Letter #99-"The hardest Thing I´ve Ever Loved to Do...‏

Was getting on this plane and coming home to you. In a million ways completely torn apart, while a land so far away still owns my heart. And the most sincere prayer I´ve ever prayed. I thank my God in each and every way. For the blessing of the man I´ve come to be. As I was up and kiss my momma´s cheek."

My dear family. I love you so much. This week has been wonderful and pretty emotional now. It was amazing!!!! 

Marcos had a date to get baptized this weekend. On Tuesday night, he said "Oh Elderes! Do you think that Kele (Admilson´s wife) would like to be baptized with me?" So that night we invited Kele to be baptized with Marcos. and she said yes! It was so awesome! So this week was full of a lot of work. Marcos and Vanessa were married on Friday, March 17, 2012. It was so awesome. Then on Saturday, Marcos and Kele were baptized. President Cordon and Sister Cordon came! The baptism was marked for 8 o´clock at night. We waited waited waited and at like 8:10 Marcos still hadn´t showed up. So we used a member´s phone and Marcos told us that he had missed the bus and was waiting in the bus station. A member offered to go with Elder Croskrey and picked Marcos and his wife up. 

They finally got there and we performed the baptism. I was privileged to baptize Kele and Marcos. Then on Sunday, Marcos´work came by and picked him up and took him to work so he couldn´t come to church. But a member told Pres. Damas and so he went with the bishopric later and confirmed him a member of the church. At the end of the week: Marcos and Kele were baptized and confirmed members of the church. And Admilson received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a wonderful week. This week we are going to follow up with some investigators and baptize a few more people. I love this work and I know it is true. This is the true and living church. I love the Lord and know that He lives.

Don´t stop believing!!!

com amor,

Elder Nathan P. Askins

Letter #98- It won´t be long yeah, yeah yeah yeah. it won´t be long yeah yeah yeah. it won´t be long yeah‏

til I belong to you.

My dear family. 

I want to apologize for the lack of personal response to your emails today. Elder Croskrey and I are leaving 4 Barras really soon and we don´t have much time today. We received permission to go to the downtown of Curitiba so I can buy some things for myself and for my family. Well, it was so wonderful to hear from all of you. 

It has been a crazy awesome week. This week, we have been teaching Kelle, Admilson´s wife. She says she wants me to see her baptism, so we are hoping for either this weekend or the next. It is awesome because this Friday Marcos is getting married (weddings, I LOVE weddings!) and then on Saturday he will be baptized! How awesome! On Sunday is the baptism of fire! How great is that! 

On Sunday, Admilson was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was awesome. He was also interviewed and next week he will receive the Aaronic Priesthood! Awesome! Last night we went out with Guilherme and Paulo. Guilherme is preparing to leave on a mission and Paulo is his dad, he is also the old Branch President. Man they are so awesome. They came by and picked us up at 6 and we just worked like dogs. We all went and taught this less active family that has 2 people that can be baptized. It was awesome. Afterward we contacted this lady we had recently taught. 

Then I went with Paulo to a less active member's house while Elder C. went with Guilherme to an investigator's house. Then we met up again and elder C. went with Paulo to another investigators house and I did some contacting with Guilherme. It was a lot of fun and great. They are such great people. I told Paulo this last night, He reminds me so much of dad. Like the way that he acts and speaks and teaches. It was really neat. So this week will be awesome. We are going downtown today and tonight we have a family night with Analu and Rulian (from the branch) They invited Marcos and Vanessa over. Awesome! 

Then we have a wedding and baptisms! This week is filled! but that is awesome! I love you all so much and I am grateful for the prayers, love, and support. I know that Christ lives and leads this church and I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve Him and represent His church on the earth!

Don´t Stop Believing!

Com Amor,

 Elder Nay!

Letter #97-"It´s colder than it oughtta be in March

But I still got a [week] or 2 ahead of me til I´ll be comin´home into your arms again. And the people here are asking after you. It doesn´t make it easier, it doesn´t make it easier to be away. I´d like to hire a plane. I´ll see you in the morning. The day is fresh, I´m heading home again. I´m heading home again."

Dashboard Confessionals 'A Plain Morning'

One of the few songs outside of the Beatles that I remember.

