God Bless America (Week #14)

Hello All!

Happy 4^th of July! (one day early). The fourth of July is one of my favorite Holidays so I wish you all the best! I will start my email this week with my spiritual message rather than end with it. My message this week is very in line with the time of the season. I would like to invite all of you to take a moment tomorrow and read the talk titled Faith, Fairness, and Religious Freedom by Elder Rasband. It is truly inspirational, and gets the ´´I love America´´ Juices flowing! Please remember that we are all truly blessed to have the freedom to decide which path of enlightenment we choose to follow, and we are forever indebted to those who fight for and protect this freedom in any capacity, because without the freedom of religion America would not be anywhere close to what is today.

As for this week, It was rather slow! I am writing you all from Fortaleza once again, as I once again had to travel out here to work on things with my visa. The start of last week was pretty rough because due to a bad headcold I lost my voice entirely. If you think its hard teaching in another language, try whispering your teachings in another language. It was pretty rough. But it brought back good memories of every time my mom lost her voice back home and the whole house would whisper to her to tease her about it. I miss you Mom!

The language is starting to come a lot faster now, although God is always excellent at humbling us when we need it. Last week I was getting more comfortable with the words, and was starting to be able to speak a lot more fluidly, but naturally one thing I did not think of was that my American Accent is very strong. One day we were teaching later in the week once my voice had finally started to return, and I started speaking about the Plan of Salvation when a little girl turned to her mom and asked her if I was speaking in English….nice.

The new elders are great, It is a lot better having other people to talk to after returning home from a long day of teaching, and we are able to help each other a lot more with practicing.

Other than that there was not much news from last week. Here´s to hoping my visa comes through today, and here is to wishing you all a Happy 4^th, and America a Happy Birthday!

Love you all,

Elder Ferrell

Week...I am starting to lose count! (Week #13)

Hello All!

It was a pretty quiet week here in Quixeramobim! The work progressed as normal, and the sun is ever so hot! One cool thing though is we had two new Elders arrived last Thursday! Both of them are also from Sao Paulo and so I am living with three Brazillians from Sao Paulo, which is interesting! They all want me to choose to root for their soccer team, the Corintiens, but I keep telling them I need to discover for myself which out of all the teams is true. I also have made sure to put my American Flags up all over our apartment and say the pledge of allegiance for them frequently, and one day I am sure they will say it with me.

In other news, I started learning how to make ties last week! I thought it was going to be really really hard, but there is an elder here in our Mission who makes ties and said he just taught himself while he was out here in the field, so that’s what I wanted to do! Last P day I went and bough fabric and went to work, and its actually turned out pretty nice! I should finish it today!

Not much else has happened since last week. It is much easier having Elders here to split the city with, and Elder Paixao and I are able to use our time much more affectively I feel. It has been difficult at first because we gave the new Elders the areas we had been focusing on so that they had a place to start. This was awesome for them and they hit the ground running, but was more difficult for us because we haven’t worked much in our area now before last week, so we are having to build a whole new list of investigators. This is good though, and we can definitely feel the spirit guiding us as we teach!

I hope everyone back in the good US of A is having an excellent week, and a belated fathers day to all those awesome dads back home, especially my own!

I miss you all, enjoy your summer and I will speak with you again next week!

Love,

Elder Ferrell​​

1)English Class

 2) Food trucks in Quixeramobim (gets me every time)

3) Quixeramobim Brazil

4) My Rede! (Hammock)

3 Months In!! (Week #12)

Hello Again!

