me, me, me... Anyway, it was bad. What I discovered was that the gifts of the Spirit come when we forget about self and start focusing on others. During the week, I became particularly impatient with one of my companions, and I snapped a bit. Well, that set a bad tone for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, I had to apologize to him in order to make things right. That was an important moment for me. I realized that I was only hurting myself and others by being stressed and impatient. What I really needed to do was focus on serving others and be as patient with the weaknesses of others as I would want them to be with me. Would it make sense for someone to snap at me because I used incorrect grammer in trying to speak POrtuguese to someone? No, that would be ridiculous. The same goes for the weaknesses of others. The Lord says that he cannot look on sin with any allowance, but he always looks upon weakness with mercy. We can strive to do the same. Anyway, now I am having fun with learning Portuguese. It can still be hard, but I am trying to laugh off funny experiences when I cannot say what I need to say. I hope the Lord will make up for the misunderstandings I cause!

So, funny things this week. We are teaching a 25-year-old woman. The first time we met with her, I knew that she was talking about me, but I had no idea what she was saying. It was really confusing, and I did not know what to do except laugh it off. Well, it came off wrong because the woman was saying how she feels like she has a special connection with Americans and how they are really good looking. So funny! My companions give me a hard time for that. Also, I am learning that simple things I would say to be friendly in the US come off as flirting here, and that is dangerous, especially as a white American missionary. For example, we stopped by a candy store, and I asked the woman behind the counter what her favorite candy was. Well, I thought that it was completely normal. I was trying to start up a conversation and then invite her to learn more! Nothing happened, but my companions warned me not to do it again. We went to the house of the Bishop for a meal, and they played the Book of Mormon Movie while we were there. We only saw the beginning, but it was so funny! (mostly because it was underbudgeted)

I had an interesting answer to prayer come this past week. I was praying for strength (in my companionship, in the language, etc...) and a song from the 90s came to my mind during the week. SOmething like: Hey, dont run yourself around, its only in your head you feel left out and looked down on, just try your best, do everything you can, something something something, it just takes some time little bit something something everything everythin will be alright everything everything will be alright alright. Anyway, I cannot remember all of the words, but you get the gist. For some reason, it really helped. How weird! Im pretty sure that its a song from a teenage boy to some sad little teenage girl, but it realy cheered me up this week for some reason!



I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that he loves us. I know that humility and selflessness bring more joy than pride and selfishness. I know that the Book of Mormon contains answers to the questions of our soul. Read it. Ponder it. Learn from it. Know it is true. I love you all. Be strong. Be good. Dont let Satan tell you that you are less than you are, or that you are somehow outside of the grasp of the merciful arms of the Savior. Let your mind and heart be filled with the knowledge that you are infinitely bond to his love and that you can return to the presence of the Father through him. If we let ourselves be purified, He will work wonders among us.

I LOVE YOU!!!

-Elder Parker Ayer

p.s. here the recorder can be played in sacrament meeting. and it was! hahaha

Stranger in a strange land

Hello family!

This week has been super crazy. Probably the most craziest week of my life. Let me explain. On Tuesday, I left the MTC. I only went with one other missionary, a sister missionary who was in my district in the Provo MTC, Sister Merkley. We flew out of the airport in Campinas. It was really strange being alone with a sister missionary, but it was all good. We even taught a lesson to a woman as we waited for our plane! It was an interesting experience teaching a reall lesson in Portuguese for the first time with a sister missionary. I imagined that it was Sarah teaching alongside me. What a great companion she would be! Anyway, we boarded the plane without any hiccups and were on our way. I slept most of the way, but woke up to see some of the most gorgeous coundtryside I have ever seen. The landscape here is so beautiful! There are so many mountains. It's great! Anyway, we landed and a random guy with a sign that said "Missao Brasil Juiz de Fora" picked us up in his car. It was about a 30-45 minute drive into the city of Juiz de Fora. We were dropped off at the stake center to find out that a zone conference was already underway. Let's talk about instant immersion! I sat in a meeting for a few hours while my new mission president, President Cascardi, taught us about how to be better missionaries...completely in Portuguese. Afterwards, I sat and talked with other missionaries completely in Portuguese. That's when I found out about my new companions. I am currently with two zone leaders...again...imagine that. It's like dejavu all over again. :D I'll only be with them for the 2 weeks leading up to transfers, then I will be with another missionary who lives in the same house as us. I am currently serving in Juiz de Fora in a part called Manchester (Mon-shes-teh). My companions' names are Elder Perez and Elder Veloso. Elder Perez is from Chile, but he speaks fluent English because he spent a few months in the US. Elder Veloso is from Northeastern Brasil (a Nordestino) and speaks a little English. When I introduce myself to people, I often tell them that I'm a Nordestino also. Speaking of which, introducing myself to people is really hard. No one knows New Hampshire here (heck, no one knows NH in the US either). I tell them that I live north east of Nova York. Also, no one can say my name. "Ayer" doesn't mean anything. They don't use y's in Portuguese. Instead of making my name sound all cool and latin, I just give people the English pronunciation (air) with a Portuguese accent. However, here they don't say their r's really, so our name usually comes out sounding like a half-hearted breath (eh).