 

OH MY FAMILY. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I am a little nervous today to write my email. In this email that I write to you, I take pieces out and include them to my email to Presidente Cordon. He complimented me on how nice they were, so I am a little nervous to live up to his expectations. I hope I will do fine. 

This week was just wonderful. On Wednesday, we had a Zone Conference. It was just marvelous. We learned a lot. I especially liked the training that Sister Cordon gave. In her training we watched a movie about the Willie Handcart Company. I learned a lot about dedication. It is an amazing movie. We will have to watch it sometime family. It´s called 17 Miracles. It is fantastic. I cried a little it was so good. At the end, Presidente Cordon invited me, Elder Grigsby and Elder Jackson (all from my group) to bear our testimonies. It was super special. My last Zone Conference. I got a little choked up. 

I touched a little on dad´s conversion story and about what Roger Ethington did for our family. It´s too sad that it took me until my mission to be thankful for him inviting dad to be baptized. Well, then on Thursday we had Zone Leader Council. It was amazing. I sat by Elder Holliday, who is now a Zone Leader. Like half of the Zone Leaders have been my companions. I think that means I have had many many companions. hah. Then at the beginning Elder Grigsby, Elder Santos and I were asked to bear out testimonies. It was good. I can´t believe that was my last council. I will really miss that. I loved them. 

Then on Friday night we had a special person come out and teach with us: Presidente Cordon! It was a blast! hahaha He came and picked us up and had M&Ms. What a great surprise. Then we went and taught Admilson and Kelle. We taught them about following the prophet today. It was super good. Then we were gonna review the baptismal question with him and President Cordon was like, you know, I can interview them right now if you´d like. and so he did. It was awesome because we had no clue when the interview would happen. It was super great! 

The next morning, we went to the temple with Admilson and Kelle, Pres. and Sister Cordon were there to give them a special tour of the temple grounds and just to talk with them (it was previously planned out of course.) It was so awesome. I saw Marcos from the Xaxim ward. It was nice.

On Sunday we had Admilson´s baptism. It was super spiritual and Elder Croskrey and I sang (what?) but it was great. Admilson bore his testimony and it was wonderful. 

I know that this is the true church of Chirst and that He lives and loves us. He guides us through His living prophet today.

I love you all so much and try and help mom and dad not be so trunky! hahaha I love you!!!

Don´t Stop Believing|!!!

com amor,

Elder N. Askins

Letter #97-It won´t be Long Ya

Elder Askins and Elder Croskrey

This week has been such a blast. Not much time has passed since I last worte you but here in 4Bs we are working our tails off and loving it! We are having such a BLAST!!!! You really have so much fun when you give your everything to the Lord. I feel so blessed for all the many companions that I have had and especially to end with Elder Croskrey. 

Well, this past week I don´t know if i talked about Admilson, but he is so ready to get baptized. He is so excited we are fasting and praying that his wife, Kelle, will also get baptized with him. She has the desire but there are little things holding her back. We are going this Saturday to the temple with them. I am excited. 

Yesterday we had 11 investigators at church. CAN YOU SAY BLESSINGS!? Hercílio came with his 3 brother-in-laws: Elder (that´s his name!), Elber, and Taylor, also Mateus and Tiele came (we just need to marry them! They want to be baptized),  Also Admilson and Kelle came.  Priscila (the friend of a member) came also. Marcos got work off and came too! HE LOVED IT!!!! Also a member brought her boyfriend and we will start teaching him this week. Also this family that is inactive that we visited came to church as well! It was amazing! Here in the Branch 4B, we had an attendance of 136. Have you ever heard of a branch having 136 people at church!? crazy!!!!!! 

Yesterday afternoon we taught Hercílio, Elber, Taylor and Taylor´s mom. It was great. They felt the spirit and said they wanted to be baptized. So we have a lot of work to do in the month of March. We also passed by the house of Marcos. Can I just tell you that he has taught me so much. He has changed so much in the past 3 months that it is crazy. He absolutely loved church today. He has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. and he is so excited to get baptized. He will get married on the 16 and then they will leave to Ponta Grossa  (another city in Paraná) and then come back the next week and he will be baptized on the 25. He asked me to baptize him already. I am honored. Last night he asked about geneology because they talked about it in church and he was already talking about research he was going to do so that he could bring their names to the temple. He is amazing. I really loved it. 