This week was awesome! My time in Fortaleza was fantastic! I got to help out around the mission office for the week and learn more about what the secretaries do. There is one secretary named Elder Segae who is from Utah and we got along really well and had a great time! While I was there I got to go to the ward there that the secretaries go to, which was also an awesome experience! (It feels weird going to a full wards sacrament meeting after our little sacrament group meetings in Quixeramobim!) It was the wards Ward Conference that Sunday so the Stake President was there, and this was cool because I was friends with his son, Elder Heculano, in the Provo MTC! I went up and introduced myself to him and later on his wife, and they were so nice it was awesome! Then later that week one of the secretaries came into the office I was in and told me I had visitors. Very confused as to why I had visitors when I myself was a visitor, I went up to the front and there they were! They had come to visit me and brought a palm frond fishermans bag full of treats and other snacks. It was the nicest thing and honestly made my week! (I will send a picture with them as soon as I can figure out a way to send pictures here in Quixeramobim…still working on that)

In other news, Fortaleza was even more awesome because I got to go to burger king one day and have Vanilla Ice cream…. This was significant. Wednesday night we had a bunch of other Elders come because we all had a Zone Conference on Thursday. That was really cool, the mission ordered pizza for all of us and we all just talked with each other. The actual Zone conference was Awesome, and afterwards We returned here to Quixeramobim!

Yesterday was cool because we had 7 investigators come to church, and one of them is really excited to get baptized this week! Other than that its like I was never even gone here, and its good to get back to work! And we found out last night that we are getting an additional set of Elders here this week! They arrive on Thursday! We spent all morning cleaning to prepare for them….were a little worried about 4 elders in our tiny apartment with one bathroom but oh well! Should be fun!

One funny story from this last week was when we went to visit one of our recent converts, and I was taking the lead and sharing the message. We started off and everything was going well, and I asked her to read three scriptures in the bible I really liked. She read them and afterwards just kinda looked strange. I kept going with the message and then passed it to Elder Paixao and he shared his testimony, we closed, and left. So here is the funny part: After we left, Elder Paixao said that he didn’t think I shared the right scriptures, and started laughing because apparently the ones she read not only did not go with what I was talking about, but also just did not make sense in general. I got home that night and went to my English bible to check and sure enough, I had shared with her scriptures in 1^st corrinthians when I had meant to share ones in second corrinthians…we had a good laugh about that, and now every time I go to share a scripture in Portuguese elder Paixao askes if I have the right one.

So to close, my spiritual thought for this week is found in SECOND Corrinthians (I know that isn’t spelled right I am sorry) Chapter 4 verses 8 through 10. (2 Corrinthians 4:8-10)

The greatest part about the Gospel of Christ is the perspective it gives us. We do not need to dwell on the negative aspects of life because we know that there is purpose in everything, and all trials and tribulations will last but a moment in the grand scheme of things.

I love and miss you all, and hope you have an excellent week!

Love,                                                                                                      

Elder Ferrell

We Interrupt your regularly scheduled emails... (Week #11)

Hello All!

I am sending an email outside of my regular email cycle because I am in Fortaleza for the next few days staying with the mission secretaries, and their P-Days are split, half on Saturday mornings, and half on Monday afternoon. So We are emailing now!

I actually still do not know about what is happening with my deportation, but I am assuming that since I am still here, God pulled of a miracle and I will get to stay in Brazil!

This week was a bit rough, which is why I am here in Fortaleza! I felt much better on Sunday and Monday of this week, and so thought I was over the illness that had been bothering me, but this was not the case. Tuesday and Wednesday were both rough days yet again, and it came to a peak on Thursday. Elder Paixao called President Leite to tell him that I was feeling sick again, and President told me that he wanted me to come to Fortaleza for a few days so that I could go to the Hospital here. So that’s what we did!

Yesterday I went to the Hospital which compared to my experience with the so called hospital in Quixeromobim, my faith in modern medicine has been restored! It was a much better experience, but at the same time traumatic and something that I would like to never again speak of. The nicest way to explain things is that they discovered some issues with my intestines and had to clean them out….

They gave me some perscriptions to take so now we will just wait and hope that they work! But I am feeling much better, and being in Fortaleza alone is helping me a lot to just remember that there still is modern civilization in the world!

Other than this there is nothing new for me to talk about, the Fortaleza trip is the main event this week!I am here staying in Fortaleza and one of the Secretaries went back to Quixeromobim with Elder Paixao for the next few days. I am feeling much better and they are taking excellent care of me here, and its kind of cool because I am learning what the secretaries do here in the office!

