São Thomé das Letras

Dearest family,

I am currently in a ´city´ called São Thomé das Letras.  We are passing here for our p-day festivities.  It´s a fun tourist city that sits on top of a mountain.  If I were you, I would look up some photos of the place because it really is a good-looking place.  Unfortunately, the sad thing about today is that as we were taking pictures, someone went to delete a bad photo on my camera and they wiped it clean.  That´s a very sad prospect and it is weighing very heavily in my mind since I don´t have any back-up for those photos, but I am trying to have an eternal perspective.  I will probably ask some missionaries to share their photos of the last 4 months with me.  If anyone knows some technical trick for recovering accidentally deleted photos, the advice is much appreciated.

Anyway, last Monday was a wild one.  After emails, we went to a churrasco with the youth at the Young Men and Young Women Presidents´ house.  That´s right, it´s this great couple in the branch that take care of all the youth here.  They´re great!  Anyway, that was a lot of fun.  Then someone started playing music.  That was a bad idea.  Well, one thing led to another, and before you know it, I was showing people how to do the Cotton Eye Joe.  They were blown away by the gringo-ness of it all.  That night we traveled to another area in the zone (Lavras) to go on exchanges with the Elders there.  The next day was alright.  There wasn´t anything too exciting.  There was an investigator of theirs that we visited who fell in love completely with me and my American accent.  She just had to add me on Facebook.  Luckily I was only passing through the city.

The rest of the week went by in a world wind.  A large part of the week I was dwelling on the principle of conversion.  It was a very depressing moments when were reviewing the the Area Book and saw all of the recent converts´ records from the past 20 years.  I can honestly say that there wasn´t one of their names that I recognized.  There wasn´t one of them who I had seen at church.  There wasn´t one who had stayed strong in the church to tell me the story of their conversion.  This is probably the hardest part of being a missionary.  I know, as in I am familiar with, the kind of effort, faith, and prayer that it takes to find, teach, and baptize one person.  It is a great effort.  Still, it does not hold a candle to the great struggle wrought by the Savior as he bowed down in humble submission to pay the price of mortality.  I imagined all of the missionaries who had pled to Heavenly Father to be led to the ´one´, to have the power and inspiration to teach the ´one´, and have the purity of heart to baptize the ´one´ with water and spirit.  How is it that such a heavy price could be so quickly swept under the rug of social pressures and lingering addictions and laziness?  I hate to think that all of my efforts could be simply put to the side.  I was feeling very weighed down one day when I felt like I should read a few things.  Preach My Gospel tells us that no effort is wasted.  He says that all of our efforts to bring others to Christ will have an eternal impact on others and may be the key to an eventual conversion to the truth.  What we have to do is declare the message of the Restoration to all people and all nations.  The more people we teach, the greater our success will be.  We must focus on helping the greatest number of people possible.  We will feel sad when people don´t want to accept our invitations, especially when they have received spiritual witnesses of the truth, but we must never become discouraged.  We must have faith and believe in things that are not seen but true.  It is true that we are servants of the Master and we are proclaiming the greatest message known.  Just because we do not see results immediately does not mean that the work is not true or that the work is somehow not as powerful as we were told or have experienced.  We must be converted first.  Every time we reject temptation, we will become more enabled by the Atonement of Christ and will become more converted to a divine lifestyle instead of the carnal nature.

In these last days,  we will need the power of God to combat the forces of evil.  Nephi saw this power descend upon God´s covenant people.  He said:

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. (1 Nephi 14:14)

We must live by covenants.  As we do so, we will be changed.  We will be armed with righteousness to combat the forces around us, ´for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.´ (Ephesians 6:12)

I love you all.  I am so grateful for the example that my parents have shown to me of conversion and personal integrity.  Mom and Dad, you have shown to me that who we are is what we do when we think no one is looking.  You have shown to me that if we are to be changed, we must sacrifice our personal wills and desires.  I pray daily that I can continue to change and become completely converted.  I pray that these people I am teaching may do the same.  If they don´t, they will not have the power to stay firm when the rain, winds, and the mighty hail beat upon them in days to come.  I know what it is like to be beaten by physical rain, winds, and hail.  Let us run to the House of the Lord so that we can find personal refuge from these furious forces.

I love you all.  I lied last week.  I will be able to Skype with you here in a couple more weeks.  Não vejo a hora.  Stay strong, stick the course, keep a goin´, weary not, sayonara, and all those other goodbyes.


With much love, Elder Parker Ayer

When You Only Got a Hundred Days to Live

Dear family,

As you can see by the title, I only have 100 more days as a missionary today.  These are according to some very sophisticated calculations made by the brainy and highly reputed Christian Ayer.  I want to let you know that I am not counting the days, but yes, making the days count.  Who am I kidding, I´m doing both of them.  However, I have realized the need to stay very focused these last few days of my ministry, and I am making some goals to make these last moments all the more sweet.  I hope that you will all join me in these goals.  First, I will have meaningful Book of Mormon study every day.  I will completely read the entire Book of Mormon in Portuguese.  For the port. edition, that means 6 pages more or less every day.  Second, I will make my prayers more meaningful.  This goal is a little bit harder to measure, but I will make sure that I pray for those within my stewardship and that I stay awake for the beginning, middle, and end of my prayers.  Third, I will write every day in my journal.  Just a warning, I pretty much haven´t written in my journal since West Virginia.  I am telling you now so that the ear cuffing you give me later won´t be as vicious.  Let´s  give thanks in each of our entries so that we can keep a record of our ´journeyings without murmurings´ (1 Nephi 17:2).  I invite all of you to join me in this 100 day growth so that when we see each other we will see each other as we really are, more purified by the powers of scripture, prayer, and gratitude.  Please follow up with me in the coming weeks to make sure that I am doing all that I said I would do.

Anyway, this week was great!  There were some wonderful experiences.  Tuesday in district meeting we talked about the importance of promise blessings with our commitments.  That day, we taught the law of chastity 3 times!  That was a lot of requiring commitments in one day.  It was interesting to see how the people reacted to the commitments.  I realized that we often think in terms of costs and benefits (thank you, Mr. Porusta, for the economics lesson).  We want to make sure that the cost of changing our lives and missing out on a pleasurable experience will bring a benefit that will outweigh the cost.  This is natural man thinking.  Sometimes we have to work with this thinking in others to help increase their faith and bring them to taste of the joyous fruit of righteous living.  In reality, we can see that the cost of not living the commandments is rather high.  We should review D&C 19 if we forgot what the cost of heathen living is.  That empty feeling we feel as the Spirit withdraws himself is just a taste of the bitter pain and suffering we will feel in hell if we continue on without repenting.  Our ultimate motive for obeying the commandments should stem from our desire to show our love for God and to be loved by Him (John 14:15,21).

This last week we very involved with some great families we are teaching.  We found two families that are related who are very excited about the restored gospel and baptism.  We lifted some members to their houses to teach, and oh what great spirit was felt as the members testified of the truth of the gospel and the blessings he brings.  On Sunday, the members successfully lifted our investigators to church.  We had twelve people in Church on Sunday!  It was one of the greatest miracles I have seen on my mission.  The families are preparing to be baptized on May 2nd.

This last week we helped our prime family of Fernanda, Michel, Debora, and Joel move from once house to another.  It was great to help because the step-dad, Michel, is Catholic and not very interested in the message.  I think that his heart opened up when he saw that we were willing to sacrifice our time to help his family in a critical moment.  Friday was the 16th birthday of Debora.  We were invited and attended with the pretense that we had to bring our district leader to interview Joel for baptism.  Anyway, everything went great.  Joel was baptized on Saturday.  Debora is a little crazy and not sure if she wants to be baptized.  She is feeling the spirit.  On Saturday at the baptism she said that she would be baptized if she didn´t have to use the ´white capoeira jumpsuit´ (capoeira is a Brazilian type of martial art dance, look it up on the internet because it is super cool).  Anyway, they are all being very well integrated into the branch.  We are so excited for them all to be a strong family in the church.  Even Michel showed up for priesthood meeting on Sunday (that´s the first meeting here).  They are very dear to us.

Well, I got to go.  I will leave you all with one last thought.  1 Nephi 8:34  The wording in Portuguese is a little bit more direct and exact.  It says that all who gave attention to the mockers were lost.  Do not give attention to those who mock the Church, the Book of Mormon, the gospel, Christ, church leaders, or you will be lost.  I love you all.  Be strong and faithful.  I know that this work is truly the work of God here on the earth.


With all of my love until we meet again, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. 100 days until we meet, but only 2 more weeks until Skype!

13 JÁJÁJÁ!

Dear family,

This week was a wonderful experience!  It´s another week in wonderland.  I really can´t adequately express the love I feel for my missionary experience, or my love for you for that matter.  I pray that I can live worthily of the Savior´s name and of our family name.

