LET IT SNOW!!!

Hey everyone!! :) How`s everything goin? You wouldn`t believe the weather we`ve been havin over here the past couple weeks. We`ve had sharp winds with tons of snow!! It`s pretty crazy. We`re still hittin the bikes however, or I guess I should say the bikes are starting to hit us! Ha my legs have never been so worn out my entire mission! Biking through the snow is quite the workout. And not having any brakes doesn`t help out either! Ha I had my brakes fixed just a couple weeks ago and they`ve already gone bad again. My boots have been doing the braking lately. Thankfully we`ve been blessed with safety thus far! ;)



It`s been a really awesome week!! We have had much success that is leading beautifully into the upcoming week as well. The biggest news is that we were able to come up with a new investigator!! Her name is Yamamoto Saiyaka. I actually found her on splits with the District Leader a couple weeks ago and Saunders Choro and I were able to meet and teach her a couple times this week. She is a single mom with a cute 4 year old girl (single moms seem to be the story of Nagaoka since we arrived) ha. But in any case, she is a fantastic investigator. She believes in God, just not a particular God. When her daughter was younger she had a skin sickness. They both would pray to God everyday asking to be healed, and eventually she was healed! They give thanks to God. We taught her about the Restoration and the correct way to pray. She soaked it all in and has been praying in the name of Jesus Christ! We also gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it. I have really high hopes for her and look forward to working with her in the future! We were also blessed to make appointments with others as well. We have a lot of potential for the upcoming week and will hopefully be teaching new people. :)


We had the opportunity to do a little snow shoveling for an older woman in the branch this week. I think she was a little surprised, however, to come out and see Saunders Choro and I standing on the roof! Haha. She hadn`t taken the snow off for a while and it definitley needed to be done! With the snow on the side of the house nearly piled up to the roof it didn`t take much to get up. We began to throw it off with our shovels. It was a little scary at times but her house wasn`t nearly as bad as most houses here. I worry about these people standing on their roofs at times. So between all the biking and snow shoveling we`ve definitley been getting our exercise in!


The work is going great. We`ve got an awesome branch and I love the people here. They are so good. I`m grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. It has blessed my life so much! I`m grateful for the Book of Mormon. I love reading it each day. Doing so has increased not only my knowledge, but my testimony as well. I`m grateful for the restored gospel and the goodness it brings to those who follow. I`m grateful for a living prophet who leads and guides us. I know this is the true church! Thank you all for your love and support. You are the best!! I love you all. Take Care.


Elder Ovard



1- shoveling snow off the house

2- Nagaoka!

3- small snow festival

Last Transfer!

Hey everyone. Well I guess today I begin my `last` transfer. Hard to believe! I will be spending it here in Nagaoka with Elder Saunders. As a matter of fact, our whole zone is staying the same! Probably the most exciting news, however, is that my firstborn, Elder Juchau, is the new AP!! :) I was happy to hear and am excited for him. He`s an awesome missionary. Must have had a good trainer? Ha jk. He taught me more than I ever taught him.



You wouldn`t believe all the snow we`ve got this week!! It`s crazy. I mentioned most of it was melting away last week but that is definitley not the case now! We`ve got nearly 4 feet on our balcony. It does make riding bikes a little difficult but thankfully we`ve got sprinklers in the road to help out. And if we do fall, at least it`s a soft landing! Ha. The snow is really soft and powdery over here. I hear we`re in for more this week too so it`s time to saddle up!


We`re still lookin for investigators! They seem pretty hard to come by these days. But it only takes one! We are meeting with a woman named Furukawa and her two year old daughter this afternoon. She called us last week having interest in English Class. We`ll intoroduce the good news to her today as well and see if she doesn`t have interest in it as well. Sometimes we just don`t know how God prepares people!


I love you all. I am so thankful for your thoughts, prayers, and support. I have the best family and friends in the world! Hope all is well. Have an awesome week and take care.


Elder Ovard

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY!

What a week it`s been!! As always, we had our ups and downs, but I do feel that the ups of the week definitely out weighed the downs :). And I had an awesome b-day too! Thanks for all the wishes. It was pretty much a party all week beginning last p-day in Niigata. We gathered with quite a few missionaries from the zone and played basketball. Before we went to the gym, however, they tried to get myself and Elder Shaw to sit down. His b-day was on the 17th. I knew exactly what was coming and not too long later I had a pie put to the face! Haha. It was all over and way up in my nose but did taste quite good :) ha. The sisters made it. Dang sister missionaries. Wednesday evening we had our usual English Class and afterwards to my surprise one of the members brought a cake! We had around 20 students show up that night so it was fun to spend time eating cake with them. Thursday we went to lunch with a less-active member. She took us to a buffet and we ate up! That didn`t stop us from going to another one that evening though ;) ha. I think I gained a few kilos.


