Week # 25 Good Bye 2014.......... Its been a good year!!!

Well hello and welcome back to the life of Elder Ferrin!

 I hope that you guys had a great week and that you enjoyed Christmas with snow and with all the fun that goes on this time of year. Grandpa I think you would enjoy it down here because you could ride your horse all year long the only problem is you would probably have to teach it to swim first. Well this week for me was fantastic and I loved getting to talk to the family! Well I found out that I was the only one who didn't cry out of the elders when they talked to their parents. Ha Ha it was pretty funny to watch them walk back into the room and see them like that. :) but ya things here are good! My district is improving and things are good. We have a slight problem with two elders who feel it is okay to sleep in.. but I addressed that today so we are good now I hope. Apart from that the district is slowly improving. December was rough here because everyone goes to the beach but now we are back to normal so we will just increase from here. We have some exciting goals for this week so we will see what we can do. 

 This is how they cooked their Christmas meal.  

Yes this is a Fan.  

 Some of the Elders and the Family that is taking care of them.

More Family

 and even More Family....

 There are some cool trees down there

they are big too.

 close up......

 Elders out walking 

 Elder Ferrin Had wonderful experience with this man, 

the Sister contacted him and then Elder Ferrin met him

Elder Ferrin Had this made for his new companion, they are scripture covers.

They teach from the New Testament & the Book of Mormon so he had a gentleman combine them and make this.

Week # 24 Feliz Navidad!‏

Well hello family and friends again! i hope you all are enjoying and finding the good in everything! i am loving the mission and my companion and i are preparing 3 families for january and i am super excited!! one family is super super prepared! we were walking and i had never payed any attention to this house we pass everyday but i never payed it any attention or really knew it was there. and then we were passing it and all of a sudden i just thought to myself "talk to her" but there was no one out side or in the road so i just thought i was crazy until a woman stepped out of her house and looked at us, sat down on the porch and smiled at us. Well we decided to talk to her about the chruch video el es la dadiva and as we were talking we began a lesson. well long story short the husband showed up a few minutes later, we taught them and invited them to the branch party on saturday, they said they would come and then we left the house. well my new companion was super super excited because they are a family of three and were super open to the message and even asked for a book of mormon after we answered the question they had of what it is. They showed up to the party saturday and after a tour of the church and talking to a few of the members they asked us what they have to do to become members and be baptized in the church!!! Well obviously we were about ready to jump up and down with joy (which may have happened after they left) and so we explained they need to know the church a little but we would love to help them with that. well they assisted the chapel on sunday and now they have a fecha for the 10th of january and we are so so so excited for them. litterally i testify that the lord is preparing people and it is just like a crop of hay. we just have to wait for the alfalfa to go grow and if we are worthy we will be the ones to harvest! 

well i love you all and i will talk to you all next week!! take care i try to look for ways to serve!

Week # 23 Welcome Back to The Wild World of Elder Ferrin

Well hello again family and friends it is great to hear from you all each week and see that life back home is still going good for you all! well this last week was pretty crazy! it is super stressful to be district leader and train at the same time for your first time! i don't have a single second of down time it is just work work work. but honestly i am loving it! my missionaries are fantastic and my new companion is super great. he is speaking with everyone around here and he is a very hard worker! his name is Elder Acuña from Tijuana Mexico. 

elder acuna and i are having a great time and he is working hard and loves to teach. I have learned a lot from him this last week! also as district leader we have the goal of 12 baptisms this month and so we are working on that. right now we are half way there and so we can still get it if we work hard and do really good followup with everyone! well aside from that for me this last week was pretty normal. tomorrow we go to the temple for a Christmas activity as a misison in San Jose. so ya that will be really fun and i can get some stuff from the temple for my converts. any who.. i hope all is well back home or wherever you all are and i hope you all know this work is the most important thing we can be apart of. so if you are not currently participating. GET TO WORK.  well i love you and thanks for all the support and prayers!

Elder Ferrin

Elder Ferrin is doing great!!

Week # 22 Well you're not going to believe it..

