dear family,
i don't have much time today, but i'll type fast. it's my second zone conference in a week and a half today (because of the transfer) and we're going to go play football. i'm pumped.
sibu is 180 degrees opposite from KL. KL is nasty smoggy and super busy. sibu is really pretty small and everybody just lives in crazy wooden houses on sticks in the middle of the jungle. i haven't seen any amazing wildlife. but the people are amazing. i never really got to test how good my malay is while i was in my last area, so i didn't really know how much i knew. turns out i know quite a bit... i can teach enough to get my point across. fortunately elder watkins is really good in both ibon and malay, so whenever i get stuck i just throw it back to him. he lets me teach a lot, so it's been really good. i'll tell you all the little details about the area next week, but just know that i have never been in a place like this in my entire life. it is nuts!
this is the address to which you should send packages: (Note from Dad, use the address in the post "Corn Juice")
No. 1B lot 1602, block 4,
lorong bunga rose 3,
jalan road
sibu, sarawak 96000
that is actually the address of the couple, but that's where you should send everything for now. we're in a brand new house so i'm not quite sure of the address. it is huge! and entire house for just elder watkins and i.
anywho, tell everybody hello for me. good to hear that chelsie is still doing well. i haven't gotten a letter for quite a while, but it's ok, i'm working really hard =) if liz reads this, you need to write to me too. sorry it's so short today, but the computer is timed and i'm almost out.
i love you all. i'm still alive
elder troxel
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sibu
Dear family,
well, i forgot to inform you last week that this week is zone conference. so no emails this week... my bad. but it's ok because i have good news! i bet you're wondering what "Sibu" means. well, i haven't the foggiest, but it's my new area! my first transfer! crazy! so i'll tell you all that i know about the situation:
i leave for Sibu on saturday. sibu is in east malaysia where they speak kosong bahasa ingeris (zero english). i'm super pumped about it because my malay is going to get really good and i'm going to learn to speak ibon (EE-bon), which is the native language there. what happened to being called english speaking??? my new companion will be elder Watkins (who i have never met, nor heard anything about. but apparently his ibon is pretty good already), and we'll be opening a new area. right now in sibu there are four elders- two mandarin speaking and two malay speaking. the malay speaking elders have been bringing upwards of thirty investigators to church every week for the past TWO MONTHS! that is nuts. their baptisms are through the roof with an average of around 6 every week! it's grown so much that they're making it it's own zone and we are going to open a new area there. i'm stoked out of my mind!
elder kartchner will be staying here and training a new elder. i'm going to be a grandfather. that's pretty cool. other than that, i have no idea what's in store for me. i hear it's a hard core biking area, which will be good because i'll hopefully lose some of my huge doughnut of fat that i've developed over the past 7 months in klang. i can't even beleive it. it's going to be super hard because it'll be like going through training again having to learn the language, but whom the lord calls, he qualifies. and apparently i've done all the work i was sent to do in klang... FINALLY! time to move on.
so we were supposed to have a baptism for william (the american guy from montana) and this guy named innocent from nigeria on saturday. to make a long story short, we weren't able to contact william all week and he didn't show up for the baptism =( but innocent did! we've worked with him for a long time. we've had to use multiple teaching records for him because we've been to see him so many times. he requested that i perform the baptism, and i stayed up this time! i was so worried. he was confirmed yesterday AND he got the priesthood. i love it.
well i hope everything is going well at home. i don't know the address that i'll have in sibu yet, but i'll have that for you next week... maybe. we've gotta get moving though because we still need to have our interviews with president. i hope everything went well with Pat's funeral. i'm looking forward to hearing about it. i trust everybody is doing well. you're always in my prayers. assalamalayacom!
love,
elder troxel
PS- in answer to grandma and grandpa's questions, elder kartchner is from St. David, Arizona, and it's president skelton, not "skeleton" =)
PSS- i would like some pictures for christmas i think... not emailed though. like real ones
well, i forgot to inform you last week that this week is zone conference. so no emails this week... my bad. but it's ok because i have good news! i bet you're wondering what "Sibu" means. well, i haven't the foggiest, but it's my new area! my first transfer! crazy! so i'll tell you all that i know about the situation:
i leave for Sibu on saturday. sibu is in east malaysia where they speak kosong bahasa ingeris (zero english). i'm super pumped about it because my malay is going to get really good and i'm going to learn to speak ibon (EE-bon), which is the native language there. what happened to being called english speaking??? my new companion will be elder Watkins (who i have never met, nor heard anything about. but apparently his ibon is pretty good already), and we'll be opening a new area. right now in sibu there are four elders- two mandarin speaking and two malay speaking. the malay speaking elders have been bringing upwards of thirty investigators to church every week for the past TWO MONTHS! that is nuts. their baptisms are through the roof with an average of around 6 every week! it's grown so much that they're making it it's own zone and we are going to open a new area there. i'm stoked out of my mind!
