24 June 2013

im feeling pretty sick right now. ive got a head cold from straight from the devil. But that's not going to keep me down, because we had a great weekend! I was privileged enough to baptize both sakina and Sharon. its very humbling to do the actual baptizing because that's the moment where these peoples' emotions and faith are at their highest, and as the baptizer you get to be closest to them at that special moment. sakina and sharon are wonderful wonderful people and it was so great to see their excitement. I hope I get to be their friend for a long time.

transfers are a week away, we're expecting elder till to get sent to a new area and i'll get a new companion. but as always, we'll have to wait and see. i'll let you know next week!

also this week, president and sister black go home and we get to meet our new mission president. we're having a meeting with the WHOLE mission to meet president and sister ahlander on Friday. should be exciting!

hopefully all is well with all of you. remember, God is good!

-elder donovan

17 June 2013

I cant believe we're already half way through june. time is flying. and life is going good!

this past week was full of finishing up exchanges with the district. (I have to do it once a transfer with every elder in the district, so that's 5 times a transfer) it's kind of fun to go to the other areas and see what they have going on. it also means I miss half the things that are going on in my ward. turns out my presence isn't necessary though, because we had a great week in the ward.  we had a combined lesson with Brian and Claudia and a couple of members in the ward. they discussed some of their reservations and the questions that they have. the lesson went really well. hopefully it helps them both progress.

the biggest thing we spent our time on last week was getting Sakina and Sharon ready for their baptism. They are doing great! and are both going to be baptized on Saturday!

President and Sister Black go home in a week and a half, and then we will welcome in President and Sister Ahlander. its weird to say goodbye to the Blacks. they have been here the whole time I have, and I wont have very much time to get to know the Ahlanders.
Its like all my missionary friends are growing up!

Hopefully all is going well! it's going greatful here :)

love,
elder donovan

10 June 2013

we had a couple days over 110 degrees this week. good times.

On Tuesday, with the other missionaries at our weekly meeting, I threw a Humility Poetry Slam. it was awesome! the winning poems closing line was, "humble is to Superman, as pride is to not Superman". haha, we aren't the best poets but everyone had fun.

on Friday we helped someone  move, and It took almost all day. there was one tiny pick up truck and it took about 8 trips. but we had fun.

our new favorite family is Sakina, Sharron, Ness, and Sasha. they are awesome! we're going to have a baptism for them on the 22nd, if all goes well. (knock on wood)(crossing our fingers)(praying as hard as we can). they might have to move. AGHHHHHHHH. story of my life. somebody suggested we just start building houses. im about to do it.

this morning we all piled in a big van and drove into the mountains. its always a fun time when we can get out of town and go explore a little bit.  we went about 3 miles and found a "water fall" (water drizzle coming off a cliff).

hope all is well.

love,
elder donovan

3 June 2013

its been a couple weeks since I've had a chance to send y'all an email.  im sure lots has happened since my last email, but im not sure what those things would be. all the days tend to run together and I don't remember whats happened when. so if I tell you something ive already told you, sorry. haha

we have a car now! for the last week and a half or so. red corolla. air conditioner works well. life is good. especially good because its officially hot out. our car said it was 108 yesterday on our way home from church.

both David and Vivian, and Richmond and Tomeko have bounced and we don't know where they went. none of them will answer their phones. that can be kind of frustrating.

but awe met a great family last week! the mom is from Kenya and she has a 21 year old daughter, a 17 year old son, and a 5 year old daughter. they are all super excited about the gospel and have been to church 2 weeks in a row now. they are awesome! we are hoping and praying that they stay long enough that we can help them get baptized and established in the church. we've had bad luck with that recently (keeping people HERE)

we're all getting together to play soccer this afternoon, on an artificial turf field. no clouds today. there's a high of 101. hopefully no one dies.

