The Week of the Wedding Planner (Week #49)

Hello World!

This last week was honestly exhausting but incredible! To start off, transfer calls came in last night, and while everyone was expecting me to be transferred..NOPE!!! J Thankfully, God let me stay here a little longer! But my companion Elder Medina was transferred for Fortaleza, and today we have 3 new missionaries arriving here in Quixada! And I’m the only one of the 4 of us that knows the city! But I´m super excited to stay here and to get to know my new companion and my new district! Elder Deza is my new companion, he’s from Peru and until now, the last hour or so with him has been good! High hopes!

Elder Medina and I about killed ourselves walking this last week because we had many people to teach in two different sides of the city! We were all set for the wedding of a couple live here to happen on Saturday, and that’s a bit of a funny story! This couple lives in the area of the other Elders, but when they were transferred, it fell to us to organize everything. I thought the other elders, being transferred only one week before the wedding, already would have gotten everything in order….NOPE! Nothing was planned, and we had to do everything! The plan was that the couple would be married, and then the bride, Suzy, would be baptized after the wedding service. Well thankfully, Tuesday night we went to go visit them. (We had to call the assistants to request permission to arrive home later because it was soo far) When we arrived, we found out that the other missionaries literally never had visited them there! That we were all planning on the baptism of Suzy after the wedding service but the other Elders actually had not taught her! She had been taught my missionaries a year ago but did not have desire then and did not remember their lessons! We taught her the basics and asked her some questions. Luckily, she truly is a convert and had been studying church manuals that her boyfriend who was a less active member had, so she already knew a lot, but that was a stressful moment! We helped her get ready for baptism and we planned everything for the wedding. On Saturday, Elder Medina and I did a split with members of the Elders Quorum here so that Elder Medina could invite people to go to church, and I could coordinate all the preparations for the wedding

The wedding was scheduled to start at 5 PM…….but the bride arrived at 7. But in the end, everything worked out ok! Suzy and Victor were married and afterwards Suzy was baptized. Sunday morning Suzy was confirmed and now the both of them are strong members in the Quixada Branch. And I gained expirience in wedding planning! Maybe I´ll make a buisness of it post mish!

That was the biggest highlight of the week! Frequency at church was a bit low yesterday, we only had 60 people, but now that were back to 2 companhionships in Quixada its gonna go back up for sure!

I hope you all are having a great week! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Ferrell

1) The old District Quixada

2) Bruno and Suzy (Yes I was the photografer also)

3) Bruno and Suzy

4) Bruno and Suzy pre Baptism

Yeah, I'm half-way there! (Week #48)

 Hello World!

Im sorry for the lack of an email last week, Everything was shut down on P-day because of Carnaval! It seems like every week here there is at least 1 Holiday....but oh well!

This last week was uterly exhausting! We had a normal Tuesday, and Wednesday the Elders from Quixeramobim stayed in our house to travel with us to Fortaleza for Zone conference. Also because of Carnaval, the assistants werent able to buy tickets for us to travel Wednesday afternoon like usual, the only seats available were on the 4 AM bus to Fortaleza on Thursday. So Quixeramobim came to stay with us, and at 10 PM on Wednesday, President Leite called to tell us that 2 Elders in my district were being emergency transferred and President was closing their area. They had to stay up all night packing to be ready to go at 4 AM....So basically it was a long night. Zone conference was pretty good, it was basically the same things that President tells us in Leadership Council, but still was a good oportunity to focas even more on the work! Which we need!

I was hoping when president transferred these two missionaries that he would send a new companhonship, but he didnt...so now Elder Medina and I are the only missionaries for the entire city of Quixada, and its exhausting, but rewarding! We were blessed with a baptism yesterday of a Young Single Adult, Vitoria. 

Vitoria WAS an athiest unil her friend, Cecilia was baptised by the other Elders and she started to talke to the missionaries. Little by little Vitoria started to feel the spirit testify in her heart that our words were true, until the day she had the corage to ask for herself and she recognized Deus speaking to her. She is an awsome person and she was so happy after her baptism last night! This week we have another baptism on Saturday, and were hoping to have 4 more throughout the week, but we will need a miracle for sure! The Baptism on Saturday is the girlfriend of a Less active member who is reactivating now and recognizing the blessings of the gospel in his life. They are currently living together, but this Saturday is their wedding! They will get married and after the marriage his girlfiend, Suzi, will be baptised! 

In other good news, we found out a few weeks ago that the process has already been started to buy the land here in Quixada to construct a church!!! That alone is an incredible blessing!

Just as with the lamanites in Alma 25, we are having the pleasure here of seeing God pour out his spirit among the people, and its incredible!

This coming Sunday is transfer Sunday so its possible I wont have a lot of time to write next Pday, but I want to bare my testimony to you all. Jesus Christ is the son of the living God, he lives and is waiting for all of us to get to know him personally! 

I Love and Miss you all! 

