WEIRD! This is IT!!!

FAMILY!!!!

Weird............  

Love you all,

ELDER OVARD

This honestly could be my email for the week hahahaha that is how life feels right now. I just can't believe that my mission is coming to an end and reality is about to hit. Am i scared? NO. Am i worried? NOT REALLY. I know things will work out and whatever god wants to happen will happen. However I wanted to take the time this week and Thank each of you from the bottom of my heart! I wanted to show you and tell you my love and appreciate I have for your examples, testimonies and diligence in serving me weekly through you're emails.

"He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious" (D&C 78:19).

This past email each of you told me how grateful you were for my diligent service. I would like to put the same prayer upon each of you! I now tell you all, THANK YOU! Weekly i was able to receive an email from a loved one. Weekly I was able to feel of the spirit from a loved one. Weekly I was brought to remembrance of good times from loved ones. Weekly I put forth my best effort because of the encouraging words coming from a loved one. You all are incredible. You all carry such a special sweet spirit upon you! I know these past 2 years we were dwelling in the thankfulness of each other. You all with me on my mission and emails sent home. BUT especially me here in the field knowing that i was supported and cared for. Knowing that people were praying for me daily. Knowing that you were all happy because of the way you were LIVING the gospel. Together as a family we were able to experience this GLORY that is talked about in the scripture. God granted glory and happiness upon each of us because we were recognizing him in ALL things. Giving him credit and giving him thanks! So family now is the time we move forward with that! We thank him so that we continue to Glory in his goodness!

 

Dad- I thank you for the person that you have helped me become! I thank you for giving me those emails each week that always had a one liner here or there that helped me reach my full potential. Such as: " You are in the 9th inning, no regrets!" Something as simple as this is what gave me the extra motivation to knock one more door. To wipe off the sweat and keep going. I thank you for that Dad. You truly helped me to reach that potential. Not only on my mission but also before the mission. I look forward to the future with you Dad! I love you sooooo much. :)

 

Mom- The one who fills me in on ALL the details back home each and every week! There wasn't a single week that you missed writing me. It wasn't just writing either... it was writing that you had put a lot of thought and effort in to. I thank you for your testimony. I thank you for sharing with me always things that you learned from me and my experiences. You sharing these things with me helped me every single week to want to learn something so special and so unique that i could tell you about it in my next email. I knew without a doubt you would learn just as i did!! That inspired me weekly mom! I thank you and I love you :)

Blake- Bro, you always helped me to love! Every week I would get an email from you telling me that I am a leader and that others are watching me so i need to love them! It is because of you that I was known in the mission for loving missionaries and being myself with them! You taught me these things bro just from your simple emails as well. I thank you for that. You are a perfect leader at love. It is because you LOVED me when we were young that i became the baseball player i am today. You LOVED me so much you would take me to the cages/field instead of your friends. You loved and cared for my future and i'll forever be indebted to you for that! Thank you bro I as well love you dearly and i want you to know that! :)

 

Paige/Taylor- Goofballs :) hahahaha All honesty!! Thank you for the pictures and updates on Miles and his progression! Thank you for always making me laugh. Every email I read from you I would laugh. Or every picture i saw i would laugh. "Miles and his Buttcheeks!" hahaha that is what i loved about your emails :) Thank you for teaching me that it is okay to laugh and have fun on the mission :) You both taught me the importance of that. Thank you for everything! Pictures of Miles got me this far... now i needa see him in real life on saturday :) Thank you and I love you both!! :)

 

Aynsley- It isn't about what you said.... It's about what you DID!!! Thank you for helping me to change!! Thank you for the example you put forth back home when you were there! Thank you for changing! When i left on my mission there is no way on earth i thought you would be on a mission. Your example of Change caused me to Change. It really did Ayns and I want you to know that! Thank you for serving the Lord and desiring to do so! Thank you for being worthy. Thank you for desiring to serve even when it wasn't a responsibility for you. Thank you Ayns! Honestly your change of heart to serve cause me to change so many things in my life. Thank you and I love you :)

 

Family I know this scripture to be true! Each of you through your weekly emails showed me the glory that you carry. You showed me the Faith in Jesus Christ that is branded onto your hearts and also you transferred your spirit upon me through the words you shared! I thank all of you and I am grateful that we were all made Glorious together! May that Glory continue is my humble prayer!!

 

I can't wait to see all your smiling faces! I look forward to hugging you and talking with you! It will be special. If you could have someone please video it all that would be awesome! Memories that i will keep for the rest of my life! Aynsley... Don't feel bad you wont be there. Trust me. What you have in store for you is much greater then a simple homecoming :) I promise you that from the deepest depth of my soul! I loved my mission with all my heart! It is what converted me to the gospel of Jesus Christ! I will email you weekly and i will send you pictures just like you did to me :) I love you all!! You are the BEST family in the world. I THANK you all and am GRATEFUL for you!!

