30 January 2012

uuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh.
Long week! and I'm really tired!

Some of the highlights:
Over the past month and a half or so i have let my hair get longer and was actually parting it! weird, I know. I looked really goo, of course, but i got sick of having to comb my hair. and i felt like a nerd every time i did it. so i got a haircut and its back to its normal short buzz.

Elder larsons bike axle broke because he always jumps off curbs and stuff. so we spent most of saturday at the bike shop. but it was cool because while we were there the guy tried to fix my bike. it's still pretty ghetto and makes weird noises sometimes, but the gears at least work now. and the wheel glows in the dark now :)

on saturday night someone made us balut. balut= a duck embyro in the egg shell. it was pretty gross looking, but tasted ok. kinda like egg drop soup

and this weekend was stake conference. Craig C Christiansen came. he gave some good talks and it was a rally good conference. elder larson and i sang in the chior.

and today we went on an awesome hike up a canyon! it was about 60 degrees out and a group of about 12 of us set off to look for a waterfall in what is called Ice Block Canyon.  Once we got to a certain point there werent really trails anymore so we had to kinda just fend for ourselves. it was sweet! we all made it. no serious injuries. when we got to the top we ate lunch and then we turned around and went back. it was a good time! i didnt see any animals. maybe 2 birds that was it. not even any bugs. it was weird. thats the desert in the winter tho i guess.

Here's a poem i found this week:

All the water in the world,
no matter how it tried,
could never sink the smallest ship,
unless it got inside.
And all the evil in the world,
the blackest kind of sin,
cannot hurt you the least bit,
unless you let it in.


I hope you all have a wonderful week! be good :)

love,
elder donovan :)

23 January 2012

The good, The Bad, and the Bowling

Its was a loooong week this week! we taught a lot of people. i did a lot of thinking and we had a lot of fun! Here's an intro to some of the people we teach:

Roland (40's): His wife died about 6 weeks ago. he's heartbroken. its heartbreaking to hear him talk :/ but he realizes that God is there for him and is in his life everyday. and he is always worried about everyone else. He's got such a great Spirit. He had a couple really good talks with him this week!

Aegis Center: We teach here every friday afternoon. its a home for people with Alzheimer's and/or Dementia. The people is here are so awesome, but sometimes its pretty sad to see how sick they are :/

AND heres another sad one :/
The Witham's: Willard and Angie Witham and their daughter Karisma were baptized about a year and a half ago, but have since stopped coming to church and have fallen back into some of their bad habits. Karisma is 13, they also have a very cute 2 year old daughter and another one on the way.  When we stopped by on tuesday to visit, only Willard and the 2 year old were there. Willard told us about how him and Angie had had another huge fight and that we was pretty sure this was the "last straw". We knew they had been having trouble, but this was not what we expected when we went to visit. He told us that he was seriously thinking about packing a few of his things, taking his truck and just leaving :/ The saddest part of the whole thing was that he kept trying to act tough, he kept saying things like, "dont worry about me. im tough. i'll be alright." But then he would look at his little daughter playing or he would say something about the baby and you could just feel his heart breaking :/

And that was my week! Kinda really depressing. These are people that are going through some of the most awful things i can imagine :/ and really there is nothing i can do to help them except to pray for them and listen to them.

But we are also teaching some people i happier situations :) kinda gives us strength to help these other people.

Joe and Valentina: We've taught them twice. Valentina was baptized when she was young, but doesnt remember much. Joe grew up in Utah but isnt a member. They have a 3 year old son and another on the way. And the just eat it up when we teach them!!!!!!! :) Sooo fun! They both work on sundays so that makes it hard for them to come to church but they'll get there :) They were actually looking to move. they want to rent a house with a yard for there kids. A member in the ward was helping them look for places and joe and valentina told him that they wanted to stay in the ward because they "love the missionaries here" :P :) haha, they are awesome.

AND
Nelson: he's a hispanic guy. in his late 40's. and we asked him this week if he wanted to get baptized. he said "of course!" he's going to be baptized on his birthday, march 3rd1

so there's good and bad here. overall the area is great! im pretty much used to biking up the hill now. This past saturday there were 60mph gusts of wind, so we didn't bike very far lol. but it was exciting! and today its raining. which is also really exciting! i think this is my 3rd rainy day since ive been here.

Elder Lasen and I spoke in church for the second week in a row. Last week the topic was Missionary work, and i kinda accidentally spoke for 25 mins and left elder larsen like 5 mins. whoops! this week was better. our topic was the Sabbath day and i didnt prepair anything until sunday morning, so talked for about 15 mins and Larsen talked for about 10 and sang a song. it was good. Prez and sis Black came to watch us.

Today we were supposed to go hiking but that was postponed because everyone one was afraid of rain. so instead we went bowling. that was a lot of fun. (i won :) )

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

here's a quote i found:
"The Lord works from the inside out... The world would shape human behavior ,but Christ can change human nature."
-Ezra Taft Benson


Love you all! keep praying :)

Elder Donovan :)

14 January 2012

i wont be able to send yall anything on monday, because the library will be closed for MLK day, so here is your update :)

im really loving my new area and companion. Elder Larson is awesome. He's got a positive attitude and likes to have fun. and he really really loves the people we are teaching so that makes its a lot easier for me to love the people as well. We live with a couple named Ringer. they have 7 kids but none of them live at home anymore. we live in their basement. i definitely like this living arrangement more than my last one.

