26 March 2012

It was one of those weeks that just flew by but then i look back and im not sure what happened.
on Tuesday we helped this guy named Lenny move. hopefully we'll be able to start teaching him soon.
wednesday morning we woke up really early and went to a seminary morning-side. it was cool. as a zone we sang a couple songs for the kids. we did okay. somehow me and one other kid ended up being the only tenors and the part we were supposed to sing was ridiculously high. which would have been okay except that it was early in the morning and we didnt warm up lol. we pulled it out. everyone there was half sleeping so it was okay. the rest of wednesday we were on splits with the zone leaders. that was pretty cool. we always have a good time on splits.

thursday, we thought we were going to have a 1st lesson with lenny, but when we showed up to mikes house (where we thought the lesson was going to be), lenny wasn't there. so we had a lesson with mike and his fam. it wasnt a very good lesson. mike is a bad student and thinks that he is a better teacher than we are, so when we were trying to teach his kids he kept interrupting us and talking about things that dont matter. but its okay! him and his family came to church for the first time this sunday, that was pretty cool!

and joe came to church again this week! we're going to challenge him again to be baptized.

on saturday we ate Durian fruit (google it) it smells really really bad and tastes only a little better. everyone should try it if they get a chance.

this coming week is transfers, so next monday i'll know where im going to be and who im going to be with, so stay tuned for that.

also this week we are moving from our current home and into someone elses house. i dont want to, but the members really want us to live there, so the mission people tell me i have to. mostly it shouldnt change my life too much. just one more thing we've got to do this week.

im really looking forward to Conference! it should be awesome! it'll be my second conference on my mission, thats kinda crazy!

well thats all ive got for y'all this week. be good :)

love,
elder donovan :)

ps. check out the song "you love me anyway" by Sidewalk Prophets, its awesome

19 March 2012

Highlight of my week: I got to go back to my last area inTule Springs and see Rick get baptized. that was awesome! it was cool to see him finally make that big step in his life and it was cool to see some many of my favorite people from my last area.

Elder Larsen got a really bad toothache this past week and that slowed us down a lot. he wanted to rest a lot cause it hurt so bad. i dont blame him. an old root canal that he had got infected :/ fortunately we know lots of dentists and he was able to get that fixed this morning.

Sylbi didnt get baptized this past week :/ her life is crazy! the people that she was living with basically kicked her out because they dont like Mormons. so she has to move and the only place she could find an affordable place was in another ward. so she is moving this week and then once she gets settled in wants to get baptized there. i hope everything slows down for her soon!

from what i here it is actually warmer in ohio than it is here. kinda weird, but i'm sure it wont be that way for very long. its hot enough right now. im hoping i get assigned to the reno mission. but that probably means i'll stay in vegas.

im ready for transfers. they arent for a couple weeks but im ready for a change. my companion is starting to get on my nerves and im beginning to get bored so its probablly time for a change.

had a really good lesson this week with joe and ailee this past week! we talked about prayer and did our best to get them excited about progressing. they didnt come to church though :/

words of wisdom:
when life is slow,
and you know not where to go,
pray oft,
silent, loud, or soft,
and God will hear,
He'll be more than happy to steer.

-Donovan

i was going to just say this but i flt creative so i wrote a poem :)

i hope you all have a wonderful week :)


love,
elder donovan

12 March 2012

Kinda a slow week this week. well  maybe not slow, but fairly uneventful. one of those weeks when you get to the end and youre like "oh dang, the whole week is gone!"

but here's what happened...

tuesday night we met a really cool family! the parents names are Joe and Ailie (ale-ee) and they have 2 little kids.  they are neighbors of the bishop and have talked to missionaries before, but ran into some concerns and life kept getting hard and they stopped investigating. but this past week we had dinner with them and resolved some of their concerns and they came to church this week! and they want us to come back this week and teach them more! so we're pretty excited about them.