I tried playing a cello not too long ago. it was BAD! my fingers and arms didn't remember what they were supposed to do. luckily, I did still remember how to read the music, so maybe i'll be able to figure it out again someday. but that's why you should PRACTICE your talents! otherwise they'll disappear.

good luck to everyone who is still in school this week. congratulations to everyone who has completed another year. have a fun summer! I will :)

remember, God is Good,
-elder donovan

20 May 2013

transfers are today. but nothing is changing for elder till and I. we both get to stay in the 7th ward and we are still riding our bikes.  (they promised me again that a car is coming to us in the near future, we'll see)  there have only been a few days over 100 degrees so we've been okay so far.

the sisters and Spanish missionaries in the district are being transferred, but I know everyone coming in and it should be a fun district. I don't think we'll have any problems.

we went to the mission office earlier in the week and when I got there, the older sister missionary, who is secretary in the office, started talking to me about going home! haha, she leaves the end of june and might be more excited about college football games than I am. she was telling me all about when tickets go on sale, and where the student section is going to be. it was pretty funny.

we spent a lot of time this past week working with Richmond and Tomeko. they came to church last week and then again yesterday. they have a baby on the way and seem really interested in righting the course of their lives. unfortunately they are fairly transient, and so we aren't sure how long they will be around. we tried to give them as much information as we could while we had them.

remember, "today is the day which the Lord has made... rejoice and be glad in it!"
-psalms 118:24

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!

-elder donovan

13 May 2013

hey everybody! hopefully you all had a wonderful mothers day. I know I did! and a wonderful rest of my week for that matter.

on Saturday, 4 of us road-tripped down to Pahrump to be at the baptisms of Lore and Nicole. not only did it feel really great to be back in Pahrump (Pahrump is far from clean and wholesome, but it feels better than vegas lol) but it was amazing to see two women I have grown to love make another step in following Christ. and we got to visit with some of our favorite people in the wards down there. it was a good good day!

on Friday we helped a guy move. we thought it was going to be an easy short move. it took us 6 hours. the guy had a bunch of old movie props. we're talking 7 foot tall mummies and zebra chairs. it was ridiculous. but fun because it was so ridiculous.

the rest of our week was filled with teaching and crazy fast bike riding.

next Monday is transfers. I might get a new companion, we'll see what happens.

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

-elder donovan

6 May 2013

Elder till and I had a great week this week. probably our best yet as a companionship. we put a lot of miles on our bikes and talked to as many people as we could. and had a lot of fun while he did it!

Zone Conference was on Friday. that's always a good time, to see the other elders. and learning how to teach better is always a good thing. we focused on the characteristics of Christ, and how we can strive to follow His example in our work.

We met these cool people named David and Vivian this week. they are from southern California and have only been in vegas for a few weeks now. david has been a member of the church for a little bit over a year and Vivian wants to learn more. they are both super excited about getting integrated into the ward here. its good to see!

this week we have lots of fun things scheduled. Saturday we are going down to Pahrump with a couple other elders to go to 2 baptisms. should be really fun and then on sunday I get to Skype my mama! cant wait for that. don't forget your mamas on sunday!

be good everybody, remember the things that really matter!

love,
elder donovan

29 April 2013

good morning everyone!

we're pushing 100 degrees today. good times there :)

the missionary work is going well. we've had some success in finding new people. we'll see what materializes (not sure that's the rights word), but so far we are feeling good about the prospects.

the bike is still working well, which is truly a blessing! remember all the trouble I used to have with my bikes?

not sure what else I have to report on. we're kinda just doing our thing, talking to people, teaching the same people. not sure what kind of progress we made this past week. im pretty sure we DID make progress, because we are trying to do our best to do what we're supposed to do, we just haven't seen the results yet. we'll just keep on keeping on. I guess if you have any questions for me, you'll just have to email them to me, because I cant think of anything else to write.


heres a couple quotes I came across this week:

"you can be a minority of one, the truth is still the truth"
                                                       -ghandi
if more people thought this way, we'd be a lot better off!

"a man who whispers down a well on goods he has to sell, will never sell as many dollars as a man who climbs a tree and hollars"
kinda clever

love you all, be good!
-elder Donovan :)

22 April 2013

happy Monday everyone!!!!

lifes good here in Vegas. its weird, because its still ugly and hot and brown here, and its the desert and nothing living actually enjoys living here. but I LIKE living here! at least for right now its great to be here!

