Email from Brother Todd Ogaard

The email from Brother Ogaard  we received shortly after Blake arrived in the mission.  We were so excited to get it and the pictures he sent.  It is fun to hear how your son is doing through the eyes of others.  I appreciate all the emails that I receive from those who come in contact with Elder Ovard.  I  am really grateful for their generosity, the example, and words of encouragement that Brother Carlson and Brother Ogaard gave to my son. 

Dear Parents of Elder Ovard:

I had the privilege of taking your son and his companion, Elder Warren, to dinner tonight in Iwaki. I served in the Sendai Mission

35 years ago, and was in the area visiting some old friends. You must be very proud of your son-he impressed me and I am also proud, as a Sendai RM, to have him serving here. I also attended church here last Sunday when he bore his testimony in Japanese - nicely done!

I thought you might enjoy seeing the attached pictures.

Kindest regards,

Todd Ogaard

Webmaster/Maintainer

Japan Sendai Mission RM Site

http://japan.sendai.mission.net or google, "Japan Sendai Mission"

Email from Rob Carlson

Sister Ovard,

My name is Rob Carlson and last Sunday I attended church in Iwaki, Japan, where your son is serving as a missionary. I was with him for only a short while during the church meetings but he seemed healthy and happy to me. He is working hard to learn the Japanese language and seems to be making good progress. He interacted with the members and participated in the Priesthood lesson (I did not attend the same Sunday School class as him, but I am sure he participated there as well). I was able to share some of my experiences as a missionary in Japan -- making sure to tell him about the time it took to learn the language, but I assured him that things will be easier over time. I also told him that one of the things I feel is a key to really learning the language is to think in the language. I told him that for the first 2-3 months I was in Japan I felt that the Japanese language was simply a code that they used so that I could not understand them. But once I started to think in Japanese I suddenly realized that it really is a language -- not something to torment me!

I am attaching some photographs I took of him on Sunday (ignore the date in the photos, my camera was still set to U.S. time). He has a new companion, Elder Mitsuda, who is a 4th generation Japanese-American. In two of the photos are others, who are local members.

Attending church in Iwaki was a memorable event for me, since I served as a missionary there 36 years ago. At the time I was in Iwaki the Church did not have its own building, but held meetings in a rented building (with the missionaries living in the same building and moving our stuff out of the way on Sundays so that meetings could be held there). I had not realized that the church had a “real” building in Iwaki until I visited the city just last year (35 years after I had worked there as a missionary). It is a tangible sign of the Lord’s kingdom being in Iwaki.

I want to thank you for allowing your son to serve a mission in Japan. I have a strong affinity to the Japanese and am grateful that he is serving the people of Iwaki, whom I learned to love so many years ago. I pray that he, as well as your entire family, will be blessed for his service to the Lord.
Sincerely,

Rob Carlson

Elder Ovard and Elder Mitsuda in front of the church.

Elder Mitsuda and Elder Ovard with member

New companions Elder Mitsuda and Elder Ovard

Elder Ovard at church.

Elder Mitsuda

Hello Everyone!
It`s been a pretty crazy week here in Japan with transfers and everything! Thursday morning we rode the bus up to Sendai to switch comps and everything. I love going to Sendai! It`s a pretty big city. People say it`s about the same size as Salt Lake but I think it`s bigger. At least it seems like there are more people! Ha. It`s awesome though. And the drive is so pretty. Everything here is so green and there are hills everywhere.
My new companion is Elder Mitsuda. He is half Japanese. His dad is full Japanese but grew up in America and doesn`t know any Japanese. Elder Mitsuda studied it a little bit in school. He knows a lot of kanji so I`m hoping to learn some from Him! I love him though!!! He really is amazing. He`s going into his 8th transfer. I`m going into my 2nd. He is from Seattle but moved to Utah when He was like 17 and went to American Fork High School. He really is so cool. We`ve had a lot of fun together already.
Thursday we did streeting the whole day in Sendai then stayed the night at the Zone Leaders apartment. There were like 10 Elders there. It was kinda crazy but a lot of fun! I got to see Elder Kaneshiro, who was with me at the MTC. That`s always fun :)
Kowaguchi San was supposed to get baptized Saturday but it didn`t end up working out. She said she was busy with friends and had a job to do or something. None of us could figure it out. It made me really sad. I think She is just nervous about Elder Warren tranferring and having a new missionary come in so sudden and soon. She gets nervous and scared really easy. We have an appointment with her for later this week so hopefully we will get things figured out. I really do think she will still recieve baptism, she just might need a little more time.
This gospel is amazing and I know it can change lives. I`m so grateful for the help it gives us. We are so blessed to be led by living prophets who know what we need today. I love you all!!
Elder Ovard

Crazy Stuff!

