Photo Shoot

Darbi and dad went out on a photo shoot today. We went over to lake Coeur d' Alene for the annual eagle migration. She chose this as her fun thing to do over Christmas break. These arethe pictures that she took.

Olympic Torch

Mission News

hey fam- So i guess you all want to know if i am being transfered since it was mentioned in both emails. so yes, i am . i'm going to kentville Nova Scotia. i'm pretty excited because i will get to go back to yarmouth!!! i loved it there. i want to take you all back and show you someday. but another fun thing is i will be serving with elder peteresen the same one from the mtc. so that should be interesting. i don't know the address yet. so if you just want to send the package to the mission office, i will be there for christmas. kentville is about an hour away, but president gave me permission to drive up and be at the mission home for all the festivities. i'm way excited. i won't lie though i'm pretty devastated to be leaving fredericton. it has been hard to say goodbye. it happens though eh? i really love it hear. Kentville will be good though. it's a good ward and a good area. The bad thing about it being transferes is elder gray is now going home friday. i will miss him, but we are going to stay in contact till i get home. which really isn't that far away. only 9 months left. kinda sad though. that is great that you had such a good thanksgiving. mine was a little lack luster. not very good, and with four old old people. so the conversatoin was off the hook. lol. gotta love it though. made a memory i guess. lol. that is cool that you actually got to watch football!!! that would be a dream come true. lol. and yes i will be there for next thanksgiving. i will be pretty excited. a good ol' american thanksgiving. what a treat. well i think that is all i have. oh fill me in on jaren's girl...lol. that is funny. waht a guy. i have no idea who she is. umm.... yeah i think i'm out of things to say. i love you all and hope you have a great week. and i'll get you the kentville address next week. My week was pretty good. just doin the same old thing. we have found some cool new investigators, but are still finding our butts off!! we knocked for 3 hours straight yesterday. that was exciting, mainly becuase a story surfaced. so for lunch we had a donair pizza. i don't know if you know what that is. it's an atantic canadien thing. but we are knocking, and BOOM!! I have got to go poo, BAD. the nearest washroom was a 5 min walk away. so we are sprinting to this store so i can go. i'm sad to announce that a little got out, but i was able to save most of it for the poor can. lol. it was a funny story now that i look back on it. probably one of my proudest moments as a missionary. they say you aren't a real missionary till you poop your pants. well i guess i can say i'm a half real misisonary. lol. i hope you all have a good week. I really love it hear, my mission is a great place, and the place where the Lord needs me right now. i love you.Elder Nick Novakovich

Nikki's Velveteen Carli

You have seen pictures of our little dog before, but have you seen her lately?

In November on 2008 Mike and Jaren drove to Preston Idaho to pick up our little treasure. And that she was. At just 8 weeks old she was so cute and timid and cuddly and soft and sweet and loveable and LITTLE!!!

Well now it is October of 2009 and now she is NOT SO LITTLE anymore. What happened to my little Carli?

Now my Carli is just...well see for yourself!

