FAMILY...... Guess what time it is??????
Time to DEDICATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha all i can say is WOW!!!! I am extremely grateful to email you all today and let you know of the joy, happiness and spirit i felt this past week here in Florida.
I wanna start by telling you something special though. Something that only me and my companions have ever done in the history of our mission.... WE PLAYED BASKETBALL WITH PRESIDENT ANDERSON!!!! hahahaha yes!!!!!!!!! We literally balled with him. He has never ever allowed anyone to do that. It was last pday! It was so fun! Sister Anderson had us watermelon waiting in the house afterwards. President is good though. Lets just say i'm rusty as can be and he had a crazy looking shot that just always goes in ;) haha It was fun though. It was funny because the other day we had a meeting with him on pday at like 5:00 before pday ended. So i sent him a text and said this "Okay sounds perfect President! Does that mean we can show up about 4oclock and we can get a quick game of horse in before pday ends?? :)" Anxiously waiting on a response this is what he sent back. " I think you all are humble enough!!!!!" Thats it. haha thats all he said. haha we couldn't believe it!!!!! We responded with a scripture reference. I believe it was Alma 5: 27 or something like. Hoping he would read it and respond and say okay elder we can come over. BUT he sent nothing! We were bummed. That all happened on sunday. So monday roles around. We come into the office to email and president and sister anderson are here. We confirm with president that we will be to his house at 5 for the meeting then his response was simply "Elders i thought we were playing horse before our meeting?" With mouths wide open jaws dropped we jumped up and down in the air we were pumped haha!! Okay enough of this......
So lets start with giving gratitude. I am the most blessed man in the World. I love love my Heavenly Father! I love how he grants us blessings as we are obedient to him. I don't know how or what it was that i did in the pre-mortal life but what i do know is that i am BLESSED. I am blessed to be a member of this church. I am blessed to have been part of a historic event. An event that has changed southern Florida forever. This past week was one of joy and happiness to say the least. It was full of heartfelt hugs and kisses! It was as though i got a glimpse of Heaven.
It started Saturday Night at the Florida Ft. Lauderdale Florida Temple Cultural Celebration!! Paige said it best in her email to me, "It was a Party!!!" When in my life did i ever think i would get to party with an apostle of god? When in my life did i ever imagine seeing MY RECENT CONVERTS out dancing and singing sounds of grace and love to their heavenly father? When in my life did i ever think a dedicatory prayer could convert me and change me for the rest of my life? When in my life have i ever been so blessed...... :) :) :) Honestly these questions i ask myself is truly how my week went.
On Saturday Night i got to attend the Cultural Celebration!! It all started as i got there. I began helping missionaries get organized.. As i was doing it i got an arm around my neck. I looked over and i realized it was Jeison, my recent convert from my first area, Riverside. He is like 12 yrs old and lets just say he is converted. I began talking with him and soon i found out that he was part of the celebration. He was one of the kids in the orange shirts down on the court. I talked and talked with him. We exchanged emails and stuff and it was a "party" of reuniting so to speak!! It was interesting, before he left after the celebration was over he ran up to me and said "Elder Ovard when will i see you again?" I told him how i will be finishing my mission in a few months and how i will be back to florida to visit him as soon as i can. He looked at me with joy in his eyes and said "okay good. I love you man and i want you to be able to come back and see me before i go on my mission!!!!!" I looked at him with heartfelt love but confusion. That never hit me. I never thought or really had the thought that he would serve a mission. It's not that i didn't think he loved god enough or anything like that. It's just it never crossed my mind that he COULD serve the Lord. Basically crying at the point i said to Jeison "your a stud! I love you and nothing would cause me to miss it!! I will be here when you go on your mission!!!:)" That alone was a testimony builder for me and it helped me to see the relationship that i will have with these wonderful floridians for the rest of my life :)
So that went down.... Then lets say 5 minutes later i get another little tap on my shoulder. I look over and it's Mayte Gamboa from Homestead. Excited as could be she was smiling and smiling and jumping and jumping!!!! She's like i never thought i was going to see you again. haha She is like 11 yrs old also. She as well is one of my Recent converts. I helped her and her family get baptized down in homestead. They were the miracle that just walked into church on sunday. SOOOOO.... i talked with her for a bit and next thing i know is SHE ALSO IS IN THE CELEBRATION!!!!! She was down there on the courts singing songs of praise to god too!! It was such a miracle and an amazing thing to see. I asked her about her family. I heard from other missionaries that they went less active for a little while but she told me that they go to church like every week now!!! She said they are strong as ever and converted to the ways of the Lord!!!! :) The is another witness to me that gods work is real and that my testimony has helped yet another family.
