Pictures

going to distict meeting. my suit pants were at the cleaners 

before the 5k

after the 5k

my first scorpion

the neighbors tortise escaped

29 May 2012

hey everyone! hope you had a wonderful memorial day! i sure did :) we went on a hike yesterday, probably 3 miles. but most of it was climbing around/over trees and rocks. it was awesome to get outside (not in a shirt and tie), in nature and sweat a little bit! felt so good!

and on saturday we had an awesome time! im not sure if i told yall about helen. she is from Queensland Australia and was visiting her friend here. she ended up being here for about 2 weeks and we pretty much met with her everyday she was here! last week when i emailed, i was pretty sure she was going to have to wait until she went back home to be baptized. that was what our mission president told us to do and that made the most sense, so that she could be baptized where she would actually be attending church and with the people there to fellowship her. but she really wanted to be baptized here. she had a lot of things she is dealing with at home. thats the reason she came on vacation, to get away from the home issue. well, she came here, found the church, and wanted to be baptized asap so that she could have those blessing with her when she returned home. we ended up bring president black with us for a lesson and he gave us special permission to do the baptism here! it was awesome! i was able to be the one in the water with her doing the baptism and that was an awesome experience! i didnt even mess up the words and she went all the way under the water! it was a really really great experience and i hope and pray she settles in quickly to her new branch!

on a sadder note. none of the people that promised me they would come to church actually came :( everyone here, who actually has a job (lots of people dont), works A LOT, and so they are either working during church, or sunday is their only day off and they want their rest.  i want to rest on Sunday too, but i still go to church! sheesh.

uuuuummmmmmm. i guess thats my life right now. transfers are in a month, im ready for a change i think. my little brother turned 18 this past week, thats crazy! i must be getting old. and i wish i got to call my family about every month instead of twice a year!

i hope you have a wonderful week! start your summer off with a bang! im gonna keep praying i have a car in my next area :)

love
elder donovan

21 May 2012

theres a high of 103 here today :(

Jeb is starting to act like the Dragon did before he died :/

nobody that told me they would be at church was actually at church :(

but life is still good :) im still happy! we taught more lessons last week than any other week on my mission. and i finally got to the part in the Book of Mormon when Christ visits the people and teaches them. there is no better way to start your day than by reading about Christ!

this week we have zone conference. thats always fun! we get to see all our buddies who are serving in other area, some of which just came down from up north. we get to learn from one another. and the best part is, i dont have to plan anything for an entire day :)

uuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm, what else is going on?

on friday we showed up to our dinner and the mother of the house said, "your mission president and his wife are coming to dinner!" (they are friends of the family i guess) so i said, "oh, well its a good thing that we obeyed all the rules TODAY!" (jokingly of course, we are always good) and the sister just gave my this disapproving look lol. i was more behaved the rest of the evening lol.

my hair is now shorter than it has ever been. i used a 2 this time. my heads getting sunburnt.

this past week i hit my 9 month mark! and some members happened to take us to Outback for dinner. so they had the wait staff sing me happy birthday lol.

this afternoon we are going disk golfing! we're borrowing disk from a member that takes his disk golf VERY seriously, he told us that spent "a few hundred dollars" on his disks! and he told us that the course we are going to is the "hardest in the state" (who knows how many disk golf courses there actually are in nevada lol) im worried we're going to lose his expensive disks!

i hope all is well at home! be safe.

love,
elder donovan :)

14 May 2012

so i talked to my mama yesterday, she is the best!!!!!!! and the rest of my family too, they are awesome! I found out my dad and uncle and older brother are going on a cool hiking trip to the grand canyon without me :( and and little 5 year old patrick taught me a little bit about prayer lol. i was telling my family that i did not get transferred. that means that i will be staying in the same area with my same companion for the next 6 weeks. it also means that i will be staying in the vegas west mission when it splits, so my opportunity to go to reno, and get out of the vast, dirty, barren dessert that vegas is,  has been dashed. so i was jokingly telling my family that i had been praying for a transfer up north, and patrick pipes up and says "ya but Donaphin, you dont always get what you pray for!" haha, so true little buddy. it was good to talk to all of them :)

other big events that happened this week.....

