Week # 55 New Zone Los Yoses........

Hello family and friends sorry for not writing many group letters lately but oh well what can ya do. :)  but for the new information I have been changed and now I am in a new zone and in the mountains of San Jose. It is super pretty and the weather is amazing! For the first time in my whole mission I have been able to leave my house to work and I am not sweating like a stuck hog. I love that part. In my new area it is really great and the missionary work is progressing fantastically! My new companion is from guatemala and his name is Elder Chub (pronounced Choob) and he is really great. We are going to baptize like crazy and my Zone is so great. It is a big change to change to come from my other zone where there were no sister missionaries to a new zone where there are mostly sister missionaries, but I love it. This week we had Elder Ochoa from the area seventy come to our stake conference and divided the stake and I got to talk to him for a few minutes personally which was pretty amazing to me As well.  My new area since it is mountains is absolutely insane! We climb up the mountain on stairs and the stairs are insanely steep and well it is just tough to explain, but I have no idea how they construct houses on the mountain side like they do. But to see the amount of people in just one little mountain makes me happy because there are some many people ready to hear the gospel. This month we have high hopes to baptise and I know we will if we are obedient and work with love. I love you all and I hope that you all are studying the scriptures! Please take care and I will try to write more next week! 

Elder Ferrin

One of the normal sets of stairs
another of the normal sets ( there are much worse sets of stairs but I didn't get a chance to take a picture yet, instead of streets we have flights of stairs in the area... )
#calvesofsteel

The family that I almost baptised all of them.... we only are missing one from the picture!

New friend in the central park

 

View from his apartment

Week #54 Changes

Well guess what!? I have changes! CRAZY right?? I didn't think that I was going to leave so early. But well here I am in San Jose. I got changed to an area called Tirrases but I am in a new area and I was changed from the Zone Leader in Limon to Zone Leader in a zone called Los Yoses. I am really excited for my new assignment and Ii hope that things go well for the zone. I will miss my last area but... I am really excited to be in an area that is actually cold at night and IN THE MOUNTAIN!! That is right I will be in the mountains is what they say. So yes I am a little excited about that. Anyways, last night we received the changes right before I went to a recent convert families house. The family that I baptised back in May, well we went and told them that I will be leaving and it was a little tough because the mom started to cry and everyone got a little sad but then we had a nice little treat and I went home to pack my stuff.

 Also as you may have heard, Elder Cuevas from Mexico passed away last Wednesday morning. We had the Assistants to President with us in the house and when we received the call that Elder Cuevas was unconscious we all decided to pray and,l After some frantic calls we received the news that sadly Elder Cuevas had already passed away long before that. So this week was a tough one for the mission. His mother was able to come down and see him one more time before they had to cremate his body which was a blessing for her. From what they tell us all is taken care of and from the sounds of things his mother and his remains will be back in Mexico this week. So long story short it was a long week. But it was also a week full of blessings and love that we felt from our Savior. For the most part things are great! My new companion  Elder Chub (you pronounce it Choob) he is from San Salvador and has been out 20 months. We are super ready to go crazy and work hard in the zone and our new area! 
Thanks for all you all do!
I love you ALL!

Elder Ferrin


P.S. 
 I forgot to tell you last week but someone stole my tennis shoes! I had them locked inside the gate and someone made a nifty little pole thing and pulled them out of the gate while we slept along with a few other minor things. The guy was even nice enough to leave the pole for us to see how he did it. 

Dont worry I asked Elder Ferrin to send Pictures this missionary Mom is Dying for some too.

Week # 53 Hola!!

                            Hello family! How are things going back home?? I am glad to hear that you guys were able to asist the homecoming of President and Hermana Wilkinson! That is so cool and I am glad to hear from them! You can tell Hermana Wilkinson that I am working on showing my smile more often and I promise to get better. This week was a fairly normal and hot week. We did divisiones and things went really well! I was able to spend the two days with Elder Coca from Salvador. He is great and I hope to see them improve this coming week. Tomorrow we will have our interviews with President Hayes and  I am really excited for that, also we have a couple baptisms planned for this week. We have been preparing a few families lately and they continue to come to church and we are seeing miracles as they change. Also... this week I was absolutely dead. I could hardly scratch my back or put my backpack on... we started going to the gym this week and well.... I was soooo sore for a couple days. :) up until Saturday I was sooo tired. but I am feeling great and my health is fine. So no worry's for anyone. But that was about my week. I hope all continues to go well back home and that you all know I love you and most importantly I hope you all know how much I love this gospel and how grateful I am for the blessing of giving 2 years to complete service to the lord. There is nothing greater that I could be doing and there is nothing else I would rather do. 

