Heading to the keys for Stake Conference

I love emailing!!!!!!!! haha Another week baby!!!

 

How was everything with my fam this past week? Sounds like a lot more excitement and A LOT more crazyness! It's soo good to hear about MAYNERD and MICHAEL haha man I love them both so much and I know their going to be awesome. I'll be talking to maynerd in some good ol spanish baby!! Except ima talk like a crazy CUBAN and he'll talk like a crazy hyper mexican hahaha COMO ELDER DIAZ CHICO. Anyways. Thats too bad dad wasn't able to make it to michaels farewell. I bet he felt super bad. Michael would understand though so he shouldn't worry about it. I'll prob write a letter to Tammie this week and send her a piece of toilet paper :( hahaha it's so sad i know but it's so great! He's going to have so much fun. And just think... Jensens in TEXAS. RED NECK BROTHAS hahaha i'm excited to hear about everything.

 

So this week spanish was getting better haha still super hard but understand people was a little better. Everyone just says poco a poco. "little by little" I know it's true and all I needa do is give everything I got and don't worry about it.

So the changes here in the mission the next few months are going to be crazy. Were getting so many new missionaries in. Which means a lot of new trainers and leadership positions haha. Well i thought to be a trainer you probably needa know a lot of spanish right. Well we'll see haha this past week I went on an exchange with Elder Samuelian and supposively the Zone Leaders told him that he needs to talk to me about leadership and i need to be ready to be a leader because you never know what might happen. SOOOO that being said who knows? This transfer is rapidly coming to an end though and It's just crazy. I would be completely suprised though if i was training. Especially where i've already been here in miami for so long. We'll see though. I don't think i'll train but i guess you never know and god knows what will be best!

 

Past week was good and bad with investigators haha We are probably going to MARRY a couple or two this next week:) My first people that i have the chance to marry haha. She is super solid and wants to be baptized so bad. We found out this week though that the guy she loves and has 2 kids with and been living with for 10 years isn't her husband. So this week we will get them married then she can be baptized on sunday! CRAZY right?? Match maker match maker make me a match:) hahaha I'm pumped! Super cool. This area of miami is just the bomb. At the marlins stadium we teach all sorts of people mom. Lore and Lazaro? remember them thats where we always taught them. ummm other peoples that live around there we've taught. We taught another little fam that is super solid as well and they want to be baptized. The father the dad of the fam is headed to Argentina this week though. Maybe dev can get in contact with him and baptize him though haha he'll probably be there for a month or so. We'll have his wife baptized before he returns ;)

 

Also this week we had a baptism all planned up and ready to role then the guy didn't show up haha his name is lazaro. IDK if you guys remember but he's like 6'5 300 haha ya idk how we'll be able to lift him outta the water but we'll do it. He didn't show up though so we still needa meet up with him and figure out what were going to do. His wife is like keeping him from it I think. She doesn't like us for some reason, but Lazaro loves loves us haha too much.

 

Dad Blake Taylor... your all spoiled :) haha all of you got something super super sick. You can thank the wallet of Elder Ovard on that one. Well okay maybe like the santa clara 1st ward hahaha but anyways ima send it today. You guys should get it like friday probably. Not real sure. But anyways i hope everything works out and you guys like it. Blake sorry but you'll have to drive 4 hours to find out what it is. Trust me it's worth the drive haha

 

Well I'm getting excited for all the peeps we have planned for this weekend! It's stake conference for us so i'm headed down south towards the keys for that. It'll make it a lot harder to baptize but I know we can do it with faith. We'll for sure have one but were hoping we get others married and commited more to it this week. We have a lot of people who COULD be baptized so it'll be a lot of prayer and faith on our part.

 

I did get all your packages and stuff. They were bomb thank you all so much. I love CANDY haha Thanks for the notes as well! Thanks for Everything. Mostly I just have the best fam in the world. I love you guys so much! Let me know if theres anything i can ever do for yal!!

