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