Anyway, This week started out great with a trip to Juiz de Fora, as I mentioned in my email last week.  After visiting one of the families Elder Nogueira taught in the city, we went to the bairro of São Pedro to see my beloved friends there.  We went to the home of Irmã Penha, but no one was home.  We went to Lia´s home, but no one was home there either.  Then we went to the house of an older couple I didn´t know too well.  It was a good visit and they appreciated the visit.  I was still very anxious to see my favorite family of Irmã Penha.  We went back there and there was happily a light on in the home.  When I called the family´s names, people came running out to open the gate.  It was one of the happiest reunions I have ever had.  Irmão Geraldo fried up some terresmo and mandioca for us to snack on.  I really couldn´t have asked for a happier night in my favorite place in Juiz de Fora.  Unfortunately, I find out that all of the people I baptized there are now less active.  Luckily the members and missionaries are still working with them to help bring them back.  The principle of prayer will have to be applied.

I slept in the home of the Manchester missionaries with all of the others that would be there for the mission counsel.  It was wonderful to be able to be with the other missionaries.  The next day was wonderful also as we met in counsel to talk about the needs of the mission and how we can continue reaching our goals.  The month of March the mission was able to reach 111 baptisms and confirmations, so Presidente Cascardi took us all out to eat churrasco.  Unfortunately, our zone was the weak zone and I was feeling pretty lame about that.  We were determined to contribute more this month.  Our zone since being split off from another zone hasn´t been able to reach more than 5 baptisms in a month.  That´s mostly because the missionaries think that the zone is the armpit of the mission, which is a great big lie.  We´re right next to a zone that´s always baptizing 20 or more.  Anyways, we are raising the faith of our zone with a goal of 13 baptisms in the month of April.  Our theme is 13 já!  (which means 13 already!)  During the zone meeting, everyone became very excited and determined to be able to reach our goal.  It was wonderful during those two days of inspiring meeting to be able to feel the spirit of excitement, determination, and repentance that came into my heart.  There was nothing I wanted more than to be able to declare the gospel to every creature and bring them unto Christ through the waters of baptism.  Now what we have to do is to live in a way that will sustain that kind of continuous excitement and repentance.

Well, this past week we were preparing Karoliny and Loren to be baptized.  Unfortunately, Karoliny had to undergo surgery on her breast to remove a nodule.  Fortunately, the surgery went well and she will probably be able to recover and be baptized by the end of this month.  Her sister Loren had a wonderful baptism on Sunday.  It was great to hear from her baptismal interviewer that she bore a very sincere and powerful testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Until then, she hadn´t expressed her feelings much on the subject, but the Spirit has taken hold upon her heart.

I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I know the Book of Mormon is Christ´s word.  I know that the commandments lead us to joy that doesn´t end.  I know that if we exercise a particle of faith in obeying a commandment, God will immediately bless us and we will see the truth.  Let the Spirit have full sway in your heart and you will begin to feel a changing sensation inside of you.  This is one of the most precious feelings that I know.  We can change.  We can be perfected in Christ.  I love you all.  Be diligent in prayer and scripture study and we will one day be brought together in white to worship God in righteousness.  I can´t wait for that day.  It is my most long-awaited day.


With Such Great Love, Elder Parker Alan Ayer

I Care About Easter, and General Conference Is Not a Bore

Dear Family,

I love you all so much!

This last week was so wonderful.  It was wild and wonderful.  That´s on more of a `He is Risen` scale and not just a West Virginia scale.

Anyway, there were so many wonderful experiences this last week.  Most of them came at the end of the week, but the whole week was good.  First off, my companion got shipped off.  Right when we started working well together, he had to get going.  But that´s always how it is, we just have enough time to learn what we need to learn and then we´re off on to our next lesson.  The night before we had gone to a member´s house for a family home evening.  They made feijoada, a delicious bean dish that has every porky part of the pig you can imagine.  Well, it is a very fatty dish and I ate a lot.  It´s something that gringo´s aren´t used to, especially 8 o´clock at night.  Let´s just say the next day I was hurting.  It´s still one of my favorite dishes here and I really want to make it for you all when I get home, I just won´t include things like ears, snout, knees, and all the other things.  Anyway, Elder Fraga left on Tuesday and I got a temp companion for the day, Elder Pereira.  He lived with me in the Bara do Piraí.  I like him a lot more when I don´t have to live with him every day.  Anyway, we taught a great lesson (that´s right, just one, it was a really slow day).  That night my new comp got there, Elder Nogueira.  He is an awesome elder who is likable and just wants to work, so things are going great!  I couldn´t ask for a better companion.

The week went great.  We are teaching some wonderful people.  On Thursday we did a service project.  I went in my shorts with my wicked white legs showing.  Everyone was laughing at my legs.  After the project of moving a bunch of sand from one place to another, I got laughed at even more when everyone noticed that my legs had suddenly turned very red.  It wasn´t just the legs.  The sun was super hot that day and burned everything!  I will show you a classified picture that I took of myself.  It´s hilarious!  Don´t worry, I am taking care of myself to not get skin cancer.

Friday was wonderful.  I decided to fast between Thursday and Friday.  I knew that it was a Catholic practice to hold in reverence Friday as the day of Christ´s crucifixion.  I thought that it would be good to do a Brazilian fast from lunch on Thursday to lunch on Friday seeing as the greatest part of Christ´s sacrifice would have taken part on Thursday night in the garden and concluded Friday midday on the cross.  I will tell you that I was so glad that I fasted.  When I woke up on Friday, I felt such a great peace.  I read about the sacrifice of the Son of God, and I felt so strongly in my heart that really He did what He did and what no other human being could do.  I really do know that Jesus Christ paid this price.  Because of Him, we have the power to choose who we will become, even the sons of God.

Lately I have been studying a lot about WHO we are, what our essence is.  There were some big questions that I took with me to general conference.  They were all answered so wonderfully.  I was shocked as every single talk seemed to talk about our eternal potential, our premortal heritage, and the importance of personal choice in our destiny.  I was profoundly impressed by the talks on Saturday morning.  As I listened I felt so strongly that I had prepared for eternities to be a exemplary father and husband.  That is who I am.  I am not even married, but there is something that tells me that that is my identity.  Satan would tear down the family and everything that it means.  There is nothing that can get in my way of having my own family.  There is no other purpose in life than this.  Family is the basic and only unit of order in the life to come.  It is system of government and happiness.  I am so grateful for my family.  I am grateful for the physical characteristics that I inherit from dad and mom.  I am grateful for the habits, traditions, and joys that we share.  These are things that have carried us to be together in this life and will carry us to be together in the next life.  This is our greatest identity.

I love you all so much!  I pray for you always.  I tried to include a recording, but it didn´t work.  Be true and faithful.


With much love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. I was sad not hear President Monson much in conference or Elder Scott at all.  Where was he?  He is one of my favorites.  :D

​It was early in the morning, and I was a little tired.

​The ´chocolate-flavored´ Easter egg I got from a member.

Because HE Lives

Dear family,

HAPPY 54th BIRTHDAY DADDY DEAREST!!!  Dad, you really are such a great example to me.  Thank you for your wonderful service to our family and the life you have lived in serving Christ and seeking eternal life.  You are beloved.  I was thinking about your great example this last week. I realized that in your mission you had an option of whether to end your mission at a year and a half or to serve for the full two years.  During this last week I was having a lot of thoughts about which choice I would make.  I only have four months left.  I think all the more of you for seeking to serve in the way that Heavenly Father inspired you to serve, serving more than you had to in order to serve honorably.  I will be diligent in these last four months as I seek to consecrate all of my efforts in the service of the Lord.

Well, this last week went great.  Elder Fraga and I are getting along well.  We were actually getting along great!  We had interviews this last week with President Cascardi.  I felt like I needed to tell him of the problems that we had before and how we had resolved them.  I made sure to tell him that everything was going great with us.  That´s why it came as a great shock today to hear about the transfers.  I will be staying here in Três Corações and Elder Fraga will be spending his last five weeks of the mission in Juiz de Fora as the companion of a district leader.  I know that this might sound normal to state missionaries, but here this is quite unusual.  He wasn´t too happy about that, so I am doing an exchange today with the Argentine missionary from Neuquen, Elder Sepulveda.

I really did love the opportunity to spend time with President and Sister Cascardi again on Tuesday.  It is always such a blessing to be able to talk to them, feel their warmth, and feel more and more love for them.  They are great valiant examples of faithful saints.  I got the opportunity in particular to talk to Sister Cascardi and show her pictures of my family.  I found out that she is very good friends with the President and his wife who watch over the Londrina Mission where Brittany is serving.  I am sure that they love Brittany there.

