"Love with your heart wide open.. and you´ll see the world through Me."
I Love you family. It´s great to hear that everything is going great there in good ol´AZ!!! Everything here is fine. Last night I was thinking about what exciting things I could tell you: 1) Hearing Sister Cordon say "Boo Yah Grandma." 2) A drunk man who bought me and Elder Gabriel free chocolate milk 3) President Cordon signing the papers to the chapel and almost making a date for the dedication. 4) Franciele (juliano´s wife) has almost stopped smoking 5) Finding an awesomely awesome family and teaching them BY THE SPIRIT 6) Eating a lot of Açai!!! 7) Sleep talking and waking up in the middle of the night screaming because I thought a spider was on top of me. 8) Elder Rodrigues saying 'flirt to convert' all the time.
So this week was pretty great. President and Sister Cordon came down to look at the chapel and sign the papers. Sister said "We will sign the papers, have an open house, dedicate the chapel and then Booyah grandma..." hahahaahaha. We love her.
One night we were coming home. We stopped by a super market to buy milk and this drunk man came up and bought us chocolate milk and said "I love you Mormons, because you go to people´s houses, teach them to pray and then teach them the truth." He may be drunk but he got it right.
Like I said President Cordon signed the papers to the chapel. I don´t think I have said yet that Bonsucceso (the area that I´m in) is getting a chapel. We´ve been meeting in a little house. Well, in November we will be going to a BRAND NEW CHAPEL. How awesome is that!? Franciele is Juliano´s wife (the one who we baptized a little bit ago) and she secretly has been lowering the amount of Cigarettes per day. We are going to mark a date for her to be baptized at the dedication of the chapel!!!! She has´t told us that she has been slowly stopping but Juliano told us yesterday! He gave his first talk in Church on Sunday and it was GREAT!!!!
On Sunday, we taught this awesome family. FUNNY, I talked to the mom on the street Monday night. She said no and didn't pass the address. Then on Wednesday, Elder Gabriel did a contact with the dad and his 2 sons. (we didn't know it was the same family) We went by Friday and he wasn´t home. (we don´t teach without another man present) We went by Saturday as well and he wasn´t home. But on Sunday, we passed by and he was home and we taught him and his wife and one of their sons and their daughter and her boyfriend. They did not accept dates and the lesson was good, but something was missing. At the end we hadn´t talked about the Book of Mormon and we had already passed a lot of info. I felt super strong that we needed to talk about the Book of Mormon (I don´t think I had one with me, I had already given it away) I thought that is crazy because I don´t even have one, what would I say "this is the Book of Mormon, it is a great book that will change your lives but you can´t have one?" We closed the message, and I felt it super strong, so after we closed, I just started teaching about the Book of Mormon. They really opened up and started asking questions and then the woman says "you guys sure are persistant. Why are you so persistant?" And that took us by surprise, "What?" she pointed to me and said "I already talked to you this week and you asked for my address and I told you no. Then you talked to my husband by chance and then already passed by like 5 times this week. Why are you so persistant?" and then I knew that THAT was why I had to talk about the Book of Mormon. "We are so persistant because it´s YOUR salvation. because WE love you; It may be crazy to think that we love your family but we do. You have to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask God if these things are true because you have to know because it´s your personal salvation and your eternal happiness!!!" They were very impressed. So we are going by tonight to give them a Book of Mormon and see how everything is.
I know the Lord lives and that this is His church. i love you all so much!!! Don´t stop believing!!!!
Oh man! Who doesn´t love a little Eric Clapton in the day!? I love you all so much. Well, I'll just cut right to the chase of this email: CHADWIN IS HOME. CHADWIN IS HOME. CHADWIN IS HOME!!!!! Isn´t that so awesome?? I love him so much. I am so happy for him and that he is now a legitimate returned missionary. He is the man. I hope he is reading this. If he is reading this I say to him that I love him and to prepare the foundations- MARCH 2012: The Smith-Askins comeback tour. Chad, I have a letter that I will now send to your home address. Can someone get me Ean´s home address? He also wrote me a letter a few months ago saying that he had 23 months.... but never put in his home address and so I don´t know where to send it.
So to my family and chad and to whoever else this may concern:
I have had a trying week. It´s just been a lot of stress for me. I had been weighed down and discouraged because (1) Karina didn´t get baptized, (2) it´s been a few weeks since we´ve baptized (3) the zone is not progressing in baptisms, It´s almost the end of the month already and in our entire zone we only had 1 baptism.
During the week I just kept remembering in my mind the talk by Elder Scott (by the way, can you send me October and November´s Liahonas in English please?) When he is quoting a part from the New Testament, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Surely it was the Holy Spirit saying that these feelings of discouragement were from the enemy and I felt the words of the scriptures sink into my spirit: "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment. And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Thy friends do stand by thee and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands. Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job."
Yesterday we also did a division with some elders. I met our new district leader, Elder Buerkle. He is awesome. I asked if I could share the following with you... He said that he serve in the military before the mission. After training and everything he came home and prepared to go serve a mission, he sent in his papers and the next week got called to Iraq. He then informed the church that he had to serve in Iraq and that after his service for 14 months in Iraq, he would serve a mission. The next week he received his call: to Curitiba. His bishop said that he would have to resubmit his papers and that he would probably be called to another mission. He went to Iraq and served the country. Then came home and turned in his papers. He received his call again to Curitiba and while he was here he baptized a Muslim. He was able to help in her conversion process because he new the Islamic culture. Mission calls are inspired.