elder kartchner will be staying here and training a new elder. i'm going to be a grandfather. that's pretty cool. other than that, i have no idea what's in store for me. i hear it's a hard core biking area, which will be good because i'll hopefully lose some of my huge doughnut of fat that i've developed over the past 7 months in klang. i can't even beleive it. it's going to be super hard because it'll be like going through training again having to learn the language, but whom the lord calls, he qualifies. and apparently i've done all the work i was sent to do in klang... FINALLY! time to move on.
so we were supposed to have a baptism for william (the american guy from montana) and this guy named innocent from nigeria on saturday. to make a long story short, we weren't able to contact william all week and he didn't show up for the baptism =( but innocent did! we've worked with him for a long time. we've had to use multiple teaching records for him because we've been to see him so many times. he requested that i perform the baptism, and i stayed up this time! i was so worried. he was confirmed yesterday AND he got the priesthood. i love it.
well i hope everything is going well at home. i don't know the address that i'll have in sibu yet, but i'll have that for you next week... maybe. we've gotta get moving though because we still need to have our interviews with president. i hope everything went well with Pat's funeral. i'm looking forward to hearing about it. i trust everybody is doing well. you're always in my prayers. assalamalayacom!
love,
elder troxel
PS- in answer to grandma and grandpa's questions, elder kartchner is from St. David, Arizona, and it's president skelton, not "skeleton" =)
PSS- i would like some pictures for christmas i think... not emailed though. like real ones
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
What a Plan!
Note from Dad: This week in our letter to Jordan we had to tell him that a lady that we were home teachers for passed away suddenly from cancer. Pat Harward took a real interest in Jordan and always wanted to hear how he was doing. I was able to visit her in the hospital a few hours before her passing and she asked me to relay to Jordan that she loved him very much. I have been asked to speak at her memorial service and so Jordan was responding to a request for some word to pass on. Even though Jordan had not met many of Pat's friends, all of Pat's friends know Jordan as she would tell them about Jordan and she kept a picture of him on her TV. We will miss Pat.
Dear Family,
i've been thinking about what i should write about Pat. i don't really know. but i've been studying a lot about the plan of salvation lately, and all i can say is that i know it's true. i'm grateful to have been able to know her while she was here, and i'm looking forward to when we will get to meet again. a good thing to read at her funeral would be the "death, physical" section in true to the faith. i really like the quote in there that says "the only way to take pain out of [someone dying], is to take love out of life." it'll always be hard when people die, because we won't get to see them for the rest of our time here, so there's nothing wrong with mourning, but we can take comfort in the fact that we will meet again. what an amazing plan.
anywho, i'm also glad to hear that mike is tearing it up. hopefully i'll get to play with him again in a couple years. that's really good for the mountain west though, to have 3 teams in the top 25. i can't believe it! why couldn't this happen in 2010?! GOO!
so i had an interesting experience yesterday. well, not so much interesting, more just poopy. i spent 9 hours on a bus! turns out that we can get our visas extended in butterworth, which is about 4 1/2 hours away. so we took the trip up there at 8:00 yesterday morning and got our visas extended! then we proceeded to hop on a bus and take the trip all the way back. it's was ridiculous. i hate days when i can't teach. but now i can stay here until january 5th.
so we're having two baptisms this weekend, and one is for an american! his name is william and he's from montana. we've been teaching him for probably 6 months now, so it's good to finally see him baptized. the other guy's name is innocent from nigeria. i'm really excited.
i got a really awesome letter from chelsie this week. it was from egypt and written on papyrus! how crazy is that? thanks chels.