 

Love, Elder Austin Ovard  (yes i am still an Elder :) ) hahaha 1 more week baby!!!!!!

New Assistant

 

 

So.... With transfers and me leaving a little early we called a NEW assistant :) His name is Elder Lange (right) He is 6'5 and I love him! He's such a boss! He has been out about 1.5 yr. He is from SLC and is going to the U of U! Thank goodness we will be close together and we can hang out all the time after the mish. haha Really though i am so grateful for him and his example. Elder Tesch (left) has been with me for a transfer now. He was with me in hollywood too :) I love him. He gets home in October and he is from Roy UT! These are my comps!! We have a party every single day! Really though we are all like BFFs and it's so great. Effective missionaries are happy missionaries :) Love yalls!!

ELDER OVARD

Andrew's Baptism

 

 

 

Here is the man!!!! Favorite guy in the World!! This is Andrew! Sabreenas BF the one that I always tell you about! He was confirmed yesterday. Sabreena had to work and he still came to church like a champion and got confirmed. He then afterwards received the priesthood. So he is on his way to great things! He will pass the sacrament next week I believe! He's awesome! He was also asking us all about family history and stuff too! He wants to get involved so we will help him to do that :)

Remember family... I will be coming back to florida for when him and sabreena get sealed in the temple :) He's a boss!! Love you all!!!

Elder Ovard

Letter to President Richardson

President Richardson!!

I thank you for everything already thus far! You are amazing and inspired by God! I have already had spiritual experiences with you and I know there is so much more stirring up in heaven! I specifically want to thank you though for your love and excitement! You're incredible with that! Immediately when you walked off that plane I noitce the excitement and love in you eyes! I know this excitement, knowledge and love is what will take the FFLM to the next level.

Elder Levy was one of the ZL's i went on exchanges with this past week. He is awesome and really doing well with the miami zone. He knows what they need and he is going to help them all. He is such a good leader. He does it by example. He doesn't look at himself as a higher being then the members of his zone. So it's awesome!

A miracle from this past week was with Andrew!!! You were there but he is living the Law of Chastity and he's going to be baptized on sunday!!! He's so excited! Thanks for your comments and testimony! I loved when you asked them if they're going to get married haha they loved it! They told us about it the next day and they enjoyed it too! So thanks for being bold and giving them that vision of the future... The temple!

I am grateful and I learned this past week that Priesthood Keys don't change. It's only the holders of the keys that change!! I know this to be true and i've seen it just as you have entered the mission. You have the power and authority to help us reach our full potential and get to this next level. Thank you love you forever!!

Elder Ovard

President Richardson's first President's Message

My Wonderful Elders & Sisters….

 

I just had a chat with President Anderson (who is already in “Texas”…!), and he reminded me that I needed to send out my “President’s Message” each Sunday night.  I haven’t had the chance to think much about what I wanted, or needed to say, but let me just say a few things to you, on this, my “first” message to you…

 

First of all, it has been “incredible” for Sister Richardson & I to have had the chance to meet with, and see in action, many of you (lessons with the AP’s last night, baptism after the Stake Conference today), and it has been really exciting to see how really “special” you all are, and how excited we are to get to know you better, and work closely with you, to further the Lord’s work here, in the great Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission…!

 

Now, we are going to be meeting you all this week, and I would ask that in preparation for these “Meet the President” sessions, that you all read: D&C 100: 1-8, Alma 5:14, Moroni 7:48, as this will be a big part of our discussion.  Also, the AP’s just called me, and asked that I let the Fort Lauderdale & Coral Springs Zones know, that they need to meet on Tuesday in the “Plantation Chapel”, as the Fort Lauderdale Chapel is having their parking lot redone this week, and we can’t park there…

 

Also, for my discussion with you at Friday’s MLC, please review in advance “page 4” of Preach My Gospel, which we will also be reviewing together…

 

I’m also starting to get texts from the Zone Leaders, on how the baptism’s have gone this week…please continue this, and make sure to get your data into the system by 9:00-9:30pm, on Sunday nights, so I can get a look at the key indicators for the mission for this week…(and don’t forget your letters..!)…

 

We are going to do “great things” together, and we are so blessed to have you, the most wonderful & righteous missionaries in the Church…serving here, in this mission, at this time….

 

We Love You All…!  And we look forward to you getting to know us, and we getting to know each of you much more, this week…

 

See You Soon…!

