Christmas Eve! Party Miami Style

Que paso con mi familia en el frio?? hahaha :)

 

Man I love you all! Thanks for the emails once again. I can't wait to talk tomorrow! It's crazy how excited missionaries get. haha And of course their are the missionaries that are nervous... IDK WHY but oh well haha. So all the details for calliing! Tomorrow we will Skype. Our bishop is letting us go over to his house for lunch and stuff then after he'll let us use his computers. So we are headed over there at like 12. So 10 for you guys. Honestly if I had to guess I will probably be skyping you all around 1-2 my time. So anywhere between 11-12 for yal. haha that make sense? Worst comes to worst I'll call first it's not a big deal. Then I have been thinking. How do you all want to do it? I was thinking at first we can just all talk and skype together then we can break off and talk seperately. IDK lemme know what yal wanna do.

So my white christmas is where it's at! It's the bomb. Lots of food.. Parties... Crazy latinos haha and so much more here in miami. It has been a little hard to find investigators at the moment. I think it's just because of the time of year and stuff. But Elder Diaz and I know it's all about our attitude and how we handle ourself will determine out success. It's funny cause Elder Diaz and I will go to church and if someone doesnt come that we were expecting on, then of course were bummed. But there is a Elder in our apartment that just kills himself. He has some temper problems sometimes and man we just love to laugh at him haha.

So we did have another baptism this week :) Her name is Ally! She is my favorite. Only like 11 yrs old as well but she is so smart. Like so smart. It was so much fun teaching her. She would try and remember and memorize everything. As a missionary to see that it's pretty amazing! Because sometimes you wonder if the people your teaching are even listening hahaha. So I have a picture of her so I'll send it.

I have been using the camera I got last christmas now because it has the usb thing connected to it. Lets just say I have got a little creative with that thing. Sometimes I put it in my front pocket in my shirt and video us leaving a blessing with people at their homes haha ;) It's so much fun. I put like a picture of Christ of the camera so people cant see it but then i poked a lil hole where the lense is at! Yes brilliant right :) Every night Elder Diaz and I lay in my bed and watch our harvesting haha we actually truly learn so much from it. I have one in english i'll try and send you all she was super cool and super nice.

Also this week was cool. We blessed one guy that had said he had really been praying hard to know which church he should go to and what he needed to do for his kids to help them succeed in his life. He said somehow magically we just appeared and god was looking out for him. It was so cool. We have a return appointment with him sometime this week and i'm super excited! People that are prepared and want to change are so much fun to meet and talk with. But others that are sitting there with a beer in their hand is a whole different story!!

We had a chirstmas party at our church on Friday and hahaha man Latinos are crazy man. Really though. I love it though because their always so hyper and happy.

Well alright I'll send this for now and try and send yal a quick email personally! Love ya Talk to ya tomorrow :) lemme know quick if you have any questions!

 

ELDER OVARD

Mission Christmas Conference

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
Christmas 2012

WAZZUP!!

k why is everyone saying i am fat and gaining weight??? haha  I know I weigh 155 but haven't really been gaining since the mtc. I work out dont worry. haha no that christmas card made my face look fat i know. It was that hat man. It was so tight and it pushed all the blood like straight down in those cute lil cheeks of mine ;) so no worries ii'm still the skinny lil boy :)

So how was the week? For me awesome as usual! Mom just wanted to say thanks for the packages. My roomies are loving it all haha Also yes yes i am smart enough to figure out i open one a day. Except i had to open the tie because i knew what it was and wanted to wear it to the mission conference! It was a beauty. I got so many compliments on my tie.... and as a missionary thats a good feeling ;) So yes I got everything. The driving records and stuff I got as well. Still need to figure that all out but i'll do soon. So mission conference was so much fun. We got there. Ate a wonderful christmas dinner. Then we had a white elephant exchange and lets just say i got a cat pooper scooper and like a 2 foot long toothbrush hahaha i gave that little poop reindeer thing you guys sent me and some other stuff. It was so much fun. We had like a talent show where every zone had to sing haha after all the fun and games President talked with us about chirst and christmas! I loved it man. I love christmas because it's a time of giving. I never was too into the whole recieving end because it's so so much better to see the joy that comes when others get things. Thats why I love sending people christmas cards and letters and stuff because I know the feeling haha other elders are always getting mad cause i'm always writing and sending stuff. Which yes i needa stop because stamps are expensive haha no i don't send too much crap. Anyways at mission conference I met our cousin... Elder hunt haha got a picture with him. He is from ogden and his grandma is our next door neighbor haha helen. He was friends with like Dillon. Devin's and bransons cousin. haha crazy stuff. He was cool. Then i saw my old comp Elder Hunter, and  Elder Gust who is from stg as well haha he's so funny. Oh man it was a good time. I loved our conference. Only one more for me :( hahaha

