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

Julie's Dream

FAMILIA!!!!!

 

Boy oh Boy am i excited to have this opportunity to email yal once again?? It was a week full of excitement and energy her in FLORIDA!! Aynsley i am so excited for you. Truly i can't describe or even put into words the excitement i have. I think back to when i was in your shoes.. waiting on a mission call. All you want to do is KNOW. I remember as i was waiting on my call i was reading in the book of mormon about Alma and him Baptizing hundreds of people in the waters of Mormon.. It made me think of my mission. It made me desire and want to do the same. Most importantly though it comforted me.. letting me know that if that was gods will for me then it would happen. If not then he would send me to another place maybe where i would only baptized 1 person but yet i would know thats where GOD wanted me to be just as he wanted Alma to be there preaching to all those people. SOOO as you read your scriptures this week pay close attention to those desires of your heart and what trigger your thoughts. That is how you might might MIGHT get a lil glance of where you COULD be headed ;)

 

Mission Work here in the vineyard of Florida is going strong!!! We had a rough crazy week full of excitement and craziness! Oh Wednesday we had our Zone Training and lets just say that Elder Tesch and I had a lot of fun!! We may or may not be known as the party animals :) We trained on being converted to our goals and also being converted to the things the Elder Kopischke taught us 2 weeks ago. It turned out to be a really good training and it actually led the zone to an amazing 8 baptisms this past weekend. It was soooo cool. A perfect start to a new month in march.. a 5 week month no less :) Our mission has had a goal of 175 baptisms in a month and we fall short every month. The closest we've ever came is like 164 and that was last march. SOO we got a lot of work to do but all the missionaries know that this coming march is the month!!! We pumped. Idk if i'm going to be here in ft laud for it with transfers coming up again in 1 week. It's crazy how fast time is flying by. Elder Webb will be home before you know it :)

 

Investigators are going well. Unfortunately we weren't able to have any baptisms this past week and that family we were supposed to baptize isnt quite ready... BUT they will be this weekend:) The mom just has to leave behind 1 more cigarette. After that, her as well as the 3 kids are ready :) Their amazing. Elder Tesch and i worked hard doing our BEST to help them this past week. We helped them in so many ways. Calling, texting, daily contact, encouragement, etc... list goes on and on. So we honestly felt like we did everything in our power to get them baptized this past weekend. BUT obviously long story short they didn't get baptized. That caused my companion and i to think and reflect on things that we can do EVEN more of to help this mom (Julie) to progress and stop smoking. After thinking and praying we found the solutions. 2 solutions that we haven't applied yet when it comes to HELPING our investigators. The first being to have a special fast for Julie to stop smoking. Not only us fasting but having them fast with us!!! Then secondly involving her with members:) Using member testimonies to solidify and help her stop smoking as well! We feel as though these are the perfect plans and exactly what her and the family need! After coming up with these plans we went over to their house after church on sunday and Julie told us of an amazing AMAZING experience or dream that she had saturday night!

( in order to help you understand better i'm going to back track a little bit. ) So on like Thursday or so we taught this family about the plan of salvation. Specifically focusing on the spirit world and how we do work in the temple for people there waiting on us. We felt really inspired and prompted to teach them about this because Julie had  brothers that were shot and killed years ago. Its been hard on the entire family and really sometimes they don't understand why it happened to them. It questions their faith sometimes. SOOO we figured what better way to tell this family that they can be BAPTIZED for their Uncles (or Brothers). Their family members that they love so much and would do anything for!!! It was a really really spiritual and powerful lesson. (Okay now that you know this part lets fast forward to this lesson sunday after church now) 

 

SO Sunday after church we go and we visit with this family! Immediately as we sit down Julie says Ovard and Tesch i have something to tell you!! We said okay and anxiously listened! She then began to tell us that last night (Saturday) she had a dream. A dream about her god mother inviting her to go to church with her. Julie said this was a miracle in the dream because the god mother was the biggest partier, crazy going person alive. She never ever wanted god or church in her life. So Julie was really suprised and she accepted to go to churh with her god mother. So they walk to church but as they walk she notices that the church they are going to is outside in the street. There is a lot of people and then she looks up at like the preacher and stuff and there was one of her brothers sitting there listening to her other brother preach to this multitude. He was preaching about the plan of salvation and how HE and HIS brother and MANY OTHERS were waiting for this multitude to go do the work for them in the temple. To go be baptized for them. Julie couldn't believe it! She was amazing. Shocked and confused. Then the dream goes on and the god mother HEEDS the counsel of her brother and goes and is baptized for herself to cleanse herself from sin.

WELL this is where the dream ends. Julie wakes up and is thinking a lot about this dream. She cant believe what happened. THEN THEN... you wont believe it.
She goes and gets on Facebook! She begins scrolling down news feeds and she sees a picture of her god mother in the domican republic, she is dressed in white and she was baptized earlier that morning!.... 

WHAT AN AMAZING STORY/DREAM RIGHT??? how incredible is this? Elder Tesch and i just looked at each other in shock. We couldn't believe how real it all was. We then looked at her straight in the eyes and said... Okay Julie so what did you learn from this dream that god gave you? what is he inviting you to prepare to do?? She smiled put her head down and said.... I KNOW.. I KNOW WHAT I NEED TO DO. I NEED TO BE BAPTIZED!!! Immediately there after we presented the plans tesch and i had come up with earlier that day about the special fast that we would have to help her stop smoking so she can be baptized....

 

It was honestly another testimony builder for me. To know that god is aware of each individual need. HE KNOWS. He will make things happen in our investigators lives if we show them sincere love interest and support! I learned a lot from this experience and this past week. Lessons that never in my life will i forget! 