President & Sister Richardson

President Anderson's last Letter

Dear Missionaries,

 

Next week, President and Sister Richardson will have “Meet the President” meetings with all of you. Tuesday, July 1^st will be Stuart and Palm Beach Zones at the Stuart Chapel at 10:00 AM. Then the same day at 2:00 PM will be the Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale Zones at the Fort Lauderdale Chapel. Wednesday at 10:00 AM will be the Miami Beach and Hialeah Zones at the Miami Lakes Chapel. Thursday will be Miami and Homestead Zones at the Killian Chapel. They are looking forward to meeting all of you. Next week you will write President Richardson atpresidentrichardson@establishingzion.com. He needs of course to hear from everyone! I have bragged about you to him how amazing you are and obedient you are! Obedient to schedule (we don’t even sleep in) and obedient to rules (we don’t even watch the World Cup at members homes) because we love the Lord and our Mission.

 

What a wonderful experience we had at the Temple on Friday. The Temple was full of the Spirit and I pray that every one of you had questions answered and revelation received. Now that we have recommitted ourselves in serving, let’s remember the promise we made that is sealed in the Temple to serve with “all our heart, might, mind, and strength”.

I wanted to take a moment and teach you a little concerning the “keys” of the Priesthood and the importance of following them. In “Guide to the Scriptures”, the keys are defined:

 

“Keys are the rights of presidency, or the power given to man by God to direct, control, and govern God’s priesthood on earth. Priesthood holders called to positions of presidency receive keys from those in authority over them. Priesthood holders use the priesthood only within the limits outlined by those who hold the keys. The President of the Church holds all priesthood keys”. (Guide to the Scriptures)

 

President Faust taught us the “doctrine, principle, and application” of those keys:

 

“I speak of keys other than those of metal. The keys I speak of never rust. These are the keys of life and salvation in the kingdom of God. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, ‘I will give you a key that will never rust, if you will stay with the majority of the Twelve Apostles, and the records of the Church, you will never be led astray.’... Why are these spiritual keys so important? These spiritual keys hold ‘the right to enjoy the blessing of communication with the heavens, and the privilege and authority to administer in the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.’ Keys of the ministering of angels are the right of the Aaronic Priesthood. The higher Melchizedek Priesthood ‘holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.’ To be efficacious and valid, every act in the Church must be performed under the authority of the keys at the appropriate time and place, and in the proper manner and order. The authority and power to direct all of the labors of the kingdom of God on earth constitute the keys of the priesthood. Those who possess them have the right to preside over and direct the affairs of the Church in their jurisdiction... Why is it so necessary to follow those who have the keys of the priesthood? That principle has guided this church and its people since the beginning, and it is a principle of revelation. Among the members of the Church have been the living oracles of God, who have held the keys to direct this holy work. Without prophets, seers, and revelators, the Church and the kingdom of God cannot grow and prosper... Great temporal and spiritual strength flows from following those who have the keys of the kingdom of God in our time. Personal strength and power result from obedience to eternal principles taught by the living legates of the Lord.” (President James E. Faust, General Conference, October 1994)

 

Elder McConkie taught us that those presiding keys come directly from God:

 

“We need not fear for the future. This is the Lord’s work; it is his kingdom; and he governs its affairs as he chooses. The keys, having been committed to man on earth, are now vested in those of his own choosing... And as the Lord lives, and as Christ is true, and as truth will prevail, I testify that this work shall roll forward until it fills the whole earth, and until the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, General Conference, April 1983)

 

God also promises us that those keys will always be here to bless those who follow them, and that there will always be someone possessing them:

 

“For I have given him the keys of the mysteries, and the revelations which are sealed, until I shall appoint unto them another in his stead.” (D&C 28:7)

 

When Sister Anderson and I were called as Mission President, we were initially interviewed by Elder L. Tom Perry, an apostle with keys to do so. Then we were interviewed and called by President Henry B. Eyring, a member of the First Presidency who has the keys to call a Mission President. I was then set apart by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, also an Apostle who has the keys to bestow the keys I have had the last 3 years. On Friday, June 27^th, those keys will transfer to President Richardson who received the keys to be the President of the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission, the same way I received them. What a great blessing to know that these keys will continue in this area for the benefit of all of you. To bless and direct all of you to greater levels you have never been before. We know President and Sister Richardson, we love them, we have felt their mantel, and we sustain them as I know you will.

