Feliz Natal

Elder Askins played the piano for Sacrament meeting in November.

Elder Paiva and Elder Askins on Christmas Eve. 

Letter #36- "Call Me A Safe Bet, I´m Betting I´m Not"

Glad that you can forgive, only hoping as time goes you can forget!

Dear Family!

Oh how I love you so much! I sure loved talking to you all on the phone! It passed too quickly! But hey, don´t worry about it! It´s already almost Mother´s Day! But I did enjoy talking to you! It was all I wanted for Christmas. It was a wonderful present! Don´t worry, I think I will get my package. As the Black Eyed Peas once said, "I´ve got a feeling!" And I do!

Not much has happened since I talked to you all on Saturday. Transfers happened today. I won´t be with Elder Sudduth, but with Elder L. Silva. He is so awesome. We arrived in the MTC together. We lived together when I first moved to Xaxim. So I am pretty excited to work with him. Elder Sudduth was sad that we won´t be working together but we all know that the Lord has His hands in all things.

I am super excited for this new year. It will be the best year ever! Let the good times roll. I am super excited as I have said. Not really anything has happened. I am sorry this email is so short but remember that I love you all! You are all so special to me and I am excited for the day that we can play Pounce again! I´m gonna keep this email short! I love you all so much!
Com Amor!
-Elder Askins

Merry Christmas from Elder Askins!

Letter #35- "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time!"

Hello my dear family!

I love you all so much! I am so grateful that we are a family and I am super excited to talk to you all on Saturday. A lot of things have happened. It´s been great! It´s been a little tough lately because now we are taking care of 2 wards until the next transfer but with sacrifice comes blessings.

Yesterday, Elder Paiva went home. You know he lives in Curitiba. He wasn´t a full-time missionary, but was called because we have such a shortage of missionaries. He was set apart as a missionary and lived the life of a missionary but in the same city. (same stake, different ward) He was waiting for his call to come. It finally came. He will report to the MTC Feb. 3rd (Jake Andersen´s year mark) and will be serving in the Brasil Salvador mission. I am super excited for him. He is super excited too! He will be a wonderful missionary! No, no, no. He is a wonderful missionary and a good friend. He is making a facebook today and going to look me up, so Katie, get ready to man my facebook please! hahaha. Also, he wanted to send you all an email so I gave him your address. I think he was going to attempt to write in english (or use google translator) so I gave him your email address. So if you get an email from a Robson Paiva, don´t be freaked out. It´s just good old Elder Paiva.

Yesterday, we went to President´s house to drop Elder Paiva off and got invited to stay and eat lunch with them! (Well that was very nice! Count how many times I ate yesterday! The life of a missionary is super hard!) So we had lunch with President and his family and Elder Paiva and a few other missionaries at like 10. Then President asked us to take Elder Paiva back to his own home (Because he wasn´t released yet). So we took him home. Then we had to go to our own lunch (Because we forgot to cancel it) and I managed to eat a little there (It was tough, I´ve not been eating a super lot lately. I don´t know why) We ate and then shared our message. We had to pass by our house because it was getting ready to rain. Grabbed our umbrellas-ellas-ellas, eh eh eh. (hahahaha) and headed out to my ward (Because lunch was in Elder Sudduth´s ward-my new companion) We passed by this part member family and they invited us to leave a message with them and eat a 'little' snack with them. (First rule of missionary work: when one of the sisters offers you food. YOU NEVER SAY NO!! they will kill you.) So we stopped inside and ate another meal (Almost too much for me to handle) and left a message from 3rd Nephi 27. Then we had to go to our next appointment. We got there and taught about the Law of Chastity and then we were offered more food (I just about exploded). Then we had to go home. We stopped by the Walmart to check on something (I just like to walk in and smell it! It´s like a little piece of AMERICA!!!) and then we got home. When we got home, we realized that the meat that Elder Sudduth had bought was about to go bad. So it was the last night to make it. We scrumped some down and I forced myself to eat. I could make it though. hahahaah the meat ended up going bad but it was great!

Last week was our Christmas Conference. It was wonderful! We read the Christmas story and some missionaries and the President´s family acted out the Christmas story. It was neat. I really really want to say thank you to the Hagues!!! I got your package at our Christmas Devotional! It was perfect! I loved the Christmas picture that Alix sent and I loved the new tie! I have worn it twice already! And the socks! Oh man! I am wearing them RIGHT now! And all the little games. Great Stuff! And of course, the Chuck Norris shirt was perfect! Thanks so much!!!

On another note that is slightly different but yet the same. One of my friends here bought the sixth season of House. She wanted us to watch it with her. I explained that we couldn´t. I wanted to so bad but I didn´t.

MERRY MERRY MERRY Christmas! I love you all so much! I am super excited to talk to you!! As Eric Whitlock said to me last Christmas, "Have a sexy Christmas." I would say the same to you! I love you all so mush! Figure out NOW what you want to talk about because I only have 45 minutes!
With love!
Elder Nathan Askins

Letter #34- "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time!"

Hello my dear family!

I love you all so much! I am so grateful that we are a family and I am super excited to talk to you all on Saturday. A lot of things have happened. It´s been great! It´s been a little tough lately because now we are taking care of 2 wards until the next transfer but with sacrifice comes blessings.

Yesterday, Elder Paiva went home. You know he lives in Curitiba. He wasn´t a full-time missionary, but was called because we have such a shortage of missionaries. He was set apart as a missionary and lived the life of a missionary but in the same city. (same stake, different ward) He was waiting for his call to come. It finally came. He will report to the MTC Feb. 3rd (Jake Andersen´s year mark) and will be serving in the Brasil Salvador mission. I am super excited for him. He is super excited too! He will be a wonderful missionary! No, no, no. He is a wonderful missionary and a good friend. He is making a facebook today and going to look me up, so Katie, get ready to man my facebook please! hahaha. Also, he wanted to send you all an email so I gave him your address. I think he was going to attempt to write in english (or use google translator) so I gave him your email address, so if you get an email from a Robson Paiva, don´t be freaked out. It´s just good old Elder Paiva.

Yesterday, we went to President´s house to drop Elder Paiva off and got invited to stay and eat lunch with them! (Well that was very nice! Count how many times I ate yesterday! The life of a missionary is super hard!) So we had lunch with President and his family and Elder Paiva and a few other missionaries at like 10. Then President asked us to take Elder Paiva back to his own home (Because he wasn´t released yet). So we took him home. Then we had to go to our own lunch (because we forgot to cancel it) and I managed to eat a little there. (It was tough, I´ve not been eating a super lot lately. I don´t know why) We ate and then shared our message. We had to pass by our house because it was getting ready to rain. Grabbed our umbrellas-ellas-ellas, eh eh eh. (hahahaha) and headed out to my ward. (Because lunch was in Elder Sudduth´s ward) We passed by this part-member family and they invited us to leave a message with them and eat a 'little' snack with them. (First rule of missionary work: When one of the sisters offers you food. YOU NEVER SAY NO!! They will kill you.) So we stopped inside and ate another meal. (Almost too much for me to handle) and left a message from 3rd Nephi 27. Then we had to go to our next appointment. We got there and taught about the Law of Chastity and then we were offered more food (I just about exploded). Then we had to go home.

We stopped by the Walmart to check on something (I just like to walk in and smell it! It´s like a little peice of AMERICA!!!) and then we got home. When we got home, we realized that the meat that Elder Sudduth had bought was about to go bad. So it was the last night to make it. So we scrumped some down and I forced myself to eat. I could make it though. hahahaah the meat ended up going bad but it was great!

Last week was our Christmas Conference. It was wonderful! We read the Christmas story and some missionaries and the President´s family acted out the Christmas story. It was neat. I really really want to say thank you to the Hagues!!! I got your package at our Christmas Devotional! It was perfect! I loved the Christmas picture that Alix sent and I loved the new tie! I have worn it twice already! And the socks! Oh man! I am wearing them RIGHT now! And all the little games. Great Stuff! And of course, the Chuck Norris shirt was perfect! Thanks so much!!! On another note that is slightly different but yet the same. One of my friends here bought the sixth season of House. She wanted us to watch it with her. I explained that we couldn´t. I wanted to so bad but I didn´t.

