Tri-State Wrestlers

This is a video of the wrestlers at tri-state. All the people in the stands are wrestlers. There were 500+ in attendance.

Tri State

Tri-State was this weekend. 50 schools participate and only bring the best. Jaren wrestled 2 state champions, and ended up going 1-2. Not bad for a sophmore JV guy wrestling seniors. He would have liked to have done better but he gained a lot of experience. The first day it went from 7 am to 10pm.

Weekend fun

Impressive stack of snow on the post. Notice the collapsed gazebo in the background. Oops.

The weekend is consisting of wrestling and digging out from under snow. We went from no snow to 26 inches on the ground. Now we are dealing with -5 temperatures. I guess winter is here. Zoe asked if we were going to have a white Christmas. I said, "Are you kidding me? We are going to have a white 4th of July."

Mission Update

pops-the funny thing about the weather is that Halifax is warmer than you guys, but the really funny thing is that we in yarmouth are about 7-10 degrees warmer than Halifax!!I do wish that we had had someone who was as gung ho as you and rob in the YM when i was in there, it sounds like you guys are going to have fun in there and make it fun at that. we did miss that, so they should have fun. hopefully they are receptive to the idea. although i do think you might have gone a little over board with the tent heaters. come on pansies...lol.that is totally awesome that GU lost. i had a little party right here at the computer when i read about that. i will tell you though, it isn't as sweet when i cant tease Ray about it though. hopefully Jaren does get to move up, i'm sure he will figure it out that he needs to ask more questions and really be dominant and make sure he makes his wants known. oh well, i know i struggled with that one too. i do miss sports a little bit though. i'm sure it will kill me when baseball season rolls around and also march madness. oh well, i will make it through. taht does sound like the girls who will sit around and wine about being bored. they are so funny. just tell them you are going to send them to work!! that will get them.now to answer your questions... we do a little bit of walkin like just around town and that kind of stuff. although the mission is losing some cars, so we will see. i don't think we will though. cause we are not allowed to knock within the city limits of Yarmouth, so we have to go out to outlying areas to do knocking. that we do alot, but i don't mind how much we do. we try an hour everyday if we can, and then we really hit it hard on weekends. i don't mind it cause i have realized taht is the way that we find the pure in heart. we do have a couple of people who feed us every week. that is nice, but it is also nice to be able to go home for dinner and relax. i would say that we get a nice amount of DA's. since the branch is so small, we do have some families who love us, and we love them they are really fun. those are the ones that feed us every monday, well the parents feed us mondays. there kids who one is about 32 his family feeds us every saturday night, he is the Branch president. he is awesome. i love the members here though, they do pretty good with us. that is something that we have been focusing on is getting the members excited and involved. cause they have had some bad missionaries in the past i hear. so we are building that relationship back up. we do have our days when we have nothing to do. but we try and keep busy with seein people. just stoppin by or talkin to members and such, but yeah, we do have some boring times.the snow is a pain to work in, but we dont' get much in yarmouth. i just hope i'm not in newfoundland next winter. they get enough snow, that i have seen pictures of elders on snow banks up to the power lines!! so we are in the best place in the mission for snow. that is nice. i do have all my coats and stuff though.i will tell you though, i almost broke down yesterday. we have a decent teaching pool. the thing is they all say they have done what we have asked like reading and praying about it. but they don't seem to get an answer or feel the spirit. i don't know if i'm doing something wrong or if it is them. i have really been trying to be as obedient and good as i can, but it just isn't workin out. i mean i try to change things up and say different approaches and such, but i don't know what to do. i do pray for answers and i get answers to everything except on what to do to get these people to listen and feel the spirit. i don't know if it just isn't the Lord's will right now. i'm tryin to not get frustrated, cause i nkow taht is the opposite of faith. i'm trying to remain strong and do His will. i have really been reading the scriptures and my Patriarchal blessing. i have been praying my guts out. i just thought it might be wise to ask you for some advice on this situation. thank you.i'm so excited to be able to talk to you guys on christmas. it is so crazy how fast the time is flyin by. i talked a little about that to mom. man am i excited to talk to you guys. i hope all is going well, and i pray for you guys every night and day. i love you so much dad, and like i have said before am so grateful for all that you have done for me in raising me the way you did. i love you with all my heart.i'll talk to you soon.love always,Elder Nick Novakovich

Snow day

We have had a ton of snow today. School is cancelled, the kids are thrilled, the dogs are confused and I'm sleeping in. Here are a few videos of the amount we have had. The second video was taken yesterday afternoon and the first is from 7am this morning. We have received about 18 inches and are supposed to get more today.

Varsity Wrestling

Jaren has been working on ways to make the varsity team and last night he did it. He has been involved in a few but always as the sacrificial lamb. (If the opposing team has a great guy that will beat our good guy, they will move our good guy up a weight class and put Jaren in against the great guy to take the hit.) So last night the guy didn't make weight and Jaren was put in.

