20 August 2012

welp, i hit my year mark and nothing blew up so i guess i'll stay here for another year :P actually im getting kinda nervous for december, if the world ends we only have about 4 months left to live. i talked to someone who believe that the Mayans got it right. she said if obama gets reelected then "of course" the world will end! haha, she was serious though lol.

elder weaver and i are still trying to figure out our area. i think we've got the ZL thing down, but two new wards is giving us trouble still.we'll figure it out though.

we went to a baptism in the samoan ward on saturday and then after the baptism the whole ward hung out and had a party. all day. we didnt stay the whole time but it was pretty fun! all of them were really good at volleyball! even the old ladies were playing and kicking booty. they had weirder food than at our dinners though. they had these thick transparent noodles that looked like worms, they tasted ok but looked weird. and for desert they had cake with scrambled raw eggs on top. i didnt eat that.
but they are really fun loving people. we didnt understand a lot of what was being said, most of the older people dont speak any english, but when someone told a joke, EVERYONE laughed, and somebody was always telling a joke. or doing a silly dance move! i learned some great dance moves from some of the old ladies lol.

this coming week we have zone conference, which should be fun, and we have samoan dinners all week! pray for us lol.
and we're going to be knocking a lot of doors. i hate knocking doors! i love teaching, but hate knocking. i think i dont like it because its so ineffective. we're working on becoming better at it so that it becomes more effective. plus its hard to even find people at home, between weird work schedules that everyone has around here and summer vacation, no one is ever at home. we're excited for school to start so that people come back to town. i dont blame them for leaving though, who wants to be in vegas during the summer?

hopefully it cools down soon. we figure we probably still have another month of 100+

we're trying to think of fun things to do on pdays with our zone. the people in the zone dont like sports and there are not very many of us, so we're struggling to come up with things to do. let me know if you have any ideas.

i hope everyone is ready for school again, have fun! i'll send some prayers your way :)

love,
elder donovan :)

oh, and next week i'll be emailing on wednesday, it'll be temple day next week :)

13 August 2012

Talofa! (thats "hello" in samoan)

elder weaver and i had a long long week of not teaching people. we moved in on tuesday. ALL day tuesday. but our apartment is sweet! and new. and clean. and the air conditioning works really really well! so its all good.
wednesday we met all the other missionaries in the zone and helped them with all sorts of different things that they needed. thursday we had a meeting with all the zone leaders. friday we finally got out to meet some of our ward! both of our wards are pretty small.

the samoan meetings are about half in english half in samoan. and there are another set of elders assigned to that ward, they are from the east side. yesterday we showed up to church and the other missionaries said "we are doing the program today! do you want to join us?" we said, "uhh sure." and so we went and sat in front of everyone. turns out, we volunteered to join a group of about 6 other people who we're singing in the meeting! woops. we sang one song in samoan (that was interesting. samoan is mostly vowels, so we just kinda faked it and did our best to follow the piano) and we sang a hymn in english. elder weaver was pretty nervous, that was the first time he'd ever done anything like that. i just felt uncomfortable because elder weaver and i were pretty much the smallest ones there and definitely the whitest! and they feed us soo much food! we dread going to dinners! there was one day this past week that combined elder weaver and i went to bed 13 pounds heavier than we woke up. luckily this week is white people dinners!

the family ward we are in is pretty small also and there is not very much missionary work going on in either one. but we'll change that. we're already seeing opportunities come our way.

im not sure i like this zone leader thing. its a lot of babysitting. baby sitting of 20 year old guys. lots of phone calls from people who need stuff. lots of being held accountable for things that other people do. but im sure we'll figure it out.

we're excited for Turkey Bowl already! we're trying to recruit all the good athletes to come to our zone (even though we have zero say who goes where lol) it should be fun! its very likely i'll be here until after christmas. so im kinda hunkering down and settling in. i sure hope it's not another short stay for me. it's a lot of work to learn a new area.

its still really hot here. and dry. and desert-y. my skin is having major problems with it. im running out of lotion lol.

and i hit my year mark this week! thats a little crazy!

oh yeah, and i'll tell you about my new comp:

elder weaver: tall kid from texas, youngest of 5 boys. likes football and basketball. is done with his mission in december. also just became a zone leader so we're figuring it out together. hes thinking about going to byu when he gets back. him an di a getting along great, he likes to goof around while getting work done. we'll be doing even better as soon as we learn these new wards.

thats all thats going on here. hopefully ohio is treating you all well. (or where ever y'all are). enjoy your last few days of summer!

-elder donovan

6 August 2012

after just 6 weeks in this area they are moving me! just as i was starting to like this place :/

heres what happened. last transfer there were 6 zones. this transfer 3 of the zones split making 9 total! thats crazy, and doesnt ever happen. also crazy is asking me to be a zone leader in one of these new zones. me and elder weaver and opening the new highland hills zone. its just east of where i am at now. we'll live right across the street from the mission office. so here i was all worried about trying to be a district leader over a bunch of newbs, and now i have to be a ZONE leader to a bunch of newbs (note to people who dont know what im talking about: districts have 4-6 missionaries in them and one "district leader", zones have 2-3 districts in them and 2 "zone leaders").

i dont know how i feel about this. elder parker and i were just starting to have fun! elder weaver is fun too! i know him a little bit and he seems like a cool guy. and i dont have to worry about them taking my car away! (actually we are getting a mini van!)

it is definitely a bummer that its happening 2 days before my b-day. i had to cancel a couple parties :( oh well. we'll find something fun to do for my birthday. and im sure there is a plan in all of it.

we've go a lot of stuff to do this week! like moving in to a new apartment, going to meetings, and meeting two new wards full of people! we are covering the Gold Crest family ward and the Tropical Breeze Samoan ward. im not very excited about the Samoan ward. i know elders that have put on 35lbs in the samoan ward! luckily our apartment complex has a gym. elder weaver and i have a goal to not put on any weight, even if it means the samoans dont like us lol.

aaaanyways, i'll have lots more to tell you next week, once we get settled in to our new place. its kinda exciting! there a good chance i'll be in this area until after christmas, so hopefully its turns out fruitful!


i hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of summer! be good!

love,
elder donovan