Letter #88-"I know you think about jumping ship before it sinks...‏"

but we are all in this together."

Monday I seriously had a Ben Lee moment, because I was on the bus thinking about how my mission was passing by and how I am "entering into the last quarter mile" as dad would say and I looked around at everyone and the words to Ben Lee just crept into my head "We are all in this together." And then I thought of Eric Whitlock because he would always write me and say,  "I´m on a mission, and you´re on a mission and we´re all in this together." And it really is true. We are all in this together. Even at the beginning of life, at the end of life, beginning of the mission, at the middle, at the end, an old man, young man, baby, we are all in this together to go back to Heavenly Father and live in his presence forever and because we are all in this we serve missions to help those who "Think about jumping ship before it sinks" as Ben Lee wrote. That it my little thought for the beginning.

Well, I really enjoyed talking with you all on Sunday. It was the best Christmas present I have ever received in my entire life. I really loved it. It was so great to hear all of your voices and chat about everything. It was wonderful to hear Chad too. He has been my best friend since forever and can you believe that I haven´t really talked with him for 3 years!? That is why I got emotional talking to him. It´s been a long time. hah I can´t believe I got emotional. Thanks for having him pass by. He sounds great and so... Chaddish. hahaha. I love him and I love you all so much. I was so grateful for the opportunity to bear my testimony to you all one last time by phone while still on the mission. 

So Christmas was great. We tried working hard on Christmas Eve and on Christmas. We thought, "This is gonna be so tough and all of our investigators are going to be so annoyed with us. But Elder Schmidt had the idea to buy little presents for our investigators. WOW! What a wonderful idea. We visited almost all of our investigators at the beginning they were really annoyed, answering the door thinking we wanted to waste their time, then we said, "We got your family a present for Christmas!!" Everyone got exited and let us in. It was nice because they could feel our love that we have for them because sometimes people think that we are robots that are programed to think lessons contacts baptisms, lessons, contacts, baptisms... but we love these people. We wouldn´t pass by if we didn´t love them.

So Marcos is doing wonderful!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY!!!!! We worked hard. The 2nd of January, we are marking their wedding!!!! Awesome!!!! The branch said that they would pay for the wedding (they are young, he is turning 22 and I think she is 19 or 20) that is so awesome. He was able to get Sunday off and came to church. It was awesome because he and his family needed a ride to church and he called a member of the branch presidency who wasn´t planning on going to church. He said "Hey Irmão! Are you going to church today? We need a ride." The brother looked and said "Now I am" and they went! It was awesome. Marcos used one of my ties. He is a stud. So we are shooting for a wedding/baptism on the 1st of February. Isn´t that just awesome!! I am smelling a big BBQ!!! My birthday, a wedding, AND a baptism! What could be better??!! I feel like Jack Sparrow because I LOVE WEDDINGS AND BAPTISMS!!! YES!!!!

We also are teaching Joana still! Her faith is amazing. She is the Adventist. I don´t know if I told you, we taught her the plan of salvation first then the restoration. In the restoration she said, "Wait, you believe in a prophet as well? So we both believe in prophets but different ones. So one has to be right and the other one wrong. I am going to find out which is the true prophet." I smiled and said "Well, here is the Book of Mormon....." and so she is reading it now. Awesome. We are having a blast and working really well. 


Today we played soccer with some Bolivians (we also taught them the gift of tongues! We taught in Spanish.) The whole lesson I was thinking MAN! I need President Cordon here with me. Hah because he speaks Spanish and Portuguese but they understood. They will be going back to Bolivia soon. All with Books of Mormon.