MERRY MERRY MERRY Christmas! I love you all so much! I am super excited to talk to you!! As Eric Whitlock said to me last Christmas, "Have a sexy Christmas." I would say the same to you! I love you all so much! Figure out NOW what you want to talk about because I only have 45 minutes!
With love!
Elder Nathan Askins

**Side note from the editors**

I apologize for not posting these letters this past month.  I know many of you read it faithfully, to keep up with Nathan's well-being.  Thank you for keeping him and the other missionaries in your thoughts and prayers.  :)  All of his letters are now posted and back-dated.  The first one I posted is 11/3/10.  Enjoy! (and I promise to be better from now on!)

Feliz Natal!

Letter #33- "Happy Christmas (War is over, if you want it!)!"

"And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun. The near and the dear ones. The old and the young. A very merry Christmas, and a happy new year!  Let´s hope it´s a good one. Without any fear."

 

My dear family and cherished loved ones. It´s been a very packed week. A lot of neat experiences have happened.

 

So as I finished using the internet last week, I was sitting next to my good firend, Elder Petersen. He looked at me and said "I do not feel good" So he got up to use the bathroom and opened the door and I looked at him and it just felt wrong. I stood up, (barely, I was pretty weak from being sick at well) and he passed out and me and his companion rushed over to help him. He woke up and puked in the toilet and we left. When we got back, the ladies that live in front of us made me and him some health tea and they sentenced us to rest. They are sweet ladies who aren´t members of the church but they do more for missionary work than any member I have ever met in my life. 

 

That afternoon, Elder Petersen asked for a blessing. He asked me to seal the blessing. I am still not very good at blessing in portuguese but Elder Paiva reviewed the words with me and then I gave it. It was amazing how as I was giving the blessing, I received strength to stand there and I felt the words rush into my mind and out of my mouth. It was neat to stand in a circle with 3 other missionaries and worthy servants of the Most High God and give a blessing to my friend. That night Elder Petersen left to sing in the choir. When he got back he said that he felt great during the performance and that he could feel the blessing help.

 

The next day, Elder Paiva and Elder Silva (our companions) told us to stay home because we were still pretty sick. We stayed home and rested. Talked about life and the gospel. It was really a good rest. The next day we were ready for the battle. Saturday morning, we moved again. Elder Paiva and I moved in with another elder in our district whose companion received permission to go home early for school. We are now taking care of 2 areas. It´s hard but we are working our tails off. I have one last story I would like to share.

 

2 nights ago we were out walking and I got a huge impression to go visit this less active family. So me and Elder Paiva and our new companion Elder Suddith went to their house. When we got there, we found the mother in bed really sick. I knew she had been very sick and she loves the missionaries. She really knows, feels,and understands the power that the missionaries have. We walked in and she said "ElderAskins, you didn´t pass by last weekend. I really needed a blessing." I explained to her I got a little sick last week and that we are now taking care of 2 areas and between everything that happened, we lost a lot of time. She asked for another blessing. We put our hands on her head and gave her a blessing. She cried as she told us how lucky she was to have 3 missionaries put their hands on her head and give her a blessing. After, she asked us to give her a message. I left a message from the Book of Mormon about how, with faith, we can be cured from blessings. During the message I was watching her. I got the biggest urge to jump out of my chair and run to this lady on the other side of the room. I knew it was the spirit. I thought it was a strange prompting but I acted on it. I jumped up and ran to her. Right as I reached her, with my arms outstretched, she passed out. I was able to catch her and save her head from slamming into the concrete wall. Elder Paiva and I lifted her onto her bed and when she woke up she asked what happened. Her husband said that she passed out and that I had run to her in time to catch her. And then with a confused look he goes "Elder, How did you know?" I just said that I felt I needed to run over to her. She started crying and said "I am surrounded by angels." We all cried together.

 

We can be answers to peoples prayers. The Lord loves us. I love my Savior. He lives! Missionaries are His representatives!

Com Amor,

Elder Askins

p.s. we don´t have p-day next week.

Letter #32- "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn. That´s alright because i like the way it hurts."

Hahahahah this song is super popular here. I hear it all the time. I actually kind of like it.

Dearest family!

Oh my goodness, I love you all so much! As I said in my email earlier today to daddy, I´m a little under the weather. Well, today I am under the weather, and yesterday I was sick as a dog! (Like Dr. Evil!) We visited this lady yesterday and she gave us some vitamin thing and the milk did not sit well with my American stomach. I told Elder Paiva that I didn´t feel good. We went to the chapel and he gave me a blessing that it would pass, and let me tell you... it did just that. 

 

We stopped by Davi´s house (our recent convert) and left a message with him. We were talking to him after the message outside of his house and I turned the corner and puked. It looked like I had just lost the gallon challenge. It was horrible but I felt better afterward. Then Elder Paiva had an interview with the stake president of his stake so we went to his stake center... The bus was rough. We got to the stake center and because it´s not our chapel, we had no keys. So I laid down and told Elder Paiva to wake me up when someone arrived. So he did but I sat up super fast... and then I tried to run to like a bush or something to do the deed. But I didn´t make it and I up-chucked right in front of this member as he arrived. I looked up at him and said I am so sorry and he said "Sorry nada. better out than in I always say" Hahaha 

 

Well, he said it in Portuguese. It was funny. Then when the stake president pulled up, he asked me if he could buy some medicine. Which was nice, but I didn´t need it. So I told him no. During the interview.. Well, I´ll just say I spent most of their interview in the bathroom. Afterward we called sister but she didn´t answer. So we rode the bus home. Let me tell you.. that was super hard. But I got home, threw my clothes off and went to the bathroom one last time. Elder Petersen gave me some pepto bismal and ibuprofen and I went to sleep. Right before I went to sleep my roommates said, "Elder Askins, can you say what you say every night before you go to sleep? (I have a phrase that I have said almost every night before I went to sleep since the time I was with Elder Savage) So I caught my breath and looked at them and said "Goodge Nightche, My Lifies." Hahahaah That is Good night my lifes in English, but I say it like I am brazilian trying to speak english. haha 

 

We laughed and went to bed. When I woke up it was 10! They let me sleep in because they said I looked horrible and pail. I´ve got good roommates. So I´ve just been taking it easy around the house. You know we have a phrase here (I think every missionary has this phrase) you use it when you endure trials and tribulations... WIFE POINTS. Hahahaha.

 

But this past week has been good. It´s rained every day this week since last p-day. I hate it. I am grateful that it doesn´t rain that much in Arizona! Our investigators didn´t go to church on Sunday. I was pretty sad but what did make my day was that Davi walked into church alone. He came up to us and started talking to us. I said "Dude where is your family!?" And he said that his mom had to take a course that morning and his brothers didn´t want to go to church and I said that is was super happy that he came to church alone and he looked at me and said "Elder Askins, you elders taught me that I needed to come to church and how important it was to go to church every Sunday." I was really happy that he learned and stuck to it.

 

Well I got to go. I love you all so much!

Happy Christmas! (Almost!)

Com Amor

-Elder askins

Some pictures from the beginning of December

Letter #31- "And In Her Eyes You See Nothing, No Sign Of Love Behind The Tears,"

"Cried For No One, A Love That Should Have Lasted Years"

-The Beatles.

Dear Family!

Oh man! I love you all so much! And I miss you so much! I hope you all are having a wonderful time getting prepared for Christmas! I know I am! I bought some "Tocas de Papai Noel" So you will be seeing a lot of pictures in the future with these Santa Hats. The first few are with the Santa Hats. That´s Elder Peterson on the far left, Elder L. Silva on the left, Elder Paiva (My companion) on the right and me on the far right. I hope you don´t mind all the photos! I know it´s been a while since I have sent some. I still have a few more ideas I want to do and send you some photos. I haven´t mailed your Christmas package and there is a chance that I will actually send it after Christmas. I don´t have a post office in my area. So I am gonna have to think about how to send it. But it is almost ready!