 

mom so you need a letter? or email for that friend thing?

 

Elder Ovard

 

                       Elder Diaz (in the middle) trained both of us!  Brothers in the mission.

Two elders I love the most!! Specialized training in Miami Lakes.  Elder Hunter and Elder Diaz

               Everyone I've lived with including Dean and Samuelian.  I love all these Elders man!!!

Letter From Elder Deans Mom, Nancy!

Heather,

Just wanted to share a few things from Elder Dean's email this week. "SUPER BOSS" are the words John uses for amazing!

"Well everything continues on with greatness here in sunny Miami!! My companion is a SUPER BOSS and has easily become one of my favorites, if not the favorite, companions that I have had in the mission field. We continue to be united and seeing great miracles."

"I have often times wondered as the weeks have gone by, how is it that each week is amazing and most times more than the week before. I would definitely say that the council of our leaders has helped us a lot in making every week a better week to always strive to create miracles and fully access the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This week we thought that the week was going bad. We evaluated ourselves and found that we were getting into a little routine, so we broke it. We used the Faith cycle and created miracles. We met a super solid young couple who have been looking for a church to join and they were struggling a little bit because Mary's mom had kicked her out of the house and wouldn't let her live there anymore. They felt sorrow and wanted to feel loved and wanted. The Lord provided them with these blessings as we came and left the blessing with them. They were crying after the blessing and quickly accepted the Lord's invitation to be baptized. They loved church and are continuing to prepare for the 10th.

We have been working with a youth named Anthony, and he has been keeping commitments left and right. He prays daily and continues to feel the Spirit. We went by the other day and shared the message of the restoration with him. We talked about faith and how it applies to him. Afterwards he gave the most humble prayer to know that what we were teaching is true. He felt a great desire to know more and to be baptized."

Elder Ovard may have shared these experience with you but just in case I thought I would send them on. Thanks again for your son!

Sincerely,
Nancy

Crazy Miami Peeps on Superbowl Sunday!

Well here I am back at the Library once again!!! haha Emailing my fam and watching crazy miami peeps haha

What another great week!! Thanks for forwarding the email from Elder Deans mom! I appreciate it. It's always good to hear things like that! He is a stud though haha I love him. He's had some tough comps and he has made a lot of changes but thats what lifes all about. And now we are giving it all we got so he can go home happy and with a feeling of success. I love him man.

 

So thanks once again for all the emails. You all have different things going on in your lifes and just seem busy busy busy haha Thats good though keep it up!! My week was awesome! The question about the sisters riding bikes... As far as I know they don't ride their bikes often. All the sisters have cars as far as i know so if it were me i probably wouldn't spend all the money to buy a nice one. They really only have to ride bikes if they don't plan their miles and they go over or something. I'm excited for her to get here though. (Kacey Rogers will be going to Ft. Lauderdale in April to serve as a sister speaking spanish.  They wanted to know if the sisters rode their bikes.  So I asked Elder O and this was the response.)

 

So mom i'm not the kids dad...  come on!! I didn't mean it like that. You made it sound like i was in love with lore or something and treated him as my son haha no no never. Just gotta be loving as a little child just as christ taught right :) ( I had to tease Austin and remind him that he was just a good example to Lazoro, not his father)

 

So sounds like mikey is getting all ready to leave haha WOW!!!! If possible will you guys like record his talk. IDK how but if there is a way like record it for me and send it to me. That would be super cool. I'd love that. I'm excited for him. I wrote his last week and he is going to do great!(Michael is Austin's really good friend and will be giving his farewell talk this Sunday.  Michael is going to Texas.)

 

This week was a little bit harder but still awesome! The only reason it was harder is because the peeps that we had for baptism yesterday were so so hard to get ahold of this week. We don't know why but they were tough. We did everything we could and because of that I know god is going to bless us and help us!  So this week will be awesome and we got the FE (faith)

 

For the superbowl haha wow yesterday man!!!! So idk how many drunk people we blessed but it was hilarious hahaha sad but they just were crazy. Other houses were playing like poker and stuff and they'd try and get us to play with them and what not hahaha man it's great.

