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    

Letter #26- "The Spirit of God like a fire is spread."

So this week´s title is taken from a cd I think that is entitled "Joseph." It´s a tribute to Joseph and the men and women who were a part of the Restoration! It is amazing! I love it. It is really great! I really enjoy it!

So this week has been great! We had a goal in our district to work harder and double our efforts. This week we doubled the amount of contacts we did and we doubled the lessons we taught. We found 3 really awesome people who we are helping prepare for baptism. When we started teaching one about Joseph Smith and about how he had a question about Which church was true, She said, "Elder Askins, I was just praying today about which church was true." The Lord really does prepare people, we just have to find them.

We are working a lot with the members. They sure do love us. As I explained in an earlier email, I have taken the nickname of "Bahiana." hahahaa It´s pretty funny.

The gift of tongues is real! Let me tell you a wonderful experience that happened to me!  SO last Wednesday we were informed that we were to speak in Sacrament meeting. We got to arrange who would speak and it was about missionary work. So we picked a returned sister missionary to speak, a sister who was preparing to leave, the Ward Mission leader, and Elder Paiva and I. Bishop asked me to be the concluding speaker. BUT when we showed up to church the returned sister missionary couldn´t make and the Ward Mission Leader said he wasn´t going to speak. so that left like 45 minutes to the sister preparing, Elder Paiva and me. The sister had prepared a 3 minute talk. She spoke for 5. Elder Paiva spoke for about 15 minutes. We sang a hymn. All and all, it left me with 30 minutes of speaking. In Portuguese with about 2 minutes of notes I had taken. Before church started bishop said, "Oh Elder Askins, You have a lot to teach us today!?" I said "I HOPE SO".

So with a HUGE prayer in my heart, I started speaking. It was the best talk I have ever given. I spoke for the 30 minutes and I had to cut my thoughts short because of the time. It was a wonderful experience. The words just came to me. I spoke perfectly. It was amazing to feel the Spirit speak through me. Wow.

Another funny experience, this one is for everyone, but I know Audrey will think this is cool. So I have started a habit (accidentially) of talking in my sleep. My companion says I will wake him up in the middle of the night teaching. I will be speaking in Portuguese and then switch to English and then back to Portuguese. At first I didn´t believe him, but a few mornings ago we had this conversation:

Elder Paiva: Who is ´so and so´?

Me: How do you know I know a ´so and so´?

Elder Paiva: You were talking about them in your sleep last night. I understood only a part. you were switching from english to portuguese."

I never talked with him about this person before. hahahaha  How funny is that!

So we are working really hard here. The work is going great, and just so you know I joined the dark side. I bought crocks. hahahahaha they are red.

I love you all so much! I hope that everything back home is going great! I love you all so much!

Happy Halloween, Dia dos Mortos, e My seventh month mark!

I love you!

Com Amor!

-Elder Askins

Some pictures from October

Elder Askins sent us these from teaching in the month of October.

Is he helping in the kitchen?  (I'm taking notes for when he gets home.)

Missionaries in his district

Please note all of his ties to the right... Looks like a fun apartment to me.

Letter #25- He Fed A Thousand With One Loaf of Bread..

I saw Him raise a child from the dead. He healed the sick. The blind saw His eyes. The Lame man stood and joyous were his cries and he said, "Nations fall behind Him, the rivers crawl to find Him. Mountains move, just to let Him through. Come and never leave Him. Just let your heart believe Him. Never let His light go. Never let your love grow dim!"

Hello my dear family,

Oh how I love you. Thanks for all of your prayers. It really has helped and I have felt them. So this week has been great. Last Wednesday after P-day, we visited the Ward Mission Leader. He scared me because he said the problems with missionaries in the past was that he felt that they were unprepared. Well, that freaked me out a lot. We were with another companionship, our district leader and his companion. Afterward we went home and I talked with our district leader, Elder Braz. He could tell what the ward mission leader said freaked me out. He has helped me out a lot with some good techniques at finding people. It´s been a great week. 

