Another Week Down!!

Another week down!!! Dang!

 

I feel like I was just at the computer.. what happened?? haha Anyways It was another Exciting week!! Transfers are next week and I will be emailing on tuesday most likely. Also I will probably be losing Elder Diaz. My little mexican that barely knows english :( What am I going to do hahaha oh my he's a character. Last night we slept out on the balcony of our apartment again and he said.. Man It's lots of snowing out here... hahaha I looked at him super confused and said snowing?? What were in Miami. He's like ya snowing you know the cars down there and stuff. I was so confused hahaha I didn't know what he was talking about. So I did what I normally do. I started saying different words to stry and find the one he was looking for. Well after saying traffic, busy, sound, people, yelling,, etc.. I finally came down to the work Noise!!! hahaha and his face lit up and was like YEAH!!! NOISE hahaha super funny. IDK how he went from snowing to noise, but I guess it's whatever! This is how he is all the time haha On friday we were on exchanges. I was with elder osborn in my area and Elder Diaz went with Elder Peterson. Well it was about halfway through the day when I get a call from Elder Peterson saying that he couldn't find elder Diaz. HAHAHA he's like bro he's lost idk where he's at. I said ride your bike back and see if he's off the side of the road fixing his bike or something. I said it nice and calm as if it is a regular thing that happens haha well it is. So elder Peterson road his bike and couldn't find him. So Elder Osborn and I left to find him. We were like 15 min away. Right as we met up with Elder Peterson.. He gets a call. it says... ELDER PETERSON WHERE ARE YOU MAN!!!! hahahaha super super funny man. Elder diaz got stuck in traffic and just ended up going to a members house!! Thats my comp for ya :)

This week we met a lot of new people. We are in a stage of finding new people right now. All the other people we had we baptized already ;) haha no jk but this week we ended up getting 4 people at church. Were hoping to see them all take the waters of baptism next week. 3 of the people that we brought to church were these 3 girls haha 22 17 16 yrs of age. Well they spoke english and so I had to do everything I could to convince them to come to church with us the night before. haha no ok lets be real. I asked them to come to church and their like ya sure why not and bounce we went hahaha super funny. It's just one of those things you had to be here i guess. But ya so they came and we have an appointment witht them tonight. Hopefully they liked it. I'm excited to talk with them about it. We have a few other poeple that are super cool as well. We have work to do but we can do it!

Remember manuel?? He's being baptized this weekend ;) ;) super excited!!! It's so awesome! He loves us. After his baptism we will be getting a lot of member present lessons! :) hahaha

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Please keep them up. My spanish is slowly progressing and Im being able to understand more and more everyday. I know i've only been here 2 transfers and people say it takes like 5-6 before you actually get it but I don't want to be that long i want to learn quick haha you guys know how i am. So i'm trying super hard and i know it'll come. Thanks for the prayers and everything you guys do for me!

Today I happen to be super excited!! Were headed to the Marlins Stadium to go on a tour ;) I was checkin it our the other day with elder osborn and they have a swimming pool in the outfield! It was crazy. A homerun ball would like dome little kids in the head haha horrible man! It's an awesome stadium though so i'll be sure to take some pics ;) The world baseball classic starts in March. If i'm still here ima be gettin some tickets baby !!!! YEAHHH haha jk Also yes as you guys know the BCS is here this year up in the dolphins stadium. Unfortunately the stadium is about 20 min or so aways from us. It's more north a little bit. Super cool though there are posters and stuff everywhere for it. I love it here man! IDK what i'll do when i have to leave! It'll be a sad day! Our zone leaders have been getting my hopes up. They keep telling me i'll get a new comp this transfer. The i'll stay here in riverside and train someone for 2 transfers after that hahah so i'd be here in Riverside for like 10 months. It'd be sooooooo cool :)

Sounds like everyone is just going on missions now haha what the heck?? It's super cool. I'm excited for everyone else to start getting their calls and stuff. Have you guys heard anything about Ben Smith? and where he's going? He wrote me in the MTC but idk if he got it or what. I didn't hear bad from him.. but i know how the real world is. It's hard to find that extra TIME to write people hahahaha oh man. So whats new for everyone?? Blake looks like he's about ready to start the ring shopping after a month. His dang drool i'm been getting wet all the way of here in florida hahaha Dad has just been up in the snow freezing and killin lions while i'm here sweating and savin souls ;) Mom has been laying in bed with the flu. Sounds like your doing better now though so thats all that matters! And Ayns just living the high school life. It's doesnt get any better then that. Play Play and Play haha do nothing at school. No thats a lie.. follow my example i was the best student... (especially when it came to getting to know the teachers) hahaha :) Paige is just starting up school and is going to be busy busy busy!!!! Good luck and work hard. Hit taylor for me will ya!!! Loses his dang wedding ring hahaha he would. HeY HEy i think he lost an ipod or something like that too after like hmmmm a week hahahahahhaha okay ya ya I love you all and i'll try and send another letter in the mail. Love you and have a great week!!