 

Also this week more lessons at the MIAMI MARLINS stadium :) haha Dad thats crazy when you guys got like 1 discussion in your were happy. The lords work has definatily been hastened because now our goals are like 10 lessons a week with 7 member present lessons and like 5 less active recent convert lessons. So thats like 25 lessons a week and usually more with the whole blessing houses that we do. haha It's awesome and Im super blessed because it's through teaching that I have learned the most. This week we had a cool spiritual experience.

First of all we confirmed lore and lazaro. I confirmed lazaro. Lore text us last night and told us how grateful she was for us and how we helped change their family. It was cool. But also the other night elder dean and i were talking. We began talking about his past as a missionary and really he was just having a hard hard time getting it out of his mind and off his chest. I talked with him for probably 20 min about it and he was just like heart broken. I didn't know what to do. I was just trying to help him understand that god still loves him. He always will through the atonement. So I looked at him and said your fine man i know god loves you.. lets kneel down and say a prayer asking him to help you forget things so you can finish your mish strong. So we kneeled down and i began to pray. I prayed and got like half way through and i could hear him just crying. I continued the prayer and eventually finished. The spirit was taking over during that prayer. We both felt so much love and unity. We stood up and hugged and he said I feel good man. I know we can get these 8 baptisms this month. Ever since then he said he's had an easier time focusing and doing the work. It was awesome to see the spirit like that just take over :)

 

Well I love you guys and am grateful for my family. You guys are the best. Also if one of you guys want to like send pictures of like before the mish and just of your lives haha please do. We all love looking at pics at night. It's bomb. Also its ELDER SAMUELIAN mom the family that knows shan and sue haha i just asked him. He said he knows them!!

 

Love you guys!!

Elder Ovard

Specialized Training in Miami Lakes.  I love these 2 Elders!  Elder Hunter my comp from the MTC and Elder Diaz my Trainer.  Elder Dean is in an interview at this time so he is not in the picture! :(

My Week Was Better Than Yours

okay okay just want to start with... your guys week was good and interesting and full of suprises... but MINE WAS BETTER!!!!!!!!! hahahah so so so exciting!! But I would like to begin with you guys first.

McCall!!!! YES!!!! thats so exciting! The Lord has sent you there because he has people there for you. I promise you that. It's kinda weird thinking about but once you get there you'll understand haha SO SO cool though.. oh and p.s. enjoy the cold hahaha JK JK ok rude!!!

PAIGE!!!! TLANG last words I heard from you before I left were... "oh don't worry i will wait for you to get home before I have a kid.. no worries.. I might be pregnant but that's it.." WHAT THE HECK BROOO!!! hahaha That's so so excited though. Really though I'm so excited for you guys and can't wait to have another baby boy born into the family on  Sept. 24!! All I have to say if he is born on that date you two are two lucky parents because he's going to be the best prettiest little guy every ;) hahahaha wow I got some jokes today. Just shows you how good my week was ;)

DAD!!! Next time you see Corless you'll have to get me his address haha i've been wanting to write him! That's cool the Utah coaches all said hi. Who knows what were going to do with them... hmmm maybe ill send em a Book of Mormon and say if you want me after the mish you gotta read this first haha jk That's cool though. I remember last year ditching some classes and watching em practice and stuff! The question is Could SLCC beat them this year?? It'll be interesting to see how they all do. I'll write you about more stories!! hahaha

AYNS!!! No correo electonico de ud este semana?? WAZZUP haha how you been? sounds like all the friends are leavin huh!! WOW it's crazy it feels like just yesterday i was up to Annie's opening my call.