Missionary News

mom and dad-it might be cold there, but maybe i can interest you with some snow???? yup you got it. it snowed last night. winter is here. yeah, i have most of my snow stuff, but i need boots. but they are so expensive it is dumb. i found some nice ones for about 125, but i don't know. i might just tough it for the last winter. what do you think. anyways, i'm really exited right now!!!!!!!!! last night we had a stellar lesson with Lorn and he wants to be baptized a week from today!!! yup my first one, found him, taught him, and we are baptizing him. i'm so stoked, it is like no feeling in the world to bring the gospel to someone. a true truth seeker!!!! I know it is all a blessing from my Father in Heaven though, i make sure to thank him every night for being able to take part in this miracle. so next wednesday, our ward mission leader is going to baptize him. i'm so stoked!!! he is an amazing kid. another cool story or testimony builder for me was last night he told me he wished he would have done the date that we tried for originally which was the 10th of october. so goes to show as missionaries we are inspired even though it wasn't some grand revelation. it is amazing how the Lord works by small and simple things. but what matters is he is being baptized!!! wahoooooo.Other than that things are going well here. it is cold, but things still move along. we are working really hard and trying to do our best. the mission tour was amazing, basically we just had Elder Maynes(a seventy) come and talk to us. i got to have one extra meeting with him since i am a zone leader. that was fun. he just trained us and taught us how to be better servants of the Lord. I really love it out here. it is so cool. time goes by so fast and i get upset cause i want it to slow down. but i know the Lord has more in store for me after. that is amazing about zoe, she is a stud. i still wish i could have learned piano, i plan on just taking it upon myself to get lessons when i get home. tell jaren and darbi good luck with their races. i'm sure they will do amazing. and good luck to both of you on the weight loss. i'm slowly getting fatter and fatter every day.lol. well lets see, anything else...oh no word on transfers yet. i have no idea really. next week i will though. umm...keelp carli around, i will be mad if she isn't there when i get home mom. i did order that quad so who knows when it will get here. and i will be watching for your letter dad. mail has really really slowed down for me. i get it about once ever two weeks maybe. about one or two a month on average. oh well. it keeps me focused and i don't mind to much. i do want the family to know that i love it out here and there is nothing i would rather do right now. i love serving the Lord, he lives, i know he does. The Book of Mormon was translated by the prophet joseph Smith by the power of God. I know that this work is true and we have the possibility of being a family forever. I find such comfort in knowing i will be with all of you forever. i love you all, and always remember to do your member missionary work. it really helps. have a great week.love,elder nick novakovich

X-Country 2009

Well the East Valley X-Country season is well under way and Jaren, Darbi and Zoe are right in the thick of things. We are having a great time watching, cheering and running to different parts to the course to encourage the runners. Jaren has an agenda this year due to a lost season last year. Darbi is working close with the coaches to improve on each race and Zoe is proving that she certainly can run.

We have had several meets to date and the kids are having a great time. We travelled to Missoula last weekend and ran the Mountain West Classic. There are about 53 teams involved in the race and our East Valley Boys team too 11th place. They really are working well together as a team this year.

This weekend we went to Yakima to the Sunfair Invitational Meet. This is a fun race. There is a hill that doesn't quit and lots of gradual hills and sharp turns. Both Jaren and Darbi did well in this race. Jaren ended up taking 15th in his flight.

Mission Mail

hey mom and dad-well this week was the start of an extremely busy week. we have three weeks left in this transfer and have a bunch of exchanges to go on and then meetings we get to go to. our mission tour is the first week in october. Elder Maines is coming to visit us. so it should be exciting but way busy. it will be good though, i'd rather be busy than not have much to do. the work in our area is giong well, we are trying to work as hard as we can when we get a day or two in our area. it is going well though. Both the kids told me that missoula was a success. that is so cool that jaren did so well. darbi sounds a little stressed out with it all and not doing so well as she would like. i tried to give her some encouraging words. but i don't know if it will hlep or not. i hope it does. they all sound like they are doing really well right now which is great to hear. I will keep work in my prayers, i know things will work out. but i understand taht it is nice to know you have work to do. i'll keep prayin for ya. that is great though that things are workin out with getting the house all done up. ibet it looks great. as for transfers, we have 3 weeks left in this one. and i honestly have no idea if i will be moving or not. i have a few places i would like to go, but i would also really liek to stay in fredericton. i have a feeling that if i don't go this transfer i will be in Fredericton for a long time, which isn't too bad i guess. mom, i forgot to tell you a while ago, that book of mormon that you sent me was my favorit thing you sent. i thought that was way cool i have it in my drawer. and we have these little cards with a pic of us as a missionary on them for a place to put our testimonies in when we give out our BOM. so i put one of those in the one yo ugave me. it is pretty cool. i would be pretty excited to hear from bro. Gilson, he is the man. tell him i said hi. i'm so stoked for general conference. and we are just going to our building. we don't really have a big stake gathering. our stake is like most of New brunswick so it is hard for them all to travel that far. we just get it in all of the buildings. in fact our stake goes into maine. the church is really small here, and not diong really well. but we are hoping to make things better. i love general conference though, it is so sweet. i have found a new love for it since i have been on my mission. it is pretty cool stuff. i just sometimes cannot believe how blessed we are to live in the times of the fulness of the gospel...well i love you all and pray for you daily. keep up the good work. i love you./Elder Nick Novakovich

