Busy AP "Let's Do It"

FAMILIA!!!!

 

Howdy Friends!!!! Easter weekend is now over and what a blast it was!! An easter i will ALWAYS remember and one that will go down in the books for sure :) This past week was the busiest week of my life.. #NOJOKE

Tuesday-no pday pick up new missionaries, orientate them, take them to place book of mormons, take them and luggage to hotels, etc... Also finishing preparing all the info for transfers.

Wednesday- Pick up new missioanries and take them to transfer meetings. Prepare transfer info. Prepare computer projector, etc.... Later on. Drive all the luggage of missionaries going home to the hotel. Then we pick them up and take them to hotel

Thursday- Meeting with president, start planning for Elder Cook, etc...

Friday- We picked up Elder Millett from the Airport :) He came back. He got his health figured out and now he is back. It was soooo fun picking him up! We took him to dinner then had to do some emergency transfers and figure that all out.

Saturday-  Taking investigators to the last day of the temple open house, Mission Conference with Elder Cook, Bishop Stevenson, Elder Kopishcke and Elder Thompson. Set up for that and keep all missioanries under control.

Sunday- Stake Conference for the Ft Laud stake. Then Baptisms afterwards. The Font wasn't working so we used the Swimming pool at President Andersons house ;)

 

AND NOW HERE I AM :) It is finally Monday!! haha Lets be honest though i feel as though i was here at this computer a few hours ago! I love my life. I love my mission. I love the people of florida. I love new missioanries. I love god!!! This past week was amazing! Being an Assistant is busy but sooo rewarding! To answer your question mom, yes i will be AP until i come home. I will die here in the Nova YSA branch.

 

So much happened this past week and i don't know where to begin. I don't want to tell you too much about one thing and forget another but hey... i'l'l just get started.

 

Tuesday- Picking up and taking care of the new missionaries!! It was a blast. There were 14 new ones that came in. We had to take 3 big 15 passenger vans to pick them all up. (lots of luggage) So once again we all had to drive a car alone... It's funny when this happens we get on a 3 way call and drive and talk to each other that way we don't feel alone and away from our companions haha I NEED MY COMPS!!! So we picked them all up then dropped their luggage off at the hotel. We then went to pres andersons house. Sis anderson cook a nice meal and it was delicious!!! Afterwards we trained all the new missioanries for 3 hours. We orientated them. Role played with them, etc.. We made a special powerpoint for them on key indicators and the importance of numbers. Sis Anderson told us after that it was the best presentation she has ever seen given by the APs before. We felt honored and blessed. We were humbled for sure. The we took the missionaries out to go place their first books of mormon. It was fun to see the excitement that each one brought. I couldn't help to think about ayns and how that will be her in 2 months. I'm excited for her.

 

Wednesday- Transfers were soooo fun! I got to read out once again where everyone was going. It's fun to see the excitement and energy that comes from it all! Also we killed the missionaries going home haha thats always my favorite part because we get to hang out with them all for a minute. Also we get to watch every single one of them HUG president and sister Anderson. Yes the elders get to hug sister anderson and the sisters president. It's always so fun to see their reactions and excitement from that ;)

 

Friday- Picking up Elder Millett was awesome!!!! He's such a good kid and i was so happy to see him back. We talked a lot as we drove him to his new area! He was excited to be back.

 

Saturday- Okay on to the even better stuff. Elder Cook was amazing! He talked a lot about hastening the work and also about teaching skills. It was interesting though he started his talk by telling us all how mission calls are made. I thought it was interesting. I can see how and why NOW that it's done by 100 percent revelation. When an apostle is looking at making an assignment they look at a picture of each missionary. Then they take these 3 things into consideration. 1. Mission President 2. The type of people this missionary needs 3. Sometimes they don't know why its pure revelation. (this only happens occasionally. It was interesting to me though the number one thing is MISSION PRESIDENT. It's so true. I needed to be here to work with president anderson. He is amazing and he's a man that has changed my life forever. He will be an apostle haha i can almost promise you!

Elder Cook also talked about the importance of "WHO WE ARE". He stated "who we are is as important as what we teach" I love that! IT's soooooo true. Especially being a leader. Its more important the person i am then what i teach or invite people to do.