BWEEZ!!! Keep hittin up the jazz games man. haha save up for me some season tickets for when i get home as well! It'll be sick ;) What happened with Graci? or however you spell it? haha you better get going man. I already told you what ring to get!! No need to keep ring shopping hahaha Keep having fun bro! I'm sure all the ladies are wanting to hang with Timmy singing his heart away!!

MOM!!! Thanks for the email and for the article about praying with faith! It's super important and sometimes here in the mish it gets a lil hard where you say a prayer for everything haha but it's so so good. Also thanks for talking with  Ben smith and for keeping me updated with everything! But okay now it's time to talk about my week :)

 

So first off it was a bomb week!!! Lots of success! Elder Dean and I are really working hard and doing everything we can to accomplish our goals. This next month 8 Baptisms is our goal. We both know we can do it but it'll take hard hard work. It was awesome week though. Met some sweet sweet people. Honestly it was probably the best week of my mission when it comes to numbers and baptisms and everything!! So onto baptism: :) :)

 

So I wanna tell you guys about LORE AND LAZARO!! first of all we baptized them yesterday but more importantly I love them and They changed my mission. IDK why but the spirit through them has definitely touched me and changed me. So if you remember Lore and Lazaro were the ones that have the bro in UT that is a member and they wanna go there and live here in like a couple years. So that is how we met them. They visited temple square when visiting their brother and then the missionaries there sent us to her. We met her and began teaching. But I wanna focus on Yesterday. The baptism. It was awesome. It turned out that I was going to baptize Lore and Elder Dean with Lazaro. So Lore and I were at the stairs of the baptismal font as we watched her son and Elder dean walk into the water. They were both super excited. Lazaro 9yr old looked at me as we were waiting for the baptism the actual ordinance to take place and he said. "I'm so excited I gotta fart!!!!" hahahahha oh man it was so hard to keep my laugh in hahahaha but ok. So Lore and I watched as they walked down into the water. We both began to smile. That's when the spirit really kicked in. I looked at her as she just began to weep. She was filled with joy and tears as her boy was making this step this decision in his life. I couldn't help but begin to tear up as well. Her little boy being baptized just made her so happy. I started to tear up because the previous week idk how many times Lazaro told me I was his BFF and his bro from another mother haha but As I watched him being baptized and listened to his mom cry a feeling took over me. The spirit said to me.. Look at this family. A mom that's 25 and a 9 yr old kid that is just always so happy. I began to think of Lazaro and how he doesn't have a father. How his mom had him when she was like a senior in high school. I thought of him and how he doesn't have that role model. That person to look up to and to play with. His mom works at a hair salon and goes to school. She is amazing. She does everything for him and takes such good care of him. Raising him right and to do that here in Miami is pretty special. Well as I watched this baptism I was taken away by the spirit as if The past 2 weeks we've been with this family. I have been as a father to Lazaro. The spirit told me that he needs me. He needs us in his life. To help him to play with him, just to be that example. When I felt that. I was done that's when i teared up. It was awesome. It made me think of what it's going to be like when i'm a father and i'm the one taking my son into these same waters. It was a feeling of joy and happiness that I just can't even describe. I loved it and I know that's why i'm here in the mission. To bring that feeling to more people like LORE AND LAZARO!! I will always have a special special place in my heart for them. Also in a year and a half like I said they wanna move to UT. Guess what school Lore is probably going to go to... SLCC hey small world right?? hahaha wow that'd be weird. But i hope they move there. I will be able to see Lazaro to take him to play ball. He loves baseball ;) haha wow like it was just amazing. I'm sure reading this it's super confusing but just understand how blessed I truly am. I have a father. A loving father that has lead and helped me. Oh I love this work. I love you guys so so much! Have an awesome week. 

