I'm a real missionary now.

Happy Halloween my family!!!!!

This week has been so crazy. I have no idea where to start! I have so many things to tell you I hope I can remember them and get them all typed in time!!! First off, I miss you all so much! Its been kinda weird not getting mail everyday, but at the same time I have no time to even think about that! lol Second Darbi!! ahhhh!!!!!!!!!! thata girl!!!! kickin butt, that is so awesome to hear you made it to state!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud and excited for you!! You are so awesome! I was so excited to read the e-mails about it! I was thinking about you all day on Saturday wondering how it all went!! I bet you feel amazing! I remember when I crossed that finish line and I knew I had made it to state! It makes all the hard work and sweat all worth it. It's an amazing feeling and I am sure you felt that when you heard you had made it!! I am so excited for you! as well as the whole girls and boys teams!!! That's so awesome parabems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's great I wish I could be there to cheer you on all around that place but that's alright I will be cheering from right here in Salt Lake City!!!! lol GO kick butt out there sis! All my advice I have to give to you about that is just relax and have fun with it. I know last year when I made it, I was so nervous I puked and could barely walk. But now that I look back on it, there was no reason to be that nervous. You made it this far and no one can ever take that away from you! YOU are a state runner!! That is so awesome! Go out there and have fun with it; enjoy every second; enjoy the energy of all the other runners; take a lot of deep breaths and go out there and give it everything you can because it the last time you will run cross for East Valley. Have fun, you going to do so great I am so pumped for you!!!!
Alright I guess I better start talking a little about my week. Crazy!!! So Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 but fell back to sleep till 5:30... oops. so I was pretty rushed to get to the travel office at 6. So I throw all that I had laying around in the bags and left. I had stayed up pretty late packing the night before, so I had most of it done. Anyway, so Elder Dean and I made it to the office on time and there were about 15 people leaving that morning so we got split up which kinda sucked but oh well. I got a seat on the van that was going directly to the Mission home and he got on the bus to go to the airport first to drop Elders off there. So it wasn't that long of a drive to the mission Home; 40 mins or so. When I got there, I was with 7 other Elders. So we were there and no one was at the mission offices so all the doors were locked and the bus had to leave so he left all of us waiting outside the office lol It was pretty dang cold but that's ok. So finally, about a half hour later someone showed up and let us in the office. We waited and talked a little till the mission president got there. We met with him and all the Elders who had just arrived and all the trainers and assistants were there. So we met everyone and had to introduce ourselves in front of everyone. So then the mission president went through and announced everyone and everyone claps and cheers as people meet their new companions lol so I was one of the last ones to go and the craziest thing happened!!