Today is transfer day and Elder Warren is being transfered! We could not believe it! Usually you are with your trainer for at least 2 transfers but Elder Warren is now heading up to Morioka. Thankfully I`m staying here in Iwaki! Ha I love it here. I feel really bad for Elder Warren though because we have a baptism on Saturday! He`s going to have to miss it. Her name is Kowaguchi San. She is really sweet and humble. She always brings us tons of treats and random things when we teach her so I`m gonna be excited to get her baptized so we won`t have to deal with all the stuff she gives us! Haha. That sounds bad but it`s true. She is way sweet though. Elder Warren was going to baptize her but now that He is being transfered, I will do the baptism.

This past week we went on splits with the Aizu Elders. It was a blast! They came to Iwaki. Their names are Elder Peterson and Elder Lundell. I love them both. Elder Lundell and I were in the MTC together so we`re way good buds. It was a fun time.

All is well here in Japan. I love being a missionary more everyday. I have already learned so much since being here, but more than anything I have learned a lot about our Savior. He is awesome. I love reading the scriptures about Him and learning from His example. He was perfect. He lived a life in the service of others. Everything He did was for the benefit of others. We can learn so much from His example. We had Stake Conferece this past week and something the Stake Pres. said that really hit me was- We need to love others like we love ourselves. That is so true. It is definitely hard, but I know that when we loose ourselves in the service of others, we will become happy! I`m so grateful to have our Savior`s example to look to. We are so blessed!

Thank you all for all your prayers and support. I hope you have a great week!!

Elder Ovard

This is a family we had home evening with and we played baseball with them.  It was way fun and they are really good baseball players.  They think I have muscles Ha Ha.  He is holding my muscle.

The nicest sisters in the world. The sister wearing glasses is Sister Imamiya, she bought me my bike and Sister Keiko is really awesome too. They do so much for us. I love them both.

A member, nonmember who we have been with before, Elder Ovard, Elder Warren, and  Onodera who 
                 was baptized a few weeks ago.  We are at the Aquarium on our P-Day!

Onodera Confirmed!!

Hello Everyone!!

It has been a really good week here in Japan. We didn`t have any baptisms but we did have 1 confirmation yesterday! So two Sundays ago Onodera was supposed to be confirmed but he didn`t show up to church?.. So on P-Day we went with the Bishop to go visit him. I was a little upset because it was P-Day and it was like a 45 minute drive so it was going to take a lot of time. We did end up finding his house and I`m so glad we did! It was right on the beach!! Ha. So I got to see the beach! And Onodera is ok :). He had been sick so that`s why he didn`t come to church. His confirmation yesterday was awesome. I also was the organist in sacrament meeting yesterday! It was a lot of fun. It went really well too! Also yesterday, we were sitting in Priesthood meeting and all of a sudden we had an earthquake! It was pretty big too! Haha the whole building was shaking. The best part though was that it happened while we were reading something and the guy who was reading just kept right on going. He acted like nothing was even happening! Haha I guess they`re used to it here. I was shaking for a few minutes afterward. Ha. There has been one other earthquake since I`ve been here but that one was definitely a big one!

Also last P-Day we got to spend some time with the Igari Family. They have a couple boys that have been wanting to play baseball with me so we did. It was so nice to put a glove back on! Ha. The kids were pretty dang good too. The boys were only 10 and 12 years old but they could play! The 12 year old is quite the pitcher. I dare say he would shut our little league down! Ha. We also had dinner and a FHE with them. It was great. They had a piano so I played the opening song- Love at Home. It was so cool.
We have a few investigators at the time but one of them is really strong. Her name is Koaguchi. We are hoping to get her baptized by next week. She is so humble and sweet. She always brings us tons of food. Ha.

The weather has been really nice here in Iwaki lately. Really warm actually. It`s really rainy today though. I think the rainy season is starting up. I believe it lasts for a while too!
Well everyone, thank you so much for your love and prayers. I really felt helped this past week. Thank you so much. I know God is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us. Jesus is His Son and our Savior. I love Him so much. I began reading the New Testament this week and it is awesome. Christ is our perfect example. I`m so grateful for this gospel in my life. I know this church is true. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Take Care.

Elder Ovard