 

This week has been a good one. We visited this nonmember lady, she has a son on a mission and she gave us a reference and we visited the reference. It was awesome. The lady said "You know I never wanted anything to do with religion, but I saw you two and I felt like I had to talk to you and I had to go to church because it would be the best thing ever." She really has been prepared by the Lord and her mother too! It is pretty neat. They came to church this past Sunday, but because the ward was closed, they didn´t have a class for recent converts/visiters so we walked in the room and I found out that I was going to teach the lesson. Someone suggested that we talk about the plan of salvation. So we taught the second lesson right there. It was really neat. I love the Plan of Salvation. It was a pretty good lesson. The Spirit helped A LOT! The mother after the lesson said it was a really really good lesson. 

 

They want us to eat lunch with them one day. They said that we were really dear to them. I am amazed with how the Lord has helped prepare people. This week we have been working really hard. We passed by this inactive member´s house. She and her family have such strong spirits. I really enjoy visiting with them.

 

Well, sorry this email is kind of short. I love you all so much! We are having lunch at an investigator´s house with the other missionaries that live with us. I hope everything is going wonderful in good old AZ! I love you all so soso ososososos much!

Com Amor!

-Elder Askins

Letter #30- "Well she was just 17, if you know what I mean."

"And the way she looked was way beyond compare. Oh, how could I dance with another? ohHhh I saw her standing there."
Dearest Family and friends! I love you all so much! I am excited for this wonderful time of year. Everyone here has been asking what´s the deal with this "Dia de Graças." I really can only say it´s a day we give thanks for everything and they say, how do you celebrate it? And I say, well, we eat and we eat and we eat some more and when you can´t eat anymore... you eat some more and we watch American Football and we sleep. They don´t really understand the Wonderfulness of Thanksgiving. I guess you have to BE an American to love the concept.

Well, this week has been good I have 2 stories I want to tell you but before I wanted to say that I am so happy that so many of you have taken the challenge to read the Book of Mormon entirely by the 31 of March. I´m doing it too and I am excited to see how reading it this time, will strengthen our testimonies.

So I said I had 2 stories, the first story is something I heard yesterday with the Irmã we were having lunch with. She said a long time ago, Neal A. Maxwell visited São Paulo in Brazil. And she and her family went. While her little son was in the bathroom, Elder Maxwell went and shook everyone´s hand that was in the audience. When the little boy returned, Elder Maxwell had just finished and was returning to the pulpit. He was so sad he didn´t have an opportunity to shake his hand. While his mom was talking with another kid, he snuck out of his seat and walked all the was to the pulpit. When he got there the security guards grabbed him and the area presidency asked the little boy what he wanted. He thought a moment and said "I want Elder Maxwell´s Autograph." The Area Presidency said no (because that´s kind of inappropriate to ask for) And the little boy was heart broken. He returned to his seat and cried and cried and cried. His mom, when she told me this story was heartbroken for days. The first Sunday, he wouldn´t go to church. This mom went with the rest of her family. At church the bishop got up and said "Elder Maxwell has sent a request that we find out who this boy is. We need to speak with him and his parents." The mother, thinking that they were going to discipline the boy and her, remained silent. The next week, the bishop said again "Who is this boy, Elder Maxwell has requested that we find him." Still she remained silent. Finally the third week, the bishop gets up and said "Brothers and sisters, we know the boy is in this ward, Elder Maxwell has said we have to find out who this boy is and he is not taking no as an answer, who is it?" Finally the Irmã, realizing that this wouldn´t end, rose her hand and claimed her son. The bishop got the boys name and address. About a week and a half later, they received a letter in the mail. It was addressed to the little boy, it was from Elder Maxwell, in the letter he wrote that he was sorry that the boy´s feelings had been hurt. He didn´t know what was going on at the time. He told this little boy about the importance of a mission and how he needed to serve a mission. He testified of Christ and inclosed a picture of himself, with his signature.

I was really impressed by this story. Before Elder Maxwell had died, he requested that the church follow this boy. A few years ago, the church sent him a letter asking if he had plans to serve a mission. What a neat story!

Ok, other story. In Capão da Imbuia, my last area with Elder Duarte, we tracted a lot. One day, we were tracting and I saw this house. I got the hugest prompting. I had to knock on this door. We knocked and nothing. A week later, we passed again. Nothing. I never forgot the house. We went back again, toward the end of the tranfsfer and finally a woman came out. We taught her the first lesson. The next time we passed by, we read the Book of Mormon with her. The time after, I thought I would stay for the whole transfer. She told us that she liked our message and would pray about it. Then I was transferred. I got a phone call from Elder Duarte about 2 weeks ago. She is preparing to get married. After she gets married, she will be baptized. NEAT! It´s super awesome because I felt the prompting. It´s like what the prophet said once "The sweetest feeling is to feel a prompting from the spirit and then act on it." This is true. The best feeling is to feel a prompting from the Lord, act on it, and then find out that you were part of something greater than us all.

I love you all. I hope you all are well. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Katie´s Birthday! I love you all so much! Help dad with the lights this year! And have fun listening to Kenny and Dolly. Don´t let mom listen to "Christmas without you." I have a feeling that for the next two Christmas´s that song might be rough for her. I love you all so much and remember as we prep for the greatest holiday ever, there would be no Christmas, if there was no Easter.  I love you all so much! Remember "Nós podemos, para sempre, estar juntos, eu sei!
Com Amor!!!
NayNay

Letter #29- "I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE"

"BUT I WON´T DO THAT!"

Dear Family!!

Holy Mamma! I sure love you all so much! I got your letter from Halloween! Thanks so much! I loved it!

This past Sunday we had a baptism. Davi! It was great! We worked really hard with him and it was not an easy ride, but it was awesome! Like Gary Allen said "Life ain´t always beautiful, but it´s a beautiful ride." It was a beautiful ride. I bought him the Book of Mormon with pictures. I gave it to him last Thursday. He´s already read it twice. He gave me a picture he drew of Jesus. He really really likes to draw. He´s pretty good too.

 

It also was the primary program on Sunday. I was a little emotional. You know me. It was really sweet and a great program. It was neat to hear the kids sing, "I know that my Savior loves me" in Portuguese. And I cried like a baby when they sang "How could the Father tell the world" I forget the name. and I loved the "I love to look for rainbows" I have always loved that song.

 

I want to talk about another baptism we have coming up. It has been really neat. We passed by his house the first week and he tried to dodge us. He finally let us in and "accompanied" us with his bible during the message of the Restauration. I thought we were going to have a bible bash, but it didn´t happen. We passed by again and asked if he had read the parts of the Book of Mormon we marked for him. He said he did but didn´t understand ANYTHING. So we read them again with him and explained as we went. He really enjoyed it. We planned to pass by again and teach him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the 3rd lesson. But when we got there and started to talk he said "That sounds great and all, but I just want you to read the Book of Mormon with me." So we read 3rd Nephi 27... which talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a great great great chapter. We passed by again and his wife was finally home. They aren´t married but they intend to. We taught her. She was fimiliar with missionaries already. We watched the movie, The Restoration, and at the end I tried to invite her to be baptized (We had already marked a date with him.) She blocked everything I tried to use. Like she was a Sith from Starwars and she knew all the Jedi stuff. It was super crazy. But now she really likes us. We passed by again yesterday. We watched the film "Juntos Para Sempre" or together forever, I like it, it has a lot of those Michael McLean music we listen to as a family. After we watched it, we let the spirit testify for a minute. Then we testified about how we can be a family forever and ever. He sat there for a minute and said "Can you come by on Friday and teach me the rest of what I need to know to be baptized." It was an amazing amazing experience.

