Letter #30- "Well she was just 17, if you know what I mean."

"And the way she looked was way beyond compare. Oh, how could I dance with another? ohHhh I saw her standing there."
Dearest Family and friends! I love you all so much! I am excited for this wonderful time of year. Everyone here has been asking what´s the deal with this "Dia de Graças." I really can only say it´s a day we give thanks for everything and they say, how do you celebrate it? And I say, well, we eat and we eat and we eat some more and when you can´t eat anymore... you eat some more and we watch American Football and we sleep. They don´t really understand the Wonderfulness of Thanksgiving. I guess you have to BE an American to love the concept.

Well, this week has been good I have 2 stories I want to tell you but before I wanted to say that I am so happy that so many of you have taken the challenge to read the Book of Mormon entirely by the 31 of March. I´m doing it too and I am excited to see how reading it this time, will strengthen our testimonies.

So I said I had 2 stories, the first story is something I heard yesterday with the Irmã we were having lunch with. She said a long time ago, Neal A. Maxwell visited São Paulo in Brazil. And she and her family went. While her little son was in the bathroom, Elder Maxwell went and shook everyone´s hand that was in the audience. When the little boy returned, Elder Maxwell had just finished and was returning to the pulpit. He was so sad he didn´t have an opportunity to shake his hand. While his mom was talking with another kid, he snuck out of his seat and walked all the was to the pulpit. When he got there the security guards grabbed him and the area presidency asked the little boy what he wanted. He thought a moment and said "I want Elder Maxwell´s Autograph." The Area Presidency said no (because that´s kind of inappropriate to ask for) And the little boy was heart broken. He returned to his seat and cried and cried and cried. His mom, when she told me this story was heartbroken for days. The first Sunday, he wouldn´t go to church. This mom went with the rest of her family. At church the bishop got up and said "Elder Maxwell has sent a request that we find out who this boy is. We need to speak with him and his parents." The mother, thinking that they were going to discipline the boy and her, remained silent. The next week, the bishop said again "Who is this boy, Elder Maxwell has requested that we find him." Still she remained silent. Finally the third week, the bishop gets up and said "Brothers and sisters, we know the boy is in this ward, Elder Maxwell has said we have to find out who this boy is and he is not taking no as an answer, who is it?" Finally the Irmã, realizing that this wouldn´t end, rose her hand and claimed her son. The bishop got the boys name and address. About a week and a half later, they received a letter in the mail. It was addressed to the little boy, it was from Elder Maxwell, in the letter he wrote that he was sorry that the boy´s feelings had been hurt. He didn´t know what was going on at the time. He told this little boy about the importance of a mission and how he needed to serve a mission. He testified of Christ and inclosed a picture of himself, with his signature.

I was really impressed by this story. Before Elder Maxwell had died, he requested that the church follow this boy. A few years ago, the church sent him a letter asking if he had plans to serve a mission. What a neat story!

Ok, other story. In Capão da Imbuia, my last area with Elder Duarte, we tracted a lot. One day, we were tracting and I saw this house. I got the hugest prompting. I had to knock on this door. We knocked and nothing. A week later, we passed again. Nothing. I never forgot the house. We went back again, toward the end of the tranfsfer and finally a woman came out. We taught her the first lesson. The next time we passed by, we read the Book of Mormon with her. The time after, I thought I would stay for the whole transfer. She told us that she liked our message and would pray about it. Then I was transferred. I got a phone call from Elder Duarte about 2 weeks ago. She is preparing to get married. After she gets married, she will be baptized. NEAT! It´s super awesome because I felt the prompting. It´s like what the prophet said once "The sweetest feeling is to feel a prompting from the spirit and then act on it." This is true. The best feeling is to feel a prompting from the Lord, act on it, and then find out that you were part of something greater than us all.

I love you all. I hope you all are well. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Katie´s Birthday! I love you all so much! Help dad with the lights this year! And have fun listening to Kenny and Dolly. Don´t let mom listen to "Christmas without you." I have a feeling that for the next two Christmas´s that song might be rough for her. I love you all so much and remember as we prep for the greatest holiday ever, there would be no Christmas, if there was no Easter.  I love you all so much! Remember "Nós podemos, para sempre, estar juntos, eu sei!
Com Amor!!!
NayNay

Letter #29- "I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE"

"BUT I WON´T DO THAT!"

Dear Family!!

