Hello!!
How is everybody doing?! Things have been a little crazy here in Japan the past couple weeks haha. Everything`s still good though :) I`m jealous you all have already watched conference! We don`t get it till next week. I`m pretty sure I`ll be able to watch it in English too.
I never told you how the District Meetings went so I guess I`ll start there! We have now had 2, and I have definitley learned a lot. This probably is something you all already know, but the one who prepares the lesson is usually the one who learns the most. I have learned so much! Maybe that`s why I was put as District Leader? Because I have so much I need to learn about missionary work! Haha. They have both gone really well. I was a little nervous my 1st D.M. to have President and His wife there, along with the A.P.`s, but I made it through! I will admit though- it`s tough doing it in Japanese. Usually you can get away with doing the trainings in English and have another missionary translate, but because my whole district is Japanese, it makes more sense to just do it in Japanese anyways. It`s hard, and the trainings might not be as good, but I guess I can still get the job done! My favorite part of missionary work is that the most important thing in missionary work has nothing to do with how well you speak the language or anything like that. It`s the Spirit!! Even though the language is still a challenge, I can do my best to invite the Spirit.
Elder Swenson and I have been teaching a couple young kids lately. One is a first year college student, and the other is a 2nd year high school student. They are both way cool! We had baptism dates with both of them for yesterday, but obviously they didn`t come through. Ono Tomoya, the high schooler, is way good! He`s golden. We still need to get him another date and make sure his parents are cool with everything, but other than that- he will be baptized!! He`s way busy with school clubs right now so it`s tough to find time to meet and for him to come to church. The other kid, Kanno Arata, is still a way good kid, but not quite as golden. He doesn`t have as much drive or desire, but we`re workin on him. He came to church last week for the first time which was way cool! We also had Ono Tomoya there too. It was a good week to have investigators at church cause President and Sister Tateoka were there too haha.
This last Friday and Saturday we had Splits with the Kamisugi Zone Leaders. Kamisugi is like the city part of Sendai. I went there with Elder Suzuki, and Elder Funaki went to Tagajo with Elder Swenson. I love the big city so I had no problem with that ;) haha. It was the most time I`ve spent alone with a Japanese person in my life! haha it was way good though. Elder Suzuki is awesome. It was a little frustrating at times to not be able to say everything to him that I wanted, but it was still way fun. He helped me out with so many things.
Well that about does it for the week. I hope all is well back home. Thank you all so much for the love and support you give to me. It is greatly appreciated!! I love you all and am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. The church is true!! Take Care.
Elder Ovard