being a missionary is so awesome. whitney- you should go on a mission! get ready. but don't turn into a weird sister missionary, because most of them are really weird. don't be weird. just be strong and be good. i highly recommend it. maybe you'll get to go to malaysia and see all the wonders it holds! like all the fantastic rats and cockroaches! oh, quick story. so i went into my bathroom this week to take a shower. it was after i'd woken up and gone running, so i was still really sleepy and really tired from the run. anywho, i pull the shower curtain, and low and behold, there is a giant cockroach on the curtain! i flipped. i hate those things, so i just tortured it for about ten minutes with water before i just caught it and flushed it down the toilet. they call me the roach slayer around these parts.
i think that's just about everything. if you could mail me some pictures of stuff, that would be great. i'd really like that. and i'm nearly due for another shipment of deodorant =) thanks. there was something i really needed, but i can't remember what it was. i'll just have to ask next week. i love you all.
elder troxel
Dear Family,
i've been thinking about what i should write about Pat. i don't really know. but i've been studying a lot about the plan of salvation lately, and all i can say is that i know it's true. i'm grateful to have been able to know her while she was here, and i'm looking forward to when we will get to meet again. a good thing to read at her funeral would be the "death, physical" section in true to the faith. i really like the quote in there that says "the only way to take pain out of [someone dying], is to take love out of life." it'll always be hard when people die, because we won't get to see them for the rest of our time here, so there's nothing wrong with mourning, but we can take comfort in the fact that we will meet again. what an amazing plan.
anywho, i'm also glad to hear that mike is tearing it up. hopefully i'll get to play with him again in a couple years. that's really good for the mountain west though, to have 3 teams in the top 25. i can't believe it! why couldn't this happen in 2010?! GOO!
so i had an interesting experience yesterday. well, not so much interesting, more just poopy. i spent 9 hours on a bus! turns out that we can get our visas extended in butterworth, which is about 4 1/2 hours away. so we took the trip up there at 8:00 yesterday morning and got our visas extended! then we proceeded to hop on a bus and take the trip all the way back. it's was ridiculous. i hate days when i can't teach. but now i can stay here until january 5th.
so we're having two baptisms this weekend, and one is for an american! his name is william and he's from montana. we've been teaching him for probably 6 months now, so it's good to finally see him baptized. the other guy's name is innocent from nigeria. i'm really excited.
i got a really awesome letter from chelsie this week. it was from egypt and written on papyrus! how crazy is that? thanks chels.
being a missionary is so awesome. whitney- you should go on a mission! get ready. but don't turn into a weird sister missionary, because most of them are really weird. don't be weird. just be strong and be good. i highly recommend it. maybe you'll get to go to malaysia and see all the wonders it holds! like all the fantastic rats and cockroaches! oh, quick story. so i went into my bathroom this week to take a shower. it was after i'd woken up and gone running, so i was still really sleepy and really tired from the run. anywho, i pull the shower curtain, and low and behold, there is a giant cockroach on the curtain! i flipped. i hate those things, so i just tortured it for about ten minutes with water before i just caught it and flushed it down the toilet. they call me the roach slayer around these parts.
i think that's just about everything. if you could mail me some pictures of stuff, that would be great. i'd really like that. and i'm nearly due for another shipment of deodorant =) thanks. there was something i really needed, but i can't remember what it was. i'll just have to ask next week. i love you all.
elder troxel
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Fonts are Slippery...
dear family,
this week was excellent. it's good to hear that everybody is continuing to have success. 29 wins in a row is a lot. that's poop that craig went down. tell him to suck it up. just kidding, those are nasty.
so in the last 30 days we've had 8 baptisms! crazy! heavenly father is really blessing this area. there are so many people who want to learn, and the people who are getting baptized are on fire with referring their friends and helping us out with the work. i love it. elder foster told me on monday that it was pretty likely that i was getting transferred, but i'm not. we had two baptisms on saturday. one for a man named qamaruzzaman from pakistan and one for a man named senthuran from sri lanka. those two are amazing, but the baptism was quite the experience, which brings me to this week's...
