moomba madness

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T09:52:00.001-08:00

minha familia,

This week has been pretty slow. Pretty much nothing happened. I mean really I sit here and try and think of things we did lol and nothing is really coming to mind so I will just start writing and see what happens.
Tuesday was district meeting and it was actually pretty useful for once which was a nice change. then on Wednesday we had companionship study with the Zone Leaders and that was actually really good. They wanted to see how I was doing with the language and teaching so we did a role play kinda thing. where I had to be the senior companion and start the teaching and lead the whole discussion. and we had to teach the restoration. It went well I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do so that's always a nice surprise! I taught pretty good and when I got stuck I just looked at Elder Blanco and he helped me out haha but it went well and after the ZLs said that it was really good. They even said that I have learned the language faster than anyone they have seen before. After they said that I thought about it for awhile after and its pretty amazing how much Portuguese I have really learned out here. I have to say I am actually doing pretty well with it. its pretty cool how much the Lord has helped me with it. I know its pretty much all him because I know I couldn't learn any Portuguese by myself. So I am sure it is all a huge blessing from the Lord. I make sure to say thank you to him a lot for that. but that was a pretty cool realization of the week that the language is coming along good. I feel bad for the new sister who was with me in the MTC she is having a super hard time with the language and its really hard on her. She is really struggling with it. I try and help her when I see her but that's not much. It just makes me realize how much the Lord blesses me again when I see someone else struggling with the language. She will get it soon though. Anyway communication with people is becoming a little better which is really nice. I notice that I talk with people more everyday. and I understand a lot. but there are still those people who try and talk with me and I am pretty sure they don't speak Portuguese lol

As for the week of work... pretty much nothing. Work is really hard here around Christmas and new years because more than ever no one wants to hear about the church. lol its really amazing how slow it is. We are working and doing all we can to find people to teach but it feels like nothing is coming of our efforts and that's really frustrating at times. this week we knocked a lot of doors and just talked to people on the street when we passed. One good thing came of this. We where walking to our lunch and it is a pretty good walk from out house so we walked and walked and when we got there no one was home great!! just our luck lol so we had to start our long walk back to the house to make lunch for ourselves. While walking back we say a daughter who is about 10 pushing her mom in a wheel chair down the road. we decided that we would contact them and ask if they needed help. so as we started talking with them they where really nice and they invited us to come over and share a message with them later that week!! awesome!! so the time came for us to visit them the next day or so and we went and shared the restoration and they really liked it and they really liked that part about the authority of god for baptism!! so we soft committed them and asked if when they know that these things are true if they will get baptized and they both said yes!! wooohooo!!!! haha it was really cool the lesson went great. and the next day we went over and painted the inside of there house for them and that was really good to. they really appreciated the help and kept trying to give us money but we told them that we cant and it was all for free and because we like them lol the boyfriend of the mom really likes us but he is a die hard catholic but he is really really interested in the church and how it works and he asked some really good questions that we helped answered so I am hoping he will come around as well. but all this because our lunch canceled so God blessed us with a little miracle of finding the family. I am pretty sure lunch canceled just so we could find them and talk with them. pretty cool story of the week. other than this we really didn't teach much. we visited less active members and members which are pretty much the same thing here lol and yes we went of to Rose house and did some service for her that was good. I think we are going back this week to paint something for her. But as for new investigators we got those 3 which are great and nothing other than that so once again this week we are really trying hard to find new investigators we are going to be walking a lot this week. cant wait!!
this week was crazy as far as food... all but one lunch canceled on us so we had to eat in the house which sucks because we have no food so we live off of little roles and cookies. haha so we didn't really eat to much this week which was a bummer but a lady in the ward invited us over for lunch on new years and we hard a bbq which was good but I am sick a little from it today. lol So that's the food situation for last week.

this week we have interviews with the mission president so that's will be good. we where going to have them last week but he moved it. that's the only news for this week lol and there are some rumors that Elder Blanco and myself are going to be transferred to another city in Alegrete next transfer so that's kinda sad because I really want to have success in the area I am in now. but we'll see what happens with that.
news years was pretty good super lazy. we woke up and went to church. church was only sacrament again lol then we went home and studied for a little. after that we went to lunch and imra Daisy's house had a bbq then we went back to the house. we didn't work because there are to many parties and crazy things to work. hah so we spent the day in the house I studied for like 4 or 5 hours while Elder Blanco slept then after my study I caught up on some sleep. lol
New years eve night was crazy!! I have never heard so many fireworks in my life!! they where going off pretty much once it got dark then we went to bed and woke up to what I thought was the start of WWIII !! so many fireworks and it was so laud lol it was crazy how many fireworks where going off! I don't know where people got them but everyone and there dog seemed to be shooting them off at midnight! we woke up because of that and tried to sleep but that was hard with so much noise but I finally did it! lol
that's about it for the week nothing really exciting although we did get new investigators that seem to be pretty good! New years was pretty laid back didn't really do anything at all. and the week was good just being a missionary in the town of Alegrete lol no one likes the missionaries here and no one wants to help us!!! so keep us in your prays. that's it for the week. sounds like you guys are doing good keep it up lol thanks for all of you love and support love you all have a great week!!!

love Elder Novakovich

Week 3

2011-11-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

This week has been a long one for me. To start things off, its so stinking HOT!!! I cant believe it! and its only going to get hotter here as the days go by, so I cant wait for that... haha thanks for all of your emails. I love hearing about your week, its great! This week has been pretty crazy. A lot of things have happened. At the beginning of the week we got an e-mail from the mission president saying that he needs baptisms from our area. So no pressure now lol. So this week we really focused on finding new investigators. This area is really slow lately and there hasn't ever really been a lot of baptisms come out of here but I really think we can get some. So we worked hard talking to tons of people and trying to find new investigators. The week started off really well and we found a family last week. This week was our first lesson with them and it went super well and we put one of them on date!! The mom is a member but she is not active at all. She was baptized 12 years ago and doesn't remember anything. So we were super pumped to have a person on date for baptism! Later in the week we went back over and had another great lesson about Joseph Smith. The spirit was strong and everything so we invited them to church and they accepted! On Sunday we went to their house in the morning to pick them up for church. and they weren't home which really sucked because well, first, they didn't come to church and seconnd, it was a really long walk to there house haha. We went by later on Sunday and we were going to teach a lesson but mom came out and said: I am sorry guys I cant let you in. The kids dad does not want you coming to our house anymore. I am really sorry but we cant have you teach us anymore. I felt bad because they where so good and really accepting of the gospel. So this week we are going to try and go talk to the dad and see if we cant figure something out. I hope everything works out so keep us in your prayers for sure!!

This week we really focused on finding new investigators so we knocked, well clapped, at a lot of doors. We found what seems to be some really good people. We found a young family. They have one kid. We found them just knocking doors and we came in to teach and while we where teaching he was asking all the best questions lol like ´if there were prophets in the past, shouldn't we have a prophet today? lol YES!!!! my companions and my eyes got huge and just looked at each other lol and we got really excited and we are going to teach him again this week I hope it all goes well and I hope we can put him on date with his wife. We will see!!
This week pretty much consisted of a ton of walking!! and knocking doors and talking to everyone we pass on the road. so to say the least, my body is pretty dead and I really started to feel it towards the end of the week. On Sunday I got pretty sick and I felt horrible. It wasn't very good and I still don't feel good today, but yesterday was a lot worse so after church we went to a members home for lunch. We eat lunch with members everyday. After that I had to just go home and lay down for a little. I had a fever and it just happened to be the hottest most humid day of my life!! I mean it was so hot I have never sweat that much in my life and I had a fever and felt horrible to begin with so it wasn't very fun at all! And Sunday we had to walk a ton more than the usual day so that just made it so much better haha. As we where walking my back was soaked! When we finally got to the house we where going to, we couldn't even drink the water because it was really bad and just didn't want to risk it. I felt like I was gong to die for real lol after the lesson we went to the bishops house to get water. It was so good!!!!!!! lol Then we had another long long walk home and when I got home I seriously drank 2 liters of water in about 10 mins no joke I was so thirsty and needed water so bad!
Now for the language... it stinks so bad and I am so frustrated with it. I am trying to be positive but it is so hard because I cant talk to anyone! I haven't had a conversations with someone since I got to brazil. Its really hard not being able to communicate with people and to make things worse, I am so sick of being made fun of. Its crazy how much I am getting made fun of! It was all funny the first week and a half and now its just really getting annoying! Its so frustrating to have a group of people just sit there and say things about you and I cant even defend myself because I don't know how to lol so the language really killed me this week I had a hard time with it. But its getting better but its still horrible I cant teach a lot more now than I ever could and I understand more and I can talk more with my companion but its still hard. I have been learning patience for sure out here.
Teaching wise, it's been a good week and we have about 4 or 5 good investigators right now that we are hoping on putting on date very soon. So keep us in your prayers and pray for new investigators! please we could really use the help!
So as far as the week in general, I have learned a lot about being a missionary. The biggest one is that I know now that missionaries are watched over and protected. I know that. We have had some sketchy situations that went a lot better than they should have out here. I am so thankful for the protection out here! And also, I am getting a lot more familiar with the culture but there is just one thing I think I will never get used to out here. the whole toilet paper thing. here you have to put the used toilet paper in the trash next to the toilet.. you don't flush it... its so strange and pretty gross! lol That's my thought of the week lol the week was long just because of frustration and sickness but nothing to bad.

Thanksgiving was kinda sad not having family around. Elder Gillett called me and wished me a happy thanksgiving lol it was funny. no one knows thanksgiving around here. They have never even heard of it so that was sad. In pictures of my thanksgiving dinner I made a sandwich and a chicken patty since it was thanksgiving lol usually I have to choose between the two since we don't get a lot of food around here. The other thing I have learned this week is that I can put the rice and beans down like no ones business! lol I can eat so much rice and beans! I don't know if its because I am starving or because I can just eat a lot of them haha but I find them pretty good now and I eat a ton when I can haha This week has also been exciting as far as almost being hit by things... one bus, two cars, three horse buggy and four motorcycles! I have almost been hit by everyone of those things lol the streets here are like a circus act! I came really close to a motorcycle. I mean super close. I felt the tire on my pant leg! lol kinda scarred me to say the least but don't worry, there were no accidents in my pants lol The dogs here are crazy!!! There are so many of them everywhere!!! They all just run wild and just are crazy. oh and there is a barn right across the street from us and on Saturday night they had a party there... all night long!!!!!! they played music so loud!! all night long, so to say the least, sleep was hard to come by. The party finally ended around 5 in the morning... so that didn't help my sleep issue lol I am still very much tired!!
Well thanks again for all of your emails and love. I am so thankful for all of you and all of your support out here! I think of you all the time and miss you guys a ton but the work is going pretty well and we have a lot to do here so things are good! keep us in your prayers. We can always use the help! I was pretty sick but I am getting better now so no worries. Its super super hot but that's to be expected! haha I am doing good and I am safe for another week lol oh you can send pictures for sure that's totally ok!! that would be awesome and in a package I need face cleanser and deodorant because they don't have that here... and I just ran out so... lol that's the only things I really need right now thanks! I love you all and I think that is about it for the week! have a great one be safe and have a ton of fun!! parabems on the license Darbi that's awesome!! thanks again for all of the love! have a good week!!

Love Elder Novakovich

1st Week in my new area

2011-11-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hello my family!

First things first. I am so tired!!!!!!!! I cant even believe how tired I am! I haven't caught up from the no sleep for almost two days during the travel. I have never been this tired in my life! lol and I love reading your e-mails because one, well I just love hearing from you guys, and two they are in English and I can understand them!!
Right after leaving from the e-mail place we went and got hair cuts, my first one in brazil! it was well ok lol I couldn't really talk to the lady and tell her what I wanted so my companions just told her to do whatever and it ended up ok . Its not the worst thing I have ever seen. But the rest of the day was good. We went into town and shopped at some stores. Once that was over, we had to go back to work. The rest of the week was pretty much the same. I will do an overview so I don't repeat myself. We wake up everyday a little before 6:30, shower, and then its study time till around 12. After this we head out for the day and start working. Our area is pretty big. It takes a little over an hour to walk from one side to the other, so we got a lot of room to work with. Houses are crammed together and its pretty crazy. Everyday we have some people we try and talk to. We plan every night for the next day so we have a game plan of what we are going to do. Most of the time our appointments don't answer their door or are just not home. So we spend almost all our day knocking doors. Well, we don't knock here, we stand outside their gate and we clap and they come out to talk or they just act like they didn't hear us knock. We do that all day pretty much everyday. We talk to a lot of people but they just say they have another religion. That's been interesting to get to know all of those down here. I've met Mormons, lol Catholics, (lots of those) and even some devil worshipers... that's been fun. We walked by their so called church and its just an eerie feeling but there are just a lot of religions and no one wants to hear about ours so its hard to teach people. we just tell them our message will help them have more faith in God and Jesus Christ. We really don't get to teach that much here and that is hard. We teach 3 lessons a day if we are lucky and the rest of the time we are walking around street contacting and knocking doors. On Tuesday there was a church activity and we went to that. The whole ward comes because there is not enough youth, so everyone comes and they do a spiritual message at the beginning and then they do an activity. Its all combined, no one breaks off into groups like our ward, so its different but pretty cool. The ward is pretty close since there are less than 40 in it lol so everyone knows each other. So we have an activity, then they feed everyone! I love this part because I don't have to understand anyone to be able to eat! lol I know what to do with food. No one has to tell me that. lol Wednesday was district meeting. I got to meet everyone else in my district. They are all pretty cool. The sad news is the zone leaders taught what I think was a great lesson but I understood maybe 10% of it lol.

The language has been killing me... my head at the end of the day feels like it is going to explode!!!! it is so mentally draining to try and understand people all day long. I really haven't heard any English since being here. its pretty hard. I really don't even get to study in English. Its all Portuguese, everything! I guess I will learn faster haha but I just get so frustrated at the end of the day. About the last hour of working I just get so frustrated I cant even think straight. I have no patience with anything at the end of the day. All I do is put a big smile on my face and say sim, sim, sim, and nod my head or if when I say sim they give me a weird look I quickly change to nao nao lol then they realize I have no idea what they are saying and they say something to my companion and he talks lol but anyway the language is coming just really slowly. and I am trying my best. when we teach I say what I can, when I can, but its not much because usually I have no idea where the lesson is. I usually just bear my testimony at the end and that seems to be the best thing and helps the person.
So its just Elder Blanco and myself now. interesting story about that. we did have Elder Gillett with us but he is now a zone leader! lol he goes home in two weeks so that's cool for him! Elder Blanco and I get along pretty well. I mean we have our problems but the big thing is not being able to understand each other so sometimes we get pretty frustrated with each other. but its all good, we work well together and that's all that really matters. a funny story about us is last night he was snoring so loud I could not sleep. so I started clapping my hands till he woke up and I was able to chew him out and tell him to stop snoring, all in Portuguese, lol I thought it was pretty funny.
Everyone in our district calls our area the nova area lol They all say when my 12 week training is over, I will be district leader but I don't think so. I just really like to work hard our here. I don't want any regrets. I am working really hard and my companion likes it, he just gets tired sometimes and asks to sit down for a little rest. We walk a lot and fast, haha but we are doing as much as we can here. I think this areas is going to see some big changes with new missionaries working hard here. It will be fun to see! Our goal this week is to really find some good investigators so we are hoping to find the people the lord has prepared for us!
Another funny story for the week is one day we where working as usual and then we ended up back at the house and I asked why. Elder Gillett then said in English so I could understand, "We are dropping off our stuff. You need to take off your watch and leave your backpack and stuff because we are going to a part of town that isn't very safe"... that got my attention. It was very true and kinda sketchy where we were...but it ended all ok We only had an encounter with a drug guy who was up to no good but we handled it ok. haha we were all safe.
This week has been good though over all. I even had my very fist chicken heart burger!! lol pretty good actually until you see what you are eating then its kinda hard to get down. So I just don't look at the food, but it wasn't horrible, pretty tasty. Then I had my very first "chirrasco" its a Brazilian bbq with tons and tons of meat.

It was nice to be full haha, we really don't get to eat that much here. We eat one meal a day and that's lunch so I am super hungry all the time. It seems like it kinda stinks but we are going to the grocery store after this and I will get some goodies! haha
Its so HOT here!!! everyday it touches 100 degrees! And its humid, so I sweat so much you can see the sweat marks on my socks,

but I mean its so hot its going to take some getting used to for sure! And there is no AC here. No one even knows what that is lol so there is no way to get out of it! the best thing ever though is my camelbak!!! Another fun part are the bugs!! they are eating me alive and the scary part is I don't get bitten during the day... its only at night! I have bites on my face all over my arms everywhere! they love me! its pretty gross when you think about it... lol they only get me when I am sleeping. I try not to think about what goes on haha
Well that's about it for the week! its so crazy wrestling started! I miss it actually. It still haunts me how last season ended... it seriously keeps me up at night when I think about it. I can replay every match at state in my head. it just kills me. it really kills me when I think about it. but oh well tell everyone good luck for the season for me! I will miss being with them! I am doing good so no need to worry about me. I am really loving it in brazil even though I really have no idea what most people are saying to me! lol the people are pretty cool though! I have to say thanks to Madi for the hymn book because we sing hymns for this old lady when go over so, thanks Madi! haha I am just loving it! I am so thankful to be here. I love the area I am in, its perfect, and just what I have ever imagined! I am working hard and learning pretty quick about things here. Things are good even though I am so tired!! I mean so tired its crazy! but I am happy and love being here with the people and I love serving here its really cool! I am frustrated with the language but no need to worry, its coming, and I will get it eventually, just need the patience. thanks for all of you support I love you all. Have a great week in the snow. I will try and send some heat your way! lol have a good thanksgiving I don't get one :( thanks for the e-mails again I love you all so much thanks for all of your support have a great week!!!!!!!

love Elder Novakovich

Arrived in Brazil

2011-11-14T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello from Brazil!!!!

Holy cow this is the craziest thing ever!!!! I cant believe it! I don't have too much time so I will start from when I started to brazil from Atlanta. It took me awhile to figure out how to use this dang computer because everything is in Portuguese, lol, but we're all good now.
It was so great to talk to you guys. I loved it so much! It was amazing to hear everyone's voices again! I talked to dad last in Atlanta and while I was talking to him an elder ran over and said they were boarding the plane right away, so I had to go pretty quick. Sorry about that, but I walked over and got on the plane right away. It was a huge plane but unfortunately I was in the very back of the dang thing so my seat didn't recline at all. And lets just say that planes are not very comfy. So we got on and I was sitting next to the elder who was serving in Salt Lake as well, so we got to be good friends through out all this traveling. As we started to move, and the plane made its way to the runway, it really started to hit me that I was going to Brazil. It was the weirdest feeing I have ever had. I was so excited but really scarred at the same time and I had no idea what to think. The plane took off and I was on my way to Brazil. I watched all the lights of America pass away as we went out over the ocean. The first hour of the flight was great, then as time went on, I started to get super tired and I couldn't get comfortable to save my life. So I just looked out the window and watched Jamaica, Cuba and all those cool places pass by but I don't think I saw a little elder Romney running around in Jamaica haha, it was to dark, but anyway the flight went on and on and on and on and on for forever!! I am not lying, it was the longest flight ever. First, because it was just a long flight to begin with, and second, I could not fall asleep, it was horrible. I really only slept good for like 15 mins. I couldn't get in a good spot to sleep so I was pretty frustrated and the last two or so hours of the flight I just wanted to be there already. But the time finally came and we landed in Sao Paulo! Flying over the city was so crazy. It was morning and we could see everything. It is an impressive city for sure. It is so huge, like mind blowing huge! So that was really cool to see brazil and all the houses and buildings as we landed. I got off the plane and bam! HEAT and HUMIDITY! It smacked me in the face pretty hard lol I was sweating pretty good just walking through the tunnel to the airport. Once we got in, we had to go straight to customs. That was interesting. We walked into a big room and this lady was yelling, "Foreigners in this line!" I started walking the other way not realizing that I am now a foreigner lol. The lady nicely grabbed my shirt and put me in the right line. It was pretty funny. The other elders where laughing at me. It was weird realizing that I was now a foreigner. So I got to the front of the line hoping I had filled out all the paper work correctly. I went to the window and the lady said something that I didn't understand so I just gave her my passport and the paperwork and she did some stuff said some stuff and I just smiled at her because I had no idea what she was saying. She handed me my stuff and everything was all good. The next step was getting my bags. That went great and it was really fast. Then we went out of that room and there where two people waiting to help us with everything. They helped us exchange our money and then we headed over to get our plane ticket to Porta Alegre. I got my ticket and everything was going smoothly. We had a couple hours to sit and wait for our flight, so we went through security. I was expecting the same kind of thing as in salt lake, but no lol the security was pretty much nothing, so I made it through with no problems there. I found my gate and then tried to find a place where I could call you guys but there was nothing. Sorry about that. We had a long time to wait till the flight so a couple elders and I just sat and people watched the whole time. OH! I forgot we met up with some more elders in Sao Paulo and one of them was elder law from my district in the MTC. It was great to see him. We stayed together the whole time. We boarded our plane and headed out. The flight was good and took little more than 2 hours. I did get about hmm 20 mins of sleep so that was awesome! Well it was good until we started our decent to land and that was a nightmare. I don't know what was going on but the plane kept going up and down, up and down, and this is when I started to feel a little sick. lol not good. Just before I got to the point of throwing up on the plane, we landed. We headed out and met two elders who had been sent to pick us up. One was the assistant. We talked to him for a minute and then went out to get a shuttle. There were 6 elders and one sister, all new, going to Santa Maria, so that was cool. Outside was so stinking HOT and so humid. I was sweating big time haha. We were standing waiting for a shuttle and someone asked the elders how far to Santa Maria? They then informed us, .... 5 hours..... All I could think was NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol I wasn't to excited about the ride but I was excited to drive through town and see everything in the city. We started driving and I have to say the shuttle was pretty nice. I mean nice for brazil. haha We started and the city was awesome and I saw some super cool things, then we left the city and it is just grass and rice farms from there to santa maria lol with some houses and tiny towns mixed in. So the drive was pretty cool. The best part was I got like an hour of sleep!!!!!!!!! oh yeah!!! I was really excited as we got closer to Santa Maria, even though I was super tired. The first thing we did was went to what they call the big house. Its a... well.... big house that has 8 beds in one room. hah They use it for transfers and stuff. We dropped our bags off there and headed to the mission presidents house. He lives on top of like an 8 story building. We got there, said hello, or Oi, to the family and they took us to the roof to look at the city from there! It was so crazy. I will try and send pictures, but it was so cool. We could see a ton and it was surreal just to sit there and look and know that I was in brazil and this was my mission. It was a very special moment for me. After looking for awhile they got some pizza for use to eat and I was starving. We didn't eat a lot the whole trip. The last time I ate was in Atlanta and had Panda Express!!! yummy! After dinner, they told us we could call our parents and let them know we had arrived safely. I got so excited! We only got like 1 min though, so I called mom and that was great! I was so excited to call her from brazil! way cool! After everyone called their parents, we headed back to the big house to sleep!!! yay!!! The president wasn't at his house because he was traveling for zone conferences. When we got to the house, it took awhile for everyone to get settled down and ready for bed. When I first laid in bed, it felt wet, it was weird and I thought to myself, "What the heck is this?" Then I realized it was wet just because it was so humid! It was hard to fall asleep but I was so tired nothing could stop me, not even the bugs crawling on me. I woke up to a huge clap of thunder and a lightning storm, just my luck! The houses here don't have glass in the windows. They just have open bars or slats. It was pretty loud and it was raining so hard. It was actually pretty nice to just sit there and listen to the storm. I love storms haha I don't think the girls would have liked it very much. lol but it was raining really hard and it was lightning so often it was really cool. After enjoying that for a little while, I fell back to sleep and woke up in the morning getting about 4 hours of sleep. I was soaked. lol I had been sweating pretty bad. Getting ready was fun. there were 8 of us and only one shower. Ok. so the shower was the crazy! Let me just say this.. you could shower and sit on the toilet at the same time! It was still raining in the morning and we had to be at the church for zone conference. The good news was that mom got me an umbrella. It came in handy as we started walking in the poring rain. I was thinking that it would be just a short walk and we would be there. I was wrong. It was about a 30 min walk to the church in the rain on my first day in Brazil, but I have to say it was so awesome walking through the middle of the city. There were lots of people and it was like nothing I have ever seen before! The city is so awesome! I love it! When we got to the church, I met the mission president. He is really cool but he only knows a tiny bit of English so it was kind of hard to talk with him, but I had and interview with him and understood almost everything he was saying. He helped a lot by talking super slow. After the interviews, it was time for zone conference. There were a lot of Elders there and I even saw someone I knew from the MTC. Zone conference was all in Portuguese of course and I don't know Portuguese, so the president had the American elders translate for us.