Do you remember when Bro. C took me out to lunch with the kid who was gong to the same mission in brazil as me? Well I guess he got re-assigned to Salt Lake as well about a month before me. And lo and behold we got put into a companionship together!!! how crazy, we got called to the same mission twice and now we are companions!! crazy!!! But he has been with an Elder from guess! Brazil!!! so his trainer is from Brazil and they have been companions since he got here. Crazy stuff!!! His name is Elder Rogers who I knew back home. And the my trainer who is from Brazil is named Elder Ramos!! lol He is awesome!! He Helps Elder Rogers and myself with Portuguese! He is a way cool guy and he has only been here for 5 months!! so still pretty new and his English is so funny!!! lol He speaks it really well but some things he says in the wrong order and it's so funny!!! lol I am laughing just typing about it!! lol he has this funny little Portuguese accent lol. He is so funny!!! But he is such a good missionary!! He blows my mind! haha I make sure to tell him that every night before we go to bed. haha but anyway yeah we are in a threesome. A lot of Elders are too because there are so many Visa waiters they are putting a lot of threesomes together. It is pretty cool I like having three. Elders Rogers is way cool too. By the way we get along pretty well and share a lot of laughs about elder Ramos English mistakes. lol So that's my new companionship.
After all that stuff we left to drop my bags off at the apartment. Dropped them off then we where out the door to go to work!! that fast, we were out working by 11 am!! pretty crazy lol I was expecting a nice little welcome day but no, straight to work which was pretty cool, though I didn't mind at all. So we went out to some appointments that they already had lined up. some were not home so they both thought it would be fun to try some tracking on the first day. lol We went to some condos and we were knocking and not a lot of people answered but there were some but nothing great. haha so while we were knocking a lady from a couple doors down opened the door and yelled "Stop knocking and go away! Everyone here is a Jew!!!" lol it was so funny I tried not to laugh but I couldn't hold it all in. lol so after knocking for awhile and doing some other stuff it was dinner time. This was one of the most interesting experiences of my life hands down. We came in and the house was so humble. There are four people in the family and one who is 11 has a mental disorder.. The house was very humble and it made me thankful for what we have. But she made spaghetti for dinner and it was pretty hard to eat just with everything being so dirty... I was good and ate all I could. The 11 year old kid who is not all there sat next to me which was all cool until he started wiping his spaghetti sauce fingers all over my suit jacket. lol I didn't know what to do so I just kinda pushed his hand away and he kinda stopped. This happened about three times, but I was being nice haha so out of no where he got up and left and a couple moments latter he came back... only he forgot something... all of his clothes!!!!!!! He came walking into the kitchen butt naked and wow that was a shock. yeah. So the parents just asked him nicely to go put some clothes on, so he left for a little bit but again returned with no clothes. He left and put some clothes on eventually though so that was good. It was about time to leave and we kinda had a testimony meeting and telling stories about our baptisms and stuff, it was cool. So that was my very first dinner appointments in the field. Pretty crazy if you ask me. We got out and I was kinda in shock not knowing what to think about it all and Elder Ramos just said out of the silence "So who wants McDonalds?" lol no one had eaten till they where full just because yeah. so we went and got some dollar menu stuff lol it was very yummy I hadn't had that in two months!!! lol After we went to more appointments for the rest of the night. It was pretty cool but I still have a ton to learn about everything and how to teach better. It was still fun to teach real people! We came back to the apartment and planned for the next day. The first day I taught 5 lessons!!! lol Bed time was much needed by the time 10:30 came.
The rest of the days we just taught pretty much all day long, it was pretty spiritual. The coolest one is this lady named Rebecca who is a single mom with two little girls. We taught her and she was planning on getting baptized on Saturday! So the next day we taught her again and it was really spiritual and we asked if she could say the closing prayer and when she was saying it in the middle she just stopped and started crying. The spirit was so strong. She just cried in the middle of her prayer and she ended and kept crying. It is amazing how the Lord prepares people to be baptized. She was so ready to be baptized it was so cool to see that. So Saturday came around and I had my first baptism!!! lol I really didn't do much just helped teach twice. so I wont count that one but it was way cool to see her enter the waters of baptism. I even got to be the witness for her baptism!! That's about it for the week. Sorry I cant go into details about everyday. I don't have much time, but we are in the less wealthy part of town for sure. Its really cool and I have met some really cool young families that fed us this week, some really good food haha which I was so thankful for!!!!!!!! but with the three of us we cover 5 wards!!!! Plus we cover a Portuguese branch because Elder Ramos can speak with them lol so we went there for a little on Sunday which was cool. Everyone is so nice!! last night we went to a Portuguese referral we got and the family was so cool they just had a little baby 10 days ago and they are super nice!!! We talked to them for awhile and they helped Elder Rogers and myself with the language it was pretty funny Elder Rogers did really good but me on the other hand, knew pretty much nothing. The couple really liked talking to me because I had no idea what they were saying lol but they laughed and helped me. they were awesome even though I left a little frustrated with the language thing. I have no idea how to speak real Portuguese lol cant wait for Brazil.
So I haven't heard anything about the Visa, we did drop an Elder off this morning to go to Brazil. I will let you all know as soon as I hear anything. the mission office address is 3487 S. 13 E. if you want to send stuff in the mail. We only get mail on Thursdays. Will you let Madi and who ever else know that for me please. Thanks!!

well that's about all I can put in this week I hope you get the pictures I put in haha enjoy I will try and send more later!! I am doing great!! the field is awesome and I love teaching. I just need a lot of help and have a lot to learn about everything! I am really enjoying it, its been great and this week we taught 37 lessons, with one baptism! lol I love it out here and the area is pretty cool Salt Lake isn't that bad lol still looking for that reason I have been sent here haha but I am working hard and trying my best out here! have a great week I love you all and be safe thanks for the e-mails!!! I love you all happy Halloween!!