On Tuesday night we went to a lesson with Luma, the 17-year-old daughter of a 20-years-less-active woman.  When we got there, the mom, Cristiane, told us that Luma wanted to ´virar Mórmon´.  We looked to Luma and she happily explained that she felt so good when we went to her house and she felt as though we had been sent at the right time to find her and share the gospel with her.  The gospel is such a blessing.  This miracle is happening in many of the lives of our beloved investigators.

Quick thoughts with little time...

Watch the new video Because HE Lives and then read 1 Ne 19.  When I saw it the phrase `the God of nature suffers´came to my mind.

I love you all!  Read the Book of Mormon.  Treasure it in your hearts!


With great love, Elder Parker Alan Ayer

Last Names and Humility

Dear Ayer family,

Can I just tell you how much I love our name.  It may be a very hard name for Brazilians to pronounce, but I wouldn´t change it for the world.  Here there is a culture for missionaries to sometimes put their first name as their missionary name because there are so many similar surnames here.  However hard Ayer might be, I would never change it.  It´s funny because there are so many pronunciations: Ire, Eow, Ay-yare, and (my favorite) Wire.  I like to sing the Called to Serve hymn and little different: ´Chose an AYER to witness for His name`.  Anyway, why tarry, let us off to the castle...weekly report.

This week was another challenging week.  I will just come out and say it, my companion was driving me CRAZY!!!  On Monday we were cleaning the house and I was getting agitated.  Everything I cleaned had to be touched up again.  Everything I had put in order had to be put in a completely different order.  I got to the point when I cracked.  He told to move my laundry basket to a different place and after arguing for a bit, I said that I would think about it.  Well, the friction and tension were rising.  That night we taught a lesson that was not effective.  I felt the complete lack of the Spirit.  After, we went to give a blessing to the father of our elect family who underwent knee surgery.  As we laid our hands on his head, the words from Doctrine and Covenants 121 came to my head, `Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man´.  Obviously, the Lord was trying to communicate something to me.  On Tuesday morning I studied about humility.  During district meeting, our leader told us that there were some problems the district needed to resolve through obedience, humility, and good companionship.  I felt as though that was directed directly at me.  Wednesday morning I studied again about humility and effective communication, using Elder W Craig Zwick´s talk from conference of May 2013 entitled What Are You Thinking?  It was a good study, but I had to apply it to be of any effect.  Well, in companionship study, I talked calmly about the problems at hand, recognized my faults, asked forgiveness, and offered some ideas for how we could improve.  It was a very controlled and deliberate conversation.  The key was delivering myself completely up in a nice little package containing 100%, naturally produced, well-fermented, ´carnal man´.  My deliverance was regarded with an assumed authority that did not reflect my attempts at humility.  Luckily, I controlled my breathing and accepted the directives I received.  Afterwards, the situation improved drastically.  We are working together a lot better as of now.  We have the spirit in our work.  We also are more balanced in our efforts.  I realized in the end that the one who assumes the authority and dominion does not always control the situation.  I had controlled the situation.  The only challenge now is to continue with the efforts.

We are having great success in our missionary efforts.  Those prayers we made to find families are still being answered.  Yesterday in Church we had two families with father, mother, and child.  It was a great feeling.  They all are preparing to be baptized.  We had still more families who were not able to attend yesterday but are excitedly preparing for baptism as well.  Their names are André and Desirré, Apriggio and Claudinea, Celso and his daughters, Felix and Amanda, and some other individuals who have accepted the baptismal invitation.  I am more excited than ever to baptize these people unto repentance.  We are so happy and so are they to be knowing the true restored gospel.  I love being a missionary.  I can´t wait to continue diligently for these next 4 months and then go strong afterwards in being the best member missionary that ever existed.  Have faith that the Book of Mormon will answer the silent and heart-felt prayers of all of your associates and then go forward to answer those prayers with power.  I love you all!  You are one of the greatest gifts the Savior has conceded to me through His Atonement, and I pray for you always.


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. Happy 70 years, Grandma and Grandpa Ayer.

I am not Jean Val Jean, so who am I?

Dear family,

First off, happy pie day.  I was walking around in circles the whole day.  Happy Ides of March/death of Julius Cesar.  Happy Saint Patrick´s Day.  But most importantly, Happy Birthday Sarah!  I really wanted to make some special musical recordings for you, but there really wasn´t time to do it.  The main recordings of the album were going to be some of our all-time hits (H-A-B-I-T and We Laugh and We Cry).  I know that you know what I´m talking about, so I´ll just let you sing them to yourself and laugh at the hilarity of it all.

Well, this week went great.  When I say great, I really mean that there were some really challenging moments that I look back on in this blissful email moment and think about how much I love being a missionary.  One of the interesting things that was running through my head this week was the question of ´Who am I?´  I have been trying to understand really what it is that makes me me, you you, him him, her her, and so on and so forth.  I think when I try to think of myself, I try to think of my most prominent attributes.  The problem is that I try to compare these things to others.  I try to think of myself like ´I am a really good singer`or ´I have more common sense than another person´.  I have been finding that this is an indicator of pride.  Why should I be a summation of the personal attributes that excel others´?  Also, I have been wondering what is permanent and eternal about me that will never change.  What are the things that changed when I came to this fallen world?  What are the things that haven´t changed?  How can I pinpoint exactly what is particular to me?  You might say that I am going through a mid-mission crisis, just that I am a little closer to the end.  Anyway, I read a lot about the pre-mortal existence and the conditions of this life.  True to the Faith speaks very well that in our pre-mortal life we personally developed our own identity.  We learned to love the truth.  We decided who we were and would be by important choices, the principal choice being to follow Christ and the Father´s plan.  We all fought in a war to come here.  That defines all of us who came to this earth.  Principally, all of us are children of a Father and seekers of eternal glory.  I am still looking for key indicators of who I am in particular, but the Lord is helping me see more clearly what He wants me to become.

This past week we had a little bit of a struggle with one of our special families.  I won´t say who it was because the details are a little personal.  We needed to talk to the dad alone because of a touchy subject.  In the past weeks we have noticed that he has the clear signs of being a marijuana user.  That is clearly opposite to God´s laws and the laws of the land.  Well, we got our chance this last week.  We went to his house.  We started out by talking to him about the baptism of his children.  It seemed that he wanted to end at that point, but in my mind I was thinking ´We are not leaving this house until I talk to him about the issue of marijuana´.  Well, I was a little scared, but fought it back with faith.  Just at the moment when I began to introduce the subject, the dad´s friend arrived and stood waiting for his friend outside of the door.  We have already dealt with this other man, and have been suspecting him as the source of the drugs.  That just made the situation all the more strained.  I swallowed my heart again and approached the subject.  The moment I mentioned marijuana, my companion said that he thought he would die.  Our investigator did not looked pleased at all.  He also looked very intimidating in his muscle shirt with his large arms.  After saying my bit.  He looked at me very seriously and asked me in a very low voice who had told us.  Well, we explained to him that we could sense things on our own without the help of others.  We talked to him more and told him that we were his true friends.  At the end of our conversation, the druggy friend outside the door got back into his car and drove away.  We said a prayer and our investigator seemed very calm and determined to overcome his addiction.  It was a great victory that only came because the Spirit supported us and we denied fear with our faith.  It was a great moment!

Well, that´s my great story for this week.  There is a lot more to tell, but that will have to wait.  I love you all.  I know the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God.  I know that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of God.  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Son of God.  I know that God is our Father who loves and protects us eternally.  Be good and safe.  Saying be careful means that I love you, I DO!


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

P.S. Through my studies of premortal wars and this life, I started thinking a little bit more about that beloved song ´What Do You Do With a General When He Stops Being a General`

Be Thou Humble

Dear family,

This week has been a challenge, but a blessing.  There is nothing like opposition to help you form a fresh view of yourself, God, and the world.  That sounds an awful lot like repentance.  Well, it hasn´t been repentance of sins.  Even harder than that, it´s been trying to cope with situations where no one is sinning but there is a lack of mutual understanding or agreement.  There are lots of opportunities to learn when you spend 24 hours with someone else.  With my companion, we are learning humility, patience, and charity.  I am learning that there doesn´t have to be someone to blame, but I can make a change in my nature to cope better with the nature of others.

Well, that was a heavy start.  I probably should have said happy most progressive day of the year or something like that (this year it was so progressive that I didn´t even notice it was going by until the next day).