Ughh I am running out of time so I need to cram a ton of stuff in really quick with not a lot of details sorry!
The conference was good. The next day we had training and we got our new companions! My companions names are Elder Blanco, who is from sao paulo, and speaks no English. The other is Elder Gillett. He is from Utah but he goes home in three weeks so its just for a short time. They don't speak any English with me, so most of the time it is hard to communicate. They are both super cool! We get along very well and they help with the language a ton. Portuguese is coming along pretty well actually. I am surprised I can understand Elder Blanco a lot because he talks slow for me. But when it comes to the locals... no chance.... I don't get anything!!!! When training was done, we headed to our areas. This is when I found out I had yet another 5 hour bus ride... ugh and our bus left at 9 pm so we traveled through the night. I didn't sleep at all on the bus, it was horrible. We got home a little after 2:30 am and went to bed around 3. I slept great for 3 1/2 hours.. till we had to wake up at 6:30. My first area is Alegrete! It is so awesome!! It is everything I ever wanted it to be!!! Its the coolest little town ever! I love everything about it! All the roads are cobblestone and most of the houses are brick shack things. The people are pretty poor around here. We actually live in a pretty nice place for the area, its not bad at all. It is pretty hot around these parts. haha, but its not horrible. I sweat a lot and when I get in bed at night my skin feels so weird; like salt. As for water... I have a little filter thing at the house that I use when I am there, but we aren't here a lot and I need water so we are forced to drink the regular water. Its probably not great but its either drink the water or turn into a raisin and die of heat exhaustion. I choose water. I probably wont die from it I hope lol sorry mom you probably don't like me drinking the water.... I love you!! but I have to. Anyway, my areas is so cool and my trainers are great, they help a ton. Church was ... interesting. There are only about 38 members who come so it's super tiny. It's weird going from salt lake to here. The singing in church was awesome lol there is no piano and everyone well is pretty bad at singing haha it was so funny to hear everyone sing. Everyone sings their own thing, its great! I contacted 8 people yesterday! The language isn't horrible. I am doing alright. I really like Alegrete. I love being in Brazil; its the craziest place I have ever been! I cant believe I am really here! I am doing great. Have a great week. I love you all!!

p.s. All I eat is rice and beans with some kind of meat lol and I got bit by a bug the other night and now I have a rash looking thing on my arm where it bit me. lol Fun stuff being in brazil but I am so excited to be here!!

A really boring week!!

2011-11-08T10:39:00.001-08:00

Oi familia!!!!

Crazy week and I don't have a lot of time to write but trust me I will make up for it in the next sentence....... I AM GOING TO BRAZIL!!!!!!!! Tomorrow!!!! Tuesday I am leaving on a jet plane to another country!! lol that is so crazy I cant believe I even am telling you this right know. I thought it would never come!!!!! ah!! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time!! I don't really know much about my travel because I get all that info tonight! I do know I leave at 11:25 tomorrow! That's all I know right now so I will call you from the airport probably earlier than that but I am not sure I have no idea what's going on! lol so I am going to try and call you before I leave I will probably go from here to Atlanta then to Sao Paulo then to somewhere close to Santa Maria! Then I have a 3 hours bus ride to Santa Maria. I will tell you guys everything tomorrow when I call! but that's the crazy news of the week!! lol pretty good news if you ask me!!
I found out in a pretty crazy way really lol this was Thursday. so it was just a normal day and we where out tracking a little and going to appointments and so forth, then we had a Portuguese referral to go to. so we headed over to that and right in the middle of the lesson we were having on their front porch the phone rang in my pocket and so I pulled it out to see who it was and it said "mission office" my heart started racing so fast but I got super scared and nervous so I just clicked decline because I couldn't open it in the middle of the lesson so we continued and just talked in Portuguese of course. lol oh by the way mine is pretty bad lol Brazilians talk so fast and I am not even in brazil yet!! haha so I can catch some things and can usually tell what's going on in the conversation but not all the time so they all have a good time laughing at me lol but its all good. I do get pretty frustrated sometimes though I just want to speak it well but I don't and now I am going to brazil so that will be interesting. haha so after the whole lesson we were walking to the car and I pulled the phone out and said hey Elders I we got a call from the mission office and they both went crazy lol they left a message so I listened to it. I was so nervous, my heart was racing pretty fast lol so it started "we have a message for Elder Novakovich... HIS VISA HAS COME!" lol he said a lot more stuff after that but I blacked out lol and didn't hear anything after that. until he said "he is leaving on Tuesday" I heard that haha I was so excited and in shock I didn't know what to do I was just like "my visa came!!" Elder Ramos and Elder Rogers where very excited for me! haha it was pretty cool. I will record the message onto my camera and try and send it to you guys later. So that's how I found out I got my visa! pretty funny that I was talking to a Portuguese family when it happened. so my day today will consist of trying to get everything ready to go for tomorrow! I have no idea how I am going to be ready in time! I haven't even started to do anything to be ready. And our night is pretty full of lessons and stuff so I will have to pack when I get home so not much time really. but I am sure it will work out some how. so that's that I will explain better tomorrow I hope!!
Anyway I will tell a little about how my week went. We had some really good expectations for this week and we where really excited to work hard and meet some pretty high goals we set for ourselves. So we had a lesson with this lady who is in here 20s and they have taught her like twice before and we went in planning on committing her to baptism. So the lesson was going great and the time came and we gave her the invitation and she said yes to being baptized which was awesome so we asked her to prepare herself for November 19. she said yes so we started making some plans and telling her about the stuff we still had to teach her in order for her to be baptized. In the middle of it all she kinda stopped and looked at us and said. "Is there anyway I can be baptized sooner than the 19th?" It kinda took all of us off guard lol we were like yeah!! haha it was really cool to have her ask that to us. It just amazed me how she was prepared to move forward. Its so cool how the Lord has prepared people even before the missionaries find them. It testified to me that there are people out there who are just waiting for the gospel. They are waiting for something but they don't know what it is and as soon as they talk with a member or a missionary they recognize that and accept it so willingly. that's the really cool story for the week and there are more but no time to write. I am sorry this letter seems short but I will talk to you all tomorrow and share everything with you!!!! but the other thing is this week that I have really realized is how real Satan is and how he tries his best to keep people from the church. We have a recent covert who is really struggling right know for some crazy things and its just crazy how Satan knows how to keep people from dong what's right. we have about 3 investigators right now who are really fighting Satan head on. they are so close to baptism but Satan is giving them everything he has to keep them from doing it. its really sad but we are doing our best to help them through it and get them to baptism. I will explain more tomorrow! haha
That's awesome that state was good! I am so proud of you Darbi!!!!!! I want to talk to you so bad about it!! lets talk tomorrow! haha but congratulations!!!! that's awesome! hope you enjoyed the letter this week haha sorry for the e-mail subject lol I thought it would be fun to put something sad so you guys didn't expect anything lol but it was a great week!!!! I promise!!!
I cant wait to talk to you guys tomorrow!! I hope I can talk to everyone!! have a good day I love you all so much and so excited to leave for Brazil in the morning!!!

Love Elder Novakovich

I cant believe the next e-mail will come from Brazil!!!!!

P.S. I gave a blessing in Portuguese this week super crazy story!! I will tell you tomorrow :) love you!!!

I'm a real missionary now.

2011-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween my family!!!!!

This week has been so crazy. I have no idea where to start! I have so many things to tell you I hope I can remember them and get them all typed in time!!! First off, I miss you all so much! Its been kinda weird not getting mail everyday, but at the same time I have no time to even think about that! lol Second Darbi!! ahhhh!!!!!!!!!! thata girl!!!! kickin butt, that is so awesome to hear you made it to state!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud and excited for you!! You are so awesome! I was so excited to read the e-mails about it! I was thinking about you all day on Saturday wondering how it all went!! I bet you feel amazing! I remember when I crossed that finish line and I knew I had made it to state! It makes all the hard work and sweat all worth it. It's an amazing feeling and I am sure you felt that when you heard you had made it!! I am so excited for you! as well as the whole girls and boys teams!!! That's so awesome parabems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's great I wish I could be there to cheer you on all around that place but that's alright I will be cheering from right here in Salt Lake City!!!! lol GO kick butt out there sis! All my advice I have to give to you about that is just relax and have fun with it. I know last year when I made it, I was so nervous I puked and could barely walk. But now that I look back on it, there was no reason to be that nervous. You made it this far and no one can ever take that away from you! YOU are a state runner!! That is so awesome! Go out there and have fun with it; enjoy every second; enjoy the energy of all the other runners; take a lot of deep breaths and go out there and give it everything you can because it the last time you will run cross for East Valley. Have fun, you going to do so great I am so pumped for you!!!!
Alright I guess I better start talking a little about my week. Crazy!!! So Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 but fell back to sleep till 5:30... oops. so I was pretty rushed to get to the travel office at 6. So I throw all that I had laying around in the bags and left. I had stayed up pretty late packing the night before, so I had most of it done. Anyway, so Elder Dean and I made it to the office on time and there were about 15 people leaving that morning so we got split up which kinda sucked but oh well. I got a seat on the van that was going directly to the Mission home and he got on the bus to go to the airport first to drop Elders off there. So it wasn't that long of a drive to the mission Home; 40 mins or so. When I got there, I was with 7 other Elders. So we were there and no one was at the mission offices so all the doors were locked and the bus had to leave so he left all of us waiting outside the office lol It was pretty dang cold but that's ok. So finally, about a half hour later someone showed up and let us in the office. We waited and talked a little till the mission president got there. We met with him and all the Elders who had just arrived and all the trainers and assistants were there. So we met everyone and had to introduce ourselves in front of everyone. So then the mission president went through and announced everyone and everyone claps and cheers as people meet their new companions lol so I was one of the last ones to go and the craziest thing happened!!

Do you remember when Bro. C took me out to lunch with the kid who was gong to the same mission in brazil as me? Well I guess he got re-assigned to Salt Lake as well about a month before me. And lo and behold we got put into a companionship together!!! how crazy, we got called to the same mission twice and now we are companions!! crazy!!! But he has been with an Elder from guess! Brazil!!! so his trainer is from Brazil and they have been companions since he got here. Crazy stuff!!! His name is Elder Rogers who I knew back home. And the my trainer who is from Brazil is named Elder Ramos!! lol He is awesome!! He Helps Elder Rogers and myself with Portuguese! He is a way cool guy and he has only been here for 5 months!! so still pretty new and his English is so funny!!! lol He speaks it really well but some things he says in the wrong order and it's so funny!!! lol I am laughing just typing about it!! lol he has this funny little Portuguese accent lol. He is so funny!!! But he is such a good missionary!! He blows my mind! haha I make sure to tell him that every night before we go to bed. haha but anyway yeah we are in a threesome. A lot of Elders are too because there are so many Visa waiters they are putting a lot of threesomes together. It is pretty cool I like having three. Elders Rogers is way cool too. By the way we get along pretty well and share a lot of laughs about elder Ramos English mistakes. lol So that's my new companionship.
After all that stuff we left to drop my bags off at the apartment. Dropped them off then we where out the door to go to work!! that fast, we were out working by 11 am!! pretty crazy lol I was expecting a nice little welcome day but no, straight to work which was pretty cool, though I didn't mind at all. So we went out to some appointments that they already had lined up. some were not home so they both thought it would be fun to try some tracking on the first day. lol We went to some condos and we were knocking and not a lot of people answered but there were some but nothing great. haha so while we were knocking a lady from a couple doors down opened the door and yelled "Stop knocking and go away! Everyone here is a Jew!!!" lol it was so funny I tried not to laugh but I couldn't hold it all in. lol so after knocking for awhile and doing some other stuff it was dinner time. This was one of the most interesting experiences of my life hands down. We came in and the house was so humble. There are four people in the family and one who is 11 has a mental disorder.. The house was very humble and it made me thankful for what we have. But she made spaghetti for dinner and it was pretty hard to eat just with everything being so dirty... I was good and ate all I could. The 11 year old kid who is not all there sat next to me which was all cool until he started wiping his spaghetti sauce fingers all over my suit jacket. lol I didn't know what to do so I just kinda pushed his hand away and he kinda stopped. This happened about three times, but I was being nice haha so out of no where he got up and left and a couple moments latter he came back... only he forgot something... all of his clothes!!!!!!! He came walking into the kitchen butt naked and wow that was a shock. yeah. So the parents just asked him nicely to go put some clothes on, so he left for a little bit but again returned with no clothes. He left and put some clothes on eventually though so that was good. It was about time to leave and we kinda had a testimony meeting and telling stories about our baptisms and stuff, it was cool. So that was my very first dinner appointments in the field. Pretty crazy if you ask me. We got out and I was kinda in shock not knowing what to think about it all and Elder Ramos just said out of the silence "So who wants McDonalds?" lol no one had eaten till they where full just because yeah. so we went and got some dollar menu stuff lol it was very yummy I hadn't had that in two months!!! lol After we went to more appointments for the rest of the night. It was pretty cool but I still have a ton to learn about everything and how to teach better. It was still fun to teach real people! We came back to the apartment and planned for the next day. The first day I taught 5 lessons!!! lol Bed time was much needed by the time 10:30 came.
The rest of the days we just taught pretty much all day long, it was pretty spiritual. The coolest one is this lady named Rebecca who is a single mom with two little girls. We taught her and she was planning on getting baptized on Saturday! So the next day we taught her again and it was really spiritual and we asked if she could say the closing prayer and when she was saying it in the middle she just stopped and started crying. The spirit was so strong. She just cried in the middle of her prayer and she ended and kept crying. It is amazing how the Lord prepares people to be baptized. She was so ready to be baptized it was so cool to see that. So Saturday came around and I had my first baptism!!! lol I really didn't do much just helped teach twice. so I wont count that one but it was way cool to see her enter the waters of baptism. I even got to be the witness for her baptism!! That's about it for the week. Sorry I cant go into details about everyday. I don't have much time, but we are in the less wealthy part of town for sure. Its really cool and I have met some really cool young families that fed us this week, some really good food haha which I was so thankful for!!!!!!!! but with the three of us we cover 5 wards!!!! Plus we cover a Portuguese branch because Elder Ramos can speak with them lol so we went there for a little on Sunday which was cool. Everyone is so nice!! last night we went to a Portuguese referral we got and the family was so cool they just had a little baby 10 days ago and they are super nice!!! We talked to them for awhile and they helped Elder Rogers and myself with the language it was pretty funny Elder Rogers did really good but me on the other hand, knew pretty much nothing. The couple really liked talking to me because I had no idea what they were saying lol but they laughed and helped me. they were awesome even though I left a little frustrated with the language thing. I have no idea how to speak real Portuguese lol cant wait for Brazil.
So I haven't heard anything about the Visa, we did drop an Elder off this morning to go to Brazil. I will let you all know as soon as I hear anything. the mission office address is 3487 S. 13 E. if you want to send stuff in the mail. We only get mail on Thursdays. Will you let Madi and who ever else know that for me please. Thanks!!

well that's about all I can put in this week I hope you get the pictures I put in haha enjoy I will try and send more later!! I am doing great!! the field is awesome and I love teaching. I just need a lot of help and have a lot to learn about everything! I am really enjoying it, its been great and this week we taught 37 lessons, with one baptism! lol I love it out here and the area is pretty cool Salt Lake isn't that bad lol still looking for that reason I have been sent here haha but I am working hard and trying my best out here! have a great week I love you all and be safe thanks for the e-mails!!! I love you all happy Halloween!!

Love Elder Novakovich "a real missionary now"

Last MTC Letter

2011-10-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Oi Familia

This is my last day!!! so crazy!! I cant believe I am leaving the MTC already! I remember laying in bed the first night and just thinking I am never going to get out of here. But now its my last day and I leave tomorrow morning!! Time has flown by so fast! I almost feel like I should stay longer! But it will be so nice to get out and really start the Lords work. I am super excited to start to teach real people but I am also so nervous! Its going to be so weird being in the field. I am so thankful for this time I have had in the MTC though. I have learned so much, its amazing! I feel like a completely different person. My priorities have really been changed and I know what I have to be doing right now. This mission has already changed my life greatly. I can really see the important things in life now and realize how much this church has blessed my life. This place has been amazing and I am serious when I say it is going to be sad when I leave... I will really miss it if you can believe it. This feels like my new home and I am leaving a whole new family! well actually they all left me! lol We started with 12 district members and now we are down to three! Elder Dean and Elder Harston plus myself. Elder Dean and I are really the last ones because Elder Harston should be gone already since he has his Visa but his knee is still hurt so he cant leave yet. poor guy, still has two weeks left till he gets to go to Brazil. The cool thing is Elder Dean and I have really become good friends and get along really well so it is pretty cool we both get to go to Salt Lake lol He is a great Elder and we have a really good friendship. Its still amazes me how well I have gotten to know people in just 8 or so weeks. A lot of them will be life long friends I am sure. Any way the MTC has been amazing and I have grown so much in here and learned even more. I will truly miss this place and the Spirit that it has. But I am so ready to get into the field!! Its gong to be amazing!! It really hit me pretty hard that I am actually going to be teaching people and be a true missionary. It is so exciting but at the same time pretty darn scary! lol But I am way more excited to get out and teach people and fall in love with all of the people I come in contact with! I am really excited to interact with people and share with them this great message we have! I cant wait to teach!! Even though it is in Salt Lake, which to be honest, really killed me when I first found out... I told my district a couple days before we got our re assignments that the worst place I could go is Salt Lake! lol But sure enough That's were I am needed so here I go. It took me a couple hours of feeling sorry for myself to snap out of it lol Lets just say I was not very excited about my call, haha. Then once I started to think about it, I came to realize that this is where I need to be. For some reason I have been called to serve in Salt Lake. There is something I need to do there, or something I need to learn. I am now pretty excited to go. it will be a great time for me I am sure. I will get to teach in English which is good but quit hard now... lol I haven't taught anything in English this whole time and the other day we did a little lesson in English and it was pretty hard really. lol Portuguese is still about the same as before. haha Yesterday at the Temple we where talking to one of our Brazilian friends and his family came to see him and we talked with them for about 30 mins in Portuguese!! it was pretty hard to understand it all but really cool how I could get a general idea of what they where saying. They where super nice and really willing to help us out with words and such. It was definitely a cool experience to have a conversation with real briziliaros. haha They are such nice people and I cant wait to get to brazil and teach them!!!
Today I am just getting ready for tomorrow! I am dong laundry right now. My clothes are in the wash as I type lol I have to admit I have become pretty good at the laundry thing. lol My day consists of trying to remember everything that I need to bring and getting everything into my suitcases. Who knows how that will go, should be pretty interesting though. So pretty much just packing all day for me and getting stuff ready to leave. I do get to go to Physical therapy with my companions though today at 2 30 lol that is always fun.
This past week has gone by so fast! not a lot happened but time has just flown by for sure. On Tuesday Richard G. Scott spoke at the Devotional!! its was pretty dang awesome to get to hear another Apostle! I have been so lucky to have that experience here!! its pretty rare for anyone to get this many during there stay here. So that is awesome. He did a great job and he spoke 100% by the spirit it was pretty cool to see.
It was so great to talk to everyone on Thursday!! It was amazing how moms voice just made me so happy lol To hear a familiar voice was great!!! It was cool to talk to Darbi and Zoe they sound great and all grown up lol its funny Zoe and Darbi sounded way different than I remember. lol I held up pretty good. I told everyone I was probably going to cry like a little baby when I talked to you guys but I held up very well lol there was only one moment when I was talking to Darbi that I almost lost it. Then when I had to say goodbye to mom that was tough too. I just wanted to talk forever haha we'll talk when I am in the airport going to Brazil in a couple weeks though. I actually want to stay in Salt Lake for a month or so. that would be perfect I think but less wouldn't hurt either the sooner I get to brazil, the better for my language. lol its going to be really hard to stay up on Portuguese but I will do my best.
Well this is the last e-mail you guys will get from a son in the MTC pretty crazy huh? I am so thankful for all the DearElders you all took the time to write me I appreciate it so much you have no idea. it will be weird just getting mail like once a week in the field. Thanks for all of the support you have given me through this MTC experience I love you all so much and am so thankful for all of your love and support!! Have a good week and never forget I love you all tons!!! have a great week!!!!!! Eu te amo!!! Next time you hear from me I will be a real missionary teaching the people of Salt Lake City!! Wish me luck!! thanks again for all the support up to this point!!! ah!! I cant believe the MTC chapter of my mission is over!! Love you all!!