Well the Celebration went on and afterwards I began rounding up all the missionaries trying to help them get home back to their apts. Some had a long drive. And lo and Behold guess who i ran in to..... ELDER JOSE DIAZ my trainer!!!! hahahaha Elder Diaz was there with a member from miami. Hermana Carranza. One that we went and ate with every sunday! Elder Diaz couldn't believe i was Assistant and we just talked and talked. It was sooooo good to see him. It hit me the amount of love that i have for him. Also i could feel of the love he has for me :) It was such a miracle to see him. I got his email address and now we will stay in touch. :) I realized once again the love and friendship that i will have for each of my companions after the mission. I had the same experiences like this with members as well. SOOOO many members that i knew and worked with were there. It was a blessing. I learned from that night many things! I learned from the spirit from the songs the kids sang. One thing that i learned that will stick with me for the rest of my life though is that these children of god are now MY BEST FRIENDS!!!! I saw the bigger picture. The bigger picture of all of us reuniting like that someday in the celestial kingdom. Even most importantly though i saw the bigger picture of the responsibility that I have in helping each of them get there. Even after my mission is over :) Together we will reach the heavens and be there with our beloved master!!!
Alrighty... onto the Dedication!!! There were 3 sessions. We went to the first 2. They were incredible. It was so cool to see the dedication take place. Especially after having been to the open house so many times and what not. I loved it! The sessions were boss but i have to say the part i loved the most was the dedicatory prayer that President Utchdorf gave. It was beautiful! He blessed everything. The walls, the windows, the carpet, the baptism font, the hallways, the people that work there, etc.... It was incredible. Honestly one of the most beautiful prayers i have ever heard. Never in my life did a prayer touch me so powerfully. There was one thing though that he said that I am applying to my life that i wanna invite yall to apply as well. He said "God at this time we not only dedicate thine house to thee but Also we RE-DEDICATE our own personal lives to thee!" It was so beautifully put. As soon as he said that the spirit told me that there is so much to be done. So much i can do to dedicate my life even more to god! I loved it!!
To top off the dedication though we got a phone call from President Anderson. He said, "Elders the people at the temple need help taking down chairs and moving furniture back into the temple. Can you go?" haha without hesitation we said yes and we went. We helped take down tvs from the dedication. We took down chairs. We dusted and wiped down floors. After it was all clean we moved all the furniture back into place. We took all the couches and chairs into the celestial room. We moved dressers into there as well. ETC... the list goes on and on!!! We can now say that we helped god move into his house :) It was an experience i will never forget!!!!! Even though there was talking and moving heavy objects the power of the spirit was still there :) I love this work so much! I'm so blessed as i mentioned before!!! May we all dedicate our lives to attending the temple! I know we will be blessed in all things. Especially our FAMILY!!!!
Last quick miracle before i go. This past week we were preparing for a role play we were giving in MLC. It was thursday night and we had institute at 7:00pm. We went to see if members brought friends and what not. Sure enough they did. We wanted to talk with these friends of the members so we couldn't decide on whether we plan the role play or we go to institute. We decide to go find a classroom and to prepare the role play until institute got over then we would talk with the friends. So long story short we found a room. It was a room back in the corner of the chapel. Down the deepest darkest hallway in the building at the time. No one was back there. It was quiet and peaceful. We went into a random classroom and knelt down and started our planning with a prayer. Minutes after standing up from the prayer we heard a knock on the door. A dude opens the door and says "Guys i'm a visitor here and i just wanted to stop by and give a donation to the church. Can i leave a donation?" We then told him yes but we were super confused. We asked him a few questions and got to know him a bit. He went on to tell us that he was hoping that there was some sort of spiritual service that night also. We told him about institute. He sounded interested and so we took him. HE FOUND US!! HE WAS YSA!! GOD LEAD HIM TO US!!! He just so happened to knock into our door. The door down the darkest hallway in the building!!! It was a miracle. He is now preparing to be baptized!!
See the miracles i get to deal with!! God is sooooo good! I am the most blessed man on earth as i stated before :) I love you all and i want you to know that god lives. God is dedicated to us NOW lets dedicate to him :) LOVE YA!!
Elder Ovard
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