Elder Blake Ovard: 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