5 March 2012

so first of all: nelson got baptized. it was great! logistically, not everything went as smoothly as i would have hoped but that doesnt really matter! what matters is that he has made a really important step in his life! its cool to see!

second: we met this wonderful lady named Sylbie. She is Brazilian. she just moved here from Idaho. in idaho her and her husband were taking the lessons from the missionaries. but then, about 4 weeks ago, her husband got sick and passed away :/
she had to move here very quickly because she found a job, and she wasnt able to get baptized in Idaho. we talked to her on the phone this past thursday. met her on friday. had an interview for her baptism on saturday. and then she came to church sunday! already people in the ward are making friends with her and really taking care of her!  She is so strong to make such a big change so soon after her husband died. but she says a new start will be good for her and she is really excited to be here. I'm just excited i got to meet her. shes awesome!

The other big news that we got this week is that on July 1st the nevada las vegas west mission is basically getting split in half! instead of having 2 missions in nevada there are going to be 3. so i could be stuck i the heat of las vegas for the rest of my mission, or i could spend the rest of my mission in the cooler northern parts of nevada (what im hoping) we'll see! that'll be in a couple transfers.

so heres a funny story for you: this past weekend both the mens and womens BYU basketball teams had games in vegas and all the players ended up coming to my ward! it was cool to see them all at church along with them (who i kinda recognized) i also kinda recognized someone else. he was an old man. i thought he might be from ohio. so i went up to him and introduced myself. we spent a little bit trying to figure out how i knew him. finally he said that his name was Samuelson and that he worked at BYU. It was President Cecil O Samuelson! the president of BYU! i was pretty embarrassed lol. i apologized and told him it must be because im a missionary and am focused on other thing. he said that was a good excuse. It was really funny!

I hope you all have a wonderful week this week. dont get blown away by any tornadoes!

love,
elder donovan :)

Photos

the wind storm a couple weeks ago broke the tree at the church 

(from left: Larson, Mendez, Me, Larson my comp, Palmer, and Edwards) 

 neighborhood in my area. super fancy

sunset. we dont get a lot of cool ones her, because there arent many clouds, but this one was pretty cool 

dead baby duck fetus. its called Balut

me eating balut. it wasnt too bad. a little crunchy 

a view from our hike

we climbed up a very steep rocky hill (cliff) to get to this cave. it was pretty cool 

view from the very top of ice box canyon

someome sliding down the side of the mountain on the way back to our cars 

elders larsen, palmer, and i with our home made ties. they were a big hit at zone conference 

the Redrock zone

23 August 2011

So far so good here at the mtc! Ive seen anthony and nathan and darby and so many other friends from my ward last year! a couple ppl have recognized me as the "guy from wyview that broke his leg last year" lol. IM EXHASTED! they keep us busy all the time, and we put all our energy into remembering scriptures and what things we want to teach who, and then we get to the lessons and our investigators want to talk about something completly different lol. Here at the mtc they have a new program with a lot more teaching opportunities. They bring in actors and members and our teachers all pretend to be ppl interested in the church. Which is pretty cool cause my companion Elder Larson and I have taught 4 or 5 lessons already! so far so good. we still arent teaching very well as a team, but i think it'll come. We tried taught a guy yesterday that wouldnt let us talk! His name was Junichi and he was this little bald asian man with round glasses and a ridiculous accent. I told him i was from Ohio and he got this big smile on his face and ask if I knew where Tleditle was. I said "no, im sorry i dont". He was pretty dissapointed and asked "are you sure?" and then spelled it out for me. T-o-l-e-d-o. haha, he used to work in toledo, but i guess he never learned how to pronounce it. anyway, he told us all about being Shinto and japanese culture and about his family and didnt leave us anytime to teach him! We'll see him again on thursday, so hopfully he's run out of things to say and we can teach a little. My companion is a good guy. Hes from idaho and is also going to the Vegas West Mission, along with 3 other elders in my district. The other missionaries in my district, 2 elders and 4 sisters are all going to the west indies! one of the elders went home this week (just to much stress from homesickness we think) so that was kinda sad. But our district is getting along really well! we do well teaching each other and really building up each others testimonies! My address will be the same until Sept 5, so if youre gonna send me something (which you all should) make sure it'll get here by then, or send it to the mission home address, which was the one i put on facebook first i think. Anyway, love you all! so does Christ! dont forget it! Elder Donovan Chambers