Holy Mamma! I sure love you all so much! I got your letter from Halloween! Thanks so much! I loved it!

This past Sunday we had a baptism. Davi! It was great! We worked really hard with him and it was not an easy ride, but it was awesome! Like Gary Allen said "Life ain´t always beautiful, but it´s a beautiful ride." It was a beautiful ride. I bought him the Book of Mormon with pictures. I gave it to him last Thursday. He´s already read it twice. He gave me a picture he drew of Jesus. He really really likes to draw. He´s pretty good too.

 

It also was the primary program on Sunday. I was a little emotional. You know me. It was really sweet and a great program. It was neat to hear the kids sing, "I know that my Savior loves me" in Portuguese. And I cried like a baby when they sang "How could the Father tell the world" I forget the name. and I loved the "I love to look for rainbows" I have always loved that song.

 

I want to talk about another baptism we have coming up. It has been really neat. We passed by his house the first week and he tried to dodge us. He finally let us in and "accompanied" us with his bible during the message of the Restauration. I thought we were going to have a bible bash, but it didn´t happen. We passed by again and asked if he had read the parts of the Book of Mormon we marked for him. He said he did but didn´t understand ANYTHING. So we read them again with him and explained as we went. He really enjoyed it. We planned to pass by again and teach him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the 3rd lesson. But when we got there and started to talk he said "That sounds great and all, but I just want you to read the Book of Mormon with me." So we read 3rd Nephi 27... which talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a great great great chapter. We passed by again and his wife was finally home. They aren´t married but they intend to. We taught her. She was fimiliar with missionaries already. We watched the movie, The Restoration, and at the end I tried to invite her to be baptized (We had already marked a date with him.) She blocked everything I tried to use. Like she was a Sith from Starwars and she knew all the Jedi stuff. It was super crazy. But now she really likes us. We passed by again yesterday. We watched the film "Juntos Para Sempre" or together forever, I like it, it has a lot of those Michael McLean music we listen to as a family. After we watched it, we let the spirit testify for a minute. Then we testified about how we can be a family forever and ever. He sat there for a minute and said "Can you come by on Friday and teach me the rest of what I need to know to be baptized." It was an amazing amazing experience.

 

So I have been thinking a lot about Christmas a lot lately. I am gonna try to send a little something for the whole family to use.  If you send a package, could you please include a discman, I bought the Book of Mormon on audio in portuguese to help me lose my American accent, but now the elder who had a discman and let me use it, doesn't live with us anymore. So I need one and a discman here is anywhere from R$100 to R$140. That´s a little expensive considering the fact that a missionary´s salary is R$0. hahaha I love you all so much. 

 

Also I challenged you all to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I realize that all of you probably don´t have as much time to read every day as I do. SO! I am redoing the challenge. The challenge is to read the Book of Mormon by my one year mark of the mission (That is March 31 if you forgot). I love you all so much!!! I hope you have a wonderful week. And Aaron!!!! Congrats on getting into Med school! I´ve been praying hard for you! I´m so super happy for you! Way to go! As we say down here in Brasil. "Parabéns! Parabéns mesmo!" I love you and I´m proud of you!

Well, that´s all the bullets I have today. Sorry I can´t send photos today. The computer I am using doesn´t have an outlet that works. I love you all so much!

DON´T STOP BELIEIVING!!!!

Com Amor do Brasil!

-Elder Askins

Letter #28- "Two outta Three ain´t bad"

I love you all my dear family!!!

Today was great! We went to the temple and did a session as a Zone and we also had interviews with Presidente Cordon! Oh my gosh. I love him so much! It was wonderful! I had a few things I wanted to talk to him about. I was a little nervous but when I sat down and we prayed everything went out the window. I learned a lot from him and I am so grateful for the interview we had together. First thing he said was "Elder Askins, thank you so much for your faith you exercised this transfer. How did it go?" 

We sat and talked about the things I learned, about the gift of tongues and about the power of the priesthood. He told me November is the month of miracles. So I am excited to see and participate in some miracles. Super excited. As we talked, we started talking about the temptations that we as missionaries face. It´s a hard life guys, really. But he said we need to work really hard in our lives to be 100% obedient in everything. He gave a good example. He said "Do you feel tempted to smoke?" No. "Do you feel tempted to do anything with a girl?" No. "Do you feel tempted to drink?" No. "Do you feel tempted to rob a bank?" No. He said "Why?" Well, because I have standards and I don´t want to. He said "That´s right, YOU have standards and YOU have already made the choice that you aren´t gonna do that stuff." He talked about Moroni. Satan didn´t have the stuff to tempt Captain Moroni to sin. Because he already made the decision in his life that if a temptation came his way, he wasn´t going to give in. It was wonderful to talk with him about this stuff. really really great!

