Training!

My companion/greenie/daughter, Hermana Dominguez, and I with President and Hermana Collado on the day the new missionaries arrived. We put paint on our hands and then make hand prints on a banner that says "Somos las manos de Cristo," our mission theme. 

I just spent my first week as a trainer. I believe I mentioned in my last email that I would be receiving a new missionary and take a new role as a trainer. Monday night we had a training session, just the future trainers, with President Collado and other mission leaders. It was a spiritual treat, getting to sit down in a boardroom with one of the chosen stewards of God's kingdom in Central America and talk about how to build our testimonies and how to become the kind of people that God needs in his kingdom here and in all our lives. 

We had Pizza Hut for dinner and adjourned to the Sister Training Leaders' house, where we hung out, all the new trainers together, and then Tuesday morning we were given hours to study the materials we'd be using with our new companions. Boy was that a treat, just hours to study without having to focus on all the people who were worrying about us, or we were worrying about, or who were relying on us. I got a lot of personal inspiration there.

Tuesday afternoon we headed up to the President's house, where one by one, dramatically, we were introduced to our companions, and our companions were introduced to the mission theme and to just what it is to be in the best mission in the world. We had a few hours together as a group, discovered that there's an Elder who laughs weirder than I do (that'll be interesting in meetings), and then headed home to work.

And this week has been great. My companion and I just hit it off. We get along so great, even though I'm having to adapt to a Honduran accent after 7 months of Guatemalan companions, and she's having to adapt to the crazy, clumsy, goofy gringa who is way too tall and jokes too much and loves too many people. We have had so much fun, and we'll keep having a ton of fun out here. The members already love here, and we've already found so many special people, including a woman who accompanied us to church on Sunday and got so excited that she's bringing her whole family, sons, daughter-in-law, and grandkids, next week. And as I'm having to train someone else, and take off my own training wheels, I'm learning to conquer more fears and find more joy. The Lord really does direct this work, and knows exactly what he's doing.

I love my mission, my companion, my Savior, and you.

Love,

Hermana Ferrin

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Mothers' Day and Big News

"Life doesn't come with a manual, it comes with a mother."

I want to begin by saying that I understand so much better during this time in the mission just how important family is. Being away from my family, being immersed in a culture rife with different family traditions, and teaching how families can be united for eternity thanks to the authority and mercy of the Lord, my testimony of families grows every day. As children of God, the importance of family, community, and love is grand, and all this starts with a mother. And honestly, there is no better mother around than mine. I say that unapologetically. I'm trying every day to learn to be a little more like her, as loving, as intelligent, as faithful, as strong as her. My family is one of my greatest blessings, and the joy and love we have in my family comes from the love and joy we have in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and for that reason, I am here to help other families learn to have that same joy. 

I know I've been a little silent on the blog for the last few weeks, and that's largely due to my sickness and preparation days spent in the hospital, but these last few weeks in Managua have been great. I've been learning to conquer my fears, learning to love strangers, learning to laugh at myself, and learning to be patient with myself in the same way the Lord is patient with me. 

And speaking of mothers, I now have the opportunity to become a "mother" here in the mission. Yes, friends, it's time for changes in the mission, again, and my companion, Hermana Argueta, is leaving the area and going to another part of Managua, and I will be receiving a brand new missionary as my companion. She's never been in the mission before, and thus, I am her "mother." I will teach her to walk like a missionary (quickly), eat like a missionary (gratefully and politely), sleep (always with fans, thanks to the mosquitos), talk like a missionary (with everyone, with love), and how to make friends, how to trust, how to smile, and how to find joy. I am so excited for this trust, and a little overwhelmed, but, as with everything else I've learned in the mission, I know that I can do it if I trust in the Lord. With him, everything is possible.

I love you all, and God loves you a whole lot more than I do,

Love,

Hermana Ferrin

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5 de Mayo, 7 months, and a baptism

On Friday, I completed 7 months in the mission. On Saturday, we had an awesome baptism in the La Fuente ward. The Elders baptized a young man they had been teaching, and we were able to see one of our investigators, Hermana Luz, be baptized. Her sister is a member in another city, and her daughter is a less-active member who has been returning to church little by little as she's met with us and seen the example of her mother. Hermana Luz was so excited and so happy to see the changes coming into her life as she experiences the blessings of the gospel. That's why I'm here! To see those changes in my own life, and to help others make those changes as well.

Love,

Hermana Ferrin

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