This past week has been a blessing. A couple that my friends Elder Romm and Elder dos Santos baptized went to the temple last week to be sealed and one night we will do a family night with them and all of the couples we are teaching. I am so excited! Well. Everything is great! Don´t worry about me! I love you all so much! Like mom wrote me today: Obey like Nephi, pray like Enos, and endure like Abinadi. Don´t stop believing!

Com amor,

Elder N. Askins

p.s. this pic is me and elder croskrey

Letter #96- "The Long and Winding Road That Leads to Your Door."‏

Oh MY FAMILY!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am sorry I forgot to tell you that this week we were going to the temple, so pday was on Wednesday. But next week it will be on Monday. Sorry. Please don´t be mad. 


SO MUCH TO TELL YOU. So Elder Schmidt was transfered. He was sad, but do you know where he was transfered? Guarapuava!!!! That´s where I was before he got here. Did you remember that!? He was actually pretty excited because he had listened to me talk about how it was the best place on the mission for the past 3 months. It was good. 


I called the secretaries and they confirmed that my cards got here. I asked them to send it by way of the assistants to me but when they got there they didn´t have it. So it just so happened that on the day, the entire Curitiba/metropolitin area bus system went on strike. Brasil is dependant on the bus system. EVERYTHING shut down for a few days. But we had our transfer meeting. 


Ever since I had met him, I wanted to be companions with Elder Croskrey. He is awesome. I was entering into my last transfer and I would receive my last companion. And Elder Croskrey was a Zone Leader, so I thought my chances were done. Well, when we got there, I was chatting with Elder Rogers, the assistant and I jokingly asked him if Elder Croskrey would be my companion. He laughed and said we´ll see. The transfer meeting started and they did the transfers and then at the end, Elder Croskrey was called for his transfer. President Cordon said that he was going to be opening a new zone. What? and that he would be my companion! We got so happy!!! That is awesome! And then President told be that I was assigned to be a Zone Leader again. It was nice. 


I am excited to be with Elder Croskrey. As we were leaving, a missionary in our zone that didn´t get transfered walked in and handed me a big envelope. It was my cards! He didn´t even know that it was super important! I was so happy! and I had no clue how my cards got there that fast, or how they got to the meeting! Then I was so amazed and I talked to Sister Cordon about it and she said that the most amazing part of it is that I didn´t get charged anything. Usually when people from the USA send things from the states that are by Fedex usually get a huge tax, and I got it here without a tax. 

So when we got back to our house here in 4 Barras, we had a note from the cartório that Marcos´s documents had arrived. So we marked his wedding the next day and then we also had a lesson with Admilson and HE marked a date with us! He is so awesome! The next day we marked a date with his wife. 

Well, everything here in 4 Barras is going great! and everything here in the new zone of Boa Vista is also doing great! 
I hope all is well at home! Don´t stop believing! I love you all so much|!!!!
com amor!
elder askins

Letter #94-"Once there was a way to get back homeward...‏

"Once there was a way to get back home. Sleep pretty darling do not cry and I will sing a lullaby. Golden slumbers fill your eyes. Smiles await you when you rise. Sleep pretty darling do not cry and I will sing a lullaby."

Oh my dear family. I love you all so much. I am so grateful for the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for His church being here on the earth again. 


This week was a wonderful week. We worked super hard. Some awesome things that happened: 
1. We asked for Marcos´documents, marked an estimated wedding and an estimated date 2. Dara, Dara, Dara 3. It rained a LOT 4. Jessica and Carina were confirmed

1. Marcos. It was so awesome. The Branch Presidency passed by that Sunday and told him that if he were to pay for his documents that the branch would be able to fund his wedding. It was awesome. We passed by last Monday and he told us that. So on Tuesday we went to the cartório which is like the document place and he paid for his documents and asked to get them shipped again. They don´t have a ton of money and for them to do what they did, it was R$120. It was a huge act of faith. Then we went to his house and taught him. It was so wonderful. He talked about his desire to do the right things. He has gained a testimony. Awesome. So we marked his wedding for March 16 and baptism for the 17. His documents haven´t arrived yet and then it is a 30 day wait so that is why it is so far into the future.