 

Following the keys helps us implement and magnify those things we have been trained on:

“A miracle that we saw this week was right after zone training. We went to harvest excited to apply the things we were trained on. We said a specific prayer to find a YSA age person that would accept all of our invitations and for a family that we could pass to the other missionaries in that area. We knock the first door and a YSA age guy opens the door. He let us come in and share the harvest blessing with him and he felt the spirit. We invited him to act and he accepted all of our invitations. The third house we knocked on we prayed with a family from El Salvador. We invited them to act and they accepted all our invitations too! Then to finish off the harvest we found a Hatian family that accepted all our invitations to pass to the other missionaries. The Lord truly blessed us with miracles because we exercised our faith!”

 

Following the keys brings them from “finding” to “Baptism”:

“Miracle Transfer Day, and I was transferred to my new area.  My companion and I got home and we immediately set out to harvest since we needed all 8 blessings by the end of the day.  We [went to an area and]  picked a road.  We said a prayer to ask God to send us to a miracle who would be baptized.  In my entire mission I have never met anyone on transfer day who was baptized.  We walked down the street and were able to leave amazing blessings with people, one of which was a lady from Cuba!  She loved the prayer we left with her and said she would think about baptism.  That Sunday, she came to church with her friend.  We stopped by that Friday and invited her and her friend to baptism.  She told us she'd never been baptized before and if it would bring her closer to Christ, she would do it.  She came to church again.  As we taught her she was so willing to change her life to prepare to be baptized, she quit smoking and coffee in a day!  The next Friday we had her interview and she passed! She was baptized last Sunday!”

 

Following the keys will invoke the Spirit, even through doors:

“The member was running late so we decided to take advantage of the few minutes we had and went right to knocking some nearby doors.  The second door we knocked, a man spoke with us through the door saying that he could not open the door because he was blind.  We did not believe it and testified that Christ sent us to bless his home, but he insisted and told us that his heart was open to receive our blessing, so we believed him.  Midway during the prayer, he stepped out and told us that he felt our love and sincerity and knew he could trust us.  He knew we were sent from God.  He immediately accepted baptism and we started teaching him the day after. I learned from this the importance not wasting the Lord's time.  Even if we only have one minute, we can change someone's life.”

 

Sister Anderson and I look forward to the same feelings of Alma and Ammon when they reunited after 14 years of being separated (thankfully it won’t be that long). When we reunite with each of you we will feel these same emotions:

 

“And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon ..., behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla... Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God... But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.” (Alma 17:1-3)

“Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.” (Alma 26:16)

 

As Alma blessed the people in Gideon, may I borrow his words as I bless you:

 “And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive... And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works... And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out... And now my beloved brethren, I have spoken these words unto you according to the Spirit which testifieth in me; and my soul doth exceedingly rejoice, because of the exceeding diligence and heed which ye have given unto my word... And now, may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands... and all that you possess ...  according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. And thus I have spoken. Amen.” (Alma 7:23-24)

When Jacob bid farewell to his people (Jacob 7:27), Joseph Smith used a unique French word that expressed many emotions, “adieu”. In Joseph Smith time, adieu meant “a farewell; an expression of kind wishes at the parting of friends, meaning that I commend you to God”.

 

Missionaries, my “eternal friends”, May God’s greatest blessing be bestowed upon each of you as I commend you to God until we meet again. Missionaries, adieu!!!

 

Missionaries, Let us be resolute to achieve 175 Baptisms !!! One more week to accomplish our vision! We need 200 dates and 200 I@S. All must contribute! You are Amazing!!! You are Incredible!!! You are Wonderful!!! And you are in the “Exciting Legendary Mission”!!! Remember our promise and that our names have been sealed in the Temple!!!

We Love you, We Pray For You, Elders and Sisters, We can do this!!! We have work to do!!! “Missionaries, follow the keys!!!”

 

 

President Don E. Anderson

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

954-817-5256

PresidentAnderson@establishingzion.com

http://mormon.org/me/36J7/

 

Spiritual Sunday!!

Family!!

 

GOING OUT WITH A BANG!!!!!! It is finally here. President and Sister Anderson will leave on Saturday, June 28th. It's crazy and it doesn't feel real to me at all. I will miss them with all my heart. However I do know the relationship we have made is ETERNAL. Nothing will ever change nor will anything ever be broken when it comes to the relationship i have with them. They are amazing people. Amazing leaders. Amazing followers of chirst. They will only be starting a new mission, one that will lead them to helping and inspiring ever more people I am sure! 

To celebrate them leaving as I mentioned last week we all went to the temple! THE FT LAUDERDALE TEMPLE IS BEAUTIFUL! I love it so much! I was able to go and do one session. We were in the same session as president and sister Anderson. After the session President took all the missionaries into the baptistry where he gave his final discourse to the missionaries! That room, That temple was so spiritual. You could feel it almost as if it were tangible. If we had felt it any more powerfully we may as well had been across the veil. It was that amazing! Something I will always remember!