My companion, Elder Paiva, has been great! He really has a desire to be the best missionary ever and he is. The only problem he has is with my name. hahha He thinks it´s Elder Asker and i think it´s so funny that i don´t correct him. But we have been working hard. It´s been great. We have been meeting with all the members of the ward and they really are so loving and love the missionaries. The bishop here is great! We had lunch with the 1st counselor one day. He was great and liked us a lot. At church he was conducting and he introduced us. He said "This is Elder Askins, He is from Bahia." (It´s a state in Brazil that is really hot and has pretty much only black people.) The ward thought it was hilarious. Needless to say, I have taken the nickname as Elder Bahia or The Bahian or something along those lines.

As you probably guessed from my last email, I was pretty freaked out at all my new responsibilities and I was that way until Sunday. During Sunday, during one of the classes the teacher shared a scripture in Jeramiah. Jeramiah 1:5-10. I think that is was written for me. Read it, it was just what I needed to hear. Needless to say, this Sunday was pretty spiritual for me. I also had the privelidge to help bless the sacrament for the first time in Portuguese. It was really neat. 

We´ve been meeting with a lot of members.Everyday when we leave the house we have to say to each other, "Okay, I know the Lord has prepared at least 5 people to hear our message today, now let´s go and find them!" And it´s turned into something kind of really fun. We´ve been applying fun techniques to finding and teaching. Like yesterday, we were out knocking doors and I got this idea. I said "Elder Paiva, I have an idea... follow my lead." Hahahaha so we knocked a door and this lady came out. I said "Hey my name is Elder Askins, what is the name of the senhora" She responded. I said "It is super hot today, could we have a glass of water?" She went inside and came back out with a glass of water.  I started chatting with her about life and then I said, "So we are missionaries with a super special message. It´s only like 10 minutes, could we share it with you right now?" And she said yes. hahaha so I don´t know if that is sneaking and not good to do. but it was a cool experience. Oh how I love the mission.

So I love you all so much. I have been thinking a lot this week about how blessed we are. We really are. I love you all so much. And I know it seems sometimes like 2 years is a long time and sometimes 2 years seems like a really long time. but it´s not really. We´ve got eternity.  I love you all so much!

Com Amor

-Elder Nathan Askins

P.S. The gift of tongues is REAL!

Letter #24- I can´t stand to think about

A heart so big it hurts [real bad]. All I did was give my best before three whole [months] would end like that.
Well my dear family! This week has been the most eventful week of my mission. It´s been quite crazy. Let me take you back to Monday night.

 

Monday night, we had a great family night with these members in our ward. I taught them the power of prayer and the way the Lord can help us through our burdens. It was about Mosiah 24. Great chapter of the Book of Mormon. Well, we got a call from our Zone Leaders that said we need you to come home now we have an emergancy. So we left and Elder Duarte called them again and asked what was wrong. All I could hear was Elder Duarte say, "No way! No! No Way! Okay, I´ll tell him. He won´t believe me." So he hangs up the phone and says, Congratulations Elder Askins! What? Congrats? Why? He said, the President had to make an emergancy transfer. You are leaving. "Where?" Xaxim. "Where is that?" I´m not too sure. It´s been closed for a while. You are gonna be opening it. "What? How!? I´m just a junior companion." Well, you were. you are now a senior companion. congrats! "Who is my companion?" I don´t really know. You are gonna train him. "A trainer?" Well, more or less. he hasn´t gone through the MTC yet. He is a member of the stake who has been set apart as a missionary because we need missionaries.

 

Yesterday, Tuesday I prayed harder than I ever have before. I was so scared and nervous and everything. I got on my knees and cried "Father are you there? because I need you now more than ever before. You have called me to do something really hard and I can´t do it alone. I need Thee to help me."

 

A little later that day I received a phone call from President Cordon himself (Which never happens) he said "Elder Askins, I was just feeling like I needed to talk to you and explain a little better that was happening." We had a good long talk and he reassured me. We went to his house at 3 for the new elders training meeting. I had another meeting with President Cordon. He reassured me this was because God and him have faith in me and trust me. How humbling! He said that we need elders to step up to the plate and I can do this. Later, I think everyone knew how freaked out I was. 

