Letter #2: Don't Stop believing!!! HOLD ON TO THAT FEELING!!!

Family- Hello my beautiful family! I love you so much! I was writing a letter to Dallas today and I felt like I should give him some tips. What I told him was to spend as much time as possible with your family because like President Hall said, "You never hear a missionary say that he wished he would have spent more time with his friends." I love you guys so much and every day I feel like I love you even more. 

 

I cannot tell you how amazing my week has been. I love love LOVE Brazil, and if it wasn't for you and the future Sister Nathan Askins, I would spend forever here. I am at Mr. Cheny's. (the people who do Mission ties) The MTC said we can email from here and also from the MTC so it gives me a little extra time. 30 minutes is not enough. Last week I had trouble logging in and a wonderful sister helped me and I jokingly told her that if I couldn´t email my family- I would cry. This is something that I look forward to during the week. Thank you for emailing me back! I brought a note pad and wrote down some things that you all said so I can respond to it.

 

KATIE-CONGRATS ON MAKING THE NEW YORK MARATHON!!!! That is so awesome! I am so proud of you!!! When I get home I definitely want to start running with you!! Hahaha and thanks for the card! The "Don't Stop Believing" really helped. It is the song my district lives by. I would love some pictures that John (Steinaker) took or just of the fam if you wanted to mail them.

 

Allie-I AM SO PROUD OF YOU FOR PASSING THE BOARDS!!! That is so exciting!! I always knew you could do it! You are smart! Good luck to you and Aaron at apartment shopping! Let me know when you pick one.

 

Mommy- The food here is pretty good. They feed us too much. We have a big breakfast, big lunch, and a big dinner and then we have a snack before we go to bed.  The food is good (I think) but the teachers all say it sucks compared to regular Brazilian food. ~That was great you guys went to the temple. I´ll talk about the Sao Paulo temple later but I think I'm gonna mail you all a picture. I am sorry to hear about (Uncle)Ned. I cried when I read it because I could just imagine that wonderful reunion that him, Papa and Erv are having. I'm glad it went well though. Mission ties was great! I was so suprised that you guys did it. I love it! And we get time at night to write in our journals.

 

Dad- The language is coming along and how did the prison go?

                    

This week has been a great week. I love being here and I love Brazil. It's funny because the little things in life make me happy. Like good chicken for lunch or the sun shining. The Lord is really blessing us here. I love Him and I feel His presence constantly. ~I´m not sure how it works at other MTCs but here they teach us a concept, this weekend it was the second lesson, The Plan of Salvation. Every Monday morning and Friday night we do something called Milestone. That is the closest thing to a test and that is where we go and use the concept that we were taught. I don't know if that made any sense, but bear with me. On Friday, Elder Groom and I were teaching another companionship in front of the class. The story was that we were teaching a man that wanted to join the church, belonged to another religion and didn't think he needed to be baptized again. His friend who didn't like the church was over when we stopped by. The friend kept trying to back us up into corners. He was throwing out scriptures and trying to get us to back down. I remembered something Brother Davis taught us. He told us that scriptures will cause a debate. But a testimony will convert. Right then my companion and I just started testifying and the Spirit flooded into the room. The friend stopped talking and got all big eyed and started to listen. The man we were teaching felt the Spirit as well. Once we finished, my teacher (Brother Rebero-- pronounced Hebero) said in his little Brazilian accent "Now just learn to do that in Portuguese Elder Askins, and you will be an amazing missionary." It was a wonderful experience for me because the whole time you are in the CTM you are thinking, "Can I really do this? Can the Lord really use me? Can I be a good missionary?" I know that the Lord can mold the craziest kid, a kid like me, into a missionary. 

 

Everyone has asked me about the food. YES they feed us a lot. Too much. Its all Brazillian food. Some of it is amazing. Some of it is not. One thing I love is the chicken we have. And the rice and beans. One thing I don't like is the pizza. It's pizza with banana's on top. It's nasty. 

 

Today we went to the Sao Paulo temple. I love it.  Not only is it the cleanest place I have been to since we went there last week, but you can feel the Spirit of the Lord so strongly. I am grateful that through the priesthood families can be together forever. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father, Pai Celestial, as they say down here. I love Jesus Christ and I am so thankful for His atonement. I know that He lives and atoned for our sins. I know with everything in my body that He died for us, but even more, I know He lives for us. 

 

There is so much more I wish I could write, but I'm out of time. Just know that you never have to worry about me, you are just wasting time. I have the greatest protection anyone could offer. His protection. 

 

Peace out and Tchoa! Eu Amo voce!            

 

Kate- make sure to get me auntie, nanie, and uncle bobby's home address and email address and I found the papers of addresses.