May 17 Letter

Yesterday all of the Zones (Montpelier and Concord) gathered together at the Joseph Smith Memorial for Zone Conference. Oh yeah, it was way cool. We were lucky to have the chance to "sneak peak" the NASA Exhibit at the Memorial. The exhibit had a bunch of pictures that were taken from a Hubble telescope. The pictures were absolutely jaw dropping. And yes, I did take pictures of the exhibit. Some of the pictures capture galaxies that are thousands of light years apart. It's incredible how technology has advanced.

The Zone Conference itself was great. It was about eight hours long. It's really hard to sit down for such long periods of time, but it was a great Zone Conference. We talked about the upcoming bug season; which is supposed to be quite extreme this year. We learned the proper procedure for removing a tick from your skin:-) Besides frightening us about bugs, they had some messages about how to improve our areas. Apparently President Wilkey is quite the fisherman. And that was the general message of the Zone Conference.

I believe I said this in my e-mail, but church this Sunday was great. I am about to finish wit the Old Testament. I skipped over Psalms and Proverbs though. I don't really care about those. I just wanted the rest of it so I can know what's exactly in the Old Testament. I have found that helpful when trying to have a doctrinal discussion with someone who knows nothing about the Book of Mormon. It also helps when someone starts telling a story from the Bible which is false. I've had that a few times now. It's funny to hear a so called "devout" member of another church speak with such little knowledge about the on book they read. There are so many passages in the Bible that support the Book of Mormon. But I agree with Ezra T. Benson when he said that the Book of Mormon can bring a man closer to God than any other book. You can sense a stronger spirit when reading the Book of Mormon. It's such a strong witness that Jesus is the Christ. Especially in 3 Nephi when Christ comes to the Americas. The love he has for everyone is amazing. One part that strikes me was when he was offering a prayer to Heavenly Father and weeps. Afterwards he gathers all of the children and blesses them. He as such a pure love for his brothers and sisters.

Love,

Elder Novakovich

May 16 - Letter

zdravo!

Things are pretty much the same here in Ol' Johnson, Vermont.  The weather has been showers for the past three days.  You would think that after such a long, harsh winter that mother nature would bless this land with some descent weather.  I guess that would be asking too much. 

No transfer yet.  Transfers are in 2 weeks, so it won't be until the end of May.  And Zone Conference is actually tomorrow.  And I am pretty excited for it.  I think its going to be an interesting conference, considering we were told to read the talks from the 2011 April Conference, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" and "What men and woman ought ye to be"..... I can hardly wait to see what President has for us.  And from an email we got from Sister Wilkey, sounds like a apostle will be coming to our Zone Conference.

I had the chance to go on exchanges ALL week, so it was nice to see another area.  It was refreshing to get to know a couple of other Elders better and learn from them.  I learned a cool faith exercise from an Elder in Colebrook, New Hampshire, so that was really cool. 

I did receive the name tag you sent back!  And as requested, I have worn it since.  It looks boring, but it makes sense to wear it.  I will have to wear my Serbian name tag in Essex, Vermont, however.  There are a lot of Bosnian families that live there, and seeing the name tag will spark some interest.  Bosnian is pretty much the same language as Serbian, so it's a great opportunity to open a door that is not there otherwise. 

So how was St. George??  From what Mom told me, it sounded absolutely awesome.  I can only imagine what 80 degree weather feels like.  I must say that I am starting my summer tan pretty nice.  My face has a good start, as well as my hands and forearms.  The sweet tan line where my neck collar is coming in just fine!  It's a curse to tan so easily when your forced to wear a white shirt all day, every day.  But I did have the chance to do some service for a member, so I was able to wear that under armour shirt you sent me.  That helped a little with the tan line around my arms. 

  

Brother Stubbs must love me, because on Friday night, he asked me to give a 15 minute talk during sacrament yesterday.  And being the good little missionary, I accepted.  I talked about following your leaders and the importance of heading to their messages.  Next week is Stake Conference, so it was fitting that's what I talked about.  I think the talk went really well.  It was the first talk I have given, in English, that was just me going by what I felt and thought of.  So I am glad that it went well. 

But to say thank you, or so I like to think, Brother Stubbs invited us over to eat with his family following Sacrament meeting.  We ate so well yesterday night! His wife grew up in the South, so you know that she can cook!  We had fried chicken(of course), Mac & Cheese, broccoli casserole, rice, and her famous homemade rolls.  Oh, what a feast we had.  It was awesome.  For dessert we had this tasty thing that I will make when I get home.  It was so good.  Basically its asphalt pie.  You lay a cooking pan with a layer of Oreo's and then spread butter over the top of it to weigh it down.  Then you top the pan with vanilla ice cream.  You let it melt a bit, then spread the ice cream evenly over the oreo's.  Then you refreeze, then pull out later.  Then you add whatever kind of chocolate topping you want.  I had heath pieces and chocolate syrup on top.  Its was delicious, but in no way nutritious.  Needless to say, I helped myself to a double portion of it. 

I have some good news: I have lost 15 pounds.  And it has nothing to do with exercise.  I think all the stress and anxiety that I am feeling made my body flush itself out.  I can hardly eat food without feeling sick to my stomach.  I eat to survive, and that's about all I can handle.  But I was able to eat well last night at Brother Stubbs house.  He had us over and we ate so well! His wife grew up in the South, so you know that she can cook!  For dessert we had this tasty thing that I will make when I get home.  It was so  good. 

Mother's Day Call

It was so wonderful to be able to speak with Elder Novakovich today.  We are so proud of him for his service to the Lord and are impressed with his growth. We couldn't have asked to be blessed with a better son.  Some of what he shared with us:

• The teaching pool is shallow, but they have great members and are working with many of them to find investigators.
• They do a lot of door to door contacting.  He appreciates that the harsh Vermont winters are over - it was cold and there was a lot of snow.
• He loves the members - they treat and feed the missionaries very well.  He particularly likes Bro. Stubbs and his family.  [Our thanks to Bro. Stubbs!] 
• He is busy reading the Old Testament and wants to finish the entire standard works this year.
• The Vermont area is rural and very green; lots of trees and very beautiful.
• They meet every Wednesday for district meeting.  He's met many of the missionaries and is looking forward to meeting more of them at an upcoming Zone Conference.
• He loves mail - keep the letters coming.
• The church in Johnson has a basketball court, but there it's carpeted and you can't shoot from more than 15 feet away as the ceiling gets in the way.
• His clothes still fit - thank goodness for all of the walking.