 

So I have been thinking a lot about Christmas a lot lately. I am gonna try to send a little something for the whole family to use.  If you send a package, could you please include a discman, I bought the Book of Mormon on audio in portuguese to help me lose my American accent, but now the elder who had a discman and let me use it, doesn't live with us anymore. So I need one and a discman here is anywhere from R$100 to R$140. That´s a little expensive considering the fact that a missionary´s salary is R$0. hahaha I love you all so much. 

 

Also I challenged you all to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I realize that all of you probably don´t have as much time to read every day as I do. SO! I am redoing the challenge. The challenge is to read the Book of Mormon by my one year mark of the mission (That is March 31 if you forgot). I love you all so much!!! I hope you have a wonderful week. And Aaron!!!! Congrats on getting into Med school! I´ve been praying hard for you! I´m so super happy for you! Way to go! As we say down here in Brasil. "Parabéns! Parabéns mesmo!" I love you and I´m proud of you!

Well, that´s all the bullets I have today. Sorry I can´t send photos today. The computer I am using doesn´t have an outlet that works. I love you all so much!

DON´T STOP BELIEIVING!!!!

Com Amor do Brasil!

-Elder Askins

Letter #28- "Two outta Three ain´t bad"

I love you all my dear family!!!

Today was great! We went to the temple and did a session as a Zone and we also had interviews with Presidente Cordon! Oh my gosh. I love him so much! It was wonderful! I had a few things I wanted to talk to him about. I was a little nervous but when I sat down and we prayed everything went out the window. I learned a lot from him and I am so grateful for the interview we had together. First thing he said was "Elder Askins, thank you so much for your faith you exercised this transfer. How did it go?" 

We sat and talked about the things I learned, about the gift of tongues and about the power of the priesthood. He told me November is the month of miracles. So I am excited to see and participate in some miracles. Super excited. As we talked, we started talking about the temptations that we as missionaries face. It´s a hard life guys, really. But he said we need to work really hard in our lives to be 100% obedient in everything. He gave a good example. He said "Do you feel tempted to smoke?" No. "Do you feel tempted to do anything with a girl?" No. "Do you feel tempted to drink?" No. "Do you feel tempted to rob a bank?" No. He said "Why?" Well, because I have standards and I don´t want to. He said "That´s right, YOU have standards and YOU have already made the choice that you aren´t gonna do that stuff." He talked about Moroni. Satan didn´t have the stuff to tempt Captain Moroni to sin. Because he already made the decision in his life that if a temptation came his way, he wasn´t going to give in. It was wonderful to talk with him about this stuff. really really great!

Okay! Funny story! The Lord is so great! (That´s not the funny part!) I showed up to the sacrament meeting on Sunday and the pianist couldn´t come to church. So who do they ask? Good old Elder Askins. "Elder Askins, can you play the piano for us this Sunday?" You know me, I can´t play really well, but I made a goal/rule on my mission that when a person needs something, I´m gonna help them. So I said yes. I DON´T KNOW HOW but I played 3 hymns for sacrament meeting and they thought it was the best thing ever. of course I played the hymns reverently, but I did put a little Nathan twist into it. People came up to me "Elder, I love the American twist you put into the hymns." Hahahaahaha it wasn´t me who played the piano, the Lord helped me play the piano. It was super cool.

The baptism of Davi is this weekend. It will for sure happen. I am super excited for him. It´s been a fantastic week. I hope you remember the challenge I gave to you all last week. Finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. It is so important. In an address by President Boyd K. Packer in the Liahona, he spoke about the Book of Mormon and the iron rod and said "The Book of Mormon has been my iron rod in my life." I was really really impressed by that. I have tried to make it my iron rod and I know that if we together finish the Book ofMormon by the end of the year we will be blessed a lot and we will learn a lot and Satan will have less power in our lives. The Book of Mormon is so important to us and our lives. I love you all so much. I am grateful for the prayers and the lave you have given me. Thanks to Sami and Trish for the package and all the letters I have received. FYI, for now it will be a little bit before I can mail a letter, I have them written (mostly) but I need dinero to send them. I love you all so much!

Com Amor!

Elder Naynay

P.S. WAY TO GO KATIE ON THE MARATHON!!!! I AM SUPER PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!

Letter #27- "Forever Young, I Want to Be Forever Young"

Dear Family!

How is everyone doing here on this beautiful Wednesday!? It´s been a great. We´ve been really really busy here in Xaxim! We have a baptism this weekend. His name is Davi, which is portuguese for David. He is nine years old. I was really impressed with him and he want to be obedient to God´s commandments. It was really neat. Yesterday, we were going over the baptismal questions with him and I got the greatest feeling when we asked him if he believed that God was our Eternal Father, Jesus Christ is His Son our Savior, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He answered yes to all the questions and it was a neat experience. It´s funny. His grandfather is not a member and when we went to his house grandfather came out and said "Os Mórmons!" hahaaha. It was really really funny. Talked to us for awhile about this short guy in the military he used to know. I reminded him of this guy because he said I was short for an American. Hahaha. 

We also met these 2 girls. One is married and the other is about 20. We taught them the first lesson and they said they wanted to be baptized. I was really impressed with them as they asked about the authority to baptize people. We explained to them about the apostacy and about the restoration of God´s Holy priesthood. It was a really neat lesson. 

We had a really really good district meeting on Monday. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ. Which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Perseverance until the end. We also talked about the Army of God´s Church. The men on the front lines are the missionaries. And the big people that come in after the front lines are the members. The captains are the leaders of the church and our general is the prophet and of course our King is the King of Kings: Jesus Christ. So we need to prepare to serve Him the best we can and when people aren´t baptized or they go inactive, it´s because they don´have an understanding of the doctrine. When you understand the doctrine of an eternal family of course you will do anything and everything to be able to stay together forever.  We have been asked by the Prophet to work a lot with inactive members and try to reactivate them. So that´s what we are doing a lot now.

I hope that you all are being missionaries as well. It would break my heart to know I was the only missionary in the family right now. I hope you guys are reading Preach My Gospel because it will help prepare you for missionary work. Helping the missionaries DOES NOT mean just feeding them dinner once a month. It´s being a missionary, giving references, helping reactivate families, doing your home and visiting teaching. I want to challange my family to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I know with a surety that when you do this, you will be super blessed. I know it sounds hard, and that there is only 2 months left, but remember that hymn we sing in church "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven." 

I love you all so much. 

DON´T STOP BELIEVING!!!!

Com Amor

-Elder Askins    

Letter #26- "The Spirit of God like a fire is spread."

So this week´s title is taken from a cd I think that is entitled "Joseph." It´s a tribute to Joseph and the men and women who were a part of the Restoration! It is amazing! I love it. It is really great! I really enjoy it!

So this week has been great! We had a goal in our district to work harder and double our efforts. This week we doubled the amount of contacts we did and we doubled the lessons we taught. We found 3 really awesome people who we are helping prepare for baptism. When we started teaching one about Joseph Smith and about how he had a question about Which church was true, She said, "Elder Askins, I was just praying today about which church was true." The Lord really does prepare people, we just have to find them.

We are working a lot with the members. They sure do love us. As I explained in an earlier email, I have taken the nickname of "Bahiana." hahahaa It´s pretty funny.

The gift of tongues is real! Let me tell you a wonderful experience that happened to me!  SO last Wednesday we were informed that we were to speak in Sacrament meeting. We got to arrange who would speak and it was about missionary work. So we picked a returned sister missionary to speak, a sister who was preparing to leave, the Ward Mission leader, and Elder Paiva and I. Bishop asked me to be the concluding speaker. BUT when we showed up to church the returned sister missionary couldn´t make and the Ward Mission Leader said he wasn´t going to speak. so that left like 45 minutes to the sister preparing, Elder Paiva and me. The sister had prepared a 3 minute talk. She spoke for 5. Elder Paiva spoke for about 15 minutes. We sang a hymn. All and all, it left me with 30 minutes of speaking. In Portuguese with about 2 minutes of notes I had taken. Before church started bishop said, "Oh Elder Askins, You have a lot to teach us today!?" I said "I HOPE SO".