Love Elder Novakovich (soon to be a real missionary!)

No Visa

2011-10-17T10:39:00.003-07:00

Hello family!!

This has been such a crazy week I have so much to tell you but I don't have a lot of time today sorry. But I am doing great this week, it has gone by so fast its crazy!! I am so thankful for you my family I love you all so much and think you are all the best!!
So on to the super exciting stuff!! On Thursday we were at gym playing soccer and when we got back our roommates said that they called Elder Rawlings to the Travel office!! So we got showered really fast and headed over to see what it was for. Sadly we got there and it was closed already. Really frustrating. So all night poor Elder Rawlings had to sit and wonder what they needed him for. The next morning we got ready and headed over. The lady asked his name and then asked mine. She then started shuffling through a big stack of papers she grabbed one and said "Elder Rawlings you got your VISA!!!!!!!!!!" its was crazy!! he had no idea what to do he just stood there and stared at the paper lol it was funny. She then double checked the papers but no VISA for me. dang it! So when we left she told us they had got a ton of visas and told us to have the rest of our district come check for theirs. So we got back and everyone was so excited to go check. So Elder Rawlngs and I just went to lunch. During lunch the rest of our district came and much to my surprise four other people got theirs!! Elder Staheli, Elder Hogg, Elder Collins, and Sister Gentri all got their VISAs!!! so crazy!! They all got to call their parents that night which was pretty cool. I guess 88 people got their VISAs and not me so a ton came in last week which is awesome but really sucks that I didn't get mine pretty sad really. I was so excited when he got his then I got told I didn't have mine but that's ok. So everyone is leaving tomorrow!! I can't believe that they will be in Brazil by Wednesday!! crazy they will be in the Brazil MTC for a week then go to the field so lucky!!! oh well, mine will come when it needs to. that's the best part of the week pretty exciting so keep my fingers crossed my stuff will be soon
I get my re-assignment on Wednesday!! I"m going to the states after all. lol But it will be good. I am pretty excited to see where I will be going. I really just wanna go East of Utah and I would be happy with that. lol Its crazy that I am already done with the MTC. Pretty sad really. I feel like this is my new home and I have a new family here. Its amazing how close our district has gotten. It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone. Its pretty cool elder Rawlings and myself kinda broke off and became really good friends with the two other elders who are going to Santa Maria. Its cool that we get along so well. It"s Elder Law, and Elder Dean who are also going to Santa Maria, pretty exciting. I really am super excited to see where I get to go in the USA! haha It will be hard trying to teach in English again haha I am already forgetting some words in English. So sometimes I just go blank and have no ideas what to say lol Portuguese is coming pretty well. I am doing a lot better which is really cool. its super fun to talk to other people in Portuguese and understand them. I am sure if I ever get to Brazil it will be a whole new language! I cant wait to get down there!!!!!! I want to go so bad!! I have a really good friend here who is from brazil and he is so awesome we get along really well and he is so funny he left this morning for his mission in Canada Toronto so that's cool its the soccer player guy.
Hosting was awesome!! I was totally going to host Elder Cox but right before he came in, I got asked to help with some foreign elders!! ahh I was so frustrated because I wanted to host him so bad!! But I got to help an elder From Manchester England. He had the coolest accent ever!! lol so for the rest of the day I went around talking to people in an accent lol But when I was helping my Elder, I saw elder Cox!!!! Right after he got his name tag on!! haha it was super cool to see him with it on! We had a good hug and he had to be one his way I wanted to just sit and talk to him for hours but we couldn't!!! I just thought dang this kid just saw my mom like yesterday!! haha but he did give me an extra hug from you mom so he did a good job! haha its was so awesome to see him that night. Me and elder Rawlings went over to talk to him for an hour or so it was great!! I don't get to see him a lot because we have different schedules and such but its all good. I get to host again this week so I am excited for that. Oh a story from hosting, so this family got out and I saw the elder and I helped him with his bags and stuff then he started to cry and the whole family started crying then I almost started crying it was really sad really. I was so close to crying to tell the truth... but I did fight it back and helped him get everything to his room. It is pretty cool and super exciting to help the new elders come in. When they ask how long you have been here and I say 8 weeks they look at you like you have been here my whole life! lol it definitely feels like it!! Its pretty cool though and I cant wait to do it again.
That's about it for this week sorry its so short I didn't get a lot of time to write this week. I have to go to the dentist with Elder Collins to get his crown on. So I get to leave the MTC for a couple hours!!!! so excited!!!!!!!!!!!! lol it will be so nice haha but I do have to say I will really miss this place a ton I really will. its pretty amazing here and I have learned so much I cant even start to explain. I am doing really well this week, it was good. Sleep is still pretty hard to come by which really sucks. lol I have a funny story about that. So in class our teacher was giving us a demonstration on how to teach the word of wisdom. I was trying so hard to stay awake and the next thing I know I was getting woken by elder rawlings hitting my arm. He told me I started to snore in the middle of class lol oops.... pretty funny though, everyone laughed. I am doing great and am so excited to get my re-assignment!!! cant wait to let you know where I am going!!!! I love you all and I am doing just fine. I love all the letters you write its awesome!! thanks for everything I love you all!! I hope the marathon went great for all!!! talk to ya latter have a great week

Love Elder Novakovich

P.S. I see sister Novakovich a bit but we didn't get to give her a blessing. Her district did. We didn't see her for a couple days after you had written me sorry but I am making sure she is doing good. I always check on her and offer to help with anything. We took some pictures which I will send. She is way cool and I am so thankful I got to meet her in here!!

Hosting New Missionaries

2011-10-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

Oi Familia

What a long long week. It has gone by so so so slooooooow! I have been having some pretty down days. Monday night was really bad I couldn't sleep or anything. Tuesday wasn't much better I was in some kind of slump and it really was tough to say the least. The Tuesday night devotional helped me get out of it a little. It was a good talk that helped me realize once again why I was out here. The Devotionals here are life savers they are always so good and inspirational, it really helps me keep going and stay strong even when it is the hardest. By the time Wednesday came around I was feeling better and had some energy. In one of our classes on Wednesday our teacher did the lesson/discussion on why we are here and then we talked to someone in our district on a really personal level for about 10 mins then we had 20 mins to search the scriptures for things that could help the other person. We than had 30 mins to teach and help the other person with his problems or concerns. It was a really cool experience I was with Elder Amdal and he found some really cool amazing scriptures to help me out. It was really good to be able to help him also. I really liked helping him out it allowed me to forget about myself and help someone else. I really gained a testimony this week of giving service to others. Doing so has helped me forget about myself and serve others around me. Whenever I was really down I tried to look for something I could do for someone else. It really helped me out more than anything else I think. Its amazing what you can find in the scriptures. You could find the answer to any question you want in them. They have really been helping me this week because it has been so long. Whenever I get the chance to read my scriptures I always feel so much better and the rest of the day goes by so much better. I am very thankful for them.
My district is awesome! Sometimes it just amazes me how different we all are but how well we get along. I am pretty sure we have one of the strongest districts in our branch. We are all so close and only getting closer. They have helped me a ton whenever I needed something they are always more than willing to help me out. It is sad now that we are all realizing that in two weeks we will all go our separate ways to different missions. Last night we were all in the same room just laying on the beds and talking about how big of a bummer it is that we are all not going to the same mission lol Elder Collins and I where talking and he said Elder Novakovich and I are like the same people I just have a bigger body lol then something about souls and spirits came up and he said we came here with one spirit and he just took more of it so he needed a bigger body and I just got a little bit of it so I got a little body lol it was funny maybe you had to be there. Elder Collins and I get along really well we have the same kinda humor so we are always making jokes it a good time lol As of last week our district is now the oldest one in our Branch! Pretty crazy I remember when it was our first week and seeing the older districts and remembering just thinking they had been here forever! haha now that's me and my district pretty weird. I cant believe we only have like two weeks left here!!! I will get my re-assignment in a week and a half next Wednesday!!! Crazy!! Some really cool news/ really sad bummer news is Elder Harston from my district got his Visa! That's the great part but he is also the one with the torn ACL... so they may not let him go right away. He is supposed to leave tomorrow with two other Elders who got their Visas. So that is a huge bummer for him. I will keep you posted on when or if he gets to head out to Brazil. More good news is he is from right by Spokane so maybe I'll be next! haha I could only hope. I really wish I did get to go to the Brazil MTC it would have been awesome to have that experience but the Lord knows just what he wants me to do so I'll go where he wants me to go (oh look at me quoting a hymn lol) But it will be pretty fun to get a new call haha this time I know its in the states so it wont be that big of a bummer haha It will be exciting to see where I end up going.
I did see Sister Novakovich!! lol I was walking through her building to get to mine and we ran into each other pretty crazy but awesome! She is super cool I wish we could just sit and talk but we always have somewhere to be or places to go. But its all good she is way cool. Pretty crazy that we are here the same time. Everyone that sees us talking is like wow you two have the same last name lol Oh yeah representing the Novakovich name here at the good old MTC!
I got my first hair cut on my mission this week that was a treat lol they definitely go as fast as they can lol I sat down laughed at Elder Rawlings hair cut and bam I was done too lol It was crazy fast and it looks ok lol I will have to send a picture for you to enjoy. I have to admit I did get one of the better ones. Some Elders in our district got butchered lol its so funny! I got some sweet packages this week!! I got two from Sister Barnes one had pumpkin/cream cheese muffins in it which where amazing!!! then the very next day I got a Halloween package from the Barnes!! with some sweet stuff in it with lots of candy! I got a package from Madi also!! Guess what she got me!?! Hawaii chips!!! ahh she is awesome! lol I was so excited when I saw them! She also got me lots of other goodies that will be put to good use lol I have lots of food to eat in two weeks. Some funny news is that I have gained 6 pounds since being here so I am filling out quit nicely lol If this place can make me gain weight it can make anyone gain weight!! I am definitely getting and well out of shape. I went for a run the other day starting out at my usual pace from back home and about 30 seconds later I felt like I was gong to die. lol That made me really sad actually because I really miss going on runs by myself back home. It was a good time to just relax and enjoy being alone which I really miss. I have to be with my companion every second of the day. Good thing we get along pretty well.
Portuguese is well... its Portuguese. I am actually doing pretty well, like second worst in the district so that's good. Sometimes when we are teaching I really want to say something so I try and then I am pretty sure it comes out way wrong like one time I was teaching about the Atonement and I said "Jesus Christ killed for our sins". lol instead of he died for our sins lol pretty funny to my defense the words are very similar lol the thing that gets me most is the pronunciation of things because there are different from English so its hard to forget the English stuff but I am getting better. It is frustrating sometimes but its coming. I realized the other day that in not to long I will have to teach real people... super scary to think about lol but super exciting at the same time. Sometimes I feel so inadequate for this work. I have so much to learn I feel. I am really relying on the Lords help and he is blessing me greatly. Some more exciting news is I get to Host this week!!!!! I am so excited!!! And Tcox comes in I could totally Host him!!! That would be so sweet I am so excited to see him! I cant wait to host but I am afraid I actually might cry lol So it should be very interesting if I am trying to bring this Elder into the MTC and I am crying more than him lol I think I could give the moms a run for their money! haha So I will definitely keep you posted on how that whole thing goes for sure! Nothing on Visa Stuff. 4 elders got theirs this week so things are starting to move a lot better it seems. It is pretty cold here now which kinda sucks! It even snowed this week!!! I am better ready for the cold than a lot of Elders I have my sweatshirt and coat so I am good a lot of people just have there suit coat nothing else. Oh and now since the weather is colder everyone has to wear their suits all the time now which really sucks for us one suit elders we have to wear the same thing everyday should be fun haha and my style choices have gone down even more. Now I don't even get to choose what pants I want to wear. I only get to choose my tie now, pretty sad... lol I am doing well though the beginning of the week wasn't very good but I am a lot better now and happy. I am so tired though I cant believe it!! I haven't felt like I've have had a good nights sleep in forever! I could really use a catch up day but I wont get one of those for hmm lets see.... another 22 and a half months!! lol But its all part of the mission experience living two years with next to no sleep haha I am good though so no worries I am still living the MTC up lol doing the same thing everyday I love it!! lol I did get to go to the BYU health clinic last week because Elder Harston needed someone to go with him to his Physical therapy. It was so nice to get out of here!! lol Well that's about it for this week thanks for all of the DearElders again I love them!! Thanks for all of the love and support you give me!! I love and miss you all tons have a great week!!

Love Elder Novakovich

P.S. Hey dad for your question with helping members staying active once they get baptized, we had someone come and talk to us about that. The number one thing is they have to keep reading the Book of Mormon! If they continue to read it they will stay strong in the church! Second Tithing which really shocked me but is really cool. If members pay their tithing they will more likely stay a strong member of church. If they really understand the importance of it, it will bless their lives greatly! That's about all the advice I have haha love you

P.S.S. How did Lexi's wedding go??? it would be cool to get some pictures of that!

Conference Weekend

2011-10-03T11:04:00.001-07:00

Hello family

Hey my loving family! What a crazy week it has been. Lots of good stuff happened. First Tuesday devotional was amazing! But I am having the hardest time remembering who it was! lol A week is like a year in here. But I do know he was of the Seventy, so that's cool. He gave such good advice to everyone. He was so funny and so spiritually uplifting. The talks that are given here are one of the biggest things that help me keep going. It always seems like whenever I am really down we have a great speaker that totally changes my attitude and helps me realize why I am here and what I need to be doing. The MTC has once again played some crazy mind tricks on me. lol Once again the whole time thing in here is all messed up. Second I have totally forgotten things I thought I could never forget like what the heck my cell phone looks like! lol I was just sitting there and I saw one of the teachers using his and I remembered Hey! I used to have one of those things! I then tried to remember what the thing looked like and no luck. lol I just laughed at myself. The longer I am in here the more and more the real world is unreal and fades out of my head. When I got set apart to be an Elder I was literally set apart from the world. They really stress that here. That we are no longer part of the world and our setting apart is to be taken literally.
The most exciting news of the week was Wednesday!! The travel office called me down to fill out my Online Visa Stuff!!! So that's awesome because now I could get my Visa at any time! But the bad news is it could still be awhile. One kid here filled his online stuff out and two hours later her had his Visa! Crazy! But some people have filled their stuff out and they have been waiting a couple months still. So I am hoping I will get my Visa very soon so I can head to Brazil ASAP!!! So that's the really good news of the week so I will let you know if I hear anything about anything this week.
The Language is coming along good. Tuesday was a horrible day for Portuguese and I was so frustrated because I couldn't say anything in my lessons or even talking to people! Lets just say it was a long, long day for me. And that next day our district was planning on having a day where we only speak Portuguese... I was not very excited lol So that night I had a very long conversation with the Lord begging for help with the language. I haven't really prayed that hard for something. So after the prayer I tried to change my attitude and be happy and went to bed. The happiness shortly left when my alarm then went off at 6:30! lol I hate that time!! It feels like I get absolutely no sleep. But I get up and go to the shower which always cheers me right up! lol So after I got all clean The time came that we all had to speak nothing but Portuguese I tried to start the day with a good attitude towards it because I knew if I didn't, it would be bad. So needless to say the Portuguese was great! I remembered almost everything and I really did good with the language! I was so excited and the more I spoke that more I wanted to speak to people in Portuguese! It ended up being a great day because we had lessons and I did pretty well in them and I was able to talk to everyone in Portuguese! I was so excited and knew that God had truly heard my prayer and helped me greatly. I have been so humbled by this whole experience of learning a new language it really has helped me gain a better relationship with my father in heaven. He has helped me so much more than I could ever think and more than I could ever repay. This helps me a lot when I feel like being lazy or get distracted. I remember all that he has done for me and I really have no good reason to be lazy so I kick myself back into gear.
I am very thankful for everything I learned before this. I am so thankful for you mom and dad who have shown me how to work hard and never give up. That is one of the greatest blessings you have given me. I thank you so much for dong that. And for never giving up on me when I did want to give up. Thank you for this great blessing mom and dad it has really changed my life and will continue to make me the missionary I need to be as I work hard and put myself in the Lords hands. Thanks for the great examples you have been to me and making me realize the importance of hard work. I love you!!
General Conference was awesome!! and such a nice break from the everyday routine. It was the first time I have actually watched all the sessions of conference. It was a very good experience though and I will forever try and watch every session of it from now on. All the talks where so good! I have a ton of notes to go over now lol But all the talks helped me in some form, which was really cool. I had a lot of questions going in because our teacher said to write questions down that you want to have answered during conference and low and behold, all my questions got answered. Pretty cool I thought. It really helped me realize that all the words and speakers of conference are inspired. I loved hearing from the prophet it was really amazing how he can speak. It really touched me; everything he said. And he is a very funny guy haha I loved his stories. During Priesthood session Jeffrey R. Holland spoke. I'm sure dad saw it but wow! that man blows my mind. He speaks with such strength and power of the Holy Ghost. It reminded me of when he spoke here my first week. It was amazing it was like his talk at Priesthood but directly to missionaries and he really got passionate haha he speaks with amazing power. I love him!
After Conference was all over we had a Sunday Fireside. Not really looking forward to sitting in the same chairs for two more hours haha I was kinda reluctant to go. And to tell the truth Conference really made me think of home a lot and eating all the food and watching with family. I was pretty home sick during the whole thing which wasn't good but my spirits where getting lifted by the spirit of the talks. I was missing home and seeing and being with everyone. So another meeting didn't sound very good to me. Then just like I said earlier, whenever I was down we always have a great talk. Then bam! Chad Lewis was our speaker!! And Holy Cow he did amazing!! my second favorite talk since being here, he snuck right in behind Jeffrey R. Holland. haha he did so good. He is a great motivational speaker and was really able to connect to me personally. He spoke of his mission and how it has blessed him and his family and how his mission opened so many doors for him in life. It was crazy and I wish you could have all been here to hear it!! He gave me so many good ideas and thoughts and inspiration and now I cant wait even more to get out into the field and teach. He is pretty much living the perfect dream life but he was so humble and thankful for everything he has. Its crazy the things he has gotten to do and be apart of. But once again he was so humble and a great guy. After the talk I was filled once again with the fire to do missionary work like never before and I cant wait to get into the field and fall in love with all the people I come into contact with. I really cant wait to meet the people of brazil!
A little fun story of the week was after the Saturday morning conference session Elder Rawlings and I went on a Temple walk ( which are like the best things ever in the MTC!!!!) lol But we where just walking and we started talking to this family who was visiting from California. It was so great to talk to "real people" as we call them here in the MTC. So anyone not in the MTC is a "real person" and we don't get to see them a lot so being able to actually talk to "real people" was a dream come true! I only talked for like 5 minutes and I felt a love for all of them! It was really cool! They where so cool and had really cool accents! It was great we found out one of them had gotten baptized three weeks earlier which was cool. Then the parents said they had gotten baptized 30 years ago because of two missionaries like us. He shared how thankful he was for what we where doing and the time we are putting forth to serve a mission. I felt the Spirit so strongly as he thanked us for being who we were. It was such a cool experience and I will never forget. This experience made me want even more to get into the field and bring this truth that we have to people. Well that's my story for the week its pretty cool.
Our last roommates moved out so Elder Rawlings and I were alone for a couple of nights and we were very excited to get knew Elders so we could raise them! lol Wednesday passed and no new Elders. We were very sad about this. Then on Friday two Elders moved in to our room and we were very excited till we found out they had already been here for two weeks! We then got very sad about not getting to raise new Elders. But some good news is they might be moving out this week so we could get real new Elders. So that's what I am hoping for!!! Oh and they are gong to Tahiti. All I want is some real new Elders this week lol Or my Visa would be nice!!
That's about it for this week it was a good one with some homesickness but everything is great and I am doing great. The Language is coming good, that makes me happy. And I am even learning some Japanese lol the room right next to us are going to Japan so we talk to them a lot lol. And oh some sister missionaries contacted us and they said they would be speaking Italian so I was like oh great more languages I don't understand lol then they started speaking and for some strange reason I knew what they were saying and could understand them! My companion then made fun of me for being able to understand more Italian than Portuguese because the two are very similar. I haven't seen Sister Novakovich at all but the sisters in my district said they say her so I will keep looking, it would be really cool to meet her so hopefully soon.
Thanks for all of your letters love and support I love you all!!! have a great week family!!!

Love Elder Novakovich

Great Devotionals

2011-09-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hello my long lost family!