ELDER OVARD

Happy New Year

Que Paso!!

Well family I just want to start by saying man I love you all and loved talking to you guys!! It was the best. Really it's so much fun and it's completely different talking when your the one gone haha but I have to say talking with the family is a good thing. I felt really bad I didn't talk to you all individually so next time we will have to do that! I loved it though and was super happy the entire time. It helped me realize that wow nothing really has changed haha Its super weird though because here in the mission things are literally changing every single day. Doesnt help being here in miami and seeing the crazy things everyday haha Its what keeps me going ;) Anyways okay I love you all and was super grateful for my wonderful family.

SO THE EXCITING NEWS!!!! Every since I got here our mission has had a goal of 150 baptisms in a month. Well the closest we had came was like 135 or something. So we all put our eyes on the goal and really wanted to achieve it so that it would be our white christmas! WELL WE DID IT!!! This month our mission had 153 baptisms. A lot of hard work from so many missionaries paid off! President Anderson text us all and you could tell just through the text he was proud of us and really believes he has the best missionaries in the world! That is one thing I love about him. He is always giving us the credit. He hates it when we say how good he is and stuff. I just can't wait till I see him up on that pulpit and stand at General Conference because i know it's going to happen ;) He's a stud man.

Elder Diaz and I contributed 3 baptisms to that 153 this month. We ended up having one more this last sunday. His name was Carlos. He was the one that was like living homeless and we had to help him find a house and job and stuff. Remember? I kinda told you about them through skype. I left that gift card with the kid. Ya that was them. He had been prepared by the Lord and had prayed about baptism multiple times. His face when he came up out of that water was amazing. You can just tell how grateful he was for us missionaries and for us giving our time to him. I had a feeling come over me of gratitude. He had no money no place to live but he was still the happiest man in the world after coming up out of that water. It was super cool.

Also, remember manuel??? the 21 yr old kid that loves me and elder diaz. We played bball with him and stuff. Well we were teaching manuel and his bro and sis but slowly his bro and sis began to show no interest. SO we continued with Manuel for a couple weeks and he just progressed and progressed but it came time that we had to pass him on to the sisters. YSA ward because thats their responsibility. Young single adults. So we passed him but as friends we still stop by every couple of days and talk to him maybe teach him a lil something something. haha we have to keep seeing him he loves us. He calls me everynight. And yes it's in spanish so it's a lil rough haha. BUT anyways the first lesson the teachers taught with him he said.. I love the elders and i wanna be like them. I want to be baptized!!! It was awesome. Just by being an example and showing our frienship and love to him he has had a change of heart and a desire to do good in his life. So we are planning a baptism for him with the sisters haha we needa do it here in the next 2 weeks so Elder Diaz will be here. Because this transfer.. Elder Diaz is probably leaving!

Also This week I was with Elder Beer in killian. Or Kendal i guess is the name of the city. Anyways I was on a 2 day exchange with him. He's one of our zone leaders. Anyways we were riding our bikes and totally witnessed a car accident. Like it was crazy. So a car was like trying to do a u turn and didn't see the other car and hit the side of the one car and launched it into a palm tree that was like 10 ft off of the road. ( idk if that made sense but idk how to explain it) Anyways Elder Beer and I were literally 15 ft from the whole thing. We thought the dude was dead. We ran over to see if they were both okay. It was right next to the golf course and people from there ran over and ughh it was a big mess. Anyways we saw both drivers and luckily they were both okay. IDK but they were. If i had to guess both cars were probably totalled. Like it was bad. They were both okay and we called the ambulance and stuff. The one guy was bleeding and stuff but he got out of his car and stuff all on his own. It was crazy.. We had to stay and be witnesses and what not. Man it was insane.

So New Year in miami and just like christmas haha Awesome!!!  A lot of parties and people having fun! Makes it interesting for us! But yes I love it.

This week I saw people playing baseball in the Marlins stadium. They had on like All star jerseys it looked like. I think it was teams getting ready for the World Baseball Classic. haha is it there or what?? I need one of you guys to look it up for me and if theres a game on the monday tell me!!! really!!! haha we all wanna go. But ya I saw them for a little while and they all looked super super good. Like pro's but i could tell. I was only looking through glass and stuff.

Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful New Years and had a wonderful Christmas!! I love  you and hope all is good back home.

Mom I have my Driving Record so no worries. I just printed it out for 9 bucks so I will be driving before we know it :) kinda scary after seeing that accident haha jk I'll be safe. Love you all later!!

ELDER OVARD

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