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