 

So we had a baptism this week. Her name was gabriella. She was 11 yrs old and lives in a part member family. Her dad is the only one not a member now. She was so cool and such a sweet girl. We are working on her dad now haha we gotta get em all to come unto the water of baptism.

 

So we had a cool experience we taught a guy named dennis like 3 weeks ago. We taught him everything and he just didn't want to be baptized. He kinda had a drinking problem and stuff and just didn't think he could change. Well last sunday his mom was in the hospital and a member told us so we went and blessed her. Well yesterday at church he randomly showed up and said I want to be baptized hahaha so the priesthood blessing we left with his mom obviously affected him as well and now he is wanting to change. It was an amazing miracle for sure :)

 

So elder diaz got hit by a car this week hahaha man it was crazy. We were both riding and a car stopped at a stop sign and so elder diaz and i kept going because there was no sign for us. Well ride when we were in front of the car it took off. I saw it coming so i hurried then looked back and elder diaz's back tire got nailed. It like put a dent in the car and elder diaz didn't even fall off his bike. The car looked and saw he just hit a biker so he hurried and took off. ha didn't even stop man. crazy people. I heard miami and florida is like the worst place in the U.S. for  car crashes and stuff. It was crazy but thank goodness Elder Diaz was ok!

 

I got a letter from the Harrisons. I loved it. Mom thanks for telling me about how she came over and read it with you and stuff. It was definately good to hear.

 

So for CHRISTMAS we are going to skype for sure!!! Our bishop is letting us go over to his house and use his computer. He said it will probably be around like 12 in the afternoon on Christmas day. So i'm sure right in the middle of all the parties ;) haha i'll finalize it next week with you all but man i'm excited. Skype haha really? it'll be just like Lonne and Nancy. Wow i feel like just yesterday i was skyping with them. We will probably have about an hour or so to skype ;) So have questions and be ready to tell me about home!!! I'm sure nothing has changed haha

 

Well thats about it for me this week! I love you all so much and cant wait to see you in a week or so. Everyone keep remembering who you are and who we represent. At church i heard a few quotes i loved!!!!

 

"The commandments are easy... we make them hard"

"Lead by example... Even when your ALONE"

 

Love you all

ELDER OVARD

me hermano?? mom i'm not your brother!!!! hahahaha

 

How is everyone this week?? What a day it has been. So this morning we woke up at 5:30 so we could ride our bikes to key biscayne again and watch the sunrise at the beach!! Man it's beautiful. Everytime i'm somewhere like that i always think of my wonderful family though. Want you all to be there with me ;) haha Today we went GATOR hunting but unfortunately didn't see any. haha It was intense!

So good to hear Grizzy is doing better! He will probably be all healed up and back to normal just in time for me to get home! haha I'm getting excited to talk to you all! I found out we can skype. Not real sure how long.. but we can do that if we want. I heard we can only skype or talk on the phone for 30 mins. Darnit haha it'll be a quick one. Thanks for figuring out my driving records mom. It'll feel crazy driving again. Anyways this week was a little rougher.. but GREAT! So we were supposed to have 2 baptisms this past sunday and they both flaked :( it was a bummer. One was Mattie. It's okay though because including those 2 that we missed this past sunday, we have 7 people preparing for baptism for december. And they all have dates!! 5  of them are kids. Crazy right. We met a family this past week that are really solid and excited for baptism. One is 20 15 and 14 yrs old. The 15 yr old is a girl and uh oh... she is in love with me. I'm sorry okay i don't mean to say it but it's crazy! It's scary going over there hahaha we went and played bball and soccer with them this past week and they loved it. Really at first the 20 yr old had no desire what so every. He was like bagging on us and stuff. Then we asked if he wanted to go to the park and play and every since i balled him up in bball he has been more interested. Everyone here thinks i'm so tall haha it's hilarious. Truth is the latinos are just tiny!!