New Letter

dad and mom-so everyone and their dog must have a corn feed. cause we had one too. lol. ours was not too good though, rather boring. that is so sweet though that that elder ended up coming to our area and actaully remembering me, man i forgot about him. but i remember talking to him. man, that is crazy. it is nuts too that i'm almost to a year. pretty nuts. i'm stoked. that is crazy that bishop had a heart attack. good thing he is o.k. though. it is just sad that sometimes that is waht it takes for us to realize we need to prioritize our lifes a little bit. I did hear about BYU. and i don't know if i would get my hopes up, they always find a way to choke...lol. but it would be cool. you should go to that game though, that would be way fun. i just wish i could go as well. that is funny that you guys didn't like pig out in the park. i loved that!!!! i even thought about it the other day and wished i could go. ry and i loved going to that. and mom as for what ry did for me for my bday, i'm not sure yet, she sent a package to me the other day so i will find out soon. i'm pretty excited. and that is good that you all got you cards. i thought they were all pretty funny. Hopefully work continues to go well for you dad. and that would be nice to learn new things so you can do that stuff. so are people still losing their jobs like crazy? Keep paying tithing and praying is all i can say. That is good that the kids started school off well. it started yesterday here. the weather is terrible mom yo have no room to talk. we are in the 10-15 range every day. it is getting cold. we all predicted snow in a couple of weeks. so yeah, you can enjoy spokane mom. lol. as for the questions you asked me dad, we did have zone conferene a couple weeks ago, it was so sweet. i did have to speak on being exactly obedient, and then i gave a training yesterday in the district meetings. tryin to motivate some elders. we have zone council coming up in the end of september which i am super stoked for!!!!!! it is a blast. and way spiritual. there are about 90 people that come to church every week. so big for atlantic canada right now. we are teaching a few people. a part member family and then a young college kid that we are going to teach tonight. so things are getting better, slowly. but i have set new goals for myself and re evaluated my mission for myself. i feel pretty confident that i can work to accomplish my major goal for myself, which is to baptize two times a month for the rest of my mission. so 24 people before i come home. that is my minimum, so i'm prayin hard and workin hard and lovin the people here. well i hope that is good for now. i love you all and keep you in my prayers. Love Elder Nick Novakovich

Late mission mail

hey mom and dad-well all i can say is man that sucks!!! i was sitting here remembering those days of painting the super 1's and i almost cried. in fact i assumed the fetal position here on the floor. lol. just kiddin. but you are right it is work, and a blessing. that sucks about adam though. satan is workin his hardest and that is something i have seen a lot of is that he definately knows when people are on the right track and then pounds them with adversity. it makes my job tough. as for the mariners....they are a joke. It is so nuts that i have almost been out one year!!! half way done. holy cow. i was thinking about that this time last year we were getting all prepared and that fun stuff. it just seems so surreal to me. the time has been flying by. it is good and bad. i absolutely love it out here. and i think i will have a hard time coming home. oh and sorry mom but DO NOT PICK ME UP!!! I REPEAT DO NOT PICK ME UP!!!! i want to come home on the plane and see everyone waiting for me in the airport. i have always dreamed it would be that way and i only get to do it once. so just let me come home. and plus that is a year away, so don't get trunky yet mom. lol. that is good that you got my pic cd. what kind of pictures would you guys like me to take? send some requests and i will see what i can do. i have some funny ones here. My companion. Elder RHoades is from Lindon utah and has been out for 19 months. he is so cool. he was originally assigned to the croatia mission but it closed because of the civil war over there. so he got sent here. it is such a sad story for him. it kills me every time someone asks him about it. he is really cool though, we get along and have some fun. he is different from my other comps though. he doesn't do much with sports and taht kinda stuff. he is cool though. i love serving with him. thank you for the box, i will be looking forward to that. sounds like some fun. It sounds lke the kids had fun on their treak which is good to hear. and no i don't thinki would do it again. i might if cause i could be more prepared, but it would depend i would go with people i wanted to go with, not if it was just luck of the draw again. sometimes those stake youth activities can be sketchy. lol. As for me here, we continue to work our butts off in the freakin humid weather. it has been around 30 lately with about 70% humidity. it is terrible, i have had to come in and change a few times. yeah i know i thought i was in canada as well. oh but today i'm writing you from Houlton Maine baby!!!!! we are in america for the day so that is exciting. the work in Fredericton is really slow. we can't seem to find people who want to hear about the gospel but elder rhoades and i both know they are out there we just need to continue to work and put ourselves in the position for the Lord to bless us. WEll i hope all goes well this week and you continue to have fun. i love you all.

