This note is not from Elder Ferrell. It is from his parents.
Yesterday, April 6th 2014, between the sessions of general conference, we received a phone call from the Czech Republic. Sister McConkie (wife of mission president James McConkie) was on the phone and asked to speak to both of Elder Ferrell's parents. Obviously concerned, we were relieved to hear that Elder Ferrell was fine. She told us that he had a rather large lump on his chest about the size of a billiard ball that had grown dramatically over the past few months and after consulting with the mission doctor in Frankfurt, determined that he is in need of surgery to remove it, but that it could be done safely there, in Bratislava, Slovakia, if we so chose. She told us that it is non-cancerous for the time being but that it could turn cancerous if left alone. We found out it is rather common in adolescent young men. She asked us if our son had talked at all about it and we answered, "no". He asked her to call us and tell us about it as he didn't want to spread "bad" news. Elder Ferrell is scheduled for out-patient surgery on April 16, require about a week of time to recover, and we will be having a family fast for him on the 15th of this month. For any and all who would like to join us, we welcome your support. At the advice and consent of Sister Mcconkie, we were able to send extended emails back and forth this morning when he got on the internet.
Now the weekly letter:
Well it's a new transfer, this last one ahs really gone quite fast, I'm not exactly sure what happened with it but it did, it just feels like it flew by, and I don't know where all the time went. There were weeks that were slow and hard but the whole 2 months were gone by so quickly, just like this last week. It's been a really fun last week with all the people here in Bratislava. We tried to make it as fun as possible with everybody. We hung out a lot and we spent our last lunch together on Saturday after we had sports night and language study together and cleaned the church for Sunday. We were expecting to get transfer calls while we were together at lunch, usually the AP's or President calls around 8 or 9 but for some reason he never called me. The AP's just called 2 elders here and that's all we got. So it was an interesting week and a fun one at the same time but it seems very long since we've emailed or anything like that.
As far as this coming transfer, we received our phone call from President, which is rather odd because he only calls those in leadership which I wasn't expecting. At 10:10 or so.and I was actually in the shower because I was gross and sweaty from the day and I didn't want to go to bed like that so I quickly got out of the shower while Elder Roosendaal picked up the phone and talked to him about where he was going. He then gave the phone to me and started asking me a bunch of questions about how obedient I am and if I do certain things and stuff like that. He then told me well, you're gonna need it because you're gonna be zone leader. I know that you know that already haha. But I'm with Elder Boysen who is actually a czech elder and he's the other zone leader over Slovakia. He used to be AP the last transfer but Elder Barber took his spot and we needed someone to come down here, which apparently Elder Boysen knew was going to happen. He's known for about 3-4 weeks that we would be zone leaders together down here. That's how it goes with that, and we're expected to be the best by the end of the transfer, which I think is very possible with Elder Boysen because he's a machine with finding people. So we're supposed to make a big impact among these people.
Other than that, this week we have been trying to set up lessons but all of the potentials that we have just didn't want to give us the time of day, we have some investigators that just were too busy this week. But this week they are guaranteed to make it to lessons, and we're gonna teach tons of people. At least that's the plan that we have. We have to give it our all and with Elder Boysen, it's probably possible. He has been doing mad work up in Prague, and so why can't that happen here in Slovakia as well. In other news this week, we met with a referral from the pirovtici, a strong family in Bratislava, and we're meeting with her again. She is actually the girlfriend of his oldest son who is a member but less active. I have actually met him before on a tram when I saw his wife and their oldest son together and they introduced themselves to us. She is very genuine and I could see some definite interest in her and she wanted us to come back so that sounds great and now we just need to get another referral so we can enhance our teaching pool. I'm really excited for this transfer and I fully expect to be utterly wasted by the end of the transfer and just about fall over I can't hold myself up. Consecrated missionary here I come.
That's all I really have for you today, we don't have a super ton of time but that's my life in Slovakia right now. I will need to start working on getting my international driver's license in case I stay a zone leader next transfer which is likely. If not, it's probably still good to have just in case but other than that, thanks for all your emails, I love you all and thanks for the help!
Elder Ferrell
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