Week #14 The Gospel is True.........

This is the first three of the family to be baptized and the other three will be baptized this coming Saturday! I would rather baptize families all day every day!!!  We are finding lots of success and we are down to 4 baptisms away from accomplishing our stake!! 

Pedro is the smallest, Adonis is the middle size and José is the dad, And Elder Carter is the other Elder.

 this is the family that will be baptized this next weekend.

And here are some pictures of our road/river.

 Can someone send me a canoe for my birthday?

We told him to stop playing in the water and this was his response:

 Mom that is the only way to get through our area. It is either walk or be disobedient and stay in a house all day. :) And yes the boots are very helpful! My feet stayed dry all but that day. :)  

 We then asked if the other Baptisms would count towards the Brethren they needed to make a Stake:   he said;

No the other three wont because they have to adult males for the stake leadership type stuff. Melchizedeke  priesthood holders. (Don’t judge my spelling, I couldn't spell that word Melchizedek before in English and now it is in Spanish in my head) :)  

We asked how the investigators were coming:

We have 39 progressing investigators as of last night. The goal set by the area 70 is for all companionship's to have 50 so we are aiming for that! The health is getting better. The language is coming really well! They put me out with a new elder that has been out for  a week the other night and things went really well so I am feeling really good with my Spanish even though I still have a long ways to go!

 We went to a waterfall today and so here are a few pictures of it! It was really cool! In one of the emails it has pictures of me behind it and one from on top. There is also one of a monkey and a scorpion that was on a coconut I picked up and felt like I should set it down. After I set it down a scorpion crawled out of it so that was a good prompting right? :)

He said that he still loves the country and they people. 

 Elder Ferrin's Birthday is October 24th it would be wonderful if he received 

a card, note or a letter from any of you!!

His address is :

Elder Austin Ferrin

Mision Costa Rica San Jose 

Apartado Postal 249-2010

San Jose, Costa Rica 

Centro America 

Week #13 Week without rain........

Hey family and friends,

 Well it has been another week already and I cannot believe it! The time here is flying by so fast it is almost scary! I am still loving the country, and the people! This week was a little frustrating because both of our baptisms fell through, one was because we don't have parent permission and the other is because she doesn't even let us talk to her any more. she just slams the door shut but we are still going to try and work with her. anyways I guess we are doing good work down here because when we walk into the neighborhood that we are finding the most work you can usually here some kid or guy yell " mormones misionarios!!!!" and then a bunch of doors will shut and no one will answer the door. ha ha I love it!!! The people didn't even know who we were two weeks ago!! :) anyways we are finding a lot of families and this last week my companion and I got 23 investigators to the conference in the chapel! We are finding tons and tons of success down here and the people are so great! My first baptism Krystal is still going on splits with the sister missionaries every day all week and it is so much fun to see her do her own missionary work and the excitement that she has to share the gospel! she has got about all of her family coming to church and reading the book of Mormon now! But anyways things here are like heaven! except I imagine heaven is less sweaty... ;) anyways the work here is going great and i hope that you all back home are loving life! help you local missionaries please! the good investigators are always references from members. ALWAYS! anyways take care and i hope you all learned something from conference! 

Take care and when your day is going bad just share your testimony with someone  and i promise your day will get better. 

Elder Ferrin

 here is a quick picture of a pretty sunset

this is the what the Hermana did during conference weekend

the sunset

More sunset

Elder Ferrin  in the Jungle

Week # 12 And the rain came down.......

 The work is going great! I had another baptism this last week so I definitely cannot complain! We are getting about 3 feet of rain every day and sometimes more. so today I will finally have the chance to go buy some boots. The streets are just a river and there is nowhere else to walk except in the middle of the road, its not bad until you find a hole and you sink up to your waist unexpectedly... :) this is everyday in our areas. we could of taken another road but the house we needed to get to was surrounded by the river so we just had to go swimming.

here is my baptism and by the way the elder that is in the picture before is my old zone leader that was changed today. He and I were on divisions together when it rained and the river happened, but anyways this guy in the baptismal picture puts us at two Melchizedek priesthood holders away from a stake!!! We are going to get that stake and it is going to be a stake well done! :)

Week #11 Another great week.....

words from Elder Ferrin:

                           So this last week was a really good week for my companion and I we had 2 more baptisms.   I only baptized one of them, the other one wanted the elder that knows Justin Bieber (obviously not me) to baptize her. Elder Carter and I went on splits once and he sang some Justin Bieber for her... 

Words From Mom:

 Elder Ferrin sent us an email this week but,  was short due to his time.  He said that he is doing great and loves the people and that his Spanish is getting better. He shared a very spiritual experience about the Priesthood power and how he witnessed  a miracle that involved a couple very young children.

When he is ready to share we will tell more.  I am a amazed  how the Lord can take these young men & young women and turn them into some of the most wonderful Missionaries.  I am so thankful for the way they teach, it makes me want to try harder to be better.  

 

Elder Ferrin in the street after it rains, he said that this is a normal day.  

They do not have gutters so the Rain just puddles up.  

He said that the Rainy season is just starting.

(I thought I taught him better than that,  you are not to play in the water in church clothes)

P-day at the Beach

Elder Sosa & Elder Ferrin 

Elder Ferrins 2nd Baptism

Week # 10 First Baptism..........

Elder Ferrin had his first baptism on September 14th ......

Well I have been super busy but as you can tell it payed off.... :) I found her with my comp. and taught her all the lessons and she is so excited about the gospel she is going on divisions all week with the sister missionaries!! We are going to baptize her sister, cousin this next Saturday and also we are marrying a couple and baptizing them next Saturday. All are investigators that we found and taught together!