Anyway, at the beginning of this week we did divisions in São Lourenço.  It´s a very nice little city with cobble stoned roads.  Look it up, dad!  Anyway, the morning of the exchange, I was studying about humility, pride, and selfishness.  I feel that sometimes I try to use people and their spiritual experiences unfairly in an effort to get them to accept the gospel and be baptized.  I realized that I need to help people be touched by the Spirit so that they can make the choice of following Christ and His restored gospel.  Anyway, I had a great opportunity to apply the principle.  We visited a young woman (Joane) who had been investigating the Church for a year.  Unfortunately, she had a bad experience with an elder that tried to coerce her into being baptized by saying that if she wasn´t baptized, the people at Church wouldn´t talk to her anymore.  Well, that had a terrible effect and she really didn´t want to be baptized after that.  In our meeting together, I found out that she really had a testimony of the gospel and wanted to be baptized, but not right then.  She wanted to be baptized in the Lord´s timing and her timing.  I explained to her that she had fulfilled the Lords requirement to be baptized, she was prepared.  I then said that she was only waiting on her personal timing.  I told her that the elders were going to have a baptismal service this month on day 21.  I asked her if we could pray together on bended knee to ask Heavenly Father if she should be baptized on that day.  We knelt down.  I said a prayer out loud.  Afterward she said a prayer silently.  She told us when she had finished.  The Spirit was a warmly powerful influence in the room.  I asked her if she felt that she should be baptized this month.  She said yes.  It was a great experience and all of us felt the spirit confirm the same thing to each of us.

I am trying to apply these principles more in my life.  I want to be someone who cares about others enough that I don´t try to coerce others into doing what I want.  The Book of Mormon (Moroni 7:45) speaks very well of charity. `And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.` Really charity has to suffer.  It doesn´t seek what it wants, but seeks what is best for others.  Charity is hard, but is the most important of all of the Christlike attributes.

We had a great experience with our investigators in Church on Sunday.  A member had visited our four principle investigators with us on Friday and Saturday.  She brought a very powerful influence of the Spirit to the lessons.  On Sunday, she brought two of them to Church with her.  All of the investigators were very happy at Church and felt the Spirit abundantly.  Karoliny and Lorem (daughters of our family in which not all are members) told me afterward that they feel they are making their own family at church.  It was such a good thing to hear.  I want you all to know that the influence of a member in the life of a non-member investigator is immense!  Please do all that you can to help those who are coming into the church feel of your spiritual strength, love, and commitment!

I love you all.  I will probably be coming home a month early because of how transfers worked out.  That means that my flight home will probably be July 28!  That means that my return just krept up all of a sudden.  I would like to go the Boston temple with you as an elder.  Do you think that I could fly into Boston and then we could do a session afterwards?  I would love that!  I want so much to be with you all again in the temple as a family.  Family is the only thing that will ever last in this world or the world to come.  I love my family!


With Still More Love, Elder Parker Ayer

PS  I sat in as another missionary gave Spanish lessons this last week.  I did some conversation practices with another person as an example.  I really have difficulty now to speak Spanish.  Everyone was laughing at me because I speak Spanish like dear Mom, moving my head and eyes a lot as if I was in a Mexican soap opera. jajajajajaja  :D

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.

Families, IT´S ABOUT TIME!

Dear family and friends,

Well, this week has been wonderful.  Hard at the beginning and wonderfully blessed at the end.  Sorry that I am writing on Tuesday again.  It´s because Elder Fraga and I are going to the conselho da missão tomorrow and the Assistants moved around our P-day.  Oh well, here we go!

Last Tuesday and Wednesday were ridiculously hard and sad.  Let me explain.  I already told you about our two elect investigators, right?  They were Luciano and Nataly.  They are two children of a less-active woman we found when we were inspired to knock on a door out of nowhere.  Anyway, they were super excited to be baptized.  They were feeling the Spirit powerfully, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and asking inspired questions.  Really, I thought that they were some of the most elect people I had ever taught on my mission.  Well,  Sunday their grandpa from Curitiba passed by unexpectedly and they didn´t go to Church.  Monday and Tuesday their truck driver dad got home and spent time with them during Carnaval.  His is very Catholic, but Teresa (the mom) said that she had already talked to the dad and he was A-OK about their involvement with the Mormons.  Well, I am not so sure about that now.  We talked to them at the beginning of last week and found out that all of a sudden they were completely uninterested in our message now and that they are most decidedly interested in being very involved in the Catholic Church.  We talked to the Dad and he said that he didn´t mind if they went to another church, but everything was very fishy.  It doesn´t help that there is a very dark aura in the house sometimes because of Teresa´s current practice of espiritismo.  Well, Luciano and Nataly have decided to go their own ways.  It was very hard because I really don´t think that I have ever loved an investigator as much as Luciano.  He just seemed like a little brother.  Anyway, we must move on and give them the space and distance to feel the weight of their decision.

Ever since the break with our elect investigators, I have been praying hard, but very hard, for us to be able to find teach and baptize a family with a dad, mom, and children.  I have been praying every dad for this, and the Lord has been hearing my prayers.  We have found three very special families.  The Spirit has been especially strong with us as we have testified to them of the truth of the Restoration message.  One family in particular is very special.  The daughter went to church on Sunday with her aunt and we met her there.  She is the daughter of a less-active member who left the church when he was 18 years old.  Yesterday we had the chance to teach the family which consists of the father and two daughters.  The mother passed away 6 months ago.  The Spirit was very strong as we taught them the restored truth of eternal families.  Now the two daughters want to be baptized, and the dad wants to be active again so that he can baptize them (he´s a priest in the Aaronic priesthood).  We are so happy for them and know that they will receive great blessings as they prepare to be baptized and sealed.  What an awesome blessing of our dear Heavenly Father!

Sunday´s sacrament meeting was especially special.  We missionaries were responsible for the meeting.  The topic was the Restoration.  I got to pick my topic, Joseph´s First Vision and opposition.  I had been praying and preparing the whole week to have the Spirit with me and make our little sacrament meeting equal to a Kirtland Temple dedication service.  Right before my talk, we sang a special musical number with the youth of Joseph´s First Vision.  On the third verse, a member recited the words of the account at the microphone with the piano music.  It was very powerful and many people cried.  I was so glad to have a strong spirit when I started.  The Lord really did sustain me and the Spirit, like a burning fire, was felt very strongly.  What was best was that that day our attendance in sacrament meeting soared from the usual 85 to 120 people!  It was a perfect sacrament service.  I really couldn´t be happier.  I know that this work is the work of Almighty God.  I know that Joseph Smith was a chosen servant to testify powerfully of the reality of the Savior´s divine sacrifice, death, and resurrection.  I know that through the Prophet, sacred truths concerning the eternal nature of the family have been revealed.  Families can be eternal.  We can be eternal if we will keep the commandments.  Please keep the commandments.  I love you all, a bushel and a peck and a hug around your neck!  With all my love, my dear family, adieu.


-Elder Parker Ayer


Quick pics:  (1) me and Sister Cascardi  (2) us with pele stutue

Repent! Repent! He Comes Quickly!

Dear family,

Sorry, I have to explain why you all are getting this on Tuesday and not on the normal Monday.  Well, Carnaval was this past weekend.  Actually, yesterday was the last day of Carnaval and today everyone is driving home in a drunken haze.  The transfer was originally planned for today, just that it wouldn´t be too smart to transfer all of the missionaries today along with the Carnaval crew.  So, President moved the transfer to yesterday and our P-day to today.  Anyway, I hope that you all weren't worried sick about me, at least that's what I prayed you wouldn't be doing.

I wanted to speed up this emailing and communicating process to include everything that I wanted to include, so I have made another voice recording.  I hope that it relieves your anxiety.  I am also emailing today from a member´s house (because of the holiday and lack of open internet cafes) so I will be able to email some pictures.  YEAH!

I would like to be able to use this time to talk about some spiritual things that I have been studying.  In zone conference, President Cascardi talked to us about the need to declare the gospel of repentance.  Hence, the Pageant-y quote subject line.  Really, we need to declare the joy of repentance to all those who are lost in a world that doesn´t offer an escape from the weight of sin.  This is when people will realize the importance of being baptized as the first fruits of repentance.  Thus, I have been studying a lot about the effects of sin and the relief of repentance.  The scriptures say again and again that the reward of sin, or the wages of sin, is death.  This is a complete death.  When Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, they disobeyed a commandment of God and the result was death.  They were cut off from God´s immediate presence and His spiritual presence, and they inherited physical death.  The spirit body they had was the only thing that couldn´t die.  They learned that God and His principles ARE life eternal.  God is life.  Christ is life and light.  They learned that sin made them children of a devil, prone to death and decay and misery.  When they sinned, they were cast off.  They were lost forever, the scriptures say.  The could not merit anything of themselves, but they had made a fatal, and eternally fatal, decision.  It is the same with us.  We are born in purity, alive in Christ.  After some time, sin conceives in our hearts.  We have a personal fall.  We become lost forever.  That is when we learn of a Savior that has been provided for us.  This Savior is not a weak being.  He is infinitely strong and mighty to save.  His is not selective in His service like man.  His arms of mercy are outstretched to all peoples with an invitation to come unto Him.  However, we learn that this gift is conditional.  We must repent.  We must have a change of heart.  If we do not fulfill our part, it will be as if there were no redemption made.  Seeing that we have transgressed the law, we receive the law of repentance.  We humble ourselves; we become submissive and meek.  We choose to follow Him.  We exercise faith in His bounds and ways.  We receive blessing according to our faith.  The attitudes we develop in repentance match those attitudes that are required to follow the law in the first instant, and our offering is accounted unto us for righteousness.  Well, there is a lot more that I would like to write, but there is not enough time or space.  Just know that I know that repentance is vital and a joyful experience.  It´s as joyful as baptizing someone you found after walking miles on blistered feet.