So with a HUGE prayer in my heart, I started speaking. It was the best talk I have ever given. I spoke for the 30 minutes and I had to cut my thoughts short because of the time. It was a wonderful experience. The words just came to me. I spoke perfectly. It was amazing to feel the Spirit speak through me. Wow.

Another funny experience, this one is for everyone, but I know Audrey will think this is cool. So I have started a habit (accidentially) of talking in my sleep. My companion says I will wake him up in the middle of the night teaching. I will be speaking in Portuguese and then switch to English and then back to Portuguese. At first I didn´t believe him, but a few mornings ago we had this conversation:

Elder Paiva: Who is ´so and so´?

Me: How do you know I know a ´so and so´?

Elder Paiva: You were talking about them in your sleep last night. I understood only a part. you were switching from english to portuguese."

I never talked with him about this person before. hahahaha  How funny is that!

So we are working really hard here. The work is going great, and just so you know I joined the dark side. I bought crocks. hahahahaha they are red.

I love you all so much! I hope that everything back home is going great! I love you all so much!

Happy Halloween, Dia dos Mortos, e My seventh month mark!

I love you!

Com Amor!

-Elder Askins

Some pictures from October

Elder Askins sent us these from teaching in the month of October.

Is he helping in the kitchen?  (I'm taking notes for when he gets home.)

Missionaries in his district

Please note all of his ties to the right... Looks like a fun apartment to me.

Letter #25- He Fed A Thousand With One Loaf of Bread..

I saw Him raise a child from the dead. He healed the sick. The blind saw His eyes. The Lame man stood and joyous were his cries and he said, "Nations fall behind Him, the rivers crawl to find Him. Mountains move, just to let Him through. Come and never leave Him. Just let your heart believe Him. Never let His light go. Never let your love grow dim!"

Hello my dear family,

Oh how I love you. Thanks for all of your prayers. It really has helped and I have felt them. So this week has been great. Last Wednesday after P-day, we visited the Ward Mission Leader. He scared me because he said the problems with missionaries in the past was that he felt that they were unprepared. Well, that freaked me out a lot. We were with another companionship, our district leader and his companion. Afterward we went home and I talked with our district leader, Elder Braz. He could tell what the ward mission leader said freaked me out. He has helped me out a lot with some good techniques at finding people. It´s been a great week. 

My companion, Elder Paiva, has been great! He really has a desire to be the best missionary ever and he is. The only problem he has is with my name. hahha He thinks it´s Elder Asker and i think it´s so funny that i don´t correct him. But we have been working hard. It´s been great. We have been meeting with all the members of the ward and they really are so loving and love the missionaries. The bishop here is great! We had lunch with the 1st counselor one day. He was great and liked us a lot. At church he was conducting and he introduced us. He said "This is Elder Askins, He is from Bahia." (It´s a state in Brazil that is really hot and has pretty much only black people.) The ward thought it was hilarious. Needless to say, I have taken the nickname as Elder Bahia or The Bahian or something along those lines.

As you probably guessed from my last email, I was pretty freaked out at all my new responsibilities and I was that way until Sunday. During Sunday, during one of the classes the teacher shared a scripture in Jeramiah. Jeramiah 1:5-10. I think that is was written for me. Read it, it was just what I needed to hear. Needless to say, this Sunday was pretty spiritual for me. I also had the privelidge to help bless the sacrament for the first time in Portuguese. It was really neat. 

We´ve been meeting with a lot of members.Everyday when we leave the house we have to say to each other, "Okay, I know the Lord has prepared at least 5 people to hear our message today, now let´s go and find them!" And it´s turned into something kind of really fun. We´ve been applying fun techniques to finding and teaching. Like yesterday, we were out knocking doors and I got this idea. I said "Elder Paiva, I have an idea... follow my lead." Hahahaha so we knocked a door and this lady came out. I said "Hey my name is Elder Askins, what is the name of the senhora" She responded. I said "It is super hot today, could we have a glass of water?" She went inside and came back out with a glass of water.  I started chatting with her about life and then I said, "So we are missionaries with a super special message. It´s only like 10 minutes, could we share it with you right now?" And she said yes. hahaha so I don´t know if that is sneaking and not good to do. but it was a cool experience. Oh how I love the mission.

So I love you all so much. I have been thinking a lot this week about how blessed we are. We really are. I love you all so much. And I know it seems sometimes like 2 years is a long time and sometimes 2 years seems like a really long time. but it´s not really. We´ve got eternity.  I love you all so much!

Com Amor

-Elder Nathan Askins

P.S. The gift of tongues is REAL!

Letter #24- I can´t stand to think about

A heart so big it hurts [real bad]. All I did was give my best before three whole [months] would end like that.
Well my dear family! This week has been the most eventful week of my mission. It´s been quite crazy. Let me take you back to Monday night.

 

Monday night, we had a great family night with these members in our ward. I taught them the power of prayer and the way the Lord can help us through our burdens. It was about Mosiah 24. Great chapter of the Book of Mormon. Well, we got a call from our Zone Leaders that said we need you to come home now we have an emergancy. So we left and Elder Duarte called them again and asked what was wrong. All I could hear was Elder Duarte say, "No way! No! No Way! Okay, I´ll tell him. He won´t believe me." So he hangs up the phone and says, Congratulations Elder Askins! What? Congrats? Why? He said, the President had to make an emergancy transfer. You are leaving. "Where?" Xaxim. "Where is that?" I´m not too sure. It´s been closed for a while. You are gonna be opening it. "What? How!? I´m just a junior companion." Well, you were. you are now a senior companion. congrats! "Who is my companion?" I don´t really know. You are gonna train him. "A trainer?" Well, more or less. he hasn´t gone through the MTC yet. He is a member of the stake who has been set apart as a missionary because we need missionaries.

 

Yesterday, Tuesday I prayed harder than I ever have before. I was so scared and nervous and everything. I got on my knees and cried "Father are you there? because I need you now more than ever before. You have called me to do something really hard and I can´t do it alone. I need Thee to help me."

 

A little later that day I received a phone call from President Cordon himself (Which never happens) he said "Elder Askins, I was just feeling like I needed to talk to you and explain a little better that was happening." We had a good long talk and he reassured me. We went to his house at 3 for the new elders training meeting. I had another meeting with President Cordon. He reassured me this was because God and him have faith in me and trust me. How humbling! He said that we need elders to step up to the plate and I can do this. Later, I think everyone knew how freaked out I was. 

 

Sister Cordan pulled me aside and said something that really struck me. She said "Elder Askins, you have a great oppurtunity. You are teaching a man to walk on water." I have been thinking about that statement a lot. I know that this transfer will be really hard, but I have faith in the One who issued my call that I can do all things. I feel like Nephi when he was asked by an angel, "Do you know what this means." And he said "I do not know all things, but I know God loves His children." I feel like Moses who,when he was given his call to be the prophet said "Lord , how can I do this? I am slow of speech." Because I truly am slow of speech

 

I know anything is possible with the Lord. I love you all. Until next week.

com amor,

Elder Askins

Letter #23- "My Life Would Suck Without You."

Dear family!
I hope you know how much I love you. There are a lot of things that I want to write. I hope I have time to talk about them all.

I have had a few cool spiritual experiences this week that I would like to share. I just want to start off by saying 2 things. 1st, Elder Andersen, I know your mom mails you these letters and I want you to know I have your address now and I will be mailing you a letter. I love you.

2nd thing. Conference was amazing! I especially loved Elder Holland´s first talk about "We sustain you." I cried the whole time. Especially when he told the story of his parents and how they helped him when he was on his mission. I thought about all the people who have loved me and helped me get on a mission: physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially and I want you all to know I love you. If you are reading this, you have helped me a lot and I love you so much and just like you support me, I love and support you. Just wanted to say that.

