Hello

Hello Hello!
How is everybody doing?! Everything is going great here in Japan! I can`t believe another week has already gone by!! Yesterday I gave a talk in church on missionary work. To be honest with you- I wasn`t really nervous! I figure giving a talk in church is no different than what I`m already doing all day everyday haha. I guess it went well. A lot of people tell me my Japanese is really good but I don`t think so. I have a long ways to go! I am grateful for the Japanese I can speak though. It is truely a blessing. I thank you all for your prayers on my behalf.
This week the Aizu Elders came to Iwaki for splits and it was so much fun. Elder Lundell and I were in the MTC together and I love working with him. It makes things interesting with us both not really having the best Japanese haha. We did teach a lesson to a member and it went really well. His name is Brother Igari and he is awesome! After the lesson Elder Lundell and I had a couple hours of finding time and we were so blessed! I think Heavenly Father knew our Japanese still isn`t very good, so he put people who speak English in our path! Haha we were able to teach a lesson on the street to a girl from Canada, and then we found a really sweet high school girl from Mexico! Haha it was kinda funny but I feel like it was more of Heavenly Father`s tender mercies. We did also get some Japanese people to become `potential investigators` as well. It was so much fun!
Our branch had a BBQ on Saturday and it was a blast. Elder Mitsuda and I didn`t have the investigators show up that we were hoping for, but it was still a huge success. Alot of the members brought friends so we still had a lot of non-members show up. Also, our most recent convert, Brother Onodera, lives quite a ways away from the church and doesn`t have a job or any money so he hasn`t been able to make it to church for quite some time. We`ve tried calling him many times but haven`t talked with him in forever either. One of the members went and picked him up and brought him to the BBQ!! It was so good to see him. The same member picked him up the next morning for church too. He is still doing awesome! :)
I love working with Elder Mitsuda. He is such a good companion. We are working so hard, but having fun at the same time. Sometimes he thinks I`m a little crazy though haha. I think I embarrass him sometimes, but oh well! I know this gospel is true and I`m so thankful for it in my life. I know that it is the way to happiness in this life, and eternal life in the world to come. We are so lucky and blessed to have it in our lives. I was thinking the other day about how lucky I was to be born into the gospel. We need to remember how blessed we are and try and give back to our Heavenly Father all we can. There is definitely no better feeling in the world than sharing the gospel and serving others! I love you all. Thanks for everything. It`s greatly appreciated!!
Elder Ovard