Photos

the wind storm a couple weeks ago broke the tree at the church 

(from left: Larson, Mendez, Me, Larson my comp, Palmer, and Edwards) 

 neighborhood in my area. super fancy

sunset. we dont get a lot of cool ones her, because there arent many clouds, but this one was pretty cool 

dead baby duck fetus. its called Balut

me eating balut. it wasnt too bad. a little crunchy 

a view from our hike

we climbed up a very steep rocky hill (cliff) to get to this cave. it was pretty cool 

view from the very top of ice box canyon

someome sliding down the side of the mountain on the way back to our cars 

elders larsen, palmer, and i with our home made ties. they were a big hit at zone conference 

the Redrock zone

21 February 2012

So transfers came once again. Both elder larsen and i are staying in our area. elder larsen is going to be district leader and we're gonna kick trash :)

 This weeks gonna be a big one for nelson, he wants to be baptized next saturday, but if thats gonna happen, a lot of things need to fall together. i really hope it works out! we need to cover a lot in our lesson this week and he needs to have his interview and he needs to come to church! so help me pray that that all works out!

Joe went to the hospital on sunday :/ hes epileptic and ended up having a seizure at work, and then one in the ambulance, and then on more in the ER. we went to see him in the hospital after church. He seemed to be doing alright, he was ready to go home. we gave him a blessing and we'll hopefully see him later this week.

Remember when i told y'all about the withams? and about how angie had taken the kids and moved out? well rumor is she has moved back in. we havnt talked to her yet, but we're crossing our fingers!

Next week we get to go to the temple! we're pretty excited about that. that'll be on wednesday the 29th, so that'll also be the day we email.

Elder Alford (my district leader) and I took rudy to the addiction recovery meeting last week. that probably could have gone better lol. Rudy was not doing very well focusing. he kept telling random stories from his past about seeing ghosts and about how his dad used to play "pro football" for 20 years. (someone asked him where he played, rudy said idaho state lol). the poor people that were running the meeting didnt know what to do because they are used to having a very structured meeting, and rudy is not structured lol. I had to cut him off a few times, just to help the people that were running the meeting lol. we're gonna work with him in the work book a little bit before we take him back to another meeting. The good thing was, someone asked him, "Rudy, do you want to change?" and he said, "yeah, i need to". so thats a big first step! we'll keep workin with him.

I found an interesting verse this week:
"Rejoice evermore."
-1 Thessalonians 5:16

Paul tells the Thessalonians to "follow that which is good" and "rejoice evermore". i thought that was really interesting. it has inspired me to rededicate myself (again) to only focus on positive things, on good things, on things that will bring me closer to God. because I want to rejoice! Rejoicing is good! I want to be able to rejoice everyday. life would be really good if i could do that, but to be in a position to do that, i need focus on the good. so thats what i'm going to do :)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week! be safe. pray. keep being cool :)

love,
elder donovan :)

Fashionable

Homemade Ties

13 February 2012

Its raining here :) for the first time in probably 2 months! it was kinda lame this morning, because the wind was blowing really hard and it made it hard to play football, but the rain is pretty sweet! this afternoon we went to a guys house to play in his basement. it was the biggest house ive ever been in! he had a racket ball court in his basement and a swimming pool with waterfalls and a crazy good view of the Strip! and he gave us a ride in his Mclaren SLR. its really fast. like a nascar. we didnt go that fast though cause we were in his neighborhood.

earlyer this week we had zone conference. that was pretty cool cause i got to see all the elders from my old zone. and i found out that Rick is getting baptized next month! so hopefully i'll be able to go to that! Elders Larsen and Palmer and I all hand-sewed our own ties. they are legit and were a big hit at zone conference :)

Nelson is getting closer to his baptism! its pretty cool to see how excited he is! hopefully everything works out. I'm a little worried because he hasn't been able to come to church in OUR ward. and if he doesn't make it to our ward, he cant be baptised into our ward, which is what he wants and is expecting. ultimately it doesn't matter too much as long as he gets baptized and he's excited about it.

This coming weekend is transfers. so we'll get transfer calls sometime this week. and next monday is some sort of holiday (presidents day i think) so we wont be emailing then. so next Tuesday or Wednesday when i get to email you i'll tell you what happens with transfers :) both elder larsen and i kinda feel like hes gonna go. not for any reason, thats just what we're thinking. we're probably wrong though lol.

Have a wonderful week!

-elder donovan :)

6 February 2012

So joe and Valentina's move went quite well! they stayed in our area, which is awesome! now we just need to get them to come to church!

On thursday i went on splits with elder Manning. he has been out on his mission for about a month and a half and he doesnt really know  his area very well, so we ended up riding to the top of his are and then back to the bottom like 7 times that day, it was awesome lol. He's a cool kid, just a little shell shocked i think. he'll figure it out.

On friday i just had one of those days. We helped someone move in the morning. which should have been fun except that it was me and elder larsen and then a bunch of old and/or weak ppl. so Larsen and I had to carry all the heavy stuff and I just let myself get annoyed. Which started my bad day. after that we had a few lessons fall through, no one answered their door, i let myself get mad at elder larsen cause he got us lost, my bike broke, i fell off of my bike, the zipper broke on my jacket, and i accidentally kinda broke a door at walmart ( they fixed it, no worries ) so that was my bad day. I was better the next day :) moral of the story: if you let yourself get annoyed or angry, youre going to be in a bad mood. so be happy :) its better :)

Sunday was ok. we had good classes in church, but none of our investigators came :/ lame. and we found out that one of theladies we're teaching actually lives in a different area so we're going to have to give her to them. also lame!

but i feel like this is a lame, negative email, so lets see if i can fix it. I received a christmas package from some of my ohio friends. That was awesome! thanks for everyone that did that! and i bought a zen garden from the dollar store! also awesome. my desk is a lot more peaceful and balanced now. And the weather is still beautiful here! about 60 degrees and sunny all the time.

I found this quote the day before my bad day:
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall.
-Nelson Mandela

I thought about this quote as i was laying on the ground after i fell off of my bike. it didnt inspire me. it made me more mad. lol. but its a good one i think. as long as the timings right lol.

and an old lady named Pearl said this too me "A friendly wave is a help today." i like that! (she has alzheimers, we visit her once a week, shes great!)

So stand up when you fall down and then wave at someone. it'll make the world a better place :)

I miss you all! i hope everyone is safe and happy. I pray for you everyday :)

love,
elder donovan chambers :)

Parting of the Red Sea

Elders Chambers and Larsen