So how is everyone doing?? I hope things are going great and I hope you all know I love you. This last week was a crazy and great week for many reasons. I was blessed to help another great man received his ticket to salvation on sunday night right before we had our changes announced to us. This man is named Renné. Let me explain a little bit about him first. He is a man who is from Nicaragua but is here in my area building houses in a little gated community. We contacted him in the street one day as he was working and he said it would be fine if we passed by and taught him another day so we did. He received us the first day and we taught the first lesson on the restoration and he loved it. The following Sunday he arrived to church and was very excited about the church and all. The following Tuesday we taught him a little about lesson 3 which is the evangelio de jesucristo and half way through the lesson I felt to ask him how he feels about the church and he said to me this "elderes I don't think I know this church is true.  I know it is!" It was so amazing to see the spirit testify through him and it was amazing to watch the way his testimony grew so fast. Right now we are sending the directions of his house to the missionaries in Nicaragua so his wife and daughter can be baptised as well. One thing that my companion said that I liked was he told him that there is no way that any of this was a coincidence because we had elders from 3 different countries teaching a man from a separate country being taught in a country that was foreign to all of us. Which is true! There are no coincidences in this gospel!!

and this brings me to the other big news......  I received a new assignment for this next 8 weeks....

I am the new DISTRICT LEADER of my district and I as well am going to train a new Elder! Pretty exciting right??? I am leaving for the capital tonight at 4 to go pick up my new companion in the morning. I don't know who he is until tomorrow morning. I am very excited but it is also a little intimidating. I have such little time in the mission but I know that the Lord is just trying to push me out of my comfort zone so I can grow to be a better instrument in the Lord's hands. 

Aside from that I had to say bye to my trainer Elder Soza today. He ended his mission and is returning to mexico on thursday. We have  been companions for 1.5 transfers but we have been in the same house. It was tough to send him off but he left me with a lot and lot of material to study about being a better leader and how to be the best missionary. Well that is about all I have for this week so until next I will talk to you all. Take care and I love you all!! Don't forget to pray for my poor newbie. 

With love from Guanacaste Costa Rica

Elder Ferrin 

 my cocinera y family

this is reneé 

and then this is what I had made for my trainer before he left the mission from our zone.

Zone conference.......

This week we our email was short again, here are some pictures I received from facebook.

What a wonderful looking group of Missionaries

Week # 21 December on the Beach.......

His email was short this week he said they are still on track with baptisms and that he is doing great.  They have had over 200 baptisms and that is a record for his mission I am not sure it that is in a month or what I will have to ask.  He seems like things are great.

He has been to the beach again this week.

 Elder Carter & Elder Ferrin

 Baby Turtle

 This was there Thanksgiving dinner

We are hoping for a big email next week

Week # 19 Its a ZOO down here...............

I see you have found a zoo in Costa Rica?

yes it is owned by a member so we got to go on a 80 dollar tour for 8 dollars! I have a video of me feeding the giraffe from my mouth but it is too big to send. I need to find how to use drop box so I can show it to you guys! :) and by the way the lady that sent the friend request is from my cocinera. our cook and she is a really great lady and they wouldn't ask for money. they just want to be friends with mom. 

That is what we were hoping was the case.  Mom accepted the request and hopefully we will be able to communicate with her on occasion.   I will wait for your big email if you send one out.

I don't think I will have time this week. We don't have very much time today. I have to spend the night in San Jose with the other elders because we have a multi zone meeting tomorrow at 8 am so we have to leave and spend the night in San Jose... it kinda sucks 5 hour bus and sleeping on the floor... 

Ya that does sound kind of sucky.  So how goes the work and all the usual questions?  Any suggestions for Christmas other than razors and slacks?  I'm still trying to figure out how much room she will have to bring you stuff.  Not sure if it will be a little or a lot.

If you can send a fishing reel and a small pole the rest of the stuff here is not too expensive & lures would be great! honestly I really am dying for the jack links teriyaki jerky! Some smaller pants would be great because I have been running and now my pants are too big and I have to bunch them up in the back. :)

I have already planned on the jerky, several bags if she has room, a fishing reel with spiderwire if it isn't too much, a collapsible pole, and a few lures.  How much small pants?  You said you have 30 waist and 32 length right?  Can you get razors if you need?  How about other candy or snacks or just a bunch of jerky?  I can make some elk jerky and vacuum seal it if you want.

Iots of jerky and that should do it. 32 waist and 34 length is what I would need and if you find some dark colored basketball shorts so no one knows how bad I am sweating. thank you! I am close to out of time today. is there something else that you needed answered?

I just got the video from mom.  You look really good.  Probably the best kiss you have had since you left.

Ya it was a good kiss.... I guess. she was kinda sloppy. I'm used to a little better kisser than that. alright I will talk to you next week. love you!