Monday, February 21, 2011

Pekara = Happiness

This may look very similar to someone.......

I'm hungry.  That's the first thing that came to my mind.  Hopefully all the other Elders want to go to a pekara or something like that after this.  I feel like I could eat a lot of food. 

This week has been great!  I had the opportunity to go on splits with the AP last week.  They came down and Elder Matson, one of the AP's, and I went contacting for a few hours.  During that time, we managed to get 6 phone numbers!  That was the first time I have had true success with contacting.  It was awesome.  We had a pretty good routine of me introducing ourselves, explaining that I was new to the country and couldn't speak very much Serbian, and explained that I needed to practice in order to get better.  After I gave my part, Elder Matson would talk about the gospel and how were here to help others.  What we did really worked out well.  We have a return appointment with one man and his family this week, so I am excited to be able to finally talk with someone that isn't a member!! 

We also had Branch Conference down here in Novi Sad.  President Hill and President Mihajlović came down and spoke to us during our sacrament.  We had an awesome feast we missionaries prepared afterwords.  We had ruska salata, which is a Russian salad thingy, and kulin sandwiches, which is basically pepperoni like meet between bread.  I ended up spending 10 hours at the church!

Well the language is going well.  I have noticed that I am improving.  I am far away from being where I need to be, but at least I am continuing to progress every day.  I had a lady comment to me the other day how I was improving.  There is a place by our church that sells those Plieskavica's that I mentioned in my list a few  weeks ago.  Anyways, we went there and she said how she noticed a big difference with  language.  That made me feel really good.


I found out from President yesterday that I will be spending another transfer with Elder Porter, which means I will be staying here in Novi Sad!  I was insanely excited to hear that.  I love it here.  All the Elders here are awesome, and we all are really tight.  But sadly, Elder Christiansen will be leaving us!  He finished his mission and now leaves in 6 days to the land of the free!  He is so glad to be going home.  He tries to not show it, but you can tell he is pumped to go home.  I can't blame him: I would be too!  But I am looking forward to doing some work here.  I feel a change in the air: and it smells like success.  I feel like I can have a positive influence here in Serbia. 

Well I heard Utah had some snow.  That's a bummer.

puno ljybav!

Monday, February 14, 2011

February 14 - Letter

Well another week in the bag!  And what a week it was!  I had the chance to go to Zagreb for a zone conference with all the missionaries in Serbia and Croatia.  We left Wednesday afternoon from Belgrade and arrived 8 hours later in Zagreb!  That night, we stayed at a couple of Elder apartments in Zagreb and Karlovac.  It was awesome talking to Elders who were not from Serbia.  Even though the countries are so close together, its crazy how different of experiences we have.  But it was great to get a different view of missionary work. 

Nothing really exciting happened at the conference.  We had meeting throughout the day on Thursday, where we had the chance to hear from the Mission President and his wife.  We also heard from the AP's and Zone Leader in Croatia.  They had some really cool things to say.  The best part was afterwards:  we had the chance to see the baptisms of two kids in the Zagreb branch.  It was amazing to see that happen.  It was such an incredible experience to see two children from Croatia become baptized into the church. 


After the baptisms, we headed back to Serbia.  In two days, we almost spent more time on the train than in Croatia, assuming to don't include sleeping.  Croatia is very beautiful country, especially the capitol Zagreb.  It was very clean and had a lot of energy near center.  It was incredible to visit there.  But Serbia's better, so I was glad to return.

This weekend I also got to visit a small branch of 10 or so members in a small town called Sremska Mitrovica.  I had the opportunity to give a talk/testimony to the members there.  I also had the chance to talk about my family history with them as we had dinner at one of the members house.  I have never wished I could speak Serbian more than I did there!  I felt so bad when I had to speak English with them.  I tried my absolute hardest to speak Serbian, but I just couldn't express my feelings or thoughts as well otherwise. Its crazy, two of the young woman in that branch speak fluent English.  They said some things to me in English and I was blown away.  They had no trace of an accent at all!  Maybe with time I will be the same way! 

Have a great week everyone!  Hopefully the weather is as nice as it is here in Serbia!!

Sremska Mitrovica

Yesterday, I had the chance to visit a small branch of members in Sremska Mitrovica.  I had the chance to meet the members, as well as give a talk during our meeting.  After the meetings, I showed the members pictures of my Serbian ancestors as well as my family. 

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Veljko Novakovich

Picture of Darren's great-grandfather Stephen (Veljko) Novakovic who came to the United States from Yugoslavia with his father Duro and mother Sofia Panic in the early 1900's.


