Letter #62- "I wake up every morning. with a big smile on my face"

and it never feels out of place!!!

Well everything is just wonderful here!!!!! We baptized Víctor this past weekend and his grandma (Maria) has a date for this Sunday. Please pray every night for her!!! We sure are!  She sure loves us. A few nights ago, she said that we are like her own grandkids. She went to church to see Victor´s baptism and loved it! 

Sonia is continuing to progress. She has already read the entire Principles of the Gospel book! hahaha. We also have 2 dates marked for this next weekend. Not this Saturday but the one after. 

Adriano and Loriane. They are a couple who are getting married Saturday morning and then baptized Saturday night. Everyone in the ward is super excited! We are so happy!!! everything here is great! A LOT OF MY FRIENDS  here said that they have found me on face book. So Kate, if you could please accept them, that would  be awesome.

I love you all so much. i feel so blessed to be a part of our family. We have the best family in the world and I love you all so much. Igor and Larissa´s mom sang us this beautiful song that I know dad would love. It´s called "Minha vida é do mestre"  -My life is my master's. It is super beautiful.

Well, I have to get off. I am writing like crazy because we are running out the door to go to the temple  right now. We cleaned our nasty house. Now it is so good and clean! I love you all so much! next week we will have more time and I will send pictures. I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Picture time

Letter #61-Catalyst, You Insist to Pull Me Down. You Contradict the Fact That You Still Want Me Around..

And it´s all down hill from here! It's all down hill from here!!!" -New Found Glory!

That is a good song. haha. Reminds me of 7th grade.

So this week has been WORK WORK WORK! AND I LOVE IT!!!

Hahahah It was funny. I was doing my hair the other day and on my right side, I have a few white hairs, and Elder Elias came in and said "Hey you have white hair grandpa!" and I pointed to one and I said, "Yep! This one´s called Elder Elias, (to the other) this one´s called Elder Paiva, (to the other) this one´s called Elder Holliday!" hahaha Saying that it was my companions that have given me white hair. good old jokes. 

Well. I cannot tell you how much I love you all my family. I spoke to some of our recent converts about my love for you. I told a story about how dad would always come in Saturday mornings at like 7 and play the guitar at the end of my bed to wake me up and I would get annoyed and he would say "Nay, one day you´re gonna miss this and wish that I was at the side of your bed waking you up!" Well, I know my dad, he was talking about I would miss him when he died. but I miss him now and I wish he would wake me up playing the guitar. haha but it´s not too far away and me and daddy can jam out again.

So how is everyone doing? I hope everything is well. We have been working hard. We are teaching Maria, Sonia´s mother. She had a problem with café and Chá preto (black tea). She is the only person I have ever know to drink black tea (the tea that is against the word of wisdom) but notice I said she HAD a problem. We bought her some substitutes and she made us some (of the substitute) and we all drank it together. I thought it was pretty nasty because it tastes like coffee and I don´t like coffee. but she loved it. She also said she would go to church on Sunday!

We also are teaching Sonia´s son, Victor. He is awesome. He is crazy (just like every normal boy is) but he is good. We are teaching him and hopefully he will be baptized at the end of this week. We are working hard to teaching him.

We are also gonna start working in another ward that we haven´t been giving much attention to. The Stake President and the Bishop have high hopes. We do too. I feel so blessed to be here in São José. I would love to spend the rest of my mission here. I´ll probably stay a while here (a total of 6 months.) That is fine with me.

Well, I´m out! I love you all so much! Até a próxima semana!

Com Amor,

Elder Askins

More Pictures

So Studious. 

Fun times in the zone

Baptising

Letter #60- "Don't Stop Believing!"

Dearest family.

I sure do love you all so much. I know I start all my emails off like that but it is because it´s true. And every day I feel more and more love for you guys. 

Don´t you worry. This past week has been a dream. The best week in my mission by far. We taught 41 lessons this past week. Which is a lot. The assistants called to congratulate us on our week and asked, "How did you guys teach that many lessons?" FAITH baby! It was so awesome. We also have 4 baptisms on Saturday night! Sonia, Maria Luisa, Larissa, and Igor. 

That was so awesome. It was funny. Saturday morning we went to the chapel and filled up the font, and then left and then came back to a.... flooded chapel. haha whoops! We went to the store next door and they loaned us their squeegies. hahaha I felt like I was off on Titanic trying to get all the water out. It was super funny. Luckily the chapel flooring is tile. haha. 

That afternoon we went by Sonia´s mom´s house, Maria to invite her to the baptism. She said no that her daughter wasn´t ready to get baptized. Sonia is 41. We told her about the interview that she passed and about how it was her responsibility as Sonia´s mom to go. We told her about how she would one day regret that she didn't go and would feel this regret for the rest of eternity. That night we were in the chapel waiting... and Maria came to watch Sonia and Maria Luisa´s baptism. It was super awesome. I was so happy that she came! but the water heater wasn´t working so we had to baptise them in cold water.... that was super hard. I baptized Sonia and Larissa. I couldn´t feel my legs afterward from baptizing in the cold water. I think I pulled a muscle. The muscles in the small of my back have been hurting (don´t worry mom... it stopped hurting). 

Then that next day Mauricio finally came to church as well, we confirmed 5 people at church! It took like 15-20 minutes! It was awesome! The bishop was super happy! and I was too! It was great. I taught Sonia about the temple on Sunday and she was like I want to go now! haha it was super awesome. We´ve been teaching her with Maria, her mom. Yesterday we marked a date with her for next Sunday. I am super happy and super excited. We are getting a lot of work done. 

