12-19 Update from Elder Novakovich

So today I am sending my Christmas package to the family!  I am hoping that it arrives by Saturday, which I imagine it should.  If not, be expecting some package some time after Christmas.  There isn't much in it, but it is a descent taste of what New England is like!  I figure the only real thing I have to offer is something that you don't get out in Utah.

I don't really know how things are going to work out on Christmas, but I do know that after church, which is only sacrament as well, we will be heading to Donna's (Bill and Betty's daughter) house to eat lunch and spend time together.  Of course Bill and Betty will be there as well.  From what I know, we will probably spend a good chunk of the day over there.  As for the morning to open presents, we have had a less active lady offer for us to come over and open presents at her house.  That should be a cool experience. 

So Bill heard that we didn't have a Christmas tree in our apartment last week when we were at his house for dinner... The next day he had a little tree with ornaments sitting inside our front door for us..  Bill truly is my favorite person I have met out here in the mission field.  I love that guy.  I have pictures that I will be sending in the package that will have our cute little tree with presents underneath! 

Our investigators are doing great.  The only bad thing that really happened this week was one dropped us.  He gave us a call last Wednesday and said that he talked it over with his girlfriend and Mom, and the Church wasn't for him.  What can you do?  But the following day, we were given two new investigators by our Bishop.  He visited a less active lady and asked if the missionaries could come teach her two un-baptized children.  She consented, and now we are planning on teaching them this week.  Cool!  One falls from the tree and two more replace the empty slot.  We didn't have the chance to teach ------ this week: her fellow shipper went to ER for kidney pain (hopefully not kidney stones) and so was unable to help us teach her.  We have tried calling her to see if she was ok, but haven't had any success.  We plan on trying to call her tonight to make sure everything was going well. 

So I think I will probably call right after we finish dinner with the Esterline's.  My guess is that will be around 2:00 PM Eastern time (noon Mountain time), which will work out perfectly for you and the family.  I would assume by that point that all the presents will have been opened and omelets consumed.  That will give us something to talk about: what presents everyone got.  I wish we could use skype... That would make things sooo nice! 

Our church this week is only sacrament as well!  We are having a Christmas program, which both Elder Peterson and I will be a part of.  We will be singing in the choir.  I don't know if I told you this before, but Elder Gaykowski and I sang in the stake choir during Stake Conference in August... Anyways, that should be a fun experience.  I am looking forward to calling!!  I can't believe that time is here at last.  It seems like forever since we talked in May. 

And so you know, transfer calls will be this Saturday.  I talked with President Wilkey during our interviews this week, and he mentioned that he wants to be stay in Gardiner for another transfer.  He can't promise anything, because 13 new missionaries are coming and that alone will cause a lot of movement of missionaries throughout the mission.  I pray that things work out and I can stay here for my 5th transfer, but you never know.  My fingers are crossed. 



Love

Elder Novakovich

Excerpts from Some Recent Letters

We've had several people ask how Darren is doing.  The short answer is that he is doing great.  Posted below are some excerpts from his two most recent letters:

December 12, 2011

Holy cow!  I read Grandma's email before I read this and she mentioned how Tyson was in a sling and experiencing some pain.... At first I thought, "What the crap happened?"... That's a bummer he broke it at Classic Skating.  See why I tell Tyson to stop growing?  He is much to tall for his poor 13 year old equilibrium.  I hope he now understands the wisdom in why I tell him to stop growing... haha.  Anyways, that sucks for him!  I imagine that will deter his video game playing for the next little while.  I bet that's why he is crying the most I imagine: that's why I would be.  4 to 8 weeks without video games... I hope he can survive! 

So nothing that exciting happened to me this week... We did get two new investigators.  They are the children of the lady we got last week.  They came to church yesterday and we had the chance to escort them from sacrament to primary.  They are good kids.  They sat next to us in Sacrament, and I couldn't believe at how well behaved they were: attentive, reverent, and listening to the speakers!  Both the 10 year old boy and the 9 year old girl seemed to love their primary classes.  After we dropped them off, we talked with their mother.  She expressed a strong desire to be baptized.. Woah.  This week we are teaching her and will be extending a baptismal date.  Can you believe it?  We show up to church two weeks in a row and expressed her desire to be baptized.  I imagine her two younger kids will follow suit.  She does have a husband and 16 year old kid, but I haven't met them yet.  Hopefully they want to hope along for the ride! 