I love you all!  Happy Valentine´s Day to one and all.  You´ll be in my heart, yes, YOU´ll be in heart.  You ARE in my heart, always.


Yours forever, Elder Parker Ayer

More or Less Active

Dear family,

Many things have happened this past week. I will also try to say some things about last week that I didn´t get time to include in my last email.

Last week, I was walking along the side of the road. I must have been daydreaming about something because I wasn´t looking ahead of me. Well, there I was walk-walk-walking along when all of a sudden I hit my face on something. I took a couple stumbling steps back and looked around to see what happened. Here there are these metal rebar type baskets that stick out of the side of the outer wall of houses. They´re there so that people can put there trash outside to be collected without having dogs come along and rip all of the trash to shreds. Anyway, I had walked right into one of those trash/rubbish baskets/bins. My face was completely numb but I lifted my hand up to my mouth and it came away with a lot of blood. Basically, I got a big gash on my upper lip. I treated it with some ointment, but it looks like I will still have a little scar to carry until the Resurrection. Sorry I don´t have any pictures, I haven´t really been in a picturey mood recently. Also last week we almost had a baptism but he didn´t show up, even after being interviewed only a few hours earlier. He has been avoiding us and now will move to another city, so it´s ta ta!

This week has been great! Opposition always brings more joy. :D Last week after emails, Elder Fraga (my companion) and I found out that the father of a sister missionary passed away. We have been working this week to help her endure to the end. It has been hard because her companion goes home in a week and is very unmotivated to work. I remembered a scripture that I think dad shared with me, Moroni 8:2-3. Anyway, it helped a little bit. We are also working very hard to help a struggling area in our district. The problem is that they don´t need encouragement or comfort or something like that. They are very capable missionaries with a lot of time in the field and Tuesday they reported that they had taught nenhuma lesson, made nenhum contact, or done anything of the sort. It is frustrating when people waste their time and then shrug it off like it doesn´t matter that much.

Anyway, that´s enough reporting on the zone. There were a lot of other great things that happened this week. THis week we started working with less active members. I really wasn´t excited for it. I have never really worked with less actives so far in my mission. I have always had some sort of prejudice that lazy missionaries who like to pass a lot of time in friends´ houses eating snacks and chatting just go to less-actives´ houses and don´t find by their own efforts. Of course, there is a balance in these things. Anyway, we made a giant list of less-actives and started visiting them. It was amazing! We entered very easily into peoples´ houses, revived old testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the gospel, and we were able to teach the non-members in their families. Thrusday we were seaking the less-actives and in the midst of it we decided to knock on a door. Two youth came to the door and we asked if we could share a message. They said that they would ask their mom. Well, they returned quickly and told us to come in. The mother, Teresa, came quickly to talk to us. She told us that she was a member of the Church, that she had been baptized a few years ago in Recife, but that she se afastou from the Church when she divorced her husband and moved to 3 <3 ´s (Três Corações). She said that she had joined a different religion (espiritismo), but that she still knew the Church was true and that she loved the Book of Mormon. The asked that we would teach her children about the Church so that they could choose to be Mormons. At the end of our meeting, she told us that she had felt that we would pass by that day and had tidied up the house just to receive us. It was very cool. Now we are going to baptize two of her children next week.

On Friday we spent the day contacting less-actives as well. The last appointment was especially moving. We were talking to a 30 year old man that was baptized 2 years ago. He was very grateful to see us in his home. We talked to him about how God arranges and plans everything for the benefit of His children. As we were talking, a thought came distinctly to my mind. It was a line from my patriarchal blessing. I had never thought about it in such a way. Really, it was a confirmaiton of what we had been doing. God had planned me to visit these less-actives, and I had fighting the feeling to do what he had prepared for me. I hope that all of you will give heed to your blessings. I hope that all of you will listen to the Lord and do what He commands. You will be blessed, and many others as well. I love you all. I pray for you continually. My love is with you and with the Lord.


With much love, Elder Parker Alan Ayer

Transition to Tres Coracoes

Dear family,

I love you all.  Sorry, I don´t have much time right now.  I am having trouble managing my time on the emails.  Thank yuo all for sending me so much love!  Anyway, the transition to Tres Coracoes has been a good one.  Tres Coracoes is where Pele grew up, which is pretty cool.  He is basically a king here.  There are lots of statues of him all over the place.  I am learning how to be a good zone leader.  It´s really strange because whenever I think of zone leaders, I imagine someone a lot bigger than me and a lot more mature than me.  Of course, I know that it isn´t really how things work out.  It was a tender mercy the other day when someone cited the scripture from Samuel that the Lord looks not on the outward appearance, but on the heart.  That is an even bigger responsibility to purify my heart and serve for the right reasons.  I want so much to be able to help everyone come closer to Christ and feel the power of the Atonement in their lives.  It has been a bit of a strange transition, but I am seekng to be what the Lord wants me to be.  I know that if I pray earnestly and serve diligently with all of my heart, He will help me.  This week had a baptism of an 8 year old in the ward.  The jovens sang I like to look for rainbows.  It was raining outside.  After the baptism there was a rainbow with thunder storms behind it.  It was very cool.  I thought of the covenant from the book of Moses to Enoch that the rainbow is a simbol that Zion has been taken up unto GOd, but Zion will one day descend down to the earth to be with us again.  I thought a lot of that.  ZIon is descending to be down here among us again through the restored gospel.  It is such a blessing.  The storms of the last days may tremble the ground, but we can be secure on the rock of our Redeemer in the restored gospel.  I love you all.  Jesus is the CHrist.  Joseph is HIs prophet.  The BOok of MOrmon is the word of CHrist.  GOd is our Father.  I know this by the spirit.

I love you!  Elder Parker Ayer

This Transfer Could Not Get Stranger...Let´s Hope

Dear family,

I can hardly believe that least week I was emailing you all to tell you about my companion going home. That seriously feels like an eternity ago. So many things have happened since then. It´s almost been 2 weeks! But anyway, lots of things have happened.

So, I found out that I would be staying in trio for the rest of the transfer. The assistants told me to show the other elders my elder ´just in case´ I got transferred and they had to stay here and take care of both of the areas. Well, you know when assitants say something like that, it´s because I will be transferred. Anway, we have spent the last two weeks working one day in my area and the other day in their area. it´s been pretty difficult because we work on opposite sides of the city. It makes it difficult to be able to follow up with people or to just pass by in someone´s house so that we can set up a time to teach them. The upside is that we were able to really focus this week, teach a lot of people, and baptize someone! The week turned out really great with a surprising twist at the end.

On Saturday, we planned to do an exchnage with a young priest in the branch so that would could get ready for the baptism and still teach. Anyway, I called President so that I could get authorization for the exchange with the rapaz. When I called President, he told me that it was a good thing that I had called him because I would probably be transferred that very weekend. Well, that didn´t give me too much information, but President advised me to make sure that my companions knew the area well just in case I got transferred. That was a little pebble just rolling around in my shoe all day. I tried not to let it bother me too much, but how can you not think about wing moved to a new area in the near future? Anyway, I didn´t tell anyone because misisonaries tend to slack off when they learn that they are getting moved around. I didn´t hear anything else until last night President called me and told me that I am being transferred today to the city of Três Corações in the state of Minas Gerais and that I am being called as zone leader. Apparently, there has been a lot of problems with obedience in the zone (starting with the leaders) and now I am being sent there to fix it all up. Well, that´s a lot to put on a pair of little shoulders. It was very encouraging to hear President Cascardi say that he trusted in me to do what was necessary. I thought that he had lost all hope in me after last week with my Full House routine, but apparently that wasn´t the case.