The Lord is great, isn´t He? Last week at church (The Sunday before General Conference.) I saw a man in our ward, he is a widower and is a cute old man. He reminds me a lot of Papa. We had a lesson on Eternal Marriage and I noticed he was crying. This week, Thursday, we had lunch with him. When we walked in the house I felt the strongest impression that he had something he wanted to talk to us about. We ate lunch and I shared a message. After I asked him if he had something that he wanted to talk to us about. He explained to us as he started to cry, about how his wife died 2 years ago and how he misses her. About how sometimes he doesn´t want to get out of bed and go to church, but he knows it´s the one place he needs to be and the hardest place to be alone without her. I got the strongest impression to give him a copy of Elder Worthlin´s talk "Sunday Will Come." That night, when we came home, I searched and found a copy of it in Portuguese. The next day we went and I gave it to him. He said he´d read it and said thanks. I saw him at conference on Saturday morning and said hi. He said "Elder Askins, thank you so much for that talk. It really comforted me and it made me think about my friend who´s wife died last week. I called him on the phone and shared the talk with him." It was a really neat experience. I was glad that I acted on the prompting I received.

God is great. I´ll say it one more time. I had an experience a while before my mission. I had a friend, we were at a party. He said "Nathan, can I talk to you outside?" We went outside and he started to explain to me about how he didn´t have a testimony of the gospel anymore and about how he didn´t want to serve a mission. I regret that conversation every day on my life. I feel like I didn´t say what I should of. I can´t tell you how many times I have thought of that experience and wanted to take it back or redo it. I have prayed a lot over it. I never got a redo. But this week, I got a retry. We were at a family´s house and a girl who we are friends with called me and said "Elder Askins, can I talk to you about something." So we went and talked. She told me about how she was losing her testimony of the gospel and about the church. About how she didn´t believe anymore. I solumly bore my testimony as a missionary that I know this is true. I told her she knew it was true and that if she forgot, to go into her room, kneel herself down and pray until she gets an answer again. I told her she can not give up the blessing that she has been promised. As we left the house, iI thanked the Lord that I had a second chance and I thanked Him for giving me the words to say what she needed to hear.

I love you all so much. I am so happy that we can be a forever family.
Don´t stop believing!
-Elder Nay

Letter #23- Do You Feel?

The weight of the world singing sorrow?
Dear Family of mine,
I love you all so much! And I miss you so much too. But it´s like dad said in one of his emails to me, the fruit of patience is love and I have never loved you all as much as I love you right now! And that love will just keep on growing.

So this week has been great! We worked super super hard and we had the highest number we have had this entire transfer. It´s been a good week and everything was great. Last week I wrote you that Alexandro´s family asked me to confirm him. That happened on Sunday. Thank you for all your prayers because I felt it. I was super super nervous. But the confirmation went great! I said all the words I needed to say and it was really wonderful.

These past few weeks we have been teaching a boy named Markus. He has 16 years. But we and everyone in the ward calls him Markinhos. Which, in Portuguese, means little Markus or beloved Markus. He is great! We have been teaching him and he accepted the date to be baptized this weekend. On Thursday night he said "So what exactly do you guys do?" And so we explained to him what we do during the day and he said "Could I accompany you tomorrow?" So he did! He showed up and we went and taught some people. The next day, we were having lunch at his neighbors house and he comes strolling up in a white collered shirt and slacks with a backpack and his Book of Mormon that we gave him. He was grinning. He said, "Sorry but I don´t have a tie." So he went with us on Saturday too. Half-way through the day, we stopped by our house to grab something and I ran in and grabbed one of my favorite ties. It´s one that Lorin Hatch gave me. I came out and gave it to him and told him how I loved this tie and that it was a present to him. He loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. We were walking down the street and these girls passed us and they were giggling. I asked him if they knew them? And he said yeah. I asked him why they were giggling and he said, no one has ever seen me dressed up like this before. On Sunday, he accompanied us again. We love him and he loves us.

That night we taught about how we have a prophet now in these days.  That just as in ancient days God called prophets and talked with them face to face and that we have a prophet on the earth today and he speaks to God face to face. The the prophet will be speaking to us this weekend! He looked up at us and said "Elder Askins, thats pretty cool that God called a prophet to talk to us now adays."

This past week has been good. I, like most of you, am super super excited for conference. Be grateful you live in a country so close to the prophet. Our Saturday session doesn´t start until 1 and the second session starts at 5 with priesthood session starting at 9 at night.

I just have one more thought about conference. This one goes out to my good friend Don Brough. I love you so much Brother Brough. We had an experience together, that I don´t think you even remember, but I will remember forever. We were at Aaronic Priesthood encampment and we were doing an activity where we all had blindfolds on. I couldn´t see a thing and we didn´t have any ropes to hold onto or anything. We had to make it back to the camp. We were supposed to listen to voices that would lead us back home. I started my journey back and I saw someone flashing a light, I figured it was one of our leaders directing us. As I got closer I heard a voice I had never heard before saying, "This way, come this way." Of course, I followed. I took ONE STEP toward him and I heard Don Brough calling after me. "Nathan! Nathan! Not that way, follow my voice! Come this way. Don´t listen to them." And for the rest of the activity, I listened to Don guide me.

That is like the prophet we have now today. We hear his voice, we know his voice, he will lead us and guide us. He will give us the words of God if we listen for him and heed his counsel.
I love you all so much, I am so thankful for everyone of you. I am grateful for our Savior. I love you all so much!
"Don´t Stop Believing."
-Elder Nay

Some Pictures from September

Letter #22: Love Me Like The World Is Ending

Dear family. Oh how I love you so much! I am so grateful for everything that you do. The love you give and the support. You don´t know how much you mean to me. This past week has been GREAT! It´s been really spiritual and really physically demanding, but in all honesty, I wouldn´t have it any other way. As I said to dad in my email to him, This past week I have been thinking a lot about eternal things. I don´t really know why, but a lot about eternity and about our relationships. But it´s been great!

Last Saturday, we had a baptism! Alexandro! He is so awesome! We have been teaching him for a little over a month and have been waiting for his mother to give us permission. But the whole time he wanted us to know how much he wanted to be baptized! He is great and will be a wonderful missionary one day. We have really grown close to him and his family. He was really nervous the day of the baptism. But everything went perfectly. Afterward we were talking about how baptism isn't the end, he needs to be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost. We told him that his father would be able to do it and how much of a sweet experience that will be. That is when he and his father informed me that they had been thinking and talking, and they both decided that they want me to confirm him this Sunday. Well, how could I say no? But I am scared out of my mind! I have never confirmed someone in English! Let alone in Portuguese! But he asked me and it is my job as a missionary. Elder Duarte is helping me. 

This past Sunday, while Elder Duarte was taking a shower, I was listening to 'Classic Talks' on his ipod. I came across an older talk by an Elder Brown, I think is his name and it really stirred me to remembrance and made me cry. You know it doesn´t take much to move me to tears though.

When he left for his mission, he said the last words his mom said to him were, "Son, you are going away from me, the farthest you every have before. I´m a little nervous for you. When you were younger, you used to have nightmares and shout my name out in the middle of the night. My room was right next to yours so I would just call back and say I´m right here baby. But now you are going to be thousands of miles away and if you call out, I won´t be able to hear you. If you call out "Mother are you there," I won´t be able to call back. But you can always get on your knees and cry out "Father are you there?" and he will always answer.

How true that is. I know that whenever we pray, He hears us. He knows us and He loves us. More than we can imagine. Everything that has been done by Him and His Son, were out of love for us.

This past week I have been searching and searching for old Ensigns and old conference talks. I came across the old Conference address by Elder Worthlin that I love. You all know it. I talked about it all the time, "Sunday Will Come." Luckily, I was in the bathroom when I read it, because I cried like a little baby. That talk is some of the most sweetest, inspirational, and God-sent words that have ever touched my soul. I found it in Portuguese as well.

This past week, we stopped by a family´s house that I just love! She said she had a reference for us. When we stopped by she came out with a huge grin and said "Elder! Guess what!? I´m pregnant!" We shouted for joy with her. She had just found out. We were some of the first to know. How wonderful and lucky I feel to be a part of these amazing people´s lives. I joked with her and said, "If it´s a boy, you should name him Nathan!" hahaha and at Sunday I went up to her husband and told him congrats. He said with a grin on his face, yeah, if it´s a boy, we're thinking of naming him Nathan. Those Brazilians and their silly humor. I love it.