This past week has been wonderful and filled with tons of personal revelation! Read Mosiah 5:7-14 which talks about taking upon the name of Christ and then read Moses 6:59-60. As I told dad Moses 6:59-60 is now my favorite scripture. 

The Lord is blessing us a lot. I love you all so much and I love our Master, Jesus Christ. He lives! Never forget that! Give Nanie a big hug and kiss and Courtney too! I am praying for their recoveries!!!

Com Amor!

Elder Nay 

DON´T STOP BELIEVING!

Pictures!!!

Letter # 59- You know that I could use somebody... yeah

SOMEONE LIKE YOOOOOOOUUUUUU OH OH OH OH OH OH OH."
       My dear family!!! How is everyone doing!? From all the emails it sounds like you guys are doing great! I am glad to hear that the Marathon in San Diego went well for Allie and Kate. I really like the name Diego. I think that would be an awesome name for a son. That´s Elder Elias´ first name. It´s a good name. But that´s another story for another day.

Can I start off by saying how great the Lord is? In the trail of our afflictions, if we remain faithful, we are rewarded. Last week (really 2 weeks ago) Elder Elias was super sick. This past week no one was sick and we rocked it! We taught 30 lessons (normally we teach 21-23 per week), we taught 15 lessons with members present (normally it´s like 8-10) we had 12 investigators in Sacrament meeting (normally we have 5) and we had a frequency of 194 people at church! (normally it´s like 120). AND we are gonna have 5 baptisms this weekend! How blessed are we!? We have been working super hard.

Let me tell you about these people who will get baptized. First we have Dudu (Carlos Eduardo) He is 12 years old and a friend of Diordy. We started teaching him at Diordy´s house one day. We gave him a Book of Mormon. He read the parts we marked and knows that it´s true. He wants to get baptized. It is awesome!!! Next we have Igor and Larissa. Igor is 18-19 and Larissa is 15. They are the children of a inactive member, their mom. They are super excited to get baptized this weekend and we taught their cousins on Saturday night (they are 8 and 9). They went to church with them and they want to gett baptized now too. Super special children. We have Sônia and her 9 year old daughter, Maria Luiza. Sônia is the daughter of a woman named Maria that we have been teaching for over a month now. Maria is scared to get baptized, actually, she´s scared to go to church. We didn´t know why we were passing by. We actually cut Maria and then the next day we ended up at her house. and that´s when we met Sônia. It was weird. we taught the Word of Wisdom. Maria is the only person that I know of that drinks Black Tea (the tea that is against the Word of Wisdom). She wanted to know why she couldn´t drink it anymore and Sônia said, "Mom, it´s not exactly what´s in it. A prophet said not to drink so just don´t drink it." She is super excited to get baptized.

This week has been a blessing. Transfers were today. Me and Elder Elias will be staying together for another 6 weeks! YAY!

So these are some pics that we have taken. One of the zone with our new Zone teeshirts. one of our district. One of me in São José dos Pinhais. One of Maurício´s baptism. and one of our zone shirt! It could be the coolest shirt in the world. Our Zone´s theme this month is "LEALDADE OU MORTE" which, being interpreted means "LOYALTY OR DEATH!" which is meaning "Loyalty to the Lord, or DEATH!" with the baptismal logo in front of the skull. hah. On the right pectoral is says MISSÃO BRASIL CURITIBA brazil curitiba mission and then on the right sleeve it says " Sempre Curitiba" or always curitiba. on the back says São Boqueirão (the name of our zone) and all of our names. it´s super awesome!
Well, I sure do love you all! The church is true!!! the Book of Mormon is true too! Joseph Smith was a prophet! Praise to the Man! Jesus Christ lives!!!!! He is our Savior! Don´t Stop Believing!
LEALDADE OU MORTE!!!!!!
Com Amor,
Elder Askins!
p.s. it´s FREEZING HERE!!! Soak up the sun and love it!!!

Letter #58- "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE LOVING SOMEONE THAT´S IN A RUSH TO THROW YOU AWAY?‏"

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE THE LAST ONE TO KNOW THE LOCK ON THE DOOR HAS CHANGED?"

Well, my family, I sure do love you. I cannot describe my feelings to you. 1 year ago exactly I left the CTM and I arrived in Curitiba. Can you believe how much happens in a year? In 525,600 minutes!? A lot has happened. I would never guess I would be where I am in a year. but a lot has happened.

A lot has happened in this past week. We have found a lot of new people and are being blessed a lot. Elder Elias got super sick. We got sick Wednesday night and was sick until about Monday morning. It was the longest days of my life. By far some of the hardest days in my life. It is over and done and now it´s better.

Things in the zone are going well. It was hard. 2 missionaries were assulted this week (don´t worry mom. it wasn´t me) and so I had to go help them one day. They have been transfered and they are opening a new area. We are super excited and so are they. Except that now 6 people are living in our little apartment but that is fine. We are moving great. Last night we taught a man who, I swear he has read Preach My Gospel. He knows more about prophets and the apostasy than I do. haha. We marked a date for 2 weeks. He will be baptized if he takes the time to humble himself and get an answer.

We also are teaching this less active family and her 2 teenage kids who will be baptized in 2 weeks as well. We are super super excited. We have a lot off big plans coming up. For the month of  June our zone´s baptizmal goal is 20. Pray for us that we can get this goal. I know it´s super possible.

Lastly, this past week I was studying my patriachal blessing, and I got the idea to read it as if I was doing all the things it counsels me to do and then I was able to judge myself at what I need to do better. It was a huge eye opener and a big help for me. Well, I´m at an hour. I sure do love you my family! I am so happy that we can be together forever someday!
Christ lives and loves us!
Don´t stop believing!
Com Amor,
-Elder Askins