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