I recieved a couple letters this past week that almost brought tears to me eyes. One was from a past companion, Elder Kobayashi, and the other was from my recent-convert in Sapporo, Fukuoka!!!! :) I had been waiting, hoping to hear from both of them and finally did. They are doing great! I couldn`t have been any happier hearing that Fukuoka has continued to stay strong and even finished reading the entire Book of Mormon this past December :) He`s a stud and I`m excited to get in contact with him when I get back in the States.


While on splits this past week Ikeda Choro and I found a really sweet young girl who became an investigator! Her name is Mikuno. She is a really nice girl. Her mom teaches her about God and we were able to have a lesson with her. We made an appointment for a few days later to meet her mom. Turns out that she is actually meeting with the Jehova Witness`s when she has time. That`s not gonna stop us though! Our branch president also met with the JW`s when he was investigating the church. He said the difference between us was the Spirit. We may need to give them a little time but we`ll definitely stop by again! We need to find some investigators real soon as my time is running short!! Yesterday after church we had an awesome activity with the branch. We made a flyer with Elder Saunders and my pictures on it including short messages. We divided up and posted nearly 1000 flyers in nearby houses/apartments. So now people are going to know who we are when we make our way back from here on! Hopefully it will result in some investigators:)

It has been quite nice weather this past week and a lot of the snow has melted. I hear we`re in for more this week though! Thanks for everything!! Love you all! Take Care.


Elder Ovard

                                                     Happy Birthday Pie!

                                                                  Sports  Day!
 

                                       Splits with Elder Shaw and Ikeda.
 

                             Flyers with Elder Saunders and my picture on it.

Let it Snow!!!

Hey everybody!! How you all doin? It`s hard to believe another week has already passed by. It`s been a good one though!! We are being so blessed. And there is tons of snow too!! Haha you wouldn`t believe it. It snowed every day this week and just keeps piling right up. We have at least 4 feet right now. The other day I said to one lady, `This snow is crazy isn`t it?!`. She replied, `Not yet.` Haha. Here we go!! We are still pushing things however and riding bikes. Yes, it may be a little dangerous and does make for a good work out, but also makes our work much more effective. It was unfortunate the other day as we came back from Joetsu after splits to find that both mine and Elder Saunders helmets had been stolen. That put us on foot for a few days. Poor thief, what good does a helmet do you with out a bike? Should have took it as well! Ha. We were lucky to have a returned missionary in the branch lend us a couple for the time being.



Our hopeful investigator, Hasebe, has decided to stick to her Buddhist ways :(. She was thankful for all that we taught her and said she will still continue to read the Book of Mormon from time to time but it doesn`t look like her lessons will continue. Another one bites the dust! We have been finding new people however, and as a matter of fact, people have even been finding us! Ha. We did recieve a self-referral this past week. Her name is Kondo and she is 27 years old. She is studying abroad in China and actually heard about the church from a friend over there. She came back to Japan recently and got a hold of us. We were able to meet, teach a lesson, and she even came to church yesterday!! She is golden. There`s only one problem- she`s going to visit her sister in Tokyo this Friday and headed back to China next week :( So sad!!!!! We are gonna meet with her before she leaves and hopefully figure out a plan. Apparantly they are able to hold meetings in China. She is not in Hong Kong. I guess the Chinese may not be able to attend but foriegners can?! Ha, kind of confusing. She is definitely prepared to recieve the gospel!


