Week # 85 Another good week

Well this was yet another week of fun in the sun. :) Hot, dusty, blessed, and I just love it! This last week the family of 6 showed up again to church and it went really well. The last two weeks we have had to go and wake them up and it has been a little bit of a struggle to get them all up on time and ready to be to the church on time but it has been a great blessing to have them there and they really like the church they say. Also they have given us dinner 3 times this last week and well any good missionary knows that if a family gives you food then they are bound to be baptised. :) Also we found another family that have been inactive for about 15 years due to them living in other parts of the country where the church has not made it to yet, but the wonderful part is that they are now here in my area and they live less than 500 yards down the road from the chapel! So last night as we were talking to the the father we found out that the 2 daughters are not members and that they want their daughters to be baptised and they want to go to the temple to be sealed! 15 years without being able to go to church and 2 children later they have made it back to the same place where they were baptised. The lord works in mysterious ways but he will always bless those that love his gospel and keep his commandments. 

This family has been reading the Book of Mormon and doing family home evening for 15 yrs off and on without the blessing of a chapel close to their house. I know that they will be so blessed as the begin this process to return to church once again. As we do our part the lord will ALWAYS do his. 

I love you all! have a great week and I will talk to you all soon! 

Elder Ferrin

Week # 84 The light of his sun... :)‏

Well as always it has been a very hot and enjoyable week in my area! This last week we were able to help a wonderful family of 6 make it to church and they are planning on being baptised in the last week of March. It was really funny because while we were singing the last hymn for the sacrament meeting I sent a message to all of the members that were in the meeting and asked them to go and talk to the family and tell them hello. Well the prayer ends and all of the members stand up and swarm this family. Haha it startled them a little but you could tell that they liked it. :) So this week was just another fantastic week in the mission field. I am loving the area even though the temperatures are insanely hot all day everyday. There is no place I would rather be than out here serving and I can honestly say that this is one of the best areas on the whole mission! I just love it all. 

I hope that each of us this coming week can try and work on developing our faith and spiritual strength! We must remember that we need to be outside of the comfort zone to grow. 
Therefore stand out and be the light upon a hill that Christ has said we should be. When he said that we are like a light upon a hill that cannot be hidden, he was trying to say that if we really are obtaining the spiritual light necessary to reach the celestial kingdom then it will be impossible to hide that light and gift. So I hope that this week we will ask ourselves "Can they see my light?" and for help to know how to obtain more light study "the light of the perfect day by Elder Larry R Lawrence" in this month's Ensign. 
I love you All!!!

Elder Ferrin

This is what my scripture cases will be made of when they are finished! Goat hide! 

Week# 83 Great Blessings.............

Well this week has been fantastic! you just can't beat a week where you get to hear from a general authority! Elder Ochoa was here on Thursday to speak with us and it was a very insightful and helpful training by him. Also while here in my area we were able to enjoy a few beautiful days of clouds which was such a great blessing!! I love my area, the work, and everything that I do. Sorry there isn't much to report this week, just the same of teach and learn as I teach. But know that I love you all! 

Elder Ferrin 

My ex companion Elder Macias who goes home next week and I. 

Week # 82 Forgiveness.......

Hello family and friends! How are you all doing? The life down in here is hot but super great! First off I love you all! 

As for  this week we were able to give service again on Saturday and you can officially call me a "Beaner" because we went and helped harvest beans! It was a really neat experience to know how the whole process works and realize how much work it is for such a small little plate of food. A great and fun experience for me but I think my companion hated me a little for having offered to help... haha he was pretty worn out after we finished. 
As for the other part of the week it was a great week as we were able to find a couple of really great new families to teach and so as we continue this week in teaching them we will see if they can come to church. 

Also this coming Wednesday we have to go to San Jose again (7 hours in bus... ) and we will get the hear from Elder Ochoa of the quorum of the 70 as he teaches us in a special meeting just for our mission. I am really excited because he has asked us to study and prepare for the meeting and I can tell it is going to be a wonderful experience. 

This week I was able to bless the sacrament and as I sat there after having taken the bread I sat thinking about how each week I have come to look forward to the sacrament more and more. I began to think about how many times I have said during that meeting that I will do better and improve in the coming week, and how many times I have had to ask for forgiveness for the silly and simple faults that I make each week. As I realized how unworthy I am of being forgiven so many times, and how badly I need the atonement each day, my heart filled with gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of our savior. The words of the hymn "I Stand all Amazed" came to my mind and felt a greater love for my savior after having realized that we are all "unworthy creatures" as the king Noah taught. 

I love you all and I pray that we all may be humble enough to ask for Christ's help for we cannot make it back to our Father in Heaven without him. 

Elder Ferrin

the pictures of when we went to help with the harvest.


We asked about the service project and this is what he had to say:


to be honest i thought i was going to die... They plant these beans on the sides of the mountains and in the middle of the jungle so it is a huge pain in the butt to get to them, later you have to pick them and put them inside a great big sheat and beat them with a stick after you have toasted them in the sun for about an hour and you just hit them with this stick until they all fall out of the casing and then you pick them up, fill the bag and carry it back out of the jungle to the house. I WAS EXHAUSTED but it was a ton of fun! I have missed doing that kind of work. :)

This week we had a glitch in emailing we sent responses but never heard back much, 

hope he knows he is love and missed.  

