Another Great Week................

I know you are all sick of hearing the same old response about how "This was a great week" but I just don't know how else to tell you guys about the week. So as always, this was a great week, we were able to have stake conference here in my area and it was super great! We had a super great talk given by the mission presidency counselor and he did a great job! 
To be honest I am not sure what else to tell you all aside from that I love the gospel and that I am glad that our Heavenly Father has control of everything, I know that his plan for each and everyone of us is a perfect plan as long as we follow his established guidelines and commandments. 
I wish you all the best and I love you all so very much! 

Elder Austin Ferrin 

Exploring the new area..................

Well I am writing today since yesterday was a holiday here in Costa Rica and there were no internet shops open to write, so sorry mom if i scared you... :) but this week has been really great! We are working on trying to win the trust of the members and so we went and visited the majority of them this week. Our ward is absolutely full of returned missionaries and so it should be fun as we continue to try and work with them! My companion and I are really excited to work this week and I know that the lord is blessing us as we work our hardest to fulfill our responsibilities. This last week was full of great experiences and a few interesting people, I was told that Joseph Smith was an ax murderer, and that the church "brainwashes" people so that they go to our church... by a few different people. I am not sure where these people get their information but it sure did make for a few funny contacts this last week. I am just loving all my time here and well I hope you all know that I love this church and my savior! Have a great week and pray for missionary opportunities, we do not need to be perfect to share the gospel, we only need be willing to open our mouths and the lord will fill it with the right words. 

Sincerely

Elder Ferrin

A  hike in our new area

Transfer and Temple visit........

This week was a great week! I arrived to my new area on Tuesday, and met my new companion Elder Ellis from Honduras. He has about 9 months in the mission and is ready to work! I can already tell that the next two changes are going to be Great!! On Wednesday we worked and met a bunch of new people and then on Thursday we went to the temple! I love the temple and the knowledge that we gain, and the ordinances that we do. Saturday we were blessed with a beautiful 3 sessions of conference, and then again Sunday. This has just been a great week of blessings and I am extremely excited to continue seeing blessings as we begin this week. I love you all and I hope that we all may be able to remember Christ and his divinely appointed representatives each day this week. 

Elder Ferrin

Changes

Well This week starts a new change and they have informed me that I will be going back to the city. I will be ending my mission in a place called El Jardin in the city of Desamparados. I am excited, but it is always hard to say bye to the members, converts, and friends that you make in each area. The best part is that this last week I feel as if it was one of the best weeks that I have seen in the branch since I got here, We broke the record in the attendance of the sacrament meeting, and we also had a lot of our investigators and less actives in the chapel along with the six family members that were baptised on Friday. I love the lord, I love his work, I have no doubt that he is the one that Allows us to see these families receive the gospel and I know that he is the reason that this family like many others around the world have embraced the gospel no matter the cost, And I plan to follow that same call that he has made to all of us, "Come and see" And so as I start this week I will head off to one more of the great adventures that he has in store for me and I hope that I may be an instrument in his hands once more. 
With all my love,

Elder Ferrin

Costa Rica

What a wonderful thing to have a family baptism.

 Goodbye to the Jungle

Week # 88 Que Calor!‏

Well hello family and friends, this week was just a fantastic week! I felt as if this week was one of the best weeks that I have had in a long time. We have been helping a family to get ready to be baptized this coming Friday but as we teach them the father just kept saying that he was not ready yet and he continued to have problems with stopping smoking. So all week long we have visited them and really tried to pray and do everything that we could do for them to help them but the father said that he was not going to be ready soon and that he wanted his family to be baptized alone and he would do it when he felt that he needed to. So we were bumped a little but we decided that we would not stop praying for him and working for the soonest possible. Well on Sunday we had the mission president here and the whole day was just so full of the spirit, after church we went and ate lunch with the family and the father wanted to see the Joseph Smith movie so we put it in and yet another great spiritual experience. Well we finish and we start to leave and while no one is watching he pulls my companion aside and tells us that he has several days of not smoking and that he wants to be baptized with his family this Saturday!!! He said that he knows that he has to do it now and not later. So since he wants it to be a secret we could not tell anyone and it was just such great news that it was driving me insane to keep it to me alone until now!!!! 

So a wonderful week was ended by a trip to one of the beautiful beaches here in the country. the district president took all of the missionaries to the beach today and so that was really beautiful! 

Well this week was so full of great experiences and I just love the mission! I love you all and I have a testimony that this gospel brings us true joy and peace. As Christ said to his disciples this same week more than 2000 years ago in  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I  unto you. Let not your heart betroubled, neither let it be afraid.  

He does not give us the peace as the world does with fancy gadgets and all of the worldly items, but he gives us peace as we hold to the iron rod and strive to overcome the shame of the world. we cannot live as if we are of the world! So this week as we go from work, school and all of the other activities that we do please remember that the true joy and peace of our lives will only come as we live and obey the commandments of the lord and the counsels of his chosen apostles. 

I love you All!!! 

Elder Ferrin

Interviews with the President

Week # 87 Pie day‏....................

So happy pie day family and friends! 
Here I am and happy and healthy as always! This week was the usual great and busy week that a missionary sees for two years, therefore there is not much to report for now. It is still extremely hot in the area and the only big news is that this coming week we will finally get to have our normal interviews with our mission president, which I have been looking forward too for a long long time! We are looking forward to the possibility of a few baptisms this month and we are really excited for that! Well the only thing I can tell you all is that I love you dearly and that I love this work even more. Congratulations to William andrus on the awesome mission call!! The best two years, full of blessings, are coming soon! Felicidades!!! 

Well I love you all and I hope that this coming week is great for all of you! 

Elder Ferrin 

Anybody need some bananas?? 

the bananas I chopped out of a tree last monday, 

if they don't get chopped down then the monkeys come and eat them all. 

Dinner

This old guy in a wheelchair? He is my grandpa here in the area. His name is carmen and he is one of the less actives that we have here in the branch that is really special. On wednesday last week he was in a lot of pain so he asked us for a blessing and when we finished the blessing the pain stopped. I cannot count the amount of times that i have been blessed to be able to give blessings and be the instrument through which the lord blesses these people. It continues to remind me that heavenly father blesses people through imperfect sons and daughters. 

Week # 86 Just a Quick Hello...........

 He didn't have much time to talk, just said all was well and they took the Sister Missionaries on a hike to the waterfall and it took alittle longer than expected.  

But then I received all these pictures in our dropbox account.

What a happy Surprise.