Ive met a lot of people so far, but i dont remember a lot of them. We hopefully have a couple baptisms coming up soon. and we are speaking tomorrow in church. Our subject is "missionary work" so thats not too hard but i havnt organized my thoughts yet, so we'll see how it goes. It's gonna be a little  weird speaking in front of 300ish people that i dont know at all.

biking. biking wears you out a lot more than riding in a car! we live at the bottom of a hill. so on the way out, it takes us 45-60 mins to bike up the hill and get to the top of our area. by then sweat is dripping off my nose and my legs are burning. sometimes i cry :P but on the way home i barely have to pedal and it only takes about 20 mins. i bough this awesome light that i put on my spokes so it spins around in circles when i ride. I also bought a can of glow in the dark spray paint...   :)

we named my bike the Dragon because it makes all kinds of crazy noises. (im taking it to a bike store for a tune up on monday, hopefully the crazy noises will stop)

yesterday we taught a guy named rudy. pretty sure he was on some sort of mind altering substance, but he was pretty funny. he kept quoting random movies and saying "old man dude". and then he told us that Hindus call God "Jehovah". i almost squirted water out of my nose when he said that one. but he had a good lesson with him once he finally stopped talking.

the weather here is awesome! i missed ohio weather in the fall. but now that its 63 and sunny half way through January, I'm doing alright. although, im really hoping i dont have to bike up this hill when its 109 out!

I hope all is well with everyone. Be safe. Keep praying. Love you all!

Elder donovan :)

9 January 2012

So yes, the big news of the day is im getting transferred :) transfers are tomorrow morning so i will obviously know more details next week but this is what i know:
my new comp is elder larsen. he is also from washington. everyone says we'll get along. hes been out a little over a year i think. my new area is in the red rock zone. its in the Summerlin area (people call it SNOBerlin). I'll be on a bike (stay tuned for exciting stories about that) in the Palmyra and Lakes wards. I will no longer have to be at church all day, we'll be done by 2pm :) It's the richest part of vegas (i have mixed feelings about this). we live with members. Overall, i'm very excited to get there and to get to know my area and comp!

We had a good week this week! we taught more lessons this week than the 2 of us ever had before. I also said a lot of goodbyes to ppl. that was kinda lame. but i will be close enough that i'll hopefully be able to come back and witness a few baptisms!

so my spiritual suggestion of the week is to read some picture books by Max Lucado (he wrote, You are Special, and Just the Way You Are, and a bunch of other ones). I read 6 of his books this week and they were all awesome and all were very spiritually uplifting!!

LOVE YOU ALL!

elder c :)

2 January 2012

we had a pretty uneventful week here. nothing terribly exciting. i went on splits with the zone leaders on wednesday and with my friend elder butler on Friday. its always nice to go on splits!

Saturday was awesome! kinda. Chat got baptized which was awesome! it was such a good service! elder matekel gave a talk (cause i secretly volunteered him to do so :P he doesn't know it was my fault lol) and chat was so so excited to be baptized! it was really cool to see how much it meant to her! it made me want to have some more baptisms! and then after the baptism, chat and her family cook a feast of Philipeno food and it was delicious. that was pretty much our whole Saturday. as missionaries we had to be home by 6pm, so we just came home and played monopoly the 2 of us. elder matekel beat me, so i went to bed angry at about 10:30 lol. no fireworks or dance parties for us.

this coming week i am hoping to get a transfer call to someplace far away. I love the people in the areas that i am in, but i think it would be really good to start off this new year in a new place with a new companion.

here's a poem that i read that i really like:

Windows Of Heaven

When the sky was blue,
my heart was brittle,
dry to blistered souls
seeking drink.

So God hung black clouds low,
let loose His floods,
and poured forth more
than i could hold.

I sputtered and choked.
He wrapped a hand around my heart
and wrung out sustenance
for others.

The sky is gray,
but my heart is soft.
In drier days,
it would have
Crumbled.

I hope everyone is well! and i hope that you take a chance and set some goals for the new year :) new chances are pretty sweet, and in a lot of ways, a new year can be a new chance! think about all the thing we can achieve over the next year :)

remember what the Cheshire Cat said: "It doesn't matter what path you take, if you dont know where you're going." im working on figuring out where im going, so that i can actually get there!

love you all,
elder donovan :)

26 December 2011

Hey yall :)

 Hope everyone's christmas was awesome! mine was  :) although i missed you guys!

Be good. make a goal to keep your christmas cheer ALL year :)

<3 donovan :)

ps. mail should again be sent to only the ALLEN LANE address.

you guys are the best!

Pictures

Chambers, Mendez, Norris, Mouser, and Butler

Elder Mario

Needs a Hair Cut