Transfers (Week #55)

Hello all!
Just a quick email today!
I was transferred from Quixada to be a zone leader in the zone Pacajus.

My area is called Horizante, and my new companion is an American from Las Vegas, Elder Mortensen.

I was reaaaallly sad to Leave Quixada, but it all is part of the experience. New things to come!

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Ferrell

He Lives, don't you know? (Week #54)

What a true blessing it is for us to be living in a day where we can be led by and governed by a true profet called of God. What a special experience it was to see, hear, and witness God work through his beloved servant Presidente Nelson this last weekent. I bear solemn testimony that the words, revelations and sentiments transmitted from the speakers in this last General Conference are the words of god himself, and that those who delivered them are true diciples called of him!

We were all excited to show our support for our New Profet on Saturday, as well as to see our two new Apostles on Sunday, one of which, Elder Suares, is from Brasil!

But it is at this moment I would like to ask you all to ponder something in your minds going forward these next few weeks. As missionaries we often teach a specific lesson on the first visit with an investigator. This message is called the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It truly is a message of hope and joy to our world today to know that through a profet called of God, God restored the order of his church here on the earth. But I would like to ask all of you, is the restoration complete? Is the restoration only the revelations that Joseph Smith and the other modern profets that imidietly followed received? NO!

My friends we live in an exciting time in which we are PARTICIPATING in the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christ taught us in Acts 1:7 ´´It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.´´ 

I have already heard a few voice their concerns and confusion about glorious changes made in the orginization of the church this last weekend to better progress the RESTORATION of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To any concern or confusion that may come it is important to know that this is the adversary trying to tempt us and ubstruct the work of the Lord being finished. We cannot forget, especially this the weekend that we celebrate the ressurection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Crist, that HE LIVES. He is at the helm and he does not sleep on the Job! If you think that the restoration of his church and his gospel is complete, I invite you to read the New testament and see the laws and covenants that were made or the orginizations that were created, and see how little by little we are seeing the church of God being adjusted to truly be restored to its original form, clean and pure. The most exciting part is that we are a direct influence on how quickly or how slowly this restoration is accomplished! God will continue to pregress is work for he is a God of Progression. When his children here on earth show that they are pregressing with Him He will give us more parts of the puzzle to motivate us to continue on this road of Progression.

The more dedicated we are to obeying our sacred covenants, the faster this restoration will be accomplished. 

The more dedicated we are in helping our bretheren know about the joy and love that comes through following and obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the faster that Gospel will be Restored.

We are our own agents. As we can see through every example in our history, when we, the people of Zion turn to be a righteous people, God will entrust us with knowlede of his works. But if we cannot understand things terrestres how can we be expected to understand things Celestial? (Words of Christ John 3) 

I would like to extend a loving invitation to all to embrace with excitiment every new revelation and new step of the Restoration of His Gospel which God chooses to reveal through his servants in these later days, and would like to encourage all to always search to be the best disiple of Christ you can be, through following all his commandments. Let us, as a people, hasten the work of our Master. Let us do our part to have confidence in a ´´Better World´´ (Ether 12:4)

I miss you all, have an excellent week!

With all my love,

Elder Ferrell

1 Year on the Mish!!!!! (Week #53)

Hello all! 

I apologize for the lack of an email last week, there was a holiday here in Quixada so we werent able to pass a lot of time on the computer.

But these last two weeks were quite stressful, and we are releived they have finished! This month was the last month of the trimester for the church, which is reallly important here. In areas where the church is just getting started, it is these times that are most critical in the perspective of whether or not our city will receive a chapel like we are all accustomed to in the US of A, if we will stay just one branch or be divided into 2 branches, etc. Basically this month is the most important time to show growth in our areas to try and receive more resources to help facilitate that growth. Here in the Quixada branch, we have one congregation here that meets every Sunday, and a group that is part of our Branch that meets in Quixeramobim, our sister city. Many of you will remember Quixeramobim as it was my very first area on my mission. Well two weeks ago President called us 3 times on P-day....if you dont already know, when the Mission President calls 1 time its already important, but he called 3. He wanted to talk with me about our District helping Quixeramobim grow faster to become an independant branch this trimester. After a group pow wow in our house we orginized a plan which included basically us working in 2 cities, one day here in Quixada, and the other in Quixeramobim. This was not very easy but we saw miracles happen in both cities. 2 weeks ago the attendance for the Quixeramobim group was 40 people. For Quixada Branch it was 70. Yesterday Quixada had an Attendance of 87 to close out the trimester (making it very possible for Quixada to receive permission to buy the land for a real Chappel here) and Quixeramobim had and attendance of 73 people, enshuring that Quixeramobim will be an independent Branch here in a few days!!!! On top of this our District together had 7 Baptisms and 6 confirmations yesterday, and in the area of my companion and i alone we had 12 investigators visit church! Just goes to show the blessings that come through truly putting the lords will first, being exactly obedient to every single one of his comandments, and working like crazy!