Elder Nick Novakovich

Family Visit

Mission story

Two Sundays ago a young guy (24) came to church. None of us knew who he was and after sacrament meeting he came up to me and elder burbank and just started crying and telling us he was very upset. so we sent him to the bishop to talk. in our next class about 25 min later. the bishop came in and asked for two elders. immediately i jumped up and went. i had no idea why i moved so fast but i got right up and went with him. he took us to this young man. i got to sit in and teach him about the gospel and how it brings happiness. the cool thing, was this, saturday night he was at the bridge and about to comit suicide. but he could not do it, so he went home very upset and told God "send me happiness or let me die" he fell asleep and then in the morning he felt the prompting to come to our church. he had never been before, but he came anyways. so i got to teach him and now he has been coming to church and learning about the gospel. i got the amazing opportunity to teach him how the gospel can change our life and bring us happinness like we have never experienced. i told him he would find true joy in this gospel. it was way cool. it was a testimony builder to me that the gospel is true and the Lord does answer prayers and watch out for his children.

Mission Mail

wow.... that is all i have to say about that cliff diving experience. wow. that could have been bad. i remember when levi almost did that. man, i was so scared blair was going to die. man, that must have hurt. but man, what can i say, words cannot describe how amazing the past two days have been for me. we got to go to Halifax for zone council. when we got there we went to the temple, it felt so amazing to be back in the house of the lord. and to be able to sit and reminisce in the celestial room on my mission thus far and what i still want to accomplish. words cannot tell you about the spirit i felt there. i love the temple with all my heart. after our session we had the amazing opportunity to sit in the temple and learn about missionary work. it was amazing. the rate of learning in the temple, and the way the spirit teaches you is amazing. i cant tell you how much i loved it. then we had the meetings, and the spirit was so strong as we discussed the needs of the mission and what we need to do to help it progress. president simpson has such an amazing persona about him. he has a goal for us to baptize 600 people in a year as a mission. it is a huge goal but it is so possible if we can change the attitude of the mission and develop the faith. it is tough right now cause all the missionaries see the gaol and then think. oh he is new he doesnt understand taht our mission doesnt baptize much. it is really frustrating to us as leaders. but we are going to try and lead by example. i got to talk to elder gray, and he has been talking to the aps and i might get to serve with him for his last transfer in november. he is my best friend in this mission, and im going to struggle with seeing him go so soon. he is he man. well that has been really all that is new with me. i loved the past few days, and have developed such a love for my mission and being here. i love it so much out here. i was really struggling with the fact that i was in this mission. but as i studied my patriarchal blessing and took that question to the temple. i know this is where the Lord wants me, he needs me here to make a difference in someones life. well i hope you continue to have fun and do well with work. i love you all and pray for you every night.

love your son,
Elder Nick Novakovich

How NOT to cliff dive.

First came tubing fun, and boy was it run. Now, from the creators of tubing fun comes cliff diving fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-kEYU5FJk

4th of July

We spent the day with our good friends out on Lake Roosevelt for the 4th of July. The food was good, the water rough, the tubing wild, the drinks cold and the company great.