Oh and ps. Jordan is in trouble because she said she would write me this week and she didnt.... 

 

Elder Ferrin

Week #52 Perezoso....... Halfway Mark...................

Well this week was a little fantastic! We had the our leadership council with the new mission President and all I can say is he is amazing! President Hayes is super loving and humble and I love him and his family already! In my area this week it has continued to be really wet and hot but of course I am loving every day. I continue to see a lot of success and feel immense joy as we find new families that are ready to embrace this gospel! In my time here I have been blessed to see many families reactivate and to help a few become members. This last week we were able to put a date for the marriage and baptism of the family of 8 that came last week and we were also able to help several other families know more. 3 families came to church this week and I honestly cannot explain the joy that it brings me to see all these families ready to receive the gospel as I do my part! Like my family said this week it's all down hill from here.   I would like to correct them a little bit... it may be down hill but it is only an invitation for me to speed up the pace. :) and thanks to all of the family for that picture it is really neat to see those type of things!  I am so glad to see that Tyler is eating my half of the hamburgers too.... :) 

But speaking of picking up the pace I have a little Spanish lesson for you guys today... so the word "perezoso" in Spanish means two things 1) lazy 2) it also is the name of an animal called a sloth. Like Sid the sloth from ice age 

Okay now that we understand that I will admit that I had a "perezoso" day last week.... (come on you know that was clever) :) but ya we saw a sloth and it was really tough to take a good picture of it in the dark but this was the best I could do for you guys. It is mostly for Tyler because he has wanted to see one since I left. 

Well I hope everyone enjoyed their fourth of July and that they know I love you all!! 

Elder Ferrin

Here is the sloth he sent us.

Jordan & Tyler sending there Brother a message

This is the Ferrins side,

 we have Family Home Evening on the first Sunday of the Month. 

 There were only about half of us there this week.  

Last week we sent him Random Pictures of the Greer side from the BBQ we had.  

Most of the pictures we of the kids running around.

Week # 51 Welcome to Atlantis!‏

HI mom and dad how are you all doing? This week was a fantastic week! It started off with us going into San Jose early on Monday because our zone reached the goal of one baptism for each missionary in the month of may so we were given breakfast from the Wilkinson family. That turned out to be a huge blessing!! If we would of left just a few hours later we would of been trapped in our zone without a way to get to the mission conference. Due to all the rain here in the region the mountain roads that take us to San Jose, were shut down. What happened is there were several mud slides from the mountain that closed off parts of the road for several days and also the rivers rose up so high that the river either washed out the bridge or washed out the edges of the bridge where the road connects with the bridge. So obviously they had to shut down almost all the bus routes for safety reasons. All the missionaries in the zone are fine and the we have not had anyone flooded yet but there have been a few close calls. So with all this crazy weather it has been hard to work in the really poor parts of my area and even more difficult for the families to get to church. Some of the families we invite have to walk through 2 feet of water to leave their flooded homes and get to the church. So to be honest many of our investigators don't even try to get to the church. It has been like that in all of the areas here in Siquirres and so on Sunday night we sent out a message to the elders telling them to do a special prayer that the rain would stop long enough to allow people to make it to church. Well all Sunday night it rained hurricane style rains but as we woke up Sunday morning we saw the first sunny day in over a week. In my area we were able to have a family of 8 show up at the church after walking over 2 miles in very muddy and dirty conditions. I am so glad to see the love and blessings that the lord gives us each and every day! After the sacrament meeting the rain continued and has continued most of the day today but I am so grateful for the small and great blessings that I see and feel each day! While in San Jose we learned a lot from President Wilkinson and his family and we were able to tell them all goodbye and that we love them. I am so grateful for the love and service that they have given here and I am going to miss them dearly but I know that our new president, President Hayes, Is going to Be even better than President Wilkinson, which will be hard to do. Also this week I was able to help another man be baptised and all I can say is that I just love my job. I hope all is well with you guys and I am saddened to hear about tiny. It breaks my heart to know I wont see him again. And dad I was planning on finding a good horse when I get back and training another one. I have been able to pull many principles out of that experience and I really have missed that opportunity of working with animals quite a bit. Can you guys believe I will be home in less than a year?? Looking at the changes I will be home in a year from last week! That scares me that I am on the down ward side of things but we will just accelerate the work with the time I guess. Well I guess I will leave you guys with this for now and send the picture in a minute. 