That´s the big news from this week. I am very sad to be leaving Barra do Piraí, especially since we are teaching some families very good that are getting ready to be baptized. It will be hard to say goodbye, but I will be glad if there was something that I could have don to help them come unto Christ and enter into the covenant waters of Israel. Sorry, but that´s about all that I can think about from this past week. I am already packed, and now it is time to say goodbye to the people here.

I love you all. Know that I know that Jesus CHrist is our Savior. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. On Sunday I had the chance to teach the young men and young women about the Book of Mormon. There was an investigator of ours there as well. It was such a great opportunity to help show them all the importance of the Book of Mormon. I was a little sad when the Church-raised youngsters couldn´t answer some basic questions about the origins of the sacred text. When I asked aobut their favorite Book of Mormon scripture, only one young woman could think of her favorite Book of Mormon scripture; it was Moroni 10:5 and she wasn´t able to remember the reference. I know that it can be hard sometimes to set aside time and study, but do it. You will be blessed. The Book of Mormon will help us come closer to Christ than any other book. We can be perfected through the Book of Mormon. Knowing scriptural references and historical origins of the record are a part of that perfection process. Search, ponder, and pray are the things that we all must do to have scripture power to keep us safe from sin. I love you all! Be safe!


With much love, Elder Parker Ayer

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

Dear family,

Well, this week has been one of the hardest weeks of my mission, and it´s all becaue my prayers were answered. That´s right, I was praying that the difficult situation with Elder Barbosa would be resolved, and now it´s resolved. His is now back at home on the beaches of Fortaleza. Let me explain a little bit more.

Monday was awful. I woke up. I was done with being the only one to clean the house while everyone else sleeps. (We have a rule here that we have to clean on P-days between 630 and 930 and then we have personal study and comp study.) So what happened? I got a little bravo. I mad a racket and ´encouraged´ everyone to get out of bed and clean something. Elder Barbosa was no exception. He stayed in bed even after all the racket, so I made more racket. Finally he got up and everyone ´got to work´ doing something. Mostly they just sat in living room, but at least they were awake. I was a little annoyed. During comp study, Elder Barbosa went to the bathroom with diarrhea, so we made plans to get him checked out at the hospital. Then we went to write and receive emails. I was happy because of the emails I got and all of your encouragement and love, but I was still a little icy. After lunch, we went to the hospital. He got registered and they started him on the soro (taking liquids). I sat next to him while we waited for them to take his blood and run the tests. He gets really anxious and enjoado in situations like that, so I started talking to him. I asked him what he had read in his emails. He told me that he had talked with his family and decided that it would be best for him to return home because of his bad health and the bad health of his father. I was calm. I asked a few questions more. I started discussing with him what would be the benefits of going home and what would be the benefits of staying in the mission. He was determined to make his decision. I started telling him stories from my own life when I had made a singular decision that had changed my life for the better. I also told stories of singular decisions that I could nly make once that I still regretted. I was trying to be calm and not freak out so that I could help him. I wanted to be supportive and try to understand what was going on in his decision making. I shared scriptures about small moments of difficulty that are for our good, but he would not be moved. I started to get anxious along with him. I went to the bathroom to be able to have a moment to pray alone. As I was praying, a thought came to my head. The thought was of a scene from a family television program like Full House or some other typical family show. In my mind I saw a kid from the family with his bags packed, ready to run away, then the dad coming down the stairs with his bags packed also, telling the son that they would go together because dads have to take care of their sons. I remember that in the show everything worked out right because the kid realized how silly it would be to run away from home when everyone at home needed his dad. Well, that was the thought that came to mind, and I felt like it was some sort of revelation that I needed to use to keep Elder Barbosa stay in the mission field. Well, the results came back at about 630 pm. He didn´t have anything wrong with his blood, and with that tidbit of knowledge, the foolish Brazilian hospital sent the 3-days-ill invalid away with plenty of liquids inside of him. Anyway, we got home and Elder Barbosa prepared to lay down a little bit. He hadn´t said anything for a little while, and I thought that maybe he had changed his mind until he asked to have the phone to call President Cascardi. I didn´t give it to him. I told him that I would talk to President first. I dialed President´s number with shaking hands. He answered the phone, cheerfully calling me by name. I couldn´t believe that I was doing it, but I would follow through with my personal revelation of Bob Saggett and the Olsen twins. I told President that I wanted to go home. The words killed me; there was no going back now. He asked me what had happened. I told him that a son shouldn´t die before his father, and my son wanted to return home. President was a little confused and asked if my dad had died. I was a really emotional, so I didn´t laugh, but I told him that Elder Barbosa wanted to go home. I thought that Presidnet would chuckled and tell me to stop joking around and get back to work, but he was very patient and kind with me. He told me about the good work that I was doing, that he needed me here, and that I shouldn´t worry about my companion. Then he asked to talk to Elder Barbosa. When I gave the phone to him, he didn´t look at me. I don´t know if the Full HOuse play was exactly what he was needing. I left the room and starting praying and pleading. When he was finished, I didn´t ask what had happened, but I gave a blessing of health to him. I let him rest a little. When he was done resting, we talked a little bit more. He said that he really was going home. I talked his ear off telling him how he would regret this choice and what effect it would have in his life and the life of his family forever. Well, it didn´t change anything. President called later to confirm the travl plans for Juiz de Fora for the exit interview. He told me that I shouldn´t worry about my companion, that the issue didn´t have anything to do with me. Afterward, Elder Barbosa vollunteered some more information. It turns out that he was going home because of a burning fever (Alma 15:3) and despair (Moroni 10:22). I was extremely heartbroken. It probably was the hardest point in my mission. He was my 16th companion. Of all of them, none have gone home early. If he doesn´t return to the mission field in a few months, I will have been his only companion. After thinking much about everything that happened, I have been happy to know that I fulfilled my responsibility to help him resolve any prsonal problem that he might have so that he can have some inner piece.

Sorry, I don´t have any more time to discuss the rest of the week. I found out today that I will spend the rest of the transfer in trio. Now, my district is just the three of us. I have my talent to care for, and I hope that I can take care of him well. Just remember that the choices we make today will have grievous or glorious consequences for us in the future. Be obedient. Seek to be good. DOn´t develop any addiction to sin. Be clean and clear and under control (AKA bridle all of your passions Alma 38). I love you all so much. Know that I am happy and healthy and that you will not be seeing me at home for anyother 7 months. I love you all!


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

Choice and Accountability

Dear family,

This week has been a rollercoaster of events. The rollercoaster is only as stable as my companion´s physical and emotional health. Therefore, this rollercoaster is the kind that would make Dad queasy. In this instance, like Dad, I would prefer a nice innertube ride on the lazy river. That´s not to say that I would like to be lazy, but that I would like to a little bit more stable. Anyway, this metaphor should be self-explanatory.

Anyway, Monday after emails we went out and I used the money I had to buy some Christmas gifts for all of you. I hope that you all like Brazilian mustard, hahaha. Just kidding! I have some surprises for al of you, and I hope that you like them. If there are some things that you want in particular, please send the pedidos. Also, my debit card died, so it would be great if you could send the new and improved one! I know I said a few emails ago that I wouldn´t need it, but now I need it.

Tuesday was transfers. Eler Pereira foi embora from our house and the rest of us stayed in a trio for the day. At the end of the night, we were returning and had to walk right through the middle of a fulia. Fulia is something that Brazilians start doing around Carnaval time which consists of a bunch of people banging drumbs in African dance costumes with really scary masks. It was a little unnerving. Helaman 13:37 was running through my head. We got out of there rill fast. That night, Elder Coiti arrived. He is a missionary with a lot more time on the mission than me he is known to have some obedience and dilligence issues. I am in for a rough ride this transfer.

This week we were following up a lot with Glayce, Rosangela, and Rosiane who were baptized this last week. They were getting really excited to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was awesome because Glayce had a dream of her friend´s family (who she hadn´t seen in a year) being baptized. The next day, her friend showed up in her house because she was in town visiting her family. A few minutes later, we arrived! It was really cool because the friend has already talked to missionaries before and has a Book of Mormon. We talked a little bit with her, and will try to get smething worked out so that we can help fulfill the dream Glayce had. The three of them were confirmed on Sunday. The only difficulty we had was getting Rosangela and Rosiane to church. We called them in the morning to make sure they could get to church on their own. They didn´t answer. That worried us. We decided to go to their house. We had to wake them and wait for them. We only made it to Church after the second hour, just in time for sacrament meeting. It was a blessing that everything turned out right.

