MAIL!!

We've received letters from some of our favorite missionaries in the last week.  We heard from Chad Smith in California and Landon Brough in Australia!  Sounds like they are doing wonderful!  We love our missionaries!

Letter # 9: Don´t Stop Believing,

Dear family, it was wonderful to talk to some of you yesterday. I really enjoyed it. Sorry I got a little choked up at the end but it was so good to hear from you and I was so happy. 

 

It is so cold here! I mean imagine the coldest Arizona day, then imagine that a little colder. But all the time. No heaters except in the cars. After I got off the phone with you I sat and chatted with my missionary friend and just waited. We boarded our plane and right before we boarded, a pilot took a picture of us outside the plane. Only in Brazil right? It was cool because in Campinas (The airport we were in) we boarded the planes like the Beatles did in the 60's. It was cool. I felt like a Beatle! 

 

I was pretty nervous to go to Curitiba and to meet my mission President. I mean this is the place you dream about your whole life! And then you get your call and you research it and you dream about the President in your call packet and his wife. You dream about the temple, the people. It is nerve racking in all honesty. 

 

We got off the plane retrieved our luggage and started walking to the lobby. I was nervous! Would he be there? What was going to happen? What were we going to do today? But as we walked out the door into the lobby, I saw Elder Jackson turn his head and get the biggest smile. And as I walked out and turned the corner, I saw President and his 2 assistants standing there. He came up to me and shook my hand and then gave me a huge hug and said "Welcome to the best mission in the entire world!" 

 

For the first time in 2 months it felt like I was with family again. It was awesome! We walked outside and he snapped a picture of us and then one with us. Then we went in a van. We chatted with one of the assistants and they took us to the Curitiba temple. They snapped another picture of us and we loaded back into the van. Then we went to the President´s house. They live in an apartment building. I think it´s owned by the church. We went to his floor and on his front door was a big sign that said welcome to the best mission in the world new missionaries. We walked in and sat on the couches. It kind of smelt like the Wilcock's house. I liked it. From there, the missionary in charge of finances started talking to us about our new card. Then we had an orientation, a small one.  All this was going on while President Araujo was having interviews with us. He poked his head out the door, got a huge grin and pointed at me "Elder Askins" he smiled, "English or Portuguese?" 

 

He laughed while I walked in his office. Of course it was in English. We talked about things. About my wonderful family and about what things I did before my mission and why I was serving a mission. He is such a great man. After the interviews were finished, we took pictures with President and Sister Araujo. Then we washed up and had a wonderful lunch. President Araujo said to eat up because tomorrow was P-day and we probably wouldn´t eat very good. Hahaha he loves to joke. 

 

He told us that if we wanted to be the best missionaries we needed to be 100% obedient and to work as hard as we can. He told us that this past month, they made a goal to have 200 hundred baptisms and the had 201 baptisms! How cool is that?! Elder Nelson was right when he said "It´s the Lord´s time for Brazil." 

 

After lunch we went to the chapel and as we waited for the meeting to start, I heard President Araujo jamming out on the piano to Joseph Smith´s First Prayer. That´s when it clicked, the way he acted, the way he dressed, the way he played the piano. He reminded me of  grown-up version of Chad! It was so cool. We had an orientation meeting and I met my trainer, Elder Savage. He´s been out one year and six months. He is a great missionary. 

 

We are in a suburb called Cheebow (That´s not how you spell it, but that´s the way it sounds) He says in 3 weeks we will have a baptism for sure. After the orientation, Elder Savage, his old companion Elder Shaw, and I waited outside the chapel for like an hour for the ward mission leader to pick us up. He took us to the market, where Elder Shaw got meat and bread and Elder Savage took my bags to the house. From there we went to the ward mission leader´s home and met with his family, 2 kids that Elder Savage and Elder Shaw just baptized on Sunday and their mom who isn´t a member. They had a small lesson, which I didn´t really understand. Then the family wanted to take pictures with Elder Shaw. I offered to take them, but they refused, they told me I had to be in the pictures too. Which was really cool. Very loving people. 

 

After that we walked home. Our condo is small. Maybe a little bigger than our living room total. It´s freezing because Curitiba gets COLD during the winter and no one has heaters in their home. I changed into my sweat pants, and sweat shirt and went to bed. I was so exhausted. 

 

This morning we woke up, met the Bishop and his second counselor and Elder Shaw left. Elder Savage said to take this P-day to rest because we are going to be working very hard the rest of the week. I can´t wait. 