There are lots of funny, different things here. Bus rides are crazy. We get to ride the bus a lot. You enter in the front and then proceed to a turnstile (is that the word?) where you pay 2 reais and 5 centavos to ride the bus. Also, ketchup and mustard here really aren't that enjoyable. We only take one hour for lunch and then 0 hours for dinner. We might eat something when we get home, but I don't really because it's late. Between sweating and eating, I feel like I've already lost ten pounds, and it's only been a week and no worm! Speaking of which, I've already had the water here...unfiltered. I don't have a worm yet, but my companions tell me that Juiz de Fora is known for having pure water. Also, I already have a farmer's tan after a few days. I don't think that you'll be able to recognize me after two years! Here, my white skin really stands out. At one door, an old woman grabbed my hand, kissed it, and told me that all the girls at Church must love me. My companions told me later that she was on drugs, I agreed. I never realized how strange it would be surrounded by people that don't look like me. Once in a while, I can pick out someone who looks like an American. Also, I was not preapred for the langague overload. Sometimes I have this strange expectation that everyone will finally stop playing around and starting speaking ENLGISH. Well, it hasn't happened yet. I don't think that it's ever going to happen. Also, other really funny things. Like Sarah, I have been drinking a lot of Coke. The Coke down here is really different than the coke in the US. It's really good! I'm told that it has a lot of extra chemicals in it that make it that way. Also, the people here have a flour (farinha) that they put on their rice and beans. It's good. Also, I showed a picture of Mom and Dad to the other missionaries in our apartment. One asked if Mom was Elaine S Dalton. Later he asked if Dad was a Seventy. It was really funny! There were lots of other fun things that I wanted to tell you, but I can't think of any more right now. Oh yeah, I've become a professional city walker. I stare straight ahead, walk really fast, and try not to look naive and American. The only thing I lack is that I still say hi to everyone that I go past.

I have really been working on talking to everyone. Portuguese is really hard, and I'm doing pretty well at it compared to the other Americans. I get really frustrated with myself sometimes because I can't say what I want to say in the moment that I want to say it. So frustrating! It's especially frustrating because I've already learned somewhat how to teach people. I know what I want to say, but I'm getting in my way. There were a couple days at the beginning when it was really hard. Then the other day I had a realization. I was reading Ether 12 about faith and trials of faith. I asked myself, "Do I believe in the promise of the Lord?" Ether 12 said that we can live with surety if we believe in the Lord. The Lord has promised great blessings to His missionaries. Do I believe in them? Do I believe that He will fill my mouth with the right words if I open it? From that moment, I made a promise to myself that I would put my faith in the promise of God and talk to everyone I meet. I want Him to be able to trust me with the holy gifts of the Spirit. Since then, it has been a lot of fun. COmpared to West Virignia, there are so many people to talk to here! I have been doing my best to always be stopping people and talking to them and inviting them to learn more. Sometimes the situations are really strange and awkward, which makes it all the more fun. I just have this idea in my head that I'm already a chubby, white, American, Mormon missionary, no one can blame me if I make things a little awkward. Plus, I can't understand what they're saying 3/4 of the time. It's so much fun! I really do love being a missionary and being able to talk to everyone about the gospel without fear, and I have been able to see my Portuguese skills imporve in the last few days. What a blessing!

The trip-ship situation has been going alright. West Virginia got me ready for third-wheeling it, even more so now since everyone else speaks Portuguese. :D Well, things aren't bad at all. THings are wonderful! I love Brasil! I love the people here! There are so many good people that want to hear the good news of Jesus Christ restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is so much joy in our message! Like in my other zone leader trip-ship, I walked into two more baptisms. Their names are Eduardo and Luiz. They are brothers. It was a really great experience.

Well, I love you all! Know that for sure! I use what you have taught me to focus on the work at hand and thrust in my sickle with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength! Love you!!!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. Elder Veloso is a professional recorder (flauta) player! :D

Skype on Mother's Day

To whom it may concern:

I am going to call via skype at 6 pm São Paulo time, or 5 pm Gilford time. The call will last for 15 minutes, no more. I will be using my facebook sign in info and will search for your info. Anyway, it will work out. I love you!

I love Brasil!

Dear concerned kin,

Yes, I did make it safely to Brasil. I made it! Yippeeeeee!

