In my email Elder O said that they do celebrate Valentines in Japan. It is a little different because the ladies give the men chocolate. He recieved chocolate at church yesterday. He sent an amazing picture of the ice sculptures from the snow festival. I hope I can get it on the blog.
Ohayou Gozaimasu!! (Good Morning) :) Well another one down in the journal and it has definitely been one to remember. I swear the weeks are just getting faster and faster. It has been an awesome week full of fun, sports:), and miracles. Last week after email we went to a huge sports place. I don`t even know what to compare it to in America, but they have everything! We played basketball, hit in the batting cages, played catch and even pitched a little, shot a bow and arrow, and did a little bit of everything! Ha it was a blast. Now that I`m 20 though I`m startin to get a little old for that kinda stuff. I woke up the next morning and couldn`t move! Haha ;) We also had a little sports get-together with some of our branch which was pretty fun.
It snowed like crazy a couple days here this week! It has been extremely cold too. Everybody says it`s crazy cold and not normal. Of course I would happen to be in the coldest place in the mission during an abnormal year, right? Ha. On Saturday we went to a snow festival!! It was awesome. I just about lost a pinkie toe in the process due to frostbite, haha, but seeing a bunch of different snow/ice sculptures was awesome!! There were people all over the place and it was a pretty good party. I think I prefer the summer festivals though ;)
It`s been an awesome week of missionary work. Elder Narita and I have been doing some work in the area book, and have come up with a few new investigators from it too!! Our teaching pool is getting better and will soon become a teaching ocean :) My favorite investigator is Fred, from Madagascar. We found him a few weeks ago. He came to church again this week and we taught him a lesson afterwards. His Japanese struggles, but his English gets by. It is kind of a challenge but he actually does really well. We reviewed the Restoration, and watched the Joseph Smith movie. I love that movie!! Fred is starting to understand and will now pray to know the truth. One thing he had questions about was God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. He believed in the Trinity and didn`t know they were 3 different beings. It was the first time I have come across that problem! Haha usually the Japanese don`t really have the most knowledge about Jesus Christ, God, or the Holy Ghost so we don`t need to focus on that too much. We did answer his questions though and it did make me want to study more about that in the scriptures later. He is awesome and we will try and make a baptismal date with him next week.
As far as becoming a better teacher and missionary, I learned more than ever before this week from two ladies who are actually part of another religion. You might wonder what I am talking about, but it was quite the experience. They are from a Buddhist sect called `Ken Shokai'. We met them at a McDonalds and boy was it an adventure! Haha. Elder Narita warned me about them beforehand, but I was still kind of caught off-guard. They started preaching at us, trying to convert us right from the start! Haha they weren`t only bold, but over-bearing. They weren`t only crazy, but scary as well! They started throwing books in front of me, tried to get me to go to their place of worship, and wouldn`t even let me think twice about it! They tried to tell us that Japan was gonna be destroyed in 3 years and lot of other unbelievable things as well. (When they said that I told them I would be ok because I`m goin back to America next year haha). I actually thought it was quite funny how ridiculous they were and how terrible of teachers and missionaries they were! They taught me everything NOT to do, and helped me to realize and understand what I need to do as a missionary to gain investigators trust and let them know I love them. They even strengthened my testimony too! It is so important that we let our fellow brothers and sisters know that we love them, Christ loves them, and most importantly- our Heavenly Father loves them. It was a privlidge to bear my testimony to those 2 ladies of the truthfullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was definitley a difference when we spoke than when they did. This really is God`s work!! I am so blessed to be ordained of God as a missionary and to have this privilidge! I know this is TRUE!! I love you all. Take Care.
Elder Ovard
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