Mission Conference!

FAMILY!!!!!!

 

Whats up!!!! How is everything?? Sounds like some CHANGES are going on and are to come here in these next couple of weeks! I can't believe it! I am excited for lil miles to get there though. WHAT A STUD he will be! Give you a lil extra company around the house thats for sure! Anyways i would say if I was disobedient in one thing in would be playing with the little children everywhere!! HAHA i'm sorry I love them! Kids are the best and like you all know for SOME ODD REASON sometimes they like me! So at investigators homes, recent converts homes, members homes, etc... Little kids will run up to me and cry for me to pick them up... or they will run up and jump on my lap. I LOVE IT but as you know missionaries are supposed to hold kids or anything like that haha. SOOOO lets just imagine elder ovard is perfectly obedient in that. I truly do though do everything possible to obey that commandment but its HARD!! So i'm excited for miles to get there so that each of YOU will be able to hold him!

 

What a week of fun though it was here in FLO RIDA!! We had a leadership training up in ft laud on Friday. Then mission conference on Saturday and Stake conference on sunday!!! So I was around a lot of missionaries and friends this past week. I saw sister rogers like 3 days in a row haha I will also see her this week for zone training. Anyways it was a week of fun! I did see the irvins at stake conference. I feel super bad because literally right when they came up and talked to me I had like 50 different things racing around in my mind hahaha Dilia (lady getting baptized) asking me where she could change and wait and stuff, our investigators talking about questions they had, recent converts running up to me and saying hi, members from my old ward in riverside wanting to talk to me hahaha AHHHHHHH it was hectic but a BLAST! So tell them sorry haha i felt rude not being able to chat with them for a minute! It was fun seeing them though! I was hoping they would stay for the baptism. SPEAKING OF BAPTISMS.......

 

This past week god BLESSED us once again! Idk why he is so nice to us.. but hey i can't complain! We baptized an old lady named Dilia! She is 82 years old and boy was it fun having the honor of baptizing her. She is from cuba and solo habla espanol. She reminds me so so much of grandma gubler haha just a little things with the biggest heart. Well like i said it was stake conference and so baptisms were right after conference. So all the missionaries were there and as well President and sister anderson (they talked at the conference). Well long story short the baptism was amazing. Super spiritual and powerful. After i baptized this 82 yr old lady she looks at me in the font and gives me a big hug...(remember all these people that were there... fyi including president anderson.) so I get out of the water and change my clothes. I ended up getting out a little bit later then dilia because i was helping a few others change and stuff in the dressing rooms. Well RIGHT at i walk out of the dressing rooms all eyes are on me as i walk over to go sit down by dilia!!! I look at her and say Como se siente?? or in other words how do you feel?? She then with a big BIG smile on her face looked me straight in the eyes and said MUY MUY BIEN as she planted a BIG WET JUICY kiss right on my cheek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK!!!!! hahaha the stake president who was also there presiding over the meeting began laughing his head off. I then looked back and each missionary was basically laughing as well. I then looked around for president... scared to death hahaha jk i wasn't scared but it was just extrememly funny!! I'm sure sister rogers saw it all happen! She was there to watch me baptize dilia :) it was awesome! She is the best little abuelita that we have!

 

So here in florida the investigators only have to come to church 2 times. But also they for sure need to have a testimony. Just like it says in the book of mormon though the baptism is the gate. It is the gate to receiving the spirit, receiving knowledge, guidance, understandment, wisdom, etc... It's the gate for everything so why wait to get these children of god into it? Also members are amazing. We have to get member involvement before we can baptize people. People under age 16 have to be approved by president before we can baptize them. Also the greatest thing of all is most of these children of god that are baptized in 2 weeks stay and remain active. Obviously there are a few that will fall aways but we do our best to stay away from that. It's awesome i love it here!!!

 

This upcoming week we have interviews with president and i think i'm going to go ahead and talk about baseball and school with him. I think it's time!! haha it'll be good though. He is amazing. I love president. it should be fun though.

 

Also mom thanks for sending me the garments. I got them fast this week because i was up in ft laud and i could just pick them up from the office. BUT it's my fault i made a mistake. I needed you to send me medium round neck :/ Im sorry haha but i was thinking about it and maybe i will just keep these ones as well.. I truly don't need the round necks i guess where i'm in a shirt and tie all day. No need to show off a little skin right. No worries i'll make them work and if it's a problem i'll let you know so you can get me some round necks. Thanks so much though! I love each of you and am grateful for everything you do for me. I love my mission more than anything and i know this gospel is what has brought me the most most happiness!!! Love you guys and siga adelante en el evangelio por favor:)

 

ELDER OVARD