Alright, on to the business. Last Tuesday was great. I drove up with the Zone Leaders from Roanoke, VA to Charleston, WV where I got to participate in the Mission Leadership Council. It was such a great experience. I loved it so much! It was the perfect ending to the perfect stint serving in the US. Anyway, I stayed the night with the zone leaders in Charleston. The next morning we did service, painting pots. It was fun and real cool. Then I flew out from Charleston. So funny. The Charleston airport is tiny, and it probably took me less than 10 minutes to get through security. Anyway, my flight was delayed. At Atlanta, I ran and barely made it in time for my connecting flight to Brasil. Everyone on the plane spoke Portuguese. I was the odd man out. Well, I kinda spoke Portuguese. Anyway, I sat next to this lady who immediately starting talking to me and complaining about her experience in the airport. Then she warned me about how terrible Brasil is. Then she told me that she was a less-active member of the Church. I think I had this idea in my mind that everyone in Brasil was Mormon. Not so. Apparently not even 1 percent of the population is Mormon. Fun fact. Anyway, I asked if she had a Book of Mormon, and she said that she didn't, so I gave her my copy. We got to the airport and everything was crazy. It took about 30 to 40 minutes to get through customs. When I got out, I waited for another half an hour until someone with an LDS Church sign came up to me and told me to go with him (in Portuguese). He told me to also do a money exchange, but stupid me. I only had 11 dollars in cash and that wasn't enough to exchange for reais. Anyway, He drove me in his car to the Provo MTC. Everyone had gotten there the day earlier and I was the odd man out and everyone kept asking me if I was the one who arrived late and why I arrived late. Anyway, it was great. I got straight to work. The Portuguese is coming along great. We proselyted in the street the other day in Sao Paulo. It was awesome! We gave out 8 copies of the BOok of Mormon, and we were able to talk so well with everyone. One lady said that she will remember us forever. Anyway, I have to go. Surpirse, I get to talk to you on Mother's Day for 15 minutes through skype (no video only sound). Surprise. I thought I would have more time, but I got a bazillion emails to read. I love you all! Talk to you for 15 minutes on Sunday!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

How Great! That's Awesome! Wonderful!

Dear family,

It's been another great week living the missionary life. This week has been really slow and really fast at the same time. Let me tell you why!

At the beginning of this week, I started getting really anxious about everything. I'm going to Brazil. Holy cow! I'm going to be surrounded by people who don't speak my language. Wowzers! I don't know when I'm going. Yikes! I need to focus on missionary work here. Sheesh! I've been sworn to secrecy and can't vent any of these feelings to the people around me. Mums! Anyhow, these thoughts and feelings were just a racing in my head. I spent most of my morning exercise time this week praying or thinking.

Well, I kept on getting reports from fellow visa-waiters in other missions who got their visas and were leaving this coming week. I was starting to freak out. However, President Pitt told me to keep it quiet, so I couldn't just call the mission office and ask them when I was leaving. On top of that, it sounded to me as though someone was going to call me and let me know when I was leaving. I didn't know how far in advance, but it sounded as though I wouldn't get much notice so that I would be able to focus more. Also, i had already asked President Pitt once in email how early I was leaving, and he said that he thought I would be leaving at the end of the transfer. I really didn't want to ask him again and sound like the distracted missionary I was while also distracting him from his important work. So, Thursday rolls around. We were out helping with a non-member's Eagle Scout service project when I got a call from Sister Holdstock. She is one of the senior missionaries who is in the office. She is very sweet and she is the one that you talked to before, Mom. Anyhow, she asked if we had a blow-up mattress swimming around in our apartment. I said, yes. Then she asked me if I would bring it with me when I was there "next week" (meaning this week). I said yes, but inside I was thinking "what?" So, that ruminated in my mind for a while. What is going on? I resolved that night to secretly call Sister Holdstock at some point the next day and ask her what was going on. The next day was Friday. A member of our ward, Brother Wells (he also served in Brazil and was a visa waiter in Roanoke and he's the one who sent you the pictures of me), works at a hair salon and really wanted to cut our hair, but could only arrange for a time on Friday. Anyway, we went to his hair salon on Friday. I determined that that was the time I was going to make my move. I got my hair cut first, and then made my move while Elder Russo got his chopped. I went to a corner of the salon and called Sister Holdstock on other pretenses. When I asked my initial question facade, I went in for the kill. "Sister Holdstock," I said, "do you know if President or Sister Pitt are going to call me about my travel itinerary?" She responded that she had the itinerary right in front of her. She said that President Pitt would let me know of the exact details. Then I asked if I really was leaving this week. Then I told her I didn't even know what day I was leaving. She happily filled my need to know. I am leaving for Brazil Wednesdayat about 5 o'clock in the evening!!! I drive up to Charleston tomorrow morning, and I assume that I will spend the night with the Pitts at the mission home. I will arrive in Brazil at about 5 o'clock in the morning on Thursday. Well, after I got the details, I still wasn't sure whether or not I was supposed to tell anyone. That problem was fixed quickly when we got a text message an hour later from Sister Pitt with some more details. Elder Russo read the text and flipped. He and Elder Grajeda both flipped. They felt like they had been deceived because I didn't tell them for two whole weeks. Well, they were a little mad/annoyed, but I was just happy that I could talk openly about it.