This last week was really rough for Elder Barbosa. We had a comp study. I was getting on his tail a little bit because I have been talking so much to him about effective study and he is still doing the same thing. When I ask him a question to apply our studies, he gives me a pouty look and says that he doesn´t know the answer because he´s a new missionary. Anyway, at the end of the study, I asked him to say the prayer. He started crying as soon as he said Dear Heavenly Father. We were on our knees for a few minutes as he was crying. After, we talked a little bit and gave him a blessing. It helped. The blessing is that he is getting daily grace from the Lord, but the problem is that he doesn´t seem to be seeking a change that will help him in the long run. Anyway, the problems only increase when his physical problems are added on top of everything. He has been sick the last three days with puking and diarrhea. Sister Cascardi said to wait until today to go to the hospital, so today we´re going to get him checked out. I hope that they can help him so that he doesn´t spiral down in a cycle of bad physical and emotional health. You have to take care of your body and mind!

SOmething I have been thinking a lot about this week is accountability for our actions. OUr investigators don´t understand personal responsibility very well. We are trying to help them. This principle also helps a lot in the missionary work itself. I love especially Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-33. We must responsible. If we don´t understand the reality of this personal resposibility, we will be very sad in the day when all of must stand accountable for what we have done in this life. When I feel like God has put His trust in me to do His work, I go about doing good, and doing the most good that I can. I hope that you will all feel this responsibility and seek to choose that which is necessary for us t do in this life.

I love you all. I am glad to hear the Grandpa is improving. Thank you for keeping me in the loop, but not telling me all of details. I know that through prayer and faith the right outcome will be brought to pass. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.


With love, Elder Parker Ayer

The Man from January River...in January

Family, family, family,

Isn´t it about time? That might sound like I am getting mad at you, but I really wanted that to sound like an old Church ad. So in other words, isn´t about time for another email exchange with your beloved son and brother, Elder Ayer? I don´t know exactly what your practice is for reading missionary emails now, but I know that in the old days we always read them as part of Family Home Evening. That reminds me of Dad welcoming everyone to FHE as if Hulk Hogan would be our special guest for the night. Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. I hope this email fulfills your spiritual and emotional needs.

Anyway, yes, I am here in the state of January River (Rio de Janeiro) in January! What a fun thing to happen. Unfortunately, the January River here really isn´t a Snowy River. That´s because it is hot, hot, hot and I feel like I just caught on fire, just caught on fire. But really, the work here is catching fire. It is great to see. To begin this year and to end the transfer, we had the opportunity to baptize three people, Gleyce, Rosângela, and Rosiane. I was super glad that Elder Barbosa had the opportunity to baptize his first transfer. It was great! Gleyce is a middle-aged woman who is a little grumpy by nature, but it was amazing to see what kind of effect the gospel had and is having in her life. Rosângela and Rosiane are the same age as me and Elder Barbosa, respectively. When they start asking us about our girlfriends back home, we have to steer clear. Fortunately, they really had a great conversion as well. Rosiane wrote down her testimony to be read in testimony meeting yesterday, it was so great! 

It was amazing to see how everything came together this last week to help prepare them all to be baptized. They all had goals to be baptized on Saturday. However, I don´t think that I have ever baptized someone on the date of the first goal set. I was kind of prepared for something to happen this week as well, but I was hoping and working for the best outcome. Gleyce had already had some powerful experiences with prayer and the Book of Mormon before this week. That was an essential preparation. This week we went to talk about her about her goal for baptism. Really, we should have been talking to her more about her baptismal date before this week, but it didn´t happen in our teaching. When we returned this week to teach her, we talked about her baptism. She seemed very apprehensive. She was emphatic. She had to resolve some things in her family before she could be baptized. When we asked some more questions, it was apparent that these problems were excuses. We invited her to pray for herself to ask Heavenly Father if she should be baptized. After leaving the appointment, I called my zone leader to tell him aobut her progress for baptism on the planned date. He told me that the next appointment I should teach her, read Moroni 10:32, and tell her that if she wanted to be perfect in Christ she had to be baptized. It didn´t sit well with me. It seemed a little brusque. I wanted to help her. That night we prayed together and individually to be able to help her. The next day we went and read Mosiah 18 with her. She liked the chapter and said that really she did want to have the influence of Spirit to be manifest more abundantly in her life, like the ancient Mormons. We asked her what would impede her from being baptized. That was the moment when she opened up to us. Really, she was worried that she would have to walk with us in the streets preaching the gospel. We relieved her concerns about this. After that, she became excited to be baptized. It was amazing to see how the Spirit could help her and could releive her worries and encourage her to be perfected in Christ through baptism.

We saw similar conversion in the lives of Rosângela and Rosiane. I really am heartbroken when I enter their house. THey are so poor, but the are so happy. They and their family also give so much for us. They always offer us food. They always insist that they have to buy soda for us, even when we say that water would be great. They also fed us lanches several times this week. I was so sad when they shared their father´s birthday treat with us which was some jell-o. They became very worried one day that Elder Barbosa got sick that he had gotten sick because of some bread he had eaten in their house. They are such good people, and now they have the blessings of the Spirit to be constantly with them. It is such a blessing. There is nothing like starting a new year in white clothes with a white slate!

I love you all so much. I hope that you will all seek to have clean slates and maintain that cleanliness. We came receive and retain a remission of our sins through the greace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Be strong and of a good courage, always abounding in good works. I love you all! By the way, Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah! And Grandpa, we are all praying for you! I still need to speak in portuguese with you!

With lots of love, Elder Ayer  

Isn´t It Weird That It Will be 2015?

Dear family,

Yes, Sarah, that subject line was just for you. After the Skype call the other day, I just kept on smiling to myself at random times during the day all of a sudden because I remembered some sort of silly thing from the call. Well, the goofy family jokes just keep coming back to mind. The sugar cone family is full of ziggidy zags and hippity hops and all sorts of things that you don´t know!

Anyway, let me sum up the week. Elder Pereira who lives in our house has been sick this last week. To cut to the thick of it, he has a hemorroid. Unfortunately some crazy astronaut stole all of our hemorroid creme and served it as microwave heated space food, so he´s been suffering quite a bit. hahaha But seriously, I had to do divisions with him and his companion so that we could work in my area and his area and help their investigator be ready for baptism this week. Fortunately, Antonio was baptized. Unfortunately, h missed church yesterday and was nt confirmed. Unfortunately as well, Elder Barbosa had to stay inside most of the time with our invalid. That means that he spent a few days just dwelling on his family and home and his call that he would make, and afterwords the call that he did make, to them. He didn´t get to do much work, work, work which is the answer to all of the ills as a missionary. Yesterday he confided in me that he almost called home to President to ask to be sent home. My heart just about broke. I really do want to be able to help him stay firm in the mission and firm in the Church. If you have any ideas please send them to me. I will also be asking for ideas from Heavenly Father. THank you for all the advice yall gave me the other day as well.

Anyway, this past week we were able to teach relatively well. Christmas Eve was a race as we taught 8 lessons, 1 being on the cmpletely other side of the city. The rest of the week was a little bit more difficult. OUr investigators want to be baptized felizmente. Unfortunately, Claudia is battling an addiction with smoking. Gleice isn´t very happy with us because of scheduling problems. Fernando and Monica are a little lazy at getting to church. The thing is that all of these people have rceived powerul witnesses of the truth and want to be baptized, but have issues that are getting in the way right now. We are going to keep praying and hoping and pleading and working so that we can bring about a marvelous work and a wonder in their lives.

I love you all so much! I hope that you look forward to our next Christmas together, as you know I am. It´s almost already 2015 and my mission has just gotten going. Fiquem firmes e fortes!

Com amor sem fim, Elder Parker Ayer

It´s Finally Beginning to Feel Like Christmas

 Dear family,

Yes, I know that we will be talking face to face as a man speaketh with his friend in a few days, but there is still so much to tell you. I think that I could never write an email that would be sufficient to tell you about all of the wonderful experiences that I am having here in the mission. By the way, I have programmed with a family in our branch that I will call from their house at 11 am our time here. I would check on the internet the time difference. Usually it~s just an hour difference, but I don~t know because the time got moved around here for the summer. Thank you so much dad for the music! I downloaded it. Currently, however, I discovered the lds radio online and I~m listening to Archy. :D

Anyway, this week was so great! Some highlights. Monday we went to the supermarket to get groceries. While I was buying presunto, a man came up to me and started mumbling some words to me. He seemed a little crazy and I was just frankly eager to get away from him. After a little bit, I realized that he was asking for some rice for him and for his family. Usually in the street when people ask money, I just kind of keep on walking because it~s usually not a good idea to give people money. I usually think, what are they going to do with the money? Anyway, I moved away from this man in the store and we kept on shopping. I started feeling really bad. A scripture came from King Benjamin~s discourse came to my mind, reminding me that I have been a beggar before Heavenly Father, and my petitions have not been in vain, but have been heard and answered. I realized that it didn~t really matter what my perception of this man was, I should be able to help him, especially if it was to buy some food for his family. I was glad for a later opportunity to see him in the store, standing by the rice. I went to talk to him and he asked if I could buy a large bag of rice for him. It was only 6 or 7 reais, or 3 US dollars. I felt humbled, and a little chastised, by this humble petition. It was a good lesson for me to learn. It was also a wonderful opportunity to feel some real live Christmas spirit.