Great Link

Check out this great website.  It has a lot videos, pictures and other information about Serbia.  I particulary like this video clip which shows the beautiful landscape of the country.  We are already making plans to go to Serbia when Darren has finished his mission there. 

  http://www.ambassador-serbia.com/

Monday, February 7, 2011

Amazing Song!


It's been a long way
I try hard not to fall apart
Every night I pray
And your voice is singing in my heart

I have been waiting
A long time for you to take my hand
Loving and hating
A desire that I dont understand

I can't breathe, I can't sleep
Why can't I get through to you?
I can't think, I can't speak
What am I to do?

Destiny
Ive been looking for something to guide me
Destiny
Even though Ive tried I can't deny you
If I let you go, Id betray my soul
I know that this is something more
Even though nothings spoken for,
a way that you will feel the same bout me
Destiny

(Instrumental)

Read the stars and see my scars
I feel so low when youre away
So reach out, its not far
Listen to me pray

Destiny
I've been looking for something to guide me
Destiny
Even though I tried I can't deny you
If I let you go (let you go)
I betray my soul (my soul)
I know that this is something more
Even though (even though), nothing's spoken for (spoken for)
A way that you will feel the same
'bout mee.. ooohhh

If I let you go (let you go)
I betray my soul (my soul)
I know this is something more
Even though, (even though) nothing spoken for (spoken for)
I pray that you will feel the same 'bout me
Destiny

Faith is within of me
Destiny

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Audition

The first presidency found out that Darren is related to Hilary Weeks and while in the MTC, Darren's district was asked to audition for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  The church obtained and sent to us this bootleg copy of their performance track.  Had he made the choir, he would have been reassigned to the SLC mission.  Draw your own conclusion, but apparently, all of the missionaries are currently serving in foreign countries.


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Picture of Novi Sad from Google Earth

If Google Earth works, this is where Darren lives in Novi Sad.

Interesting Facts

Hello Everyone!!
You may be wondering to yourself, “Self, why is Elder Novakovich's email arriving on a Tuesday.  He has P-days on Mondays, and I am pretty sure you only get to type emails on your P-Days."  Well let me tell you.  We were busy all day yesterday and had no time.  Well that was easy to answer! :)
So how is everyone?  I hope it’s not as cold in Utah, or wherever you may be, as it is in Serbia.  These past weeks have been crazy!!  I can say that humidity is not a good thing during the winter.  Come to think of it, humidity just makes everything worse: warm weather, cold weather, you name it.  Humidity ruins it.  But alas, let me step off my soap box! 
Having been in the country for a month now, I figured I would create a list of sorts of things I find fascinating or peculiar about Serbia. 
1.       Restaurant Culture:  Serbians love to go to Kofić with friends and just order drinks.  And when they order their drinks, they just sit there for hours and hours and sip away at their drink.  Last week the Elder's from Belgrade came down and we had lunch at Adriana's, which is the best place at center in Novi Sad.  As we were eating, we found out we were the only table of 20 or so that had food on our table.  No one ordered food.  Not what I would do.  I like stuffing my face with delicious foods!
2.       Beer:  Beer here is almost as cheap as water.  Price of a 2 L of Jelen Piva: 100 Dinars.  Price of a 2 L of water: 80 Dinars.
3.       Bakeries: They plague this land like McDonald's plagues America.  They have bakeries every fifteen steps.  Love it
4.       Plieskavica: Google it.  Best food known to man.  Take an American hamburger, and put it on steroids that make food more delicious.  That's how I would describe them.
5.       Exchange rate: 1 USD = 75 RSD as of today.  Boo ya!
6.       Novi Sad Branch: a total of 6 active members.  All of them over the age of 60.
7.       Language:  Serbians learn English far better than we learn Serbian.  We have met many Serbians who speak English with little or no accents.
8.       DVD: Three bucks a pop, enough said.
9.       Zip-lock Baggies: They do not exist in Serbia.  You will never find a zip-lock bad in this country.  They don't exist. ** Again, I have been corrected.  I will have to try to find them, because I can't seem to find them at all!
10.   Tennis:  It’s hard to imagine, but tennis is one of the biggest sports out here.  You see many, many tennis courts throughout the city. 
11.   Cross Walks: Serbians don't like being the first one to cross at an intersection.  Whenever we come up to a crosswalk, we always go first.  They always just stare at each other and hope someone else goes first.  It's hilarious to watch!  I will have to film it one day.
12.   Fast Food: Fast food restaurants here are bomb: McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut.  I could say with confidence they taste better out here than in the States.  They serve french friends in Pizza Hut!
13.   Novi Sad: The literal translation for the city name is "new now" ** I have been corrected, it means "New Garden"   Thanks for the correction!
Well that's all I could think of on the top of my head.  I will include more as I run across them!
That's all folks!
Love Elder Novakovich