So, now I am really excited and scared about what's going to happen. One thing I do know is that it is so important to stay focused on the work. It became very easy over the past few days to become very unmotivated to work and very motivated to daydream. Well, that's no good. I'm glad I was able to catch myself doing it and then stop. This last week I had the opportunity to give my first baptismal interviews. It was a couple who has been familiar with the Church for a while and has finally had things work out in their lives so that they were ready to receive the restored gospel. Anyhow, it was a very cool experience. Their baptism was on Sunday. It was at the stake center, about 20 minutes away. Well, we decided that we wanted to go to it. I mean, it is a baptism. Isn't that what missionary work is all about? The missionaries who taught the couple were in our district, and we should lend them our support, right? Well, these were unmotivated, daydreaming words. I drove us all the way to the stake center, the whole while this feeling started to creep over me. Why are we going? By the time we got to the stake center, I had a knot in my stomach. I could feel the Spirit asking me, "How is this fulfilling your missionary purpose?" Well, the truth was that it wasn't. All that I really wanted to do was see some missionary friends, talk about going to Brazil, and not think about how much help my own area needed. Well, my companions weren't too happy with me when I told them that we were going to turn right around, not go to the baptism, and go knock some doors. We had used several of our limited miles driving to the stake center, why would we waste them by turning around? Instead I thought, "We've already wasted the Lord's miles, why would we also waste the Lord's time?" We turned around and went back to our area. We went to visit our Chinese investigator, but she wasn't home. We went up one floor and knocked on a random door. A kind older woman came to the door. We talked for a good while about church and stuff. Then I pulled out the pamphlet about the restoration of the gospel and showed her the picture of Christ appearing to the people in America. As soon as I showed her the picture, the woman commented on how she loves seeing that picture. Really? I was very surprised. How had she seen this very Mormon picture before during her time as a Protestant? Well, it didn't matter because she made a great connection with the painting. We then told her that it was a depiction from an event in the Book of Mormon. Now it was her time to be surprised. We taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon, gave her the pamphlet, and then asked if we could come back. She said that she would love for us to come back. It was a very sweet experience. It just showed how a little applied diligence brought great blessings. Who knows what this small amount of effort on our part will work in the life of the daughter of God? It is amazing to contemplate.

Also, do you remember Elder Ballard's talk from conference? He talked about how important it is that every family have a copy of Preach My Gospel and that they study out of it. If you would, I would love to hear what you are learning from it. I will also share with you some of the things that I am learning out of Preach My Gospel. I never really had an appreciation for it before my mission, but I have grown to appreciate it. It is an inspired text. There is so much to learn from it. I study from it every morning, along with the Book of Mormon. This morning I studied chapter 7. I am so excited to learn and speak Portuguese! My favorite part from the chapter is when it talks about the gift of tongues. President Monson has a great quote. he says that all of us need to learn the language of the Spirit. This language overcomes all barriers, concerns, and misunderstandings. How I hope that each of you will be able to develop the language of the Spirit as you seek to understand how to "minister grace" to others and help them come unto Christ. As you begin studying PMG, I would suggest that you study chapter 9. It is all about finding people to teach, and that is the main missionary responsibility of the members of the Church!

I love you all so much. I am excited to go to a foreign place. I am scared to death as well. Please pray for me. Thank you for your prays to this point. Can you please talk to my high school friends who may not be getting these emails and tell them how I'm doing? I would love to hear from them. Please give them my email address or get their email address for me. I love you all so so so so so much!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer


P.S. Today is my 8 month mark. I have already completed 1/3 of my mission. Where does the time go? I've had 1/3 in the US and will have 2/3 in Brazil.

P.P.S. Last Monday we went to the Dixie Caverns as a zone. That's a lot of people to fit in one cavern tour! Anyway, it was really fun. You'll get pictures at some point (whether it's a week from now or 70 weeks from now).


P.P.P.S. I found out that one of my friends from BYU, Kirsten Webber, is from the Roanoke Zone. She is best friends with the Wells' daughter, Jessica. Super cool!

P.P.P.S. The subject line is the way it is because apparently I say those things a lot :D

Current Picture

This is a note and picture we received from a man in Parker's ward.

Howdy folks! 

Took your boys out for pizza last night and then cut their hair at the salon this morning.  I thought you would enjoy seeing your good looking sons after their haircuts.  Sure enjoy them!