Okay! Funny story! The Lord is so great! (That´s not the funny part!) I showed up to the sacrament meeting on Sunday and the pianist couldn´t come to church. So who do they ask? Good old Elder Askins. "Elder Askins, can you play the piano for us this Sunday?" You know me, I can´t play really well, but I made a goal/rule on my mission that when a person needs something, I´m gonna help them. So I said yes. I DON´T KNOW HOW but I played 3 hymns for sacrament meeting and they thought it was the best thing ever. of course I played the hymns reverently, but I did put a little Nathan twist into it. People came up to me "Elder, I love the American twist you put into the hymns." Hahahaahaha it wasn´t me who played the piano, the Lord helped me play the piano. It was super cool.

The baptism of Davi is this weekend. It will for sure happen. I am super excited for him. It´s been a fantastic week. I hope you remember the challenge I gave to you all last week. Finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. It is so important. In an address by President Boyd K. Packer in the Liahona, he spoke about the Book of Mormon and the iron rod and said "The Book of Mormon has been my iron rod in my life." I was really really impressed by that. I have tried to make it my iron rod and I know that if we together finish the Book ofMormon by the end of the year we will be blessed a lot and we will learn a lot and Satan will have less power in our lives. The Book of Mormon is so important to us and our lives. I love you all so much. I am grateful for the prayers and the lave you have given me. Thanks to Sami and Trish for the package and all the letters I have received. FYI, for now it will be a little bit before I can mail a letter, I have them written (mostly) but I need dinero to send them. I love you all so much!

Com Amor!

Elder Naynay

P.S. WAY TO GO KATIE ON THE MARATHON!!!! I AM SUPER PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!

Letter #27- "Forever Young, I Want to Be Forever Young"

Dear Family!

How is everyone doing here on this beautiful Wednesday!? It´s been a great. We´ve been really really busy here in Xaxim! We have a baptism this weekend. His name is Davi, which is portuguese for David. He is nine years old. I was really impressed with him and he want to be obedient to God´s commandments. It was really neat. Yesterday, we were going over the baptismal questions with him and I got the greatest feeling when we asked him if he believed that God was our Eternal Father, Jesus Christ is His Son our Savior, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He answered yes to all the questions and it was a neat experience. It´s funny. His grandfather is not a member and when we went to his house grandfather came out and said "Os Mórmons!" hahaaha. It was really really funny. Talked to us for awhile about this short guy in the military he used to know. I reminded him of this guy because he said I was short for an American. Hahaha. 

We also met these 2 girls. One is married and the other is about 20. We taught them the first lesson and they said they wanted to be baptized. I was really impressed with them as they asked about the authority to baptize people. We explained to them about the apostacy and about the restoration of God´s Holy priesthood. It was a really neat lesson. 

We had a really really good district meeting on Monday. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ. Which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Perseverance until the end. We also talked about the Army of God´s Church. The men on the front lines are the missionaries. And the big people that come in after the front lines are the members. The captains are the leaders of the church and our general is the prophet and of course our King is the King of Kings: Jesus Christ. So we need to prepare to serve Him the best we can and when people aren´t baptized or they go inactive, it´s because they don´have an understanding of the doctrine. When you understand the doctrine of an eternal family of course you will do anything and everything to be able to stay together forever.  We have been asked by the Prophet to work a lot with inactive members and try to reactivate them. So that´s what we are doing a lot now.

I hope that you all are being missionaries as well. It would break my heart to know I was the only missionary in the family right now. I hope you guys are reading Preach My Gospel because it will help prepare you for missionary work. Helping the missionaries DOES NOT mean just feeding them dinner once a month. It´s being a missionary, giving references, helping reactivate families, doing your home and visiting teaching. I want to challange my family to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I know with a surety that when you do this, you will be super blessed. I know it sounds hard, and that there is only 2 months left, but remember that hymn we sing in church "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven." 

I love you all so much. 

DON´T STOP BELIEVING!!!!

Com Amor

-Elder Askins