 

Sunday- This is a day i am excited to tell you all about!!! Her name is Chaquita and she was baptized yesterday :) ONiell Harris and I met her harvesting. She was a miracle that we met last saturday night and she came to church sunday morning and now she was baptized yesterday. She loves Christ so much. She wanted to follow christ sooooo bad on easter. Turns out though we didn't know if she could live the law of chastity and also the Word of Wisdom. We wanted to be baptized sooooo bad but yet just didn't know if she could live these commandments. So family im sure you can only guess what we did? we took her to the temple. Saturday morning we took her and told her as she walks through to imagine the cleanliness and purity that she felt, dwelling in her body with her at all times. So just as we invited her to do.. SHE DID! The temple changed her. The temple inspired her. The temple Solidified her for baptism. She knew that she needed to wait to have kids. She knew she needed to stay away from certain substances. She KNEW all these things because of the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of god speaking through his temples!! It was such a great experience to witness her. She was baptized in President Andersons swimming pool. hahaha Yes a swimming pool. IT WAS BOSS!!!! The font at the church was broken and presidents house is just right down from the church so we all packed up our stuff and went down to his place for the baptism! It was so fun to have it there. REally we are some of the very few missionaries that can say we baptized someone in our president swimming pool haha Chaquita though however has changed my life. She's amazing and i love her to death! REally an incredible desire to follow christ. She took friends and family to the temple also and so now we are wokring with them too. We will strengthen them all and help them prepare to enter into Gods house!! The TEMPLE!

 

Well family i love you a lot!! My prayer for our family this week is that we all gratify god in all things!!! We never take credit for anything. Even if its little. We gratify god! I am grateful for god and for him allowing me to serve as AP in the best mission in the world. Im grateful for my mission president and for the apostles of god assigning me to serve here with him. I'm grateful for the poeple of florida. For their pure sincere hearts that they do have! I'm gratefuly for the testimony of this gospel that i do have. I know it is simple but i know that if i open my mouth and get out of my comfort zone then god will make miracles happen before my eyes :) I love you all and may god be with you!!

 

ELDER OVARD

 

p.s. "There is no growth in the comfort zone and there is no comfort in the growth zone!!!" LETS DO IT!!!

Make a Promise with God

WAZZUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sooo excited to email my beautiful family this week!! It's amazing to have the chance each week to read your amazing emails. I love the spirits that each of you give me! It's a sort of a spiritual boost that i get weekly from reading your emails! I really do appreciate your examples and love the you offer not only to me but others as well! I thank you for that! 

As you know we have been preparing for transfers!!! Transfers as an Assistant are completely different then being a ZL haha I say that because last transfer at this time i was tripping.. I wanted to know where i was going, who my companion was going to be, etc..... Now it simply is excitement! I'm excited for all the missionaries in the mission to take on their new journeys and run with them! Accomplish great mighty miracles! ONeill, Harris and I have been busy busy these past few days finalizing plans and preparations. My favorite thing though about transfers is being able to work so so so closely with President Anderson! He trust us so much and that is one thing i love about him! He would rather us throw out ideas and counsel about them rather then just hold back and be scared to share our promptings from the spirit! At first when i became AP i was a little hesitant about my opinion and what i though were promptings. BUT NOW...... I enjoy greatly the gift of the spirit that each Individual person carries! Time after time again this past week we would move missionaries to new areas and what not just because one of us would get a prompting from the spirit! President would then ask questions and after a few questions we would ALL be unified in our thoughts! It was truly awesome to see!

(p.s. Elder Anthony will be well taken care of haha he is transferring but going to have a great companion. He will learn a lot with his new comp and he will get to speak a lot of spanish) haha

Not only getting all that figured out, we also have 16 new missionaries coming in TODAY that we have been preparing for! We are going to pick them up from the airport today at 2:15. I'm excited because it will all bring back my first day in the mission. We will pick them up. Go to the hotel. Drop all the bags off. Then we cruise to presidents house where we eat! Sister Anderson cooks the BEST BEST meals!!!! After that president begins interviewing each missionary one by one. While he is doing that. ONeill, Harris and I will be training the missionaries and giving them an orientation! After that we will take all the missionaries our to place their first BOOK OF MORMONS!!!! haha i still remember sooooo well placing my first book of mormon! IT was amazing! So i'm grateful to have this opportunity to work with these new missionaries :) 