Easter Miracles

Dear family,

I know there are important things from back home that I'm supposed to comment on, but I'll keep that until the end. Anyway, this week was the first week in Cave Spring that felt pretty successful. It was great!

It started out with a little P-day sacrifice last week of going to see some potential investigators at 10 in he morning. Well, it turned out great! There names are Grace and Kelson. They are from Malawi. They are Seventh Day Adventists, but they are very open to learning more about the restored gospel. The lesson went great, and by the end Grace said that she is going to carry the Book of Mormon around with her everywhere and read it and pray to know whether or not it is true. They are very nice people and we will meet with them again this week to talk to them more about the Book of Mormon.

Monday night was crazy. There are some members of the Church in the area who have put together an activity for older couples in the Church and the community that happens once a month. They call it "Empty Nesters". At Empty Nesters, there is a spiritual thought, potluck, and then some Bluegrass. They also always invite the missionaries. It was a lot of fun and allowed for a good opportunity for us to get to know some of the people in the community and ward better. One of the men from the community was from NH and was in the first graduating class from Oyster River! It was awesome. The Bluegrass was the greatest part. They had booklets of lyrics so that everyone could sing along to the folk and gospel songs. I can't tell you how much fun it was! I really want to learn how to play the mandolin, banjo, automatic harp, fiddle, and upright bass just so that one day all of my kids can sit around and jam out to some homegrown bluegrass! And of course, bluegrass reminds me of when I was in 2nd grade and was so proud of myself for knowing what bluegrass was because we read about it in class. Bluegrass really is fun if you're singing or playing along!

Anyway, The next big thing to happen during the week was Thursday. Oh, Thursday. I am working on patience if that is anyway to help you understand what Thursday was like. It started out as any ordinary day. We had personal study. Then we got to companion study. Elder Grajeda started by telling us what he learned during his personal study. Then he made a comment of how he had come to some doctrinal conclusion that clearly was not true. Elder Russo and I both recognized this. We didn't intend to tell him how he was wrong, we were just trying to guide his thinking so that he could understand the doctrine a little bit better. Well, that started a discussion that soon become heated, unintelligent, repetitive, useless, and frustrating. It went on for an hour and a half. At the end, Elder Grajeda and I were mos annoyed with each other. It was especially annoying because we had used up a good amount of our weekly planning time (that happens every Thursday and takes a few hours of siting to complete). Well, then Elder Grajeda told me that he was just pushing the argument forward to "test" me to see if I could explain myself. That got me riled up and I used words and a tone that were not becoming of a missionary. Anyway, there was no way that we could continue after that. I had to go away for a little bit so that could calm down and reestablish myself. I realized that much of what had gone wrong was my fault. Well, we went back to planning and things worked out well. After only a little bit, we were laughing again, the Spirit had returned and we could continue. After a little while, I had to call the areas in my district to find out how all of them were doing and how the missionary work is progressing. That took a couple hours. Then I called the zone leaders to report. They started asking me how everything was going. I told them about all of the areas, and then they asked me more specific questions about each area that I did not know the answers to. After asking several of these questions, they suggested that I call all of the areas again so hat I knew more about how they were doing. Oh boy, I was not thrilled to hear that. I could feel the anxiety building up inside of me. I felt like an idiot. Why was I such a bad missionary that I couldn't keep an even temper with my companions and then not fulfill my calling effectively. Well, I realized that I was getting anxious and explained the situation to hem. They were very kind to me, but I felt bad that they had to deal with a district leader who couldn't keep his own. I said a prayer and the peace of the Spirit returned. It was a hard beginning to a day, but I managed to get through. Satan was trying to tempt me to get frustrated with myself and with others. He was he one really trying to deceive and annoy me. Most of all, it was tempting just to think, "I don't even care, I'll be in Brazil soon." No good. I am so grateful for the Spirit who reminds us of our earthly duties and our heavenly potential.

