President Nelson Visit's Nicaragua

Wow.  This has been quite the week. We didn’t have very high numbers but we still had a bunch of success. Everything is still going well here in Matagalpa and I am enjoying every moment of it. My new house is good since it is right next door to our food appointment who does lunch and breakfast for us. She will also play monopoly with us, so we sometimes do that on p-day.

For most of the week we have been visiting the investigators that we had lined up for baptism last week and we were able to get all of them to the baptismal font this week. The first was Zaydi who the missionaries had been teaching for a lot of time and finally decided to be baptized. We are just waiting for her mom to choose to be baptized also.

Elder Gustin, Zaydi, Elder Ferrin 

The other family was the Soza family (Secundino, Gladys, and Sheyla). They have been investigators for more than a year but couldn’t get baptized since they had to wait on a divorce in order to get married and be baptized. This week they finally got the divorce registered and we had the baptism. Then they wanted to be baptized the next week. But I finally convinced to do it this week since I told them we already had bought the cake for the marriage and baptism. So that baptism happened on Saturday.



Saturday was a very long day, but it was awesome. We left at 4:00 a.m. to go to Managua for the meeting with President Nelson. It was just with the North and South missions of Nicaragua. He was in Honduras the week before and did several devotionals for all of Central America, but we didn’t see those. They even gave us McDonald’s for lunch afterwards. Then we had the 2-hour drive back to Matagalpa and arrived about 3:30 p.m. and started the baptism and marriage for the Soza Family at 4:00 p.m. And that took up quite a bit of the day.

I’m not sure if we will have a baptism this week or not. As of right now, we don’t have anyone ready. But we’ll see. You never know. In addition, we get to go back to Managua for a meeting with all of the leaders in the mission. So that will be fun.

But that was the week. Sounds like everything is going well at home.

Love, Elder Ferrin

Baptism of Pedro

Well, this has been a very good week for us. Matagalpa is still treating me well. The area is still very good. We are spending a lot of time on buses to travel from one part to the next. The area finishes in a small community called Quebrada Honda. We are the first missionaries in about three years to go there. So we are going to have a lot of baptisms there. Everything is going well with the new companion, and I don’t think we’ll have any problems.

We spent most of the week meeting a lot of new people so that I could know where all of the converts, less actives and members live. At the beginning of the week, we didn’t have plans to baptize anyone this week, but we were able to have one this week for a cute little old man named Pedro. He is the dad of some members and he is 87 years old and I am not sure how much he remembers about what we have taught him. We had plans to baptize him on Saturday but his daughter didn’t want him to get baptized and he was sick. So we passed by the next day before church and took him to church to be baptized. This was the funniest baptism I have ever had. We showed him to the bathroom to change clothes. We made sure to tell him to take of his pants and put on the white ones. So in time I baptized him but as he got out of the font, the draining water had a dark tint to him. We just thought, wow that is one dirty man. But we get to the bathroom and he is changing but we couldn’t find his pants. So we started searching the church and thought that someone stole his pants. After a bit I rolled up his pants and noticed that he had his other pants on. Pedro got baptized with his normal pants on! So a member went and found new pants for him. Then there was a cake that someone brought and we ended cutting it with a CD instead of a knife.

Elder Gustin, Pedro, and Elder Ferrin

Pedro and his family

But I have gone to Managua way too much this week. I went on Thursday for a new missionary meeting and then today since Elder Gustin had to go and renew his cedula. But we got donuts from this trip. This week I go to Managua on Saturday for a multi mission conference with President Nelson. Then the next week we go back for the leader’s council so that is just a lot of time to Managua.

Also this week when I was in Managua, I baptized Carmen, the Adventist in Waspan. Apparently she had a dream that I had to baptize her. So since I was in Waspan, she got baptized. I was happy to see her get baptized. Now we just need to baptize the daughter. They write me almost every week as well.

But that was the week. We hope to be able to have four baptisms for this week. Almost all of the baptisms here in the zone I have been involved with, in Guanuca as well as Matagalpa. So very interesting. The Lord blesses us and helps us reach our goals. At the start of the week we didn’t have anyone to baptize, but we put our mind to having the baptism this week and it happened. The Lord does give miracles as we trust in Him and do our part.

Have fun. Stay safe.

Elder Ferrin

Elder Grandpa Ferrin

Well hello to everyone. I just noticed right now that I have now completed 11 months in the mission. It just goes by really fast. It is good to hear about the car for Brandton and that Andrew is leaving. It is a great experience with lots of miracles to be seen.