 

I love you all so much. I hope everything is going well. I know that God hears our prayers and answers them. He loves us so much. More than we can imagine and He wants to bless us. I know that this is His work and that we are bringing His children to Christ. Which is a comforting thought. I love you all and my thoughts and prayers go out to you all. Remember: Through Christ we can do ALL things. I love you and God bless. Don´t stop believing! Because I can´t do it on my own!

Con Amor!!
Elder Nathan Palmer Askins!

Letter # 8: Once There Was A Way.... To Get Back Homeward...

Dearest family! I love you all so much.

To save on time, I´m going to write my whole email here and not divide it. You can put it on the blog. That was just an FYI. I want to say thanks to Lauren, Alex, and Heidi, Nanie (2 letters!) Erica, Audrey and Katie! A wonderful week! Thank you all for the letters. The encouragement is great!

I had a few crazy wonderful experiences! Last p-day, after I emailed, (If you remember we got on extra early, well, more early than usual) it was weird because we weren´t planning on emailing, but for some reason, we did. Well afterward, we went shopping and I had to stop by the bank. We were at the ATM and I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I looked over and the security guard was standing right next to us. He asked "What church do you go to?" We said, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are representatives of Jesus Christ." He asked, "Don´t you have your own Bible?" We said, "No, we believe in the bible. We also believe in The Book of Mormon." He said, "I want one, can you go get me one? WE SPRINTED DOWN THE STREET. We ran into the guy that makes scripture cases and  he asked us why we were in a hurry. we said, someone wants a Book of Mormon. He pulls one out and says GO GO GO! SO we walked back to the bank and gave it to him. He asked us to write our feelings down about the Book of Mormon for him, So we did. What a tender mercy of the Lord. It was a very cool experience.

This Friday we went proselyting in downtown São Paulo. It was a wonderful experience. We passed out 7 Livro De Mórmons; (Leev-row Gee More-mons) It was awesome. We even gave one to a guy smoking weed. (In all fairness, we thought it was just a cigarette until we walked up) And we ran into a group of ladies on break at work (They reminded me of mom and her friends at work) We asked them if they had heard of our church. One said yes, the four others said no. The lady who said yes had a Book of Mormon and the others didn´t. We gave them each a book and told them about it. We realized that we were one short. The lady who didn´t receive one asked, Where is mine!? I want one. WE RAN TO ELDER BRAZELL AND ELDER OLSON (Other missionaries in our district whom I love. They are like my best friends) They came with us and we gave them the last Book of Mormon. One of the ladies (Not knowing the importance of the book) set it on top of the trash can. As we were leaving, I turned around and bore my testimony to her of the importance of the book. I told her I have grown closer to Christ through the Book of Mormon and that my family and I have become so much more happier because of it. She looked at me in the eyes and I could tell my testimony touched her. She picked it up off the trash can and started reading it. It has been a wonderful week.

Don´t worry about me here in Brazil. I am more than fine. I love you all. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it! And this work is true. I don´t know if I´ll be able to email next week due to traveling to Curitiba, but please pray more me and my district. We are going to our Missions this week. I love you all. Don´t You DARE Stop Believing.

Letter # 7- You´ve Gotta Swim, Swim For You´re Life

Dear Family and Friends,                  

 

Oh how I love you all so much! It´s been an interesting week. I don´t know if i told you, but The International Director of all the MTCs was here last and we were able to hear from him. Elder Groom, my companion was actually in his ward back in Utah. It was pretty awesome. 

 

I don't have much time because the computer kept kicking me off when I would open up and send emails. It´s super annoying. I hope everyone back home is doing well! Thank you to everyone who has written me, especially Nanie and Lauren and Heidi! The letters were great! It was just what I needed. 

 

Yesterday (Monday) Our district decided to have an English Fast. Meaning we went the whole day without speaking English. It was super hard but really awesome. It was hard because I couldn´t express myself exactly how I wanted to, but I´m getting a lot better at listening and being able to speak. I liked it because it was hard, like doing the 70 mile bike ride. Even though I struggled through it so much, I made it through and I know for myself that I can do hard things. 

 

One Saturday, we had something called TRC. Which is where we go downstairs and they have native brazilians in a room. You knock on the door and they (speaking in portuguese) do a simulation of visiting an investigator. We showed up knowing that they had a problem and we had to figure out the porblem but getting to know them, then share a message from the Book of Mormon with them. All in Portuguese. You do this for 10 minutes, being filmed. After that, you watch the video and then a teacher corrects you and then you do it again. It was really fun. I loved it. 

 

Has anyone else received their mission calls? I´m sorry i don´t have much time. The weather here is beautiful. It´s getting very cold. Thnak you so much to the Broughs for the scarf! It is so great and awesome! I love it! Thanks to Allie too for the sweater. I love you all so much and I wish I had more time. But I have to get off. I can´t wait until I talk to you next week! I love you all so much!--- Elder Askins!!!