WEEKLY REVELATION: the baptismal service really was incredible. zaman asked me if i would baptize him, so i was really excited. the spirit was really strong as we stood in the font and i said the prayer. then i dunked him, and i don't really know what happened next, but i must have just slipped because the next thing i knew i was in the water too. don't worry though, he got all the way under, which is what really matters. after quite a bit of flailing around and splashing, we both made it up too. it was really funny. i think that was the fourth or fifth baptism i've performed, but it was definitely the first time that i've gotten to get baptized along with them. it was funny.
so i attached a voice clip that elder frost sent to me. i hope i did it right because it is hilarious. sounds like he is having a lot of the same experiences that i am having here... except i don't run into too many drunks. here it's more just nappy cross-dressers. SICK!
we had a pretty neat experience the other day. we live right next to this enormous flat called Mentari Court. probably half of our investigators live there. but anywho, it's not very successful to contact there in the afternoon, because everyone is at school or at work. but we had about 90 minutes of free time without any appointments the other day in the afternoon, and i really felt like we needed to go contact there. we ended up on the 12th floor of block C, and in 90 minutes we had 6 new investigators, all on the one floor. it was really cool. there's so many experiences like that as a missionary. it happens every day. if you listen to the spirit, he tells you exactly where to go. it's too bad i'm not a very eloquent writer, or i could tell you some amazing things that have happened, but i know i couldn't do them justice. but i am uberthankful that i was put into such a wonderful family with parents that taught me the gospel so that i could be here. i know i don't really ever share spiritual experiences in my emails, but it's like i said, i know i couldn't do them justice. the mission is amazing. it's the hardest thing i've ever done, but out of those hard times come amazing experiences. like it says in How Firm a Foundation, my dross is being consumed and my gold is being refined.
tell TJ not to worry, i still make noises when i eat. oh, and tell him that i didn't forget his birthday, i just haven't had time to write him a birthday letter yet. speaking of which...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! in two days that is.
anywho, i think that's everything. i got one of the packages the other day. everything got thrown off because there wasn't any post last week because of hari raya. but i got one and it was fantastic. unfortunately, there aren't any starbursts or kitkats left =( i couldn't help myself! and thanks for the calendar, if you could get me one for 2009 also, i would much appreciate it.
i love you all.
elder troxel
this week was excellent. it's good to hear that everybody is continuing to have success. 29 wins in a row is a lot. that's poop that craig went down. tell him to suck it up. just kidding, those are nasty.
so in the last 30 days we've had 8 baptisms! crazy! heavenly father is really blessing this area. there are so many people who want to learn, and the people who are getting baptized are on fire with referring their friends and helping us out with the work. i love it. elder foster told me on monday that it was pretty likely that i was getting transferred, but i'm not. we had two baptisms on saturday. one for a man named qamaruzzaman from pakistan and one for a man named senthuran from sri lanka. those two are amazing, but the baptism was quite the experience, which brings me to this week's...
WEEKLY REVELATION: the baptismal service really was incredible. zaman asked me if i would baptize him, so i was really excited. the spirit was really strong as we stood in the font and i said the prayer. then i dunked him, and i don't really know what happened next, but i must have just slipped because the next thing i knew i was in the water too. don't worry though, he got all the way under, which is what really matters. after quite a bit of flailing around and splashing, we both made it up too. it was really funny. i think that was the fourth or fifth baptism i've performed, but it was definitely the first time that i've gotten to get baptized along with them. it was funny.
so i attached a voice clip that elder frost sent to me. i hope i did it right because it is hilarious. sounds like he is having a lot of the same experiences that i am having here... except i don't run into too many drunks. here it's more just nappy cross-dressers. SICK!
we had a pretty neat experience the other day. we live right next to this enormous flat called Mentari Court. probably half of our investigators live there. but anywho, it's not very successful to contact there in the afternoon, because everyone is at school or at work. but we had about 90 minutes of free time without any appointments the other day in the afternoon, and i really felt like we needed to go contact there. we ended up on the 12th floor of block C, and in 90 minutes we had 6 new investigators, all on the one floor. it was really cool. there's so many experiences like that as a missionary. it happens every day. if you listen to the spirit, he tells you exactly where to go. it's too bad i'm not a very eloquent writer, or i could tell you some amazing things that have happened, but i know i couldn't do them justice. but i am uberthankful that i was put into such a wonderful family with parents that taught me the gospel so that i could be here. i know i don't really ever share spiritual experiences in my emails, but it's like i said, i know i couldn't do them justice. the mission is amazing. it's the hardest thing i've ever done, but out of those hard times come amazing experiences. like it says in How Firm a Foundation, my dross is being consumed and my gold is being refined.
tell TJ not to worry, i still make noises when i eat. oh, and tell him that i didn't forget his birthday, i just haven't had time to write him a birthday letter yet. speaking of which...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! in two days that is.