Just guess that what happens in the jungle area.  

Maybe next week will be better.

Week # 81 Gratitude...........

Hello family and friends, how are you all enjoying the snow? This last week I was blessed with the opportunity of hearing from one of the 15 prophets and apostles that we have on this earth. Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke to us on Saturday along with Elder Craig C. Christenson of the presidency of the seventy along with Kevin R. Duncan of the area presidency after a long week of anticipation. It was a great blessing to see and hear from them as they allowed us to shake their hands and speak with them shortly. They spoke to us of the importance of love for the work, finding, and it was a wonderful and spiritual experience for all present. 

This week I wish to leave you all with a few short words about the principle of Gratitude. Gratitude can be in different ways, such as the Gratitude for the many blessings that we receive daily. This Gratitude is an easy thing. Anyone can be happy and grateful when life is going good and all we see is the sun shining. The Gratitude that we all need to develop and work for is the Gratitude for our trials. I say "work for" because it is an up-hill battle for us to develop this attribute of Christ. It is very hard to see that speck of light at the end of the tunnel as we only see darkness and problems all around us, but as we invite Christ into our lives and ask for his help, he will bring overpower the darkness, no matter how thick it may seem. One way that it is referred to in the scriptures is hope. As we read Moroni 7:42 we are taught that we must have faith to have hope, that hope comes from being humble as it teaches us in verse 43 and in verse 41 we are taught in what we shall hope. These three scriptures help us understand  how we can be happy and grateful no matter what the trial may be. 

I love you all and wish you all the best! 

While we were with the other mission for the conference I got to see my son and brother in the mission. so here is the picture of us four the first day together. 

 This is a picture of the whole mission 

These are in a house where an old retired doctor lives and he rents to some missionaries his upstairs apartment and while I was on divisions in San Jose he let us see his collection of corvettes. I have not seen one in my whole mission and then I saw three in one garage, it was a Mini- miracle. haha. they were so pretty! 

Week # 80 What a week.......

What a week! We had lots of meetings and lots of blessings. This last Saturday we were able to see uncle Johnny be baptised! It was a wonderful and spirit filled service and almost all of his family was able to attend. There were many tears and testimonies shared which made for a very beautiful experience for everyone. Also this coming week we will be blessed to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook. That will be a wonderful experience and so I am excited for that,  Also this last week there was a world wide conference for missionaries where we were taught a great deal on how we can improve. In all it was a great week. 

The principle I learned this week was about "Faith in the Lord's timing" After seeing for the last year and a half many people receive and reject our message I have come to see that the Lord's timing is a divine thing. It can be shown in different forms such as the passing of a loved one, A loved family member straying from the gospel, or the many trials of life. Through these many trials we are tested & given the opportunity to strengthen our "Faith in the Lord's timing." We are constantly seeing these experiences and constantly being tried, We need only trust and have faith in the perfect plan of god. He will love us, guide us and care for us. We need not fear or cry for our Heavenly Father is watching over each and everyone of us and will bless us for our efforts. 
I love you all and invite you to pray with me for a stronger "Faith in the Lord's timing."

With much love
Elder Ferrin

From a mother that needed  some extra help:  Here is proof that  answers to  prayers are real.   I have been struggling with a few things lately and then after some scripture reading and a few prayers to heavenly father I received this email today.  I am going to take this challenge and have Faith in the Lord's timing.  I love my savior and am very grateful to a son who is will to share his testimony with those who will let him in to share it. 

Week # 79 Obedience................

Well family and friends I hope that you are all happy and healthy. As always this week was fantastic and we enjoyed the presence of an extra elder for a few days while there were some extra changes made in the zone and he was without a companion. Also this week I finally gave in to the pleas of the sister missionaries and made us all a lunch. The sisters are from Mexico and Belize so they both had made us traditional food from their country and for some time now they have been bugging me to fix something... Well since I was not sure what to make that would be classified as "Traditional Utah food" and not be a jello bowl with fruit, I taught them all how to cook Hobo Dinners. Everyone liked it, so things worked out well with that.
This week the gospel principle that I have enjoyed studying is the obedience. As I studied this week I enjoyed specifically the way that Luke speaks about the moments that Christ spent in Gethsemane. The words that Luke includes in his writings show that Christ said  "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done" I love those words, and I have come to realize a small part of the importance in aligning our will with that of our Heavenly Fathers. True obedience is not just obeying because we don't want the consequences for being disobedient but, it is when we are obedient because the things that we want are the same as our heavenly father. In my mission I have been greatly blessed to have had two wonderful mission presidents that have taught me these great eternal principles! I pray that we all may strive this coming week to be more obedient and strive to align our desires and be more devoted. I know without a doubt that as you strive to apply this principle it will greatly bless our families and communities. I love you all and wish you a great week!

Elder Ferrin

Eating hobo dinners and a Giant iguana.... I wanted to eat him but we didn't have time. ;)