 

I love you all a lot and look up to you a lot :) Always know that god is always there for you to look up to! HE KNOWS YOU BEST!!!!

 

Love ELDER OVARD

 

p.s. i hope the whole dream made sense. It's kinda hard to write in words hahaha love ya

Elder Kopishchke Training & Cirio's Baptism

My family!!!!!!!!!!!!

Una semana mas ya paso en los libros!!!!! no se si tiene sentido en espanol? haha

ANOTHER ONE DOWN!! I can't believe it has already come and gone. What a blessing it was to be a missionary this past week. Elder Kopischke came and toured our mission this past week and it was so much fun. I got to be with him thursday from 10am-4pm and then friday from 8am-1pm. What an intelligent smart man he is. Honestly like ALL his trainings were set up in a Question/Anwser format. He would take a question and then expound on it and share doctrine from the scriptures and pmg like it was nobodies business. He would anwser the question but at the same time provide like 10 different solutions or anwsers! It was soooo inspiring and such a learing experience!! My talk that i gave haha was good i guess! It was so much fun to be able to stand before half the mission and tell them of an experience i had. I did end up telling them about novelty down in homestead. I as well as 2 others shared their stories too. After our stories Elder Kopischke was going in to his training. SOOOOO he started out by reviewing our testimonies/stories. He went through each one and said what he learned and then opened it up to the missionaries for them to share what they learned. It was soooo awesome to see the different things people learned from our experiences. It was awesome!!

Want to know something else thats awesome??? GOD IS SOOOOO GOOD!!!!! you wont believe it but we baptized a man named CIRO this past weekend :) He is amazing!!!!! IT was such a miracle and something that honestly came straight from gods tender mercies! Ciro was a member referral that bro rodriguez brought to church last week. At church last week we set up an appointment with him. Well our first lesson we helped him to recognized the feelings that he felt at church and how he was feeling of gods love and spirit. Immediately after we found out that the biggest thing that Ciro desired was to be able to have more understand and knowledge. SOOO we taught him about the holy ghost. We told him how by having this constant companionship of the H.G. he can know all things. We then explained that the ONLY way to receive this H.G. as a companionship is by being BAPTIZED. We then invited him to be baptized right there at the members home after the member had just got done baring powerful testimony! Ciro was a lil scared to accept but he knew it was right and he knew its what he needed to do. WELL, thats when the fun began. We taught Ciro that night and then one other night we taught him about the restoration. After that the only other day he could meet with us was on sunday because he had work the other days. SOOOO how in the world were we going to teach him all the commandments and get his Baptism interview done before church on sunday?? Long story short God made it happen. Ciro made it happen! We talked with Ciro's member friend bro rodriguez over the phone a little bit asking him if he could foresee any problems with the WofW or the LofC. We knew that it wasn't going to be possible to baptize Ciro if he had problems with these things going in to sunday when he was supposed to be baptized. The member told us NO he didn't have any problems with that stuff as far as he knew! SOOO with Faith and Hope with went about everything as though Ciro was getting baptized on sunday!! Sunday morning an hour before church started we taught Ciro the LofC, WofW and Tithing.... FAmily I can honestly say and testify to you that this man was prepared. He didn't have a problem with anything. He was 100 percent clean and worthy. He wanted to be baptized really bad and he was sooooo ready so WHY WAIT?? just as it teaches us in mosiah 18: 8-10. The last thing Ciro needed was a baptism interview. SOO during gospel principles class we pulled him out for a minute and the District Leader of the spanish ward interviewed Ciro and BAMMM game over last batter out!!!!! CIRO WAS BAPTIZED!!! What joy and happiness feeled my heart to have seen god perform this miracle before my eyes even again! MIracles just dont stop ever.... as long as we are obedient... diligent... urgent.... and truly sacrifice our will to line it with gods!! I love this work soooo sooo much!!!!!

 

Another quick story...  So our battery in our car stopped working saturday night. SOOO long story short we had to get jumped by one of our investigators.. Well sunday morning, church time rolled around and sure enough it didn't start again so we got jumped by the sister misisonaries. Then after church it didn't work so we got jumped again, etc...... SO long story short we were carless sunday night. We didn't know what to do. We couldn've rode bikes but by the time we would get where we needed to be we would have to turn right around and come home due to curfew! SOO we decided just to be diligent and show our faith. We decided to walk down the street and just go and harvest a complex. We walked and began knocked these doors. WELL god knew we needed to be there and he led us to that complex. We knocked into a lady that immediately accepted a prayer from us. She said i would love a prayer from jesus christ. We said a prayer with her. THEN after the prayer she said.. I don't have much time right now but i want you guys to come back!! WE accepted and said we would love to. She then said " ELDERS i was baptized into the mormon church 13 years ago. I haven't been back since just because i didn't know there was one this close to us!" Soo we showed her the address to the church and told her we would stop by the next day to talk more. She THEN before we left said okay good you can meet my daughter tomorrow... WE HESITATED AND SAID WAIT YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER?? HOW OLD? That is when she stated... 11 years old!!!! hahaha oh yes!!!!! The tender mercies and blessings of God!! God was allowing us to not only reactivate this lost daughter but to ALSO baptized her daughter :) We are going to meet with them tonight :)

 

What blessings come when we do what god asks! Family i love you all so much. I'm grateful to be a full time missionary right now in my life! It is the best journey, roller coaster that i could ever ride!! Love you all a lot!! Keep being amazing. Keep learning and progressing in this game of life! Its the best! :)

 

ELDER OVARD

 

p.s. this week we are looking at a family of 4 getting baptized but ohhhhhh i love them sooooo sooooo much. I'll tell you about them next week!!!!! They are from the dominican republic and they are hilarious!!!! GODS GOOD!

Love you