He started off slow, being taken down twice and had spent most of his time on the bottom. The kid was a lot stockier and strong. He tried to do a few things to Jaren but Jaren was patient. All of a sudden the kid got to high, Jaren put him into a head and arm bar, turned him and pinned him with a minute to go in the second round. Needless to say he was thrilled because he was supposed to lose this match. The are a pretty tough school. And I was so caught up in it, I forgot to take pictures.

Boomer

Boomer knows how to work the ball better. Every time Carli sees someone, she rolls over and wants a tummy rub.

Carli

We bought new chew toys for the dogs because Carli had taken a liking to chewing on boomer.

Mission Weekly Mom version

hey mom, well lets see another week, woosh. flown by. it is crazy. this week was way fun though. a lot of time with other missionaries. we had exchanges and zone conference. Christmas around here, is pretty different. the houses are either done up big, or not at all. but there aren't too many nice houses, it is kinda a low income area for the most part. but they do waht they can. but that does sound liek darbi is havin fun with the christmas spirit, atta girl, keep the tradition alive with lights in the room!! we didn't get a tree, we are too poor, so we stuck with the little one you have seen. i'm glad that jaren is doing so well. i pray for the kids all the time, and hope they are doing well. that makes me so happy that jaren has gotten his grades up, that is very important. also cool that darbi is doing well, sounds like she is growing up quite nicely. Zoe is the next einstein. man she is a shear genuis. that is sweet though, i'm proud of her. she will do very well in school. I did get my letter from nana, which was nice. i wrote her back the other day so she should get that soon. you might want to tell her the address to her again. they had to do some corrections on the one i got. so just tell her nicely. i got your package last friday. i was pretty excited, i didn't know that it would be that big!! i'm pretty excited to see what is inside the gifts. you know me, atleast you should be proud that i haven't gotten into them yet. you know how hard it is for me to wait, especially when i don't have people telling me no, atleast with christmas. it sounds like every one is having fun christmas destinations but you guys. but that is fun, i love christmas at home too. good time to relax and enjoy company of the fam. anyways, i'm doing great and loving being out here. i have grown so much and feel so different. maybe it is just the spirit i have with me. it really does change you. this is a time in my life that will never be matched as far as spiritual growth. i love it out here. bein on a mission is so cool. i'm excited for derrick hans, and jordan to experience it all. the gospel is perfect and true. i love it so much, and no one will every shake my testimony that God lives, Jesus is our friend brother and Savior, the spirit is great, and the church is true. the Prophets are called of God and lead and guide his church with his help. pray for the missionaries, not just me, but all of them. pray for those seeking. and give the gift of Christ's atonement this year. It's the greatest of them all. share the gospel, experience the true meaning of CHRISTmas. i love you mom, and hope all is well. i love you so much, and will always. i'm so glad we will be a family forever!!Love always,Elder Novakovich

Mission Weekly

pops-i'm pretty sure i can look at the blog thing. i will check for sure though. but that is awesome how well jaren is doing with his wrestling. also pretty neat how good the entire team is, hopefully jaren can find a way on varsity some how. i remember good ol' lewiston that place does stink bad! the problem with that is you will have to wear a respirator both inside the grocery store and outside.lol. i guess congrats on the release, i don't really know what to tell someone after being released. lol. cause you don't want to be happy for them, but at the same time you do, so i guess that is bitter sweet. hopefully you do get a good new calling though. that would be nice. maybe they will switch you in for mom and give her something new. yeah right, she could only wish.As for christmas decorating. it sounds like you guys are having fun and decorating nicely. i do miss decorating the house up. oh well i did get to decorate our apartment, but it just doesn't feel the same. that stinks that the tree is dying, im guessing boomer and carli do have a direct affect on that one. dang dogs. that is so cool that you guys did the tree of sharing thing. i have really been thinking about kids and families like that recently. i was wishing i could do something for them, like that. but then i realized those things are nice but temporal. i have the awesome privilage of bringing them the gift of Christ and his atonement. something that will last for eternity. i would love to find someone who needs that, this time of year. just to see how happy they would be, i know what joy the gospel has brought our family. i just want that to be in others families, so they can enjoy it for eternity. i pray for that opportunity every day. we shall see if it comes. we don't know what we are doing for christmas yet. i know we get christmas off and so unless we get invited we are just stayin in. plus president told us not to go over too long, he wants us to keep it like a regular visit, no longer than an hour. it will be nice to relax for the day though. about disney world. we have a guy in our branch, the branch mission leader. he is a doctor and they are going to disney world, but they stay in the resort and do all the high roller stuff. their house is absolutely huge!!! we go there all the time. it is pretty fun, he is a way cool guy. he is only like mid 30's so needless to say he is doin alright. but i can't wait till we can go back to disney world. that was a great time, i think about it sometimes and just smile. i heard about the college football scene, and was a little disappointed. i'm not sure but i think that other teams should be playin. oh well. as for college basketball, i have been wondering how i'm going to handle march in the field. it should be interesting, i do miss college sports. I don't know whether i want GU to do good this year or not. i'm still undecided, so i will get back to you on that one. well dad, i guess i should just let you know that i'm tryin my best out here. and the amazing thing, is sometimes i feel the Lord makin up the rest. it truly is a blessing to be a missionary in the Lord's work. I can't even explain how cool it is to be growing up. it seems like an out of body experience sometimes, cause i just step back, and think wow i'm really maturing and growing out here. i have learned so much already, and can't wait to come back with the wisdom and maturity i see in those who have come and gone here. i do love the people here and love being here. i love the gospel with all my heart, and love sharing it all day. what a blessing that we were born into this. i love you all and hope you are all doing great. thanks for all you have done for me dad, i do love you with all my heart!!!love always,Elder Nick Novakovich