As far as the work goes here in the YSA Branch it's a BLAST!!!! I am truly becoming best friends with like Each Member of the Branch. This past week the entire branch, as well as ALL YSA Branches in Florida, we all got together on saturday and we went to the temple! There were like 500 people in total haha it was insane but fun!!!! We gathered all our Branch together that way we could go through the tour with them. Well our purpose in being at the temple with the Branch was a few days earlier we committed all Branch members to bring friends to the temple. We wanted to find some referrals from it! So long story short basically every member brought a friend. It was amazing. It was almost TOO hard because there were so many people we had to set with return appointments. It was such a blessing though! Who wouldn't accept a return apt after spiritual exp like the temple? I have been a total of 4 times to the temple now and we are looking at going 2 more times this week! We love it so much as do ALL missionaries! 

This past week Elder ONeill, Harris and I worked EXTREMELY hard. In our area we are striving to be example in every key indicator! We worked and worked and needless to say we didn't see much success. YSA at times are hard to get in contact with. All will accept but are they truly repentant is a different story? So we struggled following up with people and really just finding people to teach. We would talk to everyone but yet we were still struggling. SOOOO we made a promise with god on like friday. We told god we would give it our ALL. 110% we would give to him to find some YSA that would come to church. We worked and worked but yet nothing. Friday ended and then saturday came. We worked and worked saturday but still nothing. Towards late late in the night saturday we decided to knock a few more doors. We knocked and gave a blessing to a really cool haitian family. They accepted baptism so we passed them to the family ward. The very next door we knocked was 4 YSA aged kids. They all accepted the prayer and to be baptized. We were soooo grateful. We gave thanks for god and finished our night. WELL family i can tell you that god stuck to his end of the promise. AS WE STUCK TO OURS HE STUCK TO HIS!! We gave him everything and he gave us 2 of these kids that we met saturday night in sacrament meeting the next morning!!!! It was a miracle in itself to see god create great things! I love this work so much! Really nothing is better then bringing souls unto christ!

Family I invite each of you this week to make some sort of promise with god. It can be anything you desire. Create a promise but then create plans to go along side with the promise. Or in other words make plans telling god what you are willing to do to receive this blessing or (promise) from him :) I PROMISE you he will grant you what you desire and you will be strengthened and blessed by his power! I love you all soooo very much family! Thanks for everything!

Elder Ovard

Leonard Visits the temple

FAMILIA!!!!

 

Where do i even begin?? OKAY YOUR RIGHT WITH THE BORING STUFF----  HOUSEKEEPING!!!

I did get an email from coach wad so i will show it to president and let him know the new news and we should be set to go! It wont be a problem. Also as far as housing and stuff for SLCC.. Honestly as i've mentioned before i would love to live with friends and stuff but it will be sooooo much easier if i just do the baseball apartments to start out. Idk much about them but i'm sure it'll work. Is it like on a campus? Idk it'll be fine!! So maybe just plan on that! Dev and them are all staying down in st george i'm sure aren't they? If any of them are headed to salt lake maybe they have an opening. Idk really it doesn't matter! Thank you though for trying to figure all that out for me. I appreciate it a lot!

 

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND HUH!!!!!! :) I am soooo very grateful that you all as my family got to go up to the sessions of conference!! Aynsley got to meet her mish president and wife that is exciting. Really it just sounded like you all had a great time! I love what made that little vacation so much fun is just that your were all together as a family and you were all being fed by the prophets and apostles of god! The gospel and the spirit was the true source of this happy vacation :) So thank you for sharing those thoughts about your trip with me :) A few of my companions were at the conference sessions too. haha it is crazy to think that you all were there in the same building as my companions. I wish i knew earlier from my comps that they were going to be there. I couldn't hooked the two of you up! It's all good though. They will meet my amazing family someday :)

 