Well, this week we were able to have a baptism for one of the daughters of Nelis Lopez, Rebecca, who was baptized 2 weeks ago. We started the week with no one who was going to be baptized. They all had plans for later weeks. But at one point we had four who said yes but ended up with only one by the time the interviews came around. In church we had four people and should all be baptized by the end of the month. But I won´t be around for that.

Today we had changes so I am no longer in the branch, Guanuca. I got moved really far to the other chapel that is in Matagalpa to the branch Matagalpa. My new companion is Elder Gustin and he is from Las Vegas. I get to be one of the Zone Leaders. Elder Barrios is staying in Guanuca with a new missionary, so I get to be a grandpa. And Elder Valle got sent to Puerto Cabezas. So this morning I got up at 5:00 a.m.  and took my bags in a taxi to the other house and that was the change for me. So I don´t need to worry about the lizard on the door either, Mom.  I will have an lunch appointment with the mom of my old lunch appointment.  My area includes most of the smaller areas outside of Matagalpa in parts called Habitat, 3M, Solingalpa, and Quebrada Honda. So we´ll have fun.

Good luck with everything at home. Keep going on and have fun with everything at home. This is His church that is restored and we should do all we can to follow el Evangelio de Jesucristo. Only then will we receive the eternal life. Until next time.

Elder Ferrin

I’ll send you pictures next week.

My New Pet!

August 10, 2015

Well this has been a very good week for the most part. It sounds like everything is going fine at home. Mom and dad, you probably should never look at the choristers here in Nicaragua. It is really hard to play the piano at a good speed when you don’t know what speed the chorister wants to sing. Or there is always the speed that the congregation wants to sing. You also have to play the hymn the way they sing it since they change how long you hold the notes and occasionally the tune. That’s sad to hear they will close the Jordan River temple for a bit. That is definitely one of the things I am missing being here in Nicaragua. The closest temple is in Honduras and the missionaries don’t go there.

Elder Barrios has been learning English little by little. He has learned more than other elders I have served with. But for me, I am really bad at studying Spanish since I am normally helping Elder Barrios with English. People can normally understand me and I can understand them well. But there is still a lot I can improve on.

On Wednesday we went to Managua for a multi-zone conference. It was a good conference and they talked a whole lot about the obedience and how to improving our teaching.  We won’t go to Managua until the end of the month unless we have changes the next week.

I found my new pet!!! He is very good at watching the door for us when we are gone.

Elder Ferrin's new pet.

My birthday was fine except for the fact that I got sick with a cold. So I was sick on my own birthday, as well as for Elder Barrios´ birthday. But we worked all of the day and that was it. Fine with me in my opinion.

In church we had only Domina and Yahaira, another daughter of Nelis Lopez. We might have the baptism for Domina this week if she is ready.

But that was the week. Congratulations to Andrew and good luck on the mission for him.

Remember that Jesus is the Christ and he felt everything for us. The Lord performs many miracles in our lives. One of the scriptures I read this week was Alma 37:6. It talks about how through small and simple things, great things are brought to pass (it’s easier to say it in Spanish, rather than English now). But it is definitely true. We don’t realize the grand effects that all the little things have in our life such prayer. He listens and comforts and counsels when we need it. I have never been so close to my Heavenly Father as I have been during my mission and wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. See ya.

Elder Ferrin

P.S. Enjoy your picture’s mom!!! ??

August 3, 2015

Well, here we are again on a lovely Monday writing again. This week has been really good. Thanks to everyone who sent the birthday wishes. It’s always nice to receive emails.

We have been working very hard this week trying to find new investigators to teach.

On Tuesday, I went on divisions with the other elders in my district and they went pretty well. While I was gone, Elder  Barrios went and contacted some people with Aldo, our new convert. Apparently Aldo has no fear in talking to people and is willing to talk to everyone. But I guess that is what happens when you used to be a preacher for another church. On Sunday, for testimony meeting, he got up shared his testimony which was amazing. He has changed so much since we first met him.

This week we also had the baptism for Nelis and Meybeline Lopez. It almost didn’t happen since they weren’t home until late at night on Saturday. Apparently she had to suddenly work at the time we had the baptism originally planned. So we ended up doing the baptism on Sunday.

We found a few families this week. One was a reference from Gloria, one of my converts, for her brother and his wife, Felix and María. Felix pretty much already knows everything about the Book of Mormon and has read it all. We just have to get them to church and teach the wife everything and they will be ready for baptism.