And last thing, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD #foreveryoung

Until Next Time,

Elder Ferrell

1) Baptism of Vitoria

2) I´m holding a Monkey!!

3) This is an endangered species for American Missionaries in Brasil (Thanks Fam!)

4) Baptism of Priscila and Imaculada 3 weeks ago

Things continue to grow (Week #46)

Hello all! 

This weeks email is real fast because we are here in Fortaleza and I dont have a lot of time, but everything is well here! We had a hecktic week but it all payed off by having 87 people in church Yesterday!! Things just keep growing and growing, and yesterday we had a councilor of the Mission visit to scout out a plot of land here in Quixada with the Branch president for the church to purchase to construct a big Chapel!!!!!!!! (Thats huge news for us)

God continues to bless us!

I hope all is well with all of you!
Until next week!

Love,

Elder Ferrell

A man of Optimism! (Week #45)

Hello all!
I hope this email finds you all well! 

This last week was incredible, but first I would like to share something with you all! This is one week delayed, but a short time ago, we had the incredible oportunity to see a New first Presidency of the church, as well as our new beloved Profet, Russel M. Nelson, adress us all. It truly was a historic experience, and I can testify to you all that Presidente Nelson is without a doubt our Profet called to lead us in these days. I know this because when he started to speak I had the Holy Ghost testify to me, and it was an incredible experience! President Nelson has already shown us time and time again that he is a man of optimism and he invites us to be the same! I would like to share an important story with you all from his personal life. 

When president Nelson was 54 years old he was asked to perform an open heart surgery on a young woman who did not servive the surgery. A short time after the same parents brought him their baby that was not yet two years old, to perform that same surgery because he had the same heart defect...this surgery was also unsuccessful, and they lost their other child. President Nelson told this story and explained how he collapsed on the waiting room floor and cried for hours after that last surgery, promising that he never would perform an open heart surgery again. He cried and cried until his wife asked him if he was done. What she told him was extremely profound. She said that he should finish crying and go to work, because with these two unsucessful surgeries, it was clear he still had things to learn. Taking his wifes advice, President Nelson returned to work, and went on to be one of the leading specialists in open heart surgery, giving him the capacity to save one of his good friends life, another memer of the Quarum of the 12 Apostles, at the time.

The point of the story is this. Nothing replaces optimism and work. When we look at our future in perspective to our pasts, without a vision of improvment, their is seldom an opportunity to feel optimistic. But I want to promise you all, that when we look at our futures with optimism, with a desire to work and to improve, we will be guided by the Lord and have a happy life. If President Nelson, being 93 years old, can stand in the front of the entire world and promise us that we have ´´a bright future ahead´´ we have every reason in the world to be optimistic about our futures.

This week we were blessed with two baptisms, Priscila and Itela, two young women who are incredibly excited about their furtur in following the gospel of Christ. I bare testimony to you all that when we apply a feeling of optimism in our daily lives, on focus on making Christ our center, its is almost imposible for the feelings of inadequacy, fear, and doubt, wepons weilded by the enemy of all happiness, to enter into our hearts and minds. Focus on Christ, and be Optimistic!

Love you all,

Elder Ferrell

1) Pricila and Imaculada

The one where it Rains in Ceara (Week #44)

Go to Brasil they said. It will be Hot they said! Well my friends this last Saturday was NOT hot! I was freezing!

Ceará is in a really bad draught right now, so the rain is good, and its even better to work in the rain because everyon calls you into their house to pass the rain and we have many opportunities to teach, but man, Saturday was rough. It was a kind of rain that soaked you to the bone within 1 minute and left you shivering and squishing around the city all day. So that was fun, but i think I´ll stick with baptsims being the only ocasion that I like getting completely soaked with my clothes on.

But outside of this it was a really great week! It really is an incredible experience to be here in Quixada to see the church grow. When I got here there had been many missionaries pass through here who just broke the rules and didnt work that well, so we had around 40 people frequenting, 2-5 people in gospel principles, 9-12 men in Priesthood, and hardly any youth, but yesterday we had 77 people, 15 in gospel principles and 18 in elders quarum. 

God is really blessing our city!

Nothing really special happend through the week, hopefully this week is more exciting!

Love and miss you all!

Until next week, 

Elder Ferrell​

1)Tarciso´s Baptism

2) Artanea´s Baptism

Video) Just watch it and see

The week of 5 Baptisms! (Week #43)

Hello World! 

This Last week was insane!

I told Elder Medina that it would be a rough week, as it was, but we definitly saw the results from it.

I went on 3 Splits last week, one Tuesday, Wednesday, and the last on Thursday. While some in the district murmured thinking it was not necesary, it definitly was, and it helped a lot! I would like to share with you all one of the many miracles that happened because of our hard work!