It was interesting to see as i stated above that the Gospel and Gods spirit were truly what caused us all to have a memorable joyful experience this past weekend! It amazes me that physical I was NOT in your presence at that conference session BUT spiritual I felt of each one of your love and each one of your spirits. The Gospel connected us as if we were together! I like to think how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can connect me with my family and then think of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can connect all people to their families. This past week I had a miraculous experience with one of my new best friends Lenard. Lenard is a man that is 26 and he personally is not connect too well with his family. Nor was he too connected to god at the time. Lenard has unrighteous past of a lot of things but that didn't matter. The day we met Lenard we saw potential in him. Just as Jesus Christ saw potential in Peter. As Elder ONeill, Harris and Myself met with Lenard daily we saw a change in him. He wanted to be baptized but he knew that was a step he was not ready for. So step by step with helped Lenard prepare. He began keeping commitments. He came to church 3 weeks ago on the 23rd of March. After church we tried committing him to a baptismal date for the following sunday but he still felt as though he wasn't ready. So that week we continued working with him. A week past and we were able to help him leave behind smoking, drinking, drugs, etc... He was amazing. He was such a repentant guy! The next sunday on the 30th of march he came to church again. He loved it. We tried committing him to another baptismal date for the following sunday but guess what.... "i'm not ready!" is what he told us. Sad but even more motivated to help him at this point we pondered and though on what was next. What could we do as the lords representatives to help Lenard get baptized this weekend? The 6th of April. 

THATS WHEN THE TEMPLE COMES IN TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!

 

We decided... Well he's living the commandments. He's repented. He's coming to church. What more does he need? He needs to have a spiritual Experience at the temple of God. We planned with a member to take him over to the temple. This was on Wednesday the 2nd of april. We traveled with Lenard over to the temple open house. Oh how beautiful it was. The spirit that connected me with my family this past weekend, connected Lenard with his Heavenly Father! The temple was beautiful. It was some of the most Beautiful artwork, carpets, wood engravings, shandaliers and paintings i have ever seen. It cause myself (born in the church) to choke up a bit at the beauty it brought. One stop on the tour of the temple was at the recommend desk. There the tour guide explained that after the dedication each person that enters will need a recommend. Well long story short we went through the entire temple feeling of the spirit of god. That special connection that each of us has. Afterwards we encountered something that i will NEVER EVER forget. As we were looking back at the temple, this time from the outside in, we asked Lenard a question. "Lenard how did you feel inside gods house?" his response was simply "I felt good. I need to prepare to get my little paper thingy (recommend) so i can come back!"  

It was at that moment we told Lenard that the first step of preperation that he was talking about was his baptism this Sunday on April 6th. Lenard looked at the three of us with a smile on his face and he said "I know, I'm ready!"

From that moment on Lenard didn't look back. He had felt of the special connection between him and god. The connection that he needed more of in his life. He desired to have more. God had proved a point to his chosen son Lenard through his holy house. THE FLORIDA FT LAUDERDALE TEMPLE!!!!!!

 

Family this is an experience that i will never forget. Lenard was baptized yesterday and what an experience it was! He's such a stud and now he is currently working on getting his family there to the temple this week. We will be going with them :) The spiritual connection is what got Lenard Baptized. It's what gave him the Peace and Joy that he was looking for. Family my Prayer is that each of us will continue to feel of that spiritual connection that we all have. The one that not only we have with god but also with our family :) Strengthen that connection with our heavenly father and i know god will bless each of us :)

 

Love you family thanks for everything!!!

 

LOVE ELDER OVARD

 

 p.s. Tell Devin I drove his truck before he did... hahaha i drove that with Jerry Jensen when i used to work with him!

 

Temple Open House

FAMILIA!!!!

Una semana mas... como uds ya saben.... ya paso en los libros!! 

 

I can't believe the travel of time right now. It's impossible to keep up with! I honestly feel as though i was here telling you stories of Daniel minutes ago haha

HOWEVER life is good and moving forward :) I am glad to hear Devin got home safe and that he is now starting his NEW mission!!! Tell him that i love him and that he's a stud and to wait until i get home to get married ;) hahaha 

Also about the test... So unfortunately i was not able to take it. What happened was the test came in and i was going to take it but then we ended up having to go and do some things so i figured i would take it the following week. So the next pday i came here to the office to take the test and guess what.. It was unavailable. My time period i had to take it in was already up. So looks like i'll need to have them send me the test again or at least a new proctor password that way i can get the test done. I will do it on a normal day and not wait until pday if needs be. So if you could plz pass the word to coach wadds and he will have them send the test again i'm sure! So that is that!! Also i was thinking.. if at all possible maybe coach wadd could email me just a paragraph explaining when i will need to be home and the reasoning for it. The dates of school. The day to report for ball.. whatever it may be. That way when i go and talk to president about now going home even earlier he will work with me because he will see that this is my school and my team demanding that i come home a week or so earlier. Really it will just help everything go smoother i believe. It will be like the doctrine in the gospel. haha so if he could do that and get it to me by next week then i will talk to president and all will be well. It wont be a problem. I know it wont be a problem but all this info could help president when he talks to the mission area authority about me going home early. THANKS SO MUCH!!! that make sense?? haha