My luck continues! Last Tuesdays devotional was given by Elder Nelson! Another Apostle! That makes like 3 out of 4 devotionals that have been by Apostles! I guess I really came into the MTC at the right time. He gave a super good talk about some mission stuff! He was so funny but so spiritual at the same time, it was crazy good! The devotionals have really been one of the best parts of being here. They always give me the help I need to keep working hard day to day. We always get really good seats for the devos so that's always good haha Sundays are great too!! last Sunday brother Allen gave a talk. He is a missionary adviser guy idk lol but he gave such good talk it was so funny and he has so many great points during it. It was like he knew everything I had ever thought about here he addressed I swear he had a wire on me and heard everything I have ever said lol it was so good and I got some really good ideas and advice from it.
This week hasn't been to exciting really. lol One really exciting news is I have passed the half way point in the MTC!!! The days are so long but the weeks are so fast! Time in here really is strange I think I might be in the twighlight zone or something! lol We have a little white board in our room and we have a count down till we get out of here. haha Elder Oxborrow our roommate keeps it updated, but he leaves on Thursday so I guess either Elder Rawlings or myself will have to step up and take care of it.
Our beloved roommate Elder Mclaws left on Friday... it was a sad day. lol He was a really cool guy and he always had fun stuff to talk about. He was always reciting some poetry from a guy he listened to before he came out. lol We had tons of fun with him. When he left it was quit and sad so we just talked about him and all the funny things he did. I can't believe how you can only know someone for a month and feel like you have known him your entire life. The other day I was talking to Elder Harston and he was talking about his family and for some reason I found myself trying to remember his mom like I should know her. lol Like we were best friends and we hung out at eachotheres houses. lol it was so pretty funny because I then realized I have no ideas who the heck his family was! This place is playing some weird tricks on my head! My cabeça is going CRAZY!! lol Elder Rawlings and myself have been convinced that this is a brain washing facility haha its truly its own little world within a world. ah!! I don't even know how to describe the crazy things it makes you think. I am convinced there is no real world out there now! lol
Oh I forgot to tell you Elder Mclaws who left no Friday went to Anaheim California! which is cool and then our other roommate got re-assigned to South Dakota! lol he was very happy about that one. We have had some fun teasing him about it. He is upset because he has no cold weather stuff and he is the only one in his district who is going somewhere cold lol Everyone else went to Texas, California and Florida! so he felt like he got the short end of the stick but he will do great he is a really hard working Elder.
I have been doing great. I am actually starting to get this Portuguese thing. lol I mean I am not good but I am decent. There has been a lot of improvement this past week! Elder nelson said "obedience brings blessings, Exact obedience brings miracles" I really liked that and so I have been really trying my best to do that. I have been getting some grief for trying to do everything right on time from my district but I just keep going. My district is hard working but sometimes they just get off track and distracted and are usually late to things. So Elder Rawling and I always leave so we can get to places on time and such. Hopefully we can get everyone else to try a little harder. But the blessings for doing it has already helped especially with the language! Which is the one thing I really need help on so that's good.
Elder Rawlings and I are getting along good. I think we are one of the strongest companionships. Most of everyone else is starting to get a little frustrated with their companions. Its kinda funny how people are starting to find little things in each other that bug us. Elder Rawlings and I just tease each other about everything's so its pretty fun. we are really getting along well and that helps a ton when we are teaching. We are starting to get the routine down for lessons we are starting to work off each other which is really fun and the spirit is felt even stronger when we do. I have to be an investigator for one of the companionships in our district so that will be pretty fun haha it will be need to be on the other side of the discussion.
One thing I have really learned about this week is how awesome the Book of Mormon is!! Its sweet!! haha I read it as much as I can. I have really started to fall in love with it! Its the coolest book ever! Ever since I have been here its been opened up to me greatly! the stories seem even more real than ever! I love reading it and sharing what I have read with people. I know its scary but I think I might actually be kinda sad when I have to leave this place. Well I wont miss this food!! I am so sick of cafeteria food!!!! I would kill to get a home made dinner from mom!
The world is coming great and I am getting so many blessings that I am sure I don't deserve. My testimony is growing so much everyday. I love at the end of the day when I am about to climb into bed I just think of how crazy this is but how fun and hard and rewarding it has been. I love it here and I am really starting to realize that there is nothing I would rather do than be on a mission right now.
I hope all is going well at home. I think about you guys all the time. The worst was knowing that the Mountain West Classic was this weekend! I love that race and the whole thing. I was pretty jealous you guys got to be there and watch. I miss running a lot I think my legs are getting a little soft.... lol I haven't been running a lot I have been playing to much soccer! lol I gotta get all the help I can get before I get my butt kicked by the Brazilian toddlers. Oh something fun do you remember that professional soccer player I was telling you about awhile ago from brazil? well he is going to Toronto Canada on his mission!! pretty cool I thought.
well I better go. I am doing great and really starting to fall in love with the work. I miss you guys a ton and think about you all the time. Thanks for all of the DearElders! I love them! Have a great week cant wait to hear from you soon. I love you all!!!!

Love Elder Novakovich

Giving a blessing

2011-09-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Oi! Everybody

I can't believe another week is gone! Time really goes so fast here but they are the longest days of my life! It seems like I have only been at the MTC a short time but at the same time it feels like I have never known anything else. it's like I was born here. lol But as long as time keeps flying by, I will be happy. Even though I do love it here, it will be so so nice to get back into the real world where there are people who aren't wearing a name tag! haha I just want to get out and start to teach people!
This morning we got to go to the Temple which is really nice. It's pretty cool. We walk over at around 6:30 in the morning when its dark. Then we come out and the sun is just coming over the mountains and its so pretty! There is a really cool view from the Provo Temple. It over looks pretty much all of Provo as I'm sure you already know but its looks really cool in the morning. I can even see BYU football field haha where the beating took place... Missionaries where going crazy around here trying to find the score from someone! lol Elder Rawlings and I where walking around outside and we could hear the music from the stadium! It was pretty sad lol but then we heard the crowed go wild for something. We are guessing it was when the team ran onto the field then we got really sad. haha but it was all good we where able to find out the score from some teachers lol We had to go to bed knowing it was 14-10 Utah so we didn't know the real damage till the next morning lol sounds like BYU is well, still BYU. It sucks that they got killed. I kept thinking of that old guy who gave us our tour and was so excited that the team was going to be so good this year... guess he didn't see that one coming! lol But its all good. I think Madi was at the game I knew she was planning on going, but don't know if she made it. Leta had her marathon this weekend I hope she did good and had fun with that, you probably know more than I do at this point.
Life at the MTC is still the same haha same thing everyday. We teach one or two investigators a day in Portuguese. That's always fun. Its been hard to really feel the Spirit during the lessons because of the struggle with the language. Elder Rawlings and I decided to not use notes anymore and just try the best we can with what we know. The first lesson we taught was really cool. It was the best one we have had yet! Plus the Spirit was really strong! It was a really cool lesson, I cant wait to really teach real investigators!! Once I know the Language a little better though that would be nice. Portuguese is still tuff. I have been making some improvements with it though. I think I am only like the second to worse person in our district now!! lol I really cant do this by myself. I still am getting on my knees several times a day just asking for help with the language, well now its become more of a beg. lol but I am slowly getting better. That's all that matters I guess. On Thursday mornings we do a thing called TRC. Its where we go teach a member about something. Once again in Portuguese. The members are usually people who just got off their mission so they know it really well. Last week we taught a sister who just got home a few months ago. HOLY COW!! we asked her one question and she took off! She was talking so stinking fast my mind stopped. I think I might even have blacked out! lol She just kept going and I couldn't help but just start laughing! She then started laughing too and she tried to slow it down for us. She did good till about the next question we asked then boom! She was going again lol In the end it all worked out I had no idea what she was saying but at the end I just shared a scripture and bore my testimony of it. It really brought the Spirit when we went to the scriptures and started bearing our testimonies. It was pretty cool. So that's how the language is going.
My roommates are getting their re-assignments this Wednesday! So that will be exciting to hear where they will be off to. They are really cool Elders. We get along with them really well so that makes things just that much more fun. haha Elder Rawlings filled out his online Visa application on Wednesday! loser haha he was pretty excited so that's cool. Still no word on my stuff. Who knows when it will come. But I guess whatever happens is happening for a reason, so I try not to get to upset about it. There are only 4 of us who haven't done their online stuff now. I could very well be the last one haha One kid got his Visa this week so he is leaving but he is from another district. He has only been here 2 weeks lucky kid! I will let you know as soon as I know anything about that stuff.
The Tuesday devotional was really good once again! Elder Ballard came!! I have been so lucky to get two Apostles! The last group that left the week I got here were here for 9 weeks and not one came. They left the day before Elder Holland came. Which would suck big time. But he gave a great talk. Its amazing how they just get up there with nothing and totally go by the Spirit and they are always so good! I tried to take notes as fast as possible but he kept saying great stuff while I was trying to write down the other great thing he said! lol It was again on stuff about missionary work. It was really motivating. I love the talks we get to hear here the speakers are amazing. I am actually excited for Conference now! haha which is a good thing! Lets hope I can stay awake thought.
Sleep is a hard thing to come by here, even at night. I feel tired all the time! even in the mornings haha its a never ending tired. I got sad when I realized I don't get to sleep in for TWO years!! not one day! lol I will do a lot of sleeping if I ever get home. Two years seems so long when you think about it, so I like to think of it in months lol it just seems better to me!
The MTC is a great place like I have said before, but when I just take a second to really think about it its awesome. The opportunities it is giving me are incredible. It really makes you grow when you are in here. I feel like I have already changed so much. I look at things in different ways than I used to. I really rely on the Lord to help me get through every second of the day. Everyday is a test here, but at the end of the day, its a great feeling to know that I have worked as hard as I could today. It is easy to get distracted sometimes, but I am doing a good job in staying focused. Some elders in my district like to goof around which is silly. I really enjoy personal study time when I get to study the things I want and read the scriptures. I have learned to love the Book of Mormon. Its a great book and I find myself reading it every chance I get. It has helped my every time I open it. My testimony of it is growing a ton which is awesome!
A really cool story for the week is about the guy who blew out his ACL playing soccer. He had surgery on Tuesday and the night before, he asked if I would give him a blessing. It caught me totally off guard because I had never given one before. I was pretty nervous so I checked on what I was supposed to do and when the time came to give the blessing. Just my luck the Branch President walked in and asked if he could watch. This made me even more nervous knowing he was there. When I started all the nervousness left me. It was amazing, I felt calm. As I started the blessing not knowing what to say my mind just seemed to shut off. But words just came out of my mouth. The Spirit was really strong. I had really no idea what I was going to say next and things just kept coming out. It was truly the Spirit talking and not me. It was one of the coolest things I have been able to do here. It was awesome how the Spirit was able to flow through me and help me say the things that needed to be said. Elder Harston just got up and game me a big hug after. That's his name Elder Harston who tore his ACL. He is 25 years old and a really cool guy. His story of how he came out here is pretty cool. We have been getting along really well and have become good friends. The blessing only bonded us more. I was so thankful for the opportunity that I had to do that for him. It strengthened me greatly. His surgery went great. He has been on some pretty good drugs lol so its funny because he looks like a drug addict haha His leg is really bruised its all purple almost up the whole leg to his toes! pretty intense I thought. He is doing well though starting to get out and about so that's good to see.
I am doing great! I am really starting to hit the work with some stride! Thank you so much for the packages!!!! they were great! Thanks for all the food that you got, its perfect and everything that I wanted haha Thanks for the clothes as well they are good. How is the cross team doing?? I wish I could race with them again! I miss it so much I miss competing!! How did Darbi like the goat hill?? haha that thing sucks but its awesome!! How is mom liking to work? that sounds pretty cool that she gets to see Zoe sometimes Thanks again for the Packages I should be set for a long long time to come for food haha I love you guys so much, thanks for all of your support and love that you give me! I miss you tons and think and pray for you all the time!! have a great week

Love Elder Novakovich

Week 3 in the MTC

2011-09-12T10:47:00.001-07:00

Oi famíilia

I can't believe another week has gone by already! The days are so long here but the weeks just fly by like they never even happened! This is a good thing though because as great as the MTC is, I still can't wait to get into the field! I do have to say I am kinda sad right now but only because all my international friends from Brazil and France are leaving today and Wednesday! :( I am a little jealous that they only had to stay three weeks here because there speaking English, lucky dogs! Tcox will be here for the perfect amount of time, three weeks. 3 weeks would be perfect but no I have.. get to, stay here for 9 weeks!! Its going to be a journey for sure. I do have to say that I have really fallen in love with the MTC though the only reason I want to leave is because I want to actually teach people! I am so excited to get out there and share this amazing message that we have for them. Sorry if I don't answer questions that you may have written in DearElders because they are moving the post office place so I won't get any DearElders till Wednesday or Thursday I think, which is going to suck. This week has been really crazy as usual, but so enjoyable as well. P-days are always a nice break from the intense schedule that we have to follow everyday. Laundry is always exciting because you have hundreds of Elders and Sisters trying to do all their laundry at the same time and there are never enough washers to go around. So everyone is waiting for someone's load to be done so they can use it. Its crazy. It's funny to watch some people get really upset and frustrated with it. I like to just sit and laugh. The problem I have is I don't know how much soap to put in. So I just put as much as my little heart wants. It seems to have worked out so far. My clothes always come out clean and smell good and that's all that matters to me!
Our Tuesday devotional was pretty good. Jay E. Jenson spoke. It was helpful he talked about how lots of missionaries get discouraged because their investigators don't except their commitment invitations. He taught that we all have to look for what he called the "gorilla walking across the room" which means the hidden things that the investigators will say or do that a lot of missionaries don't catch. It was a very good talk as usual. Sunday fireside was good last night. We watched a small video about 9/11 and then the motab choir did a concert kinda thing for 9/11 that we watched. It was pretty intense. There where a lot of tears in the crowd. It even got me a little, which it really never has before. I think this is because the whole big message was families. It really touched my heart about how many people lost there loved ones. It gave me an even greater love for you guys and how truly much I love you.
I cant even describe the ways my mission has already changed my life! Its truly amazing how much love the Lord has for all of us. The experiences I have had here are incredible. I already know that this is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. The things I have learned the things I've felt are impossible to describe. The Spirit is so strong here at the MTC. Anywhere I go, I know its right with me. A lot of speakers tell us that we have angels lifting us up here and as missionaries and I know its true. I have changed so much in how I act and how I look at things. I know it's the Spirit teaching me what I am truly supposed to be. One of the biggest lessons I have learned here is to rely upon the Lord. I have been humbled so much these past weeks. With trying to learn a new language, leaving everything I've ever known, and not being able to talk to those I love. It really has been a humbling experience and I've learned that I can not do this by myself. I know that the Lord is helping me in ways I don't even know. But he has really helped me in ways I could never forget. I have really learned how to depend on the Lord. Prayer has helped me so much here. My prayers have really become one of the most important things to me here. They help me so much through out the day.
On another note, Portuguese lol what a smack in the face that has been. But the really cool thing is these past couple of days I have been doing pretty well with it. I can actually understand some that my teachers say while standing there and talking for six hours a day! lol which has turned out to be very helpful, considering in the past I sat there and looked at them with a confused look on my face and just asked my companion what they where saying. But I have been doing good just the last few days which I am really excited about! Whenever I say a sentence in Portuguese in class everyone claps because I actually know something. lol The Lord is the only reason I have learned what I have in Portuguese because, well, I cant do it myself lol.
My district is so cool! Everyone gets a long really well which is a huge thing here at the MTC. A lot of districts have some problems. One just had a kid go home because he was sick of everyone around him. But mine gets along so well. Its really cool to see how we have bonded and come together. My companion, Elder Rawlings, and I are still doing good. We tease each other a lot so that's always fun. He makes fun of my Portuguese... everyone does. lol but its all in good fun. We are still getting a long well and haven't had any big arguments yet. We have this window we always go look out when we are sad. lol We call it the Window of Life. haha We even wrote a poem about it that is three pages long. lol I have to admit we are pretty good poem writers! But the window just looks over all of Provo and we can see pretty much all of BYU which is cool. It always makes us happier to to look out and know there is still a real world out there. Our district always has someone tell their life story when we finally get back to our rooms. So wee all know each other pretty well. lol There are a lot of different backgrounds; some pretty amazing, others usual, and others pretty bad, but we all get along so well its amazing really.
We get in 50 mins of gym time and we always go play soccer which is awesome!! There are so many kids that are so good its pretty crazy haha but 50 of us play at the same time of day. It is not even close to enough to what we need so there is always some goofing around in the residence halls at night lol There just so happens to be some wrestlers by us and one in my district so there is always a wrestling match going on in a room with everyone watching. lol Its funny to see everyone wrestle. It makes me laugh! I hadn't really gotten into the whole wrestling in the rooms because the floors are literally crappy carpet on cement lol so its super hard. But the other night Elder Fish who wrestled in Washington but on the other side of the state he wrestled 135 and his companion who is a huge black guy lol he is like 6'3 easy 200+ pounds and nothing but muscle like seriously one of the most cut guys I have ever seen!! lol we where just messing with each other poking fun and then Elder McIntyre who is the huge guy and I were just playing and pushing around then we started wrestling lol pretty crazy lol after a little big of crashing into things I finally took him down lol but in the process got some pretty bad rug burns and a bump on the head lol I have rug burns across my forehead and next to my eye lol it looks like I was in a bar fight or something haha he got a pretty good cut on his back from the bunk bed lol I got some pretty good pictures of my head I'll have to send you but in the end I won so don't worry lol everyone was surprised I won haha but it was all in the name of good fun. Plus I'm not someone to back down from a challenge lol but I'm all good and we are still friends haha
The food is still the same lol it tastes pretty good most of the time but your belly never likes it lol
I hope Zoe starts to like the school. I was sad to hear she had to sit on the floor for lunch because the cafeteria was to small. They should make one like the MTCs. Its so biiiiig! haha Oh dad for the host thing you only get to do it your 8th week in the MTC and they just ask you to do it so we will have to see. It would be fun to do that. When does T-Cox come here?? Not a lot of Visa stuff going on here yet about 5 Elders got theirs this week and are leaving to the Brazil MTC so that's lucky, but still no word on my stuff which kinda sucks. A lot of people are getting reassigned to the US the last group had a lot of people get assigned to Provo lol how lucky! I'll let you now whenever I hear about my stuff for sure. I haven't heard from Madi in over a week how is she dong? Must be staying busy with school. I guess you guys stopped paying her to be my friend. lol jk jk I got a letter from Tcox which was awesome and Marissa!! that was really cool and I did get the letters from the primary kids haha that was nice of them to remember me lol they only wrote me to get points for class, they made sure to tell me that haha Well I am doing good here nothing bad has happened oh wait lol a guy in our district tore his ACL and is getting surgery tomorrow and one of the sisters in our district a has a nasty infection from here foot. But I'm great, just some scabs on my head lol and still working hard with everything. I love you all hope you have a great week. Can't wait to here from you! I miss you tons and love you more!!

Love Elder Novakovich

No longer a Newbie

2011-09-05T12:45:00.001-07:00

Hello Family!

This week has been so much better than last! Now that I have the hang of things, it so much better! Tuesday was awesome! Jeffrey R. Holland spoke at the devotional and it was absolutely incredible. He gave the best talk I have ever heard! He spoke on missionary work. Haha no surprise. The way he was able to deliver his message was mind blowing! He spoke with the power of the Spirit like I had never heard before. His talk has truly changed my life and the way I will look at missionary work forever! It was just what I needed to keep me going. He spoke for little over an hour and I was sad when it was done I would have sat there all night just listening to what he had to say! That experience really testified to me that he is truly an Apostle of God. It was crazy! When he ended his talk everyone was kind of in shock. I think everyone's mind was blown all over the place lol It was one of the most spiritual experience I have ever had.
Wednesday was great mostly because I was no longer the newest in the MTC! haha But it was also a good day for Portuguese I actually learned some stuff and whenever that happens its a good day. To tell you the truth, Portuguese is still killing me! Its been so hard for me to learn a new language! I have really just put all the faith I have into God and I hope he can help me lol jk but I do need all the help I can possibly get from him. But I'm sure I will get it eventually... Class is just great lol I love sitting in a tiny room with just enough space for 12 really small uncummfy desks and a teacher and sitting there for 6 hours a day! Its my favorite!! lol But its also the most useful thing to learn the language since the teacher sits in front and rants about who knows what while everyone in the class does but me. The whole time and starting tomorrow our teachers wont understand English so now I cant even ask questions lol its going to force me into learning I guess.
Thursday was just the same old day; wake up, shower, breakfast, class, teach class meeting, bed haha. One of the hardest parts of being here is there is literally no time to just sit and take a breath and relax. Every second is planned our for us and always have to be doing something somewhere.
Friday was a bad day. We where so busy we had a lot of class and the language was worst as ever for me. I was getting so frustrated! My brain was about to pop and I had a horrible head ache and a stomach ache; just wasn't a good day. it was one of those days where you feel like you cant do anything right no matter how hard you try. Toward the end of the day I was just so done and I needed help so I just said I quick prayer and when we went back to class the teacher put on a video clip. In it was an answer to my prayer. it gave me so much comfort. Before I was so done, and had no ideas what I was doing here, and this video was about a missionaries story of baptizing someone and it comforted me so much it helped me keep going. It was really cool!
Saturday was the usual class, nothing really exciting happened besides we did get the day off and we didn't have to teach an investigator so that was really nice but we had more class instead lol
Sundays are amazing here! Its my favorite day of the week... never thought I would say that but its so true I love them. Its so nice just to get to read my scriptures and go to really good firesides that are always so amazing and spiritual. The MTC is an amazing place. its the best/ worst place ever haha it can be so amazing one second then horrible the next I guess that's part of being a missionary though huh? lol but the good outweighs the bad by a lot so that's good.
P-day today we didn't get to go to the temple because its closed due to the holiday idk what it is. lol because days don't exist here, everyday is the same. The DearElders are awesome mom and dad! I love getting to read what you have to say at the end of the day it helps so much. thank you so much I love you tons. I miss the family a lot. I found it better to try and not think about it and that helps just trying to get lost in learning here. NO word on the Visa stuff only a few people have gone to brazil everyone is getting reassignments to the states I hope I don't but we'll have to see what happens.
I am holding up good, no need to worry haha I have grown so much spiritually its really cool how the lord watches over us missionaries he has a deep love that is really awesome its been good so far. keep up the good work with the DearElders, its great!! I miss you guys a lot and love you all so much have a good week I love you

Love Elder Novakovich

And here we go again.

2011-08-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

We will now be updating our blog once again because as of last Wednesday, we have another missionary in the field. So we will post his letters each week.

hello everyone!