I love being able to go to the temple now. Before the mission, yes i loved it, yes it felt good, HOWEVER now... almost 2 years later.... something has changed. The spirituality and Understanding of the temple has became so much more real to me. I can sit through a session and understand what i didn't understand before! I can sit in a session and visualize the conversion that has taken place in my heart and in my life just because I CHOSE to serve a mission. The temple is real. The mission is real. BOTH teach the gospel. BOTH invoke the spirit. BOTH allow our heavenly father to give us personal revelation. BOTH are essential. I know a mission isn't technically a covenant... however i treat it as one. I promise god to give it my all. He promise me if i did, then i would be strengthened, then i would see miracles and that i would be changed forever! He is continually keeping his promise as i keep mine :) Forever will i be on a mission!!! Until the day that i die!!!

(side note- at the temple me and my companions got to be the pizza deliverers! We took a total of 80 boxes of pizza to the temple. Different shifts but we did it and it was fun! just want to remember that haha)

 

Family let me please tell you about what i like to call "The most spiritual Sunday of my mission!" It was amazing!! Let me go through a series of events that took place that help me to decide why this past week was so spiritual:

 

#1

Randy got baptized. Randy like i've told you before went through a lot. He has had to work HARD for his baptism. So hard that it took him nearly 3 years to finally be ready. He is awesome! He has suffered through probation, paying consequences for his actions, lack of love from family, Mental disorders, drugs, smoking, girls, etc.... Randy has gone through a lot! Satan has attacked him constantly. Through these trials Randy always kept his faith. Randy would do anything to be baptized. Satan would attack and Randy would fight BUT as Randy told us he always chose to give in to satan and temptation. He allowed SATAN TO WIN! Time and time again Randy would lose. Well family Randy has now seen the path and lifestyle that satan will lead him to. Willing and Repentant Randy worked with us for almost 2 months now. President Anderson met with him and turns out Randy was ready for Baptism. So right as we think he is set and ready... guess who strikes? yup SATAN! 4 days before Randy's baptism his psychiatric doctor throws him in a psych unit because he wouldn't allow them to inject stuff into him. (randy hates needles more than anything) So the doctor calls the cops on him and they take him to the psych worg. Randy isn't too happy but he does as he's told. He knew he didn't need to be there but he just went. Well we met with Randy as he was at this psych unit. We saw him daily. Friday we saw him and he says "Elders I hope i'm out for my baptism" he had no idea when he would be out. Randy recognized that this was Satan attacking him again. Randy made up his mind he would be there to his baptism. We all together prayed, prayed and prayed!!! God made it happen. Randy was released saturday afternoon and he was out ready for his baptism.

 

#2

Elder Harris came back to Ft. Lauderdale with his family! Elder Harris taught Randy with us and really Elder Harris was close to him. Elder Harris served around him for months and months. Well Randy after 4 interviews with president Anderson, really wanted president to perform the ordiance. However president was busy with interviews so he couldn't do it. We then asked Randy who he'd like to baptize him and Randy didn't know... He said one of you elders can do it? We then asked... Randy remember Elder Harris? of course he answered yes. We said "He's in town with his family, want him to baptize you?? Randy with a big big smile on his face said yes that would be awesome!!! So Elder Harris got to baptize one of his former investigators in front of his family!!! It was miraculous!!!

 

#3

That same sunday that Elder Harris Baptized Randy, our recent convert LENARD blessed the sacrament. He got the priesthood and blessed the water in front of everybody!!! To sit there and watch a recent convert bless the sacrament and understand what he was doing was an honor and a joy that i can't describe! It was so spiritual to watch him do that. It made me tear up just because i think of the man he was before his baptism... he was bad.... BUT now here he is representing Heavenly Father blessing the sacrifice (flesh and blood) of his son Jesus Christ! It was powerful to say the least!! Every member in the crowd was touched by it!

 

#4

Now lastly.... Our investigator Andrew. The BF of Sabreena in the branch! He had been out of town off to the Marines boot camp. After sacrament meeting on sunday he came up to my companions (Elder Harris included) and told us that he is getting baptized on July 6th!!!!! He said he received his answer and he's ready!! Happy as can be we told him he was and told him how happy we were!!! I love Andrew with all my heart! He's such a good guy! I hope him and Sabreena get married hahaha

 

What a sunday right??? what a week overall? I can't believe how fast it went. I can honestly say though i am strictly humbled by the power that god has!! He made this week a memorable one! He once again proved to me that this work is HIS. That if it be his will then it WILL happen. What i do or say will only work if it is done through his son who is Christ! For I now that I am a son of god with powers that CAN and WILL move mountains if i simply just allow god to touch my stones. His TOUCH is power, his TOUCH is love, his TOUCH produces miracles, his TOUCH is always always there!!!