Love Elder Novakovich "a real missionary now"

Last MTC Letter

Oi Familia

This is my last day!!! so crazy!! I cant believe I am leaving the MTC already! I remember laying in bed the first night and just thinking I am never going to get out of here. But now its my last day and I leave tomorrow morning!! Time has flown by so fast! I almost feel like I should stay longer! But it will be so nice to get out and really start the Lords work. I am super excited to start to teach real people but I am also so nervous! Its going to be so weird being in the field. I am so thankful for this time I have had in the MTC though. I have learned so much, its amazing! I feel like a completely different person. My priorities have really been changed and I know what I have to be doing right now. This mission has already changed my life greatly. I can really see the important things in life now and realize how much this church has blessed my life. This place has been amazing and I am serious when I say it is going to be sad when I leave... I will really miss it if you can believe it. This feels like my new home and I am leaving a whole new family! well actually they all left me! lol We started with 12 district members and now we are down to three! Elder Dean and Elder Harston plus myself. Elder Dean and I are really the last ones because Elder Harston should be gone already since he has his Visa but his knee is still hurt so he cant leave yet. poor guy, still has two weeks left till he gets to go to Brazil. The cool thing is Elder Dean and I have really become good friends and get along really well so it is pretty cool we both get to go to Salt Lake lol He is a great Elder and we have a really good friendship. Its still amazes me how well I have gotten to know people in just 8 or so weeks. A lot of them will be life long friends I am sure. Any way the MTC has been amazing and I have grown so much in here and learned even more. I will truly miss this place and the Spirit that it has. But I am so ready to get into the field!! Its gong to be amazing!! It really hit me pretty hard that I am actually going to be teaching people and be a true missionary. It is so exciting but at the same time pretty darn scary! lol But I am way more excited to get out and teach people and fall in love with all of the people I come in contact with! I am really excited to interact with people and share with them this great message we have! I cant wait to teach!! Even though it is in Salt Lake, which to be honest, really killed me when I first found out... I told my district a couple days before we got our re assignments that the worst place I could go is Salt Lake! lol But sure enough That's were I am needed so here I go. It took me a couple hours of feeling sorry for myself to snap out of it lol Lets just say I was not very excited about my call, haha. Then once I started to think about it, I came to realize that this is where I need to be. For some reason I have been called to serve in Salt Lake. There is something I need to do there, or something I need to learn. I am now pretty excited to go. it will be a great time for me I am sure. I will get to teach in English which is good but quit hard now... lol I haven't taught anything in English this whole time and the other day we did a little lesson in English and it was pretty hard really. lol Portuguese is still about the same as before. haha Yesterday at the Temple we where talking to one of our Brazilian friends and his family came to see him and we talked with them for about 30 mins in Portuguese!! it was pretty hard to understand it all but really cool how I could get a general idea of what they where saying. They where super nice and really willing to help us out with words and such. It was definitely a cool experience to have a conversation with real briziliaros. haha They are such nice people and I cant wait to get to brazil and teach them!!!
Today I am just getting ready for tomorrow! I am dong laundry right now. My clothes are in the wash as I type lol I have to admit I have become pretty good at the laundry thing. lol My day consists of trying to remember everything that I need to bring and getting everything into my suitcases. Who knows how that will go, should be pretty interesting though. So pretty much just packing all day for me and getting stuff ready to leave. I do get to go to Physical therapy with my companions though today at 2 30 lol that is always fun.
This past week has gone by so fast! not a lot happened but time has just flown by for sure. On Tuesday Richard G. Scott spoke at the Devotional!! its was pretty dang awesome to get to hear another Apostle! I have been so lucky to have that experience here!! its pretty rare for anyone to get this many during there stay here. So that is awesome. He did a great job and he spoke 100% by the spirit it was pretty cool to see.
It was so great to talk to everyone on Thursday!! It was amazing how moms voice just made me so happy lol To hear a familiar voice was great!!! It was cool to talk to Darbi and Zoe they sound great and all grown up lol its funny Zoe and Darbi sounded way different than I remember. lol I held up pretty good. I told everyone I was probably going to cry like a little baby when I talked to you guys but I held up very well lol there was only one moment when I was talking to Darbi that I almost lost it. Then when I had to say goodbye to mom that was tough too. I just wanted to talk forever haha we'll talk when I am in the airport going to Brazil in a couple weeks though. I actually want to stay in Salt Lake for a month or so. that would be perfect I think but less wouldn't hurt either the sooner I get to brazil, the better for my language. lol its going to be really hard to stay up on Portuguese but I will do my best.
Well this is the last e-mail you guys will get from a son in the MTC pretty crazy huh? I am so thankful for all the DearElders you all took the time to write me I appreciate it so much you have no idea. it will be weird just getting mail like once a week in the field. Thanks for all of the support you have given me through this MTC experience I love you all so much and am so thankful for all of your love and support!! Have a good week and never forget I love you all tons!!! have a great week!!!!!! Eu te amo!!! Next time you hear from me I will be a real missionary teaching the people of Salt Lake City!! Wish me luck!! thanks again for all the support up to this point!!! ah!! I cant believe the MTC chapter of my mission is over!! Love you all!!