This last Friday was a day really difficult for our companionship, but it was an opportunity for our testimonies to be reinforces. It was one of those experiences the turns beleife and faith into hard and firm knowlede. I want to bear my testimony to you all about the power of the restored gospel. That it truly has the power to protect us from the many many evils and terrible horrors that exist in our world today. Through reading and understantding the scriptures, praying every day, and going to church every sunday we protect ourselves from these evils, and build our lights to be more illuminous to the world. When we put our savior as our center, and build our foundation upon the rock of his atoneing sacrifice, he will bless us every day of our lives. I testify of this in the name of Jesus Christ, our master, Amen.

Be Excellent to Each Other

Love Elder Ferrell

P.S. This thursday i will have ONE YEAR on the Mission!!!! Wup Wup!

Baptism of Vitor!

Week #52 (Direct Notes to Mom)

good! crazy but good! President called 3 times last p day because he wants Quixeramobim, the city that is 40 minutes away, to be a branch THIS month, and he asked me how my district could help. We created a plan had some district pow wows, and basically every other day one companionship from our district is going to Quixeramobim to work there and help them, while the other stays here in quixada working for both companionships in both areas!

So last week really was crazy and today is our only day to relax a bit before it all starts again. but thats the newest thing! 

I'll write more next week because its a holiday here, so the lan house is closed were having to use to computer in the church. But I love you guys send my love to everyone! 

And thank you for my package!!!!

The Battle Continues (Week #51)

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty fast because We passed the first half in Fortaleza for Leadership council of the mission. We didnt get back to Quixada until Wednesday afternoon and went to work! 

The week progressed pretty slowly, and we were sad to not have a baptism Yesterday, but I think we will have on this next Sunday!

Yesterday we had what we called a Mulitdude at church. The 3rd hour everyone was together and we gave a training on being member missionaries, and yesterday afternoon we asked people to gather at the church for us to orginize to visit less active members here (because there is close to 300) and only 5 people showed up! At first I was a bit frustrated, but after visiting a less active member with a sister in the branch here who also had been a less active member in the past, there wasnt a way in the world to keep feeling frustrated. The 5 people who actually showed up were so happy and excited afterwards! It just goes to show that even the smallest things make a difference. And now these 5 members wont stop talking about how awesome it was and asking when it will happen again!

That is about it for the week!

Hope you all are well!

Until Next time!
Elder Ferrell

Normal Week (Week #50)

Hello World!

This last week was considerably less stressful with just our own area to worry about! We went to work! My new companion, Elder Deza, is really cool! He is really relaxed and a go with the flow kind of guy, but still likes to work hard, and we get along really well!

The week itself didn’t have a whole lot new going on, just work work work to try and build our area back up. We discovered some promising families and are trying to discover a lot more!

Our church attendance went back up with the other companionship arriving, and things are back to progressing in the same form they were before! We had a baptism yesterday. Technically it was a baptism of the other Elders but it was still cool for me because she was a woman that Elder Medina and I taught and prepared for baptism and the other missionaries arrived with a baptism already closed and confirmed! Her name is Katerina and she is really cool! When we started teaching her she had no desire to go to church or do anything, but we got her to commit to at least pray. When we visited the next day we asked how it was, she said she felt normal, nothing new. So we told her to try one more time that night, and after praying, to stay on her knees so pondering and focusing on how she felt for at least 30 seconds. The next day we came to visit her and everything was different! She said she did what we had said and it was something cool, definitely different, that she did not know how to explain!

Just goes to show once again that god is with us every step of the way, most of the times we just need to calm down and look.

Love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Ferrell

1) Katarina

2 & 3) Photos of Quixada with my new camera (such a dad move)

4) Waterfall outside of Katarinas house when it rains

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