So We have a baptism this Fri. We are baptizing a 11 yr old girl named Gabriella. Her mom and aunt are both members and she wants to be like them and follow their example. She is really solid and really cool. Hopefully we'll have more this week as well. We should have 4 or so but we'll see. I think probably 2 are SOLID SOLID. Idk what more to tell you about the investigators because i'm sure that just gets boring haha

So being here in MIAMI i haven't eatin fish once UNTIL this week. EWWW I ate this fish yesterday that literally looked the EXACT same on the plate as in the water. Teeth, head, fins, tail and all.. I ate it but definately wanted to throw up after haha It's not that it was bad or that the people were bad cooks, but man I wouldn't have eatin it just because of how it looked. Good thing about the mission.. YOU DONT CHOOSE WHAT YOU EAT ;)

Well first transfers are this week and im staying of course :) One of the Elders in our apartment is leaving though. He has been here for 6 months haha crazy! So i get a new roomie tomorrow.

Well alright i'll send this for now and think of more here in a sec. haha Love you all:)

THANKS MORE EVERYTHING!!!

ELDER OVARD

 

WELL WAZZZUPP!!!

 

KACEY ROGERS HUH???? what in the world hahahahaha.  She'll be joining me in the BEST mission in the world :) Dang thats so cool!! It's the same one as her dad right? Wow thats awesome. I bet she is excited. It's crazy to think i'll almost be out a year when she gets here though haha dang!! I'll have to write her and give her a little insite about what is to be her mission.

 

So how are the holidays going with my family?? I just picture our house all lit up and mom and the christmas trees. I will tell you this.. No one here in Miami does christmas trees like moms. I did see that santa clause that we have downstairs though haha it was doin it's lil famous dance. It was funny.

 

Thats crazy Elder Bott and Miller are already coming home haha man. Way crazy. Seems like they just left and honestly before we know it it's going to be me. Elder Diaz keeps telling me that December always cruises by and I didn't believe him until I looked at the calender last night. WOW!

 

I did get the christmas package so THANK YOU haha it was bomb!! I couldn't find any of the driving record stuff though. Didn't you say you sent something in there? hmm idk It's not a biggy. We have a car here in this area but were never in it. Our area is like one of the smallest in the mission so it's usually not too bad. I'm up to like 158 pounds now and dont look any bigger. To be honest I think it's all in the legs from the bike. haha I feel like right now with my legs being in shape I could drop some bombs ;)

 

The leaves do NOT fall on the trees here haha it's summer year round remember? You think i'm kidding but it's true!

 

I have been getting christmas cards and stuff from people so i'll send them thank you's no worries i know my mom and dad taught me well!

 

I am starting to understand the El salvadorians, nicoraguans, hondoranians and others a little more.. BUT the cubans!!!!! HOLY they talk so fast. It's so hard. It'll come though I know it will. I have really been working hard and I know with the lords help it's all possible. My speaking has been coming along quicker then me understanding. Now we go into lessons and I can actually help EldernDiaz teach a little bit haha. no mucho pero mas que cuando yo llegado..

 

So okay onto my week! Exciting event so remember bayside. It's like the mall along the coast of miami. I love going there on pdays... but anyways haha so we got a phone call this week from a guy from utah. He works here in miami on the cruise ships. He is a musician. Anyways he started talking about the gospel with 2 other musicians there on the ship. They both liked what he was saying and wanted a Libro de Mormon in spanish. So he had to contact the missionaries. So he got our number from the church and called us. He's only here on land on fridays and mondays. Other then that he is on the ship. So he wanted to meet friday. He said meet us at Bubba Gump restaurant I want to buy you elders lunch and then my friend thats investigating the church will be with us and you can talk with him about the gospel. So we said okay :) haha we met up and really the guy was amazing. He knew a lot of gospel knowlege but he feels like something is missing and after meeting with us he feels like this is what was missing. So he has a BofM and is reading it. IDK how things will work out with him but he said he would call us and we could meet up again one of these Fri or Sat haha it's awesome.