on thursday i went on splits with an elder who has been out for about 6 months. hes kinda a different kid. and he talked a lot about how he didnt want to be here. he told me that e felt like his dad had made him come and that he wasnt ready to be here. he said he wanted to go home, get a job, study his scriptures, and then he would come back out on a mission later. this kid has no motivation, there is no way he would go home and study, he probably wouldnt even get a job. I tried to talk some sense into him/ give him a pep talk, but i dont think it sunk in. we'll see what happens, so far he's still here.

saturday our new investigator, Silbi (who is supposed to get baptized this coming saturday) went to the hospital! Im really tired of all the people I teach going to the hospital!!!!!! She crashed on her bike and hurt her knee/ankle :/ we're praying she recovers quickly!

yesterday, at church, this guy was telling us about this catholic man that he used to know who was married to a woman with chrone's disease. he was telling us about how he used to go to visit them but they would never come to church. and then this ast week he gt a phone call from them and the husband is getting baptized this weekend. well what this guy didnt know is that i know this catholic guy too! he was talking about Rick Wood! so this guy in my current ward is going to give me a ride to rick's baptism on saturday! im pretty excited for that! its going to be cool to see everyone from my last ward again!

funny story of the week: this guy told me about how he found a vampire! we were standing on the side walk in our shirts and ties and this guy walked up and said, "you 2 look like religious men". he was very observant! he continued to tell us this story about how he found this monster (he called it a vampire, but said it was a god)  he said it was about 5 feet tall  and had short brown fur. one of its feet had a hoof and the other one was like a giant ape foot lol. he also said it could make itself invisible! he gave me a copy of his hand written scientific paper that he wrote about it, which also included and hand drawn picture of the vampire. awesome! lol he also told me that he used to be a professor but the college kicked him out for his radical ideas lol. it was a pretty funny conversation.

my quote of the week:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Maryanne Williamson

I hope everyone is doing well! its 76 degrees here today. so far i havnt burnt up yet, but i think its gonna come soon. im going to buy sunscreen today lol

much love!
-elder donovan :)

Photos

us eating chicken feet

at the temple (me and elder mendez)

at the temple (me and elder mendez)

street named chambersburg

showing off my guns

giant hamburger w/ pastrami i ate. really good!

me, bro acension, nelson, elder larsen, 2 random little girls from the ward that thought they should be in my picture lol

29 February 2012

so the biggest news of the week: the dragon (my bike) gave up on me. hes officially done. we were on our way to meet up with president black for a baptismal interview when my pedals stopped turning my tire. having pedals that dont turn the wheel is really quite useless. so we called nelson and he came and picked us up. and then the next day we went garage sale-ing! it was really quite successful! we went to Goodwill and Salvation Army and then about 6 garage sales and ended up running into a member of the church who knew someone with a bike! and they gave it to me! it was awesome! my new bike is named "Jebadiah" because it says hillbilly on the side of it. its a lot better than my old bike. (i think ANY bike would be better than the dragon)

also this week: we had a really good sunday! nelson finally made it to our ward! he was able to meat everyone and hes going to be baptized on saturday! elder larsen and i might sing a song.... not sure yet

and joe came to church! it was his first time. i think we had a good time. Dylan definitely had a really good time in nursery.

and we say willard witham! his wife and kids have moved back in :) and his sister-in-law (some of the problem) has moved up. he seemed in much much better spirits :) that was really good to see! now we just need to get church back into their family and their family back to church and it'll all be good :)

and we went to the temple today! it was so good. i hadnt been for like 3 months, so it was good to be there. it really is the most peaceful place i've ever been! i cant wait till i can go more often.

 i really hope the weather stays cool here. people keep telling me its going to get real hot real fast. i really hope im in reno before then lol. if not i might die. just a warning :) i dont think i can bike up this hill if its over 100 degrees. but so far its not over 70, so i should be okay until at least next week :)

 heres a new quote i added to my Book of Truth this week:
"be the change you wish to see in the world"
-Ghandi

Ghandi is smart

Me and another missionary got into a discussion/fun argument about the death penalty. anyway, he ended up saying something like, "even if your position is right (which of course it is :P ), it doesnt matter, because not enough people agree with you. things will never be the way you want them" i told him thats stupid! and Ghandi agrees :) we just have to keep doing the things we believe in. at the very least we are going to affect the people immediately around us.

i hope everyone is having a wonderful week and i'll talk to you soon :)

love,
elder donovan :)

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 :)

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

30 January 2012

uuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh.
Long week! and I'm really tired!