There is a man here named Tarciso. He has a brother who is a member of the bishopric in a city closer to Fortaleza, and in the Past he fought a lot with his brother about the church because he didnt beleive. Fast forward a few years and a good friend of his,Jonatas, encountered the missionaries and started taking the discussions. Tarciso was not a good example. I remember going on a split with Elder Lima 3 weeks ago and teaching Jonatas and Tarciso arrived trying to convince him to go out partying and drinking that night (not an influence missionaries are excited about in the lives of their investigators). But that same sunday 3 weeks ago, Jonatas went to expirament a church meeting, and by some miracle Tarciso decided to go too! This, also by some miracle, happened to be the one and only day that his Brother who is in the Bishopric visited, and they were in church together without coordinating beforehand! After that first day in church Tarciso started to read the book of mormon, but he had a lot of change to do in his life before he was ready to be baptised. And that brings us to last Thursday. 

I was on a split with Elder Lima in his area and we went to Visit Tarciso. We taught him about the Gospel of Christ and the power it can have in our lives. At the end of the lesson Elder Lima invited him to be baptised. Tarciso said he would think about it and let us know on Friday. But then elder Lima pulled out a Baptism Certificate and said ´´now elder Ferrell is going to explain what this is´´

I pulled out my Book of Mormon and we read Moroni 6 together that talkes about baptisimal forms and preparing to be baptised. Im not sure when, but at some point during reading that chapter, something clicked. Once I finished reading he looked at us and said ´´You can save that paper there because I´m going to be baptised this Sunday!´´

After he showed us a bottle of Whiskey he had been saving in his Bedroom for a long time. Im not an expert with alcohol thank goodness, but after showing the video to some other missionaries who are recent converts, they recognised it in a second! Aparently its REALLY expensive. But Tarciso took that bottle of whiskey, walked to the bathroom, and dumped the entire bottle down the toilete.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of baptising him. Miracles happen people! And I wanted to share this story with you to show to you all the power this gospel can have in our lives, and the power of the book of mormon. I cannot explain the feeling of seeing him dump that bottle of whiskey in the toilet, or the feeling while talking to his brother on the Phone, and having his brother thank Elder Lima and I, almost through tears, for helping his brother, and I cannot explain the feeling I had seeing him come back out of the water yesterday afternoon. 

God is real and he searches for his lost sheep.

I love you all!
Elder Ferrell

(my flash drive isnt working so ill send pics next week!)

The General 70 I didn't get to see (Week #42)

Soo this last week was interesting!

On Wednesday Elder Medina and I went to Fortaleza so I could go to an ear doctor. For anyone there who still uses cuetips, I can now personally testify that they dont do good. I ended up blocking up one of my ears till I couldnt hear, and we went to the Ear Doctor Wednesday to have her clean my ear out and restore my hearing. Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council which was pretty awesome! Friday we got back in Quixada and went strait to work, and on Friday night we discovered that President Leite and a member of the 70 would be visiting our branch on Sunady for Sacrament meeting! Elder Medina and I did work on Saturday, visiting every member and investigator to invite everyone to go to church! 

Sunday morning we woke up early to go accompany investigators to church, but after 3 hours, everyone had fallen through! We walked to the church and found out that the meetings would be different and we were starting with classes and finishing with sacrament meeting. This was a big bummer for me becasue I had to leave early!

Elder Tozin in Quixeramobim will finish off his mission this next monday, so today he had to be in Fortaleza for a self suficienci class all the missionaries have to do before returning home. The problem was the assistants bought tickets for him to go to Fortaleza yesterday night befor their Sacrament meeting, so I told him he could go with my companion to Fortaleza, and His companion and I would go to Quixeramobim to help out with sacrament meeting there and make sure that there was someone there to accompany investigators to church. When we made these plans it was supposed to work out for us to stay for sacrament meeting in Quixada, and after leave for Quixeramobim, but with the last minute switch, I wasnt able to participate in the confirmation of our recent convert who was baptised last sunday, I wasnt able to stay to talk with President Leite and the General 70, and I missed out on a member opening his mission call and 3 Baptisms here in the branch that all happened yesterday after we left! I NEVER thought I would say that I was a bit sad to visit Quixeramobim but yesterday I was! BUT after I got smart and stopped being selfish, and remembered I was doing what was best for the District, and we saw miracles happen!

Elder Koster and I worked all afternoon calling people and visiting them to invite them to church, but after all our work and leaving to search and accompany people from their houses, we arrived at sacrament meeting without a single investigator. I looked at Elder Koster and asked him if he was fasting and he said he was, so I told him we were going to say a prayer and ask for Gods help. The very moment I finished praying, 3 investigators walked through the door.

This was just one of the many miracles that happened, and above all of this, our district was blessed with more baptisms than a lot of entire zones this last weekend!

Thats about it for the week!

I hope you all are doing well, love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Ferrell

Photos:

1) Our baptism from last week (Kauã the kid in the middle)

2) Elder Medina and I

3) Today visiting the Santo Oaro

4) For Dad