Forever in my life will i be TOUCHED by the hand of god! I will allow him to TOUCH me so that others will be TOUCHED through me!!

 

Love you all,

 

ELDER OVARD

Temple with President & Sister Anderson

FAMILIA!!!!!

 

Another week down.... DANGIT!!!!! haha time is going fast but i can honestly say it hasn't hindered the work at all. My days and weeks just seem to go and go but it's because of the crazy go go go schedule that it happens. That makes me happy because i know if i'm busy then i am busy doing a wonderful work. That work is GIVING BACK to my father in heaven!!!

 

So as you all know and heard by now thanks to amazing super sister singleton this morning :) I will be heading home on August 9th!! Just like we all had hoped for. It will be a quick few days but some exciting ones thats for sure!! It's going to be incredible not only because i'll be home but AYNSLEY will have been out 1 month. She will be in Vancouver and have her wonderful Trainer as her companion haha Lets be honest... I get home saturday and we all know we will be waiting at the computer monday for Aynsleys email :) It sounds like she's got the better end of the stick if you ask me haha

 

The TEST.... oh boy!! I may be in the lowest math class ever hahaha that was hard. Tell you what after 3 years of no math equations or anything you tend to forget everything. I struggled haha. It's all good though. Reading I did fine.. which is weird because i was always really good at math and not the best at reading and comprehending! My mission has helped make my weaknesses become STRONG :) It is all done though and finish! Thank goodness!! It was fun though. First test i've taken in awhile!

 

Other exciting news!! This week the entire mission is going through the Florida Ft. Lauderdale temple with President and Sister Anderson! It is like their going away party so to speak :) It sure will be fun. We all go Friday. We will be broken up in to different groups but EVERY missionary will go through with them! Thats exciting! I think we get to stay for all the sessions to help out and stuff also so thats another blessing!! :)

 

Other then that we are still just getting ready for the new mission President and just enjoying the remainder of the time with President and Sister Anderson. It sure is crazy thinking that they only have 1 sunday left. It kinda makes me sad! The work will move forward though and President and Sister Richardson are going to be incredible i'm sure!!

 

The work here in our wonderful Nova YSA Branch is hastening quicker then ever. I love it! We have some exciting things happening wihtin these next couple of weeks. I want to tell you all about Randy.

Randy was taught by missionaries a couple of years ago. Randy loved loved going to church. He would go every sunday. He would study the scriptures. He would do everything god asked him to do. He was a great great man. Well while doing all of this he was NEVER baptized. He was on probation and as you may or may not know already.. When a person is on probabtion then they need to get approval from the 1st presidency to be baptized. So Randy worked with president 2 years ago on getting this permission. 1.5yr ago Randy got permission. He had approval. However... Randy at the same time of his approval decided that maybe the church wasn't where he needed to be. Randy then began hanging out with the wrong crowd. He got a girlfriend. ETC... Randy then was lost. The missionaries lost contact with him. So now Randy situation is he has approval but yet the desires were lost and now contact was lost. For months and months missionaries tried getting in contact with Randy. Every missionary, Every A.P. has tried baptizing him. WELL FAMILY lets just say god is good once again. God never lets us down :) We did our best contacting Randy. Were we successful? NO!!!!!!!!! however god saw our efforts and in walks Randy to church one day. We contacted him. Set up appointments with him and so it went. Randy told us of his past. He told us of how he got involved with the wrong things. He told us how he still has a testimony of the church. (remember he attended weekly for like 1 year straight) Randy was solid. Yes he messed up but he wanted to come back. We reviewed the baptism interview questions with him and he was living all of them but smoking. Everything else he was good on. So we made plans to help him stop smoking. WELL something bad happened shortly after this.. Randy once again went MIA (missing in action). We couldn't find him. It was sad.. really sad. That when President Anderson came into play :) President knows Randy really well. Remember 2 yrs ago he interviewed him and helped him get 1st presidency approval. SOO long story short Randy called up President and wanted to meet with him. President Anderson went out of his way to visit with Randy. While visiting President commited Randy to stop smoking (just as we had done) and then presdient also commited Randy to be baptized on the 22nd of June :) President threw down!!! He challenged him for the 22!!! Randy at that point at that interview saw hope and he knew there was more. President shortly after informed us and we were able to get in contact with Randy. We saw him saturday. He hadn't smoked a single cig all week. He was still solid and wanting to repent and be baptized. We told him he needed to come to church. He wanted to come back. We told him to partake of the sacrament. He said he had always wanted to but he thought you had to be baptized. He then said... Elders I don't have clothes for church tomorrow. We told him not to worry about it. My companions and I all rounded up some clothes around the house. Giving him a few options. Lots of ties and so on. We told Randy to meet us at the chapel at 8:45 and he could put these clothes on and then we could walk in together and partake of the sacrament!!! WELL FAMILY Randy not only got there by 8:45 is got there at 8:30. He was excited. He wanted that sacrament and he wants baptism!!! He is getting baptized next sunday:) We are all so excited and Randy can't wait!!!

