Sibuk Bah!

dear family,

well, this week has been fantastic. my first baptism in KK! we had a baptism for a girl named Erna on sunday. we had a member perform the baptism (which is good) and it took him 7 TRIES to get her all the way under (which isn't so good)! but it was funny after all was said and done. the most besides times i've seen besides that was 3 tries. eventually he did get her all the way under and she was able to be confirmed in sacrament meeting.

we just barely got back from doing exchanges in tawau. we left yesterday morning and got back this morning at about 11:30. but the next three weeks are going to be crazy. because of exchanges, we've got a shortened week this week. zone conference isn't for two more weeks, but we'll have to get everything done and ready for zone conference this week, because i fly out for singapore on tuesday, get back on thursday night, and friday morning we fly to sandakan to do a training and exchanges. then the next week will be zone conference, so it will be quite awhile before we can just have a nice normal week of teaching. by the time we get another normal week, it will be just a few weeks until elder kunioka goes home. CRAZY!

i got an exciting call from elder palfreyman this last week. apparently in his interview with president skelton, president asked him if there was anything that he especially wanted in his last 4 months in the mission; he wanted to request that we be made companions agian, but he wussed out. anywho, president asked him if he would be willing to fulfill a leadership position, to which he of course responded yes, and president told him that he would be out of the office in about a month. the next change in leadership is when elder kunioka goes home, so it's possible that elder palfreyman and i could be companions again for his last few months. that would be sweet. but who knows, it's all just speculation.

i got an email from chelsie today, and she told me she has been getting over a concussion! heavens to betsy, what happened?! she didn't tell me, but i'm sure that there is probably a humorous story behind that... but it was good to hear from her.

i've heard through the grape vine that almost everybody is married or engaged back home. nick wrote me and was bummed that everyone we knew is going to probably have kids by the time we get home. no worries, i've already made up my mind that i'm not going home :) but at least i've got a LONG time before i have to deal with those stresses.
anywho, mom had a couple of questions:

1. dang it! i totally forgot to get a picture of the outside of the house. i kept telling myself i needed to take one, but i always forgot. i'll give E. watkins a call and tell him to take one and send it to me.

2. i'm not exactly sure what you mean, but there was an elder (neiderhauser) who was going home in mid-february. he had been here in KK for quite awhile, and they needed to get someone familiar with the area, so they transferred elder Gulbrandsen here is December. i don't know why, but president decided that he wanted e.gul in bintulu the week before e.ni went home. then they transferred e.kuni here, because he'd already been here and knows the branch and the area. that's why it was only a half whitewash, because even though we both came in at almost the same time, elder kunioka already knew the area and the members, just not the investigators.

i hope that all made sense. but the work continues here in KK. this last week we really were able to do some good work. we've got quite a few people on date for baptism, our teaching pool is really strong, and the members trust us. but just when things are looking so good, we have all this traveling and everything else has to go on the back-burners for awhile. it's fun though. by the time my mission is over, i should have been on well over 100 airplane flights. i love being a missionary so much! holy moley, rittmanic hits his year mark this month! and andrew is practically dead! whoa. the only time it hits me how fast time is going is on wednesdays when i hear from everybody.

thank you everyone for the emails this week. they were really good. i especially liked the great race theme in mom and dad's email. and dad's mustache quote almost made me bust a gut. good form. i love you all

love,
elder troxel