You've gotta love Africa

You've gotta love Africa
Elder Chambers and Elder Kivaya in Oda

Going to Save the World

Going to Save the World
Elder Donovan Chambers

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Pictures

according to the computer in the car we had enough gas to get us zero miles. good thing we were sitting in the gas station at this point lol. we're good at planning

this temp is real. it is not skewed in anyway.  we watched the thermometer go UP to this. thats freakin hot!

swollen knee

knee comparison

thought it would be a good idea to keep my tag on. no body is going to let a missionary die. right?

me in the emergency room

Trey loves the missionaries

30 July 2012


othing too exciting this week, lets see:

wednesday we had interviews with prez black. we do them about every three months, just to check in. and with transfers coming up next week, prez was dropping all sorts of hints to people about transfers. so we spent the rest of the week speculating about who is going where, and who is training, stuff like that. there were 24 new missionaries last transfer, 28 new ones this transfer, and will be 20 something the transfer after that. which is CRAZY because less than 20 will be going home in the next 3 transfers combined. we think that literally everyone that is not a zone leader will be training. we also speculate that a zone will split in half turning into 2 zones. there is some crazy stuff going down and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen. i am 90% sure that i will stay here and finish training elder parker and then get sent somewhere else in about a month and a half. we'll see.

this week was kinda slow work wise. at least there wasnt the leaps and bounds of progress we have made in the past few weeks. i think as a whole, the mission is getting more excited about the work. and that, i think, will continue to happen as we get all this new blood in the mission. im excited to see the changes!

im also excited for winter. but thats still a little bit away.

i havnt seen any of the olympics, which is a huge bummer, i love the olympics! USA USA USA USA USA

for our pday activity we have challenged another zone to an olympic competition, it should be pretty fun!

elder parker and i are still getting along great! im a little worried that im going to become district leader next transfer and my district is going to be really lame. i'll probably be the oldest on (mission wise) by about 6 months. should be interesting!

still really hot here. and ugly and brown. thats ok though, its growing on me :)

9 days till my birthday!

18 days till my year mark!

we've got our first friday social this week, hopefully it goes well! im a little worried its going to be a flop. i dont like throwing parties. i like just attending a lot better!

anyways, thats all i have this week. election buzz is picking back up again. should be interesting how it affects the work.

love you all,
elder donovan :)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

23 July 2012


good week this week! im pretty worn out, and we taught more lessons than we did the week before, and we started teaching a few new people! all signs that we had a good week! also good: no trips to the ER in the last week or so! pdays not over yet but we're gonna do our best to stay away :)

we started teaching a family of 5. the husband is a coworker of one of the members of our ward. i think that the lesson went well. we taught them all about the book of mormon and they promised to read before we came back next time. im a little worried that they are just taking lessons as a polite gesture to their friend, but we'll see. they are a pretty cool family. their ten year old son is a nut. he was belly dancing for us and we were trading knock knock jokes pretty funny!

the ward is getting more and more excited about missionary work i think. we're getting to know everybody pretty quickly, and i think for the most part people like us lol. people are really excited for the monthly ward social we are starting, so hopefully that goes off without a hitch. im a little worried we're going to have too many people and it'll turn into chaos. we'll see.

as i near in on my bday/year mark ive been reflecting a lot on my mission. lots has happened! but there are still lots of things i want to happen. lots of goals i have yet to accomplish. if my mission were to end today i would be far from satisfied. luckily it doesnt end today. i feel like im just hitting my groove!

that said, i miss all of you and being home and being at school! but soon enough i will be back :) keep sending your encouragement! its much appreciated. as is giving me an update so i know what youve been up to :) be safe. and nice!

love,
elder donovan :)

ps. when i come home, im taking a semester off of school, and im going to camp all over the western united states. i would love some company. just think how long my beard could get after 4 months of camping!!!!!! :) you wont want to miss it!

Monday, July 16, 2012

16 July 2012


it rained three different days this week!!!!!!!!!!!! its been great! there was a full blown thunderstorm last night. 3/4 inch hail. it was sweet! one of the other elders just told me that a road in his area actually caved in. im not really sure what he means by that, but it sounds exciting!

elder parker and i have been doing our best to stay excited about the work. there is not a lot going on in this ward and so that means a lot of knocking on doors for us. knocking on doors with no success is pretty tiring, but we are pretty good at making it fun.

we had a good week this past week! i would say it was our best one yet in the area. we had to pass Kaz off to the singles ward elders. its always lame to pass investigators off, but they are good elders and will make sure kaz keeps progressing.

and we picked up two new investigators. they are a married couple with 3 kids and are friends of a member in the ward. hopefully our lesson with them this week goes well!

i also made a visit to the ER this week. my swollen knee turned into a swollen leg. turns out it WAS infected. all is better now. they gave me a painful shot in the bum, did an ultra-sound on my leg, and gave me a different prescription for an anti-biotic and it seems to have done the trick :) i was slightly scared for a moment, i was laying in the ER and an employee came in and asked me if i had a will! i said "no, do i need one!?" the lady kinda laughed and said, "no, we just ask as a precaution" hahaha, im alive, so now its funny.

