Elder Ferrin’s Nicaraguan Missionary Adventures: Feliz Cumpleaños Katee!

Well I thought I would start this letter by first saying "Happy Birthday to Katee" on Sunday and congratulations on getting into the nursing program. Also mom, I did find my camera. I had put it into one of the hidden pockets of my bag, so I forget where I had put it in. So I am sending some pictures. Thank you for the package as well. Although I am not really sure what some of the stuff is such as all of the Mexican Candy.

So to answer your questions about Elder Clark, he is from Morgan, UT. So not to far from where we live and he is the same age as me, only a bit older than me. I think that he is struggling to learn the language a bit more than me, but he is getting better and better. I am doing really well with Español here and enjoying it. I am able to pretty much carry out a conversation, if I need to, but I still am working on expanding my vocabulary and knowledge of verbs and their conjugation. We have about 3 hour sessions of class with the teachers. We have one teacher in the morning and got another teacher this last week. Except the new teacher wasn't our investigator. It was one of the hermanas who would help us plan some of our lessons. In the evening, we usually do almost all language study and part of it is with a computer program called TALL, Technology Assisted Language Learning. It is hard and I have already finished most of the courses for grammar in it. As a part of class on Monday, we had to go to the dining room and talk with the native speakers for fifteen minutes. It was a lot of fun and it surprised me how well I was able to carry out a conversation. I could probably write most of this e-mail in Spanish if I really had to, except for then you wouldn't really understand it as well.

I think my favorite part of the week was Fast Sunday. Here at the CCM, we fast from after Saturday lunch to lunch on Sunday. It is amazing how much more you listen to church and the testimonies when they are in Spanish, rather than English. But the most meaningful part for me was a talk I read about becoming a consecrated missionary. The devotional, which was a recording of David A. Bednar speaking to missionaries about the true character of Christ. We watch a lot of David A. Bednar here, but I enjoy listening to him because of how he speaks. This was really the best talk I think I have ever heard. He talked about how Christ, instead of turning in to his selfish desires, he would turn out instead of in. I think that his talk was able to truly change how I look at everything and what I truly need to do in my life. We need to focus on all of those around us and forget ourselves. One of the things he challenged us to do was to get a missionary copy of the Book of Mormon and look for a specific topic as you read, such as the true character of Christ. I am going to be doing this, but I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to do same. Each time you read the Book of Mormon, get a new basic copy and read it with a specific desire or question and mark all of the things that have to do with your topic. By the end of your life, you could have a bookshelf full of every gospel topic and just imagine the resources those could be used as. I am just thinking of so many ways that I can start to live my life as Christ. It will be a life long journey but it will be well worth it in end for everyone to gain the true character of Christ. We also had devotionals from M. Russel Ballard broadcast from Provo and then another with Elder Stephen Allen, the one in our stake, and then Elder Evans.

I am excited to be able to General Conference and see what announcements might be made. I don't think I will have to listen to conference in Spanish because most of the devotionals are in English, so I think I will be able to get a lot out of it. We are watching a devotional from David A. Bednar about how to watch conference so I hope that it will help a lot.

Would also forward me some of the emails that the other missionaries from our ward are sending. I want to be able to hear what their experiences are like. If you would do that it would be great.

Yo se el Evangelio de Jesuchristo es verdad y yo tengo Cristo es el Salvador. Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y nosotros somos sus hijos. El ama sus hijos todo la tiempo y nosotros podemos vivir con Dios para siempre. And no my Spanish is not perfecto.

[The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and I have Christ as the Savior. God is our Heavenly Father and we are his children. He loves his children all the time and we can live with God forever.]

Elder Ferrin