Love Elder Novakovich (soon to be a real missionary!)

No Visa

Hello family!!

This has been such a crazy week I have so much to tell you but I don't have a lot of time today sorry. But I am doing great this week, it has gone by so fast its crazy!! I am so thankful for you my family I love you all so much and think you are all the best!!
So on to the super exciting stuff!! On Thursday we were at gym playing soccer and when we got back our roommates said that they called Elder Rawlings to the Travel office!! So we got showered really fast and headed over to see what it was for. Sadly we got there and it was closed already. Really frustrating. So all night poor Elder Rawlings had to sit and wonder what they needed him for. The next morning we got ready and headed over. The lady asked his name and then asked mine. She then started shuffling through a big stack of papers she grabbed one and said "Elder Rawlings you got your VISA!!!!!!!!!!" its was crazy!! he had no idea what to do he just stood there and stared at the paper lol it was funny. She then double checked the papers but no VISA for me. dang it! So when we left she told us they had got a ton of visas and told us to have the rest of our district come check for theirs. So we got back and everyone was so excited to go check. So Elder Rawlngs and I just went to lunch. During lunch the rest of our district came and much to my surprise four other people got theirs!! Elder Staheli, Elder Hogg, Elder Collins, and Sister Gentri all got their VISAs!!! so crazy!! They all got to call their parents that night which was pretty cool. I guess 88 people got their VISAs and not me so a ton came in last week which is awesome but really sucks that I didn't get mine pretty sad really. I was so excited when he got his then I got told I didn't have mine but that's ok. So everyone is leaving tomorrow!! I can't believe that they will be in Brazil by Wednesday!! crazy they will be in the Brazil MTC for a week then go to the field so lucky!!! oh well, mine will come when it needs to. that's the best part of the week pretty exciting so keep my fingers crossed my stuff will be soon
I get my re-assignment on Wednesday!! I"m going to the states after all. lol But it will be good. I am pretty excited to see where I will be going. I really just wanna go East of Utah and I would be happy with that. lol Its crazy that I am already done with the MTC. Pretty sad really. I feel like this is my new home and I have a new family here. Its amazing how close our district has gotten. It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone. Its pretty cool elder Rawlings and myself kinda broke off and became really good friends with the two other elders who are going to Santa Maria. Its cool that we get along so well. It"s Elder Law, and Elder Dean who are also going to Santa Maria, pretty exciting. I really am super excited to see where I get to go in the USA! haha It will be hard trying to teach in English again haha I am already forgetting some words in English. So sometimes I just go blank and have no ideas what to say lol Portuguese is coming pretty well. I am doing a lot better which is really cool. its super fun to talk to other people in Portuguese and understand them. I am sure if I ever get to Brazil it will be a whole new language! I cant wait to get down there!!!!!! I want to go so bad!! I have a really good friend here who is from brazil and he is so awesome we get along really well and he is so funny he left this morning for his mission in Canada Toronto so that's cool its the soccer player guy.
Hosting was awesome!! I was totally going to host Elder Cox but right before he came in, I got asked to help with some foreign elders!! ahh I was so frustrated because I wanted to host him so bad!! But I got to help an elder From Manchester England. He had the coolest accent ever!! lol so for the rest of the day I went around talking to people in an accent lol But when I was helping my Elder, I saw elder Cox!!!! Right after he got his name tag on!! haha it was super cool to see him with it on! We had a good hug and he had to be one his way I wanted to just sit and talk to him for hours but we couldn't!!! I just thought dang this kid just saw my mom like yesterday!! haha but he did give me an extra hug from you mom so he did a good job! haha its was so awesome to see him that night. Me and elder Rawlings went over to talk to him for an hour or so it was great!! I don't get to see him a lot because we have different schedules and such but its all good. I get to host again this week so I am excited for that. Oh a story from hosting, so this family got out and I saw the elder and I helped him with his bags and stuff then he started to cry and the whole family started crying then I almost started crying it was really sad really. I was so close to crying to tell the truth... but I did fight it back and helped him get everything to his room. It is pretty cool and super exciting to help the new elders come in. When they ask how long you have been here and I say 8 weeks they look at you like you have been here my whole life! lol it definitely feels like it!! Its pretty cool though and I cant wait to do it again.
That's about it for this week sorry its so short I didn't get a lot of time to write this week. I have to go to the dentist with Elder Collins to get his crown on. So I get to leave the MTC for a couple hours!!!! so excited!!!!!!!!!!!! lol it will be so nice haha but I do have to say I will really miss this place a ton I really will. its pretty amazing here and I have learned so much I cant even start to explain. I am doing really well this week, it was good. Sleep is still pretty hard to come by which really sucks. lol I have a funny story about that. So in class our teacher was giving us a demonstration on how to teach the word of wisdom. I was trying so hard to stay awake and the next thing I know I was getting woken by elder rawlings hitting my arm. He told me I started to snore in the middle of class lol oops.... pretty funny though, everyone laughed. I am doing great and am so excited to get my re-assignment!!! cant wait to let you know where I am going!!!! I love you all and I am doing just fine. I love all the letters you write its awesome!! thanks for everything I love you all!! I hope the marathon went great for all!!! talk to ya latter have a great week