We also had an english class student attend church as well!! His name is Yuta and he`s 24 years old. He is a fairly new student, only a few months, and has heard some of the lessons in the past. He is a deep thinker which can make things tough, but did come to church yesterday for the first time!! He had a good time. The branch here does an awesome job of fellowshipping. I think his heart might be starting to change!:) Hopefully we can start meeting with him more often to help him start progressing. He has read over 300 pages of the Book of Mormon, but like I said- he`s kind of a toughie. We`ll get him though! Ha. We also got a phone call from a guy we had found the previous week. He said he would come to church but when we tried to call him and follow up he wouldn`t answer our calls. I was a little disappointed. About 5 minutes before sacrament meeting began I got a call from him! He apologized for not being able to answer the phone. He had been working the night shifts. He explained that he wasn`t going to be able to make it today but that he wanted to come next week. So I think we may be able to get another person to church!! These have all been blessings from the Lord. Church attendence and lessons with members present has been one of our focuses for January and we are starting to see the hand of the Lord in all things :)

Thank you all for everything. I cannot express enough how grateful I am for all you do for me. Thank you!! I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week. Take Care.


Elder Ovard

Another Week flew by!

I can`t believe another week has already come to a close. They`re flying by!!! And we`re starting to see all sorts of success here in Nagaoka :) It has really been an awesome week that I believe will lead into an even better week. We are working hard to find new people as well as strenghten the members here and are being blessed because of it. We spent a lot of time on bikes this past week visiting people (it takes a little bit longer in the snow!), so we didn`t necessarily find `tons` of people, but the people we did find were strong and full of potential. I am confident that we will have new investigators this week and hopefully even a few coming to church!



One of our investigators, Hasebe, had an uncle pass away this past week. She returned home for funeral services to southern Japan for the week so we unfortunately weren`t able to meet. Definitely will this week though! We did find a new investigator named Isono, however. She is a young mom with 2 kids and divorced. She is a nurse and works the late night shifts making things extrememly difficult for her and her family. Thankfully grandma lives close to help out ;). We found her over a month ago and have been meeting from time to time. She may not have the most interest right now but is very sweet and will listen to what we have to say. Due to past experiences and with all the terrible things going on in the world right now, she doesn`t believe in God. At all. It`s quite sad. She doesn`t seem to have much hope. We testified with all we had that God is there, loves her, and wants to help her. When we asked her what she would like from God, she looked at a cute picture of her family and began to cry as she said, `To live happily with my family`. I felt so much love for her and wanted to do anything I could to help!! Bless her heart. We have what she needs, she just doesn`t know it yet. Her kids are ages 10 and 3. They actually remind me a lot of the Kawamura family in Morioka! :)


It was quite an exciting evening Saurday night. I mailed one of our english class students to see if he wanted to meet up sometime Sunday. The previous night I had talked with him over the phone and invited him to come to church but he humbly refused. In his mail, however, he said, `I changed my mind. I want to come to church. What time does it start?` Haha I couldn`t believe it!! Getting investigators to church has been difficult and I knew it was an answer to prayers. I gave the branch president a call to inform him of the good news. He then passed the phone over to his wife. She explained to us that somebody had called wanting to learn about the church and would be giving us a call in the near future. A self-referral! Ha. Then I got a call from another missionary asking me if I recieved anything in the mail from the mission home. I replied with a `no`, and he began to relate to me that we would be having a Mission Conference in Sendai on the 24th of February. Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Donald Hallstram, and Elder Aoyagi will be making a visit to the mission!!!! Hahaha I couldn`t believe it!! So much good news all in just a matter of minutes. So I am more than happy to say that I will have a very special 2 year anniversary :) Even if the kid didn`t end up coming to church. Haha. But one recent convert brought her husband so it worked out alright anyways ;) ha.


The mish is full experiences, ups and downs, and miracles. I`m grateful for all I have been blessed with during my time here. I`m grateful for all of you and your love and support. I love you. Have a nice week! Take Care.


Elder Ovard

         The Nakagawa kids. We helped build an igloo. So cute!!

   They fed us an awesome meal! Traditional Japanese food. A New Years thing! :)

Happy New Year 2012

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! :)  Wow I can`t believe it`s already 2012.  I remember looking at my proselyting license back in the MTC with my release date on it I didn`t think 2012 would ever come! Now we`re already 3 days into it and I can`t believe how fast it`s going by. I get sad as I realize that my days in Japan are numbered. I like this place too much!! And I love the people even more.