I love this work. It is true. I love this church. It is true. I love the Prophet Joseph. He was a true prophet. I love Jesus Christ, He is our Savior. This is His work and Glory! Don´t Stop Believing|!!!!!!! I love yous! Com Amor! -Elder Nathan Askins
You know where to find me any time you want me Annie. Annie use your telescope!
Dear family!!! I don´t have a ton of time today!!! Today is transfers!!! Me and Elder Gabriel are staying 6 more weeks together!!! YES!!!!! But we are taking care of all of the transfers here in Guarapuava.
So this past week was pretty great!!! We finally contacted Karina (She is part of a member family). She moved back home and went to Conference. We taught her Saturday night with hopes of her getting baptized on Sunday. Well, we taught her the first lessons and ALL of the commandments that night and she accepted a date to be baptized. She is having marital problems (She separated from her husband.) and that is why she is at home. I think it´s been a while that she has smiled. She got a little happy on Saturday night. We were excited but then on Sunday morning, they didn´t go to church.
After church, we had lunch with Cenita and Clarinda (the ladies who got baptized recently) oh my goodness. It was amazing. Cenita went all out on us. She loves us. She said that she remembered way before we ever passed by her house that she remembers that we were walking on the street one afternoon and she passed by us and I said very loudly "Good morning" to her. hahah She thought it was so funny. Well, she told us that like 2 months later, she still remembers it.
Sunday, after lunch we brought Elder Rodrigues to Karina´s house to do an inverview. They talked for awhile and she backed out of being baptized that day because she didn´t feel ready. So Elder Rodrigues marked a date for this weekend.
Monday night we had a big family night at our branch presidents house (he invites all of our investigators every week) and she went with her family and loved it. Last night we went by her house and taught her the 3rd lesson (The Gospel of Jesus Christ) and man was the Spirit strong. We taught about baptism and why she needed to be baptized and about the Holy ghost and how he will help her with her problems and SHE FELT THE SPIRIT! For the first time since I met her, she smiled. She is excited for her baptism. Please pray for her that she will feel ready to be baptized.
Then we had transfers. Elder Rodrigues that lives with us is training. So we have a brand spanken new missionary in our house from Recife. It reminds me when I got Elder Holliday. I love him so much. Well, today is a holiday and everyone is celebrating something about the Virgin Mary. I love you all! Don´t stop believing!!! Sorry i didn´t write much individually. i don´t have too much time today, i love you!!! Com Amor! Elder nay
My dear family. I do love you so much!!!!!! We are in a hurry today because we have to catch the bus to go to Curitiba for the Zone Leader´s Council. Which is tomorrow.
Yesterday, we had interviews with President. It was so wonderful. I learn so much from him and he is so funny. He asked Elder Gabriel and I to give a training in the council tomorrow because our ZONE REACHED ITS GOAL!!! How awesome is that? But not as awesome as the fact that WE BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!!! In between sessions of conference!!! Which has always been a dream of mine. The Lord blessed us a ton.
So you remember Zenilda that was baptized 2 weeks ago? Well, we were teaching her husband as well, at the time that she was baptized, he wanted to wait a while before getting baptized. We worked and prayed and worked and prayed. Monday we did a division and I passed by with another missionary. I tried everything I could to get him to realize that he needed to be baptized (he knew that church was true and wanted to get baptized, but was just scared). He denied it. Tuesday we passed by again and we tried so hard to show him that he needed to get baptized. On Thursday, we returned and we started off the lesson normal. We were talking about the temple and about eternal families. Then we turned it over to baptism. He started talking, and we started listening. He said something that reminded me of 2 Nephi 31 (POWERFUL CHAPTER) and we went there. We read a few verses that the Spirit had lead us to and then I bore my testamony and I passed it to Elder Gabriel and he bore his testimony and the man inturrupted and said "Tocou, tocou" which means 'it touched'. He was pointing to his heart. He said "what you read and said just now is what I have been thinking about and talking to my wife about all day. I will get baptized this weekend." It was amazing. I almost cried. His wife was crying and so he was baptized on Saturday.
I LOVED CONFERENCE. Especially the Saturday sessions. ME and Allie picked Elder Scott (me and al have a little deal going on) but wasn´t that a fantastic talk by Elder Scott. I started pondering on it all day- which lead to a revelation that I received that night. I loved the talk by Elder Clayton as well. They used to say that the sun never set on the british empire, that empire has fallen long ago. but it can be said that the sun never sets on the empire of God and His church. We are the stone cut out from the mountain that Nebecanezer saw in his dream and then the talk by Elder Andersen. I will stop giving Allie a hard time about having children. because he said that it is a personal choice and we should not councel others on that. hah. and Elder Christoffersen´s talk on repentance. HOLY COW. What a wonder!!!! and then the Priesthood session!! oh man. Elder Holland!!!! He got up in all of our faces. Serve a mission and we will teach our family: "IN THIS HOUSE WE SERVE MISSIONS." Also Elder Waddell said something that impressed me, "The mission shouldn´t be the best 2 years of our lives but the best 2 years for our lives."And who didn´t love when the Prophet quoted the Beatles from the pulpit. I thought of you family.
Well, I love you all so much. We are just living the dream here in Guarapuava. Look up 2 Nephi 27:23. What can´t we do? God lived. Jesus is the Christ and He called prophets to lead us. They spoke to us! Remember what President Uchdorf said, we really are nothing compared to all the creations God made in the universe.. but we are everything to Him. He loves us. Com Amor, Elder Askins