Okay on to the week!!! Finally housekeeping is over with!! haha

So this past week was amazing! As far as investigators and stuff goes we are working with a guy named Lenard. He is awesome. He came to Institute and also to church this past week. He's preparing to be baptized right now. He does have some commandment issue but HEY nothing that god can't fix :) We will continue to meet with him and help him progress this week. Other then him though that is about it in our area haha we are in the process of finding through members using the influence of the Temple Open House!!!! YSA can be hard to find sometimes but HEY who doesn't want to go to the temple right?? haha

So onto the temple. We still haven't gone yet. We have been busy with exchanges and what not and haven't had much time to set investigators up with times BUT however we are taking Lenard on wednesday :) So I will be going this week. Then also we have some more times set up with members and their friends!! Really it's amazing! The sister missionaries that have been working there always call us up and tell us amazing stories! Stories such as this one: A family walked through temple just admiring not only the structure and the building but also the feeling that they got when they were inside. They mentioned time and time again that they have never felt that good before. Well after walking through the entire House of God they walked out and saw a few sister missionaries. They walked up to the sister missionaries and stated "How can i become a member of this church?" hahaha BOOOOOM!!!!!! So awesome isn't it? The power of god and his holy holy temples!!! It's bringing so much excitement to our mission. Also referrals and people interested are just sky rocketing. We will be knocking doors and people will ask... Hey you guys just built a new church off of I-75 and Griffin Rd. Our response is simply... YES WE DID YOU WANNA GO?? we then give them an invite and they get online and reserve tickets haha its amazing!!! I love that god has entrusted me to be a part of ushering in his temple or his house to southern florida!! What greater joy and blessings it brings into my own life! I love the house of god so much!! 

 

Future events that we are preparing for are tonight we are taking out entire YSA branch to the Sawgrass Mall. One of the biggest malls in the world i think haha and we are going to hand out temple cards and invite people to come with us! It should be a lot of fun! We will train the entire branch then we will go out and do it!

Also this week is Mission Leadership Council. President is basically putting us 3 Assistants in charge for 20 minutes training missionaries on how to react when we get referrals from the temple open house haha so that should be fun! Lots to plan.

Life is good! Life is great! I love it so so much! I look forward to waking up each morning knowing that i have another day to serve god! I see so many miracles. I see many miracles come from exchanges and being with other missionaries! I love my life. I love my mission. I love you all :)

Elder Ovard

Daniel was dehydrated!

FAMILIA!!!!!

Where do i even begin??? DEVIN is going home haha que locisimo! I can't believe it. Honestly i remember like yesterday emailing back and forth with him and he still had like 6 months left. haha he's been an inspiring missionary though that has changes many lifes of both investigators AND missionaries! SOOOO ELDER GUB... WELCOME HOME!!!

 

As far as my week? Yall ready for this? haha It was a blast. Honestly i am enjoying my mission sooo very much. I am so blessed it's not even funny! God is soo soo good. I love him! I love as a missionary how we have so much time to introspect and improve ourselves and our efforts. This past week Elder Harris, O'Neill and Myself had a time to introspect on how we could baptize our investigator Daniel. Daniel is a 23 year old and very smart. He is a guy that loves politics and has met Hilary Clinton and all sorts of people! On top of that he is a Youth Pastor for a different church! He has preached to soooo many different young people about god. SOO he had a lot of questions and a lot to talk about.