Love Elder Novakovich

P.S. I see sister Novakovich a bit but we didn't get to give her a blessing. Her district did. We didn't see her for a couple days after you had written me sorry but I am making sure she is doing good. I always check on her and offer to help with anything. We took some pictures which I will send. She is way cool and I am so thankful I got to meet her in here!!

Hosting New Missionaries

Oi Familia

What a long long week. It has gone by so so so slooooooow! I have been having some pretty down days. Monday night was really bad I couldn't sleep or anything. Tuesday wasn't much better I was in some kind of slump and it really was tough to say the least. The Tuesday night devotional helped me get out of it a little. It was a good talk that helped me realize once again why I was out here. The Devotionals here are life savers they are always so good and inspirational, it really helps me keep going and stay strong even when it is the hardest. By the time Wednesday came around I was feeling better and had some energy. In one of our classes on Wednesday our teacher did the lesson/discussion on why we are here and then we talked to someone in our district on a really personal level for about 10 mins then we had 20 mins to search the scriptures for things that could help the other person. We than had 30 mins to teach and help the other person with his problems or concerns. It was a really cool experience I was with Elder Amdal and he found some really cool amazing scriptures to help me out. It was really good to be able to help him also. I really liked helping him out it allowed me to forget about myself and help someone else. I really gained a testimony this week of giving service to others. Doing so has helped me forget about myself and serve others around me. Whenever I was really down I tried to look for something I could do for someone else. It really helped me out more than anything else I think. Its amazing what you can find in the scriptures. You could find the answer to any question you want in them. They have really been helping me this week because it has been so long. Whenever I get the chance to read my scriptures I always feel so much better and the rest of the day goes by so much better. I am very thankful for them.
My district is awesome! Sometimes it just amazes me how different we all are but how well we get along. I am pretty sure we have one of the strongest districts in our branch. We are all so close and only getting closer. They have helped me a ton whenever I needed something they are always more than willing to help me out. It is sad now that we are all realizing that in two weeks we will all go our separate ways to different missions. Last night we were all in the same room just laying on the beds and talking about how big of a bummer it is that we are all not going to the same mission lol Elder Collins and I where talking and he said Elder Novakovich and I are like the same people I just have a bigger body lol then something about souls and spirits came up and he said we came here with one spirit and he just took more of it so he needed a bigger body and I just got a little bit of it so I got a little body lol it was funny maybe you had to be there. Elder Collins and I get along really well we have the same kinda humor so we are always making jokes it a good time lol As of last week our district is now the oldest one in our Branch! Pretty crazy I remember when it was our first week and seeing the older districts and remembering just thinking they had been here forever! haha now that's me and my district pretty weird. I cant believe we only have like two weeks left here!!! I will get my re-assignment in a week and a half next Wednesday!!! Crazy!! Some really cool news/ really sad bummer news is Elder Harston from my district got his Visa! That's the great part but he is also the one with the torn ACL... so they may not let him go right away. He is supposed to leave tomorrow with two other Elders who got their Visas. So that is a huge bummer for him. I will keep you posted on when or if he gets to head out to Brazil. More good news is he is from right by Spokane so maybe I'll be next! haha I could only hope. I really wish I did get to go to the Brazil MTC it would have been awesome to have that experience but the Lord knows just what he wants me to do so I'll go where he wants me to go (oh look at me quoting a hymn lol) But it will be pretty fun to get a new call haha this time I know its in the states so it wont be that big of a bummer haha It will be exciting to see where I end up going.