 

Sister Cordan pulled me aside and said something that really struck me. She said "Elder Askins, you have a great oppurtunity. You are teaching a man to walk on water." I have been thinking about that statement a lot. I know that this transfer will be really hard, but I have faith in the One who issued my call that I can do all things. I feel like Nephi when he was asked by an angel, "Do you know what this means." And he said "I do not know all things, but I know God loves His children." I feel like Moses who,when he was given his call to be the prophet said "Lord , how can I do this? I am slow of speech." Because I truly am slow of speech

 

I know anything is possible with the Lord. I love you all. Until next week.

com amor,

Elder Askins

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

Letter #23- Do You Feel?

The weight of the world singing sorrow?
Dear Family of mine,
I love you all so much! And I miss you so much too. But it´s like dad said in one of his emails to me, the fruit of patience is love and I have never loved you all as much as I love you right now! And that love will just keep on growing.

So this week has been great! We worked super super hard and we had the highest number we have had this entire transfer. It´s been a good week and everything was great. Last week I wrote you that Alexandro´s family asked me to confirm him. That happened on Sunday. Thank you for all your prayers because I felt it. I was super super nervous. But the confirmation went great! I said all the words I needed to say and it was really wonderful.

These past few weeks we have been teaching a boy named Markus. He has 16 years. But we and everyone in the ward calls him Markinhos. Which, in Portuguese, means little Markus or beloved Markus. He is great! We have been teaching him and he accepted the date to be baptized this weekend. On Thursday night he said "So what exactly do you guys do?" And so we explained to him what we do during the day and he said "Could I accompany you tomorrow?" So he did! He showed up and we went and taught some people. The next day, we were having lunch at his neighbors house and he comes strolling up in a white collered shirt and slacks with a backpack and his Book of Mormon that we gave him. He was grinning. He said, "Sorry but I don´t have a tie." So he went with us on Saturday too. Half-way through the day, we stopped by our house to grab something and I ran in and grabbed one of my favorite ties. It´s one that Lorin Hatch gave me. I came out and gave it to him and told him how I loved this tie and that it was a present to him. He loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. We were walking down the street and these girls passed us and they were giggling. I asked him if they knew them? And he said yeah. I asked him why they were giggling and he said, no one has ever seen me dressed up like this before. On Sunday, he accompanied us again. We love him and he loves us.

That night we taught about how we have a prophet now in these days.  That just as in ancient days God called prophets and talked with them face to face and that we have a prophet on the earth today and he speaks to God face to face. The the prophet will be speaking to us this weekend! He looked up at us and said "Elder Askins, thats pretty cool that God called a prophet to talk to us now adays."

This past week has been good. I, like most of you, am super super excited for conference. Be grateful you live in a country so close to the prophet. Our Saturday session doesn´t start until 1 and the second session starts at 5 with priesthood session starting at 9 at night.

I just have one more thought about conference. This one goes out to my good friend Don Brough. I love you so much Brother Brough. We had an experience together, that I don´t think you even remember, but I will remember forever. We were at Aaronic Priesthood encampment and we were doing an activity where we all had blindfolds on. I couldn´t see a thing and we didn´t have any ropes to hold onto or anything. We had to make it back to the camp. We were supposed to listen to voices that would lead us back home. I started my journey back and I saw someone flashing a light, I figured it was one of our leaders directing us. As I got closer I heard a voice I had never heard before saying, "This way, come this way." Of course, I followed. I took ONE STEP toward him and I heard Don Brough calling after me. "Nathan! Nathan! Not that way, follow my voice! Come this way. Don´t listen to them." And for the rest of the activity, I listened to Don guide me.

That is like the prophet we have now today. We hear his voice, we know his voice, he will lead us and guide us. He will give us the words of God if we listen for him and heed his counsel.
I love you all so much, I am so thankful for everyone of you. I am grateful for our Savior. I love you all so much!
"Don´t Stop Believing."
-Elder Nay