 

Anyways.. A member (Cyndi) brought him to church about 3 weeks ago. When i first got here to the area we began working with Daniel. Daniel had many many doubts. He had doubts BUT he knew who christ was. He knew what faith was. He knew all the basics already. He truly understood many many of the teachings of Jesus Christ. So it all started with a simple question that Daniel had. He wanted to know how our church was different? and why ours is christ church? So you can only imagine where we began... THE RESTORATION!!! Before teaching him the restoration we did some planning and preparing. We called Cyndi and found out a little bit about him. We found out that he was in to politics and also that he was a visual learner. SO that being known we taught him an object lesson called "The Nails". To briefly describe the nails lesson it is 7 nails. 1 nail is vertical and then you have to balance the other 6 nails on top of the 1 nail. If it makes sense then yes it sounds pretty impossible. haha

SO it is impossible unless you build the nails how Jesus Christ built his church. Which consist of prophets, apostles, visions, revelations, God is the same yesterday today and forever, Faith in Jesus Christ and also Christs Authority. (it's hard to explain through email) 

So we taught Daniel the restoration using these nails and sure enough... HE ATE IT ALL UP! He loved it. It clicked in his head and really he knew that the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints was the true church. We then continued to teach him. He eventually came to the conclusion and said "Elders I want to be baptized, BUT I want to receive an answer from God just as Joseph Smith did, to know if I should do it." Really it was an understandable statement and we confidently said "okay. YOU WILL." 

 

Us as the missionaries didn't know exactly how it would happen but we had the faith that it would. 

Well the following day was sunday. Daniel never showed up to church :( He didn't answer our phone calls or anything. He just simply ignored us (though it seemed)! The next day was monday FHE. So we show up to FHE and sure enough Daniel is there. He says "Elders can i speak with you?" we said "sure whats up" He takes us into a room and then tells us "Elders I want to be baptized into this church. I'm ready to convert myself!" hahaha Shocked as can be. My companions and myself all look at each other. We said, "really? What changed?" He then goes on to tell us how the reason he wasn't able to make it to church was because he wasn't feeling well and he went to the hospital. He was feeling extremely sick. When he got to the hospital the doctor simply looked at him after doing a few different check-ups and said, "DANIEL YOU NEED WATER" (turns out daniel was dehydrated) 

Little did Daniel know or think that, THAT experience is how he was going to receive his answer. He not only took the statement "DANIEL YOU NEED WATER" as a physical matter but also a spiritual one. To Daniel this simple statement meant a spiritual rebirth. Being born again by water and by the spirit. From that day forward until yesterday March 23, 2013 Daniel was as solid as ever and he got baptized!!!

 

What a miracle that god performed in our behalf. He answered Daniels prayer. It wasn't the exact same way as he answered joseph smiths but HE ANSWERED~! What an amazing thought. God will answer any question that we present before him. He truly is a loving tender god. He will give his children what they want as long as it is for the good :)

 

I love you all family and hope that each of us can never cease ourselves from the questions of our soul :) ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE KNOCK AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU!!!

Elder Ovard

The Turner family from Hollywood.  They were baptized the week after I left.  I love them!

 

Focus on the Strengths of Others

FAMILIA!!!!

 

Look i still got my spanish :) haha jk

 

Well another week down! Honestly probably the fastest week of my mission!! It went soooo fast and yet was still a BLAST!

I want to thank all of you for everything! Really the emails weekly and the love and support you show me in all things. At times that is what motivates and inspires me is just knowing that your there praying for me and thinking of me!! So thank you!

 

As far as the school goes. I will have to talk with president anderson! I didn't know i would have to go home that early. President already knows i am needing to go early but i don't think he or I ever anticipated a half a transfer. All honesty though i don't think it will be a big deal! I will talk with him and we'll be golden :) Also the test? We did get it. It's here at the office. I'm just deciding on when i should take it. I'm not really nervous about it it's just finding time to do it. Last week for pday we had to take a sister to the airport so we didn't have time to do anything. So that leads me to unpacking and doing all the cleaning and stuff around the apartment today, BUT if i have to take a test?? when can i do the other things? haha it's soooo busy but yet i love it!! I may wait a week though and take the test next week. It sounds like that wouldn't be too big a deal. Especially if i can just do it again when i get home. I will get it in asap though i promise. 

