Darren Arrives in Country

Guess what? I am now in Slovenia.  We made it successfully through the land of Europe and arrived safely in Slovenia.  We were greeted by President and Sister Hill when we exited the baggage area of the airport.  OK.... Slovenia is absolutely beautiful.  Oh my goodness.  It's exactly what you would imagine the perfect part of Europe to be. The homes and the mountains are amazing.  So I only get to email you to let you know that I have arrived safely.  I will include some amazing pictures as soon as I get the chance. 

I can't wait to get out and do work.  Tonight we are getting the rundown on how things are dealt with regarding money, travel, etc.  I believe I will be the next one to interviewed by President Hill.  I can't believe I am here.  I don't think it will actually click in my head till I speak to my first Serbian.  The AP missionaries are way cool.  They definitely made me more excited for the mission. 

Whoa.... I am so tired right now.  This jet lag will kick my bum later tonight for sure.  We go proselyting after dinner.  I am way excited. 

Well I got to go.  I love you tons and I'm sorry I didn't call in Paris.  No time :(

љубав

старешина новаковић

Срећан Божић (Merry Christmas)

Christmas picture from Ljubjlana, Slovenia where the mission home is located.

MTC - Week #8 Letter

Well I can hardly believe it; I will be out of the Good Ol' United States in 6 days.  I hope Serbia is ready to hear from my voice!  Whether they do or not, they are going to have to.  haha.  This week has been nuts! As you could imagine, it has been like finals week - lots of studying, practice, and praying.  My teachers were telling me about how it takes the average missionary 2-3 months to understand what people are even saying.  Well I plan on doing that in half of the time.  I know it seems a bit arrogant, but I’m working my hardest to accomplish this.  My goal is when I get back I want to sound straight up Russian.  Having an accent will be sweet.  When I say my name, they will be like "Your Russian!!??!?" Ha ha that will be the day.

Well I hope everyone’s Holidays are going great.  Hopefully Christmas shopping is done at this point! If not, срам те било. If you’re one of those who didn't finish, Google translate that phrase!

It’s crazy to think about, but the next time I will be writing an email will from mighty Europe! Oh baby!

I have absolutely no time to write an email.  Sorry this is so short. But worry not my good friends. I will have a doozy of an email next week.  Mark your calendar! Oh and this is shout out to my family.  Did Alex Porter send me a letter!?!? He sent me an email saying he did.  If he did, forward it plzzzz :D I miss my dear Alex oh so much. 

Much love!!! Have an amazing holiday season. 

љубав

старешина новаковић!!

Travel Plans

We learned Darren's itinerary yesterday.  He leaves on a direct flight from SLC to Paris at 5 pm on Monday, December 27, arriving in Paris at 11:30 a.m. on the 28th (10 1/2 hour flight).  He then gets on another plane to Ljubljana, Slovenia arriving at 3:05 p.m. that same day.  We are excited for him and look forward to receiving his call from the airport.

The elders don't get to call home on Christmas day when they are in the MTC:-(

MTC Letter - Week #7

Howdy ya'll!!!

How's is everyone doing! As for myself, I'm having a blast.  The language is getting intense: only two more weeks and we'll get shoved into Big ol' Bad Serbia.  I can't believe it's almost here.  It's crazy to think I have been gone for 7 weeks now.  Amazing.  Even more crazy is the fact I'm starting to catch on to this language.  I have figured out an insane amount this week.  Now I'm not boasting of myself, because once I know once I get out to Serbia, I will not understand ANYTHING a Serbian person says to me.  My teacher told our class the other day the first words we should learn in Serbia are all of the curse words!  Makes sense though! If I ever hear any of those words, I know to just walk away and ignore the guy.  He told of multiple stories about how his companions would say "were missionaries..." right after a person told them they would kill them if they said a single word.  Ha ha.

Nothing new to report about this week.  I should be receiving my travel plans sometime this week.  The group before us took a straight flight from SLC to Paris.  So hopefully that's what we get to do. That would save me hours sitting in a airport in DC or some other area in the USA.  Layovers are the worst.  I think most individuals share the same dislike of layovers.  It's such a waste of time! All you do is sit in an airport for hours while waiting for your flight to arrive. 

Only 12 more days.... But who's counting anyway?  Oh wait, I am.  I can't wait to get out of this ....wonderful place. 

Just so ya know, I will not be receiving packages past the 22nd of December.  For some reason, they do not give packages out during that time during the MTC.  So if you have something to send me, send it now.  Otherwise, I might not get it.  And that makes me a sad panda.

So I don't know what else to say, so I figure I will leave you with an MTC approved joke: What do you do when a Rhino charges you? Give him your credit card! ZING ohh that just tickles the funny bone.

I hope the holiday season is great for you! Remember what's it about and why we celebrate. 

љзбав

старешина новаковић

волем вас! 

MTC - Week #6

Well my favorite time has once again arrived - letting my faithful followers know how I am doing.  And believe me, I love talking about it!

It's hard to believe, but tis' true! The Christmas holiday season is upon us.  Christmas is truly one of my favorite times of the year. I can say without a doubt that Christmas in the MTC makes life here better.  As I said earlier in my previous emails, I’m a man who loves color, or as my British mate would say, "colour" (odd people the British are)! And until a week ago, the only colors I saw were brown and off shades of the color Brown.  Very boring.  But since Christmas time is here, they have covered the main area of the MTC with colors!!! The colors are fabuuuuuulous.  Ha ha oh man it’s just the simple joy of seeing greens, reds, blue, yellows, all together in one area.  It just brings tears to my eyes.  Yay for colour.  Funny story: They had those lights up three weeks before Thanksgiving.  And being the giddy missionary I was, I thought they would turn the lights on. Nay.  They tormented me by putting those up.  Every time I would walk by, I would hear the MTC president saying inside my head "Ha. You want those lights turned on don't you? NAY!  Muwhahah" or at least something to that effect. 

Well this week was just like every week thus far.  Eat, sleep, classroom, teach.  However, we did have the wonderful opportunity to teach the first lesson completely in Serbian.  Oh boy, that was just oh so fun! Saying кроз џосиф смит, бог је обновио јеванжеље исуса христа.  And forty more minutes of speaking to that effect.  But it's truly amazing to be able to come this far in the language this quickly.  I can confidently talk to my instructors about most things.  I have learned how to correctly form sentences, using correct grammar principles and enclitic forms.  They are backwards in the way they talk. They like to have the pronouns before the verb in most cases. So to say "She knew that we stole it", we would use the order "She knew it that we stole." It’s so hard to think like that when you’re creating sentences on the fly.  But I have faith I will get that eventually.  Ha-ha. I am just excited to get out there and feel like I have learned none of the language they are speaking.  Funny story #2: My instructor was telling me a story of when he was training a new missionary who just had arrived to Serbia.  One day, he and his companion were walking around talking to random individuals.  They eventually came across one individual who stared at my instructor’s companion, and said blatantly "Don't say one word to me, or I will kill you."  Not knowing what the man just said, the new Elder started to say "Hi, were missi..." at that exact moment, my instructor grabbed his companion by the neck of stole him away.  HAHAHA I can't wait for that to happen to me.  Oh boy, Serbia is going to be an adventure. 

I love you all!!! Till next week!

старешина новаковиђ!!

Novakovich looks so cool in the Cyrillic alphabet.