28 January 2013

good week this week!

first it started by meeting my new compadre, elder bloomfield. hes tongan and is even bigger than my last companion. and much louder. hes from sandy, utah. but was born in new Zealand. hes a cool kid. im just going to try not to make him mad so i dont get smashed.

so my week was spent shoing elder bloomfield around the area, and making sure randy made it through the week alive. he was literally sick in bed from last sunday until this past friday. our week consisted of bringing him dinner and coke about twice a day, making sure he was still alive, and not smoking. all he did all week was lay in bed and watch movies about the book of mormom. BUT HE MADE IT. he had his baptism on saturday. there was a good turn out. he invited a couple friends, there were 12 missionaries, and a bunch of people ward. after elder tews pulled him out of the water randy looked up in the air and said "you lose satan!" AWESOME! hes the man. and hes so happy. on sunday i was able to confirm him and hes doing well!

the other excitement his week was supplied by 4 days of rain. and so we've been driving in the mud all week. and now our car and our shoes and our house and our pants are all covered in mud. its fun

im going to do my best to spend the rest of my mission out here :) we'll see though. every time i start having fun i get moved lol. life is good though! we are teaching people. and finding new people. and the wards are taking car of us. and the weather is great!

love all of you. be good. stay safe and healthy!

-elder donovan :)

21 January 2013

so we did end up moving. and we might end up moving again soon. so the easiest thing would be to go back to sending mail to the Allen lane address.

the new place is big, but its dirty. so a lot of the last week was spent making it live-able. its getting there. still lots of dust. and a few mice remain uncaught. but we'll get em!

transfers are tonight and im getting a new compadre. today is his first day in the mission, so i know nothing about him. theres still only going to be 4 of us out here in pahrump. but thats alright, we're still having fun, and the work continues to  move along :)

randy is doing great! if all goes as planned he will be baptized on saturday and we're hoping for a big turn out. satan is working hard on him though. he went to the hospital yesterday. the cops came to visit him earlier in the week (hes alright, and did not break the law) and he's staying strong. he keeps saying "satan is a punk!" haha, i think randy's gonna make it though. so far hes doing great!

next week i'll tell you all about my new companion. im hoping he's cool! even if hes not, it'll still be a great week if we get a baptism.

i hope everyone is doing well back home! dont forget to pray.

love,
elder donovan

14 January 2013

this past week we went down to vegas twice. once on tuesday, for zone meeting and to go up to the mission office. and then again on friday for interviews with President Black. everytime we go down to vegas its at least an hour driving each way. on tuesday it was almost 2 hours each way because we had to go all the way up to the mission office. so we always carpool with the other elders who live in pahrump and we turn it into a party.

wednesday was filled with building a bunk bed and knocking on doors. nothing super out of the ordinary. we did meet an interesting man who wanted to tell us what we believe. we didnt handle the situation very well. arguing never works. which i knew. just forgot for a moment lol. so we talked to him for about half an hour in front of his house. basically it has a waste of a half an hour and nothing was accomplished. but i wont do it again, at least not for awhile lol.

on friday, before my interview with the mission president, we found out that my members that we live with will be going to arizona for a job for who knows how long. so we'll probably have to leave and move in somewhere else. im not sure what will happen, but they leave thursday lol, so im sure we'll figure out something soon.

also big news this week. randy quit smoking! although, we called us this morning and said he took 3 puffs. but he made it 4 days without any. and hes aiming to be baptized in 2 weeks. so he still can do it! i just hope hes not too disheartened. we'll talk to him later and see how hes doing.

other than that, not too much going down. transfers are next monday, i dont think anything out here in pahrump is gonna change. we'll see.

oh, and we saw 4 coyotes this morning, that was pretty cool! also cool, our water pipes froze last night so we had to go to the other elders place to shower.

i hope everyone at home is doing well! love and miss all of you!

-elder donovan

7 January 2013

another good week out here in pahrump! started the week by going to death valley. basically, we drove an hour plus to go see more desert lol. but it was a cool desert. . not very pretty, but interesting. and the weather was perfect for hiking. we went on a 4 mile hike up and down a bunch of sand dunes. another 2 miles to see a natural bridge, and then another short walk out to the badwater salt flats (lowest elevation in the hemisphere). all very cool!

the rest of our week was full of planning for lessons only to have the people cancel. we saw a lot of randy. helped him move, again. this time he lives right across the street from the church building, so thats better for all of us involved.

on thursday, another elder and i went up to vegas for an all-day leadership meeting. it was a long, slightly awkward drive, but once we made it to the meeting it was fun because all my buddies were there. they all said that the mission office has been much quieter since i havent been there lol. good times causing trouble in the mission office :) maybe thats why they sent me all the way out here.

the rest of the week was filled by doing service for the old ladies in the ward and knocking on doors. nothing too exciting there.

we'll see what the next couple of weeks bring. life is still good out here! currently i am working on running my first marathon, so i'll make sure to keep you informed on how that goes.

have a wonderful week! be good.

love,
elder donovan :)

31 December 2012

hopefully everyones christmas was great! mine was. i got to talk to my family awhile, including Bradford and Carrie, and Grandma and Grandpa, and lots of cousins, which was great!!!!!! the rest of christmas was spent by playing cards with randy (one of the people we are teaching) and then just relaxing at the other elders place. it was a good stress free day.
but it kind of messed up the week. it seems like everyone in pahrump was too busy to meet with us this week. but this coming week should be better.
tomorrow is also another "non-proselyting" day (which means we arent suppose to go out and work) (i guess to help us avoid people with new year hangovers, or something, i dont know) so i'm going to Death Valley! not sure how im getting there yet, but im gonna make it happen.

i found out today (unofficially) that my are is going to split this transfer giving me (probably) a new companion, only one ward to cover, and 6 elders total in pahrump. if it actually happens it'll be pretty cool. who knows though. the last elder who was out here told me that President Black told him thats what will happen. we'll see lol.

i hope that everyone got what they wanted for christmas! i did :)

have a wonderful week :)

love,
elder donovan :)