Finally, the last thought I think I would like to share, was this week I received my first letter from a Brazilian, a recent convert from Timbu. She was thanking me for the work and help that me and Elder Savage had helped with. How privileged I am to be here and serve these beautiful people. I know everyone says that their mission is the best. Well, they are all dirty liars and repent. Because my mission is the best. I am greatful for the chance I have to grow with them, love with them, and have these timeless experiences with them. In the closing of her letter she said, calling me by my nickname she gave me, I won´t forget you pequeno-grande homen, which means little-big man.

These experiences aren't just for full-time missionaries. Everyone can have these memories. Just be a missionary at home.

Oh how I love you all. My prayers go out for you. I think about you often. I love you so much. Hey, can you believe it, I´ve almost been out 6 months. I love you and I can´t wait until we can be together again. Until then, I love you.
com amor,
-Elder Nathan Askins

Letter #21- You know that i could use somebody

Someone like you!!!!
Love that song! It's a good one!

So this past week has been interesting. I will start off about a week and a half ago to explain. So about a week and a half ago, I bought some yogurt and it was so good! But I noticed (in the most edited words possible) that it kept making me go to the bathroom a lot. I didn´t think anything of it. Well, about 3 days later, I was still going to the bathroom a lot. Elder Duarte said Elder you have to call sister now. So I called and she gave me permission to buy come pepto bismal and said to call her in 2 days if I still had problems. I got well for a day, but last Wednesday it started getting bad again. So on Thursday, Elder Duarte made me call sister again. She said you know try this medication it will plug you up and if you are still having problems call (not word for word, but that´s the jist of it) So that night, I felt super super crappy. I passed out at nine in my bed. So Elder Duarte and the Zone Leaders (I live with them) called sister, but she didn´t answer, so they called the assistants, got permission to call president, and then talked to her. So they woke me up and I chatted with her for a little bit. She helped lighten the mood. I was getting scared. She told me the next day to go to the hospital. So we went and this nice Brazilian lady doctor (who spoke English) helped me and I got some meds and now I am doing great! 

The ward got really worried and prayed and helped me. They are so sweet. This past Saturday was our night of pizzas. It was wonderful. We made a pizza and it was a hit! They loved it so much! We had for our message, 2 brotheren share their conversion stories. It was really wonderful. Everyone loved it.

So Monday I did a division with some other elders and it was really really cool. We were teaching this lady and I got the opportunity to give the Joseph Smith story. I love the spirit that it brings into the room. After I shared it, I got the prompting to invite this lady to be baptized. In our mission, our president asks us to give the baptismal committment word perfect from PMG (Preach My Gospel). So I extended the invite to her, and I know it was not word perfect. I tried hard but it wasn´t good at all. And I know it didn´t make sense at all in Portuguese. I said it and everyone in the room was like HUUUUHHHH? What did you say? But the lady I was talking to remained looking at me and we felt the Spirit and she whispered "yes, I will." The lady sitting next to her said, "What you could understand him?" and she said yes, he said.... and said the baptismal commitment word perfect. And then she said, I will. We left the house and I knew that the Lord helped me and had that lady understand. It was an amazing experience.

I have had a very spiritual week. I wish I had more time. I will write more in a letter to you guys. I love you so much family. I miss you too. But I love it here and I don´t want to leave. I love these people and I love this work. I love serving the Lord. It is the best and I am excited when i think about where we will be as a family in 2 years. I love you all so much. I know this is true.
Com Amor!
Elder Askins

Letter #20- Today, Is the Happiest Day of Her Life. I Should Be Happy For Her.

Well hello family! How is everything in North America! Wonderful Brazil is just great! A lot of things are happening! Just to start. I don´t know if I told Allie happy birthday last week. But Happy Birthday! I love you! And Aud, it´s your birthday next week! Happy early birthday! I love you!!!!

Many things have been happening here in good old Brazil. Yesterday was Brazil´s Nation Independance from Portugal. It is true, Brazil has a lot of national pride and it is just fantastic! Every year they have a huge old parade that walks down the main street of Curitiba and everyone is lined up waving a Brazilian flag shouting. Every year they ask the missionaries that are serving in the city to be in the parade. That means me! We got to go into the center of Curitiba (which is beautiful) and we marched! It was amazing! And as we marched down waving our Brazil flags the announcer guy shouted the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (well in Portuguese) and I got huge goose bumps as the whole crowd of the people cheered for us. As we got to the center part, they had stadium seats for people and I looked up and we saw the mayor or governor there and I saw President Cordon with his wife there and he was smiling his huge smile and giving up the big old thumbs up. It was great. You could tell when we passed by members because they would start cheering for us and it was great! Later yesterday, we did a division with another companionship and I got to stay with my good friend Elder Groom. We visited this one family and the boy says "Elder Askins! I saw you and Elder Duarte on TV" So I am kind of famous.

This week I have been a little sick. But no need to worry. 2 days ago I called Sister Cordon and she told me what to do and so now I am on the recovery. This week has been a little hard because of the holiday EVERYONE is traveling. Everything is closed. It´s been good though. This weekend is our ward´s activity. We are having a Night of Pizzas! YEAH!!!

I had a cool experience yesterday at lunch. We were eating with this member family that I just love. We were just talking about life and everything and the dad says, "We´ve had some strange elders pass through the areas, but we love you elder!" Hahah to me. That made me feel good because things in the ward are progressing forward. I love this work. I have seen in my mission that when we put the Lord first, He will help us in anything. I know that the church is true. God lives and Christ is our Savior.
Don´t Stop Believing!
-Elder Askins!!!

Letter #20 "tell all the boys you meet, about the American boy [down in brazil]

The American boy you used to date, who would do anything you say"

Dear family!

This week has been great! So we finished our first week of transfers! Boy is the work picking up great down here! I love it! Last week we knocked a lot of doors, met a lot of people, and man was it hard, but boy is this stuff great! We met a lot of great people who we are going to start to teach. I am excited. Saturday night we got a phone call about this lady being taught in another ward, but she wanted to be baptized in our ward because of her family. She got permission and we had a baptism on Sunday! It was so cool to watch her be baptized and be surrounded by her family.

We also finally got permission to baptize this 15 year-old kid we have been teaching. He is so excited to be baptized and we have been waiting and praying for his mom to give permission and finally on Sunday, his father came to us with a big smile and said "She told us that he can do whatever he thinks is right!" What blessings! We also visited on of the families we´ve been teaching for a long time. Many times when we extended an invite to be baptized they said "No, we have been baptized." but 2 weeks ago, they went to church, they attended a family night and when we asked them this week if, when they receive their answer about our message, if they would be baptized, they said yes! So we marked some verses for them in the Book of Mormon to read and to pray about. I know that we will baptize them! I am so excited! We are finding a lot more people. it is great! I am starting to understand the language and the people so much now and I really love it.

Now for a little humor. Go right now to the internet and look up Black Parade by My Chemical Romance and replace his words with these

"When I was a young boy, my father, taught me about the scriptures. of Matthew Luke and James. He said son when you grow up will you teach about the Savior to the broken and the damned. (blah blah blah until the chorus) We´re preaching on! We´re preaching on!" and more of that stuff. but it is a game that me and my room mates do. We take popular songs and change to words to church stuff. well. i´m gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday, gone like a soldier in the civil war Bang Bang.

i love you all so much and i pray for you frequently! Don´t stop believing!

com amor!

Elder Askins!

Letter #19- "It´s a great day to be alive!"

"I know the sun´s still shinning when I close my eyes."

Hello my dearest family!

Oh how I miss you all so much! But, I love it here. it´s the wierdest feeling! I want to be with you and I get that "Oh I miss you feeling," But when I think about how in 19 more months I won´t be here.. I get really sad too. I love it here. Every single second. Even if it is pretty dang hot like today.