Well for all of you out there I just want to share real quickly that this gospel is true! I know you all know it and that you don't need another missionary telling you but that is just what I am going to do! I love this gospel and especially I love the chance to share it!!! I see miracles everyday and find more every time I step out of our house! This week my most easily recognizable miracle was my first baptism. The young lady named Krystal I met my first week and we started teaching her. This last week she asked if she could be baptized a week sooner than planned and so we bumped her up a week and with a little bit of preparation she was ready, she asked if I could be the one to baptize her and so I got that wonderful blessing yesterday. I did it in Spanish and didn't even mess it up :) well any ways I know you are all busy but I want everyone to know that the joy from helping someone find the gospel is far greater than any fear we may about sharing it for fear of looking "weird" to others. You know how weird it probably looks to some people seeing a skinny white boy soaked to the bone in the rain, in slacks and shirt and tie, muddy and whistling hymns as he walks??? Trust me I get plenty of strange looks, but who cares!!!! This is so much fun. Alright I will stop preaching to the choir but please try and share the gospel if nothing else than by your actions and example. 

Elder Ferrin

the Costa Rica cowboy

Week # 9 Loving Life.....................

   Elder Ferrin Sounds like he is doing great, last week there was an earth quake but he said that they didn't even notice.  Also he said that they had a troop of Howler Monkeys that were outside his apartment and they were so loud that they woke them up. 

Here is his latest news from Costa Rica:

           I am loving it here still! even though it is the equivalent of 100 degrees Fahrenheit here all day and everyday! I sweat non stop but it just makes getting into every house that much better!! :) so this last week I got the blessing of attending the temple with my companion for one of his families that went through the temple to be sealed. the temple here is absolutely beautiful!!! It is very small but is so pretty!! also guess who I saw when we were in the temple? Elder Beck!! You know the general young men's president for the church? Ya him and his wife stopped and talked to us! Doing the session in the temple was such a spiritual experience! Spanish was a little difficult but it was such a wonderful blessing and so many things stick out differently when you go through in Spanish!! I have 18 progressing investigators with my companion and 8 still planned for the 20th of this month! The lord has his hand in Costa Rica and I can tell!  Our families are so prepared to be taught!! I am shocked by the willingness of some of these people everyday!! But this last week the only thing new was the temple and I also went and got my finger prints done so I could be a resident. Also if someone sent me a dear elder it never showed up at the mission home FYI. I will be in San Jose in a week again. I am kind of tired of the five and a half hour bus ride into the city. But that is the only thing here I have yet to enjoy! Walking everywhere is making me skinny too :) it is about an hour and a half walk everyday from our house to the end of our area where we work everyday. Usually in the rain, but anyways i am loving it here and my testimony is growing everyday so much!! I hope you all know that  I know this church is the one and only true Church and I wish you all the best!! Love you all! 

Elder Ferrin

He is doing a wonderful job!!

Week # 8 Wonderful things this week.............

so here in guanacaste costa rica things are going great!!!!! i love the work and the people could not get any better! so i would like to share a little story to explain how much i love this place...

 so first off the last week has been great. 12 more people have baptismal dates and they all are on track still but we were having a hard time doing work with the members and no one wanted to help us so we were haveing a hard time with it all... we were praying, fasting, being 100% obedient and then some. there was litterally nothing else we could do. we had a day where all of our appointments fell through and i just was very discouraged. we worked for two days in the rain getting soaked and nothing was going right like it should be. but we kept working and being obedient like i needed to be and i somehow knew things would work out ok. well as we went through the park on our way home friday night we did some contacts because we hadnt quite made it to our goal for the day and i felt a need to go talk to a little family that was walking through the park so we started over there and after we talked to him and had set up an appointment i bore my testimony on eternal families and he was extremely excited to know about it and wanted us to come teach him as soon as possible!! well that was a big boost of energy and we started saturday with a new found energy! well it rained most of the morning and we got started in the light rain and lots of thunder. (which we decided not to carry our umbrella after the lightning struck a tree next to us....) so we were soaked but we went and walked about 10 miles (is what my companion and i figure after looking at our map saturday night) and invited all of our investigators to church. well sunday came and we had about 8 people in church and that was a huge blessing for us! following that we had a referal given to me and elder soza by the old branch president. well as we walked home after lunch to do some study time we walked through that same park and my companion and i felt impressed to talk to a man sitting there and came to find out that he was actually our referral!!! odd huh? well after that we invited him to the late night branch sacrament for those that have to work on sunday mornings and he came with his new fiance. so after we gave him a tour of the church and when we got to the picture of christ being baptized by john the baptist in the church i explained what it was. he asked if that is how we baptized, i said yes, and after looking at his wife he said to me "quiero ser bautisado en este iglesia" well... i dont speak a lot of spanish but i understand enough to know that means "i want to be baptised in this church." well i thought i had heard him wrong so i look at my companion with my usual confused look and he looks back with that same confused look and we both just instantly bust up laughing!!!! well as we are laughing and trying to make sure that he meant what he said and this man sets up a meeting with the branch president on his own!! well needless to say that as soon as him and his wife have been to church 3 times he will be baptized with his wife! we taught him lesson one last night and lesson two tonight! THIS MAN IS PREPARED BY THE LORD all i can say is that i am blessed beyond belief!!! the lord does bless us if we do what he asks with no doubt or question why. i hope you all feel my love and are doing good wherever you are and i testify this church is true without a doubt in the name of jesus christ amen.

Elder Ferrin

the costa rican cowboy.

ps. this photo is one my companion took of my tracting the bus today on our way to the beach