Letter #6: He Lives In You

Dear Family and Friends!!!--- This week has been the best week yet. The Lord is continuing to bless the missionaries here in the CTM. Right now the Director over all the MTCs in ALL the world is here and he happened to be in the same ward back home as my companion. So we got to meet him. My friends Elder Gessel and Elder Jackson taught him how to say cool beans in Portuguese. hahah They are goofy.

It's been a wonderful week. Congrats Sam on the Mission call to Mexico! That is so awesome!The biggest thing that has happened to me lately was last Friday we had the chance to go proselyting. I was so nervous because it was our first time teaching people about the Book of Mormon. In real life. But the Lord loves His missionaries! We walked out of the CTM. Me and Elder Groom had 7 Livro De Mormons to pass out. We were pretty nervous. We had like 2 or 2 and a half hours. We walked around for about 10 minutes and finally got the courage to talk to a lady and she waved her arm and said Nao Tempo (No time) so we walked around and saw a man standing outside a shop so we went up and I introduced us and told him we were representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and talked to him. He ended up being an evangelical minister for 40 years. We talked with him. He pulled out his bible.  He asked about a lot of things and we couldn't understand most of it. He said "Well how do you know?" I looked at him and in Portuguese I said "My Portuguese is not very well. I don't know how to say a lot of things and I have not been a minister for 40 years, but I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I know that it has made my life better and my family better and that Joseph Smith is a prophet." We bore our testimony and offered a Livro De Mormon to him. He accepted! We walked out of his store confident because it was so hard! We walked down the street a little more and saw 2 cute old ladies (in their 60's) walking down the street. We walked up to them and in Portuguese I said "Hi, we are missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ. We are from America and we came here to learn Portuguse so we could tell you an important message." They said they wanted to hear! My companion told them about the Book of Mormon and he bore his testimony. Then he told them about how it has made his family a lot happier. Then I concluded with my testimony. I asked them if they wanted a Book of Mormon and they said they did but they didn't have any money and we told them it was free. They got this wonderful excited look on their face and hugged us! (good thing they were old ladies!) They were so happy to get a Book fo Mormon. We talked to more and more people and the Lord helped us remember what we had learned. It was the coolest feeling. He truely filled our mouths and opened our ears. I know that the Lord lives and that He loves us. I love the Book of Mormon!

Com Amor, Elder Nathan Askins

Happy Mother's Day (early)

Elder Askins sent his mama some pictures from Sao Paulo for Mother's Day.

We LOVE our missionary!

Letter #5 Living on a Prayer

                                                                
Ola Family and Friends! I love you all so much! This past week has been so amazing! I still love every second of being a missionary.

I just want to start off by saying thank you so much for the letters of love and encouragement! Thank you to Nanie, Sandra, Sami, Dallas, and Erica! I loved all the letters.

Now next order of business. Eric Wayne Whitlock! You leave on your mission tomorrow! I am so excited for you. You will love every second of it! There is an elder here from Billings, Montana! You will love it! You are so awesome and will be the best missionary ever. You are so prepared and I know you will move mountains. My thoughts and prayers have been with you. I don´t know if you're nervous about going, but if you are- you have no reason to. You will be amazing and the Lord will provide for you now. Like my dad said in my letter this week, He will be on your right hand and your left. He's on mine.

This week has been fantastic. So many wonderful experiences I don't know where to begin. This Friday my district is going prosolyting! I'm nervous because I am horrible at getting to know someone in Portuguese. But I know the Lord will provide. Yesterday in class, each companionship was given a scenario. We felt prompted to teach about the Plan of Salvation or Plano de Salvaçao. We planned a great lesson about our life before earth, on earth, and after our life on earth. I felt comforted to know that through Heavenly Father's plan, we can be with our families forever. As we got ready to teach we found out the lesson had to be in Portuguese. Talk about nervous!!!! But we walked in, said a bajillion prayers and started teaching. We were teaching Elders Gessel and Wells. Well, the lesson was very butchered. It took a long time because you have to think of what you want to say in English, then translate and conjugate to Portuguese and then say it. So it was hard, but Elder goom and I remembered the words that we needed to say. And at the end when we bore our testimony, the Spirit flooded into the room and it was so strong. Even in another language.  It was a wonderful experiance.  

I know that Christ lives and that Heavenly Father lives and loves us. The Book Of Mormon is true and the Church is true. Joseph Smith was a true prophet! I love this gospel. And I love you.          

Elder Nathan Askins!