Oh! and at district meeting on Monday, after, one of my friends came in his name is Elder Hann. He is from VAL VISTA LAKES!!! So we chat about Zion, I mean Arizona all the time. He is going home in a week.  He is the coolest and one of the best missionaries ever. Can you spell BEST FRIENDS FOREVER! We are gonna walk around talking about everyone in Portguese after the mission. HAH! but so he came in and said "Elder Askins, I have to show you something." He pulled out his photo album and showed me a picture of Dana park.  You know the plaza that has Pei Wei and that pizza place and the worst restaurant in the world (Paradise Bakery- it´s been 2 years and I am still bitter about how they lied to me!!! Audrey you know how much I hate that place!!!!) but I hugged him and started jumping up and down with him. hhahahah We got so excited together.  


I have been thinking about Dana Park a lot like the past 3 months because on my 19th birthday Allie and I went there to eat at Pei Wei and walked up and down the sidewalk looking at stores and listening to Rocket Summer! hahaha and that is where we all ate together after I passed through the temple (the fam, Don, Nancy, Gina and John) that was a blast! So he showed me those pics and then of the Clubhouse (Do you remember the club house?) Yeah. So it was great! 

Well family, I love you so much. I am well and I am so happy. This is so wonderful to be a missionary and I am so grateful for what the Lord did for me through the mission. I love this so much and I can´t wait to see you all and tell you all these stories face to face. I love you family. Katie, if you could forward this to Elder Whitlock and to Ben Reeves that would be awesome? I love you all so much! Don´t stop believing and don´t forget that we are all in this together like Ben Lee said.
com amor,
i love yous
Elder Nathan Askins 

Letter #87- "and i swear that you don´t have to go..‏"

Well, my family! 


Can you believe in less than a week it will be Christmas!? I cannot. It is crazy. This week was fun. It was challenging and it is getting hotter and hotter. Which is bitter sweet or may I say bitter sweat? hahahaha. The problem is that it is really hot and then I get red, but it´s awesome because I like to sweat, it´s great. 

This past week was amazing. We had the temple trip and conference, so the just of it was that on Sunday, we were missing a lot of lessons and contacts. It´s not that we focus on numbers, but the numbers represent souls that are important to Heavenly Father and the Lord has promised us that if we fulfill these key-indicators, that we will be blessed. 


It is important to teach new missionaries that, while being trained, for if you don´t, they pass by the whole mission thinking "I can't teach a lot of people or talk to a lot of people or even baptize a lot of people because I would just be focusing on numbers and that´s bad." When they really miss that the Lord wants us to teach A LOT OF PEOPLE. 


So I told you that so that I could tell you this:
On Sunday we were missing a lot of lessons (like 6) and a lot of contacts (like a lot) we had to come home and study after lunch because we missed Tuesday and Wednesday because of temple and conference. So we left the house at like 4. We said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to bless us that we could fulfill these key indicators and then we were walking out and I said, "Take note Elder Schmidt, you are about to see a huge miracle and the Lord will help us." And so we left, and on our street passed like 100 families and we contacted everyone. We passed by all of our investigators houses and they were all home. It was amazing. We came home at nine with all the things we asked for. 

So Monday afternoon, a priest went out with us. It was awesome. He will be such a great missionary. We made plans but, they fell through, so we started contacting houses. First house, it was a pastor´s house. We taught the first lesson- it went well. Second house was a seventh-day adventist. She was super nice. We were chatting and she showed us some of the doctrine of her church. Wow, they have their own plan of salvation. We were searching for something we could teach that would stick out in her mind and the Holy Ghost could use to impress her and then she explained about how her son had died 3 years ago. So we taught her the plan of salvation. She loved it and got really into it. She asked us to come by on Thursday for her to ask more questions. Let´s pray that she gets baptized. 

Everything is going good. I am excited to talk to you all on Sunday. I love you all so much!
Don´t stop believing!!!!!
com amor!
Elder Askins

Letter #86-Happy Christmas (war is over - if you want it!!!)‏

How is it that when you have no time, your computer is always SO SLOW??!! hahahaha but so it is. 