Now that all the housekeeping business is taken care of we can talk about the week right :) haha YESSSS sooo it was amazing! This past week was another week of firsts for me as an assistant. Really though one thing that i learned from it all is that happiness occurs when i look at myself as just another junior companion missionary. By that i mean i treat others as though their assistants. I act as though i'm another silly missionary. I really just try to focus on each amazing strength and gift each missionary has been given. Its amazing to go to meetings and just be around other missionaries. They automatically look up to me and want to learn and listen to me just because i'm an assistant. It's crazy. At the same time though I personally have seen the pride and the "im greater then you" attitude that can come from it! Whether i've seen it in myself or other Assistants in the past... SOOOO that was something i learned VERY VERY fast as an Assistant! haha idk if any of that makes sense to you but it's true!! I love learning things like this! Things that i never thought i was bad at but yet things that I can ALWAYS improve in :) 

So a first this past week was Specialized Training! On thursday we were with the north half of the mission and on friday we were with the south half of the mission!! I had the opportunity to conduct these trainings! I was able to welcome everybody and then introdue president and sister anderson! It was a blast. I loved being with all the other missionaries! One topic that we discussed at the training was the TEMPLE :) i'm sure all of you have had questions about what we will be doing at the temple! Well you ready for anwsers?? haha okay sooo the Sister missionaries in the mission will be working at the temple. They will be like tour guides and different things. Really just there to anwser questions that people have. So all the sister missionaries in our entire mission will participate in that! Then all the Elders can go to the open house as many times as they want BUT it has to be with an investigator!! SO my companions and I have planned to be able to take investigators there weekly! We want to go into that temple ourselves but also we want our investigators to feel of that spirit thats there in the temple :)

Also something else about the temple that the ENTIRE mission will participate in, is that we will ALL be singing at the cultural even the night before the dedication!! President Monson will be there and we are sooooo excited about it! We will get to watch the entire cultural even but then for the closing song, We will all be singing and then as we sing the 3rd verse.. ALL of us missionaries are going to march down the bleachers and we will march in front of everybody and stand right in front of the prophet and sing as loud as we can! What a better way to end right?? HASTENING THE WORK OF SALVATION haha we are sooo excited. Every single missionary is getting pumped for it!

 

Other amazing stories that have happened this past week is the joy and happiness that comes from spending time with other missionaries~! One experience specifically i would like to tell yall about is the exchange that I had with Elder Peterson (a zone leader- he was with me in riverside you may remember him) Anyways. So we were going to visit somebody and we got a random phone call from some dude that these elders blessed a few days earlier. This dude sounded like he was struggling a bit and he sounded as though he really needed some help. So Elder Peterson and I counseled about what to do. If we visited our planned appointment or if we should visit the man that is in desperate need. Well after praying we felt as though we should go see this struggling man. We went and got to know him really well. Turns out he was going through so many different afflictions rightn now in his life. Whether it was with his family or work,etc.. As we were teaching him i had the impression to read mosiah 24 with him about how Jesus Christ visited people in their afflictions and he told them to lift up their heads and be of good comfort. As this man Freddy read these words he smirked up as if he received a plate of joy into his heart. He began smiling and he said "Christ is there" we then pointed out to Freddy that Christ was there for them ALWAYS after they had made the covenant with him. The covenant to follow him. We then likened that scripture to baptism and told him that covenant was BAPTISM. As he cried he said... "that is what i need." We then invited him to be baptized and sure enough he is now preparing!!!! :)

 

What a miracle it was!!!! It wasn't anything i did. It was all god. It was God helping Elder Peterson and I learn from each other but at the same time help a lost soul in need. I love being able to help those in need and really being able to learn from these amazing missionaries in the FFLM :) I love you all and hope god will tell you to LIFT UP YOUR HEADS AND BE OF GOOD COMFORT as well!!! He is there for all of us! Love you family

 

Elder Ovard

New Calling As AP

WAZZUPPP FAMILIA!!!!!!

Where to even begin?? haha I loved loved loved every one of your emails this past week! What excitement and energy you all brought to me! I love you all a lot! Aynsley... CONGRATS :) SOOOO exciting! What better place then canada? haha Wow thats so cool! Obviously you wont be here in Ft. Laud BUT i can help you learn the things we do here so you can do them in Canada :) It'll be such a memorable changing experience for you there! I know that God wants you there and I know that you are ready to go! Keep being amazing. Keep preparing and working hard! Your the best :) Please continue to fill me in on things that you learn about your mission and what not! That is an exciting time for sure! Love you and I'm proud of you!!

