8-28 Letter from Elder Novakovich

Haha yeah I did survive the hurricane!  Heck, our apartment didn't even lose power!  How anti-climatic is that?  We were preparing for something epic, but nothing really happened in our neck of the woods.  Our area didn't really do much to prepare for the hurricane, except for buying water and other nonperishable goods in case loss of power. I guess you can count that as a serious blessing, but it still would have been sick to be able to claim you went through a harsh storm like a hurricane.  All I can say is that I am glad I got out of Vermont!  While we were doing our laundry this morning, I saw that Vermont was experiencing some serious flooding.  And I know for a fact that the area I was in must have gotten it bad!  We had a pretty intense storm while I was there and it caused serious damage from falling tress (there are A LOT of trees in Vermont).  So it definitely was a bust where we were.  Some areas lost power due to a tree falling down on power lines, but that is the extent of the damage. 

The baptism on Friday went really well!  It was very well attended and it went extremely smooth.  Everything went to plan and fell right into place.  The only hiccup was one of the speakers showed up seconds before he was supposed to talk.  But he was forgiven when he explained during his talk that his best friend just died in the hospital and that he has been with him for the past few days before he passed away.  It was a touching talk and really brought a special spirit to the meeting.  Melissa was extremely happy to get baptized.  It was an experience that she won't be forgetting anytime soon!  After the baptism, we went over to her place to get our BBQ on!  We had burgers, dogs, and pasta salads.  For dessert, which I had multiple servings of :), we had a chocolate cool whip spread between graham crackers!  Holy cow, it was amazing.  What they did was take cool whip and add lots of chocolate into it.  Once completed, they took a tin tray and placed graham crackers on their sides and used the cool whip as mortar to keep the grahams together.  I don't know how long they sat in the fridge, but by the time we ate them the graham crackers were as soft as the cool whip, which made it amazing to eat!  Probably one of my new favorite desserts to eat!   It was sooo good.

New Apartment?

We're not sure if this is Darren's new apartment, but he sent this picture to us and was proud of his tent assembly skills.

Short Update from Elder Novakvich

Weather in Maine has been absolute heaven!  Holy cow, you couldn't ask for better weather... The way I see it, when Winter comes around, I think it is more than ok to ask for this kind of weather... Not looking forward to the -30 degree temps with tens of feet of snow.  Yikes.

The missionary work has boomed this week!  We had a record amount of lessons given, 19, investigators to come to church, 4(two of them being the first time ever), and new investigators.... We picked up three last week!  That is so cool.  I am excited to see how that goes.  Both my companion and I are getting along great. 

Again, sorry that this is such a short email. 

I love you so much

Elder Darren !

August 8 Letter from Elder Novakovich

Golf was fun!  Is was quite a downfall in the quality of my game, but what can you expect when you haven't swung a club in about 9 months!  The course we played was called Western View and it was a small, small course.  It was one of those that the front nine and back nine were the same holes.  They had about 5 holes that were approachable par 4s from the tee box.  If I had my old swing and set of clubs, I couldn't of even used my driver on some of the holes!  The average par 4 length was 260 or so yards.  I would of launched it past the green every single time.  For the round, we ended up just playing a 3 vs. 1 scramble against the kid who is amazing.  We beat him by a few strokes... But he still was pretty dang good.  We all shared a ladies version of the sasquatch driver... That was crazy to swing.  I could feel the shaft bend like nobody's business whenever I swung.  I still had a shot where I bombed it 280 or so, so that was cool. 

The teaching pool here is thin.  This area had an explosion of baptisms about 4 months ago and now it's pretty slow.  We are trying to find some new people to teach, but everyone here has talked to the missionaries about a thousand times.  I am hoping that the members will hook us up.  The baptism coming up has been through the hands for elders for the past 12 months.  I am lucky enough to be able to be there when she finally gets baptized.  It was pretty cool... Last time we visited her, I had the chance to play the guitar.  Her husband has been taking lessons for the guitar and he let me shred some riffs on it.  He has a pretty dang cool guitar/amp combo.  I miss my guitar!

I have no clue what I would want for my next package.  As of right now, I am sitting solid with the amount of candy.  I just was able to finish off the jelly beans the other night.  I still haven't touched half of the other stuff in the package.  There's so much candy!

Nothing really new happened this week.  Just the same old stuff.  I miss you terrible and love you so much. 

July 25 Letter from Gardiner, ME

Hello madre!

Woo hoo!  I remembered my camera this time around.  I figure that deserves a self pat on the back.   The family in the pictures are the McInnis family.  He was the ward mission leader in that area.  He is a machine.