 

So our baptisms for this week wanted one more week to prepare haha so were hoping for hmmm 3 baptisms this week. The little family Kylee Manuel and Ronny still love us and always want us to go play ball and stuff with them. Their baptism is scheduled for this week as well so hopefully we can get those desires up again for them :)

 

Other then that our week wasn't much. It was harder. We only ended up getting one investigator to church. It was cool though because remember Roberto who we baptized like 4 weeks ago. Well it was a lady (grandma) that lives with him. She sat in on every lesson with us and she never said much but she was always so grateful for our visits. Well we picked Roberto up for church yesterday and next thing we know She was climbing in the car. She's like "I'm coming today she's like I wanna come" haha so we said alright cool lets go!! She was crying and really felt the spirit and the love Jesus christ has for her. It was so amazing. We have an appointment with her tomorrow so we'll see how she liked it!

 

I'm getting excited to talk with you all!! haha It'll be so much fun! So ya idk if were going to skype of not yet. We can but we just needa finalize where and stuff this week probably. We have mission conference on Thursday. I need to go find a white elephant gift hahaha don't have the 60 inch waste jock strap this year so i'll have to find something else!! I feel like that party i threw was just yesterday. The pajama party with the white elephant gift!! Man time flies!!

 

Alright well i'll probably write you all a letter today as well. We don't have much going on. We'll go to the coast and to bayside. Elder Osborn is the new elder in our apartment and he wants to see it all :)

 

Love you and have a wonderful week. 

 

Elder Ovard 

WAZZUP FAMILY!!!

Okay i'll start with moms questions haha:
For Thanksgiving we have about 3 different members that all want to
feed us haha so to anwser you question i'm going to be getting fat!
Also this week we had a person we met invite us to go to like a miami
shelter place on Thanksgiving. It's like kinda a homeless shelter
place i think. Anyways the MIami Heat basketball team with be there
serving the food haha cool right?? Well I want to go but i think it
might be little out of our area so we'll have to see haha Harvesting
is amazing and without it i just don't understand how you would get in
any doors. I feel bad for the other missionaries that didn't have this
haha anyways harvesting we get in a lot of house. Especially when were
where all the black people live. This past week we got in 26 homes and
thats through harvest for mmm 30-45 min a day is all. It's so cool.The
other elders? Elder williams and Peterson. Williams is originially
from Georgia but now lives up in timpanoges. And elder peterson is
from Mesa Arizona. I love them both their so cool. Mom you can send
whatever you want they all get stuff too. My comp for sure but you if
you want you can send for the others but i think their fine. Just my
comp for sure. And I got you package for Thanksgiving!! Thank you so
much!! Bomb stuff in there. The treats keep me going each day i'm
tellin ya haha Elder Diaz loves those Fruit snacks.Yes members feed us
all the time. We have a list of food that they fill out in RS each
sunday for us. One person takes a certain day of the week. It's the
best haha sometimes were just so busy with people we don't have time
to go eat :) Nope I don't need anything for Christmas haha i'm doing
good mom. Yes i'm pretty sure elder diaz and i will stay here because
were still doing the training program! 12 weeks. So next transfer
elder diaz will probably leave because he has been here awhile. I'll
stay next transfer i think. I get lots of time in miami :) I love
it!!!
I'm so excited more michael oh my gosh haha thats so sweet!! I love my friends.