Today we went to the temple. It was wonderful and the Spirit was so strong there and it was a little emotional for me considering there won´t be many more times that I will be able to enter into the Brazil Curitiba Temple. I have been having some weird feelings lately, and some weird dreams. All about coming home and such. I am really very nervous. but it has to happen. I would love to stay here on the mission and keep working. My heart is really here in Brasil and I don´t want to leave the mission, the country, the missionaries, and the people. 

Yesterday was the Mission Christmas Conference. It was really a wonderful time. Elder Holliday was there. I was so happy. I love him so much. He is definately like the coolest. He is now a Zone Leader. hahaha  When I was a Zone Leader, I was wanting for so long that he be transfered into my zone, haha but now I´ll have to start praying that I be in his zone. He is such a wonderful missionary and a good friend to me. It´s been 7 months since I´ve seen him. We´ve dubbed our friendship a "Bromance" hahaah he is the best. It was wonderful to be around him, he is so nice. He spent a lot of time chatting with me. He knows I love him. I told him I would definately be at his homecoming.

This week we have been working hard. We need to mark Marcos´ wedding. The branch even said they would help pay for it. So we have a definate baptism in January. We also started teaching this family (2 actually) that are from the Bahia. They want to be baptized. They just need to get married. The branch also said they would help us. This was such a blessing because we´ve been working so hard and we are receiving some great blessings now. We do our contacts and teach our lessons to show the Lord we want His help, and sometimes he throws people that are super prepared and you didn´t even contact them. Sergio and Belinha, we haven´t been able to contact them yet but we are passing by tonight.

I received your package yesterday! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!! It was amazing. I already gave Elder Elias his jar of peanut butter. He says thanks and that he loves you. I also got the photo of the Gilbert temple. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A PRETTIER LOOKING TEMPLE!? I don´t think so. How amazing. We are so blessed that we will live 10 minutes from 2 temples. This is mind blowing!!!!!!!!

We still don´t have set time for you to call, but I will talk with the sister that is letting us use her house and then it's done like a freight train and done like yesterday.

I love you all so much. The mission is the best thing in the world. It saved my life and I thank the Lord everynight for the blessing of serving these wonderful people of Brasil. Jesus Christ lives and this is His church and this is the time when we can commemorate His birth! I love you all!!! Don´t Stop Believing!!!

com amor

elder askins

p.s. Have Chad celebrate Christmas with yous!!! please!!! I haven´t seen him in 3 years!!!!! I love you all!!!

 

Letter #85- "SIMPLY HAVING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME"

My dear family, 


It is so wonderful to be able to send you an email today. I am just so happy. It must be the time of the year.  Who doesn´t love Christmas!? 


So we have some neat experiences and funny things I was remembering.  Time flies so fast and it is so crazy because I think about all the things that I want to do as a missionary and the time is leaving! It´s crazy!!! It´s weird to think this is the last Christmas that I will be called Elder Askins but life goes on.  


Well this week was great. We are teaching this part-member couple, Vanessa and Marcos. She is a member and he isn´t but wants to be. So call the elders! haha. But they need to get married. 


The Branch of Quatro Barras is amazing. The branch is taking care of all of the business of marriage. It is neat. Well, his documents finally arrived. So we can mark the marriage this weekend and then in 20 days: wedding! (Jack Sparrow LOVES weddings! And Elder Askins as well, if followed by a baptism!) and as Elder Whitlock would say, "That´s the daily double: wedding and bapism." How neat is that? 


So we had our first meeting with the branch president. I really love him. Talk about a wonderful man. I think his wife bore her testimony on Sunday and said that her husband was almost perfect (you don´t hear many wives say that about their husbands- just mom) She said that he is 100 percent faithful to her, even in his thoughts. That is an accomplishment and it inspired me to be 100 percent faithful to God, my family, and my future family. That was nice. He also said something great. He was talking to us about the importance of keeping honest records of who we teach and so on, he said "with the records in hand, get your knees to the ground" (how neat it rhymes in portuguese and in english.) He said to make a record of the people and then with the record pray for them. Now we pray for our investigators, but I usually don´t do it with their progress record, so we started this week. He is amazing. 