I am dong good. A lot of what went on in the first day I sent in a letter so I hope you got that. The first couple of days sucked. I have to admit they have us gong every second of the day and there is no time to even think straight. You have a schedule for every minute so no lollygagging around in the MTC. It has definitely been a learning experience for me.
My companion is Elder Rawling from California. He is a good guy. We get along pretty well and we are both willing to work hard so when we have the opportunity to do so we do. He is a lot better at Portuguese than me because he took 3 years of Spanish so he has a head start along with everyone else in my district. There are 12 of us. They all have some kind of background in Spanish and then there is me... with nothing but a tiny bit if French so I am deffinatly; well ill be honest the worst in the district at the language but they enjoy me making mistakes. I am able to keep everyone laughing so im good for something around here lol. I have learned a lot as I said in the letter. the teacher speaks no English at all and its three hour class in a tiny room and super hot and sweaty and pretty stinky lol after about two and a half hours of class I really start to mentally check out because its at the end of the day and my brain is being stuffed full of everything. I have learned how to introduce myself, say a little prayer and I am pretty good at testifying in Portuguese but still have a ton to learn.
the days are so long here its amazing. By the time noon rolls around you feel like you have already done a days work. But its only begun. Sunday is when it really turned the corner for me. Time started to go by faster and I was able to relax a little because I am familiar with everything going on. Sunday was amazing the best Sunday I have ever had. it was so spiritually intense! for the first time I was able to personally read my scriptures which hasn't happened since I got here because I was to busy trying to get lessons ready and talks. But when I finally was able to read them it was awesome! The scriptures have really opened up to me. things make sense that never have before when I read them. In here its so much easier to really imagine and see the story and to believe what's in them. It's so amazing the way the spirit is able to do that, especially for me! oh and I even joined the MTC choir!!!! lol I thought it would be fun so I convinced two other elders from my district to join me; Elder Hogg and Elder Harston which was fun lol. The conductor not only thought us a song but he incorporated it with the scriptures it was so good the spirit was so strong and the conductor was able to tell the story of Abraham and I was able to realize things that I hadn't before!
Reading the scriptures and hearing the lessons of them is now like I knew them personally. The spirit here has really worked on me haha I hope I didn't steal from someone else... Sacrament meeting was fun lol. some Elders gave there talks in Portuguese so I had no idea what was said and the sacrament prayer was also said in Portuguese so good thing I know what it says lol but how they give talks is after the sacrament the mission pres gets up and says two names and if your name gets called then you have to go straight up and give your talk so everyone has to prepare a talk every Sunday haha its not bad though it doesn't have to be long. Oh Elder Rawling and I taught an investigator on our third day here! in Portuguese!!! knowing almost nothing it went, well... horrible lol Elder Rawling did really good considering the situation but I was only able to say a tiny bit lol it was so crazy. she said things and I just starred at her like she was speaking another language! lol I cant wait for the day I can understand and speak some real Portuguese. the first nights I didn't sleep well at all no surprise there. And as for the food... its not to bad taste wise but it does tear up your insides for sure lets just say my best friend is the toilet lol and yes gas is always a problem haha. I still haven't heard anything from madi she has probably forgotten all about me and moved on already. Looking out the MTC and seeing the real world is really weird. I have to admit its like its so far away idk how to explain it but it is weird for sure.
Today we got to go to the temple and it was really cool with all the missionaries I love being in the temple, its really relaxing. OH!! I saw Elder Augie Rife here!! the first day! lol at dinner and I get to see him everyday. His classroom is just on the other side of the building of mine so we see each other a lot but he leaves tomorrow so that sucks and he has been able to really help me. I had a really bad day Saturday and I just sat and talked to him for a little and he helped a ton. I miss you guys a ton. WRITE ALL YOU WANT ON DEARELDER.COM I love getting mail! Only what you have sent is what ive got. Write everyday if you want. I gotta go. I love you all so much have a great week I love you!!

Love Elder Novakovich
its weird im an elder

2011-05-29T13:28:00.001-07:00

Well, I got a hold of the family blog so I'm going to start updating the Novakovich family from now on. -Zoe
Nick is now married to Ryleigh (Riggin) Novakovich.
Jaren is about to leave on his mission in August to Santa Maria, Brazil.
Darbi just started Driver's Ed. and got her permit. So look out world for a very unstable, driver. ;)
I (Zoe), just got finished up with track and placed 1st in 3 out of 4 of my events and 3rd in one of them. :)
Carli may or may not be pregnant, we are still unsure. Boomer is still alive (miraculously) and is 6 years old.

Cool kid date idea.

2010-08-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

The other day our older kids were at youth conference. Zoe wanted to do something fun and so we took her downtown and took pictures of different things that spelled out the letters in her name. She had a blast taking the pictures and looking for those objects that looked like the letters she needed. It was an inexpensive day that she had a blast doing.

Last Transfer

2010-06-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

mom and dad-

Well i did get transfered!! but not to PEI...I am going to a place called Sydney. it is in nova scotia but on an island called Cape Breton. i hear it is nice up there. so i'm excited about it. kinda a weird ride of emotions for me the past few days. i realized how short my time is out here. it all started yesterday when we got transfers. we were up in Dartmouth for meetings. but president pulled me aside and thanked me for my service as a zone leader and told me what he expected of me up in Sydney. I won't be a ZL any more. which was kind of weird. President told me that i will serve with a elder Bain, he is a cool kid. he is from Atlanta Georgia. i have served around him before. but president told me to go serve with him for six weeks then i am going to train a new missionary and then i go home. but i got to thinking about it and it made me choke up a bit. i just didn't like the thought that i go home soon. i love it out here and to be honest, coming home scares me a bit right now. i don't know what is going to happen. kind of a leap of faith really. i know it will work out it is just a big transition. i don't know. my plans right now are to work for the fall and then got to SCC in the winter time. finish my AA and then transfer somewhere. my options right now are Eastern, Whitworth, or BYU. i might look into Oregon, but the big thing for me is where can i go that is cheap. i know whitworth is not cheap but i might try and play baseball. but other than that things are going well for me. i'm excited for this transfer coming up. it is going to make time go by so fast. it will be a change of pace for sure after being a zone leader for an entire year and a bit. but it will be nice to just focus on being in the area and loving the people and doing straight missionary work for 3 months. mom and dad i can't tell you how much i love it out here. this place has become a part of me, i love it so much. i love the people. i love the gospel. and i love testifying to people. I feel like i have grown so much and become a pretty new person. i have learned a lot of valuable lessons and i love to teach people. Teaching is just one of my favorite things to do. i love the scriptures, they are amazing. i just love it all. that is cool that Darren got his mission call. that will be fun for him to be there. i actually watched it on their blog site. so i thought that was cool. but i love you all and hope that things continue to go well for you. i'm excited to tear things up on the wakeboard when i get home. i really want to go atleast once before you put it away for the winter. i don't care how cold it is. sounds like you are all doing really well. mom i got your package so thanks. i love you all so much and can't wait to see you. it is going to fly by, but i'm soaking it up dad. thanks for the advice. love ya.

Elder Nick Novakovich

4 months left

2010-05-19T10:30:00.001-07:00

mom and dad-

thanks for the emails this week, they both brought a big smile to my face. that is so cool that jaren and darbi did so well with their track meets. I'm telling you, jaren could run track for university easy. just get him to talk to matt about how he got to BYU and get his times out there. but that is all up to him. and tell Darbi that i am proud of her. that is too bad that zoe still likes to run, i feel like the black sheep of the family, being the only one who doesn't do the running thing. I have been thinking a lot about the whole baseball thing for when i get home, and i am just going to decide where to go to school once i get home and then try out for the team there. so that should be interesting. I have been thinking about coming back to Halifax to go to dental school, because they have Dalhousie university here. a lot of members come from the states to go there, so that might be an option. i don't know for sure though, i have to do a lot of research on that when i get home. as for the missionary work, things are going great. i learned a ton yesterday at our zone leader council. President simpson is amazing! transfers came out yesterday as well, and nothing changed for me. I'm still in Kentville and serving with elder Hitchcock. We are working hard though and trying to see success while we are here. it makes things a lot easier when you work hard and do what you are called to do. I learned a lot about obedience yesterday and the blessings that come from that. mainly the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, but there is so much to be learned from obedience to anything. that is how we grow and develop faith is by being obedient to a gospel principle. Deborah Sanford is being baptized tonight, so i am excited for that. she is a really cool lady. we don't have too many other investigators close to baptism but we are working hard so that is good. i know now that i have been working hard enough to know i have done all i can and i have accomplished the will of the Lord. But i still have 4 months to accomplish more, i am excited for that. well i love you all and hope you have a great day, know that i am happier than i have ever been in my life right now. i absolutely love the Lord and His work, it is true that when we lose ourselves, it is then that we find true happiness. my advice to you all, just love people. Charity is the key. i love you all so much, have a good day and week.

Elder Nick Novakovich

PS
I forgot to tell you we got a new car yesterday. a 2010 Subaru Impreza. it made me happy and feel cool but then i realized it is just going to highten the disappointment when i have to drive the van around again when i get home. lol. have a good one.

Elder Nick Novakovich

"Sweet 16"

2010-05-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

Our First Girl Baby turned 16 years old on April 27th. We wanted this to be the most special birthday to date for her so we planned a surprise party with all of her friends. The plan was that Ryleigh was going to spend the day with her since she would be out of town on Darbi's "real" birthday. They were going to see a movie and then Ryleigh was going to cut Darbi's hair and then head over to our house where the party would be held.

Everything was going along nicely. We had arranged with a couple of friends to make up a list of friends that would be invited to the event and then have them hand out the invitations at school.

Some of the activities would be Volleyball out in the yard, ping-pong, and Guitar Hero. We had planned a bar-b-q for dinner and lots of fun food to eat. The only problem was that we didn't really have anywhere to eat outside and so...the wonderful deck was created just in time to celebrate. It was perfect, the Gazebo was put up and the bar-b-q was placed on the deck. We loved the way everything was coming together.

The weather was going to be "OK", by that I mean that it was not supposed to be sunny and warm but it was not supposed to be raining either. We had moderate temps and stronger than desired wind, but it was fine. Everyone was still willing to be outside playing and eating.

Guests started to arrive at about 5pm and Darbi was scheduled to arrive at 5:30. Ryleigh kept us posted on their activities and as soon as they were close we had everyone go to the garage and Darbi would enter this was to the house because the front door would be locked. Everything went as planned...it was perfect...she didn't have a clue...all of her friends were totally excited for her and had done a great job of keeping the whole thing a secret.

Kids played and ate all night long, we even had a "frosting" eating contest which was rather gross but fun to watch. Cody certainly won in my book and Jenna was a close 2nd, Baily just couldn't bring herself to put that whole "frosting balloon" in her mouth.

22nd Anniversary

2010-04-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Nikki and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary yesterday. We decided it would be fun to use our backyard a little more effectively so we decided to put in a deck and place the gazebo on it. So here are pictures of the progress after day 3. I hope to have it done by day 75.

The choice was to use this spot for a garden and have the added chore of weeding, planting, picking, and the such, or to use that money to build something where you can sit around and watch your neighbors work hard. Then, with the added height of the deck, it makes it easier to jump the fence and steal their harvest. Just saying.

We did hear from the missionary this week and he is doing well. He is hoping to go back to yarmouth (his first area) to end his mission. He would be transferred there in May if that ends up being the case. Hard to believe he only has 5 months left. He is finally teaching a few people who are scheduled to be baptized in May so we are hoping and praying for his success.

Jaren and Darbi are both in the midst of running track. They both run distance but occasionlly dabble in the 800. Jaren has been happy with his mile times at around 4:45. He is doing great. Darbi is deciding whether she likes the 3200 or the 800 better.

Zoe continues to be a voracious reader. She averages about a book a week. I have told her continually that books will rot your mind and to watch more TV, but she hasn't listened yet.

Mission News

2010-04-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

mom and dad-

Hey, those were quite the emails this week, both of you wrote novels to me!! oh well i enjoyed knowing so much about what is going on back home. sounds like things are going really well. i feel i must update you on some of the happenings here lately, since you fasted and such. we got a lady named Grace committed to be baptized on may the 1, so that is two in may and then another girl is wanting to be baptized on June 12!! so things have been going really well. thank you for all of your prayers and fasting. it really helps out a lot. things have been going really well for me, and i'm happy. i did get my easter box, thank you. I have been enjoying the candy and toys. i won't lie i've been trying to go easy on the candy because i have gained a bit of weight on my mission, and if i'm going to have any shot with the ladies when i get home i better lose it eh? lol. but i do appreciate it. Dad tell grandpa i don't think he is cheap, i have been so surprised and grateful that he sends money to me. tell him it is not necessary for him to send it, i am grateful for all he has done for me already. if anything i should feel bad that i have not written him back yet. i have been so busy, i have not even found time to write in my journal which i regret a ton. i make notes in my planner though so i know the important things to write in there. i tried to do some catching up this morning. and i did a pretty good job. as for hearing from other missionaries from our ward, i usually only hear from Elders Berezay and Chapman. we keep in touch, but the rest of them we have not. Elder Anderson and I communicate about once a month through email. so that is good. The weather here has not been too great lately. really cold and humid so that sucks big time. it's 3 degrees right now. but at least it has been sunny, my face told me so last night when it was a little tender. so i guess i better bust out the sunscreen now eh? Dad, why did you have to tell me about the freaking Mariners!!!! I heard they were supposed to be good this year! they never cease to break my heart. I was hearing that they could give the Angels a run for their money in winning the AL West. dirt bags!!! But i can't abandon them yet, maybe they will pick it up. we can always hope eh? anyways, i better go, you are probably thinking of some questions i have not answered in this email, so i'm sorry. oh and thanks dad for not having me play match maker for carli and porter, that is straight up wrong on so many levels. lol. i hope you have fun with that. have a great week. i love you all and pray for you daily.

your son,
elder nick novakovich

Missionary Mail

2010-03-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

mom and dad-
writing emails to you is always a tough thing for me. mainly because when i read your emails i always think of things to tell you about, but then i keep reading and by the time i get to writing my email i have forgotten all i wanted to say. so sorry if i don't answer all of your questions and what not. as for me i am doing really well, that is a miracle that you say you have been fasting and praying for people to teach. because i have seen the hand of the Lord at work. This past few months i have been the busiest with teaching ever. So there is a testimony builder for you. we have 2-3 people that are going to be baptized in the next month or so. i am really excited about it all. things are going so well so thank you for your prayers. We have had a busy week this week, i have been on exchanges all week, or will be all week. until Friday then we have a big mission meeting where salt lake is sending people out to train us and see how our mission is doing so that should be fun. then conference on the weekend, i'm super stoked!! i love it so much. it is sweet, i really can't get enough of it since I've been on my mission. i might get to go serve in yarmouth again soon. President knows i want to go back. so as for transfers, they are next week and there is no telling what is going to happen with me. i would kind of like to go but there is so much good happening here right now. i was talking to an elder yesterday about going home, and it is crazy that i only have 4 transfers left. and the 4 i will know where i'm being transferred. Spokane Washington!!!That is so sweet that the kids got to go to the temple. I am dying so badly to go!!! i miss it so much, i have set a goal to go once a week when i get home. i love it so much there. it's a great blessing for us to have one so close!!! It is amazing how blessed we are to live in a place where the church is strong. it's so different out here. That is crazy that next September or so you will have three kids going to university. man, can you say old? lol just kidding. that will be fun though. that is good that you are working on the house, i can't wait to see all the changes. as for march madness you know the year is a bust when McKenzie weeks wins. wow!! lol. i didn't hear much about it this year anyways, it's so non existent here. So what is this i hear about zoe wanting to be published? she is obviously the genius of the family! she never ceases to amaze me. well now is the point where i have totally forgotten things i wanted to ask or comment on, i'm drawing blanks. so i guess i will remember some time. i better get going though, tell everyone hi and i love them. mom i tried to remember the lady that worked at the high school and i couldn't think for sure. sorry. but have a great week. love you. i'll be waiting for my package.

your son,elder nick novakovich

In the home stretch

2010-03-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

mom and dad-

so this has been quite the week. i don't know where to start, maybe the beginning of the week. I think i told you about Ruth who was committed to be baptized at the end of this month. well sunday she called up the family who was fellowshipping and told them she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. she returned all of her stuff and said no thank you. i about cried, when bro, campbell called and told me i was in shock. it sucked big time. but i guess i have to move on. this week i have also got a lot of answers to what i should do when i get home and how to handle it all. i'm not going to come home early, so yes mom my release date is September 24, 2010. i have known that for about a year, i just never told you.lol. so that is a friday and we usually get home that friday night. but don't get too excited. haha. then yesterday we had a zone conference that was really fun, i always enjoy them. one of my favorite things to do is zone conference. and now we are to today, p-day, always a good day. so yeah, it's been crazy but things are still good. sounds like everyone back home has their hands full between dogs and track. that is funny that boomer is pissed about the sock, you would think he is a human or something the way he prances around. dweeb. i'll rough him up when i get home. it is weird to think that i'll be home before the summer ends. it seems like just yesterday that we were driving down to utah in the Jetta. It's crazy how time flies. That does stink that i'll miss uncle blair and his family again. i'm sure they will come around soon enough with the gospel. you just never know. the Lord really does work in mysterious ways. How are darbi and zoe doing? i haven't heard from my two favorite sisters in while. I bet zoe is keeping your hands full. it's weird to me to think that she is going to be 12 this year, i still think of her as a little girl. crazy. and darbi is almost 16 HOLY SMOKES!!! I remember being 16. now i feel old. man this sucks...lol. but i won't try and imagine how old it makes you two feel...see i'm across the continent so i can take stabs at your age. haha. well i better go for the week, know that i'm happy and doing well. i truly love it out here with all my heart, i love the gospel it's true. have a great week. your son,

elder nick novakovich

p.s. tell the reed's i did get their letter. and thank you. i've gotten a lot of mail lately like 6 letters in 4 days. it's nice

State Baby!!

2010-02-24T06:48:00.001-08:00

Jaren's Going to "State"

2010-02-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

Jaren's famous grin!

Another week of excitement for the Novakovich family. Jaren travelled with the East Valley Wrestling Team to Yakima to participate in the Regional Wrestling Tournament. Mom, Dad and Zoe followed to support and cheer on the Knights!

The Tournament was held at the new West Valley High School in Yakima, a beautiful open facility. There were only four mats set up from one end of the gym to the other so it was easy to watch any match. Jaren's first match was against a kid from Lynnwood High School that we had never see before. He was nervous but felt prepared. I only wish I could say the same for myself, I was pretty much a wreck. Jaren pinned the kid in the 3rd round!

Now he would have a little break and then wrestle another kid from Lynnwood High School who was ranked in the state. This kid was a little tougher than the last and Jaren lost to him by points. This would take Jaren out of the championship round but he still would have a chance to place in the top four to move on to the State Tournament. Here lies the problem, Jaren would have to wrestle his team mate Casey again and would have to win the match to give him the chance to wrestle another kid for 3rd or 4th place in the tournament. Somehow this just isn't fair, you shouldn't have to wrestle your team mates. However this is the way it goes down and Jaren took to the mat with Casey and beat him by points. Jaren would now meet the Sunnyside kid that he has wrestled twice before and won, but you never know what is going to happen. Jaren talked with his coaches and got the mental strength that he needed to beat the Sunnyside kid by points.

Casey on the left (floor), Jaren in Green

Jaren ended up placing 3rd in the Tournament securing himself a spot at State! He was so happy and so were his coaches. It was a long day and four matches really takes it out of you! Jaren fought hard and only ended up with a broken nose, Velcro burns on his legs and minor scrapes and bruises.

One tired kid with a broken nose!

This is a dream come true for Jaren and he is thrilled to be able to wrestle in the the Tacoma Dome next weekend.

Jaren with Coach Hanson

Even after a loss in the second round Jaren is still ranked 7th in the State at this point! Way to Go Jaren!

So one more week of starvation and then it's all you can eat for a kid that has had to keep his weight in check for the past month. He's so excited about that! After all it's food that makes a 17 year olds world go round!

Sub-Regional Wrestling

2010-02-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

After a long week of limited food intake Jaren made the 114 lbs mark for the Sub-Regional Wrestling Tournament. It was a week of eating high protein, limited carbs and NO sugars. One night for dinner consisted of a glass of Chocolate milk while another consisted of a hard boiled egg. I'm not sure how he survived the whole thing but he was driven like I'd never seen him before. The week also included regular practices at the gym learning offense and defense moves and strategies.

Finally Friday was upon us and Jaren felt confident. Mike and I were nervous for the tournament after having researched past tournaments and meet to find the records of those who Jaren would wrestle. I really don't recommend this as it only adds to ones nervousness. Jaren's first match would be against a local kid from Shadle Park, but his second match was to be against the no. 1 seed from Sunnyside High School. These two had met last year in the same tournament and Jaren had won in overtime.

So off to Mead High we went to witness what turned out to be a very exciting evening. Jaren was confident and took to the mat for his first match. A win by Pin in only 18 seconds! Followed by a win by decision of 13 to 8. Mike, Zoe and I were on our feet the whole time as we watched Jaren take control of the matches.

Saturday morning would be tough for Jaren as he had to go against his own team mate in a semi-final match. No body knew what would happen in this match as Casey (the Varsity 112 for East Valley) had wrestled well all year and had not lost in this tournament yet also. If Jaren were to win this match he would meet the No. 5 kid in the State from Rogers High School. It was the second match of the day, Jaren and Casey took to the mat to see what would happen. Jaren took control of the situation and won by Tech 15 to 0. It's always tough to wrestle your own team mate and all you can do as a spectator is watch and wait for the outcome.
Now Jaren has to wait 'till 5 pm to wrestle in the Championship round.
Jaren's "Golden Ticket" to the Championship round!

The whole tournament takes place in a gym with five mats all joined together and there are matches on every mat all day long. When they prepare for the Championship round all the mats are taken away and two are left in the center of the gym. One for the 3-A schools and one for the 4-A schools. A light is lowered from the ceiling and spectators move and rearrange their seating to get the best view of their schools competitors. The MC will announce each wrestler as their match comes up and tells about their accomplishments in the wrestling world. The excitement is high as we wait. Jaren is in the second weight class so there is not too much time to wait.

Just prior to final round with fellow team mates and coaches.

As they take to the mat and the start whistle goes we are nervous to see what will happen. Jaren wrestled strong and hung in there with this kid. Unfortunately after regulation time we are tied up at 4 to 4. So we will have to go into overtime. The first to score points will win. They stumble to the mat and the Rogers kid makes it on top first so the match is over and he gets the 2 points for the take down. Jaren gave it his all and took 2nd in the tournament! We are so proud of him and are so grateful for the support of family, friends, coaches and fellow East Valley Wrestlers and their parents.

Jaren 2nd and Casey (team mate) 3rd

Sunday evening the rankings came out and Jaren is ranked 6th in the State in the 112 lbs weight class. What a great accomplishment. Hopefully this will give him the confidence to wrestle tough in next weeks Regional Tournament in Yakima!