Our investigating pool is getting pretty large.  We did weekly planning on Friday and had to plan for 13 investigators!!!  Of course, 4 or so of them are dead beats who like us coming over.  When we first started the transfer, all we really had were those four investigators.  Now we have 6 or 7 solid investigators who have potential.  It's nice to have solid people to teach!

Elder Peterson and I are getting along great.  We both have our routines down and things are meshing quite nicely.  Elder Peterson knows a lot for only being out 4 months.  He must of prepared quite well before he left his mission, something I wished I would of done a bit better!  Oh well, you live and learn. 

So we eat at the Esterlines yet again this Thursday.  I am sure excited for that.  They rock! 

So I am putting on my winter cushion quite nicely.  I have been trying my hardest to avoid it, but it seems unavoidable.  I can't really control it to much, so I have given up trying to put on that sixpack, haha.

I sure do love you Mom!  Thank you for everything you do for me.  I love you more than anything!

December 5, 2011

So our teaching pool had a HUGE spike this week.  I will copy and paste what I sent to the mission President:

I guess I will begin with the recap of miracles we experienced this week.  We had a guy last week flag us down while we were walking to an appointment.  We talked with him, scheduled a time to start teaching him, and went our merry way.  Well we taught him two days later and he seemed to enjoy it.  He said he would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and come to church the upcoming Sunday.  Well the miracle is that he did.  He also expressed that he truly loved it and wanted to come back.  He was talking with a member during Priesthood and mentioned that he had met with 8 or so pairs of Elders before and that these two (Elder Peterson and I) were the first that he felt answered his questions and concerns.  What a miracle.  And if having a investigator show up as he said, we had a member pull us out of gospel principles and told us that she brought a friend who has 3 kids, ages 16 through 10, who was interested in joining.  We talked with her friend and scheduled an appointment this Wednesday at the members home for a lesson.  Wow.  We were completely speechless.  The Lord truly is involved in the work, I have a sure testimony of that!  I wanted to call you as soon as church was over due to my overwhelming feelings of joy, but I talked myself out of it.  So that was what Elder Peterson and I call our "Miracle Sunday."

We have a busy time ahead of us for teaching, which couldn't be better timing with the winter months ahead of us.  Our investigators we do have now seem to be maintaining the same progress.  We did however get the chance to meet up with a fellow who we haven't seen in awhile.  We set up a firm time of this Tuesday to meet with him. 

Pretty friggin awesome....  I can't believe how this week went.  It was truly a miracle to see all this happen. 

Have you seen my Tomahawk?

Elder Novakovich and Elder Gaykowski are apparently on the side of the Indians in this pre-Thanksgiving celebration sent to us by one of the members in their ward.  Darren was able to e-mail us to let us know that their eighteen week run as companions is over.  Apparently the members thought enough was enough having to pronounce "Novakovich" and "Gaykowski" every Sunday.  Elder "G" is being transferred to a new city and Darren is getting the opportunity to serve as senior companion to a missionary who has been out for about three months now.

10/2 Letter from Elder Novakovich

Things went really well this week.  I was extremely pleased to hear that Elder Gaykowski and I would be serving yet another transfer together.  We seem to be really clicking and it could definitely be seen in how the work is going.  A lot of exciting things are happening with John's baptism this Saturday.  We still don't know who will be baptizing him, so I guess I will let you know next week in my email.  I will be sure to include some pictures as well!  I am glad that Dad sent those pants, because the kid who I was going to borrow from is actually transferring out of here.  The transfer calls this time around were definitely a surprise to everyone in the district. Everyone, including myself, predicted that Elder Gaykowski would be leaving and Elder Cash(who I have never mentioned) would be leaving. 

Man I was so bummed when I heard that Utah State lost to BYU!  Ahh man, I had full expectations in Utah State winning yet again this year.  I am extremely impressed with the way the football program has performed thus far.  I saw the play where USU lost to Auburn and what a fluke that was!  If you take away a few defensive mistakes, USU is 4-0,, with a win against a ranked opponent.  What a change that is from the past years, where two wins was something to talk about.   I am glad that everyone had fun.  I wish I could of been there!

I wouldn't mind having conference once a month or so!  Some of those talks were outstanding!  I haven't heard so many talks about JUST the Book of Mormon in awhile during a conference session.  I guess it goes to show the importance of that book is to our conversion. 