I can't wait to get the packages!  This is going to be a good gift, if it takes two packages to send out!  I can hardly wait to receive them.  Thank you so much in advance for sending those.  I appreciate it so much!  I will be sure to have that cheesecake in the freezer when it arrives.  Luckily packages here arrive around 10:00 AM, so I will be there to rapidly move it from the heat to the nice cold freezer..

Speaking of heat, things have been crazy hot here in Maine.  The temperature has been around 100 degrees, plus 70 to 80 percent humidity.  You literally walk outside for a few seconds and then get plastered with sweat.  Some of my shirts have gone through a bit this week, but thankfully they are still holding up.  I bet you could collect the amount of sweat between Elder Gaykowski and I in the gallons!  I hate humidity.  But thankfully we DO have A/C in our apartment.  I would literally cry if we didn't.  Glad I got out of Somersworth when I did, because the A/C unit doesn't work there.   Poor Elder Miller.

Right now we are teaching several people..  All of them are around the age of 30 or so.  From what I have put together from talking with them, I don't see any of them getting baptized any time soon.  But they are amazing people and I know eventually something will happen.  We do have a lady who is getting baptized on the 27th of August.  Her name is Melissa and she is really funny.  We had dinner over at her house with her Husband and kids the past week.  Her husband plays the guitar, so you know I brought up music into the conversations.  He let me play his electric guitar, which was ridiculously fun to play.  Their sons listen to the same kind of music I do, so it was awesome to talk with them about that sort of stuff... 

So Elder Gaykowski and I did talk to President about the Gym.. We talked with him during the zone training this past week and he told us that it was ultimately up to us, but he gave some words of caution.  Apparently gyms are common in our mission, so I think President is going to make an official ruling on whether gyms are OK or not.  I hope they are, because they truthfully and honestly make the day better.  I definitely have more energy throughout the day.  But I can also clearly see the real possibility of a gym being a bad thing.  So we are going to finish out our month membership and see what President has to say about gyms this upcoming transfer.  I hope they are OK to still attend!

Elder Gaykowski said a deep comment the other day in church, he said "I don't necessarily remember everything that my leaders in church have taught me, but I do remember the actions and the way they lived there lives."  I thought that was a great thought.  Action speak louder than words.

Things continue to go really well here in Gardiner.  I found out last week that our bishop owns the subways in this area, and he gives us free subs every Monday for lunch... Guess I am going to subway!!  The only thing better than a subway sub is a FREE subway sub!

I hope you have a great time in Lake Powell.  I figure your on the road right now, so I guess I can say that I am enjoying myself more than y'all..  I love you so much

Elder Novak 

Letter from Elder Novakovich

Things are going great. Even though I am writing this email while standing up, things are fantastic I was transferred, I believe I already mentioned it, to Gardiner, Maine. Yes there is a Walmart. Were about to head out right now in fact!

It's crazy how small of a world it is, but I am serving with a kid who was good friends with the companion I had in the MTC. His name is Elder Gaykowski and he is a legit kid. I served with him in the first district and he and his companion there were awesome. It was nice to once a week get the chance to actually talk with someone. WE both love golf, so I am super excited to go for my birthday.

The ward I am serving in is pretty cool. They have member meals for every night, so not paying for as much food is great. The only thing I will have to do is budget the meals we eat out. This district I am in loves to eat out every week, plus my companion I have now likes to eat out too. But I am not too worried about that. All we really have to buy in this area is milk, bread, and cleaning supplies, and the rest is taken care of. A member here gives the missionaries a couple dozen eggs each week, so that takes cares of a lot of lunches. Needless to say, we are doing good in regards to food..

As for missionary work, this area is as "gun-ho" as my last area and it's a great ward. I am excited to be in this area. Both my companion and I get along extremely well, so it's going to be a blast.

Gardiner Maine has a beautiful river that runs through the town, and I will be sure to take some pictures of it. I am going to have a lot of legit pictures to take. I will be sure to get the sundown on the river one night. I will be sure to send some next email.

I am happy to hear that all is going well back on the home front. It's good to hear that things are going great. Hopefully Tyson enjoys the obscene heat that is going around the country. It has been hot and sticky here! Holy cow, it has been nuts.

I love you and thank you so much for everything you do for me! I truly appreciate it so much!

Transfered to Gardiner, ME

Elder Novakovich was transferred to Gardiner, ME.  His new address:

35 Neal Street Apt B
Gardiner, ME 04345