Onto the Business with SLCC! haha Why are we already talking bout this? I swear time is going by WAY WAY to fast haha and it's only bout to go quicker! Anyways as far as SLCC goes though I shouldn't have a problem taking that test. How well I do on it? thats a different story haha. As long as you get the information to here though then I will be able to take it anytime i'm sure. Probably next monday if at all possible! Elder Singleton did mention something to me about talking to you about it so I knew that it was coming. Crazy all the connection you have when you at the office like everyday for something here and there. SOOO thank you mom for doing that. Please inform me if there is anything more I will need to do. If not I'll get the test taken care of and i should be good to go! DAD, where am i going to live? Well, in all honestly i'm talked a lot with missionary friends and different people about living in a house together or finding an apartment together or something. Obviously i don't know exactly how to go about that where i don't have much communication and what not. So my plans and what i'd like to do is find some friends and different people there at home and room with them. BUT at the same time i understand that i wont have a lot of time so for the first semester it may just be easier telling wad that i'll live in the baseball apartments. IDK what do you think? You think i could get it all figured out quick with my friends and stuff once i get home? Let me know!

Okay enough of that!! MOVING ON TO THE EXCITING STUFF :)

So as many of you have already heard and already know... haha I have been transferred and I have been called to serve as the ASSISTANT to the president. I am an A.P. haha WHAT THE???? I know it's suprising! I am in a trio companionship. I have one comp named Elder Harris (he goes home in may) he's from Idaho Falls and then i also have Elder ONeill (he goes home in July) he's from Moses Lake Washington! Both of them are incredible missionaries! They are soooo good and really are so converted to the work :) I'm so excited to work with them and help our mission to reach our goal of 175 baptisms as a mission!

So on Wednesday after I was called I had to go in front of all the other missionaries and read off their names and tell them where they were Transferring! haha it was crazy!!! Then immediately after that. We had to take the brand new missionaries and train them on harvesting and how we find in this mission. SOOO we did that and lets say I was STILL nervous! Then a day went by. Thursday I had my first meeting with President Anderson. Every Thursday we meet with him and talk about the mission and future events and stuff.  It was soooo awesome. President just receives revelation and it's like a light bulb just goes off in his head haha it's sooooo cool. Also in this meeting we had to prepare for MLC. Which is mission leadership council with all the zone leaders. Us as the A.P.s are the ones that do the role plays in front of everyone! SOO we practiced with president and came up with some principles and stuff. It was great but yet i was STILL nervous! So Friday roles around and I do the role plays in front of the MLC. Then after that meeting it was Exchange time. I went down to homestead (sunset) of exchanges with Elder Williamson and Wilson. I watched them. It's called a shadow exchange. BUT funny story. Elder Anthony is living in the same apartment as these elders. SOOOOOOO MY COUSIN AND I HAD A SLEEPOVER IN THE MISSION hahahaa how awesome right? So yes i was able to spend time with him and he's doing great! He asked me lots of questions. Lots in which tried to get answers to secrets in which i can't tell haha but IT WAS COOL! He's doing amazing!

So then Saturday we had a comp study with some of the Sister Trainer Leaders.... Sunday we had a baptism :) His name is Heidegerr. He is haitan and he's a stud. It was so cool. Also the ward I am serving in is a YSA ward :) That exciting. First time in my life going to one of those haha it's a lot of fun though. The member that coach Mills knows his name is Kevin. Kevin and I began talking on Sunday about UT and what school I went to and stuff. I told him and he said i have a friend that coaches baseball there... I said baseball?? I obviously must know who it is haha he then told me Mills and we made the connection. OH and just to let you know i had to give a TALK in sacrament meeting as well on sunday :) hahahaha okay okay enough about my busy life. 
As you can see though the life of an Assistant is busy. But Boy oh boy how grateful i am to have this opportunity. My testimony has strengthened soooo much already. I look forward to the future and helping out the FFLM. I know that at first when i was called i was nervous and scared BUT it's just as a baseball game... before the game your nervous and scared but once you get going and get lost in the work/game you forget about yourself and your fears. When we have fear we lack love... In my case i am choosing to Love God and Love the Work to eliminate my fear :) I love you sooo much family and i hope all is well and best of luck and blessings for each of you this upcoming week :)

Love ELDER OVARD

                                   Leaders in the Fort Lauderdale Mission March 9, 2014