I did see Sister Novakovich!! lol I was walking through her building to get to mine and we ran into each other pretty crazy but awesome! She is super cool I wish we could just sit and talk but we always have somewhere to be or places to go. But its all good she is way cool. Pretty crazy that we are here the same time. Everyone that sees us talking is like wow you two have the same last name lol Oh yeah representing the Novakovich name here at the good old MTC!
I got my first hair cut on my mission this week that was a treat lol they definitely go as fast as they can lol I sat down laughed at Elder Rawlings hair cut and bam I was done too lol It was crazy fast and it looks ok lol I will have to send a picture for you to enjoy. I have to admit I did get one of the better ones. Some Elders in our district got butchered lol its so funny! I got some sweet packages this week!! I got two from Sister Barnes one had pumpkin/cream cheese muffins in it which where amazing!!! then the very next day I got a Halloween package from the Barnes!! with some sweet stuff in it with lots of candy! I got a package from Madi also!! Guess what she got me!?! Hawaii chips!!! ahh she is awesome! lol I was so excited when I saw them! She also got me lots of other goodies that will be put to good use lol I have lots of food to eat in two weeks. Some funny news is that I have gained 6 pounds since being here so I am filling out quit nicely lol If this place can make me gain weight it can make anyone gain weight!! I am definitely getting and well out of shape. I went for a run the other day starting out at my usual pace from back home and about 30 seconds later I felt like I was gong to die. lol That made me really sad actually because I really miss going on runs by myself back home. It was a good time to just relax and enjoy being alone which I really miss. I have to be with my companion every second of the day. Good thing we get along pretty well.
Portuguese is well... its Portuguese. I am actually doing pretty well, like second worst in the district so that's good. Sometimes when we are teaching I really want to say something so I try and then I am pretty sure it comes out way wrong like one time I was teaching about the Atonement and I said "Jesus Christ killed for our sins". lol instead of he died for our sins lol pretty funny to my defense the words are very similar lol the thing that gets me most is the pronunciation of things because there are different from English so its hard to forget the English stuff but I am getting better. It is frustrating sometimes but its coming. I realized the other day that in not to long I will have to teach real people... super scary to think about lol but super exciting at the same time. Sometimes I feel so inadequate for this work. I have so much to learn I feel. I am really relying on the Lords help and he is blessing me greatly. Some more exciting news is I get to Host this week!!!!! I am so excited!!! And Tcox comes in I could totally Host him!!! That would be so sweet I am so excited to see him! I cant wait to host but I am afraid I actually might cry lol So it should be very interesting if I am trying to bring this Elder into the MTC and I am crying more than him lol I think I could give the moms a run for their money! haha So I will definitely keep you posted on how that whole thing goes for sure! Nothing on Visa Stuff. 4 elders got theirs this week so things are starting to move a lot better it seems. It is pretty cold here now which kinda sucks! It even snowed this week!!! I am better ready for the cold than a lot of Elders I have my sweatshirt and coat so I am good a lot of people just have there suit coat nothing else. Oh and now since the weather is colder everyone has to wear their suits all the time now which really sucks for us one suit elders we have to wear the same thing everyday should be fun haha and my style choices have gone down even more. Now I don't even get to choose what pants I want to wear. I only get to choose my tie now, pretty sad... lol I am doing well though the beginning of the week wasn't very good but I am a lot better now and happy. I am so tired though I cant believe it!! I haven't felt like I've have had a good nights sleep in forever! I could really use a catch up day but I wont get one of those for hmm lets see.... another 22 and a half months!! lol But its all part of the mission experience living two years with next to no sleep haha I am good though so no worries I am still living the MTC up lol doing the same thing everyday I love it!! lol I did get to go to the BYU health clinic last week because Elder Harston needed someone to go with him to his Physical therapy. It was so nice to get out of here!! lol Well that's about it for this week thanks for all of the DearElders again I love them!! Thanks for all of the love and support you give me!! I love and miss you all tons have a great week!!

