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.