It`s been a wonderful past couple of weeks. We had an awesome Christmas. Thank you all for your love and support over the Holiday season. It`s always special to preach the gospel during the Christmas time of year to a people who really have no idea what it`s all about. The big day for them is definitely New Years. They go to their shrines and temples and give thanks and worship their ancestors. Saunders Choro and I actually had the opportunity to visit one yesterday with a memeber. It was quite interesting to see how they do things! Although I didn`t throw money into the big bin and offer up a prayer to my ancestors, I wanted to get in on the action at least a little bit so I bought one of the fortunes they were selling.  I put my dollar in and pulled one out. It was a little hard to understand but with some help I was able to gather it was a pretty `normal` fortune haha. Apparantly you can get really good ones and your year will go accordingly. Good thing I didn`t get a `bad` one! Haha. The funny thing is- as I would ask them why they do things and what the meaning is behind it, a lot of them wouldn`t even know! I guess you could compare it to the Christians who go to church on Easter and Christmas.


We did have an English Class student attend church with us on Christmas!! We were so happy to see her there. And our branch is awesome at fellowshipping. If only we could get them there more often!! We also found a new investigator last week. Her name is Hasebe. She married in her 30`s with a 3 year old boy.  I would consider her our strongest investigator since coming to Nagaoka. We have taught her 2 lessons and she is reading the Book of Mormon!! Not gonna lie though- I was pretty nervous as we followed up with her and she started asking about Nephi killing Laban. Ahhh!!! Haha. We got through it however and she will continue to read! :) She is really nice and loves to talk. Our next step is to involve the branch!


In Japan they have something called `oosoji`, or `deep cleaning`. They do it around the first of the year. This year, as a mission, we decided to join and do the same! So our apartment is looking quite nice:) We were also given some time to read from the Book of Mormon beginning in 3 Nephi to the end of the book. That worked out well for me as I am trying to finish the Book of Mormon in Japanese before my mission comes to an end. I am almost finished with 3 Nephi so I was able to gain some ground!;) It was a really good experience though. I don`t know if I`ve ever read so much in my life! Ha. I love reading about the visitation of Jesus to the Nephites on the American continent. It is so powerful. I love the way our Savior teaches and administers. He is our perfect example of love. His teachings are so simple yet bring so many blessings! I`m grateful for the Book of Mormon and the help it has been for me in obtaining a testimony of our Savior. I know He lives!

Love you all. You`re the greatest.  Hope all  is well.  Take Care!


Elder Ovard

                                                     Best lookin aparment in Japan!;)

                                    Merry Christmas!! We had tons of snow.

                                                New Years with the Nozaki Family

                                                    Just like the Buddhists do it!

Picture with President Yoshida!

Hard to believe this is the last mail before Christmas! Just like everything else it`s kinda just crept up on us huh. It`s beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here though!! Had to bust out the boots and have a little fun in the 8 inches of snow we got over the past couple days haha. It was crazy, it went from a clear ground to nothing but white in no more than 30 minutes! Very pretty though. I guess we`ll be gettin lots of hit from here on out . I`ll take another white Christmas :)



I mentioned it before but my last week in Morioka we had District Conference and were visited by many of our leaders. One was President Yoshida, the first counselor in our mission presidency. He also does a lot of translating for the church, including the Book of Mormon into Japanese. I enjoy him so much and really wanted to get a picture with him back in Morioka but he was busy with a lot of different things so it wasn`t able to happen. I left the church that day a little discouraged but was confident in Heavenly Father that I would have another chance to meet him. My first sunday here in Nagaoka there was an announcement that President Yoshida would be visiting our branch on the 18th of December. Recently we were also able to meet up a couple of times in Niigata for some meetings as well. So yesterday as our meetings came to a close I was able to pull Yoshida Kaicho aside and take my long awaited picture :) It was a tender mercy of the Lord and a testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows me personally and has a plan for each and every one of us.


Our branch president here in Nagaoka lives a little ways away but we were finally able to make it over to his place this weekend. He had a nice house and such a cute little family!! The members here are great. We aren`t having a Christmas `party` this year but instead have made Christmas-looking pinatas in which we are gonna fill and take to less-active members, etc. I think it will be a fun activity! We are also doing an English Class Christmas Party this week!! It should be fun. We`ve been blessed and have about 20 people attending class each week!! Although we may not have very many investigators or people to teach, we`re still being blessed and seeing miracles taking different forms. A few investigators wouldn`t be too bad of a Christmas though! ;) I hope you all have a good one. Thank you so much for your kindess, love, and support especially during the holiday season. I love recieving your letters. I hope and pray that we may all feel the joy of our Savior as we celebrate His birth this Christmas season. Love you!!!


Elder Ovard

                                                                     The Field is White!!!

                                                          Tatsuhiro. I love this kid!

                                                        Pres. Yoshida- The Man!