Tube Fun

Mission Update

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!I'm leavin to a place called Fredricton New Brunswick!! it's nice, or so I hear. It's split into two areas, so I'm going to be around Elder Burbank who is in Fredricton south. I'm in the North with Elder Fish. He is going home in six weeks so I get to finish off two missionaries in a row. oh and i don't know if i mentioned it but Fredricton North is a Zone Leader area. yup they made me a ZL. I'm so excited. they get to have a lot of fun and go to zone councils in Dartmouth and all kinds of stuff. i'm pretty pumped. anyways,the work in St. John's picked up in the last week, so that was nice. I have realized that all i can do is work hard. the rest is up to the Lord and he knows what is best. plus success isn't in baptisms all the time. so i have choked that pill down lately. it is amazing how much i feel i have grown up and matured out here. i guess sometimes the Lord has ideas for the man he needs ME to be. i love being a missionary.yeah Elder Holmes goes home to Seattle on Sunday. His parents are picking him up Friday, then they are going to come to Fredricton to take me and elder fish out to dinner. Elder Holmes served with both of us so that is the reason for that. but he is excited and i'm excited for him. the only bummer is his girl dear johned him and is married now. so that sucks. that is great that the baptism went well. I can't believe it has been a year since i graduated. that is nuts the time is flyin. i just remembered that i hit 9 months today!!! party for me. not really. but things are going well for me. i'm just super excited to get out of here and start a new part of my mission. at the end of next transfer i will be at a year. time is going so fast.I emailed jaren but i guess he hasn't gotten them i will send all the past weeks emails to him this week in hopes he gets them. tell him sorry.that is good that the weather is good there. not here though. still cold and nasty. i miss goin out on the boat when we drive by lakes my heart sinks a little bit. but soon enough i guess. it sounds like all is going well,and good thing painting is going well. I'm glad i'm a novakovich. oh and i'm not going to get any letters that haven't gottten to me by today mom. tell her sorry, they might get it to me. but it is now up to the new missionaries to get it to the ap's and them to get it to me. lol. we will see...well i hope all continues to go well and you all continue to do well in your endevours. i love you all Elder Nick Novakovich

Missionary Mail

mom and dad-
So first of all, I need you to tell people to not mail anything to my current Address, because I did talk to president and told him I want the heck out of here and he understood so he is going to look at it and see what he can do. He is funny. He just laughed and said "elder i don't blame you. 4 1/2 months here is a looooong time. lol." he is so sweet i'm sad to see him go. we had our farewell conference for them saturday. I'm kinda anxious to see what the new guy will be like. but life here right now is really slow. we have no one to teach although we have met a few cool people with some potential lately. so we will see where that goes. i'm tryin to have faith...So you guys have no room to complain about the weather. why you might ask? well it is rainy fogy windy and 6 degrees here today!!!!!!!!!so yes that would be about 45 farenheit. honestly i don't know how fond of newfoundland i am...it is beautiful but as a missionary i really can't stand it. lol. i'm ready to leave. That really sucks that work is going so crappy. when i get home i will work for ya for a bit. i need the money. lol. that is good that the mariners are doing somewhat better. i still don't know how they will fair in the long run. hopefully they do decent so they can carry it into next year. the high school baseball team, well i didn't expect much from them. if you thought my team was bad, they are only getting worse. lol. well life is going well here. i'm growing and keeping a positive attitude, or at least trying. still workin hard. its tough my companion is done. he is ready to go home so i have to drag him around. it really is just a hard situation for me at this point. i don't like the area my comp is trunky but when we push through the hard times we grow...love always, your son,
Elder Nick Novakovich

The girls

Nikki's marathon

Nikki took the oportunity last weekend to run a half marathon. She finished under her goal time and also ran the whole way. She did a great job and the whole family was excited she did so well. It was a beautiful course along the Spokane River on the Centennial Bike Trail. So anyone that wants to join her next year, this is the race to run.

Assundries

We have been without the use of my camera since I tried to attach a new Canon battery grip to it and it fried the circuitry. So we have not been able to post any pics. But here are some random ones from the cheapo camera I have been forced to use while mine is back in California in surgery.

Redneck Gazebo

We like to fancy ourselves as living in the country. As such, we have gone ahead and purchased ourselves one of those new fangled, state of the art, better than if you'd done made it yourself, gazebos. We set it up for Darbi's B-day party. We also set up the badmitton net but it seems like someone took it upon themselves to tear it down. We are looking for suspects.