ELDER OVARD

So this is the famous Lore and Lazaro Yeira that I always talk about.  This was right before their baptism.  Right before Lazaro said, "I'm so excited I need to fart."  hahaha  I LOVE THEM!!!
                                                Elder Dean and Elder Ovard

I received this letter from Elder Dean's mom.  I thought it was so sweet of her to work so hard to find us.  Thank you Sister Dean.  I told her that I was grateful for Elder Dean as well.  I had been praying for Elder Ovard to learn the language and he said that Elder Dean was really helping him with the language.  Two mom's had their prayers answered.  The Lord does listen to our prayers.



Dear Heather,

I believe our sons are companions in Miami right now! My son is Elder John Dean and will be returning from Florida next month. I didn't think you had joined missionary moms so I looked for a blog on your son but I see you have protected it with a log in. I did see what I think was your daughter's blog so I sent her a short email asking her to tell your family thank you for raising such an amazing young man. Then I did a search in my missionary mom email folder and found you. 

I just wanted to thank you for raising an amazing young man. My son loves him! We prayed this transfer would bring an amazing companion that would keep John focused and busy and the Lord has answered our prayers. The past two emails from John have had great things about your son and his testimony in them. I just want you to know he is doing well and loved by the members and his companion. He is making a difference! It always lifts me to know that especially when we miss them so much.

Have a great day!

Sister Nancy Dean
Syracuse, Utah

Harry Potter, Superman, No It's Elder Dean!

Family!!!!!

Another week down and I'm loving it!! My dream came true I am finally going to be able to do some killing on my mission hahaha ;) no animals unfortunately. So I will be killing my new companion. This is his last area.. his last 5 weeks in the mission! His name is Elder Dean. He is from Ogden UT. Everyone thinks he looks like harry potter and superman haha weird combo right!! But he is so awesome I love him already and were finding success through hard work and faith. Elder Dean supposedly doesn't have the best reputation with other missionaries haha he had a comp of two that I guess were a lil lazy and he figured since they were he could be. So some missionaries know him as a lazy kid but there was no way he was going to be that way with me! People were telling me stay on him be the example. Well so far i have loved him and we have worked super hard. I like being the one that stays in the same area because I know where i am how to get around and what needs to be done. It was so much different this week. I didn't have Elder Diaz so I was the one that had to do everything. Call people. Talk in Spanish. Lead lessons haha all that fun stuff. To be honest... I loved it. The week really cruised. We found and taught some awesome people! Elder Dean knows Spanish really good and he has been helping me with it. I know it'll come it's all about time.

So really quick. NO i'm not getting on fb. I'm not stupid haha but sometimes fb is weird and likes stuff on it's own or else someone has hacked my fb. No one knows my password. If it keeps happening this week we'll just have to delete it that's fine. Instagram was hilarious haha that fam came right up to me at church and said look look at what your mom said hahaha Every member around here knows me as the "Chill missionary" haha and that's not that I don't work but that I'm always joking around and i'm not as serious and strict as some of the other missionaries. I love it. I'm not changing the person I am haha only bettering it through the gospel and through helping others!!

So this week elder Dean and I have 3 baptisms ;) I'm super super excited. Lore and her 10 yr old son Lazaro are the best. Straight up. we went to the park with them yesterday and played baseball football and soccer with the little boy. He loves us so much. Lore was the one that visited Utah and wants to move there and stuff. She really has a desire to change her life and so were helping her do exactly that. The only problem we have is Elder Dean thinks she's cute.... Uh oh!!!!!!!!! haha i'll have to separate and be in the middle of those two ;)

Really the work and success is going super good right now. We found a different little fam last night that we taught and the mom is for sure planning on baptism here in 2 weeks. She said, "what I was already baptized? but I want to baptize my kids." We explained to her agency and being baptized at 8 yrs old or later when were adults and why that agency is so important. We told her about that and she called her mom and said mom were going to baptized again because we need to be 8 yrs old haha and the mom said OK WHEN WE GOING hahaha Really like the work is great. So so much fun. I'm loving it. Definitely loving Miami! It's the best place in the world for missionary work :) and guess what. Where i am killing elder dean this next transfer and he is going home that means he cant stay here in Miami... so i'll probably be here in this same area another transfer :) that would be 4 transfers here in Miami!!! basically 1/4 of my mission almost 6 months ;) yayayaya haha i'm pumped.