I think im getting the hang of this new area. im still working on remembering everyones' name in the ward, that'll take me another month, but ive met everyone we're teaching and i've learned a lot of the streets already. (when you ride a bike, the penalty is big for a wrong turn, so you learn quickly) And my bike is still working! two whole weeks and no problems yet *knock on wood*

Elder till and I are doing well. we, along with the district, are pushing to find new people to teach. all of us have some really promising people we are teaching, but a lot of them have been "really promising" for a long time, so we need to find some new ppl. so far so good though, we're doing pretty well at meeting our goals.

as a zone we are playing flag football today, should be fun, except that its 90 degrees out!

oh, and i finished reading the Book of Mormon again! good news: its still true! the end of the book always amazes me. how Mormon and Moroni (father and son) are the last two people following Christ, probably in the whole continent. the love of Mormon for his son is what struck me this time. He writes a letter to his son and basically says "The rest of our people have fallen away, this brings me great sadness. the one thing that brings me joy is that you, my son, are still strong in your faith" he then pleads with his son to STAY strong, so that when their lives end they can be reunited in the presence of our God.  I sure hope that in the end of my life i can take solace in the fact that my children are faithful to the Lord.

God is GOOD, remembering that makes life good :)

I hope all of you are doing well!

love,
elder donovan :)

15 April 2013

so far things area going great up here in vegas 7th ward!! i think I'm going to love it here. Ive met a lot of interesting characters so far. all different walks of life. all different levels of sanity. so far far its been great!
and it feels good riding my bike around! even if everyone cancels their lessons and we dont actually get to teach, it still feels like  we're working our butts off, which is good! plus there are so many people that honk and wave at us, its almost ridiculous. everyone time i hear a car horn i just assume its someone saying hi to us lol.
elder till is the man. hes got a good hold on the area and knows what needs to get done, ive just been following him around this last week. its been nice.
we're teaching a guy named brian. dudes super classy. he is the CEO of  ...  here in town. he is super smart. (we often need a dictionary in order to decipher his text messages) he loves people and loves the Spirit.
the apartment we live in is in a pretty safe area (right next to the Las Vegas Metro police station) we hear sirens constantly. it kind of adds to the atmosphere haha. but the apartment is nice. we cleaned it up, threw out a bunch of junk, and now it's looking pretty good
in my district there are 4 english speaking elders (including elder till and I), 3 spanish speaking elders, and two sisters. its a much bigger, more diverse group than we had down in the Rump. I havent met the rest of the zone, but my district is pretty cool. i dont know a lot of the elders now. a lot of them got to vegas while i was in Pahrump. this past transfer meeting i knew almost no one. the mission is very young. last july we had 102 missionaries, this july we will have 250!

all of you in utah, look out for a job for ol' Donovan. i only have class tuesday and thursday afternoons and i need a job that'll give me as many hours as possible!

all of you with moms, remember that mothers day is in a month!

everyone else, remember i think youre great!

love,
elder donovan :)

8 April 2013

welp, the good times in Pahrump will soon come to an end. today i'll be heading back over to vegas again. . Elder Till and I are going to be working together in an area that is right in the middle of vegas. apparently we have a good mix of people in the area. Brandon Flowers (lead siger of the Killers) is in our ward. other than his neighborhood its a rougher area, which is good for missionary work! i havent been there yet, but everyone is telling me its a great area. we will be riding bikes for at least the next couple weeks until new cars come in.

Leaving an area is always sad. ive had a really good time here in pahrump and met a lot of great people. last night we had a good time chillin with randy. he played his guitar, we sang freebird. haha, good times, i will always remember randy and the trouble he has caused lol.

nicole still wants to be baptized on mothers day, so hopefully i'll be able to come back for that. baptisms for Andy and Lourie should also be happening soon, so hopefully i have a few return trips to Pahrump in the near future.

this week did lots and lots of service for people. im getting to old to do all this physical labor. we helped a lady move. for 6 hours straight. that was 4 days ago and im still hurting.

General conference was great! hope y'all were able to enjoy. i especially enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk in the priesthood session. he gave each of us 4 titles and expounded on each:
1. Child of God
2. Disciple of Christ
3. Healer of Souls
4. Heir to All of God's Gifts

"Healer of Souls" was especially powerful to me. i've got to think carefully about what i am already doing and what i need to do better to live up to that title.

hope y'all are doing well! i'll give you more info about my new area next week. be safe!

-elder donovan :)