Friday was an awesome day! Here are the highlights. We had district meeting in which we talked about the importance of the First Vision in inviting the spirit into a lesson so that people may be converted. Then we had a potluck. It was awesome! The Spirit was so strong! We also ran across a 13-ish-year-old boy/kid/man/person that we gave a Book of Mormon to a couple weeks ago. We haven't been able to see him since. His name is Michael. We asked him if he has been able to read any of it. He's read 130 pages!!! That is simply amazing. He said that he likes it so far and doesn't have any questions. He said that we can come over soon and teach his whole family. We are so excited!!! We went to visit another investigator who wasn't home. When we were walking up to his apartment, we had seen a couple Chinese people talking on their porch in the neighboring apartment. After knocking on our investigator's door, I felt prompted to knock on the Chinese neighbors' door. We knocked and an older Chinese couple came to the door. They spoke no English but invited us in with hand motions. They indicated for us o sit and talk off our jackets. We had no idea what was about o happen until they went into the other room and got their 20-something-year-old daughter. Her name is Jenny (no originally). She can speak English. She and her family are only in the states for 7 months as she does research at a local hospital. She is from mainland China and is not familiar with religion, but is very curious. We had the opportunity o teach her about the Book of Mormon, and she is very interested in reading it. She has a limited understanding of the Bible and Christ. We explained who the Spirit is, and she said that she felt the Spirit confirming what we were teaching her. It was so cool! We are going to return with a brother in the ward who speaks Chinese from when he served in Taiwan (Steve Arner if Scott Eliason happens to know him). Friday night we got to play volleyball with the youth. It was meant to be a missionary tool, and luckily one of them invited their friends! It was a great experience. Please invite your friends to activities! Missionary work starts with friendship, loving relationships that grow into sharing opportunities.

Sunday was wonderful. It was Easter. How great! I got the package, and it made me so happy! I discovered outside of our apartment on Sunday. Apparently our landlord thought that she would play "Easter Bunny" and hold our packages for us until it was actually Easter. I didn't mind except for the fact that some animal found my package in the middle of the night and nibbled into one of my cookies. Not cool Ricky Raccoon! That's fine; I still have plenty other cookies to enjoy. We went to church for sacrament and then left to go to our investigator's Lutheran service that he invited us to. It was a contemporary service and was really funny because the opening hymn was "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" with a great rock beat. Not my personal favorite. I prefer the organ. He then invited us over to his family's house for Easter lunch. It was so good! We ate like kings. The only problem is that we had a dinner appointment with a member of the ward 20 minutes later. We had to eat like kings then, too. Well, we were stuffed. So much so that Elder Russo and I thew up a little bit. I didn't taste as good on the way up. Oh well, we calmed our troubled stomachs with some peeps. :D


Whelp, I always thought that Will would make it to menace of society status, but I guess that's not going to happen. Atualmente, estou muito animado! I can't say much about how the family dynamic is changing, since it is likely to make me very emotional. I am happy for Will and Stephenie to be married in August in the Logan temple. I am sad that I won't be there. I am sad that I will never meet Ms. Frye, but I look forward to meeting Mrs. Ayer. (Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy ;D) I'm a little anxious knowing that everything from childhood won't be the same, but at least there'll still be "the kids". I know that we are eternal beings, so endings are harsh and unfamiliar. I know that we are eternal beings, so we also naturally seek after that which is eternally significant. I love you all, especially you, Stephenie. And especially Mom, heaven only knows what this is doing to her poor nerves. :D I love you all so much. Can I say that times infinity? You are all the greatest. I am glad that we can be eternal family because of the triumph Christ had over the grave and hell. We can live in an eternity of progression and love because we can rise again sinless. Always remember that. Voces estao meus pessoas preferidas!

Com muito amor, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. There are Eliasons in my ward. They are descendants of Anders Eliason, the brother of Erik Eliason who came over Sweden. Sweeede! :D

Oi voces!

Oi voces! (Hey y'all!)

This last week was one wild good ride. There were lots of crazy things that happened. If you want to know the craziness, read to the very end when all will be revealed. :D

Well, now I can't remember anything that happened this week because I'm waiting for the big reveal at the end.

I went on two exchanges this last week. That has pretty much taken up this whole last week. They were a good time. One of them was with the elders covering Botetourt County. They are also visa waiters. The highlight of that exchange was encountering a Jehovah's Witness. I think I was already prepared for the attack when we started talking to him. Unfortunately, I didn't consider that it could be a good and uplifting interaction. I think I was still charged from my experience last week being confronted by that preacher. Luckily, the other elder, Elder Kochenderfer, took it more calmly. Once I realized what he was doing, I was able to settle down and not try to get caught up in the scripture battle. I don't know if that made sense, but basically I learned that I need to treat everyone I meet with great respect and love. Who are we to become angry or frustrated with them because they are also passionate about what they believe? Who are we to become angry with them because they haven't been exposed to the whole truth since their birth? Who are we to deter them from the truth afterwards because they had a bad experience with a representative of Christ's Church? Anyway, it turned out to be a good interaction. We took his watchtowers, and he took our Joseph Smith pamphlet. Hopefully he'll read what we gave him; we looked at the pictures and then threw his literature away.

The second exchange this week was really good as well. It was with the zone leaders. We got to go out on bikes. It felt great to be on a bike again. I don't know why, but it was a lot of fun. Since they live in the downtown area of Roanoke, we got to talk to people on the streets all along the way. It was so much fun!

