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