For a spiritual thought, I would like to invite everyone to read the church magazine article by Quintine L Cook called ´´Act well your Part´´ (Hopefully that title sounds a little familiar to some of you). Elder Cooks remarks in this article are excellent and have some fantastic steps to help us all understand how we can be better representatives of Christ in our own lives.

I hope you all are well, and I leave you with my testimony that I know God and Jesus Christ live and help us in every aspect of our lives. They know and love each and every one of us.

Until a week from next Monday my friends.

Love,

Elder Ferrell 

1) The Baptism of Tatianie

2) The Military Police of Brazil

3) My new Hammock!

4) English Class!

The one where Elder Ferrell gets Deported (Week #10)

Are those extra pounds Just weighing you down!? Brazil hás Just the thing for you! Its called the city of Quixeromobim! Where you Will lose weight at a very unhealthy rate, but Love it anyways!

Greetings everyone! This last week was a little bit rough due to a severe stomach vírus that prevented Elder Paixao and I from working for two days straight, and is the cause for me having lost 8 (EIGHT) Kilograms in 3 and a half weeks here in Brazil. (Thats close to 17 pounds I think). BUT the amazing thing about Brazil and Heavenly Father is that it was still a great week! We had multiple miracles take place, I got a Picture with the Military Police here (which not gonna lie I was terrified about) and the weather was quite excellent!

The illness started on Sunday, and got progressivly worse to where I couldnt eat. On Thursday it got pretty rough, and I did not show a lot of improvement Friday so Elder Paixao and I spent the Day Friday in the hospital here which.....well I never liked hospitals in the United States, I mean Who does? But Kaiser Permanente ohh how I miss you! But they helped me a lot and Saturday I felt much better and have been consistently improving since then.

The awesome part about last week was even though we could not work very much because I was sick, the lord sent people to us! Almost every Day last week we had someone come up to us and say they were Baptized in another city somewhere in Brasil (Usually Fortaleza) and didnt know that the church was here in Quixeramobim, and that they wanted to start going to church again! It was truly incredible.

As to the Picture with the Police de Military (Raio)...I was terrified. We were walking back from the pharmacy after buying some medicine for me and they were parked on the side of the street taking a break. I whispered to Elder Paixao ´´this is our chance´´ more as a joke, but that brave man walked right up to the four of them and I stood proudly a safe distance behind him. After some general small talk of asking them for directions to a place that we Will never go (its a good way to start conversations here because its clear I AM not a local) He told them that I was na american and wanted a photo. They Said Yes and all got out their burretts and Sun glasses and I got the greatest Picture with them!

Now as to why the subject is what it is this week;

Next week there is a 80% chance that I Will be writing you from my new assignment in the United States of America, as my visa Expires this Friday, and the secretaries are having a lot of issues with the consolate in São Paulo. So come this Wednesday IF we havent heard back from São Paulo, I Will be deported on Friday! Its all Just one big adventure, and I AM very shady on the details because the people that are keeping me informed only speak portuguese. In truth I Will be very sad, because one month hás been all I needed to fall in Love with Brazil. BUT, already in this short time, IF there is one thing I have learned it is that god hás an exact plan for every single person here, so where ever i end up, I know it Will be Gods Will.

I hope you all are doing as excellent as I AM because on a scale of 1-10 I AM about a 25. It is incredible seeing yourself chance as you come to think more about others rather than yourself.

I pray for you all every Day, and in case this email was not clear due to my time restraints in writing it: I AM incredibly blessed by the lord, I AM completely healthy now, and I AM not in the least bit worried about where He might send me. I was called to serve a mission, and was ASSIGNED to Brazil. If that assignment changes, my calling does not.

I Love you all and hope you have an excellent week.

Tchau!                                                                                

Elder Ferrell

I am still working on the pictures issue, I think I will be able to find a way to email them to my mom and have her forward them to the group. My appologies for the lack of visual stimulation!

Week 4? 5? It's hard to keep track! (Week #9 on Mission, #3 in Brazil!)

Hellllooo U.S.A.!