Some of the highlights:
Over the past month and a half or so i have let my hair get longer and was actually parting it! weird, I know. I looked really goo, of course, but i got sick of having to comb my hair. and i felt like a nerd every time i did it. so i got a haircut and its back to its normal short buzz.

Elder larsons bike axle broke because he always jumps off curbs and stuff. so we spent most of saturday at the bike shop. but it was cool because while we were there the guy tried to fix my bike. it's still pretty ghetto and makes weird noises sometimes, but the gears at least work now. and the wheel glows in the dark now :)

on saturday night someone made us balut. balut= a duck embyro in the egg shell. it was pretty gross looking, but tasted ok. kinda like egg drop soup

and this weekend was stake conference. Craig C Christiansen came. he gave some good talks and it was a rally good conference. elder larson and i sang in the chior.

and today we went on an awesome hike up a canyon! it was about 60 degrees out and a group of about 12 of us set off to look for a waterfall in what is called Ice Block Canyon.  Once we got to a certain point there werent really trails anymore so we had to kinda just fend for ourselves. it was sweet! we all made it. no serious injuries. when we got to the top we ate lunch and then we turned around and went back. it was a good time! i didnt see any animals. maybe 2 birds that was it. not even any bugs. it was weird. thats the desert in the winter tho i guess.

Here's a poem i found this week:

All the water in the world,
no matter how it tried,
could never sink the smallest ship,
unless it got inside.
And all the evil in the world,
the blackest kind of sin,
cannot hurt you the least bit,
unless you let it in.


I hope you all have a wonderful week! be good :)

love,
elder donovan :)

23 January 2012

The good, The Bad, and the Bowling

Its was a loooong week this week! we taught a lot of people. i did a lot of thinking and we had a lot of fun! Here's an intro to some of the people we teach:

Roland (40's): His wife died about 6 weeks ago. he's heartbroken. its heartbreaking to hear him talk :/ but he realizes that God is there for him and is in his life everyday. and he is always worried about everyone else. He's got such a great Spirit. He had a couple really good talks with him this week!

Aegis Center: We teach here every friday afternoon. its a home for people with Alzheimer's and/or Dementia. The people is here are so awesome, but sometimes its pretty sad to see how sick they are :/

AND heres another sad one :/
The Witham's: Willard and Angie Witham and their daughter Karisma were baptized about a year and a half ago, but have since stopped coming to church and have fallen back into some of their bad habits. Karisma is 13, they also have a very cute 2 year old daughter and another one on the way.  When we stopped by on tuesday to visit, only Willard and the 2 year old were there. Willard told us about how him and Angie had had another huge fight and that we was pretty sure this was the "last straw". We knew they had been having trouble, but this was not what we expected when we went to visit. He told us that he was seriously thinking about packing a few of his things, taking his truck and just leaving :/ The saddest part of the whole thing was that he kept trying to act tough, he kept saying things like, "dont worry about me. im tough. i'll be alright." But then he would look at his little daughter playing or he would say something about the baby and you could just feel his heart breaking :/

And that was my week! Kinda really depressing. These are people that are going through some of the most awful things i can imagine :/ and really there is nothing i can do to help them except to pray for them and listen to them.

But we are also teaching some people i happier situations :) kinda gives us strength to help these other people.

Joe and Valentina: We've taught them twice. Valentina was baptized when she was young, but doesnt remember much. Joe grew up in Utah but isnt a member. They have a 3 year old son and another on the way. And the just eat it up when we teach them!!!!!!! :) Sooo fun! They both work on sundays so that makes it hard for them to come to church but they'll get there :) They were actually looking to move. they want to rent a house with a yard for there kids. A member in the ward was helping them look for places and joe and valentina told him that they wanted to stay in the ward because they "love the missionaries here" :P :) haha, they are awesome.