I'm just big boned.

Carli has been going through the bones like crazy so Nikki got her something that might take her longer than a day to work through. Later on, Boomer thought he would give it a go.

New Mission Mail

hey pops-
Jaren did tell me about your guys' hunting trip sounds like you had fun. that is
good.
You can always count on devon romney for a funny comment, i laughed so hard when
i read that. he is a funny guy. how are the missionaries in our ward? how long
they been out? tell them they should be thankful they serve in a place that eats
normal food. last night we had a dish called fish n' brews. it
was...interesting. lol. what it is is fish, obviously, and then a bread that if
you threw it at someone it would kill them. they call it hard bread, and believe
me, it is super hard. so to prepare it you soak it for a day, make it soggy then
refrigerate it, then the next day fry it up and serve it with fish. yeah,
disgusting!! i can't believe justin is home already, it seems like that flew by.
but my mission is going quick also. which at times is a bummer but i'm glad that
it is going quickly. hard work is all that it takes. it really is when you lose
yourself, cause if i were to drag me feet and think about home all day ugh. i
know cause that is what my comp does. he asked me the other day what i think
about when we walk, and i said missionary work... and he just said "ugh, i think
about home all day" and it shows he is quite miserable right now. i don't know
what to do for him. i've tried it all.
that is cool that you and mom are getting the house fixed up. bout time...lol.
and as for carli, is she really that bad? i hope you guys still have her for
when i get home.
that is good that work is staying strong. that is unlike adam to pull taht one
isn't it? i hope you can get that figured out. maybe i will have to come home
and run the show for you for a bit. lol. that way i can save up money for
school. that would be nice.
well this week has been a good one. i have been workin on teaching more. just
like at the door or when we talk to people on the street. it is going well. i
studied accountability out of PMG the other day, and that one was a smack in the
face. i had been makin excuses that my comp was the reason for no success here.
but i woke up and started to say forget it, i can make things happen. and we had
a stellar week last week. i get along great with the zone leaders and so we are
havin a competition for the rest of the transfer. both of them are way cool and
we are all three really good friends.
well i guess what it is like to be a missionary here... we eat the strangest
food. the weather is very windy all the time, and humid. it isn't too bad though
i guess. we knock doors for 6 hours a week. we have 4 mandatory hours to knock
on the weekend. and then 5 hours of street contacting people. so we do a lot of
finding. the branch here is in shambles. the mission president had to make a
special visit out here to get things figured out. the church is just so weak
here. the cool thing is when i got here we had 2 investigators and now we have
14. so that is cool, but it is just due to hard work and lots of prayers. not my
doing, i'm just the tool. oh and the people talk funny.
i hope that answers some q's. oh how the mariners doin? if they make the
playoffs this year i will flip!!! cause that would be the only playoffs i
miss...oh man i would riot. well i can't wait to talk to you in real time on
mothers day. that will be nice. i love you dad, and appreciate all your support.
i love you so much.
love,Elder nick Novakovich