Well, Thursday was the biggest day this week. We had district meeting while President Pitt came and interviewed all of us. I love President and Sister Pitt so much. We had to go extra early to make sure that President would have enough time to interview the rest of the district. While we waited, we got to talk to Sister Pitt. While I talked to her, she told me that their family was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in 2010 and they were cast team leaders for one of the adult groups. If you want to do some research on that and figure that out, that would be cool! Well, my interview with President Pitt was great. He is such an inspired and inspiring man. He shows so much love. He is also full of so much energy. Just the other day I learned that he is in his 70's and that he only gets 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night because he is doing mission stuff. He is an awesome example of putting our shoulder to the wheel. As I was going into the interview, Sister Pitt asked President if he was going to show me his phone. I was like, What? Well, I didn't worry too much about it. President likes showing me stuff on his phone. Anyway, we had a great interview. I talked a little bit about the challenges of this transfer. I confessed to him about how I had yelled at Elder Grajeda for being whiny. I also told him about how the trip-ship has been pretty hard and a little frustrating, especially in an area that needs to be resurrected. Well, he confessed to me that he knew this was going to be a hard transfer for me. That's when he told me some exciting news to help me endure. I got my visa!!! Apparently it came unofficially the day after transfers, just one day too late in order to get shipped down to Brazil. Oh well, the next few weeks are the testing period to see what kind of missionary I am. Am I focused? Am I concerned about helping others? I can say that it has already been hard to stay focused. President Pitt asked me not to tell anyone in the mission so that everyone else can stay focused also. It's super hard (especially when they're right next to me typing emails also). Anyway, I will be going down to the Brazil MTC at some point for 2 weeks of intensive language training before going back into the field in Brazil. Anyway, things are really exciting.

I can't think of anything else. I completely derailed my train of thought talking about going to Brazil. Anyway, please pray for me. I thought it was harder not knowing about my visa, but it's quite the opposite. I love you all and know that the Church is true!

Love, Elder Ayer

P.S. I'm excited for you that Will and Stephenie are coming home today! Don't stress out at all! They'll be happy just to be there. :D

P.P.S. There is someone in the ward who lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when she was younger. Is that where you lived, Mom? Her name is Desert and I think her maiden name is Sprouse. She joined the Church while she was in Saudi. Do you know/remember her?

P.P.P.S. There is a less-active family in the ward that used to live in Essex, Vermont. They went to church with the Doney family! Anyway, their names are Bryan and Cynthia Colburn, and they love Clark and Bev!

P.P.P.P.S. I got my visa! Yippeeeeee!

The Spirit

Dearest family,

This has been one wonderful week! It started off great with a special gift. Our Malibu had gone over its 60,000 mileage limitation (that's when the Church decides to stop using vehicles for missionaries). Thus, we got a brand new 2014 Toyota Corolla! It is ridiculous. It had to travel the 200 something miles from Charleston to Roanoke, so it arrived with a little over 200 miles on it. I'm not sure that I will have a brand new vehicle as nice as this for a while. It has a back-up camera. It has a touch screen up front. I can even plug my flash drive into it, and it will play whatever is loaded on there! Since discovering this, I have downloaded lots and lots of General Conference talks. We listen to them in the car, and we never have to listen to one more than once unless we want to. How great!

Well, we have a few investigators here in Cave Spring. One of them is Freddie. Freddie is a Hispanic Seventh Day Adventist preacher. He runs three congregations in the area. This last week we got to meet with him. He readily seemed to accept the concept that Joseph Smith could be a prophet. (Seventh Day Adventists believe in modern day prophets) He is going to read the Book of Mormon in order to decide for himself whether Joseph Smith was a prophet. How great! The only problem is that he believes that everything a prophet say must line up exactly with the already established word of God. Of course, this is not sensible because revelation brings about new truths and new knowledge. How can revelation always be constrained by the already established word of God? If that were so, Noah would have received no instructions to build with, Abraham would have received no covenant to hope with, and Moses would have received no law to govern with. The glory of prophets is that they may speak for God in a way that draws us ever nearer to Him and His ultimate reserve of knowledge and truth. What is most important is to judge every revelation against the spirit of truth. The Spirit is sent from God and is our ultimate touchstone of truth. By the Spirit we can gain a supreme and surreal understanding of all that is true. Freddie is having a hard time understanding that. His biggest hold-up is the concept of a pre-mortal existence. We try to share biblical scriptures with him, but he still maintains his own understanding and interpretation of the scriptures. We will continue to try to help him, but it will take humility to accept that "[God's] thoughts are not [our] thoughts, neither are [our] ways [His] ways.... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are [His] ways higher than [our] ways, and [His] thoughts than [our] thoughts." Nobody likes being told that they are wrong. How do we know that we are not wrong? We have personally received a pure and powerful witness from the Spirit that the work we labor diligently under is true.