So this week was another great one!!! No baptisms but a lot of
investigators haha we got 13 new investigators this week. It really
gets hard somethimes because there is only so much time in the day to
see everyone. Yesterday at church we got 6 people there and so were
praying and have the faith for baptisms this coming sunday. Including
that lady that has Dialysis with one leg :) her name is mattie and she
is my favorite!! Like seriously! I love her. IDK if it's because she's
black or what but man shes great. She lives in kinda a sketchy
neighborhood but other then that it's great :) hahaha jk So how is
everyone?? Thanks so much for all your emails again. Don't worry about
printing them off. I should be okay to write and read them all. I just
idk about the blog letter haha oh well.
This past week we had Zone Conference.. and lets just say my mission
president is like literally the next prophet. He's so stong and has
the best testimony. His wife as well. Oh my gosh it was so good.
Presdient shared stories about his life and related them to the
gospel. It was like General Conference status.. so good. I learned so
much. Spanish is still tough but i know it wont come in a week haha
I'm loving it. Elder Diaz and me will speak it and just laugh all day!
I'm started to have members in the ward help me so i should be
speaking it more and more. I am slowly started to understand more and
more so thanks for all the prayers!!
Sounds like all you are doing great. Blake and Bryce Harper.. Dad on
the MTN.. Mom with questions hahahaha jk... Paige and Tay with school
and work and thier house... and Ayns with the boys like usual haha
It's crazy how is seems like things change here everyday but it's just
the same old stuff back home haha it cracks me up!! I'm worried about
my dog grizz though. Still don't hear much from him? Sometimes i
wonder if he's still there haha ayns at least took a pic of him for
me. He looks like he's starting to go grey? Si or no? haha I love you
all so much!
Emailing is so hard because I have so much to say but always don't
know what to say haha it's nice when you all ask questions!! This week
in the Marlins stadium there was a pro soccer game! Venezuala and some
other team haha i can't remember, but we went and rode our bikes
around it on the way to a members house. It was so cool but it gets me
excited for baseball :)
Christmas here should be fun!! Crazy but fun haha a lot of people have
put up their lights and stuff already. Big building.. sky scrapers
have began to do so as week. It'll be fun and i'm sure you'll get a
lot of pictures!!
Anyways I better get I love you all so much! Let me know if you have
anymore questions!!
Have a wonderful week!! Love ya

Love ELDER OVARD

                  Coming Home From Key Biscayne (the Island)  This picture is on the Bridge.

WAZZUP FAMILIA Y AMIGOS 


What a week it was!! So I don't know if you all heard but this week we were supposed to have 3 baptisms. Well we got two of the three down so i'm not complaining :) But wait it gets better. So this week I got my first opportunity to baptize someone. I baptized a kid named Jonathan and Elder Diaz baptized his Grandma. Jonathan is a 16 yrs old and I think he is half Nicaraguan and half black. haha He's such a stud! I love him. Anyways so let's just say Jonathan wanted to be baptized 3 times hahaha No so heres what happened. He spoke English so I didn't have a problem saying it but when it came to dunking him.. Man I felt like I was going to drowned the kid! I did it the first time and he came up and I swear he was like trying to find some oxygen haha but NO I needed to go even further down. So ROUND #2 I dunked him and it was about the same. The witnesses both just said to push him down all the way to the bottom haha so ROUND #3 I threw him down and seriously felt like he was under there forever haha I was so scared! I didn't want to hurt him because I love him so much! So after I brought him up and the witnesses were both smiling and said good. Jonathan had a HUGE smile on his face and said "Thats what i'm talking about baby!! I feel SO clean" hahaha oh man I will never forget the look on his face and the feelings that both of us were feeling. It was an experience and feeling that I hope neither one of us will ever forget! When Elder Diaz told me I was going to baptize I was so excited haha It motivated me in the the mission work. That step and taking on that covenant with out Savior Jesus Christ is what this works all about. I know that as I strive to work hard and do everything I can for the Lord Jesus Christ he will bless me with these wonderful ELECT people. The people that are prepared and ready. Just again this week the Lord has blessed Elder Diaz and I. We found 3 more investigators that are pretty dang solid already and they have the Desire and Faith. Since being here I have learned that's all people need to be baptized. A desire and faith in Christ. It's amazing how great people are in this world. One of our investigators is named Mattie. Mattie has dialysis and only has one leg. Her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is amazing. She always tells us how she believes one day she will live with her family all again but not only that.. She will be her full self again. Physically that is. She knows that Lord will heal her someday and she always always expresses her thoughts and feelings about that. She is so sweet. I look forward to teaching these new wonderful people and I want to help them in their lives through our savior. Our other investigator that was supposed to get baptized this week ended up not because of economic situations and stuff. She is struggling and we've been trying to help her but it's been tough. Anyways it's an amazing life being here representing our Savior. I love it and I'm so excited for all my friends to get out here and serve the lord. They are all getting their calls now and it makes me happy! Alrighty well see yal next week! Love ya

ELDER OVARD

              1st Baptism for Elder Ovard.  Lidia and Jonathan with Elder Diaz and Elder Ovard.

                                                   Jonathan Elder Ovards 1st Baptism