Wrestling

Well there was a lot of wrestling going on yesterday. There were head locks, cross faces, arm bars, take downs; and that was just trying to get Nikki to stay in her seat and not yell at the opposing team. As one of Jaren's coaches once said of Nikki, "that ain't no PTA mom."

Jaren had his first match of the year. It was a dual meet up in Kellogg Idaho. It was his first meet since under going surgery to repair his collar bone. Nikki was very nervous for her boy not to get injured. He had to wrestle up since the 119 guy didn't make weight. Jaren came out in the first round and pinned his guy in under 2 minutes. In the second match he couldn't pin the guy until the second round. (I was extremely disappointed) He was happy he did so well and especially pinning both opponents in a high weight class. He has another meet tonight and we will try and get pictures. I had videos of last night but don't know how to digitize them yet.

Tree Decorating

We broke down and decorated the tree today. Zoe was chomping at the bit to do it and then just as I got the lights on, she went to a friends house. So Darbi and mom took on the task as we listened to Hilary's Christmas CD. It was a nice afternoon and really put me in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Dog

Well we celebrated the time honored Novakovich tradition of decorating the Christmas Dog. We have saved a fortune in tree costs but have had a few problems with missing ornaments that later, unexpectedly, turned up in the backyard wrapped in something other than Christmas wrapping.

Boomer and Carli Wars

The 4 legged ones around the house have been enjoying running around and fighting. We moved the furniture around to accomadate the Christmas tree and they have love the extra room. Or as they like to refer to it, "the ring of death." (I am just guessing that that is what they call it. I am still working on my dog whispering talents, I don't have those skills yet. So far I just have numchuck skills, drawing skills (mostly ligers) and teather ball.

I am also working on my Christmas tree decorating skills.

Day trip

I had to drive to Lewiston, Idaho today and go look at some grocery stores we are bidding to paint so in order to make it a more enjoyable trip, I took these pictures on the way home. I hope you enjoy.

Mission Update

Winter attire in the north land.

And to think I ate chicken heads for dinner.

it is pretty crazy how time is flyin. although zoe informs me that i left light years ago, every week. she is really strugglin with me being gone. she really tugs on my heart when i read her emails. just make sure she is ok and is having fun. i'm excited to get my christmas stuff. i don't know what i will do as far as opening it yet. i think we are going to get a real christmas tree today. but not one like you guys have, i think it is just giong to be a 3 footer. plus the old people in our apartment(everyone) don't like us too much cause we are young and full of energy sometimes.lol. so we try not to do anything to extreme, like try and get a christmas tree to the top floor of the apartment. but hey whatya gonna do with old people? i'm really excited to hear about jaren and his wrestling. i know you dont like it but i think it is so cool how good he is.i wish him the best of luck. i'm glad you guys got a real tree though, and i'm sure the dogs love havin pine water. they probably think oh good christmas time, good ol' pine water!!! i'm glad that you got the pictures i was a little worried that they wouldn't make it home. and i'm glad you liked them. i try to have as much fun as i can out here. i did love decorating the apartment though. i love christmas and everything about it. as you know. did you get to watch that video of the sunrise? i have now watched a sunrise and sunset over the ocean, which is absolutely beautiful. i will be back here when i get home. i heard about jordans call, and i was 100% jealous. i still struggle with the fact a little bit that i don't get to learn a language, but i like it here. we all go where the lord wants us to go. i'm so excited for him. that stinks that he is going so late though. that will be tough for him.I have heard from a few sources that thanksgiving was a little different this year. don't worry though only one more left. as far as the eating thing, isnt' that what thanksgiving is for? i didn't eat too much, just cause the cooking is a little different over here. oh before i forget i did get nana's letter the other day, so i will reply soon. i'm doing great and having the time of my life and learning and growing so much. oh make sure to tell the kids, that i'm going to still be nick when i get home. they are all worried that i will be to mature to have fun. i mean come on, i'm a fun addict. so yeah, i will never be to mature to have fun with them. i will still run around like an idiot with just suspenders on my swimmin trunks and mess around with them. so they need not fear. well i love you all and hope you are having a good time back home. i hope you have a good week. i love you so much mom.Love always,Elder Novakovich

Mission Pictures

Elder Novakovich at his desk.

The Yarmouth sleeping quarters.

The Yarmouth Christmas tree. Missionary Christmas tree at it's best.

Elder Novakovich's district.