the New Testament is going great! ive been reading the Sermon on the Mount. lots of good stuff in there.

i dont know what else to write.

heres a joke, maybe ive already told it, but it goes along with the new testament:

Q. what kind of car did the apostles drive?


A. it was a honda, because they were all in "one accord"

hahahahahaha

i hope everyone is doing great, and is having lots of fun!

love,
elder donovan

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

9 July 2012


so ive heard it is really hot everywhere, but on our way to the library our car thermometer hit 113. making july 9th 2012 the hottest day of my life. at least its not humid and i dont have to ride my bike :)

lots happened this week! first and foremost, i finally finished the book of mormon! it is highlighted out the wazoo and it is great. hopefully i never lose that thing! my current plan is to read one page a day from the BoM and then work thru the New testament and really highlighting that up. when i finish the new testament i will power through the remaining pages of the Bom and if all goes as planed i'll have finished both by the end of the year :) the scriptures are an incredible gift and the more we read them the more useful they are! obviously :P

friday morning i woke up and my knee was hurting, like there would be a big bruise there in a few days. well, there isn't a bruise but it sure did something! throughout the day on friday my knee just got bigger and bigger! like really big! and it hurt! soooo, we went to a knee dr in the ward and he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and told my to come to his office in the morning and he would drain my knee. well by morning, thanks to a bunch of advil, the swelling had gone down enough we didnt have to drain it (we were kinda disappointed, we were looking forward to seeing it get drained lol) anyway, im not sure why my knee swelled up, i cant remember hurting it at all. its still pretty swollen and pink, so im still taking the antibiotic and the advil, but i think its getting better.

 i hiked up a mountain today without too much trouble. we all hiked up lone mountain today and studied our scriptures and sang hymns at the top, it was cool! then we climbed down, made breakfast, and played games. i played ladder ball/lasso golf. its not as fun as corn hole, but still pretty fun. i do miss corn hole! and football! *sigh*

and then work here is getting better! we're definitely on our way up :) elder parker is keeping me on track

my new favorite verse for the week is one the elder parker and i keep repeating over and over again. its psalms 118:24 "today is the day which the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it" :)

i like it a lot! whatever is going on, its what we have, and its a gift! so lets rejoice in it :)

have a wonderful week :)

love,
elder donovan :)

ps 29 days till my b-day!
     38 days till my hump day!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

2 July 2012


so far so good here :) elder parker is great! hes from rigby idaho, went to utah state for a year and is studying graphic design. and he's already a pro missionary! a little nervous, but he'll get over that quickly. our ward isnt huge and there isnt a lot of missionary work going on. this past week we only taught 4 lessons, i feel bad because elder parker needs as much practice teaching as we can find, but right now theres not very much. it'll get better soon though, we've got some things in the works. our ward mission leader is crazy. he is an uber business man and runs everything like its a business meeting, including flow charts and inspirational quotes from historic leaders lol. hes good though! he'll make sure everyone in the ward is doing everything they can to find people for us to teach. i think we are already seeing the fruits.

we are living in a members home, the browns. they are nice nice people and have been in the ward for awhile so they know the area well. they have a small house and we live in a side room. today we are going to set up our bunk beds, its a good set up. its a pretty rural area, lots of dirt roads and empty lots and horses. but not far from the city, just on the edge of the more developed part. im loving this part of the area!! its still the desert, but it's nicer than paved/developed everywhere.

having one ward is nice so far, except that our ward mission leader kept us running around all day yesterday, going to meetings with different leaders in the ward, it was pretty ridiculous, he made it so we didn't get our study time! and then he was trying to tell us to cut our p-day short, like end it at noon instead of 6pm. haha, yeah right. im all for working hard during the week, and we will! we'll work our butts off, but we are going to take full advantage of our pdays :) we hiked part way up a mountain (we started on the wrong side and the trail was silly steep!) and played some sand volley ball this morning. who knows what this afternoon will bring. elder parker likes adventures almost as much as i do, so im sure we'll find some fun.

ohhh yeah!!!!!!!!!!! and elder christensen called me and told me that scott and espiranza are scheduled to be baptized on july 21st!!!!!!!!! so cool! they are great people! im excited to go back and see them!

36 days till my birthday, 45 days till my year mark :) cool stuff! although, i dont think im done being a teenager yet.

aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddd, we got a car! they will most likely take it away from us around september when the mission has more missionaries, but for now everyone has a car :) we got a 2012 corolla, when we got it it had 13 miles on it! and it has blue tooth! every time someone calls us on it we feel super cool!

all is well here, we just need more people to teach! its kinda tough because not a lot of people actually live in our area, we're are probably going to have to do a lot of passing people of to other missionaries, which is always lame, but we'll see what happens. being a trainer is just as much fun as i imagined, probably because elder parker isnt a weirdo. lol

hope all is well for you!
love,
your favorite missionary :)