Love Elder Novakovich

P.S. Hey dad for your question with helping members staying active once they get baptized, we had someone come and talk to us about that. The number one thing is they have to keep reading the Book of Mormon! If they continue to read it they will stay strong in the church! Second Tithing which really shocked me but is really cool. If members pay their tithing they will more likely stay a strong member of church. If they really understand the importance of it, it will bless their lives greatly! That's about all the advice I have haha love you

P.S.S. How did Lexi's wedding go??? it would be cool to get some pictures of that!

Conference Weekend

Hello family

Hey my loving family! What a crazy week it has been. Lots of good stuff happened. First Tuesday devotional was amazing! But I am having the hardest time remembering who it was! lol A week is like a year in here. But I do know he was of the Seventy, so that's cool. He gave such good advice to everyone. He was so funny and so spiritually uplifting. The talks that are given here are one of the biggest things that help me keep going. It always seems like whenever I am really down we have a great speaker that totally changes my attitude and helps me realize why I am here and what I need to be doing. The MTC has once again played some crazy mind tricks on me. lol Once again the whole time thing in here is all messed up. Second I have totally forgotten things I thought I could never forget like what the heck my cell phone looks like! lol I was just sitting there and I saw one of the teachers using his and I remembered Hey! I used to have one of those things! I then tried to remember what the thing looked like and no luck. lol I just laughed at myself. The longer I am in here the more and more the real world is unreal and fades out of my head. When I got set apart to be an Elder I was literally set apart from the world. They really stress that here. That we are no longer part of the world and our setting apart is to be taken literally.
The most exciting news of the week was Wednesday!! The travel office called me down to fill out my Online Visa Stuff!!! So that's awesome because now I could get my Visa at any time! But the bad news is it could still be awhile. One kid here filled his online stuff out and two hours later her had his Visa! Crazy! But some people have filled their stuff out and they have been waiting a couple months still. So I am hoping I will get my Visa very soon so I can head to Brazil ASAP!!! So that's the really good news of the week so I will let you know if I hear anything about anything this week.
The Language is coming along good. Tuesday was a horrible day for Portuguese and I was so frustrated because I couldn't say anything in my lessons or even talking to people! Lets just say it was a long, long day for me. And that next day our district was planning on having a day where we only speak Portuguese... I was not very excited lol So that night I had a very long conversation with the Lord begging for help with the language. I haven't really prayed that hard for something. So after the prayer I tried to change my attitude and be happy and went to bed. The happiness shortly left when my alarm then went off at 6:30! lol I hate that time!! It feels like I get absolutely no sleep. But I get up and go to the shower which always cheers me right up! lol So after I got all clean The time came that we all had to speak nothing but Portuguese I tried to start the day with a good attitude towards it because I knew if I didn't, it would be bad. So needless to say the Portuguese was great! I remembered almost everything and I really did good with the language! I was so excited and the more I spoke that more I wanted to speak to people in Portuguese! It ended up being a great day because we had lessons and I did pretty well in them and I was able to talk to everyone in Portuguese! I was so excited and knew that God had truly heard my prayer and helped me greatly. I have been so humbled by this whole experience of learning a new language it really has helped me gain a better relationship with my father in heaven. He has helped me so much more than I could ever think and more than I could ever repay. This helps me a lot when I feel like being lazy or get distracted. I remember all that he has done for me and I really have no good reason to be lazy so I kick myself back into gear.
I am very thankful for everything I learned before this. I am so thankful for you mom and dad who have shown me how to work hard and never give up. That is one of the greatest blessings you have given me. I thank you so much for dong that. And for never giving up on me when I did want to give up. Thank you for this great blessing mom and dad it has really changed my life and will continue to make me the missionary I need to be as I work hard and put myself in the Lords hands. Thanks for the great examples you have been to me and making me realize the importance of hard work. I love you!!