2. Dara is this investigator that we have. Back at the beginning of when we got to 4 Barras, she found us on the street and she said that her brother was a member of the church and everything and she asked us to pass by. But it was always so hard to pass by and teach her because they went into holidays and everything. She lives close to Valeria so everytime we would go to Valeria, we would pass by Dara´s house. Sometimes she was there sometimes she wasn´t there. BUT a while ago we marked a date with her for the 12th. I think I said the story last week about how she wanted to be baptized on the 12 but didn´t go to church. SO we taught her the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday. She really likes coffee she said. We challenged her that on Wednesday, to only drink one cup of coffee. The next day when we found her on the street, she had stopped completely. She had prayed asking for help and stopped cold turkey!! they a few days later, when we were passing onthe street she called us over to just thank us for never giving up on her and persisting and enduring with her because she now knows that this is true and the right pass and she is so happy with her life. The Gospel is amazing!!!!!

3.  It rained a lot this week. The end.

4. Jessica and Carina were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is so awesome to see them. They are so happy with this decision they have made. But Heavenly Father is a lot more happy about this decision.

I know that this is Chirst´s church on the earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us!
Don´t Stop Believing and help mom and dad not be trunky!!!! :)
Com Amor,
Elder Nay

Letter #93-It´s been a long time, now i´m, coming back home.‏

I´ve been away now, oh how, I´ve been alone.

WAIT til I come back to your side and we´ll forget the tears we´ve cried.

TRUTH, I will speak truth with you: HELP!, RUBBER SOUL, and REVOLVER by The Beatles could be in the top three greatest albums in the world. but that is just a side note. 

This week was awesome! So for my birthday we woke up really early and went to Baiano´s house to fill out the baptismal forms for Jessica and Carina. It was fun, then we left to go do a service project for someone. So listen to this. Our project was transporting brick for a family in our branch. Now that may not sound fun, but it was a blast, I really did enjoy it a lot. 

Then we ran to our lunch. They had made french fries and some sort of meat. It was amazing and for dessert, they made a huge chocolate cake with some candles on it. It was super nice. Then we went back to Baiano´s house to teach Carina and help her get prepared for baptism. It was fun. Then that night we went to Marcos and Vanesa´s house and they had put balloons up and made a cake. 

Because we had focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with him, he says he thinks of us when he reads the Book of Mormon so for my birthday they made a cake with a frosting of the Book of Mormon on top. It was so awesome. It was a blast. He is SO ready to be baptized, he just needs to get married first. We will get it done, he just has to get his documents first (Brasil has some weird laws) but it was great teaching him. Then the next day we had their interviews and Carina picked Elder Schmidt to baptize her. It was awesome. It was great. 

That day we also visited this family that we got to know pretty well. They work in 4 Barras and we just would talk to him a lot then one day he was like, you have to pass by my house and visit us. So we did. It was interesting. He's really into the Book of Revelation which was fun. 

On Saturday night we went and visited Admilson with Baiano. We were so excited to mark a date with him but it didn´t work out and we weren´t able to but before we went to Admilson´s house I told Baiano about dad´s conversion story with Roger Ethington and how Roger was a member and was good friends with dad and invited him to come to church and then be baptized. I guess Baiano was inspired because after he left us at our house, he went back to Admilson´s house and talked with him and invited him to be baptized! He accepted!!! So this week we will just mark the date. But he is super super excited.

AND JESSICA AND CARINA WERE BAPTIZED!!!! Jessica has been comin to church for well over a year. I don´t know what changed when we invited her, but she accepted and she was finally baptized. Elder Schmidt did great. He did have to do the ordinance 2 times but just becasue the first time, her hand wasn´t completely underneath the water. But the baptism was great. 

I am sending a pic of the baptism, the other guy in white is the branch pres. It was wonderful. The second pic is us at lunch on Sunday. The Baianos made a BBQ and we ate with them. It was awesome.

Well, family, I love you so much. I am so grateful for the love and prayers. They are helping a ton. Don´t Stop Believing!

p.s.s. if in the last while you have written me a letter, be expecting a response. i have many letters written, but i was lacking money to send. now i will start to send them.

I LOVE YOU ALL
Com Amor,

Elder Askins