dear family,
i was so pumped to find out that whitney's package got there! that thing cost me a bloody arm and a leg to send. just kidding, but the mini patrick thing was way sweet. i'm so glad it got there. those pictures are amazing. i was really bummed when i heard that you hadn't gotten them. there are a lot of good memories there.
it's also good to hear that mom is doing better. just take it easy, injuries take a while to recover from. i would know =). but hang in there mom, you'll be doing hand springs again before you know it.
i got a package from ya'll this week. the doctor scholls are HEAVENLY. i wept when i opened the package and saw them in there... and then i took them out and saw the jerky and started to ball. good work, it was an excellent package.
so this week has been really good. we had nine investigators at church... but we should've had at least fifteen. my goal before i leave this branch is to have at least twenty. there is a companionship in east malaysia that had 34 investigators at church last week. i can't even imagine that! that's nuts. but twenty is definitely a possibility. so elder daines went home this week =( it's a shame that missionaries have to die. he's such a stud. but elder houston became the new assistant, so KL is getting a new zone leader. his name is elder richards, but i don't know him. all i know is that he's in elder palfreyman's group. that should be exciting.
there is some more transfers coming up soon. fortunately for me though, they are chinese transfers. the chinese elders are on a different transfer cycle. elder foster (our district leader) seems to think he's getting transferred. if that happens, there will be some more changes to our district. we'll just have to wait and see.
as far as the work goes, we've been focusing a lot on getting referrals from people. there are many ways to go about doing this, but the easiest is just to ask. so for the last couple of days we've been asking everyone we talk to for friends that might be interested (something that we should've been doing all along) and the result has been amazing. in the last two days we've already received more referrals than all of last week combined! so awesome! so now what we need to do is put that into practice with our members. we've coordinated with our branch mission leader to go visit a member family every week, starting with his this week. we'll go over there and teach them how to teach the restoration. imagine how effective we could be if we had an entire branch full of missionaries. that's our goal. we'll be challenging every person in the branch (probably only excluding the primary and nursery) to find a friend or someone to give a book of mormon to and refer to us. that way those people already have fellowshippers and a reason to come to church. all of these things are really obvious and are being practiced most places by members of the church... except for here. it's really weird how much culture interferes. people have a lot of trouble giving up the traditions of their fathers and come into god's culture, but that's what has to be done here. the church has been here for 20+ years, but it acts like it's only been here for 2 or 3. the youth of the church is amazing though. once they grow up and become the leaders of the church, that's when things will really start to catch fire.
we've been teaching a ton of nigerians lately. they are so hilarious. they hate it here though. i haven't met a single nigerian that likes malaysia. we're teaching three of them tonight. one is already on date and we will hopefully be setting a baptism date for another one tonight.
the work is so amazing here. i love it so much. i had an interesting bit of revelation last night. i felt like i needed to tell you all to pray for missionary experiences. maybe you could make that your purpose of your fast this upcoming fast sunday. everyone needs to do it, and when the opportunity comes, have the courage to open your mouths. remember elder bednar's talk last conference (or maybe the one before, i can't remember) when he said that members are full-time finders, missionaries are full time teachers. that applies to all of us and we need to do more of it. look for those opportunities, and they'll come.
anywho, i'm starving and pizza hut is calling my name, so until next week, adieu.
love,
elder troxel
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