Missionary

2010-02-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

hey fam,
your emails really lifted my spirits this week. it was a rough one, just between getting things ready for zone conference, district leaders not doing there job, areas not doing any work and other spaz missionaries. lol. but i am doing good today, i just laugh at these types of things. they make good mission stories. lol. so zone conference is tomorrow and it could be interesting, i'm excited though. i'm glad that you all got my pictures and enjoyed them. oh and by the way, it is -20 outside today!!! it's freezing cold, and windy which makes it worse. good thing it is pday!! As for the boat don't you dare sell that thing, i'll be some mad if you do!!! That is good that work is going well, i'm kinda of excited really to come home and have a job that pays again. of course that novelty will where off in the first hour of work eh? lol. but i will be there to work for ya. i need the money. i have not thought a lot about where i want to go to school, still don't want to go to BYU but we will see. Eastern has a good dental program so that might be a good one to check out. i don't know. thinking about home is a bad idea for me, because at times it seems so close but then others it seems so far away really. but the time is going to fly by. Kentville has gone slow, i don't know if i really like it hear. it's just too small. i like doing missionary work in big cities with lots of people to talk to and things to do on pday. here we just sit around on pday, it sucks. my companion is cool though, we get along, not great, but we make things work. i have fun. i've just been blessed with really good companions in the past. so i started a new thing this week that i thought you allmight be interested in doing yourselves. every night when i write in my journal i think about the day and then pick out a miracle and write it down. This is in hopes to better see the hand of the lord in my life as a missionary. it is cool. Good work with being member missionaries lately, you will be blessed for that. i wish we could get any of themembers here to do something. some are good but some have no desire and it sucks to have to go knock doors when you are on the verge of losing limbs because it is so cold!! I have been trying to put a good effort forth though, just show the lord that i'm willing to do what he needs me to do, i just need to work hard. i really don't want any regrets this last 7 months. I have done pretty good so far. i just want to finish really strong. i don't know if i will get to PEI mom, it doesn't look good. the sandwich maker is golden!! good choice on that one. makes some wicked good grilled cheese!!! well my time is short this week. i love you all and thank you so much for all you do and the love yougive me, i really do feel it. i'm doing great, i love it out here and sometimes i don't ever want to leave!!! and sorry mom but yes i still want to fly home by myself like normal. i just think it would be sweeter for me. thanks, i love you all and hope you have a great day and week.
Elder Nick Novakovich

Trip to Portland

2010-01-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

Photo Shoot

2009-12-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

Darbi and dad went out on a photo shoot today. We went over to lake Coeur d' Alene for the annual eagle migration. She chose this as her fun thing to do over Christmas break. These arethe pictures that she took.

Olympic Torch

2009-12-03T07:55:00.001-08:00

Mission News

2009-12-02T08:13:00.001-08:00

hey fam- So i guess you all want to know if i am being transfered since it was mentioned in both emails. so yes, i am . i'm going to kentville Nova Scotia. i'm pretty excited because i will get to go back to yarmouth!!! i loved it there. i want to take you all back and show you someday. but another fun thing is i will be serving with elder peteresen the same one from the mtc. so that should be interesting. i don't know the address yet. so if you just want to send the package to the mission office, i will be there for christmas. kentville is about an hour away, but president gave me permission to drive up and be at the mission home for all the festivities. i'm way excited. i won't lie though i'm pretty devastated to be leaving fredericton. it has been hard to say goodbye. it happens though eh? i really love it hear. Kentville will be good though. it's a good ward and a good area. The bad thing about it being transferes is elder gray is now going home friday. i will miss him, but we are going to stay in contact till i get home. which really isn't that far away. only 9 months left. kinda sad though. that is great that you had such a good thanksgiving. mine was a little lack luster. not very good, and with four old old people. so the conversatoin was off the hook. lol. gotta love it though. made a memory i guess. lol. that is cool that you actually got to watch football!!! that would be a dream come true. lol. and yes i will be there for next thanksgiving. i will be pretty excited. a good ol' american thanksgiving. what a treat. well i think that is all i have. oh fill me in on jaren's girl...lol. that is funny. waht a guy. i have no idea who she is. umm.... yeah i think i'm out of things to say. i love you all and hope you have a great week. and i'll get you the kentville address next week. My week was pretty good. just doin the same old thing. we have found some cool new investigators, but are still finding our butts off!! we knocked for 3 hours straight yesterday. that was exciting, mainly becuase a story surfaced. so for lunch we had a donair pizza. i don't know if you know what that is. it's an atantic canadien thing. but we are knocking, and BOOM!! I have got to go poo, BAD. the nearest washroom was a 5 min walk away. so we are sprinting to this store so i can go. i'm sad to announce that a little got out, but i was able to save most of it for the poor can. lol. it was a funny story now that i look back on it. probably one of my proudest moments as a missionary. they say you aren't a real missionary till you poop your pants. well i guess i can say i'm a half real misisonary. lol. i hope you all have a good week. I really love it hear, my mission is a great place, and the place where the Lord needs me right now. i love you.Elder Nick Novakovich

Nikki's Velveteen Carli

2009-10-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

You have seen pictures of our little dog before, but have you seen her lately?

In November on 2008 Mike and Jaren drove to Preston Idaho to pick up our little treasure. And that she was. At just 8 weeks old she was so cute and timid and cuddly and soft and sweet and loveable and LITTLE!!!

Well now it is October of 2009 and now she is NOT SO LITTLE anymore. What happened to my little Carli?

Now my Carli is just...well see for yourself!

Missionary News

2009-10-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

mom and dad-it might be cold there, but maybe i can interest you with some snow???? yup you got it. it snowed last night. winter is here. yeah, i have most of my snow stuff, but i need boots. but they are so expensive it is dumb. i found some nice ones for about 125, but i don't know. i might just tough it for the last winter. what do you think. anyways, i'm really exited right now!!!!!!!!! last night we had a stellar lesson with Lorn and he wants to be baptized a week from today!!! yup my first one, found him, taught him, and we are baptizing him. i'm so stoked, it is like no feeling in the world to bring the gospel to someone. a true truth seeker!!!! I know it is all a blessing from my Father in Heaven though, i make sure to thank him every night for being able to take part in this miracle. so next wednesday, our ward mission leader is going to baptize him. i'm so stoked!!! he is an amazing kid. another cool story or testimony builder for me was last night he told me he wished he would have done the date that we tried for originally which was the 10th of october. so goes to show as missionaries we are inspired even though it wasn't some grand revelation. it is amazing how the Lord works by small and simple things. but what matters is he is being baptized!!! wahoooooo.Other than that things are going well here. it is cold, but things still move along. we are working really hard and trying to do our best. the mission tour was amazing, basically we just had Elder Maynes(a seventy) come and talk to us. i got to have one extra meeting with him since i am a zone leader. that was fun. he just trained us and taught us how to be better servants of the Lord. I really love it out here. it is so cool. time goes by so fast and i get upset cause i want it to slow down. but i know the Lord has more in store for me after. that is amazing about zoe, she is a stud. i still wish i could have learned piano, i plan on just taking it upon myself to get lessons when i get home. tell jaren and darbi good luck with their races. i'm sure they will do amazing. and good luck to both of you on the weight loss. i'm slowly getting fatter and fatter every day.lol. well lets see, anything else...oh no word on transfers yet. i have no idea really. next week i will though. umm...keelp carli around, i will be mad if she isn't there when i get home mom. i did order that quad so who knows when it will get here. and i will be watching for your letter dad. mail has really really slowed down for me. i get it about once ever two weeks maybe. about one or two a month on average. oh well. it keeps me focused and i don't mind to much. i do want the family to know that i love it out here and there is nothing i would rather do right now. i love serving the Lord, he lives, i know he does. The Book of Mormon was translated by the prophet joseph Smith by the power of God. I know that this work is true and we have the possibility of being a family forever. I find such comfort in knowing i will be with all of you forever. i love you all, and always remember to do your member missionary work. it really helps. have a great week.love,elder nick novakovich

X-Country 2009

2009-10-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well the East Valley X-Country season is well under way and Jaren, Darbi and Zoe are right in the thick of things. We are having a great time watching, cheering and running to different parts to the course to encourage the runners. Jaren has an agenda this year due to a lost season last year. Darbi is working close with the coaches to improve on each race and Zoe is proving that she certainly can run.

We have had several meets to date and the kids are having a great time. We travelled to Missoula last weekend and ran the Mountain West Classic. There are about 53 teams involved in the race and our East Valley Boys team too 11th place. They really are working well together as a team this year.

This weekend we went to Yakima to the Sunfair Invitational Meet. This is a fun race. There is a hill that doesn't quit and lots of gradual hills and sharp turns. Both Jaren and Darbi did well in this race. Jaren ended up taking 15th in his flight.

Mission Mail

2009-09-30T07:55:00.001-07:00

hey mom and dad-well this week was the start of an extremely busy week. we have three weeks left in this transfer and have a bunch of exchanges to go on and then meetings we get to go to. our mission tour is the first week in october. Elder Maines is coming to visit us. so it should be exciting but way busy. it will be good though, i'd rather be busy than not have much to do. the work in our area is giong well, we are trying to work as hard as we can when we get a day or two in our area. it is going well though. Both the kids told me that missoula was a success. that is so cool that jaren did so well. darbi sounds a little stressed out with it all and not doing so well as she would like. i tried to give her some encouraging words. but i don't know if it will hlep or not. i hope it does. they all sound like they are doing really well right now which is great to hear. I will keep work in my prayers, i know things will work out. but i understand taht it is nice to know you have work to do. i'll keep prayin for ya. that is great though that things are workin out with getting the house all done up. ibet it looks great. as for transfers, we have 3 weeks left in this one. and i honestly have no idea if i will be moving or not. i have a few places i would like to go, but i would also really liek to stay in fredericton. i have a feeling that if i don't go this transfer i will be in Fredericton for a long time, which isn't too bad i guess. mom, i forgot to tell you a while ago, that book of mormon that you sent me was my favorit thing you sent. i thought that was way cool i have it in my drawer. and we have these little cards with a pic of us as a missionary on them for a place to put our testimonies in when we give out our BOM. so i put one of those in the one yo ugave me. it is pretty cool. i would be pretty excited to hear from bro. Gilson, he is the man. tell him i said hi. i'm so stoked for general conference. and we are just going to our building. we don't really have a big stake gathering. our stake is like most of New brunswick so it is hard for them all to travel that far. we just get it in all of the buildings. in fact our stake goes into maine. the church is really small here, and not diong really well. but we are hoping to make things better. i love general conference though, it is so sweet. i have found a new love for it since i have been on my mission. it is pretty cool stuff. i just sometimes cannot believe how blessed we are to live in the times of the fulness of the gospel...well i love you all and pray for you daily. keep up the good work. i love you./Elder Nick Novakovich

New Letter

2009-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

dad and mom-so everyone and their dog must have a corn feed. cause we had one too. lol. ours was not too good though, rather boring. that is so sweet though that that elder ended up coming to our area and actaully remembering me, man i forgot about him. but i remember talking to him. man, that is crazy. it is nuts too that i'm almost to a year. pretty nuts. i'm stoked. that is crazy that bishop had a heart attack. good thing he is o.k. though. it is just sad that sometimes that is waht it takes for us to realize we need to prioritize our lifes a little bit. I did hear about BYU. and i don't know if i would get my hopes up, they always find a way to choke...lol. but it would be cool. you should go to that game though, that would be way fun. i just wish i could go as well. that is funny that you guys didn't like pig out in the park. i loved that!!!! i even thought about it the other day and wished i could go. ry and i loved going to that. and mom as for what ry did for me for my bday, i'm not sure yet, she sent a package to me the other day so i will find out soon. i'm pretty excited. and that is good that you all got you cards. i thought they were all pretty funny. Hopefully work continues to go well for you dad. and that would be nice to learn new things so you can do that stuff. so are people still losing their jobs like crazy? Keep paying tithing and praying is all i can say. That is good that the kids started school off well. it started yesterday here. the weather is terrible mom yo have no room to talk. we are in the 10-15 range every day. it is getting cold. we all predicted snow in a couple of weeks. so yeah, you can enjoy spokane mom. lol. as for the questions you asked me dad, we did have zone conferene a couple weeks ago, it was so sweet. i did have to speak on being exactly obedient, and then i gave a training yesterday in the district meetings. tryin to motivate some elders. we have zone council coming up in the end of september which i am super stoked for!!!!!! it is a blast. and way spiritual. there are about 90 people that come to church every week. so big for atlantic canada right now. we are teaching a few people. a part member family and then a young college kid that we are going to teach tonight. so things are getting better, slowly. but i have set new goals for myself and re evaluated my mission for myself. i feel pretty confident that i can work to accomplish my major goal for myself, which is to baptize two times a month for the rest of my mission. so 24 people before i come home. that is my minimum, so i'm prayin hard and workin hard and lovin the people here. well i hope that is good for now. i love you all and keep you in my prayers. Love Elder Nick Novakovich

2009-09-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Late mission mail

2009-08-20T14:49:00.001-07:00

hey mom and dad-well all i can say is man that sucks!!! i was sitting here remembering those days of painting the super 1's and i almost cried. in fact i assumed the fetal position here on the floor. lol. just kiddin. but you are right it is work, and a blessing. that sucks about adam though. satan is workin his hardest and that is something i have seen a lot of is that he definately knows when people are on the right track and then pounds them with adversity. it makes my job tough. as for the mariners....they are a joke. It is so nuts that i have almost been out one year!!! half way done. holy cow. i was thinking about that this time last year we were getting all prepared and that fun stuff. it just seems so surreal to me. the time has been flying by. it is good and bad. i absolutely love it out here. and i think i will have a hard time coming home. oh and sorry mom but DO NOT PICK ME UP!!! I REPEAT DO NOT PICK ME UP!!!! i want to come home on the plane and see everyone waiting for me in the airport. i have always dreamed it would be that way and i only get to do it once. so just let me come home. and plus that is a year away, so don't get trunky yet mom. lol. that is good that you got my pic cd. what kind of pictures would you guys like me to take? send some requests and i will see what i can do. i have some funny ones here. My companion. Elder RHoades is from Lindon utah and has been out for 19 months. he is so cool. he was originally assigned to the croatia mission but it closed because of the civil war over there. so he got sent here. it is such a sad story for him. it kills me every time someone asks him about it. he is really cool though, we get along and have some fun. he is different from my other comps though. he doesn't do much with sports and taht kinda stuff. he is cool though. i love serving with him. thank you for the box, i will be looking forward to that. sounds like some fun. It sounds lke the kids had fun on their treak which is good to hear. and no i don't thinki would do it again. i might if cause i could be more prepared, but it would depend i would go with people i wanted to go with, not if it was just luck of the draw again. sometimes those stake youth activities can be sketchy. lol. As for me here, we continue to work our butts off in the freakin humid weather. it has been around 30 lately with about 70% humidity. it is terrible, i have had to come in and change a few times. yeah i know i thought i was in canada as well. oh but today i'm writing you from Houlton Maine baby!!!!! we are in america for the day so that is exciting. the work in Fredericton is really slow. we can't seem to find people who want to hear about the gospel but elder rhoades and i both know they are out there we just need to continue to work and put ourselves in the position for the Lord to bless us. WEll i hope all goes well this week and you continue to have fun. i love you all.

Elder Nick Novakovich

Family Visit

2009-07-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

Mission story

2009-07-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

Two Sundays ago a young guy (24) came to church. None of us knew who he was and after sacrament meeting he came up to me and elder burbank and just started crying and telling us he was very upset. so we sent him to the bishop to talk. in our next class about 25 min later. the bishop came in and asked for two elders. immediately i jumped up and went. i had no idea why i moved so fast but i got right up and went with him. he took us to this young man. i got to sit in and teach him about the gospel and how it brings happiness. the cool thing, was this, saturday night he was at the bridge and about to comit suicide. but he could not do it, so he went home very upset and told God "send me happiness or let me die" he fell asleep and then in the morning he felt the prompting to come to our church. he had never been before, but he came anyways. so i got to teach him and now he has been coming to church and learning about the gospel. i got the amazing opportunity to teach him how the gospel can change our life and bring us happinness like we have never experienced. i told him he would find true joy in this gospel. it was way cool. it was a testimony builder to me that the gospel is true and the Lord does answer prayers and watch out for his children.

Mission Mail

2009-07-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

wow.... that is all i have to say about that cliff diving experience. wow. that could have been bad. i remember when levi almost did that. man, i was so scared blair was going to die. man, that must have hurt. but man, what can i say, words cannot describe how amazing the past two days have been for me. we got to go to Halifax for zone council. when we got there we went to the temple, it felt so amazing to be back in the house of the lord. and to be able to sit and reminisce in the celestial room on my mission thus far and what i still want to accomplish. words cannot tell you about the spirit i felt there. i love the temple with all my heart. after our session we had the amazing opportunity to sit in the temple and learn about missionary work. it was amazing. the rate of learning in the temple, and the way the spirit teaches you is amazing. i cant tell you how much i loved it. then we had the meetings, and the spirit was so strong as we discussed the needs of the mission and what we need to do to help it progress. president simpson has such an amazing persona about him. he has a goal for us to baptize 600 people in a year as a mission. it is a huge goal but it is so possible if we can change the attitude of the mission and develop the faith. it is tough right now cause all the missionaries see the gaol and then think. oh he is new he doesnt understand taht our mission doesnt baptize much. it is really frustrating to us as leaders. but we are going to try and lead by example. i got to talk to elder gray, and he has been talking to the aps and i might get to serve with him for his last transfer in november. he is my best friend in this mission, and im going to struggle with seeing him go so soon. he is he man. well that has been really all that is new with me. i loved the past few days, and have developed such a love for my mission and being here. i love it so much out here. i was really struggling with the fact that i was in this mission. but as i studied my patriarchal blessing and took that question to the temple. i know this is where the Lord wants me, he needs me here to make a difference in someones life. well i hope you continue to have fun and do well with work. i love you all and pray for you every night.

love your son,
Elder Nick Novakovich

How NOT to cliff dive.

2009-07-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

First came tubing fun, and boy was it run. Now, from the creators of tubing fun comes cliff diving fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-kEYU5FJk

4th of July

2009-07-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

We spent the day with our good friends out on Lake Roosevelt for the 4th of July. The food was good, the water rough, the tubing wild, the drinks cold and the company great.

Tube Fun

2009-07-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Mission Update

2009-06-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!I'm leavin to a place called Fredricton New Brunswick!! it's nice, or so I hear. It's split into two areas, so I'm going to be around Elder Burbank who is in Fredricton south. I'm in the North with Elder Fish. He is going home in six weeks so I get to finish off two missionaries in a row. oh and i don't know if i mentioned it but Fredricton North is a Zone Leader area. yup they made me a ZL. I'm so excited. they get to have a lot of fun and go to zone councils in Dartmouth and all kinds of stuff. i'm pretty pumped. anyways,the work in St. John's picked up in the last week, so that was nice. I have realized that all i can do is work hard. the rest is up to the Lord and he knows what is best. plus success isn't in baptisms all the time. so i have choked that pill down lately. it is amazing how much i feel i have grown up and matured out here. i guess sometimes the Lord has ideas for the man he needs ME to be. i love being a missionary.yeah Elder Holmes goes home to Seattle on Sunday. His parents are picking him up Friday, then they are going to come to Fredricton to take me and elder fish out to dinner. Elder Holmes served with both of us so that is the reason for that. but he is excited and i'm excited for him. the only bummer is his girl dear johned him and is married now. so that sucks. that is great that the baptism went well. I can't believe it has been a year since i graduated. that is nuts the time is flyin. i just remembered that i hit 9 months today!!! party for me. not really. but things are going well for me. i'm just super excited to get out of here and start a new part of my mission. at the end of next transfer i will be at a year. time is going so fast.I emailed jaren but i guess he hasn't gotten them i will send all the past weeks emails to him this week in hopes he gets them. tell him sorry.that is good that the weather is good there. not here though. still cold and nasty. i miss goin out on the boat when we drive by lakes my heart sinks a little bit. but soon enough i guess. it sounds like all is going well,and good thing painting is going well. I'm glad i'm a novakovich. oh and i'm not going to get any letters that haven't gottten to me by today mom. tell her sorry, they might get it to me. but it is now up to the new missionaries to get it to the ap's and them to get it to me. lol. we will see...well i hope all continues to go well and you all continue to do well in your endevours. i love you all Elder Nick Novakovich

2009-06-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Missionary Mail

2009-06-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

mom and dad-
So first of all, I need you to tell people to not mail anything to my current Address, because I did talk to president and told him I want the heck out of here and he understood so he is going to look at it and see what he can do. He is funny. He just laughed and said "elder i don't blame you. 4 1/2 months here is a looooong time. lol." he is so sweet i'm sad to see him go. we had our farewell conference for them saturday. I'm kinda anxious to see what the new guy will be like. but life here right now is really slow. we have no one to teach although we have met a few cool people with some potential lately. so we will see where that goes. i'm tryin to have faith...So you guys have no room to complain about the weather. why you might ask? well it is rainy fogy windy and 6 degrees here today!!!!!!!!!so yes that would be about 45 farenheit. honestly i don't know how fond of newfoundland i am...it is beautiful but as a missionary i really can't stand it. lol. i'm ready to leave. That really sucks that work is going so crappy. when i get home i will work for ya for a bit. i need the money. lol. that is good that the mariners are doing somewhat better. i still don't know how they will fair in the long run. hopefully they do decent so they can carry it into next year. the high school baseball team, well i didn't expect much from them. if you thought my team was bad, they are only getting worse. lol. well life is going well here. i'm growing and keeping a positive attitude, or at least trying. still workin hard. its tough my companion is done. he is ready to go home so i have to drag him around. it really is just a hard situation for me at this point. i don't like the area my comp is trunky but when we push through the hard times we grow...love always, your son,
Elder Nick Novakovich

The girls

2009-05-26T21:25:00.001-07:00

Nikki's marathon

2009-05-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Nikki took the oportunity last weekend to run a half marathon. She finished under her goal time and also ran the whole way. She did a great job and the whole family was excited she did so well. It was a beautiful course along the Spokane River on the Centennial Bike Trail. So anyone that wants to join her next year, this is the race to run.