So we were going to visit this couple that I told you about but they weren´t home. So we started walking to our alternative plan. We saw this man working on his bike. We passed by and I felt, we need to talk to him. So we turned around and started talking to him. It turns out he is a member, very very VERY inactive from the church, but wants to come back. He said that many times he was in Pinhais (another city by Curitiba) and wanted to talk to the Elders, but never had the courage and many times he saw us pass and wanted to talk to us, but didn´t have the courage. Well we started talking to him and gave him a Book of Mormon. 


Then a few days after, we were going to visit this couple again and they were there again! and right as we showed up, the branch presidency showed up.  All of us were there, except the couple. So we were leaving and I said to the branch president that there was an inactive member that lived closed, they didn't know. They went and visited him and since Sunday- he has already gone to a family night and he will come to church this weekend. How neat? This branch rocks! 

This week we got the Liahonas of Conference. I love the talk by Elder Robert D. Hales. It was amazing. I know he wasn´t in good health at the conference, but that just proves the message of his talk. It has inspired me on the mission and I challenge you all to read it at home:

Waiting on the Lord: Thy Will Be Done
by Elder Robert D. Hales

On this Sabbath morning, we give thanks for and testify of the living reality of our Savior. His gospel has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is true. We are led by a living prophet today, President Thomas S. Monson. Above all, we bear solemn witness of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the eternal blessings that flow from it.

During the past few months, I have had the opportunity to study and learn more about the Savior’s atoning sacrifice and how He prepared Himself to make that eternal offering for each one of us.

His preparation began in the premortal life as He waited upon His Father, saying, “Thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.” Beginning in that moment and continuing today, He exercises His agency to accept and carry out our Heavenly Father’s plan. The scriptures teach us that through His youth, He went “about [His] Father’s business” and “waited upon the Lord for the time of his ministry to come.” At the age of 30, He suffered sore temptation yet chose to resist, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” In Gethsemane, He trusted His Father, declaring, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done,^" and then He exercised His agency to suffer for our sins. Through the humiliation of a public trial and the agony of crucifixion, He waited upon His Father, willing to be “wounded for our transgressions … [and] bruised for our iniquities.” Even as He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He waited upon His Father—exercising His agency to forgive His enemies, see that His mother was watched over, and endure to the end until His life and mortal mission were finished.

I have often pondered, Why is it that the Son of God and His holy prophets and all the faithful Saints have trials and tribulations, even when they are trying to do Heavenly Father’s will? Why is it so hard, especially for them?

I think about Joseph Smith, who suffered illness as a boy and persecution throughout his life. Like the Savior, he cried out, “O God, where art thou?” Yet even when he was seemingly alone, he exercised his agency to wait upon the Lord and carry out his Heavenly Father’s will.

I think of our pioneer forebears, driven from Nauvoo and crossing the plains, exercising their agency to follow a prophet even as they suffered sickness, privation, and some even death. Why such terrible tribulation? To what end? For what purpose?

As we ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an answer in one simple phrase: we “wait upon the Lord.” Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and … [our] good.”

Does this mean we will always understand our challenges? Won’t all of us, sometime, have reason to ask, “O God, where art thou?” Yes! When a spouse dies, a companion will wonder. When financial hardship befalls a family, a father will ask. When children wander from the path, a mother and father will cry out in sorrow. Yes, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Then, in the dawn of our increased faith and understanding, we arise and choose to wait upon the Lord, saying, “Thy will be done.”

What, then, does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.

To wait upon the Lord means planting the seed of faith and nourishing it “with great diligence, and … patience.

It means praying as the Savior did—to God, our Heavenly Father—saying: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” It is a prayer we offer with our whole souls in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Waiting upon the Lord means pondering in our hearts and “receiv[ing] the Holy Ghost” so that we can know “all things what [we] should do.”