I love you!!! 

Elder Ferrin

 Pictures from the the Baptism 

This is the Group that went our with Elder Ferrin, 

One Year Later

 Elder Ferrins Current Zone he is in.

The current Mission before they split into 2 Missions

Week # 50 Hello & Goodbye ..................

Hi mom and dad! well this week with all the crazy stuff that is going on I am only going to take a moment to write something and send it off and then I will be back on my way. I am sitting here in San Jose and between everything that we have to arrange for the missionaries in our zone like where they are going to sleep and eat and all that for tomorrow I do not have much time. but I first off would like to wish dad a happy late fathers day! I am sorry that I am not able to talk on fathers day but I am sure you understand the situation. I am doing great this week! I am feeling healthy and happy as always but I have lost a bit of weight in the last couple of weeks. While I was in the office today I saw a lot of the missionaries in the mission and they all were freaking out about how skinny I am getting.... and then they all told my companion that he is getting fat so it was entertaining. :) When I left the MTC I weighed 197 lbs, and now I weigh 173 lbs... I have lost a few I think. but I feel good and at least a couple of missionaries told me I am looking good, but I did have one of the sister missionaries tell me I am losing my hair... :) oh well I guess that just means that I am gaining experience. but this last week was a busy one and we pulled out a great miracle from my area last night! the lesson started with the investigator saying that he doesn't want to be baptised for two more weeks and then I testified to him and my companion got up to answer the phone and then all of a sudden the investigator asked "can I be baptised this Tuesday?" well I explained we would be in San Jose until Wednesday and then he said "okay. then I will do it Wednesday" and just like that we were able to pull one more baptism out for the zone this month! I love the lords hand and the miracles that he gives us. so please be praying for him and I will talk to you guys next week! Thank you guys for the emails this week and I love you all so much!! 

Elder Ferrin

Week # 49 Changes coming his way.................

Last Thursday we went to San Jose and had our last leadership counsel as the San Jose Costa Rica mission. that was the last time that the missionary leadership from the whole country will be together to counsel about the needs of the mission. it was a sad but a very very spiritual and great meeting! As we met with our mission president and his family they all shared their testimonies with us. We were also trained about our responsibilities as leaders when the mission splits and how it will all work. This week Elder Bednar and Elder Christofferson will be going over each of the companionship's in the country and will decide in which mission we should be. I don't expect that there will be many changes made because our mission president obviously was praying about these assignments but we will have to see. And then on Thursday the quorum of the twelve and the first presidency will be in the salt lake temple and will approve any changes made in the mission and also they will be reviewing the application for the stakes that we have qualified for here in Costa Rica. Also next week we will have our last mission conference and will find out in that conference in which mission we stay and that will be the last chance to see the missionaries from the other missions. there are so many things going on here in the mission it spins my head but i feel so blessed to be part of what is going on. This is about all I know about the changes in the mission and as I know more I will send you guys the information. but things for me are going great honestly! I am loving it and I am wishing I had less time in the mission. or at least that they would give me more than two years. Two years just doesn't seem like quite enough time to me, but oh well I guess we will just try and get the new president to let me stay a little longer or something. we will see what happens ;) my health is great and there are no problems with me. I did finally find a good pair of shoes to buy while I was in San Jose on Friday. I will send a picture of them next week. but with the money dad sent and the money that I received the same day from grandma Greer in my letter I was able to buy them. so thank you mom and dad and grandpa and grandma Greer! so that is about it for now but I will be in contact with you guys. I love you all and I hope things are going good for you all!!

Elder Ferrin