So Friday it was super funny. We taught a lesson went outside to our bikes and realized Elder Deans bike seat was gone. Someone stole it haha it was so funny! Honestly all we can do is laugh when that stuff happens because it's so bad!

Elder Diaz left and is now in Miami Lakes. I miss that kid so much haha He called me like the first 4 nights we were away from each other just to say goodnight and how much he loved me haha He's the best. I'll be saving up my money to go visit him down in chiapas when i get home. It's funny. Elder Petersen's new comp is actually the other missionary that elder Diaz trained. So here in the mission were considered brothers haha his name is Elder Samuelin. He is from Alpine UT and is super cool. I love him.

Well I love you guys so so much. Glad to hear Bweez b-day was good and everything is going well. TLANG happy bday man!! Love you and remember your lil bro in law that can always beat ya up ;)

Love you all

 

Elder Ovard

This is a picture of the Team Store in the Miami Heat Stadium.  It was so sweet!  I was hard seeing so much sweet stuff but having NO money as a missionary! :)

Adios Elder Diaz

Well fam!!! DIAZ IS OUT AND ELDER OVARD STAYS IN MIAMI

hahaha How is everyone?? So tomorrow I will head up to FT Lauderdale to get my new companion. I am super sad to see Elder Diaz go though haha you guys just don't understand how funny that kid is sometimes!! Man I'll miss him. I love him he's taught me so so much!! So yes i'll get a new comp but i wont be able to tell you guys about him until monday!!

Sounds like you all have so much stuff going on. Unfortunately I don't have much time to write today because I had to do some stuff for the mission on the comp but it's okay. Sounds like everyone and everything has been changing but mom haha still just the same working with the homes. Brandon Lyon is coming to Miami??? Tell him to come visit me hahaha seriously we can teach him. We went to the Marlins stadium and let me just say how amazing it was!!! WOW!!! we saw some players out on the field playing catch. It was super cool. I have a lot of pictures that i will have to send you guys! I want to send blake something for his bday! I'll send it but it might be late! We'll see. At the Marlins stadium we saw like the clubhouse VIP suits haha and so so much. It was awesome. Worth my 10 bucks thats for sure!

The work is finally picking up again!! haha It was rough for Elder Diaz and I these past 2 weeks but I had an amazing experience happen. My testimony for fasting and prayer has really really changed this week. At the beginning of the month Elder Diaz and i didn't fast because we had a bunch of parties and things that we had to do that involved food. So we decided lets wait until next sunday. So we did. BAD DECISION. no success at all. We were doing exactly the same things that we did when we had success haha so we were really frustrated. Well I started my fast on saturday at 1. Fasted fasted well it was about 6 oclock and night and we found a family. They were super cool and really interested in talking with us and learning more about christ. so we got a return apt. 10 minutes later we knock on another door. FAMILY. They were the same way. Wanted more happiness and really just had the desire. Well 10 minutes later we get a text. It's from BYU referral center. It's a name for us. A lady named lore that visited fam in UT and went to temple square. So we called it. Got another apt. She is super super solid. So cool. She also has a 10 yr old son. So just like that we were having so much so much success and so many awesome people came to us through the work of god! Well sunday rolled around and at 2 oclock i still didn't want to break my fast haha I wanted to go longer and longer :) So fasting is really something God gives us to help us succeed. Sometimes it's hard but always remember what christ has to do for us. It was much much harder. I love you all and i'll write you guys today. Love you HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!!! I'll try and get something sent out to ya!! Keep searching for that ring for Graci hahaha later!!! DAD i love you and am super super proud of you for going back to school. It will open up oportunities in the future!!

Love ELDER OVARD

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