Assundries

2009-05-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

We have been without the use of my camera since I tried to attach a new Canon battery grip to it and it fried the circuitry. So we have not been able to post any pics. But here are some random ones from the cheapo camera I have been forced to use while mine is back in California in surgery.

Redneck Gazebo

2009-05-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

We like to fancy ourselves as living in the country. As such, we have gone ahead and purchased ourselves one of those new fangled, state of the art, better than if you'd done made it yourself, gazebos. We set it up for Darbi's B-day party. We also set up the badmitton net but it seems like someone took it upon themselves to tear it down. We are looking for suspects.

I'm just big boned.

2009-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Carli has been going through the bones like crazy so Nikki got her something that might take her longer than a day to work through. Later on, Boomer thought he would give it a go.

New Mission Mail

2009-04-22T07:39:00.001-07:00

hey pops-
Jaren did tell me about your guys' hunting trip sounds like you had fun. that is
good.
You can always count on devon romney for a funny comment, i laughed so hard when
i read that. he is a funny guy. how are the missionaries in our ward? how long
they been out? tell them they should be thankful they serve in a place that eats
normal food. last night we had a dish called fish n' brews. it
was...interesting. lol. what it is is fish, obviously, and then a bread that if
you threw it at someone it would kill them. they call it hard bread, and believe
me, it is super hard. so to prepare it you soak it for a day, make it soggy then
refrigerate it, then the next day fry it up and serve it with fish. yeah,
disgusting!! i can't believe justin is home already, it seems like that flew by.
but my mission is going quick also. which at times is a bummer but i'm glad that
it is going quickly. hard work is all that it takes. it really is when you lose
yourself, cause if i were to drag me feet and think about home all day ugh. i
know cause that is what my comp does. he asked me the other day what i think
about when we walk, and i said missionary work... and he just said "ugh, i think
about home all day" and it shows he is quite miserable right now. i don't know
what to do for him. i've tried it all.
that is cool that you and mom are getting the house fixed up. bout time...lol.
and as for carli, is she really that bad? i hope you guys still have her for
when i get home.
that is good that work is staying strong. that is unlike adam to pull taht one
isn't it? i hope you can get that figured out. maybe i will have to come home
and run the show for you for a bit. lol. that way i can save up money for
school. that would be nice.
well this week has been a good one. i have been workin on teaching more. just
like at the door or when we talk to people on the street. it is going well. i
studied accountability out of PMG the other day, and that one was a smack in the
face. i had been makin excuses that my comp was the reason for no success here.
but i woke up and started to say forget it, i can make things happen. and we had
a stellar week last week. i get along great with the zone leaders and so we are
havin a competition for the rest of the transfer. both of them are way cool and
we are all three really good friends.
well i guess what it is like to be a missionary here... we eat the strangest
food. the weather is very windy all the time, and humid. it isn't too bad though
i guess. we knock doors for 6 hours a week. we have 4 mandatory hours to knock
on the weekend. and then 5 hours of street contacting people. so we do a lot of
finding. the branch here is in shambles. the mission president had to make a
special visit out here to get things figured out. the church is just so weak
here. the cool thing is when i got here we had 2 investigators and now we have
14. so that is cool, but it is just due to hard work and lots of prayers. not my
doing, i'm just the tool. oh and the people talk funny.
i hope that answers some q's. oh how the mariners doin? if they make the
playoffs this year i will flip!!! cause that would be the only playoffs i
miss...oh man i would riot. well i can't wait to talk to you in real time on
mothers day. that will be nice. i love you dad, and appreciate all your support.
i love you so much.
love,Elder nick Novakovich

Mission mail

2009-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

dad-
So I had an amazing weekend. i know God heard my prayers and gave me an answer. this is the story...so this weekend we visited an investigators church since conference did not start till 1 30 here. (morning session). it was baptist. the whole time i was in there it was just a little strange, i just didn't feel the spirit, and it was like i was just at a christian rock concert. so still i thought it was a nice service overall. but then the cool thing happened. we went straight to conference at the church and i was sitting down jottin down a few things before the session started, and then pres. Uchtdorf got up to conduct. and the spirit hit me so strong!! It was one of the few times in my life that i felt that reassurance that this is the true church restored in it's fullest, and i'm one of God's messengers to his children. it boosted my testimony so much, i know with out a doubt that we are doing the right thing when we listen to the prophets. that whole sunday i felt the spirit so strong dad. it was amazing. i don't know how to fully describe it to you. man...it was just sweet. but i did hear from my mission pres yesterday that unc won. punks. oh well, its all for fun. i had a good interview with my mission president yesterday. he told asked me what i thought we should do with my companion, and how he doesn't want me to be dragged down by him. i told him he won't get me down, i will only bring him up. then pres, told me he has had reports from my leaders that i have turned into "an extremely fine young missionary" and he commended me and thanked me for my hard work. i thought it was cool, because we talked about how he thought i had a very good attitude towards the work and that is what is important. he laughed cause he said he never sees me not laughing or smiling. i was glad to hear that. so needless to say, i loved conference. i told mom a little about which was my favorite. i loved the temple talks. i love the temple and the blessings it brings to our lives. i especially liked the quote. "God is the source, our covenants our our access" that one struck me. Shock games are fun. i got to go to two of them one with bret the other with ry. they were pretty fun though, the crappy thing for me was both time they lost. and leading up that that they were undefeated. lol. oh well. they are way fun to go to though.that is sweet that you got to go golfing. but guess what!!!!! today we are going to this members house who lives on the ocean. like it is 20 feet of grass them a some rock and then the ocean. so we are going to go get some cheap clubs and balls today and drive them into the ocean. i'm way excited. last week we were at their house for pday and we got to go out on the ice platforms a little bit in the ocean, that was neat. we got pictures. we were safe about it since we are missionaries.lol well thank you for all of your advice and counsel. i will tell you i am growing and have learned and made a goal to "give up all that is wrong, so that i may truly know Christ" that is my goal in life. my mission is one step closer in accomplishing that goal. i love you dad, and thank you.

Your son,Elder Nick Novakovich

Zippy

2009-03-29T21:28:00.001-07:00

This is my new friend zippy. She didn't like it at first but by the end she was running and jumping off the platforms.

Hanging 10

2009-03-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Weekly letter from Elder Nick

2009-03-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

well, i honestly do not know how i picked all of those games correctly. but i must admit i laughed so hard when i found out that i had done that. the funny thing is i don't even remember who i picked to do what. cause you can't see your bracket online and i didn't write anything down. so i don't know how i can keep track. it was funny we were knocking the other night and a guy had a game on and i had to try my hardest to not watch. just seeing it made me trunky. so i was a little bummed. i just try not to think about what is going on at home. i do miss havin fun with you and jaren though, during march madness. trash talk was the best and just chillin with you both. the funniest times were the close games when you and i were pullin for opposite teams. i was laughin the other day because i remembered that year i skipped school to watch the tourney. man the good ol' days. but hey i will be at home to enjoy these things soon enough.

The work is going pretty well. just missionary work. nothin too exciting. oh wait. yes there is. we had a baptism last night!!!! it was a lady named Nicole. she had been meeting with missionarys for a year, but was living with her boyfriend and so she could not be baptized. well on sunday she showed up to church and told us they broke up and wants to be baptized asap. so we did it last night. it was so cool. i got to stand in on my first confirmation. what an amazing feeling that was. i just sat and pondered during the service. and i thought about how this was a blessing to us, because we set a goal of having one baptism this transfer, and last night was the last day of the transfer. so we achieved our goal. it was hard work though, but it payed off. i do love what i am doing and would not trade it for anything. it looks like i will be in St. John's for another month and a half. so that is good, i love it here and we are fed like kings.the weather here is annoying, we are still getting snow and hovering around 0. but i would much rather that over the heat. that is good that work is going well. no doubt a blessing from the Lord to have good jobs during these times. i also pray that our family is looked out for and you guys get the things you stand in need of. and it sounds like prayers have been answered on your end. that is good. Well, it is so great to hear from you dad. i miss you a lot and love you even more. i have really grown to love all of the family so much more. it is crazy because i'm on the other side of the continent. but i love yo uso much!! I can't wait to spend all the good times together again. i was thinking about when we would go to the grocery store jobs and you and i just got to chill. that was great. i love you so much dad, thank you for your example and all that you have done for me and are doing for me. i love you.Love Your son,Elder Nick Novakovich.aka. king of march madness sucka!!!!!!!love ya pops.

cool pics

2009-03-24T23:12:00.001-07:00

Surfing anyone?

2009-03-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hawaii pictures

2009-03-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Relaxing

2009-03-16T20:49:00.001-07:00

We had a couple of wonderful weeks in Hawaii. The weather did not cooperate very much but Nikki did manage to find some rest and relaxation.

P-day

2009-02-27T06:33:00.000-08:00

hey dad,You would not believe the people here. They are so funny, just in the way they are and the way they talk. i laugh all the time, well at least once we are done talking to them. it is funny because when we talk to them they ask where we are from. we truly do stick out here. We actually were invited to an Anglican dinner last night, and oh boy you should have seen the looks we were gettin from people. It is funny how the tags, white shirts, and ties make you stick out to people. literally every time i looked up i caught people starrin at us. i just laughed. time is flyin here!!!! that much i do know, it is crazy that jordan is ready to go and justin fiestner is almost home!! holy cow. and i am almost a 1/4 done with my mission, that is such a scary thought. i will tell you though, i have not left any regrets. i can say that i have been workin my hardest and making the most of my time here. it has really sunk in to me that this is one shot i get at two years to serve the Lord. So i have been giving it my all and trying to do my best. Sounds like you had some fun at the campout. good ol' plumb cookin, lol. Good times on the winter campouts i had as a scout, i think those were some of my funnest ones. but i'm sure when we are younger they can be more enjoyable eh? it is funny, we are constantly around the ZL's here, cause they are 20 minutes away so we have every DA with them and also spend the night on p-days so we can hang out with them. but me and Elder Gray were talking last night about march madness and how we are going to miss it this year. i have been amazed at how i have not been that effected by sports while on my mission. i guess it is just a blessing of the Lord for my workin hard. I understand that you had to keep this one short, i just picture mom standing there giving you the look to get off the computer. she is a funny lady but i love her. does she still have taht missionary bear? she is just too funny. well dad, things are going great for me and i can say that i have seen some growth in myself. although at times it is hard, but then i pray that Heavenly Father will help me. i do find myself thinkin at times about the person i want to be and how i just want to be one of the great returned missionaries who when they get back you can tell they gave it all. i have tried so far and yes i slip sometimes, but i decided that the best missionaries are the ones that pick themselves out of the ruts quickly and get back to work. That is what I have tried to do so far. i really love being here and i love seeing the gospel work in peoples lives. even though i haven't had a baptism yet, or really even been close. i just dont know the ripple effect i might have, so i work hard all the time. anyways, enough ramblin by me. i love you dad and thank you for all the support you give me. i love you. Love Elder Nick Novakovich

St. Johns, Newfoundland

2009-02-24T23:04:00.001-08:00

Hey I'm sorry but i'm just going to send you all one giant email this week. Why? because we are having a huge storm today and the entire city is shut down, so four of us are here sharing two computers. anyways, please give this to dad and jaren. so the new area of ST. John's is way weird to me. not only the people but it is the biggest city in newfoundland and a pretty big city so that is nice. it was just strange coming from yarmouth. my new companion is Elder Roskelley he is from huntsville utah. he has been out only 3 months longer than i have. I am right on the coast again, it is pretty neat though. i'm as far east as you can possibly go on this continent!! i thought that was pretty cool. so i'm hoping to see at least one polar bear, i hear it is rare but sometimes they float in the harbor on glaciers. which are very popular here. i am staying warm although it is pretty cold and lots of snow!!as far as the package you sent me, i kept all the necesities but gave out most of the food to the ap's and other elders who were not going to the rock. i did get to keep a lot of it though so don't worry about that one. thank you for the package. president jacobsen usually keeps missionaries on the rock for at least 6 months just because it is so expensive to get here. so i will be here for a while. it is a branch out here with about 55 members, but we have a nice church building just a mini version of the one in liberty lake. Good luck with you marathon you are going to run, i will pray for you lol. that is funny that carli cannot graduate yet. and tell all the kids good luck in all that they do and keep having fun. DAD-yes we now have a newfy in the family. you would not believe how hard it is to understand these people. some are worse than others,but they have so many funny sayings. i have picked up on a few but they all talk so fast and slur their words. lol. that is a pretty cool missionary opportunity you got to have with that lady. it just goes to show how much our examples as members of the church can affect people. i have found that being an example is the best way to introduce people. that would be way sweet if she let the missionaries come by and teach her a bit. Sounds exciting that you might be getting a new part time job, i hope that works out for you and everything goes better than the previous times. as for hawaii i hope you think of me while i'm here in newfoundland, in snow up to my eyeballs!! mean while you will be on the beach, lol. i don't really care. honestly i think i would rather be here right now. i love it here. i found it hard the first few days, but i'm in the swing of things now so life is good. as for you rubiks cube skills i can't wait to get home and race you and jaren. i was unable to buy one out here just because we have to keep our bags under 50 pounds for when we leave, and i want to make sure i get some sweet stuff from this sweet place. i really love it!!!well fam, i love you all and sorry this one was quick. oh and please send lexi my apologies tell her i was rushed this week but i will send her a letter. love elder NIck Novakovich

Mission Transfer

2009-02-11T07:17:00.000-08:00

hey dad,
well i don't know if mom has told you or not but i'm going to ST. John's
Newfoundland. my new companion is Elder Roskelly. he is from utah. i'm still
going to be junior companion. but President Jacobsen did ask me at zone
conference if i would be a senior companion. so i was a little disappointed that
i wasn't one this transfer but i settled down and it doesn't matter at all
really. i will tell you i was a little shocked though that i was going to
newfoundland. my comp now laughed and laughed, just because newfoundland is such
a strange place. all the people are wack, but i hear they are the nicest you
will ever meet. i'm so excited and i'm determined to baptize there. the areas
are all about you attitude and i'm going to be positive and work as hard as i
can. it is pretty crazy though how time is going by. i thought about it last
night and after this transfer i will have been out for 6 months, a quarter of my
mission!! i told mom i don't want this to ever stop. i just find it so cool that
i have been set apart by the Lord and he is using me as a tool in his hands. i
just love being a missionary and even though times do get rough, i would never
trade what i have experienced so far for anything. i will have to tell you the
details when i get to my new area, i am going to try and get you all the mailing
address on friday, and then i will answer anymore questions you guys might have.
as for this week the email will have to be short becuase we have a ton to do
today and we have to travel to the mission home. i'm doing great though, and am
excited to start the next chapter of my mission. i love it dad. thank you for
all you do for me. i love you. Be sure and let everyone know not to send mail to my old mailing address.
your son,
Elder Nick Novakovich

Mastiff growth

2009-01-31T17:06:00.000-08:00

What a difference two months makes in the life of a mastiff. Carli is now 4 months old and growing like a weed. She is flunking out of puppy kindergarten though cause she wants to wrestle with her best friend Cooper.

Alaska or What?

2009-01-30T08:22:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to a couple of visitors we haven't had since we left Alaska. Zoe informed us that she has ever seen a moose in the wild. She is so unalaskan.

Do these dogs have a good life or what?

Jaren Wrestling Mead

2009-01-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

Mission man of Canada

2009-01-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

Dad-
so the sweet story for this week is this. we got to go curling this last
friday!! man it was fun, but way hard. they make it look so easy on tv but once
you get out there and are doing it... that is another story. i managed to only
eat it on the ice once. so that was sweet in front of everyone...i did have fun
though, and we have planned to go back with our investigator who does it semi
pro in a week from friday. he is way good.
i told mom about this already, i'm doing much better this week. the hard thing
was i was frustrated with the people not caring about what we had to offer.
ihave just realized taht i can only do so much, i try my hardest to help them
and they have to do the rest with the Lord. so i have just told Heavenly Father
i'm going to do my best work as hard as i possibly can, and the rest is in his
hands. i have faith and trust in him that he will come through, he alwasy does.
so yeah i'm doing 100% better. thank you for your prayers and support.
That is so sad about Bro. Gorman. i don't know if i could handle that. i feel
really bad for Andy. that would be so hard. atleast he does have a good attitude
about it though. he is a good man, i remember going over to their house all the
time. this kind of stuff really does give you a deep gratitude for the knowledge
of the gospel we have. it really makes me want to work harder so i can offer
this to people. that is one thing i have been thinking about is how much comfort
i get from this knowledge and i just want other people to have it. i guess
though that is what had slapped me in the face, was when i put my heart into
wanting to better these peoples lives and they say no, not worth it.
I have discovered that this is going to be a major mental battle. i mean i have
already grown to love these people and to see them wasting time and not coming
to Christ, kills me inside. i read this morning in Alma 13 V. about 27? the
end... it talks about how he wishes they would heed his word. so much so that it
pains him that they don't. i feel the same way. i just wish they could see. but
the Lord knows best and it is up to him, who i prepared and who isn't, not me. i
can only work hard as i am.
anyways, that stinks that the sports scene is lame. we get a little NFL update
from a guy, he had the game on when we went in. it was fun. who knew the
cardinals would be so good. i have been thinking about one sports thing though,
and i know it is a year away. but the winter olympics will be on when i'm out
here. i have been thinking of ways that you guys can record that for me...
nothin yet. so i am putting you all on a mission to make sure that those get
recorded so i can see them. it will be hard, but it will be worth it.
Thank you for saying that i'm a good example. i mean i guess that is what i have
been trying to be, i just had never known people were watching. i'm glad that i
did do good enough though, that someone noticed. they always say that people are
watching, i just hope they remember me there and here for being a good nice
young man. i try my best. thank you for your support though and your example to
me. i love you and hope you are all having a good time and fun. especailly with
the dogs.
Love Elder NIck Novakovich

More wrestling

2009-01-13T10:11:00.001-08:00

Pushed out of bed

2009-01-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

I went to go let the dog out this morning. She ran back in and saw fit to take my place in the bed. Anyone want a dog?

Snow load

2009-01-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

This is what is left of the carport. The good news was that the tarp wasn't blowing in the wind with the snow left on it. The bad news is that the tarp will never blow in the wind again.

2009-01-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you get bored kids. With all the snow days we are having trouble coming up with things to do. So we got out the glow sticks they got for christmas and wrote out our names putting the camera on a tripod. It was pretty fun.

New Year

2009-01-05T08:17:00.001-08:00

We had a very enjoyable new year except for all of the snow. The kids started off Christmas break with an extra two days because the school was cancelled for snow. Today it was cancelled again because of another snow storm. We have had 70 inches of snow in 3 weeks.

Mission News

2009-01-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

hey mom-well the good news is i'm staying in yarmouth for another six weeks. we got the call last night. elder Cosman was released as district leader and nothing else really exciting happened so yeah i'm still here.anyways, i talked to a guy in our branch about Pres. Blakney and he is about the same age as you, so i think it was him. I will ask him though if i ever see him or talk to him. it sounds like a lot of people are home for christmas which is fun. that would be the easier thing about college is you get to do what you want when you want. the tough thing about being a missionary is having to follow all of the rules. but i'm getting better at it, and letting my addictions to tv and xbox go, as hard as that is to do. lol. that is pretty crazy that Hans is in the field now, the time is absolutely flying by for me. i am no longer a greenie, so i am off of the training part of my mission. so that is cool. nothin too different about it though. not too much has happened this week. well we did talk to a british guy on the street yesterday, and he was so funny saying all the lingo like smashing, and groovy. i loved it, we both laughed after we talked to him. we invited him to church so we shall see if he will come. i'm still really excited about this area, but it is tough sometimes to still understand that it is all up to the lord. the good thing though, is that if i do my best he will bless me. maybe not on my mission exactly, but when i have a family and married and at college and what not. So i still try and do my best and do what he wants me to do.That is very good news for jaren and his knee. hopefully he can stay not injured for the rest of the season and hopefully his career!! it sounds like they are all doing well though. it just choked me up on the phone to hear all of your voices and such, the kids sound so grown up. especially zoe and darbi. we had fun last night, we stopped by a non members house and got to play the wii for a little bit. they are a super sweet family, we are just hoping they will have their interest in teh gospel sparked. there are a lot of good people here. we have found a few families just in about two days. so i'm excited to teach them and hopefully go somewhere with them. sounds like dad was having some fun with the computer. good thing he fixed it though. computers these days are so difficult. well i'm doing great and have really found a new excitement to be here over the past couple of days. i don't really know why, i'm just trying to follow the example of some missionaries in the Book of Mormon. i'm hopin to be a great missionary for the Lord.well i love you all and hope that you have a good new year and work hard this year. i will be. tell the kids to keep up the good work and have fun while they can without me. cause when i get home i will want to spend all the time with them. so anyways they still have about 20 months... well mom i love you and thank you for the emails and support and love. Love always Elder Nick Novakovich

Tri-State Wrestlers

2008-12-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

This is a video of the wrestlers at tri-state. All the people in the stands are wrestlers. There were 500+ in attendance.

Tri State

2008-12-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

Tri-State was this weekend. 50 schools participate and only bring the best. Jaren wrestled 2 state champions, and ended up going 1-2. Not bad for a sophmore JV guy wrestling seniors. He would have liked to have done better but he gained a lot of experience. The first day it went from 7 am to 10pm.

Weekend fun

2008-12-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

Impressive stack of snow on the post. Notice the collapsed gazebo in the background. Oops.

The weekend is consisting of wrestling and digging out from under snow. We went from no snow to 26 inches on the ground. Now we are dealing with -5 temperatures. I guess winter is here. Zoe asked if we were going to have a white Christmas. I said, "Are you kidding me? We are going to have a white 4th of July."

