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

End of the World Again

Well, this been a very good week for me. They came and fumigated the house again! So that is always a lot of fun. The house always smells a bit funny afterwards. 

Today we went to the cross again that is sitting on top of the mountain with most of the zone. Then came back and the district president bought us all pizza to be “motivated”, as he put it. It was fun, but I am also really tired. We hike up and down a mountain every day doing missionary work. So hiking up a mountain for fun is not the same right now.

Elder Ferrin and Elder Barrios

This week we visited some references that we got from the branch at church last week. The first is named Annyi who has been going to church for a while . The missionaries haven’t visited her for a while since she couldn’t get her mom’s permission to be baptized. But supposedly she has it now and we have plans for her baptism this Wednesday. She will also be getting married that day.

The other reference is named Aldo. He used to be a pastor in another religion and has been baptized in three other churches. All I can say is that he knows the Bible really well and we learn a lot when we go over to teach. His wife is a less active member. She told him she wanted to go to church last week so she went and he went with her. We have plans to baptize him and their 9-year-old son the next week or maybe this week. So we should finish the month with seven baptisms which is really good.

We also had the baptism for one of the Maria’s we have been teaching. We had the baptism on Sunday before church and it almost didn’t happen. We put her in the taxi and then we ran down the mountain to get the church. But all went well and she was baptized and confirmed.

But that was the week. Mom, I can still send you the pictures of the spiders, if you would like. Or maybe tell other stories, but that wouldn’t be any fun. Have a fun week.

Elder Ferrin

Miracle Week

June 7, 2015

This has been quite an amazing week for me. And everything is going along quite well. Today we had cambios but nothing changed for us. I am with Elder Barrios for six more weeks in Guanuca. I think my legs will defiantly have had it by that time. I am very unhappy that I am  not home to see the new Jurassic Park movie. As long as they didn’t mess it up too badly, I can wait.

Here in Nicaragua, it hasn’t been raining a whole lot this week. Sometimes it rains and other times it doesn’t. I think rains more during the night. Anyway, onto the next chapter in "The Life of Elder Ferrin as a Missionary".

On Tuesday we went and visited Itzayana and her mom, María. When we arrived, we found that the missionaries had already taught everything to her mom, María before. She had even been to church and everything. So at the end of the lesson we invited them to be baptized this week on June 11. Then Itzayana said “I think I can be baptized this Friday, June 10.” So we had the baptism for them on Friday, which was also the birthday of Elder Barrios. We didn’t do a whole lot since we both happened to be sick and didn’t want to eat anything. But we had cake at the baptism to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Elder Barrios!

On Wednesday as we were leaving the house, a less active member called us over to her house. She attends another branch for some personal reasons. But she presented us to her 76-year-old aunt and told us that she wants to be baptized. The brother of the member, who is a return missionary, has been teaching her some of the lessons. So this week we baptized her on Sunday. So in the short, at the beginning of the week we had no possibilities of having a baptism and ended the week with three baptisms. It was very good.

On Sunday none of our investigators showed up to church. But the ward gave us two references to visit that came to church this week. So we will go visit them. Also this week we will have another baptism for a Maria and anyone else who is miraculously ready.

But that was pretty much most of the week. I have been finding some very interesting spiders in the house. Mom, I can send you pictures of them if you’d like.

The hermanas of Jinotega always have to come down to Matagalpa every week for district or zone meetings. I travel to Jinotega if I have to do baptismal interviews. But that was the week.

Adios

Elder Ferrin