Today Randy is going to call up President Anderson and ask him to perform the ordinace and baptize him!! How awesome would that be?? President is going to baptize Randy his last sunday in the mission :) We are all pumped and can't wait!!!

 

Also Andrew (sabreenas boyfriend) is coming back from the marines this week. He is a boss and ready to be baptized also. He's been off to camp for 2 weeks now! He is anxiously waiting his baptism though.

 

Missionary work doesnt get much better then this family!!! I love it!! God is the best! So many miracles and so much happiness! The gospel of Jesus Christ is what brings happiness! It's the greatest joy in the world! I love it! I love you all! May god continue to bless!

 

Elder Ovard

Faith In Our Harvest!

MI QUERIDO FAMILIA QUE ESTA CAMBIANDO RAPIDO!!!!

Time just continues to be crazy eh? (ayns you like eh?) haha I can't believe it! It's interesting to think of everything AMAZING that will be happening here in the near future. At this point i must say that i'm stoked for Aynsley and can't wait for her to get in the mission. I'm excited to be able to share a month with her. TOGETHER serving the lord with all our heart, might, mind and strength! It's awesome!

Mom as far as the test goes i will be able to do it next pday if needs be. I can come into the office and do it! No problem! So if you do that it'll probably have to be worked out with Elder Singleton again just like you mentioned! Thanks for helping me out with that!

I haven't heard from Tanner either so i'm not sure whats going on there. If you could get with him and his mom and let me know that'd be great! I still am worry-less about it all though haha still doesn't feel real which I am grateful to say! I know that when the time does hit however it'll be time and I will feel accomplished as long and I continue to give it my ALL.

This past week for me was bomb!! It was bomb for a few reasons! 

The first being that my companions and I had to prepared a training for MLC (mission leadership council). Basically it's a training normally done by President Anderson and then us a little bit. Then all the Zone leaders take this training to their zones and train them on it. It's so much fun and it's always inspirational. Once again though President Anderson asked me and my companions for the 3rd month in a row to do a short training :) Exciting right? haha Normally we just do the role play and thats it. BUT now president has been asking to teach and train on like the reasoning for the role play and everything. I love it. It's so fun. However this past training my companions and I had the hardest time figuring out what to train on and why we should train on it. So we prayed and prayed. Finally we felt as thought he mission needs to be trained on FAITH IN OUR HARVEST. Or in other words. Faith to Find. So we finally felt good about training on this topic. Then we began trying to figure out how. How could we have doctrine, principle and application that is simple so every missionary could understand it. So we began thinking and thinking. Then we began doing and doing... Well family guess what. We got completely done basically and then it just didn't feel right. My comps and I questioned ourselves and questioned ourselves. Then we prayed and prayed. None of it felt right. The only thing that felt right was the topic FAITH IN OUR HARVEST! So we erased everything and we went about training it in a different way. We decided to do it using principles taught in a talk written by Gene R. Cook.  called "Qualifications for the Work" (Aynsley look it up!!) It is a well written talk that talks about a few different things. Basically it's all focused around infusing faith. So thats what we did. We read about Faith in the BD. How miracles confirm our faith. And how the more faith we produce the more miracles we will see. Then we read the story of Ammon in the book of mormon. Him going and gathering the scattered sheep. We read the entire story then we picked it apart. We picked it apart and showed how Ammon spiritually created, he used positive faith filled words, and how he showed forth faith filled actions also. These were the principles. Then we had an amazing role play in which we would do a harvest approach and then stop and pause in the middle of the role play and ask the missionaries questions about their thoughts and what not. It was all planned out perfectly!!! Well family it took us like 8 hours to prepare and we felt horrible about how long it took us to prepare it. We didn't know what to do. But we got it done. Well long story short that 8 hours it took really made us sad because thats a long time. We didn't know if it was right.. WELL after the training we have had missionaries call us up and thank us for the training. They call us and tell us miracles that they've seen because of the training. It is awesome to see! Really the training was a miracles in itself :) It was so fun to see and now the entire mission is doing it and we are ALL see mighty miracles because of it!! God is good!!!