Well, this past week has been good. Last Saturday, we had a wonderful noite familiar (family Night) with this family in our ward and some investigators. Oh man it was a blast. We watched a clip of the seminary Book of Mormon videos and then we talked about the gospel and the irmã made us hot dogs and cake. It was so good. On Monday night, a lot of people from the ward threw Elder Awerkamp a going away party because today was the start of a new transfer and he went home. He was a great missionary and I am going to miss him a lot. The ward loved him too. Everyone was getting teary eyed. At the end we sang families can be together forever. I cried. Of course I cried. That song always makes me cry! Then of course we ate food! (It´s Brazil!!!!) and played games and just chatted.

On Tuesday, we had some last minute things we had to do (Elder Awerkamp had to do) and then we went to this member family´s house and had a small party with them. They loved him and we had a lot of fun playing these silly games. Today was transfers! I stayed in my area and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Duarte! He is my first Brazlian companion!  I am pretty excited. Funny story. Talk about a small world. He was baptized by TJ Packard. I don´t know TJ but I recognized a picture and his name.

Well, as my wonderful father would say, "That´s all the bullets I have for now." I love you all so much. I am so grateful to be an eternal family with you. I love you all and I will talk to you next week. Stay sweet and don´t stop believing!
-elder askins
p.s. sorry this is so short, but this week was a little uneventful

Letter #18- DON´T STOP BELIEVING... HOLD ONTO THAT FEELING!!!

Dearest family!
oh my goodness, I love you so so so much and I miss you so much too. But no worries. Everything is going great here. I have seen miracles and truly seen the Lord´s hand in this work. When Elder Awerkamp, my companion, arrived in the area about 3 months ago the bishop said to him, "There are 2 things you need to know about the area. 1. There are a lot of houses and lots of people to teach 2. The ward doesn't have much missionary spirit." Also while he was here last transfer, Elder Awerkamp was talking about doing some activities and everyone said oh bishop doesn't like to do activities. When I got here, we had one family and a few investigators we were teaching. It was hard but we worked our tails off.

A few weeks ago we drafted up this plan for a mega-activity, to get everyone pumped for missionary work. We would show them this video about missionary work, we would do trainings to show them how to be effective ward missionaries and then we would play this awesome game. We perfected the plan. We talked with our ward mission leader and then presented it to the bishop. He said that sounds like a great activity. But the people won´t come to it. We won´t tell them it´s for missionary work, but that it was a night of pies. So all the leaders and missionaries told everyone that it was a night of pies.

When we  arrived at the chapel, we didn't end up watching the movie. But we got everything set up and the people sat down. We did the opening excercises and then I got up in front of all the people. I pulled out a Bis. which is this very delicious brazilian candy. I called on a guy from the ward and said "Irmão Bill, do you like Bis" "Absolutely" "Do you want this one?" I asked "Yeah!" and then I opened up the chocolate and licked it! "Do you want it now?" Then Elder Awerkamp explained that sometimes we take good things and we don´t represent them the right way so we make people lose the appeal. Then we did some trainings, how to hand out cards, and act in a lesson with the missionaries and after all that we bore our testimonies. I told them about how I have a testimony about ward missionary work because I wouldn´t be here without it. I told them about Roger Ethington and how he helped dad join the church and he helped us. I told them that I will never forget him, my family will never forget him. My children will never forget him and how my family has been changed for the better. I don´t know how I said it in portuguese. Definitely by the Lord´s help. Then after our testimonies we played a game.

One little boy was the sheep and the missionaries were the wolves. We have the ward mission leader protect him. He couldn´t. Then we had the bishopric join and help. They couldn´t protect him. We had all the men of the ward join, they still couldn´t protect him. So we had the whole ward come up and protect him. We couldn´t get to him. The second counselor tackled me to the ground while 7 guys took down Elder Awerkamp! It was great! Then the bishop got up and gave his testimony about how we all need to work together to protect the sheep of the Lord. It was great then we ate delicious pies! oh man it was so good.

The next day at church we had 8 investigators at church! It was great! And a family who I love so much! (The family that we took the coffee away from! hahah) and the ward was great! We couldn´t even sit by them because the ward was just going to town with being missionaries. Now we are teaching 3 complete, legally married families! We have a few other people and the ward is saying let´s do family nights! Let´s go out with the missionaries! How can we help you?  What a miracle.
Well I have to go. I love you all so much. I'll talk to you next week!
com amor
elder askins!

Some Pictures from Elder Askins!!

I have no comment except that Audrey looked on Elder Askins' bank account to make sure he had money and noticed a $13 to McDonalds.  We wondered what he could have purchased.  We now know...

The Curitiba Temple

Getting locked out of the apartment.  

His study table.  

I really have no idea what this is...

So We Sit At This Table With Our Hands In Our Laps

This week has been interesting. We have our power back! So no problem there! Last week I had my first interview with President Cordon. Man was it great! What a strong powerful man. I am so glad he is my leader. We talked about a lot of things for like 20 minutes. I finished Jesus The Christ last weekend so he gave me permission to read the Miracle of Forgiveness. What an intense book! It´s changed my life already!
Last Sunday, we were waiting at church for Sander and his family. but they never showed up. So after the first hour (We have sacrament meeting last) Elder Awerkamp asked me and our Ward Mission Leader (who served in Miami. he is hilarious) to go to his house to talk to him and get him to church. I was nervous. How was I going to get this guy to come to church!? but I prayed a lot. When we got there... he talked for like an hour and a half. So we ended up missing sacrament meeting. But I found out they were having doubts about Joseph Smith being a prophet and about the Book of Mormon. So I prayed for some heavenly help and at the end I felt inspired to tell them that we would come by again this week and talk to them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that we would answer their questions. I had us read out of the Book of Mormon, parts of the introduction. and then I committed them to reading all of the introduction and also 3 Nephi 11 (about Christ´s visit to the people in America) and Moroni 10:3-5 (The promise). It was amazing that as I was filled with the power of God I knew what to say, how to say it and I could feel it, and I could feel it touch them. It was an amazing experience.
This weekend we are doing a missionary activity in helping the ward learn how to be better member missionaries. I´m pretty excited. We have found a few more people (one more family and a man and his mom) so hopefully the work picks up even more. I love you all so much. I have a testimony of this work and of Jesus. That he is the Christ and is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true. I love you all so so so much. and I am grateful that we can be together forever. DON´T STOP BELIEVING!
com amor!
Elder Askins

Letter #16-hey now you´re a rockstar get your show on, get paid

I don´t have much time but here is a story for you all....

 

I had to speak in church. SO every Sunday we have a meeting with Bispo (Bishop) at 9. It´s with him, his counselors, and the male auxilary leaders. We were chatting about missionary work and he says "Elder Askins, we need someone to speak for 10 minutes today. Would you be willing to speak to the congregation?" I have never turned down the bishop for anything. Of course I said yes. He said, "What should he speak on?" and Diego (the second or first counselor who just loves me) said "Have him speak on the 7 dispensations and the gathering of Israel. He laughed so hard. I could not do that! I can´t even say dispensation in Portuguese! But it was a joke.  Bispo said, "Elder Askins, do you have your Dever para com Deus? (Duty to God)" I told him yes. "Talk to the ward about how earning your Dever para com Deus helped you prepare for your mission.  Your talk needs to be 10 minutes." Ten minutes of just me and Portuguese!!!!! What!?!?!?!?! Well church started at 2 so we ran home and I prepared my talk. With the Lord´s help (and grammer checks from Elder Awerkamp) I was kind of prepared. When sacrament came around, the person who spoke in front of me was supposed to speak for 10 minutes and she spoke for 5. I ended up speaking for 13 minutes, we sang the Spirit of God and the speaker after me (he was in the stake presidency) spoke for the rest. I love that song.

 

love,

elder askins

We Have PICTURES!!

Elder Askins didn't include names this go round. 3rd and 6th pictures are with Elder Savage and the picture just above is with Elder Awerkamp.  The others are with people he is teaching.  Looks like hes putting the Brough's scarf to good use!