Well things are going great!  I am happier than a pig in a poke (quote from bill).  It is crazy to think about it will be a year since I have been out in the field in a short while.  I can't even what life is like not dressing up in a white shirt and tie every single morning.  I never would have guessed that I would of reached that point, that's for sure. 

Well I love you so much.  Thank you for everything!  Good luck at work!  You are always in my prayers.

Take no Thought What Ye Shall Eat or Drink

A family that is taking good care of Elder Novakovich texted us this picture, I assume to prove that Darren is not starving.

9/26 Letter from Elder Novakovich

So I find out transfers this coming Saturday, which happens to be General Conference!  Woot.  If I was any sort of fortune teller, I would guess that I am staying in Gardiner and Elder Gaykowski will be going somewhere else.  But I have no clue though, because President has developed the reputation of making transfer decisions no one saw coming!  I never would of expected to be leaving Somersworth after one transfer, but it happened nonetheless.  Hopefully I do get to stay though.  I really like Gardiner.  I have especially grown to love a guy who lives really close to us.  His wife is a member.  He has a golden heart, but he has been messed over by religion before so doesn't want any part of it.  He was actually the one who called home the day you had your surgery.  We were over at his house and I was talking about how you were going through the surgery that his wife went through just a little while back.  He asked me for my home phone number and he called to see how the surgery went.  Tyson picked up the phone, and from the sounds of it, he didn't have a clue what was going on.  Hopefully he relayed the message, but I imagine that he didn't.  He is an amazing guy.  I love that man to death! 

So the baptism for John was pushed back the 8th of October due to general conference. 

I don't know what I would really like for my year mark!  For the pizza, I think anything would be good!  I can't really remember what toppings the pie has, but I think something with some meat would be good!  As for other stuff, I really don't have any cravings.  Hard candies like blow-pops, lifesavers, and some others like that would be good.  I guess you can surprise me!  I haven't been disappointed with anything thus far!  :) 

That is so cool to hear about Camryn and the blessing.  That had to be an amazing thing to hear about how she knew the blessing was going to work.  It's amazing how much faith a child can have!  I guess that's why the savior repeats over and over again in his teachings "become as a little child."  Tell her I am so proud of her! 

Ahh I can't believe Taylor is almost in college too!  Man, it's going to be sweet being in the same school as Taylor!  That will be a really fun experience!  I bet she is way excited for college to start... 

Oh boy, I think Utah State might win it again this year.  BYU isn't doing so hot!  Hopefully the Aggies show up to play!  The game is at BYU this year, right?  That will be a fun game to go to.  Hopefully some crazy Aggie fans cause some raucous! 

Well things are going great here in Gardiner!  We have a combined district p-day today, which is going to be sweet!  Everyone in our district can play some basketball!  We are going to have some competitive games for sure!  I am really excited for that.

More from Elder Novakovich

The weather here has been perfect.  From what I checked out, Utah has been scorched!  The weather there has been hotttttt.  I am not jealous of that.  Not one bit.  You can tell though that fall is coming upon us here.  People are emptying there pools.  Just to go on a little tangent:  EVERYONE here has a pool in their backyard, which is ironic because they have MAYBE 3 months of weather that is good for swimming.  Anyways, people are emptying their pools and the trees are starting to show signs that they are going to change colors.  The only depressing thing about fall on its way is the fact that winter is that much closer.  I am not looking forward to experiencing a full blown, frigid winter in New England.  No sir, I am not looking forward to that at all.  But I will be sure to capture all of the beauty of fall for y'all!  I will include a lot of pictures to show you the best part of being in New England.  

Things are going absolutely great out here in Gardiner!  The gym is still in full force and I have nothing to complain about!  This month is going to be a busy month!  Elder C. Scott Grow from the Seventy is coming down for our Zone Conference on September 19.  And to add more awesome to this transfer, we have interviews with President Wilkey on the 15th!  President Wilkey is going to be one busy man this month!  I am excited to be able to talk again with President!  They are much more enjoyable now that I am not talking about negative things!  I am grateful for all that he has done for me.  I was talking with him last Zone Conference and he mentioned to me how I was going to be his favorite story.  He talked about how happy he was that I am truly starting to plant myself in this mission soil.  He wrote a little letter to me and placed it in my BoM, which basically was complimenting me.  I was very happy to hear that he likes what I am becoming.

Well it’s good to hear that things are going well on the home front.  I miss everyone so much!  I love you so much and am extremely grateful for all you do!  

I love you!

Elder Novak