This week was HOT! But other wise not at all bad! We had a lot of awesome teaching experiences and met a lot of really cool people! Last Monday we went to Fortaleza for the Day because I needed to GO to the Police Office and get a permanent visa. The Day in fortaleza was great! The part where I was supposed to get my visa....not so great! The church accidentally made a mistake with the paperwork they gave me before I left for Brazil, and so now we have to GO through this long drawn out process of getting na official document from the American Embassy here that says something along the lines of ´´Do not worry this Guy is chill´´ (Thats not an exact translation) Before I can get my visa, and all of this hás to happen before June 9th or I get deported.....so that might be interesting!

In other news, I started teaching English last week which was cool! It made me feel a little bit better about how difficult portuguese is for me right now! I have two classes I teach, one meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays and hás around 25 people in it, the other only meets Saturday Mornings and hás around 35 people in it. Everyone is awesome and it is a different experience for sure!

One funny story from the week was when we were vistiting a recent convert. My Companion and her were talking casually, then Elder Paixao asked her IF she would say the opening prayer. I am not sure what she Said, because I still cannot understand what people are saying in portuguese, so I was Just sitting quietly waiting for her and Elder Paixao to stop talking and for us to say the opening prayer. Well while I was waiting quietly for this, I say the members sister down the hallway, and so I called out a cheerful greeting to her with the intent of inviting her to join the lesson. Well when I did this the member Just burst out laughing and my companion gave me the look of ´´umm are you serious bro?´´ It turns out that they had not Just been talking, the member had Said Yes to saying the opening prayer and started right into it, so I did not realize that I was Just calling out in the middle of her prayer....Awkward.

Last piece of news is we baptized an awesome new member yesterday named Tatianie Who seems really excited about the church! Were up to 20 members here now!

Hope you all have a good week, and I want to leave you with my testimony that I know that God and Jesus Christ live, and that every Trial we face here on earth is to make us stronger. Finally, please never forget how personally and tenderly Jesus Christ loves every single one of you!

With lots of Love,

Elder Ferrell

 I am sorry I still cannot figure out how to send pictures here in Quixeramobim, hopefully will have more next week!

Is it even Winter yet? (Week #8)

Hello World!

So, week two was definitely better than week one. It was a little rough on Thursday because I came down with a headcold (I feel like Brazil is treating my immune system like a punching bag, but ohh weelll)

On Saturday we had what was my first baptism here in Quixeramobim. His name is Robson (hobson) and he is awesome! It was strange because on Friday afternoon Elder Paixao and I had to go to where we had the baptism and ´´clean´´ the water, which meant we used a bucket to bail out the top few inches of things floating….definitly a different experience, but all went well and he was confirmed Yesterday in church!

I am loving the food here in brazil. They have this magical thing called Dim-Dim (Jin-Jin) that is like heaven on earth. Basically it is like a fruit flavored ice cream pop, but the fruit down here is soo good, so these things are literally addicting. Elder Paixao told me they are easy to make so we are going to start making them ourselves so we have a steady supply. Wednesdays are cool here because we get to go to another city, Quixada, for District meetings, and that was cool!

The language is coming very slowly. It is still very difficult having an entire city of people who want to talk to you but you cannot communicate, but hopefully in comes sooner rather than later! Tomorrow I start teaching a community English class that has 55 people signed up for it….We will see how that goes. I am not sure if all these people actually want to learn English, or if they just want to come and see the only white boy in the city talk funny, but either way It will be an adventure!

As far as lessons learned this week, the main one is that you only forget Sunscreen once in Brazil. The sun here is brutal! Luckilly I did not get burned too bad…..or maybe I did and the sun screen just doesn’t work because my skin is a seemingly permanent shade of red, but still. I have lost 3 kilograms already in the last two weeks….I have no Idea how much weight that actually is because I cannot look up the conversion factor for kilos to pounds…but judging by the way people react when they hear this I am guessing it’s a lot for two weeks.

Other than that nothing very exciting happened this last week!

I hope you all are doing well! Until next time friends.

Love you all,

Elder Ferrell

1) My Mission President, his wife, and I

2-3) Quixeramobim Brazil

4) Elder Paixao and I