As we follow the promptings of the Spirit, we discover that “tribulation worketh patience” and we learn to “continue in patience until [we] are perfected.”

Waiting upon the Lord means to “stand fast” and “press forward” in faith, “having a perfect brightness of hope.”

It means “relying alone upon the merits of Christ” and “with [His] grace assisting [us, saying]: Thy will be done, O Lord, and not ours.”

As we wait upon the Lord, we are “immovable in keeping the commandments,” knowing that we will “one day rest from all [our] afflictions.”

And we “cast not away … [our] confidence” that “all things wherewith [we] have been afflicted shall work together for [our] good.”

Those afflictions will come in all shapes and sizes. Job’s experience reminds us what we may be called upon to endure. Job lost all his possessions, including his land, house, and animals; his family members; his reputation; his physical health; and even his mental well-being. Yet he waited upon the Lord and bore a powerful personal testimony. He said:

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

“And though … worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

Even with the shining examples of Job, the prophets, and the Savior, we will still find it challenging to wait upon the Lord, especially when we cannot fully understand His plan and purposes for us. That understanding is most often given “line upon line, [and] precept upon precept.”

In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often “here a little and there a little” because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do.

Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now! As a young man, President David O. McKay prayed for a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. Many years later, while he was serving his mission in Scotland, that witness finally came. Later he wrote, “It was an assurance to me that sincere prayer is answered ‘sometime, somewhere.’”

We may not know when or how the Lord’s answers will be given, but in His time and His way, I testify, His answers will come. For some answers we may have to wait until the hereafter. This may be true for some promises in our patriarchal blessings and for some blessings for family members. Let us not give up on the Lord. His blessings are eternal, not temporary.

Waiting upon the Lord gives us a priceless opportunity to discover that there are many who wait upon us. Our children wait upon us to show patience, love, and understanding toward them. Our parents wait upon us to show gratitude and compassion. Our brothers and sisters wait upon us to be tolerant, merciful, and forgiving. Our spouses wait upon us to love them as the Savior has loved each one of us.

As we endure physical suffering, we are increasingly aware of how many wait upon each of us. To all the Marys and Marthas, to all of the good Samaritans who minister to the sick, succor the weak, and care for the mentally and physically infirm, I feel the gratitude of a loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. In your daily Christlike ministry, you are waiting upon the Lord and doing your Heavenly Father’s will. His assurance to you is clear: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” He knows your sacrifices and your sorrows. He hears your prayers. His peace and rest will be yours as you continue to wait upon Him in faith.

Every one of us is more beloved to the Lord than we can possibly understand or imagine. Let us therefore be kinder to one another and kinder toward ourselves. Let us remember that as we wait upon the Lord, we are becoming “saint[s] through [His] atonement, … submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.”

Such was the submission of our Savior to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. He implored His disciples, “Watch with me,” yet three times He returned to them to find their eyes heavy with sleep. Without the companionship of these disciples and ultimately without the presence of His Father, the Savior chose to suffer our “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind.” With an angel sent to strengthen Him, He “shrank not to drink the bitter cup.” He waited upon His Father, saying, “Thy will be done,” and He humbly trod the winepress alone. Now, as one of His Twelve Apostles in these latter days, I pray that we will be strengthened to watch with Him and wait upon Him through all our days.

On this Sabbath morning, I express gratitude that “in my Gethsemane” and yours, we are not alone. He that watches over us “shall neither slumber nor sleep.” His angels here and beyond the veil are “round about [us], to bear [us] up.” I bear my special witness that our Savior’s promise is true, for He says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” May we wait upon Him by pressing forward in faith, that we may say in our prayers, “Thy will be done,” and return to Him with honor. In the holy name of our Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you family. Keep on keeping on!
Com Amor,
Elder Nathan Askins