i found my first scorpion! that was way cool! we actually caught the first one and messed with it for awhile and then let it go. later we were telling the member we live with about how excited we were to find a scorpion and she got MAD at us for not killing it! i said, why would i kill it? its cooool! so she told us about how she got stung by one and then ordered us to kill the rest of them that we see lol. so we went on a scorpion hunt :) when you shine a black light on them they glow bright green (way cool) so they are pretty easy to find. i smashed one of them with a big stick and its guts exploded all over my face and shirt. there was bright green splatter all over me. true story.

and we met some awesome people yesterday and taught them about the Book of Mormon. they are very excited to come to church next week. Super cool!

i hope you all are being good and behaving yourselves. and having lots of fun!!!!!!!!!! miss you all!

love,
elder donovan :)

7 May 2012

so, as good as last week was, this week didnt live up to the hype. we'll start with the bad stuff that happened and then i'll tell you the good stuff :)

friday, coming home from a lesson, i crashed my bike. hard. i figure i went from over 20mph to stopped in about 20 feet lol. what happened was we were racing home, i was winning, but i didnt swing my turn wide enough. so i took the turn too tight and obviously too fast and my bike slid. as it slid, due to the sheer momentum that was trying to change direction, the wheel actually bent. that caused problems. i flew off. tearing my pants and shirt. scraping both my arms, one has a big bump/bruise, scraping both my knees, and hitting my head on the curb. my helmet actually cracked and i got a bruise on my forehead THROUGH my helmet. fortunately, all my wounds were external and will all heal :) and i acquired a new wheel for my bike, so that too will heal :)

even worse than that though: we received a text message from teresa on sunday morning. she told us that she couldnt live up to the standards of the church and therefore she wouldnt be attending church or studying with us anymore because she didnt want to be a hypocrite. we of course texted her right back and told her that none of us are perfect and that the gospel is only about progressing! she never responded. so yeah, that kinda hurts. but we'll keep trying her!

and i think i told y'all about chris and ashley+ 5 kids on wednesday. all is still good with them, we are going to have another lesson with them tomorrow :)

coming up this week:
i will find out if im getting transferred or not. along with that i will find out what mission i will be in and who my mission president will be for the next year. wherever i get sent i'll be happy :) i would like a car area though

elder justice, mendez, and i are singing in their ward talent show. i wanted to do a cool song, like a missionary rap or something, but they chose a hymn

and of course on sunday i get to call home :) super excited for that!

i hope this message finds you all happy and doing well. if not, get happy and well :P

love,
elder donovan :)

2 May 2012

hey everybody!!!!!!!!! first of all, i miss you guys! second of all, life is going really well here!!!! :)

we had lots of stuff happen this past week!

last saturday we ran our 5k, actually, it was only 2.8 miles lol. i did it in 22 mins. and then limped around for like 4 days :) but it was fun! i really like the wards im in, so its always fun to get together for an activity.

but the big thing that is going on is elder christensen and i have been kicking butt! we both set a personal record for lessons taught in a week last week and we're on our way to having another great week! i decided that i hope i stay here another transfer so i can see what happens in the area. next week we'll see what happens. prez told us today that where we are next transfer is the mission we'll stay in. so by mothers day i'll know where im going!

speaking of mothers day! im super excited to talk to my mama next week!

on thursday, we asked teresa if she wanted to be baptized on may 12th, and on sunday she said she is, "seriously seriously considering the 12th" :) hopefully he lesson goes well this week!

and we had an awesome first lesson with chris and ashley. they are a young couple with 5 little kids. they are awesome! way down to earth, devoted to their family, sick of living in the desert, my kind of people! they're the biggest reason i want to stay in the area.

so i had a break though this week. it finally feels normal to be here. im used to being a missionary in Vegas. not only that, but vegas is actually growing on me! dont get me wrong, i miss trees and grass and rain, but vegas isnt so bad! the area im in is pretty cool. im even used to riding my bike! (which broke this past week lol. my shifter is broken, i have to hold it in 2nd gear, otherwise it will shift to 1st. i cant even force it into 3rd lol)

life is good :)

except that i havent seen many letters recently....

i bet they're lost in the mail somewhere, im sure they'll get here soon :)

funny story:
in one of the mission apartments there is a punching bag. about an hour ago my companion yelled "this is sparta!", kicked the bag, and put a huge rip in his pants. it was so funny!

this week i am working on being more patient. but this is the last week im working on it. if it doesnt get better by next monday, i quit.

i hope everybody is have a super duper fun day :) y'all are awesome!