General Conference was awesome!! and such a nice break from the everyday routine. It was the first time I have actually watched all the sessions of conference. It was a very good experience though and I will forever try and watch every session of it from now on. All the talks where so good! I have a ton of notes to go over now lol But all the talks helped me in some form, which was really cool. I had a lot of questions going in because our teacher said to write questions down that you want to have answered during conference and low and behold, all my questions got answered. Pretty cool I thought. It really helped me realize that all the words and speakers of conference are inspired. I loved hearing from the prophet it was really amazing how he can speak. It really touched me; everything he said. And he is a very funny guy haha I loved his stories. During Priesthood session Jeffrey R. Holland spoke. I'm sure dad saw it but wow! that man blows my mind. He speaks with such strength and power of the Holy Ghost. It reminded me of when he spoke here my first week. It was amazing it was like his talk at Priesthood but directly to missionaries and he really got passionate haha he speaks with amazing power. I love him!
After Conference was all over we had a Sunday Fireside. Not really looking forward to sitting in the same chairs for two more hours haha I was kinda reluctant to go. And to tell the truth Conference really made me think of home a lot and eating all the food and watching with family. I was pretty home sick during the whole thing which wasn't good but my spirits where getting lifted by the spirit of the talks. I was missing home and seeing and being with everyone. So another meeting didn't sound very good to me. Then just like I said earlier, whenever I was down we always have a great talk. Then bam! Chad Lewis was our speaker!! And Holy Cow he did amazing!! my second favorite talk since being here, he snuck right in behind Jeffrey R. Holland. haha he did so good. He is a great motivational speaker and was really able to connect to me personally. He spoke of his mission and how it has blessed him and his family and how his mission opened so many doors for him in life. It was crazy and I wish you could have all been here to hear it!! He gave me so many good ideas and thoughts and inspiration and now I cant wait even more to get out into the field and teach. He is pretty much living the perfect dream life but he was so humble and thankful for everything he has. Its crazy the things he has gotten to do and be apart of. But once again he was so humble and a great guy. After the talk I was filled once again with the fire to do missionary work like never before and I cant wait to get into the field and fall in love with all the people I come into contact with. I really cant wait to meet the people of brazil!
A little fun story of the week was after the Saturday morning conference session Elder Rawlings and I went on a Temple walk ( which are like the best things ever in the MTC!!!!) lol But we where just walking and we started talking to this family who was visiting from California. It was so great to talk to "real people" as we call them here in the MTC. So anyone not in the MTC is a "real person" and we don't get to see them a lot so being able to actually talk to "real people" was a dream come true! I only talked for like 5 minutes and I felt a love for all of them! It was really cool! They where so cool and had really cool accents! It was great we found out one of them had gotten baptized three weeks earlier which was cool. Then the parents said they had gotten baptized 30 years ago because of two missionaries like us. He shared how thankful he was for what we where doing and the time we are putting forth to serve a mission. I felt the Spirit so strongly as he thanked us for being who we were. It was such a cool experience and I will never forget. This experience made me want even more to get into the field and bring this truth that we have to people. Well that's my story for the week its pretty cool.
Our last roommates moved out so Elder Rawlings and I were alone for a couple of nights and we were very excited to get knew Elders so we could raise them! lol Wednesday passed and no new Elders. We were very sad about this. Then on Friday two Elders moved in to our room and we were very excited till we found out they had already been here for two weeks! We then got very sad about not getting to raise new Elders. But some good news is they might be moving out this week so we could get real new Elders. So that's what I am hoping for!!! Oh and they are gong to Tahiti. All I want is some real new Elders this week lol Or my Visa would be nice!!
That's about it for this week it was a good one with some homesickness but everything is great and I am doing great. The Language is coming good, that makes me happy. And I am even learning some Japanese lol the room right next to us are going to Japan so we talk to them a lot lol. And oh some sister missionaries contacted us and they said they would be speaking Italian so I was like oh great more languages I don't understand lol then they started speaking and for some strange reason I knew what they were saying and could understand them! My companion then made fun of me for being able to understand more Italian than Portuguese because the two are very similar. I haven't seen Sister Novakovich at all but the sisters in my district said they say her so I will keep looking, it would be really cool to meet her so hopefully soon.
Thanks for all of your letters love and support I love you all!!! have a great week family!!!

Love Elder Novakovich