Also family Andrew our investigator. Sabreenas BF is now getting baptized. He told us the other day that he's ready and he received his answer. We are so excited for him!!! It's so awesome! Sorry i don't have time to tell you that story but i will later :) love yall!!

Elder Ovard

POWER

FAMILY!!!!!!

 

WHATS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another week down and boy was it a busy one!!! Transfer week is always the best! I love it!! This past week i had the chance of studying some amazing things!! One thing that i really enjoyed studying was the POWER that god has and also the POWER that satan has. My study took a few days but I must say i loved it!! It all came down to this:

1. God has POWER to do so many different things. (Save,Create,Forgive,Comfort,Feel,Overcome,Give Happiness,etc...) He can do so many great amazing things.

2. Satan on the other hand has POWER. He has a lot of power BUT his power is limited to one thing. He simply has the POWER to cause us to sin. For example He can manipulate our minds, possess our bodies and he can make us miserable like him. Those 3 things lead us to ultimately though to sin. This is the only POWER that satan has. 

 

Well family knowing this and studying this, this past week it was amazing to see that i could notice and see the different powers in my week. I could feel if a power was coming from God or from Satan. The power that I wish to talk to you all today about however is a GODLY POWER. I like to call it THE POWER TO PROVIDE!

 

"I the lord am bound when ye do what i say...." This past week i saw this scripture come to pass. It was one of the busiest weeks of my mission. A week of Transfers. A week of getting a new companion. A week of helping. A week of planning. etc.. We were all over the place. I was exhausted all week. 

On top of all the business though one thing that i was super involved in was doing everything i could to get investigators to church. I wanted to be able to get them to church so we can baptized them in the near future. We taught our investigators daily. We called them. We texted them. We left notes on their doors. We were soooo diligent with our efforts on getting them to church. It being transfer miracle week also we knew something had to go our way and the lord had to bless us for all our efforts. Well family Saturday night finally rolled around. We had done it. We had about 5 investigators lined up SOLID for church. We worked hard getting them SOLID but they were solid. Well lets just say that is when the POWER of satan took control of our investigators. Sunday morning at like 8:00 am one by one our investigators began texting and calling us telling us they couldn't make it. They would say... "...sorry i don't have a car... I have to babysit..... i'll come next week...." Random little lies would come out of their mouths. Well after 30 minutes of this family guess what? We only had 1 person still solidly committed to church and his name is Andrew. (The boyfriend of Sabreen a member.) 

Sad and a little disappointed my companions and i decided we had to stop. We couldn't knock on anymore doors, We couldn't call anybody else, WE WERE DONE!! Church started in 5 minutes and we had a 4 minute drive to get there. So we were sad. Really sad. Mostly because the POWER of Satan had taken over our investigators. That is when I said to my companions in the car "Elders we did all we could. We worked hard. We gave it our all. NOW it is up to god. He is going to bless us with some random people at church!!" My companions agreed with me and supported me and off we went.

Family this is when the POWER of God kicks in. THE POWER TO PROVIDE. Right as we get to church in walks a YSA guy that my companion and I recognized. Who is that we asked? after discussing it for a minute we realized it was a dude we had found and harvested a week ago. He did as he said he would and he came to church. His name was christian. My companions and I were soooooo excited. God came through. He gave us another person at church. So NOW we have 2 investigators at church. Happy as can be and full of gratitude my companions and I decided we should go up and bear our testimonies thanking god for miracles. SO we did! We each bore our testimonies thinking that the miracles for that sunday were over....... WELL, THEY WEREN'T TO SAY THE LEAST!!!! Next thing we know is were sitting in gospel principles class and some sister missionaries from the Ft. Lauderdale ward come and pull us out of class. Their following words were, "Elders there is a super solid YSA girl in with a family in our ward! Come meet her!!!!" So off we went to meet this girl. Her name is Laporsha :) Sure enough she was boss. A member brought her to the family ward and she wanted to be baptized the next sunday!!! God did it! He provided once again!!!!! His POWER was so much great then the POWER of satan and that is why my companions and I were able to get 3 people to church this past week! What a transfer miracle it was and what a great POWER it gave to each of our own personal testimonies!!!!

 

I love this gospel. I know it to be true. I know that Gods POWER is great and that if we simply work hard and do our very best we will receive a portion of that POWER!!! Family this week let us all receive and be worthy of gods power so that we will be lifted up and helped in our daily lives!!! I love you all so very much and I love missionary work!! 

 

"MAY WE ALL RECEIVE THE POWER THAT HE HAS TO OFFER!!!!" :)

 

Elder Ovard