Mission mail

dad-
So I had an amazing weekend. i know God heard my prayers and gave me an answer. this is the story...so this weekend we visited an investigators church since conference did not start till 1 30 here. (morning session). it was baptist. the whole time i was in there it was just a little strange, i just didn't feel the spirit, and it was like i was just at a christian rock concert. so still i thought it was a nice service overall. but then the cool thing happened. we went straight to conference at the church and i was sitting down jottin down a few things before the session started, and then pres. Uchtdorf got up to conduct. and the spirit hit me so strong!! It was one of the few times in my life that i felt that reassurance that this is the true church restored in it's fullest, and i'm one of God's messengers to his children. it boosted my testimony so much, i know with out a doubt that we are doing the right thing when we listen to the prophets. that whole sunday i felt the spirit so strong dad. it was amazing. i don't know how to fully describe it to you. man...it was just sweet. but i did hear from my mission pres yesterday that unc won. punks. oh well, its all for fun. i had a good interview with my mission president yesterday. he told asked me what i thought we should do with my companion, and how he doesn't want me to be dragged down by him. i told him he won't get me down, i will only bring him up. then pres, told me he has had reports from my leaders that i have turned into "an extremely fine young missionary" and he commended me and thanked me for my hard work. i thought it was cool, because we talked about how he thought i had a very good attitude towards the work and that is what is important. he laughed cause he said he never sees me not laughing or smiling. i was glad to hear that. so needless to say, i loved conference. i told mom a little about which was my favorite. i loved the temple talks. i love the temple and the blessings it brings to our lives. i especially liked the quote. "God is the source, our covenants our our access" that one struck me. Shock games are fun. i got to go to two of them one with bret the other with ry. they were pretty fun though, the crappy thing for me was both time they lost. and leading up that that they were undefeated. lol. oh well. they are way fun to go to though.that is sweet that you got to go golfing. but guess what!!!!! today we are going to this members house who lives on the ocean. like it is 20 feet of grass them a some rock and then the ocean. so we are going to go get some cheap clubs and balls today and drive them into the ocean. i'm way excited. last week we were at their house for pday and we got to go out on the ice platforms a little bit in the ocean, that was neat. we got pictures. we were safe about it since we are missionaries.lol well thank you for all of your advice and counsel. i will tell you i am growing and have learned and made a goal to "give up all that is wrong, so that i may truly know Christ" that is my goal in life. my mission is one step closer in accomplishing that goal. i love you dad, and thank you.

Your son,Elder Nick Novakovich

Zippy

This is my new friend zippy. She didn't like it at first but by the end she was running and jumping off the platforms.

Hanging 10

Weekly letter from Elder Nick

well, i honestly do not know how i picked all of those games correctly. but i must admit i laughed so hard when i found out that i had done that. the funny thing is i don't even remember who i picked to do what. cause you can't see your bracket online and i didn't write anything down. so i don't know how i can keep track. it was funny we were knocking the other night and a guy had a game on and i had to try my hardest to not watch. just seeing it made me trunky. so i was a little bummed. i just try not to think about what is going on at home. i do miss havin fun with you and jaren though, during march madness. trash talk was the best and just chillin with you both. the funniest times were the close games when you and i were pullin for opposite teams. i was laughin the other day because i remembered that year i skipped school to watch the tourney. man the good ol' days. but hey i will be at home to enjoy these things soon enough.

The work is going pretty well. just missionary work. nothin too exciting. oh wait. yes there is. we had a baptism last night!!!! it was a lady named Nicole. she had been meeting with missionarys for a year, but was living with her boyfriend and so she could not be baptized. well on sunday she showed up to church and told us they broke up and wants to be baptized asap. so we did it last night. it was so cool. i got to stand in on my first confirmation. what an amazing feeling that was. i just sat and pondered during the service. and i thought about how this was a blessing to us, because we set a goal of having one baptism this transfer, and last night was the last day of the transfer. so we achieved our goal. it was hard work though, but it payed off. i do love what i am doing and would not trade it for anything. it looks like i will be in St. John's for another month and a half. so that is good, i love it here and we are fed like kings.the weather here is annoying, we are still getting snow and hovering around 0. but i would much rather that over the heat. that is good that work is going well. no doubt a blessing from the Lord to have good jobs during these times. i also pray that our family is looked out for and you guys get the things you stand in need of. and it sounds like prayers have been answered on your end. that is good. Well, it is so great to hear from you dad. i miss you a lot and love you even more. i have really grown to love all of the family so much more. it is crazy because i'm on the other side of the continent. but i love yo uso much!! I can't wait to spend all the good times together again. i was thinking about when we would go to the grocery store jobs and you and i just got to chill. that was great. i love you so much dad, thank you for your example and all that you have done for me and are doing for me. i love you.Love Your son,Elder Nick Novakovich.aka. king of march madness sucka!!!!!!!love ya pops.

cool pics

Surfing anyone?

Hawaii pictures

Relaxing

We had a couple of wonderful weeks in Hawaii. The weather did not cooperate very much but Nikki did manage to find some rest and relaxation.