anywho, i think that's everything. i got one of the packages the other day. everything got thrown off because there wasn't any post last week because of hari raya. but i got one and it was fantastic. unfortunately, there aren't any starbursts or kitkats left =( i couldn't help myself! and thanks for the calendar, if you could get me one for 2009 also, i would much appreciate it.
i love you all.
elder troxel
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Emergency Transfer
dear family,
i didn't think that we were going to be able to email today because it is Hari Raya here. what exactly are they celebrating, you ask? who knows. when you translate "hari raya" into english, the direct translation is something like "the day of special day." i think it probably has a lot to do with the end of rhamadan, which is the muslim month of fasting. but there hasn't been mail at all this week, and there won't be for the rest of the week, which is really poopy because our quarterly supplies from church headquarters are supposed to be coming in this week, and we have almost nothing to give out. fortunately Elder Kartchner was able to grab some supplies in singapore this last week.
it's good to hear that the t-birds put a whoopin on mountainview. i remember those days... if you get to see kevin again soon, get his address. i'd like to write him and see how he's doing.
there's a recent convert of ours who's name is Thenmoli. she's sixteen and she's amazing! she'll be and incredible missionary. anywho, she told me i looked like i was five months pregnant last night... time to diet. i've been working out really hard twice a day, but i continue to get fatter. oh well, you can still be fast and be fat... just look at dad. haha, i'm sorry dad, i'm just lashing out irrationally now.
we had two baptisms last week, and this week we've got two more... well i hope two more anyway. we heard a rumor that one of the guys who is supposed to be getting baptized on saturday is still smoking, even though he told us he's stopped. we'll see. but just so you can get an idea of how broad of a scope of people we teach here, our two baptisms last week were for a nigerian and a nepali, and the two this week are for a sri lankan and a pakistani. what the hey? where are the malaysians? oh yeah, they're all muslim. in all seriousness, i think i've probably met someone from almost every country in the world here. it's crazy. we teach so many different kinds of people here. i love it.
oh, about the title. i'm just kidding. i'm not getting transferred! but i am going up to penang next week to get my visa extended. that should be fun.
well, the work here continues to go swimmingly. Heavenly Father is preparing so many people to learn here! we've got 13 people on date for baptism right now, and we're setting three or four more every week. and word on the street is that we'll be here for awhile (knock on wood).
i love you all. take care. be good.
Elder troxel
i didn't think that we were going to be able to email today because it is Hari Raya here. what exactly are they celebrating, you ask? who knows. when you translate "hari raya" into english, the direct translation is something like "the day of special day." i think it probably has a lot to do with the end of rhamadan, which is the muslim month of fasting. but there hasn't been mail at all this week, and there won't be for the rest of the week, which is really poopy because our quarterly supplies from church headquarters are supposed to be coming in this week, and we have almost nothing to give out. fortunately Elder Kartchner was able to grab some supplies in singapore this last week.
it's good to hear that the t-birds put a whoopin on mountainview. i remember those days... if you get to see kevin again soon, get his address. i'd like to write him and see how he's doing.
there's a recent convert of ours who's name is Thenmoli. she's sixteen and she's amazing! she'll be and incredible missionary. anywho, she told me i looked like i was five months pregnant last night... time to diet. i've been working out really hard twice a day, but i continue to get fatter. oh well, you can still be fast and be fat... just look at dad. haha, i'm sorry dad, i'm just lashing out irrationally now.
we had two baptisms last week, and this week we've got two more... well i hope two more anyway. we heard a rumor that one of the guys who is supposed to be getting baptized on saturday is still smoking, even though he told us he's stopped. we'll see. but just so you can get an idea of how broad of a scope of people we teach here, our two baptisms last week were for a nigerian and a nepali, and the two this week are for a sri lankan and a pakistani. what the hey? where are the malaysians? oh yeah, they're all muslim. in all seriousness, i think i've probably met someone from almost every country in the world here. it's crazy. we teach so many different kinds of people here. i love it.
oh, about the title. i'm just kidding. i'm not getting transferred! but i am going up to penang next week to get my visa extended. that should be fun.
well, the work here continues to go swimmingly. Heavenly Father is preparing so many people to learn here! we've got 13 people on date for baptism right now, and we're setting three or four more every week. and word on the street is that we'll be here for awhile (knock on wood).
i love you all. take care. be good.
Elder troxel
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