This whole week really was awesome. I could go through every day, but it would basically sound the same. A whole bunch of awesomeness. Every day this week, we were finding so many people to teach, and so many people accepted the opportunity to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized. By the end of the week, we had found 19 new investigators and 14 people with a specific goal to be baptized. It was so awesome! I have been praying so hard that the Spirit can be shed in the hearts of the people here so that we can baptize them unto repentance. See Alma 8:10 I just want to much to be able to bless these people here with the ultimate blessings of the atonement of Christ. I have been so glad to see our prayers being answered. The people seem to be paying mais attention to what we have to say. They want to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We are also being led more in the words that we should say so that we can help God~s children in their specific difficulties. 

An especially good Christmas moment this last week was our branch Christmas activity. Not that many people showed up. It was really just the very faithful members of the branch that showed up, but it was great! It was designed to focus more on the Savior. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was shown from the christmas devotional singing The First Noel. I don~t know what was so different about hearing the music this time. Maybe because it was in English after a week of only hearing Portuguese. Maybe because I was in an attitude to really hear what the spirit was singing. I thought about that little Christ child. I thought about his fragile form with his powerful spirit tabernacled inside. I thought about the miracle of life made even more miraculous by the birth of the God of Israel. I thought of the tender feelings of a mother for her child. Maybe that~s why it was so good. That day we had just finished teaching a family from the northeast of Brasil. They had a little child of four months whose name was Emanuel. That was probably it. I cannot even imagine the love that must have been there in that little stable as these two covenant parents looked on the Savior who had been prepared for them. With wondering awe they must have looked on that child as the still feelings of the spirit gave them the promise of salvation. I love Christmas!!!

Another wonderful Christmas experience happened yesterday. The mission had its Christmas Conference with the entire mission! I know that I cannot be home for Christmas, but that was about as close as I got to being home for Christmas. There were so many beloved missionaries there that I got to see and talk to. My good friends from my MTC district (8 of the 14), my several companions (especially Elder Alexsandro), and Presidente and Sister Cascardi. On top of all that, I was back in Juiz de Fora (nicknamed Manchester)! I will tell you on Quinta a little bit more about the great misison conference. 

For now I have to go. I love you all so much! I am so excited to see all of your familiar faces, hear your sweet voices, and get to know my new sister. You are always in my heart. Underneath a calus of focused hardwork, you are all there motivating me to go forward and declare this message with power. I love you all.


Love, Elder Parker Ayer

There Were a Great Multitude Gathered Together

Dear family and friends,

We will begin with some announcements. All those who can sustain Elder Ayer as a missionary, please give the customary sign (send letters, pray, don~t forget about him in the middle of the mission...). At this moment, we would like to give a vote of thanks to all those who have been doing so much (Mom, Dad, Will & Steph, Sarah, and Christian in particular). We are very grateful for the service you have rendered. Now, we know that Christmas is approaching and all the members of our family have been preparing. One the day of December 25 (ten days from today), there will be a skype exchange between Elder Ayer and the Ayer family. Please be present for that moment. There will be more announcements next week as to time. As far as next week, the normal day for communication will be postponed until Tuesday due to the Christmas holiday. Thanks to all of you for your understanding. Now we will begin with hymn 210 (or thereabouts), Angels We Have Heard on High.

GLOOOOoooOOOoooOOOORIA!

Well, that was fun. Now on to our normally scheduled programming...

Monday night we had one of the greatest miracles of my mission. It really was a small miracle. It wasn~t a large display of godly powers in moving mountains or turning the sun back, but it was a miracle nonetheless worked by the faith of Christlike people. Last week we made a contact with a man in the street. He couldn~t meet with us in the moment, but we set up a time to come back. He asked if he could invite ather people to the appointment, and we agreed. We showed up on Monday not really remembering much about our exchange with him, but just expecting to teach the Restoration and find some new investigators. The night before, setting goals, my companion had looked at our goal for new investigators and asked if 3 would really be reasonable. Well, according to our plans it was achievable, so we marked it down. When we got to the appointment, we found Marcos and his wife Teresa. We were ready to teach the Restoration just to them, but they asked us to wait for a little bit as others would be arriving. Well, we waited. Others arrived, and others, and others, and others. Pretty soon we had a very large multitude gathered together of the entire extended family. You might say that it was a clan, as might exist in Ireland, or more specifically, Kilarney. Well, no matter, it was a meeting with ´all of the folks at home´. There were 19 people there above the age of 8, and still more children running around. It was one of the most awesome experiences I have had. Imagine more than 20 people all gathered together to hear the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I bore my testimony about the moment yesterday in church, and I just started tearing up because of the overwhelming feelings of the spirit. We bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, the First Vision, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Restored Church. I could not have been happier to testify. I thought of this family gathered in the sealing room of the temple to be joined together. There would not be a happier scene in this whole world. Everyone loved the message and agreed to have us come back. It was a little difficult to extend the baptismal commitment to everyone individually, so we are going to go back and teach each family that was there. At the end, one of the family members offered a prayer with many of the others giving their added ´glorias´and aleluias´. I have never been so happy to hear those words, and I felt like offering them myself. Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son. Thanks be to God for the restored knowledge of HIs Son through His Prophet Joseph Smith. I thought of several examples of the scriptures when multitudes were gathered together to hear the word of God, including the experience of Amon and Abish and the Nephite gathering at the temple in Bountiful. I only imagined that if this man, ignorant of the true joy of the message, could gather his entire family to hear our message, what should be required of us who are not ignorant of the true majesty and import of our message?

There were other great moments this week. We had interviews with President Cascardi on Wednesday. It took up the whole day, but it was good to be able to talk to him.

Saturday we had a very interesting experience. We were looking for someone and a neighbor gave us some help. After we were unsuccessful finding the person, she invited us to participate in a family prayer that they would be having in a few moments. We accepted the invitation and entered the home. We found out in a few moments that the entire family was gathered together for the birthday of the family~s patriarch, a pastor in a prominent church called ´Christian Congregation in Brasil´ (translated). There are a sect of Christianity that is a little extreme. In prayer all of the women wear veils. In the church services, the men sit on one side and the women on the other. We were allowed to enter into their home. We were told to kneel down and the birthday boy started praying. I will temper the word praying with the word shouting or the word moaning or the word louvor-ing. He prrayed in a very loud and somewhat feverish/angry voice for what must have been 10 minutes. At the same time, all of the other people around us were also involved in shouting, moaning, and making all sorts of other anguished noises in the praise of their god. My mind reflected for a moment on the priests of Baal and Elisha. After the priests prayed, Elisha asked if they had to scream and yell because their god was on a journey or was sleeping. I also thought of Alma 31. I think these people also had a false understanding of prayer and election, and their comments later proved this to be true. After 10 minutes, another voice started gritando a little louder and took over the prayer for another 5 minutes. It was quite the experience. Afterwards, we arose and were offered some birthday cake. Fortunately or unfortunately were were in jejum. Before leaving, we offered to give a prayer as well. The prayer was politely declined because the pastor thought he would be denying Jesus´ power if he had to accept an additional prayer, and that from someone of another faith. Well, I quickly reminded him of the Savior who prayed 3 times in the Garden of Gethsemenae. He told me that he didn~t study the scriptures, but waited for the Spirit to tell him what he needed to say in the exact moment. Then he proceeded to give his testimony of his own faith to be registered by the angels. Then I gave my testimony of the essential doctrines of salvation for the same registry to be presented at the great judgment day. We will see which comes out in testimony against whom.

Sunday there was another awesome experience. A few days ago, a couple in the street asked us to pray for their daughter who was very stressed out about some final exams. When offered, they also accepted our visit in their home to hear a message. Sunday we went there and taught the Restoration to them. The family is golden! They are Jalson and Patricia, and daughter Thaina. The father said that he felt that what we were teaching was the truth. We all felt it. He sincerely thanked us for going to his home to share the truth with them. THey started asking lots of inspired questions about the Prophet Joseph Smith. At the end, the dad offered a sincere prayer to know the truth and finished it off with Psalm 23. I have never heard a more beautiful recitation of Psalm 23. This man didn~t know how to prayer very well without the memorized words, but he had a sincere desire and humility. His lack of understanding was accounted unto him for a blessing. They will be baptized on January 4. We are so excited for them!

I am so excited for Christmas and to see all of you. I close this email with all of my love and my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love, Elder Parker Ayer