AND
Nelson: he's a hispanic guy. in his late 40's. and we asked him this week if he wanted to get baptized. he said "of course!" he's going to be baptized on his birthday, march 3rd1

so there's good and bad here. overall the area is great! im pretty much used to biking up the hill now. This past saturday there were 60mph gusts of wind, so we didn't bike very far lol. but it was exciting! and today its raining. which is also really exciting! i think this is my 3rd rainy day since ive been here.

Elder Lasen and I spoke in church for the second week in a row. Last week the topic was Missionary work, and i kinda accidentally spoke for 25 mins and left elder larsen like 5 mins. whoops! this week was better. our topic was the Sabbath day and i didnt prepair anything until sunday morning, so talked for about 15 mins and Larsen talked for about 10 and sang a song. it was good. Prez and sis Black came to watch us.

Today we were supposed to go hiking but that was postponed because everyone one was afraid of rain. so instead we went bowling. that was a lot of fun. (i won :) )

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

here's a quote i found:
"The Lord works from the inside out... The world would shape human behavior ,but Christ can change human nature."
-Ezra Taft Benson


Love you all! keep praying :)

Elder Donovan :)

14 January 2012

i wont be able to send yall anything on monday, because the library will be closed for MLK day, so here is your update :)

im really loving my new area and companion. Elder Larson is awesome. He's got a positive attitude and likes to have fun. and he really really loves the people we are teaching so that makes its a lot easier for me to love the people as well. We live with a couple named Ringer. they have 7 kids but none of them live at home anymore. we live in their basement. i definitely like this living arrangement more than my last one.

Ive met a lot of people so far, but i dont remember a lot of them. We hopefully have a couple baptisms coming up soon. and we are speaking tomorrow in church. Our subject is "missionary work" so thats not too hard but i havnt organized my thoughts yet, so we'll see how it goes. It's gonna be a little  weird speaking in front of 300ish people that i dont know at all.

biking. biking wears you out a lot more than riding in a car! we live at the bottom of a hill. so on the way out, it takes us 45-60 mins to bike up the hill and get to the top of our area. by then sweat is dripping off my nose and my legs are burning. sometimes i cry :P but on the way home i barely have to pedal and it only takes about 20 mins. i bough this awesome light that i put on my spokes so it spins around in circles when i ride. I also bought a can of glow in the dark spray paint...   :)

we named my bike the Dragon because it makes all kinds of crazy noises. (im taking it to a bike store for a tune up on monday, hopefully the crazy noises will stop)

yesterday we taught a guy named rudy. pretty sure he was on some sort of mind altering substance, but he was pretty funny. he kept quoting random movies and saying "old man dude". and then he told us that Hindus call God "Jehovah". i almost squirted water out of my nose when he said that one. but he had a good lesson with him once he finally stopped talking.

the weather here is awesome! i missed ohio weather in the fall. but now that its 63 and sunny half way through January, I'm doing alright. although, im really hoping i dont have to bike up this hill when its 109 out!

I hope all is well with everyone. Be safe. Keep praying. Love you all!

Elder donovan :)

9 January 2012

So yes, the big news of the day is im getting transferred :) transfers are tomorrow morning so i will obviously know more details next week but this is what i know:
my new comp is elder larsen. he is also from washington. everyone says we'll get along. hes been out a little over a year i think. my new area is in the red rock zone. its in the Summerlin area (people call it SNOBerlin). I'll be on a bike (stay tuned for exciting stories about that) in the Palmyra and Lakes wards. I will no longer have to be at church all day, we'll be done by 2pm :) It's the richest part of vegas (i have mixed feelings about this). we live with members. Overall, i'm very excited to get there and to get to know my area and comp!

We had a good week this week! we taught more lessons this week than the 2 of us ever had before. I also said a lot of goodbyes to ppl. that was kinda lame. but i will be close enough that i'll hopefully be able to come back and witness a few baptisms!

so my spiritual suggestion of the week is to read some picture books by Max Lucado (he wrote, You are Special, and Just the Way You Are, and a bunch of other ones). I read 6 of his books this week and they were all awesome and all were very spiritually uplifting!!

LOVE YOU ALL!

elder c :)