We found another investigator this week through some interesting means. We were driving home one night when we stopped at Walgreens so that we could talk to some more people before heading in. As we were leaving, a woman told Elder Grajeda that her husband would love to talk to us. She told us that we could talk to him the next night when he was working at Starbucks. She gave us his name and drove off. Well, we had no idea which Starbucks she was talking about. We drove all over trying to find Scott at Starbucks. Imagine three Mormon missionaries driving all over and going to every Starbucks in the area, not a normal sight. :D Anyway, we couldn't find Scott. At our last stop, we started talking to another worker behind the Starbucks counter. His name was Jon. He was really nice. I gave him a card, and he said that he could talk to us longer if we waited for him to start his break in a few minutes. We happily waited around. (In the meantime I tried to start up a conversation with a man wearing a Utes shirt. He was having none of it. Maybe I shouldn't have started off by saying, "I went to BYU"?) After our break chat with Jon, he asked to meet with us again. We planned for the next day at Mill Mountain (another coffee shop, but it has good food). Well, we were really having a good time talking and socializing over lunch when I asked him if he had had the chance to look over the Book of Mormon at all the night before. He said he did, and that he had a few questions. He warned us that his questions might be pretty hard. "Bring it on," I said. Well, he started rattling off question after question attacking the validity of the Book of Mormon. It was a little pathetic. He had to take his phone out during the middle of the conversation in order to look at his research website and "remember" all of "his" questions. On the plus side, he was being sincere about it. He wasn't just rudely attacking us, but he was curious. Luckily I was prepared for the onslaught. My two younger companions listened as I answered his patronizing questions that ranged from the reality of pre-Colombian horses to the weight of a block of golden plates. It was ridiculous. It was especially ridiculous because every primary answer to each question was simple. I know the Book of Mormon to be true. This knowledge has not come from historical study. This knowledge comes from God himself. Who am I to deny His holy witness. Who am I to deny His glorious truths? It is so wonderful to know what I know. I am glad to share this with everyone. In the end, Jon was satisfied with the answers he received. He said that he would read the Book of Mormon and decide for himself. We can only hope that he will follow through with this commitment.

Another exciting investigator is Norman. He is schizophrenic and was once accused of murder. Don't worry, he's cool. He was innocent, and he has family that is Mormon. He doesn't hold that against us. Well, Norman thought that he would really like us to attend his church service for a change. We had conference this weekend, so we wouldn't be occupied during that time. We agreed to it. Bad idea. We went to his church (not really a church, it was a "sanctuary" housed in an office building). We got there and started wondering if we should really being driving around our brand new car in this part of town. We went in and were three of 20 people there. We were the only white folks there. I only say this because it became a point of discussion later during the service. There was a man up front just chanting and fast talking about the goodness of God. Everyone was waving their hands in the air and shouting amens and hallelujahs. There was another man across from us who was sitting and speaking gibberish to himself (they refer to this as "speaking in tongues"). That went on for five to ten minutes. Then the service began. I had already determined in my mind that I would not engage in any conduct that was not becoming of a representative of Christ. I would respect their worship, but I would not participate in something that disrespected my god. The preacher started. Well, it didn't take long for him to notice three white Mormon missionaries sitting in the back of his congregation. Yeah, he got in our faces. He asked us if we knew the word of God. He looked directly at us for most of the time he sermonized. He asserted his own superior knowledge of the word. He drew conclusions from the scriptures that I found no basis for. All the while, the people laughed at his clever words and phrasing as he discoursed to them blasphemy upon blasphemy. He asked us if we wanted to contend against anything he had said, if we wanted to argue that his teachings were not scripturally founded. How I wanted to get up and bear pure testimony against them all, but a feeling inside me told me to stay still and remain under control. Thank goodness. I probably would have lost it. I sat in my chair quietly. I kept my face straight. I did not "amen" his teachings. I did not clap when he commanded. I "set my face like a flint" and did not waiver from it. Finally we had to leave in order to get to the conference. We luckily left before they started their "healings" and "speaking in tongues".

One of the most surprising things was that this man had called himself a prophet. A prophet! He did not invite the Spirit. He did not edify me. It made such the sweeter contrast when I got to go to General Conference and hear the true and pure words of God's anointed servants. What a blessing! What a heavenly manifestation of guiding love! I am so grateful for the prophets and apostles that lead and guide us today. I know them to be true men of God. The Spirit will bear testimony to you of this truth. There were so many good talks this last conference. I had questions answered. I was edified and uplifted. I hope that you were, too.

I love you all so much! I hope that everything is going well with y'all. I always love to hear from you and hear that things are going well and progressing as normal in the Ayer household. :D You have my love and prayers always. Have fun getting ready for Will and Stephenie to come home! Love you!

Love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. Starbucks smoothies are guh-ROSS!!!