Another family we found was when we passed by for the house of a member we have never visited. When we visited, the sister and her husband were there and they had never talked with the missionaries before. They are pretty interested and seem mostly willing to listen and to act. We hope to baptize both of these families this month.

But that was the week. Today we sat around the house and had a movie lunch. We watched the Emma Smith movie, which was very good.

That was my week, not much else to report. Thanks for all of the support.

Elder Ferrin

July 27, 2015

Well, I didn’t even realize that it was the 24th of July and that it was an actual holiday. It only registered in my mind that it was Christmas in July, nothing very official. But this week went okay, not as well as it could have. But we still keep going. Sorry I don’t have more pictures this week either.

Tell Chelsea and Mike congratulations for the baby and Todd for his mission call.

Mom, to answer your questions  . . .  Yes, I still am playing the piano in sacrament meeting. They are nice enough to let me choose the hymns now. I never bought any boots since I am a bit lazy to go and find ones that I like. But I don’t really need them a whole lot. Yes, I have flip flops and an extra pair still. I haven’t really used socks for baptisms.

On Tuesday, we had to go to the new missionaries meeting in Managua. Right as the meeting started, we got call saying that Elder Barrios was supposed to be in immigration to get his cedula. So we quickly did that and returned to the meeting. In the meeting, they talked a lot about obedience which is something that they normally do pretty often. It is still important, and a lot of missionaries never learn to follow the principal. If you can learn to be obedient to the commandments of God, he pours down so many blessings over our head. And sometimes we are just to blind to realize it. I like how in Preach my Gospel it says that obedience is the first law of the heavens. If we can master that, we will be like God and Jesus Christ.

On Friday, we had interviews with President Collado. But this time they came to do them in the house of the missionaries to make sure they are clean. Yes! The house is clean. It was the weirdest interview ever since we did it sitting on the beds. A bit different. But everything went well. I enjoy it when we have interviews.

We had plans to baptize the Lopez family this week but it fell through and they changed it to the next week. So we hope that this Saturday they will be baptized. They have everything done, including the interview, they just need to get baptized.

In Sunday, we only had two investigators in church. Efraín, the son of Efraín y Reyna, and a hermana named Dominga. Also Domingo gave his first talk in church and he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of Priest.

So that was the week. We are still looking for a lot more people to teach and we know we’ll be able to find them. But there you are.

Elder Ferrin

Baptism Again!!!

Well this has been quite the week for me. I hope everything is still fine at home since I still haven´t gotten an email from the parents. But everything in Nicaragua is still going well, still working hard every day. I have sent some pictures. I might have accidentally sent the wrong one for one of them, maybe.

Elder Ferrin has a standing joke with his mom
about the spiders (and other creepy things that he sees).
So it probably wasn't an accident that this photo was sent.

But we originally had the plans to have the baptism for Annyi this week on Wednesday. We had everything planned and ready. She had the interview but at the last minute the branch president told us we had to find a lawyer. So we went to the normal lawyer we use for the marriages and she told us she couldn’t do it for one reason ... Annyi is 15 years old. They just barely changed the law in Nicaragua that you can´t get married until you are 16 years old, even if you have parents’ permission. So she won´t be able to be baptized or married until February of the next year.

We have still been teaching Aldo. We passed by for him on Wednesday and he asked us if he could be baptized on Sunday. So we quickly finished teaching the lessons and had the interview from the zone leaders. He then needed the interview from one of the counselors of the mission, but we still didn’t know we could baptize him until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday. We had the baptism before church and everything went well. All I can say is that the Lord really does forgive us and love us no matter what we might have done. I have been able to see that in my own life and that of so many other people during the mission. We are His children and He will do what He can so that we come back to His presence.

Every week we do an activity called Noche de Hermanamiento in a part of the area called Sabadell. It is a bit farther from the church, but there a lot of members that live there. Normally when we do this activity only about 10 people come. This week the branch president came and we changed the location to a house and this week we had 45 people come. Which is more than the amount of people that show up to this activity every week when they do it in the church. So that was pretty cool. Almost all of my converts were in the activity.

On Sunday with the baptism, we weren’t able to pass by for very many of our investigators, but somehow we were able to have 7 people come to church this week. One of them we the Familia Lopez who we started teaching again which might get baptized this week. And the attendance at sacrament meeting was 113. Which is the best yet seen since I started serving here. When I arrived attendance was around 76 on average. So it has really grown a lot since there has been a lot of baptisms and reactivation on the part of the members. So the church is growing once again.

But that was the week. Not much else to report. Hope everything is fine at home.

Elder Ferrin