Mission Update

2008-12-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

pops-the funny thing about the weather is that Halifax is warmer than you guys, but the really funny thing is that we in yarmouth are about 7-10 degrees warmer than Halifax!!I do wish that we had had someone who was as gung ho as you and rob in the YM when i was in there, it sounds like you guys are going to have fun in there and make it fun at that. we did miss that, so they should have fun. hopefully they are receptive to the idea. although i do think you might have gone a little over board with the tent heaters. come on pansies...lol.that is totally awesome that GU lost. i had a little party right here at the computer when i read about that. i will tell you though, it isn't as sweet when i cant tease Ray about it though. hopefully Jaren does get to move up, i'm sure he will figure it out that he needs to ask more questions and really be dominant and make sure he makes his wants known. oh well, i know i struggled with that one too. i do miss sports a little bit though. i'm sure it will kill me when baseball season rolls around and also march madness. oh well, i will make it through. taht does sound like the girls who will sit around and wine about being bored. they are so funny. just tell them you are going to send them to work!! that will get them.now to answer your questions... we do a little bit of walkin like just around town and that kind of stuff. although the mission is losing some cars, so we will see. i don't think we will though. cause we are not allowed to knock within the city limits of Yarmouth, so we have to go out to outlying areas to do knocking. that we do alot, but i don't mind how much we do. we try an hour everyday if we can, and then we really hit it hard on weekends. i don't mind it cause i have realized taht is the way that we find the pure in heart. we do have a couple of people who feed us every week. that is nice, but it is also nice to be able to go home for dinner and relax. i would say that we get a nice amount of DA's. since the branch is so small, we do have some families who love us, and we love them they are really fun. those are the ones that feed us every monday, well the parents feed us mondays. there kids who one is about 32 his family feeds us every saturday night, he is the Branch president. he is awesome. i love the members here though, they do pretty good with us. that is something that we have been focusing on is getting the members excited and involved. cause they have had some bad missionaries in the past i hear. so we are building that relationship back up. we do have our days when we have nothing to do. but we try and keep busy with seein people. just stoppin by or talkin to members and such, but yeah, we do have some boring times.the snow is a pain to work in, but we dont' get much in yarmouth. i just hope i'm not in newfoundland next winter. they get enough snow, that i have seen pictures of elders on snow banks up to the power lines!! so we are in the best place in the mission for snow. that is nice. i do have all my coats and stuff though.i will tell you though, i almost broke down yesterday. we have a decent teaching pool. the thing is they all say they have done what we have asked like reading and praying about it. but they don't seem to get an answer or feel the spirit. i don't know if i'm doing something wrong or if it is them. i have really been trying to be as obedient and good as i can, but it just isn't workin out. i mean i try to change things up and say different approaches and such, but i don't know what to do. i do pray for answers and i get answers to everything except on what to do to get these people to listen and feel the spirit. i don't know if it just isn't the Lord's will right now. i'm tryin to not get frustrated, cause i nkow taht is the opposite of faith. i'm trying to remain strong and do His will. i have really been reading the scriptures and my Patriarchal blessing. i have been praying my guts out. i just thought it might be wise to ask you for some advice on this situation. thank you.i'm so excited to be able to talk to you guys on christmas. it is so crazy how fast the time is flyin by. i talked a little about that to mom. man am i excited to talk to you guys. i hope all is going well, and i pray for you guys every night and day. i love you so much dad, and like i have said before am so grateful for all that you have done for me in raising me the way you did. i love you with all my heart.i'll talk to you soon.love always,Elder Nick Novakovich

Snow day

2008-12-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

We have had a ton of snow today. School is cancelled, the kids are thrilled, the dogs are confused and I'm sleeping in. Here are a few videos of the amount we have had. The second video was taken yesterday afternoon and the first is from 7am this morning. We have received about 18 inches and are supposed to get more today.

Varsity Wrestling

2008-12-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

Jaren has been working on ways to make the varsity team and last night he did it. He has been involved in a few but always as the sacrificial lamb. (If the opposing team has a great guy that will beat our good guy, they will move our good guy up a weight class and put Jaren in against the great guy to take the hit.) So last night the guy didn't make weight and Jaren was put in.

He started off slow, being taken down twice and had spent most of his time on the bottom. The kid was a lot stockier and strong. He tried to do a few things to Jaren but Jaren was patient. All of a sudden the kid got to high, Jaren put him into a head and arm bar, turned him and pinned him with a minute to go in the second round. Needless to say he was thrilled because he was supposed to lose this match. The are a pretty tough school. And I was so caught up in it, I forgot to take pictures.

Boomer

2008-12-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

Boomer knows how to work the ball better. Every time Carli sees someone, she rolls over and wants a tummy rub.

Carli

2008-12-15T20:34:00.001-08:00

We bought new chew toys for the dogs because Carli had taken a liking to chewing on boomer.

Mission Weekly Mom version

2008-12-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

hey mom, well lets see another week, woosh. flown by. it is crazy. this week was way fun though. a lot of time with other missionaries. we had exchanges and zone conference. Christmas around here, is pretty different. the houses are either done up big, or not at all. but there aren't too many nice houses, it is kinda a low income area for the most part. but they do waht they can. but that does sound liek darbi is havin fun with the christmas spirit, atta girl, keep the tradition alive with lights in the room!! we didn't get a tree, we are too poor, so we stuck with the little one you have seen. i'm glad that jaren is doing so well. i pray for the kids all the time, and hope they are doing well. that makes me so happy that jaren has gotten his grades up, that is very important. also cool that darbi is doing well, sounds like she is growing up quite nicely. Zoe is the next einstein. man she is a shear genuis. that is sweet though, i'm proud of her. she will do very well in school. I did get my letter from nana, which was nice. i wrote her back the other day so she should get that soon. you might want to tell her the address to her again. they had to do some corrections on the one i got. so just tell her nicely. i got your package last friday. i was pretty excited, i didn't know that it would be that big!! i'm pretty excited to see what is inside the gifts. you know me, atleast you should be proud that i haven't gotten into them yet. you know how hard it is for me to wait, especially when i don't have people telling me no, atleast with christmas. it sounds like every one is having fun christmas destinations but you guys. but that is fun, i love christmas at home too. good time to relax and enjoy company of the fam. anyways, i'm doing great and loving being out here. i have grown so much and feel so different. maybe it is just the spirit i have with me. it really does change you. this is a time in my life that will never be matched as far as spiritual growth. i love it out here. bein on a mission is so cool. i'm excited for derrick hans, and jordan to experience it all. the gospel is perfect and true. i love it so much, and no one will every shake my testimony that God lives, Jesus is our friend brother and Savior, the spirit is great, and the church is true. the Prophets are called of God and lead and guide his church with his help. pray for the missionaries, not just me, but all of them. pray for those seeking. and give the gift of Christ's atonement this year. It's the greatest of them all. share the gospel, experience the true meaning of CHRISTmas. i love you mom, and hope all is well. i love you so much, and will always. i'm so glad we will be a family forever!!Love always,Elder Novakovich

Mission Weekly

2008-12-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

pops-i'm pretty sure i can look at the blog thing. i will check for sure though. but that is awesome how well jaren is doing with his wrestling. also pretty neat how good the entire team is, hopefully jaren can find a way on varsity some how. i remember good ol' lewiston that place does stink bad! the problem with that is you will have to wear a respirator both inside the grocery store and outside.lol. i guess congrats on the release, i don't really know what to tell someone after being released. lol. cause you don't want to be happy for them, but at the same time you do, so i guess that is bitter sweet. hopefully you do get a good new calling though. that would be nice. maybe they will switch you in for mom and give her something new. yeah right, she could only wish.As for christmas decorating. it sounds like you guys are having fun and decorating nicely. i do miss decorating the house up. oh well i did get to decorate our apartment, but it just doesn't feel the same. that stinks that the tree is dying, im guessing boomer and carli do have a direct affect on that one. dang dogs. that is so cool that you guys did the tree of sharing thing. i have really been thinking about kids and families like that recently. i was wishing i could do something for them, like that. but then i realized those things are nice but temporal. i have the awesome privilage of bringing them the gift of Christ and his atonement. something that will last for eternity. i would love to find someone who needs that, this time of year. just to see how happy they would be, i know what joy the gospel has brought our family. i just want that to be in others families, so they can enjoy it for eternity. i pray for that opportunity every day. we shall see if it comes. we don't know what we are doing for christmas yet. i know we get christmas off and so unless we get invited we are just stayin in. plus president told us not to go over too long, he wants us to keep it like a regular visit, no longer than an hour. it will be nice to relax for the day though. about disney world. we have a guy in our branch, the branch mission leader. he is a doctor and they are going to disney world, but they stay in the resort and do all the high roller stuff. their house is absolutely huge!!! we go there all the time. it is pretty fun, he is a way cool guy. he is only like mid 30's so needless to say he is doin alright. but i can't wait till we can go back to disney world. that was a great time, i think about it sometimes and just smile. i heard about the college football scene, and was a little disappointed. i'm not sure but i think that other teams should be playin. oh well. as for college basketball, i have been wondering how i'm going to handle march in the field. it should be interesting, i do miss college sports. I don't know whether i want GU to do good this year or not. i'm still undecided, so i will get back to you on that one. well dad, i guess i should just let you know that i'm tryin my best out here. and the amazing thing, is sometimes i feel the Lord makin up the rest. it truly is a blessing to be a missionary in the Lord's work. I can't even explain how cool it is to be growing up. it seems like an out of body experience sometimes, cause i just step back, and think wow i'm really maturing and growing out here. i have learned so much already, and can't wait to come back with the wisdom and maturity i see in those who have come and gone here. i do love the people here and love being here. i love the gospel with all my heart, and love sharing it all day. what a blessing that we were born into this. i love you all and hope you are all doing great. thanks for all you have done for me dad, i do love you with all my heart!!!love always,Elder Nick Novakovich

Wrestling

2008-12-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well there was a lot of wrestling going on yesterday. There were head locks, cross faces, arm bars, take downs; and that was just trying to get Nikki to stay in her seat and not yell at the opposing team. As one of Jaren's coaches once said of Nikki, "that ain't no PTA mom."

Jaren had his first match of the year. It was a dual meet up in Kellogg Idaho. It was his first meet since under going surgery to repair his collar bone. Nikki was very nervous for her boy not to get injured. He had to wrestle up since the 119 guy didn't make weight. Jaren came out in the first round and pinned his guy in under 2 minutes. In the second match he couldn't pin the guy until the second round. (I was extremely disappointed) He was happy he did so well and especially pinning both opponents in a high weight class. He has another meet tonight and we will try and get pictures. I had videos of last night but don't know how to digitize them yet.

Tree Decorating

2008-12-06T15:16:00.000-08:00

We broke down and decorated the tree today. Zoe was chomping at the bit to do it and then just as I got the lights on, she went to a friends house. So Darbi and mom took on the task as we listened to Hilary's Christmas CD. It was a nice afternoon and really put me in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Dog

2008-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Well we celebrated the time honored Novakovich tradition of decorating the Christmas Dog. We have saved a fortune in tree costs but have had a few problems with missing ornaments that later, unexpectedly, turned up in the backyard wrapped in something other than Christmas wrapping.

Boomer and Carli Wars

2008-12-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

The 4 legged ones around the house have been enjoying running around and fighting. We moved the furniture around to accomadate the Christmas tree and they have love the extra room. Or as they like to refer to it, "the ring of death." (I am just guessing that that is what they call it. I am still working on my dog whispering talents, I don't have those skills yet. So far I just have numchuck skills, drawing skills (mostly ligers) and teather ball.

I am also working on my Christmas tree decorating skills.

Day trip

2008-12-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

I had to drive to Lewiston, Idaho today and go look at some grocery stores we are bidding to paint so in order to make it a more enjoyable trip, I took these pictures on the way home. I hope you enjoy.

Mission Update

2008-12-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

Winter attire in the north land.

And to think I ate chicken heads for dinner.

it is pretty crazy how time is flyin. although zoe informs me that i left light years ago, every week. she is really strugglin with me being gone. she really tugs on my heart when i read her emails. just make sure she is ok and is having fun. i'm excited to get my christmas stuff. i don't know what i will do as far as opening it yet. i think we are going to get a real christmas tree today. but not one like you guys have, i think it is just giong to be a 3 footer. plus the old people in our apartment(everyone) don't like us too much cause we are young and full of energy sometimes.lol. so we try not to do anything to extreme, like try and get a christmas tree to the top floor of the apartment. but hey whatya gonna do with old people? i'm really excited to hear about jaren and his wrestling. i know you dont like it but i think it is so cool how good he is.i wish him the best of luck. i'm glad you guys got a real tree though, and i'm sure the dogs love havin pine water. they probably think oh good christmas time, good ol' pine water!!! i'm glad that you got the pictures i was a little worried that they wouldn't make it home. and i'm glad you liked them. i try to have as much fun as i can out here. i did love decorating the apartment though. i love christmas and everything about it. as you know. did you get to watch that video of the sunrise? i have now watched a sunrise and sunset over the ocean, which is absolutely beautiful. i will be back here when i get home. i heard about jordans call, and i was 100% jealous. i still struggle with the fact a little bit that i don't get to learn a language, but i like it here. we all go where the lord wants us to go. i'm so excited for him. that stinks that he is going so late though. that will be tough for him.I have heard from a few sources that thanksgiving was a little different this year. don't worry though only one more left. as far as the eating thing, isnt' that what thanksgiving is for? i didn't eat too much, just cause the cooking is a little different over here. oh before i forget i did get nana's letter the other day, so i will reply soon. i'm doing great and having the time of my life and learning and growing so much. oh make sure to tell the kids, that i'm going to still be nick when i get home. they are all worried that i will be to mature to have fun. i mean come on, i'm a fun addict. so yeah, i will never be to mature to have fun with them. i will still run around like an idiot with just suspenders on my swimmin trunks and mess around with them. so they need not fear. well i love you all and hope you are having a good time back home. i hope you have a good week. i love you so much mom.Love always,Elder Novakovich

Mission Pictures

2008-12-01T20:59:00.001-08:00

Elder Novakovich at his desk.

The Yarmouth sleeping quarters.

The Yarmouth Christmas tree. Missionary Christmas tree at it's best.

Elder Novakovich's district.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Plumbs again this year. The food was great. We had to keep wondering if Nick was having turkey or lobster for his meal. Carli was able to go over and play with Cooper. She learns her "mastiff" moves with him and then comes home and practices on Boomer.

Mom's letter

2008-11-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

hey mom, The weather here is messed up. it snowed last friday about 3 inches, but now it is all gone. It is 9 degrees this morning and an absolute monsoon!!! like you wouldn't believe how hard it rains here. i would say the rain storms here could hang with a tropical storm. it is amazing. but yeah the snow is gone, and they say it won't be back till january, which is nice. i love snow when i have a use for it, but those couple of days when i had to work in it was a night mare. so i don't mind being here cause it just rains alot, and the snow doesn't come. I'm pretty stoked to get the christmas box, and to talk to you all on christmas day. I'm curious to know what you put in the box. ohwell it will be like christmas day, away from home. i'm excited. the holidays have been a little rough so far, just cause i love this time of year, but i have realized it is because of being with family and that. so i have had to say a few prayers to keep my mind of home, but i'm doing ok. It is pretty crazy how close darbi and i got in like a year and a half. we were enemies before, but i do miss her a lot and always find myself chuckling at things we did together. but i have done that with all the kids, just remember certain things and then i have to try not to laugh cause my comp will think i'm an idiot. lol. i do love them all though.I haven't gotten a letter from nana. but i haven't checked the post today. so maybe today. but i will tell you next week if i get something from her. i hope she is doing ok. that should be fun for her to go to England, she needs to keep busy like taht i guess.I did here about that story in church from aunt cindy. that is funny. that sounds like something bro. woodbrey would do. oh well maybe it was inspired, you never know what some people need to hear on certain days. i can feel myself growing and maturing, which is nice. it is kinda weird to think about the times when i was in sacrament meeting and a missionary would come home, i remember thinking i want to be like them. and now i can feel myself becomeing like them, i think. i just hope that i can be a good missionary and tool in the Lord's hands. well i love you all and i hope you are doing ok. it does sound like you are though. oh the people that are feeding me tomorrow for thanksgiving let me pick all the food. since i'm american and my comp isn't. so i am looking forward to that tomorrow. it should be good. they are "eternal investigators" the husband is dying to be baptized. but the wife said over her dead body, but she still loves us. so Harvey told us if she does die before him he wants to be baptized, and she gave her permission. it is funny but sad at the same time. but we go over every week and have studies with harvery, you should see his scriptures thay are so marked up it is incredible. anyways. i'm doing great keep me in your prayers and i love you all. love,your son,Elder Novakovich

Elder N.

2008-11-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

dad-that is excellent that work is going so well. sorry but i have to tell you this story before i forget, i have forgotten in everyone elses letters. so we have this family who we knocked into, they told us they were not interested in the least, but as we got to talkin about what we do and who we are the lady said " if i had two boys away from home i would want them to be feed" so now we get a dinner apointment every tuesday. so last night we went over and she had forgotten we were coming. it is lobster season over here so people are so busy now. so the husband said well give them some lobster. so we got two fresh caught that day lobsters for dinner last night. so i was pretty excited, to see how this worked to prep them and then try them. so we got home and i was peelin this thing, and i was startin to get grossed out, and didn't know if i was as excited as i was before. but we preped them and then it was time to eat them. seeing i was already a little weary becuase of the things i had just seen, i don't know if i like them too much. it was ok, but i just don't know if i am a sea food guy. i would definately take a burger over a lobster. but alteast i tried it. anyways, i heard about most the sports this week. we had a district meeting and we all talked about it cause we have a senior couple who keeps us updated when we see them, it is fun. but i did hear that max hall was a joke, good thing he plays for BYU. it sounds like theBCS championship race is going to come down to the wire. i must admit i do miss bowl season a little bit. i'm curious to see how i'm giong to hold up come march madness. the camping trip sounded like quite the adventure, i remember those days. those were some funny stories you told about the deacons, i can just picture it in my head. lol. i bet bro. bratten and bro. bise did have some good stories to tell. i would have just mixed some sleeping pills in hot chocolate and gave it to them. but i'm sure you had fun listening to them. thanksgiving sounds like the same old, not that that is bad. i did not like not watchin sports that day though. I have heard it will be weird without me there though. i have thought about that, and i agree. but i do hope you all have fun. i'm doing great and loving life, the days are filled with good experiences. some more than others, but such is the life of a missionary. i love bing here and am anxious to find the elect of God. thank you for all of your support and love. i truly do appreciate it. i'm excited to talk to you on christmas.

Dog's life

2008-11-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

It's a "ruff" life around the Novakovich house. Just the other day we had to get out of bed. Can you imagine.

Growing into my bowl

2008-11-26T08:08:00.000-08:00

My mom thought I should have a big girl bowl but I have a lot of growing to do first.

Camp out

2008-11-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Mike and Jaren went camping this last weekend with the scouts. It rained and snowed that night but all in all it was fun. The daytime activity was shooting shotguns and rifles. The boys had a fun time and nobody was critically injured.

Letter to dad from Elder N.

2008-11-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

well the work is going great here. we both think that something big is about to happen, but we don't get ahead of ourselves, we still work hard. it does get hard sometimes, but i'm ready for the hard times, cause i know that good times with out end are on the other side. it is funny how much i have learned about the gospel just being out here. i get answers to prayers all the time. my testimony is so strong now, and no one will ever tell me it isn't true. we have miracles around us everyday, i have really been able to step back and appreciate what the lord has done for me. i have felt his love so much. it is good that i have been seperated from you guys, cause now instead of relying on your love. i have really learned to feel the love of our savior. anyways i don't want to preach to you too much, cause i'm sure you know exactly what i'm talking about. i just am so grateful for the example you set to me of going on a mission, and that you instilled that in my head. missions are someting that you will never get back or replace, as far as grwoth and maturing. i can't even explain what i feel out here. but i love it. and i love you too dad, thanks for all you do.love always,Your son,elder Novakovich

Missionary News

2008-11-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Mom-you are so funny with electronics. it always makes me laugh how proud you get of yourself for stuff like that. lol. anyways, i guess i will start off with what is fresh in my mind about here. transfers were yesterday, and i am staying for another six weeks. the crazy thing was i didn't even realize a transfer had already come and gone. It is so absolutely nuts that i have been out for six weeks already!! but i'm excited to still be in yarmouth, it is a nice place. so we will be here till the new year, and then another possible transfer. It sounds like you are having too much fun with that new puppy. i wish i could be there to see her grow and pick on boomer, that is too funny about those two. That is AWESOME that jaren is going to be captain of the cross country team next year!! I'm so proud of him. he is the man, i admire how good he is with sports. as for his wrestling he should be ok and if he does lose, tell him to just go out and have fun. trust me it isn't worth it to dwell on not being the best, cause then you force it and you get worse, i have done that. sports is all about doing your best and not pushing too hard. Does darbi have any winter sports? i don't think she does, but if she does tell her good luck.that is pretty sweet that zoe got an award at school. she is such a good girl. how is she doing with me gone? she has written me some pretty sad letters. let her know that i get busy and i don't hate her. just explain to her that it takes a while to communicate. i hope she is doing ok. with that school spirit thing, she is going to be just like lori bourgeous and be off the hook all the time with that. lol. she is so funnny.The primary programs are always good and funny. i wish we had one. big tie knots are were its at though, i'm proud of him. lol. you should see some of the knots in the mission. it's pretty funny, but we have big knot competitions at district or zone conferences. it is a no no to wear them proselyting. after all we are reps of the lord. so i understand, and i have put a couple of my ties away, i think the orange and white one, and i don't wear the pink ones too often. I bet you did bawl when they sang called to serve in primary. you should feel the spirit when actual missionaries sing it. i love singing with elders and sisters. singing at the mtc was awesome cause it was so loud and powerful. wow it was amazing.I was curious to hear how that dvd was, they said they were sending something home, but i didn't know the details. sounds like it was pretty good. how often was i in it? any good pics of me? lol.The weather just turned here. we were enjoying life in the 15 -16 range but now the clouds and fog have left so today it is 2. quite that change i would say, but i am so pumped for some snow to fall. i love the snow. anyways, life is going great here, the time is flying which scares me at times. the work is moving forward and we are waiting for it to really pick up. we are workin with the members a lot to get them invloved. cause yarmouth has a bad rap in the missionary world. so we are trying to pick it up a little bit. anyways, i can't think of any cool stories to tell. just that it is amazing what you find in the scriptures, and in answers to prayers. not one day has gone by that i don't get an answer. i just want you to know that i'm doing great and love being here. i would rather be no place else, i would feel disgusted if i was home right now. cause this is where the lord wants and needs me. i love it here and don't want to leave my mission already. i do miss you all though, hang in there mom. keep busy and i will be home before you know it. I love you tons and am so thankful for you and your support. I love you mom.Love always,your sonElder Novakovich